#I haven't done it in so long since they're not the 'proper' music videos but? Idc anymore

[softichill]

I forgot just how much joy it brings me to watch Project Diva music videos

[acaplaya-musings]

Screw it, have a not-fully-human Voiceplay AU (Part 1)

I'm obviously not the first person to do this, and I very much got inspired by other AUs and fics I've seen floating around (I haven't even read any of the fanfics, but just reading the tags/summaries were enough to get my brain buzzing with ideas). And let's be honest, it's almost natural to imagine at least some of Voiceplay's members as non-human when they're that good, and don't even get me started on some of the videos!

This is mostly just a collection of thoughts/ideas though - I don't plan on turning it into a proper fic or doing art of it or anything like that, but I thought I might as well type it up here anyway, so it's not just stuck bouncing around in my brain. Sticking it under a Read More link because this ended up being kinda long. (And note that this AU is less of a "what if they had powers" AU and more of a "what if a lot of real life stuff was explained by magic / occult forces and the like" AU, though I don't know a great deal about Voiceplay's early days so bear with me).

Geoff: Half-demon, sort of. Not exactly "demon" as in "representative of Hell/linked to Satan", more "demon" as in "innate connections to a part of the Earth far, far below the surface, deep in the mantle, if not deeper". "Half-demon" is about the best description in the English language for him, even when considering many popular works of fantasy and myth

(Yeah I considered a few other options for what Geoff could possibly be, including a half-dragon/dragonborn, but his voice is much too smooth and clear imo to be typically reminiscent of a dragon (other than his growls and vocal fry), and some other people have already referred to him as a demon god/demon lord/etc, so yeah might as well. I'm putting my own spin on it though).

Geoff is still at least partially human, and just human enough that for the first three and a half decades or so of his life, he was able to almost fully suppress the non-human part of himself. Half-demon!Geoff, not fully knowing the meaning or implications of what he was, feared that the ground may one day swallow him up whole; the depths of the earth staking its claim once and for all. He took up pole-vaulting in high school [true], and had aspirations of being a rock tenor [also true] - hitting high notes in songs and soaring over beams many feet in the air made it easier to ignore the faint occasional rumbles from far below the ground that nobody else ever seemed to hear.

(I'll get back to Geoff in a minute, but lets start talking about...)

Layne: Extra-terrestrial being, for sure, though not quite a stereotypical alien per se. In this AU, Layne started off as a vaguely-animal-shaped collection of cells (or the celestial/outer space equivalent anyway) that crash-landed on Earth via a small asteroid and took on the (main/primary) form of a human.

(And just for funsies, let's say that "Layne" was what TV Tropes would call a Line-Of-Sight Alias after seeing a street sign. He was originally "Lane", but someone once stuck a Y in the middle of it while writing it down and he chose to keep it that way).

Layne and Geoff became friends in middle school [true], both sensing there was a notable uniqueness about the other.

I'm a bit hazy on the origins of Voiceplay (or rather, 4:2:Five, as it was first named), it's been a while since I've watched/listened to some of the interviews Geoff has done where he talks a little about it, and I can't be bothered doing too much research/recollection for a random fun AU idea, so I'm playing a little fast and loose with details here.

Layne, now attending high school with Geoff [true I think?] was inspired to create an acapella group [I'm fairly sure it was at least partially his idea but don't @ me] not too long after first learning about them and hearing some examples of acapella performances. The idea that humans could create music without any typical instrumentation and be just as enjoyable (if not more?) as someone singing with a band was fascinating to him, and he was very keen to try it out for himself.

Geoff meanwhile was spending his time learning the oboe [true, iirc], and wasn't fully keen on the idea at first, especially when Layne asked him to be the bass singer for it, but the two were[/are] best friends, and it didn't take too long for Layne to convince him.

Layne started off as the baritone of the group [true], and a beatboxer wasn't added till a little later after the group's inception, after Layne was further inspired by the group Rockapella [also true, except idk who originally had the idea to add a beatboxer (that's why they were called 4:2:Five btw - they started out as basically a barbershop quartet, but then added a fifth member for vocal percussion)]

This is starting to get quite long, even for a Read More imo, so I'm making a separate post for part 2. And yes, Eli will get included as well!

[simstomaggie]

15 Questions for 15 Mutuals

I was tagged by my dear friends @theroyalthornoliachronicles, @historicalfictionsims and @kyriat-sims ♥♥

Are you named after anyone? My parents named me after the 2nd wife of Johann Sebastian Bach, Anna Magdalena Bach. They're both big fans of classical music, of Bach specifically, but they also really liked the name. Originally they wanted to call me Anna Magdalena, but they thought people would only call me Anna then, so it's just Magdalena today ;)

When was the last time you cried? I cry all. the. time. i think the last time was this afternoon when I saw a cute animal video on twitter. i'm a terrible cry baby, but i'll be fine after 30 seconds :D

Do you have kids? Just my two fur babies.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Nooooo. Never. Who does that?!

What sports do you play/have you played? When I was a kid, I was in a dance group; I'm not sure what the proper name would be (we called it Jazz Dance, but it wasn't what Jazz Dance is to most people). We rehearsed dance performances that our teacher put together, loosely inspired by music video dancing in the early 2000s. I also played Handball (european handball that is!) for a while, and I'm still a fan of watching it.

What’s the first thing you notice about other people? Just vibes, mostly. There's not a physical thing that I notice most, but I usually can tell if a person is nice or not, or if i'll like them or not. i'm usually right about it, but of course... not always.

Eye colour? Green!

Scary movies or happy endings? I like both. I don't mind being scared. But for action movies, comedies, romance movies, dramas etc, i want happy endings. the world is bad enough, i don't need people to suffer just like that on my tv.

Any special talents? Literally none.

Where were you born? Germany!

What are your hobbies? The Sims, playing video games overall, making cc, reading, listening to and making music, but most of the time, i just hang out with my cats.

Do you have any pets? I have two cats: Woody (a long haired Maine Coon Mix, with heart disease) and Tigger (a short haired black cat, breed unknown) who likes to bite. Their previous owner mistreated them rather badly, so I'm spoiling them as much as i can.

How tall are you? As I read just yesterday, the same height as Nick Jonas!

Favourite subject in school? English ;)

Dream job? I used to want to be a reporter for TV news, or involved in that somehow; my dream would have been to report on US-politics. But when I interned at a tv station, it was so god awful that I decided to drop that dream. I love the job I have now in tourism, but it doesn't make near enough money to support myself 100%; if it did, it would probably be my dream job. oh well.

Since i think everyone on my timeline has already done it, please feel tagged if you haven't and would like to answer some questions!

♥

[kaioumichiru]

ok lets do it! Forgive me because I suck at organizing my thoughts with words!! Welcome to My Long Ass Post About Cheerleaders In My Chemical Romance and Gerard's First Time Wearing A Skirt On Stage

First I suggest reading this post by @geoffrard (sorry for tag but I wanna give proper credit) because it's so well done and I'm obsessed with it. I think it rings even more true since its posting, after the return of the cheerleader, Diana, and the update since this post, our sweet finale of Joan of Arc.

First of all, Gerard's costumer for this tour, Marina Toybina has referred to this as a "20-year dream in the making." VITAL INFORMATION.

So we have the bloody cheerleader shoot, which there's a clip of in lotms where the band are bitching about how boring bloody photoshoots are. This could've been the start of it, or just one part of whatever has built up to the cheerleader canon, but it's noteworthy. So much of cheerleaders in American culture, especially with rock guys who feel like they've been dealt an unfair hand their whole lives, especially in the 00s, is just "the mean popular girl that doesn't get someone misunderstood like me." I remember being kind of put out and judgmental when I had friends who got into it. Like "that's the kind of person you are?" instead of just "oh my friend likes a new sport." So in that shoot, and a lot of stuff like it, it was saying "look at us, we're better than these girls. We won and they're dead." Fucked up! Boring!

So THEN! We have the I'm Not Okay (I Promise) music video. The band are outcasts in high school and they're bullied but when Ray tells Gerard he's "never gonna make it," Gerard rejects it. He doesn't need this, he wants something more. This video is about how they don't buy into the immature, completely pointless social pissing contest that is... everything. Doesn't matter who you fuck, who you want to fuck, what your "success" is, what your health is like. Fuck all of that, it's not important. The cheerleaders in this video are ignored or rejected by the band. Being bitter because the popular girl does or doesn't like you is irrelevant to My Chemical Romance.

Teenagers is next. This time, the cheerleaders are on their side, part of the band, even getting attacked with them when the kids get on stage. They creep around in gas masks, holding nightsticks like guns, in front of a background of a mushroom cloud. There's a lot to say about this video in the context of the album's overall themes that I don't think is too related to the topic overall and I don't wanna get into it because I haven't really thought it through but... they're given power here. They're still backup dancers but we've definitely graduated from "we don't care about you" to "actually we're allies, you're one of us." They brought the dancers for this EMA Awards performance too, really nailing down the concept of the video. The video for Blood, filmed along with Teenagers, features the band completely ignoring the cheerleaders trying to get their attention, bringing back the I'm Not Okay message. We seriously do not fucking care!!!

Frank's handmade shirts, Pansy, Gerard's stage speeches, body writing, live homoeroticism, the performance I can't find where they wear football gear and little shorts (any scholars who know feel free to add. Anyone feel free to add anything xoxoxo ilu), and of course these music videos, are all part of the MCR mission statement that they want nothing to do with bigoted rock n roll tough guys except to insult and belittle them.

Back to 20 years in the making- In Teenagers, Gerard's jacket has a T on the shoulder, matching the girls' uniforms. He's aligned with them here but subtly. I personally consider this era his most masculine looking stage costuming which makes it an interesting choice.

FINALEMENT!!! TO 2022!!!!! Gerard stuns us all in this costume in Nashville! A really fucking good show that everyone should watch on youtube full of joy and power and excitement! It begins the addition of skirts and dresses into the costume rotation. Seriously please read the post I linked first. These costumes aren't just cute choices, they're very deliberate characters pointing out misogyny, twisted empowerment, and victimhood. Most of them were custom made, I think only the teacher wasn't? Oh man speaking of the teacher. It's really telling of the world, and all of this shit, that some people are calling it the schoolgirl. Why do you see the hot lady look as a child? What on earth about it gives "schoolgirl" other than the culturally pervasive image of the sexualized teenager? School uniforms don't include sheer hose! ANYWAY! The gist of it all is in Foundations,

"And if by his own hand his spirit flies / Take his body as a relic to be canonized, now / And so he gets to die a saint / But she will always be the whore / You look stressed out"

No matter what. Even if a man does something considered a sin, something societally looked down upon, destroying his own life, he gets away with it, he gets praise. (I'm not victim blaming suicidal ppl, and I don't think the song is either, just pointing out these definite truths about how the people of The Super Christian United States treat it.) She can't. She cannot, for all time, grasp glory or even respect. So, Gerard becomes her. The Saint purposefully takes on the role of the Whore. And he's wanted to for a very long time.

After Jackie O, The Nurse, The Schoolteacher, The Manson Girl, and all kinds of costumes including a drag king rendition of The High Roller, complete with black eye, before Princess Diana and the one and only Joan of Arc, (who deserves every post she's getting and then a hundred more oh my god) The Cheerleader returns for Bullets night in LA. Their first album, the first skirt, the first instance of the Saint becoming the Whore is back with a sweater with an L as a sweet nod to Gerard's wife and a fucking flamethrower. Love and power and the idea that they aren't going to take anything sitting down. The Cheerleader is the skirt bookend for a reason because she represents a LOT of what MCR is about. Another Foundations lyric,

"But it's much too late / You're in the race / So we'll press / And press till you can't take it anymore"

They will never EVER drop it. They won't give up on their ideals, that they actually give a fuck about women and trans people and gay people and that the dumb violent macho bullshit is just stupid and evil. And much more, but I can't talk about everything about them, this is already so long.

Most people think of Revenge era when they think of the band. An era that has so much tumultuous and wonderful history, both. Hardcore fans showing up to a Dunes show with skeleton gloves and X's on their eyes, people sporting the teal roots and hunting for gash dupes, journalists and casual fans and youtubers using these extremely old photos of the band all after the band has changed drastically so many times. Ties and bulletproof vests and red & black are what MCR means to a lot of people. They mocked this in their wwwy merch and performances, with the old makeup and the gruff voice and babbling nonsense and vampire money, and then with next performance with the general boy drag. (I think that could also be subversion of the mockery but. There's so much going on there too that I won't get into it. that one is another one of my favorite 2022 shows, please watch as well it's so good so intense mcr forever and ever and ever). They are here to lay in the foundations of motherfucking decay, not buy into the nostalgia capitalist shit. They aren't the same band, they're not going to do the same things that they stopped years before they even broke up. They're new people. Gerard wears skirts now, and he's not doing drag. No beauty makeup, no updos or wigs, his mannerisms and voice don't change. He makes sure we know this by wearing makeup for male and halloween costume characters, including a drawn on mustache. He begins telling us this via The Cheerleader. In green & white, the opposite of red & black. The old MCR is long dead, decaying, being eaten by vermin, and now there's something new. I don't think they're gonna reject red & black completely, all the following costumes except LA5 feature it, but the colors are definitely intentional. My Chemical Romance doesn't mean what it used to, it means something better.

SIDE NOTE! The confidence Gerard has visibly gained from the start of the tour to the end and how the band's excitement and love for what they do has only increased is just beautiful. The difference between the two cheerleader shows is so exciting and inspiring. We're fucking decaying, baby!!!!!! And it's the best!!!!!

You get what I’m saying?