#Ive already done this song but I must do it again

[beelzebubgaylord]

FIND A LOVE THAT WILL MAKE YOUUUUU AHHHHH

[crow-in-a-teapot]

unreal unearth first impressions

OKAY REALISING I AM RELISTENING TO THIS ALBUM FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME JUST TODAY ACCIDENTALLY SO IIM GONNA QUICKLY WRITE DOWN MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS BC IM ALREADY BEGINNING TO ACTUALY THINK ABOUT THINGS AND LOOK AT LYRICS AND READ OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS, so here is an only slightly tainted not quite first impression of unreal unearth from me (obviously the singls ive heard before but)

de selby (part 1) i turned on the album sitting in the absolute dark, ten minutes past twelve at night, this started playing, cue instant tears. i think i was just hit with 'this is the most beautiful thing ive ever heard' and i wasn't expecting that from de selby 1 for some reason. and when the irish kicked in that just. no words, just crying and im what two minutes in. i wasn't even thinking about what he'd been saying about connemara in the dark and mirrors of people you used to know (i'd seen him talk about it, but purposefully skipped the actual song when it came up online) it was just. de selby 1. and the part as gaeilge

de selby (part 2) sexy groovy silly fun, it's really growing on me, thinking about 'i'd still know you, not being shown you

i only need the workin' of my hands' also i cant wait to read third policeman and look at this completely differently

first time the beginning was jarring, and then at the lyric about his name i kind of :( i also liked the lethe/liffey parallel, it's so very hozier of him to do that. god the push and pull of there must have been something off from the beginning? if every time they called him baby he died? something like that was my first interpretation, now im wondering if it's because it's not his name and they're the one that made his name sound wonderful for once. intellectualising that part of the lyrics kind of ruins it for me ngl, i think it's more about how it feels, i think it feels like contrast like not knowing if it hurts or is wonderful. little detail of when he says come here to me and it sounds so casual and irish like come here to me tell me, i really love it. and the final lyric hurt. really impeccable timing for a breakup album like

francesca why can't i listen to i'd tell them put me back in it for the first time again WHY CAN'T I LISTEN TO I'D TELL THEM PUT ME BACK IN IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AGAIN AND REEXPERIENCE THAT. my favourite thing from this hozier era might just be that music video (over all the other ones help)

i, carrion (icarian) is just really devastating. sunlight but what if you wanted your heart to be torn to shreds. the imagery is so vivid

eat your young is growing on me too, the lyrics are just so good. they're just SO GOOD, their rhythm is so satisfying they fit together so smoothly, and at this point it's just as fun and danceable as something like de selby 2

damage gets done is kind of pop? it made me think of the bones ft marren morris

who we are [had to remove a section here] the vocals are otherwordly. the drums are gorgeously frantic. quietly it slips through your fingers love??? falling from you drop by drop??? HOLD ME LIKE A KNIFE???makes me physically ache

son of nyx i'm so glad this is here, an instrumental was something that really could put me back to where i was mentally with de selby (part 1). first thing i thought was i can't wait to learn the piano part. i've seen people say this, but it does seem like the obvious, it's an instrumental that just belongs in a movie

all things end all things do end so real. very cool how much of a direct inflence gospel music is

to someone from a warm climate (uiscefhuarithe) i can't wait to relisten to this one again and again, the parallels between being a child warming up a bed and jumping to later in time with a lover aaaa so tender NATURAL AS ANOTHER LEG AROUND YOU IN THE BEDFRAME AAAA

butchered tongue A FAVOURITE A FAVOURITE foreigner's god but softer, how can i listen to this and ever leave ireland how can i listen to this and feel like this and be packing suitcases what is wrong with meeeeee. the violin and the instrumence. jesus christ. instantly picturing my road signs when he started singing about the native ones

anything but THIS SONG STARTED AND I INSTANTLY STARTED SMILING COMPLETELY INVOLUNTARILY, THOUGHT OF ALMOST (SWEET MUSIC) i started thinking of bright lion king imagery before he even started talking about stampedes and hoofbeats. and the vocals here too, so overwhelmed by how cheerful and joyous it sounded that i really didnt pay attention to lyrics, so it'll be cool to look deeper later

abstract (psychopomp) the production here i was very unsure about, because there was something that made me think if it were more rustic/intrumental and less modern, it might have hit me even harder, like there might have been a way to elevate it further. it made me think of colours and purples and reds and oranges, another really visual song, like i, carrion. it's really gorgeous. SEE HOW IT SHINES will be in my head for a long long time... ugh it's all so bittersweet and sad and beautiful. all my love and terror there balanced between those eyes what a line

unknown / nth if you've scrolled through my accunt for longer than a second you know how i feel about unknown / nth

first light i was hit with such intense terror that this was the last song of the album. what am i supposed to do for the next decade without music to look forward to while andrew goes back into hibernation under bray train station jean jacket lost and found or whatever. so i didnt play and instead did this musing on how beautiful the vocals throughout the album are and how funny it was in the zach sang interview when he talked about singing instead of playing instruments when recording songs because he's 'better at singing than most intruments' and his producer just wouldnt replace those voice recordings and that's why there are so many choirs and zach is basically like 'you absolute weirdo no one else has the talent to do that but ok' (affectionate) (paraphrasing). i love the drums so much. i love the strings so much too. A VOICE YOUR BODY JUMPS TO CALLING OUT YOUR NAME :(((((((((((( imagining hearing this in the 3arena and having colours break out across the whole ceiling ill remember those lights during no plan in 2019 forever im an indoor concert girlie forever what they can do visually is so magical.. i saw a good omens edit of this today already i love you good omens fans

not to sound like a broken record i wish swan upon leda and through me the flood and love of were on this and maybe even but the wages and

[liauditore]

The thoughts, hand em over. (No pressure but I wanna hear em :D)

oh god what have u done.

context.

OK SO,. (BE WARNED THIS IS LIKE. REALLY LONG AND BRAINROTTY.)

first off i must put here as per the law i am not in fact armchair psychoanalysing mc youtubers grian and mister scott S. major this is me looking at the 3L series as is it were a performance and their actions in said series as characters and blah blah blah so on so forth this is Fanfiction and Shipping and woowoOOwoo We Are Being Sillyyy with a miku song.

i'm gonna infodump abt a bunch of stuff including some heavy topics like emotional abuse and dubcon (NOT in detail the song just has those vibes)

so uh if you're reading this for Some Reason know that 👍

ALRIGHT WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY Vampire the song itself is (at least my reading of it) a song about a toxic relationship. The singer is very much not a Good Person and the main chorus is just them disregarding their partner's needs and pushing the relationship even further.

But the singer isn't completely irredeemably evil, since they really do love the person they're abusing (in a childish sense of the word love, anyway) and seem to be at least acutely aware of how they're not really a good person.

But of course, they "eh whatever" these self-reflections pretty fast cus they're having fun with the relationship. This specific set of translyrics reads to me like a bit of self-victimizing as well like "oh, I'm so tortured by feeling like a bad person because of the way I treat you. But I love you so you don't really have a choice but to forgive me."

Speaking of translyrics this is where Micchi's version comes in. While I ADORE Rachie and Anthong's version I do have some nitpicks..? And one of those that I am unreasonably pet peeved by is this right here.

In the original JP version, the lyric is simply kimi mo vampire, meaning simply You're (also) a Vampire. It's alot more obvious a change and hits harder imo than "My little Vampire" which still puts the singer in the position of power.

Micchi's version of the lyrics on the other hand stick a lot closer to the original

And I might just be imagining this but there seems to be a switch in the power dynamic in this version as well. The singer is now inviting their partner to be "rough" with them and the repeating mantra of "you're the ONLY ONE for me" sounds more desperate than anything else.

Micchi's lyrics in general are a bit more wet cat coded. I still prefer Rachie's as a whole but Micchi's singer definitely seems to be more regretful of what they've done and blame themselves for essentially turning their partner into a different, more hostile person. (aka turning them into a vampire lol)

In a lot of ways the vampire metaphor is really unsubtle. Bloodsucking parasite attaches themselves to someone and turns them into a bloodsucking parasite as well.

SO HOW THE FUCK DID I GET GRAIN AND SCOOTER FROM THIS WELL.....

When I think about 3L one of the main things that lights up the lightbulb in my mind is the parallels between all of the four "main" partnerships, with Renchantyn vs Desert Duo as the most obvious comparison point but I think they all mirror and subvert each other really well.

Grian/Scott are like birds of a feather to me in a similar sense that Scott/Cleo are, but while Scott and Cleo have this mutual understanding with each other with Grian it's a bit more complicated.

I CAN't. FOR THE LIFE OF ME. FIND IT AGAIN bUT there was a bit in Third Life when Scott said to Grian "and maybe once our husbands are dead we can be free" and Grian laughs and that basically inspired this Whole Thing 🙏🙏

(an apology for all the wholesome flower husbands shippers who i know follow me cus im about to unleash my full toxic yaoi adaptation of them) (desert duo fans from what ive seen are already insane so you're okay)

In my own mind Grian and Scott are both somewhat.. manipulative? Might be a bit harsh of a word? But they definitely play to survive more than some of the other people stuck in there with them. (cleo too but she sucks at it and she can get her character analysis essay next week)

At least in my view, their partnerships with Jimmy and Scar respectively were born more out of a need for safety in numbers and to get someone to essentially keep them safe until they're no longer of use. Grian definitely felt bad about creeper-ing Scar in the first episode but I don't think he was quite expecting to spend the whole series in debt to him 😭😭

Scott (like the singer in the song oh my god) isn't really a monster so to speak, just someone who has a messed up view of love. Probably has some sort of tragic backstory that explains the way he is that we'll get to see in the anime adaptation idk. He does care for Jimmy but in like.. the way someone might care for and love a pet. You LOVE your dog to fucking death but you wouldn't like.. trust your dog with taxes or respect its autonomy.

also these lyrics are both hilarious to me considering the uh current brainrot.

Grian on the other hand probably Wants to be like Scott and be able to have someone wrapped around his fingers like that but he can't cus it's Scar not Jimmy and he's Grian and not Scott. I imagine he'd get tired of Scar's shenanigans when he's with him but as soon as he's left the room it's all why's it so quiet D: where's scar D:

I like to think that everytime he THINKS he has a handle on Scar finally and can actually stand a chance to survive this thing Scar does something completely unhinged off the wall and Grian's like WAIT WAIT WAIT NO

basically he gets way too attached and doesn't like it and to make it worse he has no idea wtf is going thru Scar's head👍

SO when they eventually team up I think Scott and Grian would have this little "wink wink nudge nudge they don't know" kinda thing going on.

and then in my little fanfiction world somewhere along the line Scott would end up sensing that Oh, We're actually not exactly the same.. interesting.. and kind of start looking at Grian with this sense of amusement/pity cus aww, look at you getting all attached to the person you were planning to betray, that's so cute and Grian would see the worst of himself reflected back to him via Scott. It ends up strengthening Desert Duo's relationship if anything else.

Of course then Jimmy dies and Scott's emotionally destroyed by it but he's still like.. skirting around it. I'd like to think he gaslights himself with any genuine Emotions he has cus like.. he knew this was coming, this is all according to plan, so why would he feel anything for him now that he's gone?

While Scott gets some time to come to terms with the fact that he actually cared about Jimmy too late for him to repair their relationship Grian and Scar end up punching eachother to death in a cactus ring. The End 👍

tl;dr i need to pick up writing fanfics cus oh my god

[sophialikesthings]

Death Of Me Chapter 3.1

Song- Carolina by Taylor Swift

"Doc says you're doing good and getting better."

I stood behind Rafe as he talked to his father.

    Ward lay almost lifeless on the queen bed, cords and IVs running his body for him.

"Don't worry, in the meantime, I'm already taking care of business. The legality of the marriage is on hold, we forgot to sign the license before we took off, but I got the other papers done, bank accounts, and passports. I got this"  He continued talking

I shifted uncomfortably, my mind polluted by thoughts of JJ.

"Not Rose though, "She doesn't know what the hell she is doing."

"The gold in the vault, just like you left it." He whispered, almost as if he thought I couldn't hear him.

We stepped out of the room and left the door ajar,

"What do you mean the legality?" I tilted my head while turning towards him.

"We aren't legally married yet, We still have the paperwork to sign. But you sure as hell are my wife." He stepped forward, placing a sweet kiss on my forehead.

"Come on... we have a meeting."

~~~ "Thank you again, I know it was a long way to travel, but I think what we have is...is pretty worthwhile" Rafe leaned back in the wicker chair, while simultaneously grabbing my hand and placing it in his lap along with his.

"Yes. Well, Michele is the most prominent antique dealer in the west indies. Unfortunately, he only speaks French,"

"No English."

We walked towards the upright cross in the living room, a white sheet covering the artifact. 

"You look good in that mini dress," Rafe whispered, moving his hand toward my lower back

"Oh yeah? Maybe you just have to take it off me later?" I winked knowing that was going to make him flustered.

Michele bent down and toughed it dragging his index finger along the embellishments.

Rafe stood arms crossed, tension rising in the room, I placed my hand on his shoulder and felt it drop with ease, as if it had taken away all his anxieties.

Michele started walking around it mumbling in French. His assistant handed him a tablet.

"He wants to know where you found it?"

"Don't worry about it. We got it. That's all he needs to know." Rafe replied quickly. Raising suspicion.

"It's here. It's for sale. So who can we get to buy it?"

He mumbled again whilst letting out what seemed like all the air in his lungs.

"Uh, for a piece like this of this value, there are very limited buyers. Like an institution or a Museum, B-"

Rafe didn't like hearing that, I could tell.

"I-" He started to speak.

"Let her finish,"

"But, he has a client in Barbados who will be interested. This client will have loads of questions. He'll want to meet with you in person."

He handed me a card and pointed to the number.

"Let's make a deal?" Rafe extended his hand.

"Let's make a deal."

—

"I don't have time for this Rose, Demi, and I have to get to Bridgetown. We're taking the Boat." Rafe walked across the balcony overlooking the front room.

I tune out their bickering to keep whatever sanity I have left.

"Maybe you don't need another drink. Come on Demi." He grabbed our bags leading me outside

We arrived at the place and they led us into a room filled with antiques and trinkets.

"Uh excuse me?" someone said, I knew that voice.

I spun around to see Kie, I let out a sigh of relief knowing at least one of my friends is ok.

"I knew you and Ward were behind this shit!" she stormed over.

"What are you talking about? Are you trying to weasel your way into my deal? Demi! Did you know about this?"

"Leave her out of this; she has nothing to do with it."

"Come sit, I must ask you a couple of questions." Carlos sat us down.

He continued asking about the diary Pope has and asking if we knew anything.

"I- I don't," I said, looking at Kei, my eyes asking if anything I was saying seemed believable "I want to help you... but unfortunately, I can't."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that you know. Because unfortunately, I don't believe you. You and your friends couldn't have found the cross without it." He locked eyes with Kie

"Look this is ridiculous, I'm out." Rafe stood up and started walking to the door before someone stopped him.

"Rafe, come sit down, please," I asked

"Do I look like a fool to you Mr.Cameron? Do I look like a fool to you?"

I stood up and walked to the window admiring the view. Rafe and Kie soon joined me. We saw Carlos take someone out back and before going around a corner he turned back and showed us a gun.

"Rafe?" I got scared, he quickly took me into his arms and squeezed.

BANG.

[musicalfanfiction99]

Leo ~ Orchestra/Musician

Orchestra/Musician is the March Bingo Fanfiction Event choice for this story. The reader character is gender neutral but I may have made mistakes.

It was spring and Knights was getting ready for their Live. You were at Yumenosaki getting ready to leave when you got a call from Leo. "Hello y/n! Are you leaving school yet?" "Yes, I was just getting ready to leave, why do you ask?" "I wanted to know if you would like to come to our practice today! So how about it? Will you be there?" "Sure, I can come today. I don't have anything else I need to do at Yumenosaki so I can meet you there." "Okay see you there! Bye!" You knew that you needed to practice your instrument though so you were going to watch their practice for a little while and then find an empty practice room to play until they were done. Once you got to the practice center you found the Knights' practice room and entered. You were greeted by Arashi and Izumi when you walked in. "y/n it's nice to see you. It's been a while since you've gone to our practice." "Yes, it has been a while hasn't it. Where's Leo?" "He should be here soon." "Okay. I'll wait for him then." Right as you were finishing your sentence Leo comes bursts into the room with his hands full of papers and notebooks. "I'm here! I'm not late yet! Where's y/n?" "I'm over here." You were in the corner of the room setting down your things when he came into the room. "Why didn't you tell me that you were already here? I could've set up a chair or something for you." "It's fine and I'm only going to be here for a little bit and then I need to go do something." "Oh okay then." While he was talking he noticed you had a case among your items. "What's in the case?" "Oh, nothing important." "Okay, if you say so." After a while they were done with one song so then you were going to go practice. "Okay, I'm going to head out. Leo call me once your done." "Okay! Bye bye!" "Bye." You picked up your phone and instrument and before you left you needed to ask a question. "Where an empty practice room?" "Um, there should be one in the room next to us." "Okay, thanks." You went inside the next practice room and started tuning your instrument. Once you finished tuning your instrument you started playing. You thought that the room had nice sound and would be a good place to finish your music piece. What you didn't know was that Knights could clearly hear your playing and Leo especially was excited. "Is that y/n? So the case held a violin. It sounds so beautiful." Then they heard a loud scratch followed by a yell. "What was that? Is y/n alright?" Leo was about to go to you but then he heard you playing again. "Well y/n's playing again so I think it's fine." "Leo, why don't you go check on y/n?" "Oh alright but I need to finish this masterpiece first." Once Leo finished he went to your practice room. "y/n? Are you alright?" "Leo! What a surprise! Why are you in here I thought you were in practice." "Yeah, but then I heard you in here so I wanted to check up on you." "Well I'm fine so you can go back to practice." "Well, what are you doing? I heard a screech and then a yell so something must have happened." "Oh, that was just me in the process of writing some music. It's nothing important." "I wanna help you make music! Why didn't you come to me first?" "You're always busy with Knights so I didn't want you to do any extra work-" "You can always come to me! I'm a composer! But I didn't know that you composed music too- that's really cool!" "Ive made music for a while so I really get mad when my music doesn't sound how I want it to." "y/n you remind of Shu because your always so hard on yourself like him." "I'm not hard on myself I just know that I can make better music than this." "Well then let me help! I am still on break for about eight minutes so we can compose some music until then!" "Well if you really want to help me you can." "Okay! Let's go to everyone else and then we can make some music there." "Okay. Let's go make some music."

[skyburger]

musings as i watch the phantom blood musical (under a cut if u dont want spoilers ect.)

perhaps i will not understand this as easily as i thought thats ok though i can pick out bits and pieces

the set is so fucking gorgeous dude <- HUGE sucker for a moving set of any kind

the opening threw me off a bit but i got the gist anyway i would NOT wanna be the lady dangling from the ceiling that looks scary

the costumes are soooo cool and im literally only at the carriage scene i just really like theatre costumes & victorian costumes & really any combination of the two is kind of guaranteed to make me crazy

THE SONGS ARE SO GOOD SO FAR this is literally the Ohmy god i was right the old man was speedwagon but i didnt expect That HELLO? HELLO?

also the speedwagon rap is actually really good hello like this first big ensemble number is so fucking good. speedwagon rapping over this choir should not sound this good BUT IT DOES

as much as i love to see theatre in person im glad im watching this at home so i can take notes on here LOL

somehow despite the fact rhat i can't understand most of this@i feel bad for dio anyway like idk him getting a solo ballad this early on is also helping

i need to look up dio's actor after this because his voice is really fucking good dude DUDE HE JUST STARTED THE CHORUS(?) BIT OHMY GOD

Stop making me feel bad for dio i already felt bad enough for him before this 😭😭

the way they have the levels ramp thing on the stage & they can spin it is really fucking cool

omg erina's pink dress is so pretty I LOVE U ERINA

jojo gets his ass kicked immediately 🙏 seeing this in almost slapstick stage fighting choreography is so OH MY GOD. DANNY? DANNY? imgoing to die like i dont know how else they would have done it but this rules

dio jumping out of the carriage that was so fun im glad they didnt make it more toned down

STOPPPP THE WAY HE KICKS DANNY...

not sure who this other guy is in this scene i dont think there was this guy in the show...?????

see dio had almost been tragic enough to make me feel bad for him but now hes back to being an asshole and i must say. of course it suits him but dio as a character and jjba as a whole but really Especially phantom blood is just super suited to the stage imo

OHHH SPEEDWAGON MY GUY SPEEDWAGON IS BACK

hello does george get a song? ihmy god he does?? IDK I JUST ASSUMED HE WOULDNT HAVE ANY SINGING BITS but dude has a killer voice

again despite the fact that im only picking up bits and pieces dio's actor is really fucking selling it dude like. Dio 😭😭

i saw a post from someone mentioning how much george joestar flips his coattails abd they were not kiddinOHHH SPEEDWAGON IS BACK BABYYYYY

i love love LOVE how speedwagon is the narrator

THIS SCENE IN THE RING THE WAY EVERYONE HOLDS & MOVES THE RING THE CHOREOGRAPHY IS SO FUCKING COOL

my goat danny is back 🔥🔥🔥

oh i was wondering when my guy jojo would get a solo like oooooh get it jojo sing ur ballad !!

really small detail but i like how danny's puppeteer has a hat on like the ones most of the ensemble has too... a newspaper boy cap for lack of a better descriptor

oh dude rhe way they did the backstory flashback thing with danny saving jojo while george narrates it to dio that was sick as hell i love it

again man. dios actor is fucking me UP he's selling every part pf this ive never felt tbis bad for dio & thats an accomplishment (i have felt very very sorry for dio before)

JOJO AND ERINA SONG 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 JOJO ERINA DUET 🔥🔥🔥🙏🙏🙏🙏😭😭🥲😭🔥🙏🙏😭😭🔥🔥🔥🫡🫡🫡💕💕💕🫡

the way they start some lines by going "jojo!" "erina!" to each other is so fucking cute

i also do enjoy danny running around in the background of this like fuck dude! hes chilling

STOP THEYRE SO CUTE THE WAY ERINA LAUGHS WHEN HE LEAVES 😭😭😭😭

uh oh here comes faggottron3000 :/ he didnt do anything gay i just wanted to be mesn to him and in my defense he deserves it this scene

dude they held that kiss for a long-ass time ?!?! the choreography of dios posse blocking off erina's escape was super cool though

You cant keep doing this to me you cant keep making me feel bad for dio .

also didn't expect dario to have any singing bits but his actor is killing it as well the cast for this is fucking fantastic

dude i love a rock musical im very happy we got some electric guitars and drum kits in here like yesss fuck it up on the hi-hat!!! fuck it UP with the synth keyboard

Dude jojo & dio's actors are really good at ghe fighting choreography like jojo's actor is really good at flinging himself aftergetting fake-hit and like rolling away its astounding

its at rhis point i realize i dont actually know how far in i am or how long this is i didnt check. i feel like weve been on the jojo dio backstory bit for a While and danny's still here so its not over???

oh shit did we ever get to see erina's family in anhthing else i dont actually know. i think that was her dad but it couldve been someone else and she just mentioned her dad

STOP IT STOP IT I CANT KEEP FEELING BAD FOR DIO its ok im over itDUUUUUDE THEY SET DANNY ON FIRE AND HES FLOATING THISSHIT IS CRAZY

once again the practical effects on stage fucking rule

oh speedwagon's back here we go the timeskip is literally now LOL

is now a good time to mention i never actually finished part 1. like i know how it ends if course butHOLT SHITTTTT ITS ZEPPELI

zeppeli's fuckass tophat is even better on a real life person it makes you realize how silly it looks. But like it still totally works because its a musical im telling you a live theatre production can get away with so much shit

oh here we go baby THE COOL LEVELS AND LIFTING THEY DO FOR RHIS ENSEMBLE NUMBER FUCKING RULES

my guy speedwagon is back 🔥🔥🔥

alexander hamilton WISHES he had speedwagons talent

rugby on stage... i cant say ive ever seen thst before actually LOL

Stop making me feel bad for dio. you cant keep doing this to me. he didnt even do anything just rhe concept of dio maybe bettering himself and getting along with jojo makes me sad because its never gonna fucking happen

jojo having another solo still in his rugby uniform is a little funny though. again his voice is so fucking good the cast is fantastic

goddamn george joestar got some crazy fancy bed

WHO IS THIS GUY UTS THE GUY FROM THE PART WHERE DIO SHOWED UP AT THE MANSION im still not sure who this is <- should probably have finished part 1

kind of obsessed whth this guy the way he mimes the rugby game is so fucking funny

dio's purple outfit is fucking awesome though its very much megami ibunroku persona shades of purple to me but it totes suits him like ooooh get it dio

oh the mask spikes mechanism is very funny i love it

oh the staging for the reveal of jojo finding out dio's been poisoning his father is awesome HELLO DARIO CLIMBING OUT OF? HELLO?

STOP NAKING ME FEEL BAD FOR DIO THIS IS LITERALLY HIM POISONING GEORGE JOESTAR but like dude this actor could sell anything im so serious

Dio has fallen down the stairs at the met gala...

imgoing to die right now dio's actor cannot keep doing this to me.

jojo runs with such purpose but also very cartoonishly its awesome

dude did they not do an intermission during this whole thing??? or did they just edit ir out

SPEEDWAGON APPEARANCE SOON. I CAN TELL. EVEN IF I DISNT KNOW THE STORY I CAN JUST TELL THE MUSIC AND JOJOS SINGING SOUNDS MORE LIKE SPEEDWAGONS BITS

speak of the devil...!!!

ohmy god speedwagon and jojo fight choreography for that one bit that was so fun i love leaps and jumps this rules

YES!!!! YESSSS!!!!! YESSSSSSS!!!! <- sicko

SPEEDWAGON HAT ATTACK FUCKKKKK i was aondering how theyd do this

Put speedwagons hat back on he looks bald without it. even with all his beautiful hair he needs rhat hat its like mario without his hat you cant do that its wrong

speedwagon i loveyou so much thia fycking rules dude

please give him his hat back though.

Srop i cant do fhis dios not allowed ro show up anymore. do not make me pity dio. do not make me feel sorry for fucking dio.

the cape is fucking sick though

i honestly fid not think dario would show up this many times its fucking me up though dude. Dio is haunted by his awful father. ahat if we all blew up right now

oh the practical effects of the mask on someone js fun i love that

oh my god i think dio just went like. hes dead... and then the guy whi he put the mask on grabbed his hand and he went HES NOT DEAD

the guy who i dont know who he is. Love whatever the hell they did to his eyebrows

Oh hes like the guard or something there hello? maybe? this couls just be for dramatic effect but i feel like him putting on the helmet and rhat really completing the outfit means rhe former

oh that comment really Was right my guy george is just flipping his coattails dramatically left right and center... i get u dude. me too

dudeimgettung so sleep this is unrelated but if i pause this i will never fucking fibish it. and ill be up for ages anyway ill be fine LOL

oh i think george is singing aomething about like ummm along the lines of "i'm only human" (heard watashi (i) wa (am) ningen (human) didnt catch the rest of it. Again george's actor has a crazy good voice hes so fucking good

Oh shir zeppeli is back i have to be so real i forgot he was in this part. i kind of forget anything after like the end of episode 3 ish(?) (wherever jojo thinks he killed dio and fhe house burns down) is also like. a very important bit of this part. imsorry zeppeli im torallt blanking on his first name right now im sorry caesar's grandpa

zeppeli also has a fucking awesome actor his voice is really good I WISH I HAD SOME OTHER WAY RO DESCRIBE THEIR VOICES BIT THEYRE ALL SOOOO FANTASTIC

ohmy god dio walking in and jojo standing there with the candle in hand is like one od my fave shots im glad they kept it here rhe candle is so important to me. I THINK ITS A REAL CANDLE THEY LIT HERE TOO? if its not then they have crazy advanced fake candle flame technology i didnf know about

i seriously have not been able to pick out what pronoun dio used for himself this whole time like i heard jojo use boku all the time but dio just used boku as he's bustinf out the crocodile tears and im wondering if he changed to that just for this... idk if thats common

thank god speedwagon is here and he also has a candle and hes beinf silly and funny ilvoe you speedwagon

george joestar's robe coat dressing gown thing is lovely also i love the pattern its reminding me of that one painting... the lovers i think? i think the artist was french the name is torally escaping me right now. The one in the elfen lied op 😭

Dio srop making me feel bad I CANTDO THIS NOOOO HE FELL TO HIS KNEES AS HES SINGING HIS SONG HE LOOKS SO DISTRAUGHT AND I KNOW HES LYING BUT DUDEEEEEE I FEEL SO BAD

oh he said ore in there but im not sure what fhe context was

oh yeah he just said ore wa he uses ore for himself

okay now we have fhe george joestar death scene fly high king... really though im just looking forward to dio coming back sorry@thats my favorite scene like first of all hes so fine. but also the flips and shit hes doing is so cool

oh rip george joestar ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

im still not sure who rhe other guy is like everyone else left stage its speedwagon & jojo & (dead) george who are all obviouslt important to the story. And this other guy who i still havent figured out did they make him up for this ?? was he in fhe manga was he in something else????

oh george walking into the back off the stage theough the doors that open and his silhouette in the light is really awesome imagery

jojo's actor is really fuckinf fantastic have i said fhat i need to stress that he is so fucking good

Oh noooo guy who i dont know is dead maybe i think

OOOOOH GET IT DIO OOOOOOOG GET IT

dio has been shot dead in miami. hes okay but he died

oh the way they do the lighting and rhe heartbeat sound while he drains fheir blood is so good...

speedwagon just standinf there and wavinf the gun around is very fun

OOOH GET IT JOJO his choreography with the spear(?) is super fun

dio has once again been found dead in miami. again... hes ok but he died

oh that might be the first muda from dio i wonder if he said ir before and i missed it

OHHH I WAS WONDERING WHAT THE SHEET CURTAIN THING WAS FOR that was really good dude these effects are dyckinf awesome

OHHHH THE STAGE IS MOVING DUDE THIS IS GONNA GET CRAZY

sorry my typos keep getting worse im getfing more and more excited and i have more and more to say LOL

dude rhis feels like the end of either the first half or like the entire fucking show it cant be over though theres so much more plot????

OH I RMEEMBER NOW someone said rhey only got through act 1 when i was looking for a link so surely there Are two acts...?? if this was just the first act i will actually explode this is so much longer than i thought (positive. So fucking positive. will never say no to more musical dio)

dio on the wires is so fucking cool dude THEYRE DOING SOOOO MANY GOOD EFFECTS oh dios fucking died rip in peace

Oh my god i was right that was only the first act. the intermission just started (and ended because obviously they didnt leave the whole intermission where nothing fucking happened in the recording) im a little under halfwsy through this. this is almost four hours long. that is NOT a complaint though i am very happy in fact because i get to watch more of it :3

however i think i will watch more of it tomorrow because i feel like ill actually fall asleep during act 2 if i try and watch it now LOL that or i just wont register Anything thats happening... like my adhd ass needs a break and also i am@sleepy. Will reblog with more thoughts tomorrow when i watch act 2...

in case i somehow didnt make it obvious enough Highly highly HIGHLY recommend this its really fucking good. GO WATCH IT

[alphavill3]

dear pumpkin. i remembered you today im watching a romantic korean movie every scene makes me think of you I can't stand this feeling I had forgotten Yet now im remembering every little detail about those months. I stopped the movie to talk to you. You said you'd be back by now You said you would love me forever you said you would be here where are you where are you where are you where art thou my lovestruck Romeo?

<< I don’t have the strength to get up and take another shot - bob dylan song >>

Please, we must talk. We must get back our friendship somehow. You pushing me away is driving me mad in every dictionary definition. If you wish to cross me out just do it already. The longing is unbearable. It's been a long time since Ive done these letters, been even longer since Ive felt your embrace. Every second away from you hurts and as soon as Im done writing this I shall push the memory of you to the depths once again. But for now, just for a while, I wish to cling to the pain The hole you left in me. The video games, the cupcakes, the naps, the hugs, the fights, the halloween parties, the first time we had sex, the suicide video call, the drawing in the park. How I wish he never existed and Id seen you before it was too late. It is too late. I must leave now. Goodbye. (either/or) See you around.

[polandspringz]

If anyone cares about my Anime Awards votes here’s the messiest description of what I voted for so far (did not vote for film and eng VA yet; need to watch deer king this weekend + need to listen to the voice acting performances). And this was just copy pasted from a notepad so excuse the mess again:

aoty- spy x family; brought more ppl into anime + prompted most discussion

original- lycoris; out of the choices this is like, the only one deserving

charater design- ranking of kings; i try to avoid adaptions bc the character designs are just being translated BUT this is kind of a mp100 situation with how they adapted the character designs from the original art + the unique storybook style for the coloring of the characters

animation- ranking of kings; Not only did it have great action animation, they animated the sign language AND it was done by animators who WERE hard of hearing/deaf.

new series- Ya Boy Kongming!; This show was incredible, I'm so sorry but it was.

continuing- One Piece; The animation quality for the recent arc has been spectacular and so it has IMPROVED especially in the episode 1015 from this year.

opening- ranking of kings opening 2; JUST WATCH THE OPENING AND YOU UNDERSTAND. They got that 18 year old Vercreek on that shit I still can't believe they can do that level of animation at that age JESUS.

ending- Kaguya-sama; Listen I hated Kaguya sama and refused to watch it and then this ending happened and I was so hyperfixated on it that I binged the entire series and the emotions shown in the ending + the symbolism/them combining the myth of princess kaguya with a star wars esque fight was so cool

best score- Ya Boy Kongming; This is hard because it's like score so... instrumental? But Kongming was like a music anime with vocals and the rap battle fight was so good but also it had a lot of original songs.

Song- new genesis; Listen, Ado hit those notes

director- Spy x Family; BECAUSE THIS MAN SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVING CLOVERWORKS AFTER THE WONDER EGG DISASTER AND ALSO AT WIT NAVIGATING THEIR OWN CRUMBLING FINANCIAL SITUATION!!! Plus they did deviate from the manga at times and go above and beyond (see the castle episode)

Main chara- Bojji; You have a child prince who is deaf and everyone thinks they can talk shit about him in FRONT of him because they think he doesn't know what theyre saying but he CAN read lips and he defies death + saves his entire kingdom despite his lack of physical strength and learns to overcome many things and isn't "fixed" ever need I say more

Supporting- Kage from Ranking of Kings; ties into the above

Must protect- Kotaro; Anya can handle HERSELF. Kotaro literally was neglected and ate LEAVES he was starving so badly and has been forced to learn how to be independent despite being liek SIX YEARS OLD ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

action- Spy x Family; I didn't give them the animation vote so they're getting this since they excelled in action animation.

Comedy- Ya Boy Kongming; This is the only isekai that matters you've got a chinese war tactician reincarnated into present day and he just becomes a rising singer's manager and he does a fucking rap battle need I say more.

Drama- dance dance danseur; SO TORN because the ending of eighty six was so good for the episodes that DID come out in 2022 but its more Historic Drama? Fantasy Drama? Idk its a fictional war but Dance Dance Danseur deserves recognition too and Jumpei's journey and the conflict between him and the other two protags is staged like a ballet's story etc. etc.

Fantasy- ranking of kings; see everything ive already said

romance- call of the night; This series takes a really unique look on romance by basically having someone who is aromantic trying to fall in love with an asexual, romance repulsed vampire because to become a vampire you need to fall in love with one. And it explores the feelings (although it never outright uses the terms) of being ace well imo.

japanese va- Yor

[wernher-von-brawny]

Listen, yes… this was one of three movies made under an international production deal between Rankin/Bass, the folks who made the stop-motion Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer special, and Tsuburaya Productions, who made Ultraman.

Saw this as a kid and it has never left my brain.

The monster is ridiculous -- in that fun, slow-motion, kaiju suit way -- but underneath is a metaphor for the passing of the era of the Ernest Hemingway/John Wayne type hero.

A way deeper theme than, say, the King Kong remake from the previous year, and one that's perhaps relevant again, with folks like Trump and Musk, et al. trying to revive the old masculinity and reassert its dominance.

in case you didn't catch it, the title The Last Dinosaur refers to both the monster, and the millionaire industrialist big-game hunter. I was probably 11 when I saw this, and grokking this double entendre wrinkled my prepubescent brain.

Plus, it has a title song sung by Ann Wilson of Heart that slaps 1701% harder than a production like this should ever warrant. Like, Shirley Bassey stopped singing Goldfinger to tell Ann she need not go this hard.

It a glorious mess of a B-movie, dripping in late-70s made-for-TV swagger -- Richard Boone makes a meal of every second onscreen -- and is probably still more entertaining that 85% of what's on YouTube.

Also recommended is the second better-than-it-needed-to-be TV B-movie made by Rankin/Bass-Tsuburaya: The Bermuda Depths, a gothic love story between a young orphan boy, a cursed sea-witch, and their pet giant kaiju turtle.

Again, wrinkled my prepubescent brain, and it's entirely possible I never married because I've been forever pining after Jennie Hannover. I wish I were joking.

Plus, another fantastic opening song, entitled Jennie. Don't know the dude who sang it, but if you asked Siri what a Harlequin romance novel sounds like, this is what she'd play you.

Seriously, this and the previous track are so well done that I have had them in my local music library since the dawn of MP3s. Not enough dollaridoos in the equation for them to appear on Spotify or Tidal, tho. 😢

Burl Ives, Carl Weathers, Connie Sellica -- if you're my age, these names alone may pique your curiosity enough to give it a look. And if you're a Young, then consider it recommended. IDK, maybe you can get a group watch live stream out of it or something, even tho I'm sure someone must have already done that.

This production partnership also made one more movie together, called The Albino Ape. Never seen it, and it doesn't sound like I missed much.

But as for these other two? Like, Denis Villeneuve ain't losing sleep over them, but there's an aesthetic incongruity in the mash-up between American and Japanese TV production that makes them pretty unique in media.

And there's enough really good shit in the raw materials that I could see modern remakes being fucking amazing.

Guillermo del Toro is the obvious choice for the Bermuda Depths, but I'd be fascinated to see what Pedro Almodovar or Bryce Dallas Howard would do with it.

As for The Last Dinosaur, first thought is to have Tarantino write and Roberto Rodriguez direct. Someone who can balance the take-down of toxic masculinity while still capturing the wistful sadness of the passing of a monstrous yet amazing beast that has outlived its time in history.

If not, well, the way AI is going maybe I'll live long enough to just have Stable Diffusion 2030 generate the remake for me.

The Last Dinosaur | 1977 — 極底探険船ポーラーボーラ

[slavghoul]

Interview from SLAM #120

With their fifth album "Impera", the Swedish rockers with an affinity for pop, herald a new, demonic age in their band history. The transition from the previous album "Prequelle", at the end of which Cardinal Copia was elevated to Papa Emeritus IV, is eerie, ghostly and flowing. We chatted with Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind this embodiment of an anti-church, about the concept of the current output and its connections to the predecessors. In addition, the prince of macabre rock shares his thoughts on the story with us, explains where he finds inspiration for his often mammoth artistic constructs and gives insights into the musical demands of the new diabolical mass. But first, even the GHOST frontman has to deal with a few technical challenges and worldly problems...

Are you all right?

Yeah, sorry I'm late, but there were some technical problems.

You must be doing a lot of interviews? 

No, not really, it's more about the technical aspect, so that everything works smoothly. We start our tour with Volbeat tonight, there are a lot of things to think about before the first show. Rehearsing, making sure everything is in place and everything works.

I can imagine that, but at least you are among the lucky ones who can already go on tour again!

Well, it takes a lot of confidence in the situation and we hope everything works out. Everything will be more relaxed as soon as we can play the first show today in Reno, Nevada, after that we know it's going as planned and everything is fine. Then in April and May we will be with you in Europe with the show, as long as nobody stops us.

Let's talk about the new album, but for that we have to go back in time to the last release "Prequelle". This was set in the 14th century at the time of the great plague. Now, a few years after it was released with that underlying theme, the world was and still is going through an all-changing pandemic. Was it witchcraft that you foresaw this development back then and tuned people in to the pandemic through the plague theme?

Possibly. Quite possible. Well, I don't know if that's really the right word for it now, but it was a stroke of luck. It was overwhelming. I really wish my new album isn’t so psychic, though.

When did the new material come into being and was it all written in one go or did you also use ideas that had been floating around in your head for some time? And what influence did the current pandemic have on your songwriting?

I tend to write all the time. A little something here, another one there, so when I write a new album, I ... (an incredibly loud voice from an oversized loudspeaker sounds and interrupts the conversation) I'm sorry, I'm already in the concert hall, they're doing line-check, but I can't get out and I have no place to retreat to. Hopefully it will be over soon. Where was I? Oh yes, I never start a new album with a blank sheet. There are always songs I can use. I actually always start writing new songs immediately after I finish an album. (The almost devilishly loud voice interrupts again). Goddamn motherfuckers! Okay, so as soon as I'm done with one album, I'm already planning ahead for the next one. So when the pandemic hit some of that .... (again the interruption by the infernally loud line-check) Ok, they'll be done soon. (Pause) In fact, I think they're done. So, the pandemic didn't really influence the album, the way the album was influenced by it was more from a practical point of view.

Aha, how so?

Actually, we wanted to record the album with a producer from the United States, actually make the whole album in the US. In the end, we had to move the production to Sweden, but at the time we were going to start recording, the travel restrictions came into effect. So the original producer couldn't come to Sweden from the United States and I couldn't fly to see him. There were a few things like that. But most of it was happy changes. For example, I went back to Klas Ählund as the producer, who had already worked with me on "Meliora". Making a new record together was a very nice reunion. So the changes due to the pandemic didn't really mean a negative influence. At least not on this album, it was the one before that that obviously caused a pandemic (laughs).

So it was more by chance that you decided to work with Klas Ahlund again, because you actually had other plans.

The decision to work with him was clearly mine, but actually something else was planned. Klas and I are friends, we hang out together, have dinners with our families and all of a sudden, when my intended producer dropped out, Klas mentioned that he surprisingly had a few months to spare. So I asked him if he wanted to produce the album and he said yes. That was pure luck, because normally he is very busy and would not have had time. Especially during this crisis, an incredible amount of albums were produced and so much music was made.

Yes, especially because most of the musicians couldn't go on tour, so many of them used the time to write and record an album.

Exactly. And we'll get to hear them all. All at once (laughs).

Okay, your explanations nip in the bud my thoughts of a grand plan to connect "Meliora" and "Impera". Especially when I saw the new artwork for the first time I was immediately reminded of the "Meliora" cover. Of course, both were created by Zbigniew Bielak, who has been designing your artwork since "Infestissumam". But especially these two were connected for me by the industrial aesthetics, the architecture, the mechanical devices and the fact that both have a big face in the centre of a big building and I wondered if this use of a whole series of similar motifs is an indication of the connection between the albums?

They are not connected in this way, (this time it is a deafening guitar that interrupts). I'm so infinitely sorry. I think I’m going to kill someone. The problem is: I just can't go anywhere else! No matter where I go, there are people everywhere who would overhear our conversation, but at the moment nothing is allowed to leak out. It's very strictly enforced, so I have to stay right here. Okay, looks like they're done again. So, it wasn't that just because we did another album with Klas, we went back to the old aesthetic, no, that wasn't the case. It was more that "Prequelle" was more in a pre-electronic, pre-industrialisation framework aesthetically. It was more medieval in a way. When I construct an album, I tend to conceive of the one that follows in an almost opposite way. It was more of a coincidence that it happened that way. I did a Klas album that was rocky, then I did something else and now I'm doing a rock album with Klas again. But I could just as well have produced a rock album with Rob Cavallo.

For me as an outsider, there were several coincidences and similarities between "Meliora" and "Impera". For example, you came back to the moniker Papa Emeritus instead of Cardinal Copia, who was active on "Prequelle". As you already mentioned, you worked with the same producer and the artwork is similar. But then again I read that "Impera" is supposed to be a seamless transition from "Prequelle". That the new album starts where the old one ends. I am confused. Please enlighten us a bit about the position of "Impera" and its connections within the Ghost universe.

With regard to Papa Emeritus, it was always the plan that Cardinal Copia would one day become Papa Emeritus IV. We never left the moniker Papa Emeritus behind, we simply saw in the Cardinal someone who was not yet ready to become a Papa. We experienced his journey to the point where he was anointed Papa Emeritus IV just at the end of the "Prequelle" tour.

The last album was set in the 14th century at the time of the great plague. "Impera", on the other hand, takes place in a much more modern age. Tell us a little more about the new setting and the concept behind it.

Well, as usual, it's all a bit ambiguous in the sense that it doesn't necessarily mean that the record now takes place exclusively in that particular time. It's not King Diamond, it's not that kind of story. It's more a symbol of something. "Prequelle" was about the plague, yes, but also about survival. It was an album about settling scores, the end, the potential annihilation of life. Whereas "Impera" is about the creation, the rise, the maintenance and the fall of an empire. I decided to portray this theme symbolically through a Victorian gothic industrial setting. But in doing so, it has more to do with modern times and modern life. But it simply results in similarities between the Victorian era with the Industrial Revolution and the here and now. In the sense that machines and computers make people completely superfluous. And once we have no task, no goal, no job, people don't feel very good. We need this sense of purpose, even if people don't like going to work. Work and having a purpose, a goal, that's essential for people. Sure, it's nice to take a sick day or two and sit at home and watch Netflix, but when you have nothing else in your life but sitting around thinking about what went wrong in your life, that's when things happen like the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Then shit happens, that's when people start burning books. So this time I'm highlighting more contemporary issues by showing pictures from the past.

Where does the inspiration for such large-scale themes come from? Do you just wake up one day and think to yourself: "Yes, this time I'm writing about a variety of problems of modern society in the mirror of its own past, which are repeated especially in the face of the age of the Industrial Revolution, and reconcile that with the rise and fall of an empire", or is there a longer process behind it that lets your motifs develop over a certain period of time?

A bit of both. The idea of writing a record around the central theme of empire came to me pretty specifically very soon. I was in Seattle, I think it was around 2014, and I went into this bookstore where I saw a book called "The Rule of Empires". The moment I saw the title, I knew what it was basically about. It's about the fact that every single empire that has risen in human history has fallen. That is inevitable. It always happens. This concept just spoke to me. Even then I knew that I would make an album about this theme one day. But then we did "Meliora", which had a slightly different theme, followed by "Prequelle". As soon as the latter was finished, I said to myself that the next album would be the one with the empire theme. Also because many of the things that happened politically in the world from 2017 onwards inspired me. A lot of the current events point to a certain reckoning, upheaval in many of the empires we know. But I also have a concept for the next album. But it's not crystal clear yet what exactly it will be until I actually realise it. It's never just about one particular thing. I will never make an album and say, "Oh, this is all about Martin Luther!" It will never be just about one person or be a historical account of one personality. I'm not interested in that. I'm more interested in a certain way of thinking, explaining things, painting a picture of something. But of course, for Ghost, everything has to fit together. It has to have some connection to something we've already done, it has to be something that is also graphically inspiring, it has to work with our stage show because we always want to take that to a new level as well. These and many more things are going around in my head when I'm making an album, preparing for it or even just creating the concept for it.

Your head seems very busy.

(laughs) Yes.

With regard to the music on "Impera", it seems more positive to me, almost optimistic in parts. Of course, it still has its spooky and sinister moments, but all in all it makes a brighter, less creepy and demonic impression. If you agree and I'm not imagining the evolution, explain why the music evolved in this direction and if you had any particular musical influences that inspired you during the writing process.

One thing I had in mind was that I wanted to write the songs, or at least some of them, in major instead of minor this time, because I always tend to write in minor. Actually, that came about because I said to myself, "Two of Iron Maiden's biggest songs are written in major keys." The Number Of The Beast and Run To The Hills are both written in the major key. I thought it would be exciting to see if I could do that. This then became especially apparent on the song "Kaisarion", which turned into a happy, uptempo, pep song. I'm not saying that song was inspired by "Run To The Hills", no, it was just inspired by the idea of an upbeat, uptempo major song because that's something I've never done before. Another thing I tried to change a little bit was that with slightly weirder songs I tend to either write them super proggy and very complex with lots of tempo changes and unusual tricks - or I write them more almost in a certain punk arrangement. A verse, chorus, verse, chorus and then chorus five more times. A very Ramones-like kind of arrangement. I was curious if I could write songs that didn't sound like Def Leppard but were in that style. Almost every song on their albums "Pyromania" or "Hysteria" consists of five different elements until they get to the chorus. Every track on "Hysteria" starts with a part, then comes a verse, then a kind of pre-chorus, which is followed by another pre-chorus and then another one and only then do they finally fucking arrive at the actual chorus. I experimented with that on the new album as well. You're supposed to think, "Oh, that's the chorus! No, that's the chorus now! Okay, but that's it now!" Not that it was meant to sound like Def Leppard, but it was a thought experiment where I was trying out how long I could let a song develop and develop before I get to the actual point. I didn't do that on every song, but on some. A good example would be "Spillways"; it's very fast and crunchy but has four parts before it gets to the actual chorus. It's very easy to repeat yourself and fans might quickly say, "Oh, that's what a Ghost song sounds like!" I think there's a very small section of our fans who would love it if I just wrote "Opus Eponymous" over and over again. Which of course I could do from a purely technical point of view, but it would be very bad for creativity. I try to avoid that and that's why I experiment. On some albums more, on others less. On some songs much more, on others much less and on some I just let it go.

/Original text by Christoph Höhl

[peevishpants]

gosh i wanna ask you every question lol. how about 5 28 + 29?

5- answered already :D

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

I have done so many zines it'd be tedious to list em all! My current opinion of zines is that you gotta be REAL careful either as a participant or a customer bc SOME REAL SHADY STUFF HAPPENS! Speaking of which, I'm currently trying to salvage haikyuu flowers zine from the shit hole it fell into over the last year and a half. i'm in hell

Aside from zines, I've attempted inktober pretty much every year (a lot of u probably know me from outfitober 2021!), and I do Hourly Comic Day but it's for my friends' eyes only usually. I've been meaning to do swordtember this year but hoo boy i'm unprepared and unmoisturized we'll see we'll see

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

Oh, almost everything I watch/read nowadays! I feel like I decide to engage in a piece of media either because it's something I want to study for its artistry from the getgo, OR something I want to consume as a consumer, tho not opposed to having some of its elements trickle down into my mind as "inspiration" later on, but not directly

Here's a list of stuff I like and will probably not get into drawing fanart for or mull over my mind in a "studying" capacity, but makes me think nonetheless:

Suits (netflix show about lawyers, it's presented like a series of tense conversations where a cast of asshole lawyers yell at each other in their offices then storm out, over and over again, ad nauseum, i love it)

Funny shows - Silicon Valley, American Vandal, Middleditch and Schwartz, whatever James Acaster has ever spoken in any form at all (they're FUNNY)

Mistborn (book series by brandon sanderson. visually everything is grey/black and i will never draw it but it rocks)

Show Me The Money (korean hip hop survival show. insane and stupid. what more could you want)

Our Flag Means Death (banger. i'm not gay enough to draw OFMD fanart and do it justice)

Dimension 20, Game Changer, Noise Boys (I'm a BLM stan)

3 body problem (love 2 shill it 24/7, but i don't like drawing rockets and black holes)

Omniscient Readers Viewpoint (webnovel. I haven't read the webtoon. I do want to draw MC one day only because the webtoon and fanart usually makes him look handsome which conflicts with my favourite thing about him: that he is canonically really ugly)

Most songs I listen to (I'm not really directly inspired by music! I like to jam out and enjoy listening to it, but I'm generally immune to its mood/thought-altering properties)*

*except Must Have Been The Wind by Alec Benjamin, I still cry every time i hear it and ive never experienced this with any other song i don't know why

[d-criss-news]

The Glee star and Emmy winner for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss, 34, will be releasing his first album of Christmas songs, titled A Very Darren Crissmas (October 8). It includes duets with Adam Lambert, Evan Rachel Wood and an original song, “Drunk on Christmas,” featuring Lainey Wilson.

What was your goal with this Christmas album?

To reintroduce familiar songs in a new way. But I also wanted to take lesser-known songs and make those feel more familiar. And, most importantly, I wanted to take songs that people don’t associate with Christmas but I do—like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—and try to make them feel like Christmas songs.

What inspired you to write “Drunk on Christmas”?

It’s about the end of Christmas when everything’s been done. There’s wrapping on the floor, you’ve cleaned things, the in-laws have left and there’s nothing else to do. It’s two people having a sit-on-the couch moment, sipping a glass of cocoa with some SoCo [Southern Comfort] in it.

What is it about Christmas music? Why did you want to do the Christmas album?

Christmas or the holiday season is something that, whether we like it or not, we experience every year, and that comes with a litany of wonderful songs and music that again, whether you have been proactive about listening to it or not, it’s pretty hard to avoid. It’s permeated our cultural consciousness for our entire lives. So if you happen to be someone like me who consumes music at a hyperactive level, I’ve always adored Christmas music.

People say this because of the way that it makes them feel and the things that it reminds them of. There are so many layers to why people enjoy Christmas music. It’s nostalgic, it is very romantic, at least in the true dictionary meaning of the word romantic. And to me, I’ve always loved it for a much more anthropological reason, which is for one month or several weeks out of the year we suddenly subscribe to a certain sentiment that the other 11 we don’t really dial into. We want it all, then we want it to just go away.

What makes Christmas songs different?

As a musician I’ve always loved that Christmas music can employ certain musical elements that otherwise aren’t very popular. To me, it’s incredible that without a doubt the estates of many artists are guaranteed placement on the radio even though many of them have been deceased for many years. The pop charts are dominated by whatever contemporary, awesome artists there are nowadays, but in December you can guarantee that Burl Ives and Dean Martin will be on the radio with the best of them. I find that so charming. It’s because people really, really love this music.

And those songs don’t sound like the sounds that we’re hearing on the radio, sonically, harmonically, rhythmically. They employ a lot of “classic” sounds that evoke the feeling of Christmas. I’m a self-proclaimed genrephile—this is a term I use for myself throughout all the stuff that I do. I can’t help but be so enchanted by this idea that artists have license, and by license I mean an excuse to do things that you ordinarily wouldn’t be encouraged to do, or that audiences wouldn’t necessarily be as quick to absorb.

So, when you’re talking about classic Christmas writing, for lack of a better word, you use clichéd Christmas terminology, you use certain chords, and harmonies, and instrumentations that you just wouldn’t do throughout the year. It leans on the slightly more sophisticated, slightly more musical, and that is really exciting for someone like me.

How much does the fact that your last name is Criss play into this?

If you play music and your last name is Criss, every year someone says, “You know what you should do?” as if they’re the first person who’s ever thought of this idea. So I’ve always wanted to do this; it was just a matter of time. And I also didn’t want it to be phoned in, I didn’t want it to seem like, “Oh, here’s some songs that you know already.”

I wrote this in my liner notes that my favorite thing to do with art, but particularly music, is curate, interpolate, create and personalize. That’s my main thing. I’m an OK singer, I’m an OK musician, but what I really think I have a yen for is trying to interpolate something new that people didn’t know before.

If you think about a song like “Jingle Bells,” it was not written for Christmas. It was a song from 200-something years ago that bears no mention of Christmas whatsoever, but we associate it so heavily with Christmas. Lately I hear Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” come up on Christmas playlists. I think it must have something to do with the Christian angle of the song and the reverence of the word “hallelujah,” but there’s no mention of Christmas.

So there’s a lot of different things that can make people feel like Christmas if you arrange it a certain way, and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted this cocktail of songs that people didn’t know and I might be able to introduce to them in a really new, interesting way.

You duet with Adam Lambert, Evan Rachel Wood and Lainey Wilson. These people couldn’t be more different. How did you select your song partners for this?

Honestly, people are busy, so I leaned on friends of mine. The album is called A Very Darren Crissmas, and I wanted to make it just that. Songs that are very, very me, doing things that are very me, and using the talents of people who are legitimately in my life. Adam has been a pal for a long time. We’ve known each other from just adventures in Hollywood, but he, of course, was on Glee with me. Evan Rachel is a dear pal of mine; we’ve done some things together. She’s played my festival, and I’ve done comedy sketches with her and stuff. These are all extraordinarily talented singers. As I told them when I asked them to be a part of it, “I’d be very lucky to have you on this record.”

I had not met Lainey Wilson before I started this. But when you’re in Nashville, you are in the Olympic tent of USDA certified prime country singers. And that’s a bit of a blind spot for me as far as who’s on the up and up, who’s somebody that can really give a level of authenticity, legitimacy to a more classic ’50s Nashville sound, which is the song that I wrote called “Drunk on Christmas.” My producer Ron Fair, who has been living in Nashville for a while, suggested Lainey and we got on like a house on fire. She’s an extraordinary talent and I was happy to have her. These were all people that were part of this grassroots friend to friend thing. That’s how I got them and I’m very lucky that they’re on the record.

There are hundreds of Christmas songs. How did you choose what to include?

Choosing was extremely hard. I had a list of about 100 songs. I’m not done; this record is only phase one in my mind. There are so many songs that it will make your head spin. If you go, “Did you think about this song?” The answer is yes, and I absolutely had to deliberate which ones I had to triage out of the sequence.

I even said no to “The Christmas Song,” which is on the album. I didn’t want to do it because I was like, “Everybody knows it; it’s perfect by Nat King Cole,” and Mel Tormé [who wrote it] is one of my favorite artists of all time, much less songwriters and musicians. So I was like, “I don’t want to have to do that.” And on the day when we were there, we just had a guitar and said, “Let’s just do it for fun,” because I love singing that song. But I was like, “It’s been done perfectly too many times, I really don’t want to have to put myself up against that.” But we had a nice take, it’s live in the room. And hey, come on, it’s Christmas. So I left it on there.

If we were to come to your house during the holidays, what would you be listening to?

I’d probably sit you down and play you my favorite songs that you’ve never heard that I think are great Christmas songs. But what’s nice is I’ve now put those songs on this album, hopefully, in a perhaps delusional effort to standardize these songs in the Christmas pantheon. There has to be an air of delusion to being an artist in the first place. If one of these songs that no one’s ever heard before catches on with a family or a person and becomes part of their Christmas playlist every year, then I will have succeeded in my efforts.

What did the Emmy you won for The Assassination of Gianni Versace do for your career?

Although the Emmy has just my name on it, the number one thing that I’m most proud of is it’s more symbolic and representative of the work of the whole team. It is a validation and celebration of the really hard work of people that I spent a lot of time and energy with creating this role.

You have a couple voice roles coming up—in Trese and Yasuke—but what are we going to see you in next, not just hear you?

I don’t know. Let me know if there’s any opportunities. A huge reason for why this album was made was because I had the time. Making records takes a lot of time, and I’m envious of people who are just singers. I don’t know how people do that, that’s just not who I am. I’m a producer, I’m a writer, I’m a musician. It takes so much out of me to make a body of music because someone doesn’t say, “OK, here are the songs, show up on a Tuesday, you sing it and then you leave.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Some of my favorite artists can do that and are blessed enough to be able to just do that. I can’t.

It takes so much time for me to really get in the weeds, arrange, edit vocals, edit instrumentation, mix tracks, really getting in the jungle of music production. I can’t function any other way and that takes an extraordinary amount of time. Even when there was a global pandemic, I still had deadlines that we could barely make to finish this album because that’s just how my brain works.

So I haven’t been able to act. I haven’t had an acting job in almost two years. That’s not entirely true. I’ve had little bit things during the pandemic, but no big series or films or anything like that. It’s just been mostly working from home and being as proactive as I can be. I started a weekly podcast with a friend of mine, I put out an EP. I’ve been extremely busy with high output and low visibility. I’m waiting for the next thing, but I’m not one to sit still. If you give me time, I’m going to fill all the spaces out. So I did that with music this past two years.

Are you going to go back to Broadway now that it’s opening again?

I don’t want to say anything that is not perhaps confirmed 100 percent, but I will say with full confidence that I have always had the intention of going back exactly where we started. I’ll let them announce what’s happening because every show is in its own unique holding pattern. But, yes, right before the shutdown I was doing American Buffalo in New York, and talk about the actor’s dream, that is right up there. Doing a great American play that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve had a long history with that show, and I finally get to do it for real with two of my favorite actors—Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne. They are two acting heroes of mine.

So I was in rehearsals for that. We were about to go into tech, and things got shut down. But we’re in a very fortunate position where you’ve got two huge movie stars, you have a very well-known play and you have a fixed set and just three guys. There are musicals that have orchestras, big choruses and huge set pieces, and the overhead and upkeep of these productions is quite complicated. And a lot of them, for that reason, fell by the wayside during the pandemic, and it’s an awful tragedy. But our set and our billboard and our posters are exactly where we left them. It’s kind of a trip. If you go to Circle in the Square, I keep telling people it’s the longest I’ve ever been on Broadway because it’s just sitting there dormant, waiting to be resurrected.

I think all of us are planning on going back. I think the show is scheduled to reopen almost to the day that it was supposed to open in 2020. We’ll see how the schedule ends up, but you have three guys whose heart and soul is the theater. I don’t want to speak for the other two guys, but I’m almost positive that all three of us would rather be doing that play on Broadway than anything else. So when I say I haven’t had an acting gig in two years, it’s been a comfort to know that that was waiting for me on the other end. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to do it. We’ll have to make sure that everything is hunky-dory with theater audiences, et cetera, et cetera, but that’s the idea.

How did Ryan Murphy casting you in Glee change your life?

I said during my Emmy speech that actors are only as good as the moments they get. I used to say actors are only as good as the parts they get. Take that with a huge grain of salt, obviously, it’s not entirely true. But in context of that moment, certainly you can understand what I meant. Acting is a proactive craft, but in many respects it’s a passive career, where you have to hope and wait for a benefactor, a patron, a supporter to say, “OK, all right, kid, you’re up. I think you can do it.”

I think any artist’s life is a constant compromise between knowing what you can do and what you want to do, and having other people, audiences and creative authorities alike, have an idea of what you can do. You have to have that balance of somewhere in the middle, where hopefully you can rise to an occasion that you know you can do, that somebody’s going to give you the opportunity to do. But you’re not in control of that relationship, and so you have to sit and hope and pray that someone is going to give you that moment and that opportunity. That was something that I’m fully indebted to with Ryan.

Because he did say, “All right, kid, you’re up,” and gave me that shot. We talked about the The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story series for years before we did it. I didn’t think he was ever going to do it. By the time we started shooting, he probably mentioned it to me three or four years prior. And I kept asking about it like, “Hey, you still want to do this thing?” I think he was just always obsessed with the fact that I was half Filipino and that I bore a certain resemblance to the guy. Age and everything, it seems pretty spot-on. But he was a man of his word, and he really did end up making it. So I’m incredibly indebted to him and I’ve always been very effusive about that.

Now that you have this modicum of fame, what would you like to use it to accomplish?

For me, there are so many things that I love in this world that I don’t think other people are familiar with. One of the things about having a modicum of a platform is hopefully embracing that to use it as a gateway drug for stuff that people might not be familiar with. I don’t know if they’re going to like it as much as I do, but I’m looking at this track list and there are songs that I guarantee that you don’t know.

These are all things where I go, “OK, I have this moment of people’s attention, hopefully, this is a fun way to have them have eyes on something that I think is deserving of eyes, and not because of me, but because of other people who have made something amazing.” And, hopefully, they have the same proactive curiosity that I had growing up where I look at the liner notes and see who wrote the songs and where they came from. But we’ll see. We’ll see if people have that reaction.

You’ve accomplished so much. What’s the dream going forward?

The dream is to keep doing me, really. I think all you can do is be as true to yourself and try and do as accessible and as valuable work as you can. And, hopefully, in so doing, represent people, giving them visibility and encouragement towards their own place in the cultural conversation.

[mykingdomforasong]

Because I am both indecisive and like to give options; BobaDinLuke, 30 (perhaps also hot springs as another possibility there?), "let me hear you, baby" OR DinLuke, 28, "I'm gonna fuck you until you beg me to stop", for the nsfw prompts? If either of those catch your interest? :)

ooh I've never done bobadinluke but I've been wanting to try! And I love a good hot spring.

[prompt list]

~*~*~

The pool had been Luke's discovery. Behind the waterfall on Yavin IV, there was a shallow cave, with pools of hot spring water that bubbled up from deep under the surface Yavin IV. He waded into them naked, not shying away from the comfort of their volcanic warmth, ready to float away and stay in the cave forever.

When he finally emerged, he commed his partners, still naked and dripping for their benefit more than his. He got them back to the moon quickly with the promise of necessary relaxation from their desert worlds.

"And more wet, naked Jedi, I hope," Boba added.

Luke smiled. "Of course."

He'd made good on his promise. Ahead of their arrival, he returned to the springs and used the force to manipulate some rocks into a seat to make everything that much easier for them.

It was smart thinking, a moment of brilliance even; although, he had expected someone to sit on it. Instead, Luke found himself kneeling on it, waist-deep in hot water, the rest of him clinging to land. Din's hands were on his hips, rocking into him mostly with the momentum of Boba fucking into him. They hadn't tired this before, with Din in the middle. He was so sensitive, they worried it would overwhelm him.

But if Din asked for it, they weren't going to deny him.

Din was leaning on Luke, damp skin against damp skin, letting Boba do all the hard work, while Din got to enjoy a man on either side of him.

Luke loved the familiar feeling of Din inside him, but he wished Din was offering him a little more anything. He was no where near finished when he felt Din's grip on him tighten. Din bit down on a soft spot near Luke's shoulder, getting Luke to gasp at the feeling. Luke tried to grind back into Din but it only furthered the problem.

"Poor thing," Luke heard Boba say behind him, "still so needy. Don't bury your head in our Jedi, baby," he said. Din's head was pulled back from Luke's shoulder, Luke assumed, by Boba's hand. "You alright?" Boba asked him.

Boba must have slowed their pace for Din's sake, but the result was almost total stillness inside Luke. He started to touch himself faster, his actions made all the more conspicuous by the water splashing.

"I'm okay," Din promised. "I think Luke's feeling impatient."

"Isn't he always?" Boba asked before quickly picking up the pace, moving so suddenly, Din was pressed back against Luke, a pleasurable scream pulled from his mouth before he could hide it. The sound echoed off the cave walls, bouncing back for them to hear again, and again.

"That's better," Boba praised him. Din leaned back away from Luke, pulling out almost entirely.

"Hey," Luke whined, "I'm still here."

"Sorry sweetheart," Din said before leaning forward again.

He couldn't last, though. When Din picked up his own pace, so did Boba. Din's arms wrapped all the way around Luke, pulling him in as close as he could, burying himself as deep as his body would let him, as he finally came with another satisfied shout that rang through the cave like a song.

Din slipped out from between both of them, looking so blissful and boneless, for a moment Luke worried he might drown. Boba moved Luke gently off his homemade seat, coaxing Din to sit instead.

Boba grabbed Luke quickly, one hand on his shoulder, the other on his cock. "Do you want me to --"

"Fuck me," Luke demanded, holding onto Boba tightly, letting the weightlessness of the water help him get his legs around Boba's hips, as Boba shoved him up against the pool wall. Luke would have scrapes from it, but he was too hard to care.

Boba slipped into him easy, working him with the same pace he'd worked Din. "Fuck, yes!" Luke said, louder then normal, interested to know what his voice would sound like in echo.

"You hear that, Cyra'ika?" Boba said, his gaze turned towards Din. "That's how we want you to sound."

Din moved off his seat, slowly wading towards them. He stood still next to them for a second, before capturing Boba in a deep kiss, rough enough to create a stutter in Boba's thrusts.

Luke pouted a little, admittedly feeling a bit ignored. Boba noticed before Din did, and pushed Din in Luke direction. Din figured out what he was suppose to do quickly. He held Luke's face in his hands and kissed him hard, a wordless apology for letting him go so neglected. Their kiss wasn't perfect as Luke was bounced on Boba's cock, but they did their best with it.

Din rested his forehead against Luke, breaking their kiss, but leaving one hand in his hair. The other made its way between his two lovers, gripping Luke's dick, hoping to have some part in getting Luke off even if he'd come too quickly before.

Luke smiled and almost laughed in relief as he finally felt himself get so, so close.

"That's it, baby, just like that," Boba muttered. Luke and Din exchanged a quick glance, not sure who Boba was talking to. Silently, they decided to split the praise.

It was Boba's turn to earn an echo, coming with a grunt into Luke. Luke wasn't far behind this time. He finished in Din's hand a moment later, before collapsing forward into Din's arms. Boba had already seated himself down. Din pulled Luke through the water until he was sitting on Boba's lap, both of them wrapped up quickly in Din's arms.

"Great find, Skywalker," Boba said.

[knightzp]

hi miki!! how r u? : )) wut r ur top 5 fave games + top 5 game osts ? ^^ i hope u have a wonderful day <3

omg hi tūī!!! im doing good thank you for asking!! enjoying a nice and relaxing weekend after a long and busy week

and ooh thats a very good question! okay so my fave games are:

honkai impact 3rd: probably my favorite atm and the one im playing the most nowadays! the story is SO good and most of the characters are canonically queer what else must i say

genshin impact: i havent stopped playing since i started it around a year and a half ago lol. tbh im not as heavily invested in the game itself as i used to be (mainly bc its hard playing two games that requires you to do things daily/weekly at the same time) but i keep playing it in a more chill way and a lot of the characters are very dear to me, so yeah, its one of my most favorites!

fire emblem three houses: my most played game on switch by far and i still have one route left to do! i love the characters a lot and its so interesting seeing how things differ from one route to another

xenoblade chronicles: im still halfway through it but i liked a lot what ive already played! i really need to keep playing it

animal crossing new horizons: i havent played in months but i like it bc of how calm and nice it is! one day ill come back and finally finish decorating my island ajdks

also bonus mention to stardew valley bc i just started playing it a few weeks ago doing a coop farm with a friend and its being so fun!!

as for the game osts:

moon halo: honkai vocal ost

rubia: honkai vocal ost. both this one and moon halo are very beautiful songs and could listen to them for hours on end (and ive actually done it)

well actually. id say most of honkai vocal osts so im just gonna link all the collection if you wanna listen to them bc theyre all so so good!!!

rex incognito: genshin ost (zhongli theme). a classic but for a reason!

hustle and bustle of ormos: genshin ost (port ormos theme). i could stay hours in port ormos just to hear this ost on repeat again and again, i love vibing to its rhythm!

the forgotten: fe3h ost (ashen wolves ost). i havent played the dlc but this one is sooo chill and i love playing it while im studying so here you have the 1 hour loop version that i use :)

and thats all i think! tysm for asking and i hope you have a great day too!! <33

[mr-nauseam]

Finished episode one last night, stayed up way too late to do so and had so many feelings I couldn't fall asleep. The whole episode was perfect but damn that last part at the church? (And guess who hoofed off to see how many fanvids there are of Lestat/Louis set to Take Me to Church? I was surprised at the number given how new this series is tbh.)

And Sam - yes Lestat's actor is named Sam - and Jacob just nails it. And Eric is lovely snarky as Daniel. Btw do they touch again on why Daniel can't recall his first interview? Apart from the rather vague 'he was high' thing?

For me Sam Reid fit rather well with how I pictured Lestat. I read the books long before I knew there was a movie and maybe because of the whole rock star thing I always imagined him looking like a cross between Axl Rose and James Hetfield.

Going to watch e2 tonight and maybe e3 depending on time and on how many feelings I have after I'm done with 2.

Sorry for the delay. My uni has me running from one place to another. You've probably already seen the other episodes, so I hope you enjoyed them (?)

THE CHURCH SCENE. It honestly burned itself into my mind, and I I need to say again that I NEED TO watch it once a day because it was wonderful! (Hahahaha I thought of that song too, I believe its understandable people made edits as soon as they could with that song, and yeah its new but in general this series is from a book saga that had a strong fabase that is coming back, some people in fandom do it to appreciate the series, others to complain about it to infinity haha but that get attention)

YEEES they do and I agreed! Eric looks like a cool Daniel to me hahaha. On that topic, I dontt know if the language thing could make me go wrong but at least Ive understood that its not that he doesnt remember it? just the time passed, in fact you see this great scene where he confronts Louis for his inconsistencies in his previous story vs the current one, although I think the end of the previous interview should have been something different or more shocking to avoid the publication of the book as originally happened I guess, although I must say Im very intrigued by this choice to do a second interview! I wonder how they will make it all fit together.

Oh he does, I just believe the promo pics didnt justice to him, he looks so much better in the actual series and its a delight to see his performance. I read the books before the movie too, but it was at that disastrous time where I was ignorant of the outside world xD, so the first lestat in my head was weird… as were all the characters in my head in those years.

Please come and yell about your thoughts on the eps!

[king-finnigan]

5 times Jaskier got sick and 1 time Geralt did

As part of my 500 followers celebration! Masterlist!

CW: being sick, vomiting

***

I.

He sneezes, and Geralt looks at him with narrowed eyes. “Are you getting sick?”

Jaskier scoffs, shakes his head, and continues prodding at the fire. “No.” He sneezes again. “Okay, maybe.”

“Hmm.”

He frowns. “Ooh, now that’s a ‘hmm’ I haven’t heard before. What does it mean?”

Geralt rolls his eyes and looks away, as Jaskier sneezes again. “It means I’m not going to take care of you if you get sick.”

Jaskier sneezes again. “Yeah, I figured that much.” He rubs at his eyes, which are slightly swollen from all the sneezing. “I’ll just firmly tell my body not to get sick, then. That always works.”

“Hmm.” He recognizes that one as a slightly amused ‘hmm’, and he smiles in triumph. Over the past few years, it has become a bit of a personal challenge to make Geralt laugh or smile as much as possible, and, while low on the tier list of ‘how amused is Geralt of Rivia?’, an amused ‘hmm’ is better than nothing. At least it’s better than an unamused ‘hmm’.

Like the one he gets, now, when he suddenly dissolves into a bout of coughing. “It’s fine,” he chokes out when he finally regains his breath. “Not getting sick.”

“We’re stopping at the next inn. You’ll stay there until you get better, and I’ll get some contracts.”

He wants to whine, tell Geralt he’s fine and he’s coming along with these contracts, but when he starts coughing again, he can’t help but admit that the Witcher is right. Though, when Geralt leaves him behind at the inn the next day, he finds himself wishing Geralt would stay.

 II.

He’s performing ‘Toss a Coin’ when he sneezes. The audience laughs, and he plays it off as a joke, making fun of himself, so the audience won’t, before he continues with his song. After he’s done, he graciously accepts his payment and a pint of ale, before he saunters over to the corner of the tavern, sitting down opposite Geralt.

“You sneezed,” is the first thing the Witcher says to him.

“Hello, Jaskier, what a lovely performance, Jaskier, thank you for paying for our dinner tonight, Jaskier,” he says in a mock-gruff voice. He sighs, rolls his eyes. “Really, Geralt, we talked about your conversational skills.”

“You sneezed.”

He dramatically lifts his hands. “So what? People sneeze all the time! It’s dusty in here, Witcher.”

“Your voice is rough.”

“Yes, that’s what you get for performing for three hours straight. You’re welcome, by the way.” He plonks his full coin pouch on the table, gesturing at it, eyebrows in his hairline.

“You’re snotty.”

“Well, now you’re just being downright insulting, Geralt. After all these years of me traveling by your side, and you have the audacity-“

“Jaskier. I can tell you’re getting sick.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not.”

“It’s fine.”

Geralt looks at him, blinking slowly, almost lazily. His expression is almost bored, but Jaskier can tell from the little muscle that’s pulling at his lips, that the Witcher is getting annoyed. “Hmm.” Now that’s an ‘I don’t believe you for shit but I’m tired of arguing’-hmm, he can tell.

“Alright, maybe it’s not fine.” He points at Geralt. “But don’t you dare leave me at an inn again, like last time.”

“Why not?”

Cause it hurt my feelings, and I would love for you to take care of me when I’m sick. “I don’t want to miss out on any contracts and potential inspiration.”

“Hmm.” An ‘I can tell you’re lying’-hmm.

He simply changes the subject, for now, and hopes he doesn’t get sick in the next couple of days. He thanks all his lucky stars when he doesn’t.

 III.

He tries to keep quiet as he leans one hand against the tree, the other on his stomach as he retches, emptying the contents of his stomach in the leaves. He must’ve eaten something bad, or caught a stomach bug. He decides it doesn’t really matter, though, as another wave of nausea rolls over him. He gags again, trying to not make any sound.

Of course, it doesn’t work, and he soon hears Geralt’s voice behind him. “Jaskier.”

He closes his eyes, trying to keep down the bile that rises in his throat. “I’m fine.” The clipped and strained sound of his voice begs to differ.

“Hmm.” A ‘not even Roach would believe that’-hmm. Then: “Are you done?”

He holds up a finger, chokes down one last gag, before he stands up straight, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief. “I’m fine, let’s go.”

He turns around to find Geralt frowning at him, confused. “No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“No. We’re not going anywhere but back to camp.”

He sighs. “I’m fine! We can go to the next town, don’t worry about it.”

“Hmm.” He narrows his eyes. Once again a ‘hmm’ he can’t identify. Strange. “Come on, Jaskier.”

He sighs, but follows Geralt back to camp, laying down on his bedroll when the Witcher motions at it. He does have to admit, laying down makes him feel a lot better, and pretty soon he finds himself dozing off to the rhythmic sound of Geralt sharpening his blades.

When he wakes in the morning, the Witcher gives him a piece of… some sort of root. “Ginger,” the Witcher explains roughly. “Helps.”

Jaskier shrugs and eats it. It doesn’t taste entirely pleasant, but it does make him feel better, and by midday, he’s ready to set out on the road again.

 IV.

“You’re limping.”

Jaskier rolls his eyes. “No, I’m not.”

“Hmm.” Another ‘I don’t believe you’-hmm. “What’s wrong with your leg?”

Jaskier stops walking when he no longer hears Roach’s hooves on the dusty path behind him, and he turns around. “Nothing! It’s really fine, there’s nothing going on. I appreciate you worrying, though, it’s very endearing.”

“Jaskier.”

He sighs, then shrugs. “Okay, maybe I got a cut on my leg last week that healed badly. So what? I assure you I’m perfectly fine, Witcher.” He starts stammering when Geralt dismounts Roach, stalking towards him. “A- and there is absolutely no reason for you to walk towards me, in- in a vaguely threatening manner- Geralt!”

He lets out an angry huff when the Witcher bends down, yanking the leg of his breeches up. “Hmm.” An ‘I’m very angry right now, but not at you’-hmm. “It’s infected.”

He shrugs again, pointedly looking everywhere but the reddened skin that surrounds the cut. “It’s fine. Nothing to worry about, r-really, and-“

He scrunches his face in confusion when Geralt lays a hand against his forehead. “You’ve got a fever. Get on Roach.”

“Geralt, as much as I have longed for you to say those three words for the past ten years, I assure you I’m perfectly fine.”

“Get. On. Roach.”

He holds his hands up in defeat. “Alright, alright! Melitele’s tits, Geralt, if I’d known you’d kick up such a fuss over a simple flesh wound, I would’ve been more careful.”

“Hmm. You should be.”

He sighs, rolls his eyes, as he climbs on Roach. Geralt climbs on the horse behind him, and Jaskier tries to fight the furious blush that starts spreading across his cheeks at the feeling of Geralt’s chest against his back. They set out to the nearest town, where the Witcher gets a room at the inn and drags him to the herbalist for something against the infection.

The ointment the old lady gives them works wonders, and within two days, the infection has cleared.

 V.

It’s hard to breathe. Harder to move. Opening his eyes for more than two seconds isn’t even an option, anymore, and every time he does manage to pry his eyelids apart, the world is swimming around him, making bile rise in his throat. He’s hot. No- he’s cold. But now he’s hot again, and he’s sweating, but he’s also shivering, and good gods, what did he do to deserve this?

He sighs when he feels something cold and wet and rough against his forehead, seeping away some of the heat. He doesn’t know whether the droplet that slides down the side of his head is sweat or water, but he decides it doesn’t matter when a bout of coughing wracks through his body.

He’s tired, he’s so bloody tired, but he can’t fall asleep when the temperature keeps changing from hot to cold to hot again, when his lungs keep constricting in his chest pathetically, making him cough and wheeze, desperate for any gulp of air he manages to suck in. The shivering becomes uncontrollable, unbearable, even though he’s sweating, still. He finally manages to pry open his eyes, finding the room around him blurry and dark. He looks around, desperate for anything recognizable, anything that doesn’t give him the feeling that he’s floating in a vast ocean of his own goddamn sweat. Finally, he finds something silver, to his right.

“Geralt,” he manages to croak out, desperately gasping for breath soon afterwards.

“I’m here.” He could cry at that familiar voice, and he might actually be, when he feels another droplet slide down the side of his head.

“I feel like shit.”

��Hmm.” And amused ‘hmm’. But slightly worried as well. “Go to sleep, Jaskier.”

“It hurts.” It does. Everything hurts. His muscles hurt, his lungs hurt, his head hurts, his eyes hurt. It fucking hurts.

Someone wipes his sweaty hair away from his forehead, knuckles trailing down his cheek lightly, and he figures someone else must be in the room because Geralt would never be this gentle with him. It’s already a bloody miracle he’s still here, really. “I know, Jaskier. I know. Try to sleep. You’ll feel better when you wake up.”

“Will you be there? When I wake up?”

“Hmm.” That’s a ‘yes’-hmm.

He sighs, his lungs aching. “Good. Cause I don’t want to wake up at all if you’re not there.” His eyes drift closed again, and he finds himself slipping into unconsciousness.

---

When he wakes up, he finds Geralt next to the bed, stuffed into an entirely too small chair, asleep. No way the position he’s in is comfortable – his neck craned at an awkward angle, his back barely supported by the hard wood. But he’s there, just as he had promised to Jaskier.

The bard smiles, and reaches out, pushing at Geralt’s knee. The Witcher wakes, amber eyes widening when he sees Jaskier. He immediately bends forward, laying his hand against Jaskier’s forehead, eyes studying his face. “How are you feeling?”

“A bit better.” He smiles. “You’re here.”

“I told you I would be.”

He laughs softly, eyes drifting closed again, sleep pulling at him limbs. “That, you did.” He shivers, the heat of the fever no longer keeping him warm. “Geralt, I’m cold.”

“There are no more blankets.”

He pouts, reaches out, eyes still closed. “You’re warm.”

He hears a long-suffering sigh, then the creaking of the chair. Footsteps across the room. He feels the dip of the bed behind him, feels strong arms closing around him, and he sighs in content, before frowning. “Won’t you get sick?”

“Witchers don’t get sick.”

“Okay,” he whispers, before falling asleep in Geralt’s arms.

---

By the time they finally leave the inn, several days later, neither of them has mentioned what happened, and Jaskier doubts either of them will.

 + I

He doesn’t think much of it when Geralt coughs a few times. He does find it strange when it happens more and more in the next few days. He grows suspicious when a fine sheen of sweat appears on the Witcher’s forehead, even if he says he’s fine and tells Jaskier to stop fussing over him like that, he’s just hot, is all. He’s had enough when red spots start to litter Geralt’s skin.

He forces the Witcher to go to an inn, and he’s glad he did, by the time they reach it. Geralt’s hunched over Roach’s neck, sweat dripping from his brow, his skin so spotted with red he almost looks sunburnt. Jaskier barely manages to get him up the stairs, and immediately drops him on the bed, where Geralt lays very still, staring up at the wooden ceiling, breathing heavily.

Jaskier helps him out of his armour, uncovering more and more red spots as he works his way down to Geralt’s boots.

“I’m fine,” Geralt rasps to him. He doesn’t believe it for shit.

“Yeah, no you’re not, Witcher. Looks like you’ve got yourself some measles.”

Geralt scoffs, though it sounds more like two pieces of sandpaper rubbed together. “Witchers don’t get measles.”

Jaskier rolls his eyes, taking a washcloth, wetting it with some water from his waterskin. “Well, you did, so I suggest you change your views on that, Geralt.” He sits down on the side of the bed, gently laying the washcloth over Geralt’s brow, softly pressing it down. “You’re burning up,” he whispers.

“It’s fine.”

He smiles. “Go to sleep, Geralt. Get some rest.”

The Witcher sighs. “Hmm.” A ‘fine, alright, I’ll listen’-hmm. “I’m cold.”

Jaskier laughs softly, climbing over Geralt, laying down on his other side, hugging him to his chest. “Better?”

Geralt shakes his head frantically, weakly pushing at him – the fever’s clearly already taking a toll on him. “You’ll get sick,” he rasps.

“I had the measles as a kid. I’ll be fine, Witcher.”

“Hmm.” A content ‘hmm’. Then, suddenly: “Thank you, Jaskier. I love you.”

Geralt’s breathing evens out, as Jaskier pushes himself up on one elbow, looking down on his Witcher. Geralt is fast asleep, breathing deep and steady, face relaxed from its eternal frown. Jaskier smiles, laying down again, pulling his Witcher closer. “I love you too,” he whispers. Of course, Geralt doesn’t hear him, but he’ll say it again when he wakes up.

He’ll say it a million times if he has to – and he would mean it every time.