#The High Water Marks

[bandcampsnoop]

6/11/24.

There's no shame in Teenage Fanclub worship. They engaged in Big Star worship and so on. I can't seem to get enough of bands who have their own take on the guitar centric power pop peddled by early Teenage Fanclub releases.

Montreal's Laughing must love the Fannies, and I Was A King. They must. They probably love Dinosaur Jr. and The High Water Marks too.

Celluloid Lunch Records (also based in Montreal) is releasing this gem that was mastered by Mikey Young.

[laszonasabisales]

The High Water Marks - Your Next Wolf

[yellowsnow77]

The High Water Marks - Your Next Wolf

The High Water Marks se han convertido en un valor seguro para cualquier amante del buen pop de guitarras. Desde que volvieron en 2020 con ‘Ecstasy Rhymes’, un estupendo trabajo que entró entre lo mejor de ese año, no han parado de darnos alegrías a todos los que disfrutamos de este tipo de música. Y es que, el grupo formado por Hilarie Sidney, que como todos sabréis, militaba en The Apples in…

[herbalnature]

Strolling through a flooded St. Mark's Square feels surreal, with Venetians wading through the water like it's just another day. The historic architecture stands unfazed, a testament to Venice's timeless charm amid nature's whims.

[puppyeared]

object permanence so bad I have to reread old messages for my brain to go ‘oh yeahhhh I care them’

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Roxy: mommy i wanna eat microalastics :D

Rose: Good news honey were in a first world country. It’s in everything.

[pussyhoundspock]

Jinx and ekko you are everything to me

[smile-files]

we have to paint with novel materials for art class... so i may or may not be doing a bit of alchemy with my meds...

[chiropteracupola]

we ran out of desks so today I am climbing into the windowsill of the campus's oldest building to use it for a chair

[bandcampsnoop]

10/29/24.

Mike Snowden (Louisville, Kentucky) has a definite ear and knack for beautiful power pop. Just listen to "In Landscape", his first physical release (in a 11 year recording career) - I can hear Matthew Sweet, Game Theory, and Eugene McGuinness.

Snowden's Bandcamp descriptor mentions Big Star, Cheap Trick and the Elephant 6 collective.

This appears to be self-released. I looked up Mike Snowden on Discogs and found one who played with The High Water Marks. I'm guessing this is that Mike Snowden.

[bestworstcase]

All things considered, Salem having millions of years wandering around in a haze was probably not necessarily a bad thing.

Because as much as her situation might have sucked, it at least would have given her time to process and think about things, to try to reach some kind of stable state.

Not a GREAT state of mind, but a stable state.

By contrast Ozma kinda just got thrown into the deep end of things, and his zealotry combined with all of the doubts, confusion, and basically everything about the God of Light...

i mean. i would imagine she spent a considerable amount of that time not at all lucid; people famously do not cope well with solitary isolation even over a period of weeks, and salem was profoundly traumatized even before she became the sole survivor of a worldwide genocide and was then left completely alone for millions of years.

i think the only reason she’s sane now is she also had, by virtue of being immortal, quite probably thousands of years of being around people again—even if at a remove, as i’ve noted before, the paved road to her doorstep implies that she was in regular peaceful contact with people for quite some time—and thus had time to recover, or at least get to a point where she could function by the time ozma came back.

(something to consider too is like—how much of what ozma perceived or suspected as being lies or secret-keeping was actually just salem not being able to coherently tell him what happened, between it being millions of years ago and separated from the present by a huge span of time during which the endless isolation was fucking with her mind? like. even in the present she doesn’t talk very much, and if 6.4 is any indication her occasional grandiose speeches™️ take a lot out of her, emotionally. add in the part where she’s spent the last few thousand years not contesting ozma’s narrative at all and the way she emotionally shuts down when ruby upsets her and yang tries to provoke her… and just how bad she is as explaining herself when she does try (for cinder, in v5) because she talks in circles around what she means… like. i do strongly get the impression that she finds articulating what’s in her head to be pretty difficult in general; every time a conversation turns on her in a direction she didn’t Prepare a Speech for she at best goes 😐 and stops talking and at worst jabs at the other person’s emotional vulnerabilities to make them stop talking, or when that fails with cinder resorts to threats.)

(<- this is why i don’t get the master manipulator angle with her at all; she’s manipulative but she’s also remarkably bad at it despite how old she is, and that’s because she seems to rely pretty heavily on scripts to communicate. and that’s how we get situations like cinder winning the power struggle in v8.)

anyway i really think most of her serious Introspection and Processing of what happened to her and what she wants probably began during the ozlem kingdom when she had like. close relationships and a reason to live, and subsequently the inescapable threat of living through a second extinction to focus on. prior to that i figure that at most she clung to 1. the gods are monsters, and 2. she does not deserve the suffering they inflicted on her.

[fictionadventurer]

Yuletide on AO3 is pretty much the only time I read fanfic. It's become a bit of a Boxing Day tradition, and early impressions from this year's list are justifying it. This is where you get the really fun and creative and silly little stories from extremely niche fandoms. I've barely looked and already found Tolkien/"The Moon Is Haunted" crossover fic. Multiple cute-looking Uncle Gard/Cornelia fics. You just can't get stories like this so conveniently anywhere else.

[sheliesshattered]

the number of times that I've been actively researching a scientific topic in preparation for writing a sci-fi story that incorporates that topic

and then brand new info on that topic is released into the scientific community. while I'm in the midst of reading up on it

is too damn high, and honestly starting to get a little spooky

[sweetlikesunflowersandhoney]

i have zero (0) time or energy to write so of course now is when my brain brings me an au of my hyperfixation

[chenziee]

The Scars we carry

@lawluevents - Day 5: Nakama/Healing @onepiece-bingo: Healing/Paradise

Alternate summary: "I'm going to kill all my friends if they don't shut the fuck up (affectionate)" - Trafalgar D. Water Law, 2023

I barely grazed the Paradise prompt from the OP Bingo here ㅠ_ㅠ I planned to make it more about their time in Paradise but Law said "no <3" :(

Also fun fact, I was already done with this fic by the time I realised the "healing" prompt overlapped between lawlu week and my bingo card

[ Read on AO3 | series ]

----------

Straw Hat Luffy had many scars. Small cuts and burns, some old and some fresh, most of them caused by fighting and training.

But, none of them was as big or as impactful as the one on his chest.

Whenever Law saw it, it reminded him of the war three years ago, the war that shook not only the final area of Paradise where it took place, but also the entire world—and he was sure it reminded Luffy of that time as well. 

Law wasn’t there when he got the scar. He wasn’t there when Luffy lost his brother… But he did see what it led to. He saw Luffy at the brink of death, one breadth away from complete destruction—both physical and mental—and he saw the blind destruction the pain caused. Hell, the Tang herself got a few scars as a result and Luffy should be glad Law didn’t demand he pay for all the expensive equipment he had destroyed.

Law was sure Nami would murder her captain if he presented her with the bill.

But… it honestly never even occurred to Law to ask for money. For one, he knew why Luffy had done it, he understood why he went on a rampage, and he only regretted that he didn’t know how to help. He was grateful Jinbe was there to do it for him, to remind Luffy that he still had his crew—people he loved, people who loved him.

 And two, it Law’s his own decision, his own call to go to the war to save him in the first place.

To this day, Law wasn’t entirely sure what had compelled him to go.

Was it really just because of the D. in his name? Because the way he punched St Charlos in the face without a second thought was funny? Because Law enjoyed fighting with him?

Or was it because, unconsciously, Law knew Luffy was the only one who could break the chain Doflamingo had on him and with it, the chain-shaped soulmark on his arm?

Law didn’t know.

And he was glad his crew never really dug into his reasoning. He loved them and all but he would rather kill them all than admit that maybe, just maybe… he simply couldn’t bear letting the kid die.

The knowing look Ikkaku kept giving him during the two weeks of Straw Hat’s treatment was bad enough.

A soft knock on the door to the Captain’s cabin made Law look up, snapping back to reality.

“Come in,” he called out quietly as to not disturb the person sleeping soundly next to him.

A second later, the door slowly opened and Ikkaku came to view, her eyes glued to the papers in her hands. “Captain, we did an inventory check in the engine room and such and we’ve—” she paused suddenly as she looked up, blinking a few times as she took in the sight in front of her.

Law already felt a headache coming before she even said anything.

“You two are so cute,” she said then, biting on her bottom lip and obviously struggling very hard not to start laughing.

Law sighed deeply. He knew she would say that; she always did whenever she stumbled on Law and Luffy spending time together—be it Straw Hat bothering the shit out of Law while he tried to study, Law doing experiments with Straw Hat’s insane metabolism, or right now, when Luffy was sleeping sprawled over Law’s bad like it belonged to him, completely ignoring Law’s personal space and having his limbs thrown all over the place, including Law’s own body.

At least Ikkaku wasn’t as obnoxious about it as Penguin and Shachi always were, although Law had no idea what was so ‘cute’ about this. If anything, Straw Hat needed to wipe the fucking drool off his face because that was disgusting.

“What did you say about the inventory check?” Law asked instead of gracing her comment with a reply.

“Oh right. We’ve got to restock soon, we’re running low on gas and components and some equipment is getting really old and basically useless. I have a list here if you want to check.” She gestured with the papers in her hands in Law’s direction.

Shaking his head, Law declined, “It’s fine. You’re the head mechanic, I trust you did the job right.”

“You just know you wouldn’t know what anything on the list is either way,” Ikkaku said cheekily.

“Straw Hat-ya’s crew’s a terrible influence on you guys,” Law groaned before narrowing his eyes at her. “I’m going to demote you for insubordination.”

“Sure you will.” Ikkaku rolled her eyes, her gaze jumping between Law and Straw Hat, who still snoring away, blissfully unaware of the exchange going on. “Also aren’t we pretty much the same crew at this point?” she finished with a raised eyebrow.

Law wanted to refute her, to tell her she was being ridiculous… but to be perfectly honest, he couldn’t in good conscience disagree with her. They had been spending an unhealthy amount of time with the Straw Hats, considering the alliance officially ended months ago.

“But you know…” Ikkaku said then, her voice much more serious and quiet. “Every time Straw Hat’s here, it reminds me of the war. It’s a miracle he’s so healthy now. Watching him, it’s as if nothing happened.”

Law huffed, his own eyes turning down to look at Luffy’s peaceful expression. For sure, at first glance it seemed that way; but the scar on his chest was there to remind them all… as were the nightmares Law knew Luffy still suffered once in a while. Luffy never talked about them, never even said anything about having them in the first place, and Law didn’t pry—even if he did, he knew Luffy still wouldn’t say anything, claiming it was ‘all in the past anyway’—but he knew the ghosts were there, always lurking in the back of Luffy’s mind to haunt him, to remind him of what he had lost.

And that was okay. It was all a part of the process, the bumps on the road to healing.

At least, that was how Law thought of his own nightmares of Flevance and Minion Island.

“Captain?” Ikkaku asked uncertainly when Law didn’t say anything for a long while.

The corners of Law’s mouth twitched. Yeah, having a good crew, good friends, certainly helped smoothing out the road. He was lucky in that regard—just as Straw Hat was.

“I’m fine,” he said, turning back to look at his head mechanic. “I’ll talk to Bepo about where we can stop to get those supplies.” 

A grin spread on Ikkaku’s lips in response before she turned around to leave. “Thanks! I’ll let you two be adorable in peace now.”

“Fucking—” Law growled, taking a deep breath… but before he could snap at her so shut up, she was gone, the door closed carefully behind her.

Rubbing at his temples, Law thought to himself; he did love his crew to death but sometimes… Sometimes, he wanted nothing more than to maim them.