#I got to mosh a lot at the rave

[lesbiansanemi]

Part 2 of day one I am now going to go be extremely unconscious

[stayarmytinyzenmoa-l]

NCT Spooky Season [Day 11]

Candy Crash

TW: Implied Drug Use, Raving, Rave Fight(?) Genre: Romance, Comedy Pairing: Kim Jungwoo x Reader YN Pronouns: Not specified Word Count: 0.6K Prompt: Treat.

[NCT Masterlist] | [NCT Spooky Season Masterlist] | [Yesterday] | [Tomorrow] [Ao3 Link] | [Wattpad Link]

Notes: It's always nice when the prompt and the member lines up well Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an AU and a work of fiction, obviously the idols mentioned/written about in this story would never partake in these actions. The idols mentioned in this work are meant to be seen more as face claims rather than the actual idols themselves.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!! Thank you for reading!

"Jungwoo? Hey! Earth to Jungwoo!" You waved your hand in front of him, but his eyes were glazed over and his attention not there at all. "What happened to him?" You asked Mark.

"Too much candy, it gets the best of us," Mark shakes his head with a frown. "Dude crashed hard."

"This has to be more than too much candy!" You shook Jungwoo and he blinked.

"Where am I? What day is it?" He shakes his head.

"Oh, man, he really doesn't remember anything," Mark gasps and you frown.

"What happened?" He asks cautiously.

"Well..." you trailed off.

~

"I love Halloween!" Jungwoo exclaims, shoving a handful of candy into his mouth.

"Careful, Woo, where'd you get that candy from?" You readjusted your costume and Jungwoo leans toward you.

"What?!" Go figure, he couldn't hear you over the deafening music. You had both decided to go to a Halloween rave just because it was nearby, but this was Jungwoo's first rave, and probably not one a newbie should have gone to but at least he's having fun.

"The candy! Where did you get it from?!" You took one of the wrappers and gasped. "Jungwoo! That's not candy!"

"What do you mean?!"

"Oh my god, how many of these did you eat?!" You tried to count the handful of wrappers and Jungwoo shrugged.

"I dunno."

"Jungwoo!" You dug a hand through your hair and he grins.

"It's fine, it's fine! Let's just have fun!"

"Dude, how are you even still walking?!" You took the unwrapped one from his hands and chucked it over your shoulder.

"Fuck it, we ball," Jungwoo slings an arm over your shoulders and drags you into the mosh and you chug the rest of your drink before it could spill out of your hands.

~

"I ate what?!" Jungwoo held an icepack to his head while you dug through Mark's cabinet for some Advil.

"You really surprised us both," Mark shrugs.

"Wait... how did we end up in Mark's house?"

"You don't remember?" You looked back at him and he shakes his head.

~

"Jungwoo! Jungwoo, what's wrong?" You shook him until he composed himself.

"I just really miss Mark."

"Mark? Like, Lee?!" You asked, surprised.

"Yeah!"

"Uh..." you look around and squinted through the strobes. "Okay, we'll call him."

"Promise?"

"I swear?" You dialed Mark's number and while it was ringing Jungwoo takes another candy out of his pocket and you take it and chuck it into the trash bin. "Who keeps giving you these?!"

"That guy," Jungwoo points at the man holding a basket.

"Yuta fucking Nakamoto when I get my hands on you!" You charged at him and Yuta shoved his basket to another person before bolting and Jungwoo, confused, ran after you and tackled Yuta down.

~

"We got into a fight?!" Jungwoo shouts.

"Dude you won the fight!" Mark exclaims. "You should've seen (Y/N), sent Yuta flying."

"Here you go, Woo," you handed him the medicine and he swallows it down with water, "you also owe Yuta $500." Jungwoo choked on his water and you rubbed his back.

"Why?!"

"You ate a lot of candy."

"Fuck!"

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[patrickbaeddman]

went to a show for the first time since neutral milk hotel in 2014. so it's literally been 10 years, not counting places where bands were playing in the background or that i was dragged to and didn't care about or like, raves. it was very interesting, i learned a lot. some observations

it's not that loud. my speakers at home can almost get that loud. i was right next to the speakers, too. i was also right next to some girls. the girls were way louder than the bands. girls can scream really loud, huh? so powerful.

it's a losing game to try to dance to shoegaze, but, other people clearly don't care about the drums as much as i do. they literally don't dance to the drums. i thought that's what sort of set the pace and style of dancing

i guess, unless it's very interesting in some other way, i need music to be kinda fast to enjoy it live. this was like normal alternative rock music and i was trying to dance and the fact that literally nothing happens musically was really messing me up. it's interesting that most normal alt rock sort of pauses the music part to allow us to hear someone singing lyrics written in the 1,000 most common english words. i don't usually listen to this sort of thing so it was sort of extraordinary to hear it.

girls love music. there were like a million hot girls there and it wasn't even like a girly band, i was under the impression it was an internet band for internet boys. and they weren't just with their boyfriends, they were with other girls. or alone. or lesbians. inspiring

kids love music. there were a bunch of teenagers there, i'm pretty sure. two people behind me looked like, 14. they acted 14 also. they seemed confused and were constantly asking each other about why things were the way they were. 'why are there people like, right up front...' one said weakly. i almost answered some of their questions, but i decided to just keep listening in

you have to go early if you want merch or to be in the pit or to see the band. i basically knew this but it's good to confirm. also how you open up a pit at this kind of show is a mystery to me but if i was in there i definitely would have moshed

i mostly focused on spying on other people, not the bands. one group of girls next to me were so excited for these middle aged rock men, it sort of filled me with awe. they were screaming and everything. for normal alt rock men. i think that's beautiful. another pair of friends were talking about being autistic and how they were bored and should have brought stim toys. hot girls. hot girls were talking like this. i may need to go out more often

i did try flirting with some girls by getting in the merch line and then offering them my spot since i didn't want merch. i was going to do this to the hottest girls that walked past, but then i realized i would defintiely have to tap them on the shoulder to get their attention, so i decided to give it to the hottest trans girls that walked past, so as not to cause an international incident. indeed, the pair of trans girls i picked needed to be shoulder tapped to get them to talk to me, and they did not seem happy about it. i think they didn't realize i was trans, i must have just looked like a creepy gynecomastia band guy. i did wear a band t-shirt and cargo pants and boots. the type of girls i want to flirt with and hang out with would be nice to creepy guys, anyway, though, so i chose wrong. nevertheless, i told them they were beautiful, which was true, and left to go up to the stage.

something extraordinary happened towards the end of the show. everyone was filming with their phones, and as you know, the most notable things tend to happen at the end of shows. like, songs everyone's excited about, or whatever. the finale. so, when the band began playing a certain song, everyone got out their phones, held them up high, and began filming. of course, i was surrounded entirely by women. who all simultaneously lifted their arms... perfume and deodorant can't cover up all body odor after one has been dancing (or, at least, standing sweatily) for more than an hour. i smelled something incredible. it might have been all worth it for this.

[skaruresonic]

My earliest memories of the VN are a little hazy because a lot has happened since then, but I'll try to share the bits and pieces that I do recall. ---

One of the first things I did was compile voice clips in order to have a comprehensive credits list. This included sifting through dialogue compilations. The characters' quotes then shaped ideas for plot beats and informed the kind of narrative it would become. In the earliest draft which... hadn't really been written at the time, but was 90% locked away in my head, the plan was to have Sonic help settle a dispute between Shadow and Rouge following a failed apprehension of some bank robbers. Their chapter would have paralleled Tails and Knuckles' in that two characters approach Sonic instead of just one. Not sure where their chapter would have fit into the overall narrative, but I'd guess around mid-afternoon, just before early evening, when Cream's chapter begins. I couldn't find anything viable in David Humphrey's voice clips, and Jason Griffith's sounded... for lack of a better word, a little too mean-spirited to use. It would have made Shadow seem as though he were raking Rouge over the coals instead of being a little annoyed and aloof. So then I was like, "Maybe I should set this aside for now." Eventually, as Knuckles', Cream's, and Amy's chapters grew in size, I decided it would have dragged the plot out for too long to include Shadow and Rouge's story, and hence cut it. --- The first draft was supposed to have the player take Sonic's place instead of Eggman. The implication being that Eggman somehow separated Sonic's sprite from his dialogue variable and is attempting to control Sonic's "shell" through manipulating the player. As time went on, I realized this was a difficult concept to convey properly. It would have also probably broken immersion to dictate the player's reaction after rendering them a silent entity for most of the game. That's why the switch was then changed to a more direct one between Sonic and Eggman. The player is instead given silent involvement where ultimately their say matters more than Sonic's or even Eggman's. The act of choice demonstrates the sheer power imbalance that exists between the characters and the player who directs them. ---

Eggman's "bad ending" speech was the first thing I worked on, which took about 15 minutes to speedread (so... maybe 30 minutes of regular reading?). It's not "truly" present in the current version of the game, though part of it is there in some form; it just requires a little digging to find. About half of the original speech is preserved in base64 when Sonic's dialogue gets deleted and replaced with barcode. You can see the base64 in the script. During the Good ending where everyone shows up to the surprise party, Sonic calls back to this speech. Eggman is confused because this implies Sonic can read his narration despite several layers of encryption, mirroring Eggman's ability to read Sonic's narration. --- The rave cave was originally supposed to take place at Amy's house, when Eggman would have flooded the place with raving Egg Pawns. All that hawt robot mosh pit action would have carried Sonic out the door and tossed him onto the lawn.

--- The final game has just two routes and many looping choices. A third route where the graphics driver fails, causing Sonic and co.'s sprite textures to fail to load, and an angry overworked Eggman assigning you the task of retrieving the lost textures before the end of the workday got scrapped as well.

[swampgallows]

im on my phone and about to hopefully fall asleep but my last thoughts on the subject for today are as follows:

i am not "punching down" if i also read and write fanfic. people who read fanfic are not an oppressed class. i am punching laterally. this is a mosh pit.

i would read fanfic more often except that it fucking sucks. the majority of it is absolute dogshit. and i think that is apparent to anybody who has regularly read, for pleasure, anything that is slightly more challenging than youth literature and fanfic. yes children write fic but LOTS of fic is very explicitly written by women in their 30s. as a woman in my 30s i think it's fair for me to have an opinion on that and say it fucking sucks. john green got his twee shit published and everyone loved to say he gargled cocks for it, but for some reason a woman of equal or lesser caliber is beyond reproach? if it sucks, it sucks.

i enjoy tropes and i know they are deployed often in fic. i know what im getting into when i wade into the marshes of fic in search of something good. but i am usually left deflated and disappointed because so much of it is cookie cutter unimaginative bullshit, sometimes even perpetuating harmful tropes just because they're so prevalent. if you are somebody who takes it extremely personally that i think fanfic could be better, you can alleviate this stressor by 1. blocking me so you aren't exposed to my opinions or 2. reading books, articles, scientific journals, anything that isn't comprised of plug-and-play storytelling. maybe both, if you want.

finally, for all the blustering of that astute observer, they conveniently failed to mention the important little detail that it's not that i "don't even go" raving, it's that i fucking can't, and i post about it "constantly" because it constantly hurts that ive been robbed of that freedom by the fucking ongoing pandemic. im vulnerable living with vulnerable people, and it's more important for me to not die of a stroke or risk permanent disability than to party with unvaxed strangers. im not willing to risk my life and the lives of the people i live with to maintain internet clout for you to be mad at. me thinking a trope is annoying is not the same as the world and government writing me off as expendable.

okay, there was my pissy immature rebuttal. im going to hopefully sleep now.

[earlyblackparade]

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE & THE OUTLINE: HIGHLIGHTS & SET LIST!

December 12, 2006

Words can't really describe what The Outline & My Chemical Romance did to over 2,000 screaming fans on Monday night at the House of Blues in Vegas. 

But since that's my job - here goes....

MCR fans started showing up about 36 hours before the show!  They waited oh-so-patiently (if a little obsessively) in the casino for the big moment.  15 minutes before doors opened, the excitement in the air was palpable as the crowd, packed in like cattle, prepared for the stampede. 

Meanwhile, I won $6.75 playing the slots.

The Outline took the stage first, and totally wowed everyone with their brand of rough, aggressive rock 'n roll.  Their set up is the classic 2 guitars, bass, keys, drums - sometimes they're primal; sometimes they're straight-ahead, but always they rokk. 

Lead singer Graham Fink strutted around the stage, slinging his hair like hash, and the crowd ate it all up.  He's an excellent frontman - good witty banter, he introduced songs & he plugged the band's name often.  At the end of their set, drummer Ryan Rabin threw his sticks into the ocean of people, and they were snapped up like a Barry Bonds' homerun ball.

Then the HOB crew set up the Black Parade banner in front of the stage.  As it rose higher & higher, so too did the ferocity of teenage screams - building into a "We want My Chem" - clap-clap-clapclapclap mantra.  Normally I wear earplugs at shows for the band - this time I had to protect my fragile ears from the rabid fans!

Finally - THE moment arrived and MCR took the stage.  GWay revealed, "I always wanted to be a Vegas showgirl - this will have to do!"

Of course, the packed house of 2k+ was singing along.  And when I say singing along, I mean they sang every word of every verse and every chorus of every song.  I'm completely serious. 

The waltz-time "Mama" reminded me of jangling skeletons as Gerard pranced around like an underworld dandy, pale cheeks sucked in.  Meanwhile, security was lifting smooshed fans to safety, including a mother and her young son. 

Gerard is truly a gifted and astonishing front man.  He's just got so much damn energy - like a band leader on PCP.  This was especially true on "Black Parade" as he orchestrated 2,000 hand thrusts en masse.  In fact, I think that guy has a hand gesture for every lyric.  Before launching into the chorus, he yelled, "Vegas - I wanna hear you sing every @#$%ing word!"  Mosh pockets and crowd surfing ensued, while Ray Toro shredded triumphantly ala Queen.

This was a perfect example of the amazingly seamless give-and-take of energy between MCR and their raving fans.  Its a chicken & egg thing, so its impossible to say whose energy is feeding whom, but the crowd was able to respond immediately to whatever vocal or rhythmic demands Gerard placed on them.  Its a good thing he didn't tell them to drink red koolaid.   

I also noticed that he seems to have studied from the great front-men who came before him.  There was Jagger's Rooster Strut, Hendrix's Finger Worshipping on Bended Knees, Axl Rose's Mic Slither, among others.

BTW - I think there should be a Black Parade Workout Video.  You'd definitely get in shape, if you could keep up.  Plus, since you'd be wearing black - you'd sweat A WHOLE LOT.

Oh yeah - I need to give a shout-out to the really stellar lighting job at this show.  I don't know your name, but you do your job VERY WELL. 

I'd also like to give my commendations to all the parents who came to the show with their younguns.  Many of you seemed just as fanatic about MCR as your kids!  If my parents had been that cool when I was a kid, my teen angst would've been severely mitigated. 

MCR dedicated "I Don't Love You" to "our very special friend," Rob Cavallo.  Hopefully that wasn't a secret message.

Frank, Ray & Mikey were using wireless instruments.  This allowed for unprecedented stage thrashability.

Between the show and the encore, the fans sounded like the primate house at the zoo just before feeding time.  When MCR took the stage again, Gerard was feeling gracious:  "Thank you all so much for coming out and @#$%ing believing in this.  We've been doing this for 5 years and it doesn't get harder - it gets a whole lot more fun!"

The lighters were broken out for "Cancer", the first encore.  Its just so MEANINGFUL, man! 

The show was definitely a black mass presided over by MCR, with the congregation reaching a feverish, ecstatic state.  I almost expected people to start babbling in tongues.

Afterwards, the Meet & Greet was like a well-oiled machine.  Maybe they've done this a few times?

1.  The End 2.  Dead! 3.  Disappear 4.  Not Okay 5.  Cemetery 6.  Mama 7.  The Black Parade 8.  I Don't Love You 9.  Venom 10.  Teenagers 11.  Give Em Hell 12.  House Of Wolves 13.  Famous 14.  Prison --> ENCORE 1.  Cancer 2.  Helena

OH - And dude that gave me the CD for his band THE SCIENCE......I handed it directly to Gerard Way.  He says he listens to every album he gets.  Good luck!

What'd y'all think of the show?!

[femmephantasm]

tiefling rave: screaming and growling ripping their own and each other's clothing off smelling like brimstone and grinding on each other to witch house

lizardfolk rave: wrestling and biting other lizardfolk or various chewable objects inbetween krumping to slimepunk

hobgoblin rave: choreographed headbanging with fists raised while turned toward a mosh pit which determines the silently agreed upon hierarchy of the rave-goers and if you don't obey it they hold you down and forcefeed you shots and evil weed until you start seeing spiders and pissing yourself all the while patriotic industrial metal plays bassy enough for you to feel it in your taint

aasimar rave: constant smiling and sobbing with people high on ecstacy or molly deciding they're soul mates at random doing rather chaste partnered dances to gregorian chant eurobeat that somehow ends up with them fucking on every surface, megachurch style fog machine and light show turned up high enough to blind lesser mortals with images of the rapture

gnome rave: gently square dancing to a soft ensemble of flute and the peaceful sound of a babbling brook while high on the loudest shit you can get this side of the nine realms

mindflayer rave: silent disco sitting cross-legged in a circle while mentally reenacting Jacob's Ladder and the 7 hour war while their tendrils wriggle slightly in hushed laughter, there is a random assortment of humanoids in the center screaming and clutching their heads as their eyes flood with blood and spinal fluid, mouths foaming. The headphones play ambient drone music.

kobold rave: the dragon puts on a Spotify playlist at a volume so loud that they can't even tell what they're listening to anymore smacking their tails and yipping to a perceived rhythm while using open fire to shine light through various prisms and staring into the resulting rainbow and getting absolutely entranced by things like patterns and colors

halfling rave: jolly jigging and clapping along with bardcore that involves an 8 minute hurdy gurdy solo that fucks doing more than usual pipeweed with your uncle's cousin's neighbor's business partner's boyfriend's maid's niece who pulls out some unlabeled hot pink pills in the shape of the god of mischief's holy symbol and saying "I got these while in the elven country!" and you end up throwing up a lot and being more high than anyone should be 2-3 days afterwards

drow rave: 19 hours of twitching and spasming high on evil acid popping and locking to harsh noise music with various blindfolded twinks chained to furniture if you step on a spider you get killed with bare hands

catgirl rave: pregame cuddle pile followed by zoomies and rolling around in catnip climbing on all the walls and curtains and furniture and shit like that with 90s-2000s chiptune blaring loud enough to be heard a block over

kenku rave: shuffling around nervously while sipping on whatever booze they can find while others beckon them to try the most random research chemicals and flapping their wings while doing various fortnite dances to Plunderphonics and low-quality dubstep MP3s the DJ torrented

troglodyte rave: huffing jenkem in an abandoned mineshaft undulating and twisting like they're trying to tell someone they have a heart attack (they're having a great time) listening to 1980s berliner soft rock

warforged rave: taking turns getting shocked with magic staves and wands rattling their plates and rocking back and forth while listening to clockwork and factory noises, they end up hitting each other cause its all their instincts give them and the bashing sounds add to the ambience. A few lucky newcomers will experience the sensation of taste for the first time in their lives.

dwarf rave: one guy chants while everyone else rhythmically stomps their iron boots. by the end, the whole club is knee deep in rubble

elf rave: 19 hours of thrashing, acid tripping, and interpretive dancing to calm ambient music and forest sounds

orc rave: everyone stoically nods their head to the loudest and bassiest beats the realm has ever heard

[cali-is-my-canvas]

MHA RAVE AU HEADCANONS

Part 1

Ok so I had started artworks for this idea because being a weeb and a raver, it only made sense to me.

So here’s a list of the MHA characters (all 18+) and what I think they’d be like as ravers including the genre, style and uh….. “party favors” they’d indulge in if they do indulge.

Izuku Midoriya

You can’t convince me that Deku isn’t a baby raver. He’s one of those that starts off wide eyed and so excited to start raving.

Definitely a budding Kandi Kid. He loves making kandi and trading with other people and he definitely takes videos or pics of his trades to add to his scrapbook.

Is the kind of baby raver that scrapbooks for his memories of each show/festival he goes to. He saves the admission bands and takes tons of pics.

Is fairly mainstream with his taste is DJs but will go to check out other sub genres if he goes with other groups. Mostly along the lines of Zedd, The Chainsmokers, David Guetta. Very house/pop vibes.

He’s very comfy style. Is big on merch shirts. Has a Fanny pack and a camel pack with essentials like gum, water, hair ties, a mini first aid kit, power banks, a couple fans and Vick’s.

Is the kind of guy that is very sweet so girls flock to him to either treat him like baby or flirt with him cuz he’s good boi. Will lift people on his shoulders, guy or girl.

Light show caretaker. He’s the one who holds your hand, fans you, will probably sit you in his lap whether you’re a guy gal or non binary pal.

His rave name is either Deku or Broccoli.

Izuku isn’t one to take any kind of “party favors”. If anything, he’s the one making sure everybody else is staying hydrated and safe. Usually the designated driver.

OFA gives him great strength which proves very useful when going to 3 day festivals as he ends up as the pack mule. Along with the multitude of other quirks attached ro OFA, he uses them as needed.

Shoto Todoroki

Wasn’t really ecstatic about raving but also didn’t hate the idea. He kinda just tagged along because Izuku wanted to go.

Also very big on house/pop/mainstream stuff. Will listen to trance on occasion but he has to really be in the mood.

Only really takes pics if he remembers or if Izuku tells him to. He likes to enjoy the shows in the moment.

Because he’s from a rich family, he usually gets to have VIP passes and will either sneak his friends in or just flat out walk them in. No fucks given.

Also very comfy. Will take his shirt off only if it gets too hot. Very little kandi but faithfully wears the one Izuku gave him.

Gets hit on a lot. Gives the strong silent type vibes so he lures in the girls but he’s kinda clueless. Will help put people on his shoulders if they ask but he’s not one to offer.

Not a big “party favor” person so he’ll just drink every now and again.

I feel like his rave name will be IcyHot, Peppermint, or something along those lines.

His dual-quirks of ice and fire help tremendously in warming people up or cooling them down.

Katsuki Bakugou

Katsuki took a bit of convincing but when he heard the boom of the bass, he was hooked. He loves the heavy beats and drops and loves to mosh pit.

Is a kandi kid but focuses more on head banging and rail breaking. The ones he trades kandi with are usually the ones he liked head banging with or got good vibes from. Will infamously wear his kandi gauntlets to festivals.

He is HEAVY on the bass. Very into hard style, dubstep, deathstep, drum and bass and moombatah. Sullivan King, Excision, Dion Timmer, etc.

Loves doing that headbanger thing with Kirishima where they lock hands and headbang at each other. Will also break his neck with Kirishima.

Absolutely is the type of guy to be shirtless the entire time. Will vary between bandanas, face masks, kandi masks or gas masks. Camel pack is a necessity and so is gum and vicks.

Does get hit on but his aggressive nature is off putting to most. Takes pics with a lot of people because of his Kandi gauntlets. If he does click with somebody he’s very possessive and the “party favors” make him very flirtatious and grabby but he’s v respectful.

Gives amazing back/shoulder rubs. Will usually put a girl in his lap when she gets a light show so she’s not uncomfy on the floor. For guys, he’s very selective but good vibes unless you give off Chad energy.

If he didn’t click with anybody at the show/festival and is feeling touchy feely, Kiri is his go to. Even if Kiri makes a connection, you’ll often see Katsuki close by and being the “tag team top” to Kiri.

Definitely uses “party favors”. Prefers E and acid. Big on Kandi Flipping. Will try Jedi Flipping but doesn’t wanna overdo it.

His rave name is either Dynamite or Grenade. Was almost gonna be Kacchan when he went with Izuku but he shut that down real fast.

His explosion quirk comes in handy with hyping up the crowd with mini explosion. They also double for giving light shows. Likes watching faces melt.

Kyoka Jirou

I definitely think she’s one of the ones that introduced everyone to raving to open up their music taste.

She listens to a little of everything but prefers house, trance, techno and probably a little psy-trance.

She’s definitely a budding DJ/Producer. Has her own EPs out on SoundCloud and shit. Definitely invites everyone she knows to her shows.

Not so big on kandi but she loves spreading the PLUR vibes. Will give hugs, braid hair, have spare hair ties, etc.

Super into hearing different types of music so will definitely wander around different stages.

Style is very lax but also very rocker. Ripped tank tops, fishnets, leg wraps face masks, boots.

Sometimes partakes in “party favors” but very low doses. Mostly E or molly water

She’s the kind that will give amazing massages when someone is getting a light show. Does get hit on but usually ends up befriending everybody.

Her raver name is tricky. I feel like she’d get something Joane Jet or something very rocker.

Her quirk is tricky for this environment. It can be a hit or miss. Because of the volume she obviously can’t amplify the sound. Because her ear jacks can move on their own, she usually is the one catching people’s stuff, getting a better grip on them etc.

Ochako Uraraka

Very bubbly and upbeat. Definitely pop-ish/mainstream vibes. Will randomly be on a bass kick and it’s frightening.

She was super excited to go to a rave and was very baby raver but she loves it now.

She’s definitely the type to wear the cutesy outfits with tutus and bright colors and patterns and the body glitter everywhere and jewels. Probably leg warmer floofs.

Loves Kandi and trading kandi. Super friendly and bubbly. Makes friends with everybody.

Carries a fanny pack with the basics. Usually relies on Izuku for water and stuffs.

She’s a molly water chick. No debating. She can’t take a whole dosage. She’s gotta take it in Gatorade or water. Has to be watched cuz her bubbly nature makes her wander off so she’ll usually be tethered to somebody.

Usually hyping up the light show artist while they melt your face off. Will fan you off, hold your hand, give you shoulder and scalp massages.

I feel like her nickname would be something like Pinkie Pie or Bubbles. Very fitting for her personality.

Her quirk is definitely a god send for the other vertically challenged ravers. She’ll use her quirk to help float up to get a better view. Izuku is usually nearby keeping Ochaco and whoever she floats in his hands so they don’t float away.

Eijirou Kirishima

Is good boi himbo who wanted to be included. Listened to dubstep and loved it.

Very much into dubstep, hard style, deathstep and moombatah. Drum and bass too because of Katsuki.

Is a headbanger and rail breaker. Loves doing the hand holding, head banging thingy with Bakugou and is always ready to dive into the moshpits. Is totally that guy that’s crazy in mosh pits but then profusely apologizes after.

Trades kandi like it’s water. He’s so cute and always down to make trades.

Is absolutely big good himbo boi who drank his respecc womens juice. He will happily give them a lift on his shoulders and will fight everybody who disrespects any girl at the raves. Douchebag Chads beware.

Relies on Katsuki for stuff like water and gum and shit.

Will partake in some “party favors” and makes sure he doesn’t dose too high so he can keep an eye out for the females in his group. E, Molly and Acid are a yes. Shrooms scare him

His rave name is totally Daddy Shark or Jaws or something shark related.

Unbreakable gives Kiri great strength which, much like Izuku, makes him one of the packmules for festivals. Also keeps him unscathed by moshpits and makes him a terror to Chads that are quick to throw hands.

Tsuyu Asui

Was invited to a show by Jirou at first but always tags along with Izuku and Ochaco and Shoto. The bigger the crowd the better.

I feel like while she’s very cute and bubbly, her outfits are more on the conservative side. Still cute and slightly sexy but she’s heavy on the frog aesthetic. Lots of greens and Froggies. Braid to keep her hair out of the way.

Also very mainstream. House heavy. Pop main.

Comfy shoes are a must. Has a camel back that is always filled with water. Carries a giant fan and always has Kandi. During the day, she likes to carry an umbrella so the sun isn’t such a pain.

Has tried “party favors” and every now and again she’ll partake. Prefers super light drinking around her group tho.

Is hit on but is always very nice to turn people down. She’s more focused on the fun and her friends rather than hooking up or anything.

Her froggy quirk isn’t of too much in the rave environment other than using that long tongue to reign in her wander friends.

Denki Kaminari

Was introduced to raving by Jirou and loves it. He’s definitely her hype machine, promoting her shows, pushing merch and even volunteering to use his quirk for lighting during her sets.

Will definitely join the Bakusquad at the hard style and dubstep stages. Also loves techno and moombatah. Loves the high energy stuff.

Neons and glow in the darks are big in his rave wardrobe. Can and will rock fishnets with pride. Tank tops are more common but will go shirtless if it gets too hot or he gets too touchy feely. Kind of a cyberpunk feel sometimes.

Is a die hard kandi kid. Usually has them in the theme of video games or anime. Basically his arms are covered in kandi but the ones from his friends stay safe in a Fanny pack.

As an avid raver, he knows what you need and has it when you need it. Chapstick? Check. Gum? Tons. Lighters? Honey it’s a sin that you’re even asking.

Absolutely partakes in “party favors” and gets very handsy and flirtatious. Is respectful but can be a handful. Usually ends up being babysat by Jirou. E, Molly, acid and shrooms.

Is a huge flirt. I personally feel like he’s Pan so the whole crowd is fair game for his flirting. Hella good kisser with guys girls and non binaries. Uses his quirk for minimal stimulation.

His quirk is definitely a raver’s delight. He’s usually the one helping power people’s phones, helping keep machines running in the off chance the power surge is too much. Uses it for stimulation during make out sessions or light shows. Will also give light shows. Can’t do it for too long though because the light shows require a lot of focus on maintaining the output to smaller levels.

His rave name is Pikachu and I’m not taking any arguments/complaints/criticisms.

Tenya Iida

Was invited a rave and didn’t mind it but too chaotic for his taste.

He’s usually the guy working the rave at the water stands, merch stands or medical tent.

Rave dad vibes. Yells to not run, drink water and highly discourages use of “party favors”.

Has been hit on a couple times but is a dork and it usually goes over his head.

T-shirts and cargo shorts are his staple outfit. Always with a camel pack

His engine quirk helps him get from one end of the festival grounds to the other in no time flat so he has a specific path for him to run through cuz those speeds will knock a bitch out.

Even though he doesn’t really rave he was given a rave name and it’s Sonic.

Mina Ashido

The epitome of a fucking rave queen. She’s one of the other reasons that everybody else got into raving.

Is everywhere. She listens to a bit of everything. Loves the energy of dubstep, loves shuffling to techno, can and will throws elbows in a mosh pit at a hard style stage and will sing with you at the mainstream stages.

She’s definitely a brand ambassador and wears all the cutest outfits with the coolest patterns and most awesome styles. Tastefully sexy outfits that show off just enough.

Absolutely a kandi kid. Very alien friendly themed kandi. Full arms of traded kandi and kandi that is yet to be traded.

She’s a super bright personality that draws people in. She gets equal attention from guys and girls and non binaries and will gladly make out with anybody that gives her a good vibe.

Definitely partakes in “party favors”. Loves Kandi Flipping and Jedi flipping. Is the kind to chew her cheek raw so she needs either a pacifier or lots of gum.

For obvious reasons, her quirk is a no no. Shooting acid everywhere? Yea let’s not.

Her rave name is Alien Queen or ET Babe

Hanta Sero

Absolutely loves raving and I’m gonna stick with the Latino HC. He is a moombatah and trap king. Also loves artists like Deorro that have a lot of Latin fusion in their stuff. When “Bailar” came out, he played it for hours on end.

Very lax clothes. Very much stoner style. But on rare occasions he goes with the Chad aesthetic. Has that undercut but with longer hair up top style and will often swing it it up in a man bun.

He’s a promoter for sure. Usually has access to backstage because he gets in good with DJs.

Does use “party favors” but is mainly 4/20 friendly. Loves shotgunning. Is usually the guy that carries extra “party favors”. Will def go on an acid or shroom trip with first timers.

Very sexually fluid so good vibes are pretty much all that are required. Hella god dancer and uses that to his advantage.

Has all the essentials. Especially lighters. Is the one that remembers the eye drops.

His rave name is definitely Papi or Rey (Spanish for King).

His quirk is another one that doesn’t have much use other than to wrangle in his wandering friends.

Momo Yaoyorozu

Wasn’t keen on going at first but when she saw that even Shoto was going, she thought she’d give it a try. Is another rich kid so does have the VIP access for the sake of having a good/comfy place to sit and rest.

Mainstream for sure. Very pop heavy vibes. Some house and trance

Very much the rave mom. Keeping everybody hydrated and safe.

Given that her quirk relies heavily on her energy and all that, she doesn’t partake in party favors

Tries to keep it cute but usually ends up looking more on the sexy side.

She’s been convinced to be a brand ambassador for the sake of modeling the clothes. But she always asks for the more covered up options.

Is too busy taking care of everybody to worry about meeting people.

Her quirk is perfect for raving. Being able to create anything certainly has come in handy. Makes her a god send to those who forgot something like lighter, chapstick, hair tie etc.

Her rave name would probably be Mama Momo.

Hitoshi Shinsou

Now this guy is heavy into psy-trance. Think more along the lines of artists like Infected Mushroom.

He’s the connect that everybody goes to. Meaning yes, he partakes in party favors. Particularly the psychedelics like shrooms and acid.

Very cyber punk/street wear vibes. Comfy but still fits that aesthetic. Absolutely uses either his voice mask or a gas mask.

He gives the mysterious vibe so he has a lot of people drawn to him. I feel like he gives major Pansexual vibes. He’ll mainly go make out with Denki if he’s solo.

Just a basic Fanny pack with a few things in it like gum, chapstick, lighter.

Definitely a glover. Loves giving light shows because it almost feels like he’s using his quirk.

Can use his quirk in this type of environment but the loudness makes it tricky. Will mainly use it for the purpose of making sure people take care of themselves.

Fumikage Tokoyami

I feel like Tokoyami would definitely be into more dubstep and psytrance.

He was very open minded about raving and definitely wanted to try it at least once.

Occasionally partakes in party favors but likes to be lucid.

Is also a glover like Shinsou. But with Dark Shadow, he can go all out with the tricks and visuals.

Very casual and comfortable. Baggy t shirts and sweats. Will sometimes dress with a cyber punk aesthetic if he feels like adding a little extra oomf.

Trades some kandi but not always.

Dark shadow is a conversation starter and the darkness proves to be particularly tricked but because there are constant sources of light (glow sticks, laser light shows, etc) it’s easily tamable.

Won’t put anybody on his shoulders but Dark Shadow will definitely help hoist somebody up for a better view.

Rave name would probably be things along the lines of ominous authors. So probably Edgar Allan Crow, F.T. Lovecraft, or just Lovecraft.

Keigo “Hawks” Takami

Oh this man? This man eats, sleeps, raves, repeats. He breathes PLUR.

He does partake in party favors but is responsible. He’s the one making sure you keep dosage to a minimal. E and Molly water. Acid sometimes. Shrooms make him feel funny

Can definitely afford the VIP tickets but would rather be in the crowd. Especially because he loves big groups. He’s definitely the kind of guy that gives Chad vibes when you first see him but he’s the complete opposite. Will definitely be the kind of guy to start shit with a Chad that won’t leave girls alone.

Totally shirt off the entire time. Will purposely do some subtle flexing just cuz he can.

Is totally hit on by guys gals and non binary alike. He is a looker so that’s to be expected. Usually cargo shorts are a go-to and he rocks bandanas.

Is a kandi kid for sure and loves to trade. He’s even made a few with his feathers attached but those are especially for people he REALLY vibes with.

He’s got a good mix of music taste. Will totally throw down with the hard stylers but definitely get lost and philosophical with the trancies.

Is a HELLA good kisser and uses his wings when he wants a little privacy.

Speaking of wings, those definitely come in handy at raves. I mean for one thing, they work like an umbrella when it’s hot out. Secondly they’re basically built in fans. Thirdly, they work for privacy. And he’ll totally fly you up and get you a better view of the show.

His charisma is definitely at 100 and I can totally see him getting you backstage to meet your fave artists.

The rave name is tricky but maybe Hawks will be the basic one. His friends use KFC or Red. No wait. Fuck it. Maverick or Top Gun. Something like that.

Alrighty my thirsty gremlins. I’m gonna stop this here. I’m getting a tad lazy so if there are other characters you wanna see from MHA as ravers, blow up my asks and I’ll make a part 2.

[saidrolav]

Hello! Are your 🐧 ships still open? If they are could I get a male ship from Harry Potter please? I’m she/her, Leo, ENTP, Ravenclaw, with long dark hair, blue eyes, and tattoos on my arms. I like reading/photography/cooking but also have a lil wild side and love underground raves / house parties / mosh pits etc. Very very social and at my happiest surrounded by friends! Sweet & loyal, but very upfront

🐧

Hiiii! Thanks for your 🐧!! Yes i also received your other message and of course you can have another ship with an Umbrella Academy character! I ship tou with...

Oliver Wood!

I don't know you just give me that vibe that you'll be great together!!

Probably would loooove playing with your hair and tracing his fingers on your tatoos he thinks they're super cool!

Definitly dates at the library where he got a full stack of quidditch books and you're looking at him like he was a weirdo 😭

Neck kisses while you're reading in bed and lot of cuddles!!

Would follow you in any parties you take him to and he'll love it!!

Klaus Hargreeves!

Would throw HUGE parties with you calling, everyone you know that could possibly show up 🧡

Dancing dates where it's just you and him and you feel like the world around you is stopping

Dancing obviously til your feet hurts 😭

Would probably let you practice your photography skills on him and he'll do extravagent postures

Who would make cookies at 4am? Of course it's Klaus and you

Kisses on the forehead and on your hands while looking you in the eyes 🧡🧡

[eccentricpony]

Hello!! I really enjoy your writing~~! May I request a cafe date h/c with Taichi? Tysm!!💕

Hi dearie! Aww, thank you so much! And YES I love Taichi, he’s such a cutie boy. Here you go, hope you enjoy!

Taichi tapped his fingers on the quaint café table along to the rhythm of a Guilty Summer song that was stuck in his head. Maybe you weren't going to show up? His big, teal eyes light up at the sound of the squeaking front door, but it’s just a pair of old ladies. Sigh.

He ran a reel in his head over and over again of all the romance advice Kazunari had given him.  Although he had his doubts that any of Kazu’s advice had actually been tried-and-true. And then there was the advice he got from Banri. And Omi. And Sakyo. Wait, why did he ask Sakyo?  The door opened once more, and he watched forlornly as a woman and her baby entered the establishment.

Well, he should have anticipated this. I mean, you were just so funny and smart and SO so super cute that it was just a matter of time until you realized how amazing you were and how incredibly average he was and then left him to find someone equally as amazing as yourself. You were probably at another café right now, giggling at the awesome guy’s super funny jokes, and swooning over-

“Hey, Tai-tai!”

Taichi bolted upright at the sound of your voice. He looked up at you like you were The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; with awe and baited breath. Cue the butterflies in his stomach.

“Ah, uh… h- hey!” The red-haired boy snapped out of his self-pitying reverie and stood to face you. You looked so sweet in your outfit, and was that the cardigan he helped you pick out last week? It looked so good on you – peach was definitely your color. Your rose colored sneakers looked so cute, too. They matched the cute af rosy tint that colored your cheeks at the moment. Damn, every color was totally your color.

“See that, hon? I knew they’d show up!” The kindly middle-aged waitress beamed at you as she spoke. You looked over at Taichi, shuffling his feet awkwardly adorably. “Go ahead and place your order at the register whenever you’re ready.” With another thoughtful glance, she hurried off to check on another table.

“Were you waiting long, Tai?” You took a seat across from his at the table, placing your bag on the seat next to you.

Ugh, that’s right, you damn fool, he berated himself inwardly as he followed your lead and took his seat. He had arrived there 45 minutes early to make sure he was there before you so you wouldn’t think he stood you up.  He opened his mouth to respond, but the next words spoken were yours.

“You look super cute today,” you gushed, to the response of pink-tinted cheeks on Taichi’s face. He did though; dressed in all monochrome colors, his shock of crimson hair and big, bright viridian eyes took center stage. You adored your pseudo-punk cinnamon roll, and you never believed it when he told you that this was his first relationship. He was such a thoughtful, sweet, supportive boyfriend; how could you possibly have been the first to notice how wonderful he is?

“S- so do you, you always do,” he responded sincerely, though it came out mumbled and he spoke it into the laminated daily specials menu that lay before him. The butterflies in his stomach are now throwing a rave, and his cheeks match his brightly dyed locks below the smattering of fading freckles.  His fingers fumbled with a tightly rolled bundle of silverware as he braved another look at your face. He hadn’t been on a boat since he was little but man, your pretty eyes made him feel like he was seasick in the best possible way.

“Should we go order then?” There was no need to look at a menu; you both always ordered the same things every time. Taichi jumped to his feet and ran his fingers through his wild mane of hair.

“I can go order it,” he asserted, patting the wallet in his seat pocket to make sure it was still there.

“You sure, Tai? I don’t mind waiting with you.” As much as he’d love your company while waiting out the queue, he wanted to be all gentlemanly and show that he listened to you. And he really did; in fact, he had been reciting your order through his head since this morning. He could say it in his sleep at this point, he was sure of it.

“Nah, you just wait here and chill, I got this.” Taichi flashed you a winning smile, a smile that always carried a hint of unintended mischief. Your heart did a flip as you nodded in consent. With a pep in his step, the skater boy hurried off to the cash register.

A few minutes pass and still no sign of Taichi. Maybe he decided to wait at the counter for the drinks?  You return your phone to your bag and consider seeking him out when he at long last returns to the table, empty handed. His face is ruddy as he rubs the back of his neck, meeting your eye sheepishly.

“S- sorry… was it… extra extra foam, or was the extra extra for the cinnamon? Or is it no cinnamon?” This poor puppy.  

“Taichi, I don’t mind coming with you, I know my order is a huge pain…” You want to give him a tight hug but this confused cutie is near passing out from all the blood rushing to his face today, you don’t want to add to it.

“No, no…” He shook his head resolutely. “Please, I got this, for real. Can you just say it for me one time?” You smile at his determination and detail your usual drink for him, leaving out an ingredient or two for simplicity’s sake.

“Got it!” he declares and swiftly heads back to the front counter, eyebrows screwed up in concentration as he mouths the ingredients to himself. Pulling out your cell once more, you launch the Gallery and scroll through all the pictures you’ve taken of you and your beau. You especially love the selfie you took of the two of you sharing an ice cream at the beach. He had wanted you to delete it because he had a chocolate chip on his upper lip, but you insisted that it was one of the cutest pictures of him ever and he gave in.

You recall wiping it off his lip with your pointer finger after you had both noticed it in the pic, and he bit his lip shyly in response to your touch You wish you had a pic of that in your phone, the thought of his coy expression gave you goosebumps. With a few speedy taps, you made the ice cream pic your new home screen.

“I’m back!” Taichi announced upon his return. As promised, he delivered a tray of your two drinks upon the table, along with seven pastries.  “They, uhh… they had a bunch of your favorites so I just got ‘em all.” He plopped down across from you, stealing a worried glance at your expression, hoping you didn’t think that was a totally stupid thing to do.

“You are the sweetest!” you praise, leaning over a lemon cake and mini éclair to touch his face. Taichi jerks his arm in surprise at your approach, nearly tipping his drink across your sweets buffet, but mercifully it merely wobbles and remains upright.

You ran your fingers across the black plastic points protruding from his right ear and Taichi swallowed the meager amount of saliva in his now parched mouth. Leaning further still with a mischievous grin, you mercilessly stroked the skin behind his ear with your finger, knowing full well he would become a flustered mess. His entire body responded to your touch, nerves head to toe fizzing from the smell of your shampoo further rendering him senseless.

“Next time, it’s my turn to buy our drinks, okay babe?” His body tensed up as it did anytime you used a term of endearment. Your head felt swimmy looking into his lovely ocean-colored eyes. Before you had a chance to chicken out, you closed the distance between you two and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. Taichi exhaled an inaudible gasp upon contact, his mouth impossibly soft as it cushioned your own, though it took him a few frazzled seconds to lean into your affection. The kiss seemed to last forever, yet it ended far too soon.

Meanwhile, the butterflies in Taichi’s stomach had started a mosh pit. Re-opening his eyes, he watched as you returned to your chair, and he couldn’t do much more than simper at you like the lovesick puppy that he was. Suddenly, all of his pre-planned formalities seemed a lot less important than the adoration in your eyes that you held for him just now.

“How ‘bout next time we do it together, babe?” he suggested with a playful wink, lifting a cherry Danish and holding it out for you to take a taste.

[youaresympatico]

Have you missed me? I dunno but I was missing yous ma huns. It's me your silly question anon. *Bruce Buffer's voice* IIIIIIITS TIIIIIIIIIIME! *unfortunately it won't be playing helter skelter and then the boys gonna enter in and play longshot*.

How are you? Have you been vaccinated already? I am. Yay!

I just wanna say first that you guys interacting with each other and inventing your own questions in the asks of other blogs is what I am enjoying. Keep it up, we all look like friends. We are like 10 very friendly blogs, I am loving it!

So how about, finally, introduce ourselves? Feel free to respond if you want and how you want. If we know each other we can put ourselves in future situations on other questions that I already plan to ask. Come on, answer:

1. What's your name, age and where are you from?

2. What you study?

3. What was the most embarrassing situation you have ever been in?

4. And what is the best thing that has happened to you so far?

5. How did you meet the band?

6. What is your favorite song and why?

7. What is your favorite album and why?

8. What does the band represent to you?

9. Which of the people here would you like to be friend?

HIIIIII! I of course missed you a lot, how are you? I'm good, thanks for asking. I'm glad you take yours luv, I don't even know when I'll be vaccinated, as I said before I live in Brazil and only people in their 50's are getting the vaccine now. It will take a while 😭

And yes guys, I love the kinda crazy teen cult we have here, we have a bond right? love you all and you silly anon 🖤

Let's answer it!

1. So hi, my name is Leticia, but all my friends call me Let. I'm 22 and I'm from Brazil, specifically in the south, which is far away from Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo btw 😂

2. I study English. Some say Modern Language or something like that, but I don't really know how say it. It's English and Literature anyway.

3. Well I passed through a lot. In high school once I was just vibing to some music with some class mates when the professor enter in the class. He danced with me it was embarrassing and awesome at the same time. Also, once I was in a gig with my brothers and we started a mosh pit, I fell and everyone just stopped looking at me, even the band. AND I LOVED IT, it was sick! So not embarrassing things at all. Unless you count showing my whole body to a lot of people while giving birth and trying to push out my son out of me 😂

4. The best thing was having my son and being able to name him Deryck after Deryck Whibley from sum 41 of course. This last sunday, which was mother's day in my country, Deryck Whibley himself just liked my comment in his IG saying I named my son after him it was sick. I also got up in All Time Low stage, Alex Gaskarth chose me first then anyone to got up on stage to sing Time Bomb with the band, in 2015 they used to call like 8 or 9 people to the stage to sing Time Bomb. I was the first one Alex chose. Got to hug him and scream in his microphone I loved him, it was sick. The other thing was Benji following me on Instagram. He unfollowed me 2 days later, but at least I had his follow for 2 days.

5. I said here I met the band through a friend, but wasn't into them, just listened to Cocoon and it was all. Then Louis Tomlinson added Twice to his playlist in January 2020 and that was when I got into the band. After a while I just wanted to see them live and looked out for it on youtube, I fell in love for them live because I love live music. That's when I fell for them completely.

6. My favourite song is Twice and Tyrants. I passed through a lot of shits in my life who I didn't want to pass again and turned out I lived the same thing twice. I got a horrible life twice because I was young making stupid young choices. But then I decided I didn't deserved that. Twice it brung me down but it's the last time. And so the streetslights would carry us me home.

7. The ride is now my favourite because it has Twice and Outside. To me is musically the best. But there's The Balance which has the best instrumentals among the three and, for me, the songs are more different from the others, I find a special album and I am very attached to good instrumentals, so the balance and the ride have a fight for my heart.

8. It may sound silly, but the band represents happiness. Few things helped me in this quarantine, like scheduling to watch their show on Rave with my friends making them fall in love with them live, or even alone at 2am when my son were sleeping. They are musically complete and the fact that they have had so much work and are proud of everything they went through to get here, means a lot. They also mean hope. The guys worked for fucking seven years before getting anything. A mirror of what I wanted to live for. Besides they are musically my comfort. Music is my comfort and if they are my comfort in music it means that they are the comfort of my life. The way they seem in love with music and live only for that represents me, makes me realize that there is nothing wrong with loving music so much just sitting on a couch listening to songs during my day off, even though my family hates it. Van being so passionate about the music he listens and the ones he does and Bondy being so quick to show up to share his favourite songs and be such a good musician. I don't really know how to explain it, I'm a fraud.

9. Can't tag only one. I love to chat, I love sharing my life story and listening to people telling me theirs. I'm always looking out to be friends with everyone. Sometimes I feel like we already are. Some people in here knows me already, knows my son, knows a lil bit about my life, so I can't really tag only one. If you want, feel free to come and chat with me, here and on twitter. And on Instagram. And on whatsapp. And everywhere else 😂

[lesbiansanemi]

Okay, home from the con, peeled off all latex, makeup, wigs, and cosplays, and in comfortable clothes for the first time in like three days and about to pass out after barely sleeping for three days, but here's the highlights (also I promise this is my last post about it, I just had a really fun time and am laksdjfakds about it)

Day one we're on our way to the con throwing on wigs and putting on makeup in the middle of Chicago traffic, somehow did not die

Me and my friend's husband cosplayed Shinji and Kaworu while she was Asuka and since people sometimes assume me and my friend are dating I thought it was funny that it was me and her husband who were the "couple" cosplay that day lol

The person who shouted "Get in the robot, Shinji!" at him and then disappeared into the crowd, never to be seen again

At one point a guy came up to us and was like "hey my friend wants to know if he can get a picture with you" and we were like "Oh yeah ofc!" and turned around and he was cosplaying the fucking Seele sound box (I did not fully register there was a person inside of it at first but oh my god)

After recharging in the hotel for a bit we went to the rave and it was a good fucking time. Lots of jumping and screaming and dancing and there was a mosh pit. Could have done without the Asuna cosplayer flashing everyone her whole underskirt area while getting grinded on in the middle of the mosh pit but eh, what are you gonna do

Helping my friends get into their super complex league of legends cosplays the next day (I conquered the world's most intense safety pins, let me tell you)

My best friend's pure and utter excitement over the full Freddy Fazbear cosplayer

About twenty minutes after arriving at the convention center on day two a Denji cosplayer came up to me and asked for a picture (I was cosplaying Makima) and we took one and then he goes "okay, I have another request, and you totally don't have to do it if you don't want to, but you know how Makima calls Denji her dog..." and then he pulls a whole leash out of his bag so I got to put a Denji cosplayer on a leash. Man got down on the ground and everything lmfao

Watching my friends walk around in their funky little bird feet all day for their league of legends cosplays

Somehow?? Someone??? Double-booked a rich kid's prom at the convention center? So all these high schoolers showed up in formal attire and were so fucking confused and horrified by all the fucking nerds and cosplayers over-running everything

One girl literally huffed at us when we walked by and her boyfriend pointed at us kinda excitedly lol Ruining prom for stuck up bitches even after my own prom hellll yeah

Today we cosplayed Maki and Nobara so fuck yes hardcore kinnie moment

I encountered a Toji cosplayer as Maki and we got some fun pictures together :D

I bought a Sanemi keychain from an artist and as she was wrapping it up, she goes "By the way I love your Maki cosplay. You must really like angry characters, huh?" and I almost fucking died

Encouraging my friend to finally ask Goru cosplayers for photos after she spent the whole weekend staring at them because she loves Goru

My friend got to meet a famous cosplayer she's been a fan of for a really long time, and she was super cool and just sat and chilled and chatted with us for like 30 minutes

Peeling the Maki makeup off of me in a panic in a Denny's parking lot half way home because we weren't gonna subject the poor staff into wondering what the fuck was going on

Anyways, it was an extremely fun weekend. I haven't got to go to a con since I was still in high school and a family member had to take me and didn't want to do anything/just made fun of everything. So actually getting to go the whole weekend, cosplay, go to events, and do it with two friends who were having just as much fun as I was was amazing :D

[boneswriteswords]

Lost boys, poly or individual meeting their s/o?

A/N: Hi nonnie! Thank you for sending this ask in. I am majorly hyper-fixated on these chaotic bat bois and needed to write about them as soon as possible. I thank you for the indulgence.

I went the head-canon route with them being poly because I needed it. I can always do a head-canon version of them meeting their future S/O individually with no poly later on if that is something people want. 

This is unbeta-d because we die like men here. Read at your own risk.

~~~

Poly!Lost Boys meeting their Future S/O

~~~

- So it all started on the boardwalk. Obviously. These little bat bois rarely go farther than the boardwalk unless they are hunting so that is where they came across you.

- Well, it was actually Laddie that came across you. Or, if you wanted to get more technical, you came across him. The band playing that night ended up starting a vicious mosh pit that had security guards swarming left, right, and center and Laddie ended up getting separated from Star.

- You used to have the early morning shift at one of the shops on the boardwalk to make some extra money while your full-time job paid the bills but your manager had to fire two of your coworkers and gave you a temporary shift change so you got the really weird shift from late afternoon to early evening.

- You spotted the boy half-way through your shift and pulled him away from the increasingly rowdy groups outside. You tucked him behind the counter until you clocked out, making small talk. He was very shy but he opened up when you told him that you fancied some ice cream and would he like to join you?

- Star found you both an hour later. You were sitting on a bench with Laddie, eating ice cream, and listening to him tell you about how he once broke his leg climbing off the edge of a playground when he was small. She hugged him tight, apologized for losing him, and thanked you curtly, eyes flicking over you briefly before taking hold of Laddie’s hand.

- You didn’t think much of it. You said goodbye and parted ways, putting the evening out of your mind.

- But Laddie couldn’t stop raving about the nice lady with pretty eyes. When Star and the boys reconnected for the evening, he spoke - at length - about how you pulled him away to safety and that you really liked animals.

- This immediately caught the boys’ attention. Laddie rarely ever spoke, much less emoted - the abuse he suffered at the hands of those who were supposed to love him damaging his ability to outwardly express his feelings - and it was almost refreshing to hear him act so lively. 

- He also developed some sort of attachment to you, one that seemed to rival the one he had with Star. 

- After a couple of nights of listening to Laddie rave about you - Y/N, he said your name was -, David decided that they were going to meet you, if only to get the kid to quiet down. He wanted to know what was so great about you that brought this sad child back to life. 

- But finding you proved difficult. Laddie could only vaguely remember where he met you and Star only saw you at the bench. They only had the vague description of “she had really pretty eyes” from Laddie to go on because Star hadn’t taken note of much else. 

- On top of that, the boardwalk was often bustling with people and shrouded in lights and music. Finding any one person, even with their vampiric sense, was a task and a half. 

- After a week of following Laddie around, he spots you in the window of the shop you were working and darted between the many bodies on the boardwalk to greet you. You smile widely when you see the boy enter the shop but it drops the faintest bit when you realize he brought company.

- Yeah, you had pretty eyes alright but what Laddie neglected to mention to them was that the rest of you was pretty too.

- Almost too pretty. Unfairly pretty. 

- For the first time since becoming creatures of the night, they were intimidated. There was something about you that felt familiar, like coming home and taking a shower to wash the day away. They take in the way your clothes fall against your body. The way you styled your hair. The way your skin looks under the artificial light. The way your voice lilts and pulses.

- Your blood was singing to them, enchanting them to get closer and wrap themselves around you.  

- Paul has to take a step back and let the others in front of him, overwhelmed. 

- But they don’t let any of this deter them from their goal. David glides up to the counter like he owns it, Dwayne, Marko, and Paul flanking him. 

- There is no fear in your eyes, just curiosity and a little bit of suspicion and David is immediately taken by it. Your smile turns polite, eyes flicking down to look at Laddie, who - in true child form- was asking you a million and one questions.

- A week is like an eternity in kid years. He had a lot to say to you.

- Dwayne quite likes the way your eyes glitter, how obvious it is to tell that you are engaged and enjoying yourself. There is honesty in your gaze and he wants it on him, wants to wrap himself in it. 

- Your coworker for the evening comes out before you could put on your best customer service voice and ask them how you could help them, and tells them to leave, that their nonsense won’t be tolerated inside this store.

- “Oh come off it,” you interject when his tirade starts approaching the five minute mark, “They were probably dragged here by the little one. He’s my new buddy, aint that right Laddie?” Laddie nods profusely, “Yeah, Y/N gave me ice cream and talked to me and helped me find Star and we are friends!”

- “See? Now, how about you go back there and be sulky over how much better dressed they are than you and let me handle this? If they destroy the store, you can say “I told you so” all you want with only mild snark from me, yeah?”

- Marko is tempted to ask if you liked to big spoon then and there because this subby ass boi is a weak mess. 

- The two dirty blonde boys giggle and snort respectfully and the dark haired one cracks a small grin. There is something dark in their leaders eyes though and it sends a shiver up your spine. Your coworker grumbles but disappears in the back all the same.

- You turn back around to look at this rag-tag group of punks and, in that moment, you all know you will be seeing a lot more of each other.

~~~

End

~~~

[justamusicpodcast]

Sup, I’m Laura Cousineau and welcome to Just A Music Podcast, where I, Laura Cousineau, tell you about some music history, how it relates to the world around us, and hopefully, introduce you to some new tunes. This show is theoretically for everyone but I will swear and when it comes down to it and sometimes we may need to talk about some sensitive topics so ur weeuns might wanna sit this one out.

Folk music! What a fucking blanket of a genre title isn’t it? We got 1960s folk in america, we got different folk genres in terms of mixed genres like folk metal, we got folk music as sort of an interchangeable term for ethnic musics, it’s all fuckin folk from here on out folks! But what is folk music where does it come from, what are we talking about when we talk about folk music? Well that’s what we’re going to talk about this week to kick off our North American music genre analysis with North American folk musics! Truth be told I did wanna start out with an episode on North American Native musics but as I’m whiter than sour cream on rice and there isn’t as much scholarship on it as I would like to confidently do a whole episode on it without input from actual native peoples. That all being said, if anyone listening is native and would like to give me some input on their musics, I would be more than happy to cover it.

But for now folk. North American folk musics. You notice I mention musics, it’s because north American folk music can be defined as a lot of things. So what are we talking about when we talk about the genre of folk musics. Well that’s gonna change depending on who you ask from what I explained before, we have some kind of mish mosh, multiple definition, popular idea of what folk music is and that’s not surprising given how that definition has grown and changed over time. Some of you will be surprised to hear that when we talk about north American folk music’s we’re actually talking about A BUNCH of different musical genres, not just one. Sure we have what people would usually associate with North American folk, the very Appalachian sounding bluegrass, country and then of course western, but we also have native musics (which again, I promise I will talk about at some point), and Maritime Canadian folk musics, we have cajun and creole musics, we have a bunch of racist shit too unfortunately but like legit we have so much stuff to talk about this episode I might have to break it up into two episodes.

Like all other musics, it all started from somewhere… I know, that’s the take of the century isn’t it. I mean it would be so much cooler if all folk music started cause some little gnome hopped out of the ground and was like imma invent music, but like that gnome would also be incredibly racist so I dunno, gnome theory sucks. So where did North American folk music come from? Well that’s a matter of looking at the mostly euro populations that colonized North America and this will change depending on the regions that we’re looking at. So WE need a SHORT HISTORY of the beginning of exploration.  

So, there’s some debate as to who we should credit with the “discovery” of north america, cause on one hand we have the Viking settlements in eastern Canada in the year 1000,  there’s some speculation that there were even other visitors before then, and of course we have the populations of native people’s who have lived here for forever, but in terms of the European colonial pattern we’re looking for, for our needs we’re looking at Christopher Columbus. So as y’all know Christopher Columbus, Portuguese adventurer, getting permission from Queen Isabella of Castille in 1492 set sail across the Atlantic to try and find a passage to India to get some of them good ass spices everyone was raving about. Though he didn’t find India he managed to find the Caribbean also known as Central America. Now I know in the news for a little bit with the ever increasing prevalence of the Black Lives Matter movement y’all been hearing about people tearing down Christopher Columbus statues in the news and there is a very good reason for that.

So as I’ve already told you Chris didn’t discover North america but he also was, and this is gonna be a massive understatement, but the dude was a massive asshole, like take the biggest asshole you can imagine and times that by about 10. It’s estimated that his colonization of the Caribbean resulted in the deaths of over 8 million people, or or about the entire population of Switzerland. You can’t even use the product of his time excuse because even Queen Isabella, the person in charge of the Spanish Inquisition, which famously saw hte torture and death of tonnes of people under the guise of religious purity, was even like yo dude you need to slow down. I will talk about him more once we reach central American music genres but just for now yeah he existed, yeah he kinda started the wave of north American exploration, but he was also an absolute asshat and there should never have been a statue let alone a day to commemorate the shitheel of a man.

So we get the start of this wave of immigration into what will become northern South america, Central America, and southern north America by Portuguese populations who mainly speak, well, Portuguese, bringing music from the Iberian peninsula. But we’re more concerned with what’s happening up north and for that we’re gonna have to look at later waves of immigration that started with Roanoake starting in the 1520s.

So the start of British colonization started with Roanoake and Newfoundland (which, yes, for our non canadian listeners it’s pronounced newfinland not new found land like the name would suggest, which to be fair would also be cool, I’ll welcome the Fins in my land anytime, they do fantastic music). One of these settlements was infinitely more successful than the other with Newfoundland becoming what we know now to be the east most province of Canada and while Roanoake is still there it failed so hard that a population of 112 people disappeared without a trace. Like legit we still don’t know what precisely happened to them. Some assume they integrated into the local native populations, some assume they were all murdered, some assume cannibals, essentially it was a bad time for all involved.

What this means for newfoundland though and other English colonies is that musically we hear a very British folk song base to the music that’s being established here, with newfoundland being very much established as a fishing colony the musical style echoes that. Since we’re talking about the Kingdom of England more broadly this meant that there was an absolute tonne of Irish and Scottish influence to the music. This is why when you listen to the folk musics of Newfoundland (established in 1583), Virginia (established in 1607), and Parts of the Carolinas (established in 1712), you hear it sounds very similar to that of their colonial forefathers. This means that there was commonly a lot of fiddle, flute, English guitar, a string instrument with a long handle, rounded body and ten strings that was a version of a Renaissance cittern, simple stringed banjos; zithers, which were flat, shallow boxes with strings running the length of the body that were plucked by the fingers and and hammered dulcimers, various shaped (like trapezoidal and peanut shaped) sound boxes with strings across them that were hit with small hammers, Much like this!

So we have all these people coming into the area, and with that too you’re also going to get jigs and reels too. Jigs and reels are both types of dance music widely enjoyed across the British Isles but are most associated with Scottish and Irish dancing musics. The difference between the two is mostly the time signature as the instruments used to play both of them are roughly the same, that being said Scottish musics tend to have more pipes and irish does traditionally use a type of handdrum which are both excellent. Jigs are in compound duple time meaning that there are 12 8th notes in a bar of music and reels are played in simple time like 2/2 (two half notes per bar) or 4/4 (4 quarter notes in a bar). They sound like this.

Its important to note here too that when we talk about all of these peoples from the British Isles that we don’t unintentionally assume that they were all nice and cozy with one another. Many of the Scottish and Irish parties, often referred to simply as the scotch irish or scotts irish came to america as a form of Religious punishmen because they didn’t precisely fit in with the church of England, some of my ancestors were scotts-irish and came to what would eventually become America because they were Quakers.

It is from these traditions that the music then evolves into something different over time and actually we’re gonna take a quick detour into linguistics for a second because it will be particularly helpful in demonstrating my point and y’all will be able to hear something way cool. So for those who are not aware, linguistics is the study of, well, language. (big brain moment right?) But what does that mean? Whereas when you take English, Igbo, Japanese, Arabic, or any other established language in an academic setting (so like learning in school when you’re growing up) the emphasis is on spelling, grammar, how to write and speak your language in the way that it has been determined is the best way to speak it (which isn’t always ACTUALLY the best way to speak it but we’ll get into that in a second.) Linguistics is the study of pretty much every other component of the language. So linguists study the phonemes or the sounds that comprise the word and how they change based on the dialect that a person is speaking (a dialect being a regional difference of a language such as how someone from Scotland speaks English and how I as a Canadian speak English), they study how languages become standard languages and why (spoiler alert there’s a lot of elitism involved), they study meaning and why we put certain words in the order that we do (for Example in English we put adjectives (or the words that describe things) in very specific order being quantity, quality, size, age shape, color, proper adjective and purpose or qualifier so describing a thing could be a shitty old triangular purple metal pair of shoes, but if you were like the triangular purples old shitty pair of shoes you would lose your gourd.)

But why does linguistics matter? Well language actually acts a lot like music in the ways that it travels and changes over time which makes sense doesn’t it? When a people move around and interact with other cultures or are even just are separated from a larger group, over time their language will change! One change that is easy for us to see in our life-time is in word usage, for example, you use different phrases and slang that your parents and your grandparents didn’t use. The same goes for accents this means that your accent is going to be different than your parents and their parents. In some cases this will smooth it out or ramp it up, it will accentuate features, or drop features entirely. And actually this is where I’m going to give you over to a linguist to better explain this because where I do know about some linguistic shift they will definitely explain it better.

Why this is important is BECAUSE music functions similarly in terms of drift. Though musical drift doesn’t happen as FAST as language because language you use everyday with incredibly intensity and music you do not, it does still happen. Even more helpful in the tracing of language is how and where it moves over time. Because language is contingent on people speaking it and music is also contingent on those who play it, you can track how music and language changes and who it interacts with based on the stylistic attributes and or instruments that it acquires over time. If we wanna think about this in a real practical sense come with me into the theater of ur brainhole for a second. Imagine for a second there is a group of people who live in lets say India in like the 500s C.E for some reason or another they’re pushed out of India and into the west where they met like Turks and hung out with them for a couple hundred years. So they pick up some Turkish words, incorporate some of their musical elements and then move farther west. Then they meet the Greeks! The Greeks are pretty rad, they got some good shit going for them, so they stay for another couple hundred years! Again, they pick up some Greek words, some Greek musical elements. After that let’s say some of the people from this group were captured and held as indentured workers in a country forcing them to integrate into the culture of the majority but another portion of the population was fortunate enough to be able to get away and keep moving west into the Balkans where they also picked up a bunch of words and musical elements. You see where I’m going with this? Cultures are all contingent on how often or how little they come in contact with other cultures, this goes for music, this goes for language, hell this pretty much goes for all sorts of art. For the sake of our example I used the Roma who also just serve as a crazy good example for this because we didn’t really even know their history until one scholar was “like hey they got some Indian words in here” and launched a whole study into it which is rad as hell but we’re gonna save that for another episode. BUT YES CULTURE IS CONTINGENT ON THE INTERACTION OR LACK OF INTERACTION WITH OTHER CULTURES, THIS IS A THING AND WE’RE GONNA BE TALKING ABOUT IT A LOT.

SO we were with settlers from the British Isles and they came to north america and then their music changed!

In Canada and Louisianna we also have the addition of the French colonies which make our music a little different. In Canada those colonies would be Acadia in what is now the province of Nova Scotia (established in 1604), Montreal (established in 1642), Quebec (established in 1608), and Trois Riviers (established in 1634)  along the Saint Lawrence River with the voyageurs or courier de bois who were fur traders dealing primarily in beaver. In the southern US it’s the colony of Louisianna in the states which is much larger than what is currently the state of Louisianna. All of these colonies together formed one mega colony commonly referred to as New France. Differences between the musics performed by French colonists vs. English colonists was, well first of all the language, obviously French colonists sang more often in French, due to them being… French. But there were also differences in content too. In Canada especially many settlements were originally set up with the intention of converting native populations to Christianity which is a form of cultural genocide by the way. Thus, Jesuit populations often brough a lot of religious music into the area. Sometimes it would be mixed with musical and cultural traditions of the native populations but often it would just be very Christian. An example from the area I grew up in would be the Huron carol which blends native cultural heritage from the area with Christianity. It sounds something like this.

As French populations began intermarrying into native populations this became a more common sonic combination to hear. In Canada we also have a larger amount of music based on or around or deriving from sea shanties due to the fishing populations that settles in East originally as fishing colonies. As I plan to do a whole episode on sea shanties one day I don’t want to go too much into them but quickly speaking sea shanties tend to be broken down into categories based on the task they were performed around. So there were three principal types of shanties: short-haul shanties, which were simple songs sung for short tasks where only a little work was needed, halyard shanties, for jobs such as hoisting sail, in which a certain rhythm was required to signal when it was time to exert effort and when it was time to rest (often referred to as a pull and relax rhythm), and windlass shanties, which synchronized footsteps. I find them incredibly infectious, which is probably intentional because they’re meant to kinda keep spirits up as well as set a pace for work, but I’ll try and sell ya more on that when the time comes. In the meantime you can content yourself with singing drunken sailor to yourself, probably one of the most well known shanties.

French Canadian music also has some very fun additions to it that come from the body itself, like ur own dang body. The first one is a singing technique but also song style. It’s technically a form of non-lexical vocable which is a fancy way of saying “sounds that comes from ur mouth in music that aren’t necessarily words.” In fact sometimes it’s also just referred to as French Canadian mouth music. This specific one I’m talking about kinda, lord how do you describe this, it’s like a scatting but much slower, less bombastic, and more rhythmic. I’m gonna fuck up the pronunciation because, again, even though I have a French Canadian background and had to take it from grade 4 to grade 9 in school I remember it about as well as one might remember an event they’ve never been to, that is to say not at all. The form is called a turlutte (ter-lute) which uses a lot of D, T, and M sounds to kinda fit the sound that ur looking for in a song. It sounds something like this!

French Canadian music also has the real fun addition of podorythmie or foot rhythms which are complex rhythms that people keep with their feet. For those who don’t know what a rhythm is, it is defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern sound so lets say that you start clapping, and each clap is spaced exactly by one second, now on the first and third claps you clap a little harder, that would be a rhythm. Rhythms can be incredibly simple like that one or they can be really complex and the ones that you will hear in French Canadian music are of the more complex variety. Usually if the person performing them is also playing an instrument they’ll often sit in a chair with a little wood box or hard surface underneath which they will use to tap their feet on. Sometimes they will wear special hard bottomed shoes made with leather or wood to do this in order to accentuate the sound. Less commonly people can also stand while performing a podorythmie turning it into a kind of dance. Here’s my favorite example of what that sounds like.

Some of this style was eventually transported to Louisianna when the Acadians were eventually pushed out of Canada by the English in 1755, many of them ended up actually settling in Louisiana forming the ethnically Cajun population, Cajun deriving from the word Acadian. Not to say that life wasn’t hard for damn near everybody who wasn’t nobility in the 1700s, but the dramatic shift for Acadians made it particularly hard for a long time. People had trouble adjusting to their new way of life at first, coming from a mostly trading based economy to agrarian based was hard on the population, not to mention the massive change in climate that came with moving all the way from what would now be modern nova scotia all the way down to Louisiana. To give a real succinct idea of where exactly they were moving imma quote Loyola university in New Orleans that have done a really good succinct history on the Cajuns of Louisianna ”Few Acadians stayed in the port of arrival, New Orleans. Some settled in the regions south and northwest of New Orleans and along the Teche, Lafourche and Vermilion Bayous. Far more went further west to the marshes and prairies of south central Louisiana. They became hunters and trappers and farmers. It is a popular misconception that most Cajuns live on the bayous and in the marshes, poling their pirogues and hunting alligators. Far more became farmers in the grand triangular prairie that stretches from Lafayette north to Ville Platte and west to Lake Charles.” Like shit man, my giant canadian ass if forced to live in Louisiana would probably catch fire as soon as I got there let alone back then with no air conditioning and what have you. Their music also then changed to reflect their new way of life, not that the music was about catching fire in a corn field (although that would fucking slap), music was written and sung about hard times and hard livin’.

From the same Loyola University document: The music these people brought was simple. It was made by singing, humming, and rhythmic clapping and stamping. Instruments were brought to the colony, with a violinist's death recorded in 1782. Early instrumental music was played primarily on violins, singularily or in pairs. One violin played lead and the second a backing rhythm. A simple rhythm instrument was created out of bent metal bars from hay or rice rakes: the triangle or 'tit fer, meaning little iron. Musicians wrote original songs telling of their life in the new world. The song J'ai passe devant ta porte tells of the suddenness of death from accident and disease. The singer tells of passing by his beloved's door and hearing no answer to his call. Going inside he sees the candles burning around his love's corpse.

In the south they would have been influenced by other settlers in the area, more scotts and irish of course but also eventually African descended peoples. Some were brought as slaves during the French and Spanish colonial period or brought in by settlers after the Louisiana Purchase. Under Spanish rule, slaves were allowed to buy their freedom (which I cannot emphasize entirely how fucking difficult that would have been), leading to an early population of free Blacks in southern Louisiana. People of African descent also came from the Caribbean, including the colonized French-speaking islands. During the revolution in Haiti between 1789 and 1791, French-speaking Haitians who fled the violence often chose the Louisiana coast as a destination due to having a familiar linguistic population and ease of access. These populations would become to be known as creole. The term Creole comes originally from the Spanish criollo, for a child born of Spanish parents in the New World. The French borrowed it as Creole. Creole could refer to anyone of European parentage born in Louisiana. Over two centuries it began to be used to mean a person of mixed foreign and local parentage. One use today is to refer to someone entirely or partly of African descent.

Now, it’s incredibly important that we don’t discount the influence of slaves and former slaves in the creation and dissemination of creole musics because they are absolutely integral to the process. Creole songs originated in the French and Spanish slave plantations in Louisianna and thus contain tonnes of African musical elements from the instruments they used to the syncopated rhythms. For example, original instruments you would have heard could have been percussion instruments made out of gourds, known as shak-shak which would be shaken to create a rhythm, the mouth harp, a type of metal instrument that one holds in place in the mouth and plucks with their finger opening and closing their mouth hole to create different pitches and textures of sound, the bamboula, tambou, or tombou lay lay which are types of drums; and as I mentioned before, a type of banjo known as a banza might have been played if someone could fashion one. Because that in essence is what we’re talking about, when we talk about Creole music we’re talking about music slaves could make with the limited resources that were available to them, in order to make the music they wanted to hear. This is why overtime we also see the addition of the washboard as an instrument because it was something that would have been available to them. A washboard for those who don’t know is most literally a board, usually made out of ridged wood or metal that one would put into a source of water, either a basin or a river, and methodically rub the dirt and stains out of your dirty clothes as well as you could with soap if you could access it, believe me it’s about as fun as it sounds.

So what was this music they were playing? What did it sounds like? Well as I already mentioned there was a lot of African influence to the music. One of the most prominent features of this influence is the syncopated rhythm. A syncopated rhythm is a rhythm that is built so that the strong beats eventually become the weak beats. So if we continue our example from before, where we clap harder on the first beat and third beat, a syncopated rhythm would move to become the opposite of it on the 2nd and 4th beats or the off beats, like this. Don’t be worried if that’s something you can’t do yourself, I still find it hard to switch between.

As no type of culture exists independently of time or location though, the type of music they played was also influenced by the culture of their oppressors. While there was music that existed independently that slaves brought from their Native African groups such as the Bamboula, Calinda, Congo, Carabine and Juba, over time, a lot of their music also began to incorporate French and Spanish influence. A type of French dance called a quadrille for example was worked into the repertoire, a Spanish dance called the contradanza or the habanera actually became some of the first written music to incorporate the aforementioned African rhythms. Even the language used in these musics grew and changed. For the slaves, and even free black folk coming from the Caribbean, they would bring with them what is now known as patois, a language that is a combination of English, French, Spanish, and African languages. So when we think of what creole music is, it really then is a patchwork of different cultures mainly driven and compounded by the efforts of African slaves.

Now I will say before I play this example here that it is difficult when looking for early musics belonging to oppressed peoples because 1. It wasn’t written down for the most part, at least not in the way it would have been originally performed, 2. Pieces that were written down, recorded, or coopted were often done by white people looking to profit off of African music (which we’ll see way too fucking much of as we continue our north American music excursion), which seems like a rather disingenuous way to present it to you, and 3. Because music recording as far as actually recording audio didn’t exist until 1860. So if we’re looking for songs from the periods that they were written or invented we still have to find people who are alive that remember them. Even as I was researching this I was trying to look for recordings that would make it easier to hear the differences between the dance genres I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately there isn’t much in the way of albums or popular bands dedicated to these types of genres, so instead I’m going to play a clip of a bamboula rhythm being played by some students at the Asheh Cultural Arts Center's Kuumba Institute in New Orleans, and then a clip of another group performing a Calinda.

From where we’re currently standing in the year 2020 there is still Creole and Cajun distinct musics but they also created a fusion genre which has become it’s own thing, this genre is called Zydeco. Zydeco developed out of both the Cajun and Creole though (hard core purists will insist that it is a mostly creole development) which then further changed when German Immigrants started moving into the area. The accordion, which was invented in Vienna about 1828, was brought to Louisiana by the German immigrants many of whom lived adjacent to or among the Cajuns. Though it arrived in Louisiana as early as 1884, it was not immediately incorporated into Cajun music. This is because where fiddles were tuned differently than the accordions coming into the country. What I mean by that is that some instruments have pitches they’re better at playing naturally. So for example, you’re standard run of the mill trumpet, like if u look up a trumpet on google, well they’re most suited to play in the key of B flat because the sound that you get when you blow into one without putting any of your fingers on the buttons is B flat. For the accordions that were coming with the Germans, they were tuned to the keys of A and F, so it wasn’t till much later in 1925 that accordions tuned to C and D started appearing and thus started to be better incorporated into the music around it. The guitar was also added pretty late coming in in around 1920ish. The word Zydeco itself is actually derived from the title of a French song Les haricots sont pas sale or The snap beans are not salty! You can hear in the French if you put a little punchiness into it, the transition between the les and haricot sounds like a Z (yes I’m a Canadian that says Zee, I blame it on my American mother, plus it just sounds better, zed sounds like a bee flew into a hard surface). So because of the Z sound it became abbreviated to zarico and through time morphed into Zydeco! We got BEAN music.

And how does this bean music sound, well I personally think it sounds pretty fucking rad, kinda like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPztofSd5Y

fun fact about that one, I’ve known this song for roughly 5 years I knew it I definitely just thought these dudes were scattin, like WHOA BA BA WHOA BA BA WHA BA PA BYE BYE DOO DOO, I did not realize until roughly 2 years until after I heard it that it had lyrics…

Now you may have noticed I haven’t touched on Appalachian folk music yet and I’ve done it very strategically for 2 reasons. One is just simply because if I had put it any earlier yall would have been like HUEHUEHUE I HAVE HEARD ALL I NEED and then absconded into the night like a raccoon after finding half a cheeseburger in the trash. The second was because Appalachian folk music and next week’s episode are gonna be pretty instrumental in the episode after that, so to keep it popping freesh in ur brain bits I figured I’d stick it at the end of the episode.

So appalaichan music turns out is actually a really tricky genre of music, if we wanna go by the United States Library of Congress introduction to Appalaichan music: The term "Appalachian music" is in truth an artificial category, created and defined by a small group of scholars in the early twentieth century, but bearing only a limited relationship to the actual musical activity of people living in the Appalachian mountains. Since the region is not only geographically, but also ethnically and musically diverse (and has been since the early days of European settlement there), music of the Appalachian mountains is as difficult to define as is American music in general. I should also probably say before we get too far that like the Appalachian mountains (which first of all that I pronounce incorrectly because it’s pronounces with a CHian not Shan) but the appalachian mountains are the mountain range that run through a lot of the eastern United States, so like Appalachian Mountains extend 1,500 miles (or 2414 km for everyone else) from Maine to Georgia. They pass through 18 states and encompass the Green Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, the Berkshires of Connecticut, New York's Catskills, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The region known as the Southern Highlands, or Upland South, covers most of West Virginia and parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Virginia. In colonial times, this area was known as the "Back Country."

It was in these areas that Cherokee and Algonquin people already existed but then colonists would come from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales and eventually from other parts of Europe came the Germans, French Huguenots, Polish, and Czechians. So we’ve already looked at the influence from the British Isles before (the jigs and reels and English folk music) but these would evolve into Square dances with a little help from French influences as well. A square dance for those who don’t know is a dance usually with 8 sets of partners who perform steps that are either established and vary based on song or thencaller which then the dancers perform. But just as we saw with instruments and musics being carried by free or escaped slaves to different parts of the southern united states and being integrated into the musical cannon of the area, the same thing happened in this area by the other people settling here as well. For example, the hammered dulcimer I told y’all about earlier (which if you haven’t seen one I would recommend lookin one up they can come in really fun shapes, ) but yeah those same hammered dulcimers were not an invention of the British isles carried over by those settlers but it is almost a direct descendant of a German instrument (the Germans btw came in a couple different waves the first big one being in 1670) so this instrument they brought was called the Scheitholt. Even African American instruments entered the scene in around the 1840s just in time for minstrel shows to start travelling around the country which I will be doing an episode on by the way because you can’t talk about American music without talking about the fucking disaster that is minstrel shows. It was these same free black peoples that also really popularized the call and response type of vocals which is pretty much just what it sounds like. The main singer will call out a line of lyrics sometimes as a holler, sometimes more musically, and other singers will answer it by doing it right back at them. This can be found in all sorts of music but just for the kicks of it here’s an example of it in gospel music.

But we’re gonna back track a little bit back to the Germans because we really haven’t talked about them enough and have left out one of their biggest influences on developing Appalachian folk music which is yodelling. If you’re from the states you’ll probably know yodelling from that kid that got famous a couple years ago and was in a Walmart commercial or something but for those of you who don’t know or people who do know that kid and are just curious about the mechanics of yodelling: The main components of a human singing voice are the head voice and the chest voice which I CAN and will demonstrate but to explain first, the head voice and chest voice are the two registers humans typically have. There’s also falsetto which is slightly different as it is kinda a pushing of the voice to a place it isn’t really supposed to be but I digress. So the head voice is where we get all our higher notes where the chest voice is where we get all out low notes. This is mainly due to the resonators we are using in creating these sounds as well as how tense or thick or thin and how long or short your vocal chords are. Resonators are simply just the air passages and open spaces in your body that sound resonates through. So for head voice you’re pushing the sound up and into the head using like ur nasal passages and all ur skull space for the sound to vibrate through which are all really small so you get a higher often sharper sound and chest voice mainly resonates in the chest (or ur LUNGS) which is a lot more space and so more low and rumbly. You can tell the difference between the two by putting a hand on ur chest while you’re singing, start with your lowest note you can comfortably reach and just start ascending, eventually you will feel your chest vibrate less and less and should be able to feel the switch into head voice. I’ll just give you a quick demonstration as to how different they are. Please bear in mind I am a natural soprano so my low range isn’t incredibly low but here it goes so the head voice “as I don’t do remembering, can’t give this song a ghost of past, I wander, I ponder, why there is weight in time” and again the same line but in chest voice “as I don’t do remembering, can’t give this song a ghost of past, I wander, I ponder, why there is weight in time.”

So if you tried it yourself you’ll notice that there’s a little, what vocalists call, break between where ur chest register is and where ur head voice is, it happens for everyone don’t worry. What yodelling does then is fluctuates between the head and the chest voice really fast and most importantly smoothly like this:

ahh shit man, the sounds of my ancestors, you can almost smell the leiderhosen, taste the octoberfest, YOU CAN ALMOST SEE THE SCHUPLATTING. But yes so Germans brought this with them from their homelands along with their accordions and it established itself the Appalachian folk tradition. Now it’ll probably interest you to know that yodelling isn’t a genre without purpose, as I’d like to do a whole episode on it though at some point I don’t wanna spoil too much but it is good for communicating across mountain ranges because of how it echoes and the types of inflection you can put into it. This makes it easier to understand why it survived the shift from the mountains in Germany all the way to the mountains of America. The Germans also brought something else with them, but it wasn’t just Germans, the Polish, and Czechian influences also brought it with them too! And what is it that they brought? The waltz of course! The waltz is a type of dance that focusses on a ¾ time signature, and has one heavy beat on the front and two lighter beats after. For any of you who’ve ever seen the musical Oliver, this is precisely the type of song Oom Pah Pah is.

So these collections of music and the things they developed into can be called Appalachian folk musics. It’s hard to pin down precisely what Appalachian music then sounds like at times because of all the different influences depending on place that you were living in, if you had to pick out a few things though you would head that firstly you get a lot of stringed instruments like guitars, fiddles and banjos. Secondly  the themes were often similar and reflected day to day life living in the region such as mining or logging, there’s the fun little genre of murder ballads which I wanna do a whole episode on some day, and after the civil war we also get the addition of a lot of war songs. Thirdly this music would vary depending on purpose but would definitely include dances, campfire songs. So Imma play you a few samples then, first we just have a good old mountain song

if these sound familiar to other genres of music like bluegrass and country that’s because Appalachian folk music was the predecessor for both genres but those I’m gonna save for their own episode sometime in the future. It might be a part of the north American genre business it might be just another nebulous episode I do in the future at some point. But for now at least you know the history of some of the biggest Genres of American folk music. BUT WHAT ABOUT FOLK MUSIC TODAY, LAURA, WHAT ABOUT MUMFORD AND SONS, HOZIER, FUIMADANE, AND KORPIKLAAN? And I know, they’re ALL fantastic acts and I’ll get to people like them eventually, but for now at least you know where it all started.

So with that, hat’s all for just a music podcast this week, I hope you’ve heard something new, and I hope you’ve heard something that you like. If you haven’t there’s always next week where we’ll be getting heavy with slave and gospel music. In the meantime, though if one of y’all would like to suggest a topic I would love nothing more than to answer your musical question or talk about topics that interest you guys in music. Feel free to drop me a line at justamusicpodcast@gmail.com

Bye!

1.   Over the Hills and Far Away - 17th Century English Traditional - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MR7VihPm2E

2.   Woodsong Wanderlust Solo Hammered Dulcimer by Joshua Messick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayAvzVdOJJY&list=RDfD0rNyjDAa0&index=13

3.   Out on the Ocean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynKDggMtMww

4.   Rakish Paddy & Braes of Busby (Reels) Uilleann pipes Chris McMullan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0umOtiKyUc

5.   A Quick Lesson on Southern Linguistics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNqY6ftqGq0

6.   Huron Carol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgPeEvUl06Y

7.   La Bolduc - Reel Turluté https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3Cejl5oc

8.   Le Lys Vert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3Cejl5oc

9.   J'ai passe devant ta porte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtchvhughFw

10.New Orleans Kuumba camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItRuHjjGMhg

11. Calinda (Stickfight) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaM0PI3T1s8

12. Bye, Bye Boozoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kPztofSd5Y

13. Call and Response in Gospel Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMgNTwZW5gY

14. Underthing Solstice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anMKMu9Tpoc

15. Yodelling Franzl Lang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQhqikWnQCU

16. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles – Ost – Maggie is Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fn1Pw-LxU8&

17. Ola Belle Reed High on the Mountain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsRRY5k5Psg

18. Traditional Tennessee Square Dance Caller Gerald Young of Pulaski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7-DWvegcL8

[scribbleb-red]

Camisado (Your Emo Andreil AU)

[This started as a Morning AU on Twitter, warning: we're going very 00s] 

Andrew and Neil meet in a chat room age 13. 

Andrew's handle is @/phantom!attheopera 

Neil's is @/isayshotgun 

Andrew initially hangs around because he finds it hilarious how Neil roasts people he likes and trolls people he doesn't.

They also both have things in common - starting with but limited to their love of PATD and pretty much all emo music they can get their barely-teenage hands on. Andrew likes it a little heavier than Neil - but they both rave about Brendan Urie, Gerard Way and the Maddens.

They strike up a penpal style relationship - moving first from the chatroom to private messages, then the msn and email. 

They confide in each other. Neil moves around a lot because 'my dad's a bad man, he's after me and my mom'. 

Andrew tells him about Cass and Drake.

isayshotgun: he shdnt do dat 2 u 

phantom!attheopera: i know 

isayshotgun: id get u out 

phantom!attheopera: how 

isayshotgun: im gd w/ knives 

phantom!attheopera: maybe you can teach me. 

phantom!attheopera: and I'll teach you to spell, honestly. 

isayshotgun: *eyeroll*

Neil doesn't come to get Andrew because Aaron happens first. 

And then Andrew's in juvie and playing exy and the only way he can stay in touch with Neil is email. He shouldn't even be allowed email, but he's willing to get on his knees to have computer access, access to Neil.

Something about email makes their friendship even deeper. 

Actually, Andrew's fairly certain that he's half way in love and that if they were different people they'd have already talked about this. Still, it's because of email that he notices something is wrong with Neil.

His emails, which were long and rambling, have suddenly become short - no less full of feeling and affection, but syntactically different. 

He tries to ask about it. 

From: phantom!attheopera 

To: isayshotgun 

Subject: what's wrong with you?

Neil is cagey at first but Andrew gets it out of him in the end. 

From: isayshotgun 

To: phantom!attheopera 

Re:Re:Re:Re:Subject: what's wrong with you? 

 Being shot really sucks. That's all. N

All Andrew wants to do then is cross the country, gather Neil close and keep him safe. They're fifteen now and he'll be leaving juvie next month. 

"Can you keep safe until then?" Andrew types. 

"U cant save me. We talked about this." Neil's reply is not what he wants to read.

Andrew's released to Tilda. He finds out his brother is hooked on painkillers and his birth mother is an abuser. 

phantom!attheopera: she hits him. I need to stop her.  

isayshotgun: ... ... 

phantom!attheopera: what? 

isayshotgun: is that weird? for moms 2 hit u?

phantom!attheopera: your mom hits you too? 

isayshotgun: 2 teach me not 2 be stupid. 

isayshotgun: keepin me alive 

phantom!attheopera: that's not how it works, no one hits you for your own good. that's... 

phantom!attheopera: my therapist calls it emotional abuse and controlling behaviours.

Neil ends up sharing a lot more than he was probably initially intending - about the one time a girl kissed him and he couldn't walk properly for a week; about the way his mom pinched him and made him recite their rules back; about how he wasn't allowed to be sick, ever.

phantom!attheopera: one of these days I'll find you and we'll run away together. We'll go anywhere you want. Settle somewhere safe. 

isayshotgun: do u think ud like me irl? 

phantom!attheopera: well I can't see your spelling if you're talking 

isayshotgun: rofl lmao

Andrew tells Neil about Aaron. 

phantom!attheopera: he's a total prick 

isayshotgun: hv u tried talkin 2 him about smthing easy? like exy? 

phantom!attheopera: just because you like stickball 

isayshotgun: no i mean maybe u need a bridge 2 talk. common grnd.

phantom!attheopera: ...maybe

Neil is the one who gives him the idea about crashing the car with Tilda in it too. He sends Andrew all the instructions on a floppy disk that he posts to Andrew's therapist. On the front of the disk, Neil has scrawled their usernames. Andrew smiles.

Their relationship is a strange one - they are always there on the other end of the computer to each other, but they've never swapped photos and never heard each other's voices. 

When Andrew gets a phone, he asks Neil if he has one and Neil says no, only his mom has a burner.

Still Andrew gives Neil his number and on his birthday, November 4th, he gets a call from a Seattle phonebox. 

"Hey," Neil says. Andrew can hear him shivering, the chatter in his teeth. 

"Happy Birthday, Drew." 

They talk and talk. It's the best birthday Andrew's ever had.

Right up until the gunfire.

Neil vanishes. 

There's no emails. No MSN messages. No highly irritating nudges. He's not in any of their usual chatrooms. 

Andrew doesn't get another phone call.

Weeks go by. First one then another then another.

Andrew leaves messages. He sends emails. He really really hopes Neil isn't dead.

Aaron and Andrew go to live with Nicky. 

They're approached by The Ravens. Andrew turns down the infamous Riko Moriyama and his absurdly pretty Number 2, Kevin Day. 

David Wymack shows up. The deal extends to Aaron and Nicky if he wants it. Andrew says yes.

Sometimes Andrew thinks about Neil and tries to make an effort with Aaron, but Aaron is angry and a recovering addict and nothing Andrew says or does is ever enough. He still tries. 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

 Subject: 9 ways I'm trying to befriend my twin

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Re: Subject: make that 11 ways 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Re:Re:Re: Subject: none of these are working 

From: phantom!attheopera 

To: isayshotgun 

 Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Subject: you'd hate him too

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun  

Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Subject: ok fine, I don't hate him 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Subject: Happy New Year 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Re: Subject: And Happy Birthday I guess

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Subject: I miss you 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Re: Subject: I still miss you 

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun 

Subject: Panic! are play in Columbia next month !!!

From: isayshotgun 

To: phantom!attheopera

Re: Subject: Panic! are play in Columbia next month !!! 

 got u a ticket c u there @ 7pm

Andrew blinks. He stares at his inbox. The 1 new message. Neil's username. Neil is alive. Neil is coming to Columbia. Neil is coming to a Panic! At The Disco gig. He bashes out a hasty message. 

phantom!attheopera: Are you serious? 

isayshotgun: yeh

The month vanishes under Andrew's feet. He's nervous. He's excited. Nicky is exuberant. 

"My cousin has a date!" 

"Not a date, Nicky." 

Nicky just slides a knowing look his way and when Andrew takes the car keys, tells him to drive safe and stay out of fights. Andrew scoffs.

They haven't been talking much, Neil and Andrew. 

But Neil promised that Andrew wouldn't be able to miss him. 

Neil was telling the truth. He's standing there, a too-skinny teenager with badly cut hair flopping into his eyes, with a giant sign saying "phantom!attheopera".

Approaching, Andrew sees that Neil is gaunt, there's shadows under his eyes, which are blue as the sky on a clear, cold day. 

"You ready to scream your crooked heart out?" Andrew asks. 

Neil looks up with a slow smile. It wobbles as if his face is out of practice. 

"Hey." 

 "Hi."

They will - in fact - scream their crooked hearts out that night. They will hold each other upright and throw themselves through the mosh pit, feeling the press of elation and anger and frustration and hope. Neil will trip a stranger who gets too close for Andrew's comfort. Andrew will deliberately spill a drink over a girl who won't stop eyeballing Neil with hearts in her eyes. 

"My hero," Neil laughs. His laugh is rusty too. 

Andrew wants to hear it again and again. He wants to hear it every fucking day for the rest of his stupid emo life.

When the music fades and the crowds disperse, Andrew and Neil are left in the carpark, sitting on the bonnet of Andrew's car. 

He asks Neil where he's going tonight. 

Neil shrugs. 

He asks Neil if his mom is nearby but he already knows the answer. Mary Hatford is dead.

They don't leave for hours. Neil explains everything that night - who his dad is, what he's running from. Andrew doesn't care. 

When they're both cold, they sit in the car and turn the heating up. Andrew offers his hand to Neil and Neil curls their fingers together.

Neil is tired. Neil is so so so tired. 

"Come home with me." Andrew says. "Stay." 

Neil slumps against the seats, his head tilted so Andrew can see every sharp angle of his face. There's no fight, no bargaining. 

Just a sweet, fluttering feeling neither of them know to call hope.

The end.

[runtedfiction]

a future

AN: ✨listen to goodnight n go by ariana grande ✨ a part of me is like why did i do this but another part of me is like this is who i am as a human being and it’s pretty sicko mode

[day 5: festival]

*     *     *     *

the first thing sasuke notices about coachella isn’t the thumping music or the instagram thots or the v i b e s. it’s the fucking temperature. and when it’s the start of the third day of the festival and they’re standing in the scorching sun waiting for a text for naruto to go through, sasuke decides he can complain a little bit. 

“sakura,” he says, touching her gingerly on her bare shoulder (she looks so good in her floral shirt and denim shorts it should be illegal). “i’m melting. it’s so hot.”

she laughs and places a palm to his face, tugs at his cheek. “i know. let’s get some lemonade and sit in the shade by that sign. we have to wait for everyone to get through security anyway, and it’s not worth waiting on that idiot naruto.”

ah yes, naruto. naruto is probably blacked out (why he attempted to match neji at the pregame is beyond anyone) jumping and hollering at a stage somewhere and making friends with everyone, and sasuke is sure they’ll have to drag him out of a mosh pit or whatever later.

“ok,” sakura says, placing her sunglasses on top of her head. they’re so reflective and colorful and sasuke’s theory is that they offer no UV protection at all, but he knows this weekend is sakura’s gift to herself for busting her ass off these past four years of undergrad so he keeps his mouth shut and sips some lemonade. “tonight we should definitely go to shallou and blackpink and billie eilish. oooo, also lizzo. lizzo for sure. and ariana grande is closing the night out so we’re definitely going to wait out that stage at least an hour beforehand.”

the way sakura makes her plans, sasuke muses, is like the way she’ll operate on her patients in the future—with surgical precision and attention to detail, honed from years of careful notetaking and studying.

sasuke’s phone buzzes. “it’s ino,” he says. “they just got through security but she says they want to see king princess instead of shallou right now.”

“ah ok, fuck it then,” sakura says. her eyes light up, and she pats her fannypack. “i snuck in some extra alc, let’s just go.”

sasuke hauls himself up, is bullied by sakura into taking another swing of the new am she smuggled in, and they’re on their merry way.

the next few hours is a blur (sasuke has another theory that sakura is the most effective hazer he knows and he hasn't had this much in a while), but he at least knows that sakura is having fun—she’s bouncing around and singing and grabbing him occasionally to also bounce around. it’s really really nice, seeing his workaholic of a girlfriend let loose, and even if he doesn’t really know a lot of the songs he’ll still hum along with her. 

they find naruto somewhere between getting water and getting caught up in a pop up rave, and then they catch ino and everyone else waiting on a huge field before the final act. 

sasuke knows all the generic ariana grande songs on the radio, but he also knows one that sakura plays incessantly—when she’s in the shower, when they wind down the week with a few bottles of soju, when she wants to singsong lovey dovey sentiments to him.

when the opening bars of this particular song start, sakura loses her shit, and grabs sasuke’s hand so tightly he swears he feels a bone shift. 

“why’d you have to be so cute? it’s impossible to ignore you, ah. why must you make me laugh so much? it’s bad enough we get along so well.”

and sasuke kind of knows, in that moment, with sakura ardently grabbing his hand and belting out lyrics and dancing around, that he wants to be in love with her for the rest of his life. that he wants to see these exciting, electric moments of youth eventually phased out into the calming, fulfilling phases of adulthood with career development and children and everything—he wants it with her.

he sees a future, and he sees her in it. and he knows he can’t tell her now, so he settles with grabbing her hand tighter and belting out too.