#also gens bass is almost as big as he is

[mey-rin-is-fabulous]

You know it's a good thing we haven't gotten on screen interaction between Shingan and Tobiz because I guarantee something will be destroyed by the end of it

[nightingale2004]

The Marauders next gen: Wolfstar version (Sirius x Remus)

Artemis Hope Lupin

Faceclaim: Diana Silver

Artemis is the firstborn daughter of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black

Her middle name was the name Remus's late mother

Looks a bit like both her dads but takes after more of Sirius's looks and personality

She is fiercely protective of her family

Attends Hogwarts

Gryffindor through and through

Raging bisexual

Quidditch player (beater and chaser)

Inherited Sirius's love for pranks and loves brainstorming with the weasley twins

After Sirius got locked up to Azkaban, Artemis felt like she had to take care of everything, and everyone in her family and be the adult but still a great big sister

Loves going to music record stores and just loves music in general (more specifically, Rock n roll 🤟)

Her patronus is a husky dog

Her favorite subjects are flying, charms, DADA, care for magical creatures, muggle studies, and transfiguration

Doesn't know a lot about Sirius's side of the family other than what she was told and what she has found out about them (she is very nosy and has dug around for information about them)

Has an interest in auto mechanics and engineering

She wears Sirius's old leather jacket

Likes chocolate but prefers sour candy

She is also an animagus, and her form is a husky dog, similar to her patronus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caelum Alphard Lupin

Faceclaim: Felix Mallard

The second child and the first son of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black

His middle name came from Sirius's late uncle, Alphard Black

Sirius and Remus got married a year after they graduated from Hogwarts and had their children shortly after

Caelum is more like Remus but takes after Sirius in looks

Caelum is considered quiet, distant, and intelligent. He also considers himself an artistic soul

If you were to ask Caelum, he'd say Artemis was the Sun, and he was the moon

When Sirius was sent to Azkaban, Caelum was only 1 year old, while Artemis was 4.

He vaguely remembered the Potters, but what he did remember was that both his dads loved them and that they would take Caelum and his sister over to the Potters all the time

He is sorted into Slytherin when the hat senses his determination, ambition, and cleverness. He was almost put into Gryffindor, but the hat changed its mind

He is on the quidditch team as a seeker but is not as passionate about it as his older sister

When he was sorted into Slytherin, his sister was worried for him along with their father, but Remus still loved his son but at the same time was afraid of what he would turn into in Slytherin

He is a major choco-holic (prefers dark chocolate)

His patronus is a raven

He also has an animagus form, which is a cat

He once snuck out to Grimmauld place out of curiosity of Sirius's side of the family. And he found out a LOT of information about the Blacks and his late Uncle Regulus and how similar he was to his uncle Regulus in some ways

☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆○☆

Cerys Nova Lupin

Faceclaim: Bailey Bass

Cerys is the adopted daughter of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black

They both adopted her a year before Sirius went to Azkaban, so Nova doesn't remember much of her other dad

Before she was adopted, she was born to a werewolf couple who were formerly a part of Fenrir Greyback's pack who gave her up for her safety

After Sirius went to Azkaban, Remus wasn't present as much, and Artemis took charge at a young age. Taking care of her younger siblings and her own father

She is literally the sweetest person you'll ever meet. A literal cinnamon roll that needs to be protected, but she can she won't hesitate to fight you if you speak badly about her family

Loyal to a fault

Loves gardening and sweets

Loves milk and white chocolate

Sorted into Hufflepuff

She is the second werewolf in her family, while her older siblings are full wizards.

She loves it when her siblings turn into their animagus form during full moons. It makes her feel less lonely

Sees Harry like an older brother.

Severus has a soft spot for this young wolf (how can you not?)

Her patronus is a wolf

[carboardserpent]

Next gen headcanons? 🤔

Like, Jackson, Cruz, Tim, Danny, Chase, and Ryan?

Oh boy, that's a few characters. Alright, strap in then. Probably also gonna throw in Bubba because he's my favourite non-main next gen <3

(Humanised, as always)

(Quick disclaimer for this one, none of these are supposed to reflect on the irl racers that gave their names and voices to them - I'm treating these characters as though they're entirely fictional and not based on/inspired by real people. I make my HCs literally just based on Vibes (and RPs))

Jackson Storm:

6'1 and fit AF. Clearly spends a lot of time in the gym toning his body and muscles. He is male model levels of gorgeous. Physically flawless black man <3

Short black dreadlocks dyed blue at the ends.

Aromantic (female-leaning)bisexual.

Autistic.

Ray knew he was autistic before Jackson even knew himself, and is the reason he even got diagnosed in the first place.

One of his most common complaints is still about the reflections of the sun glinting in his eyes. The loud noise of the track still gets to him occasionally, but he has special earplugs to help him deal with it.

Can usually be seen drinking a can of IGNTR's flagship energy drink before a race. It helps him calm down and focus in. His sponsors love it, for obvious reasons.

Any time he's on camera, he acts calm and cool but internally he's freaking out. If they ask something he doesn't expect, he visibly tenses up and flounders for a second as he tries to figure out what to say, even if it was a simple question.

Doesn't do fan meets or signings unless he absolutely has to. Even then he tries everything he can to get out of them.

His physical attractiveness makes his already poor attitude even worse. Doesn't know how to talk to people, but gets all the praise and attention he could ever want online.

Yes, he posts photos of himself on various social media. He wasn't sure at first, but Ray convinced him to start shortly after his debut race, hoping that it would help reassure him and give him a bit of a confidence boost. Naturally, it went a little TOO well...

He's a gamer through and through. In any downtime he gets, he's still topping the leaderboards on just about every popular racing game you can play online. He also enjoys the occasional game of CoD and will verbally rip anyone to shreds if they try to come at him.

DUBSTEP. He loves it. If his skull isn't rattling from absolutely filthy, grimy bass, he's not interested.

So, of course, he has to have an incredible sound system that's probably worth more than the average person's car.

He doesn't watch anime. (Stop asking him if he does) Most of his entertainment comes from Twitch streams.

He streams himself playing Super Corsa 4 any chance he gets. Which isn't often with the packed NASCAR schedule, but he tries his best. His user is UrStormChasing

Still doesn't get along with Tim after their rivalry in training and isn't very good at pretending he does either. Their crew chiefs have to make deliberate efforts to stop them from running into each other before they get into their cars.

Cruz Ramirez:

5'5 with an athletic build. She is a Latina woman with visible abs and she deserves them gdi.

Side-parted brown hair a little shorter than jaw length, perpetually kinda wild looking.

Chaotic lesbian hours!

ADHD

Literally cannot sleep at night without a big, milky mug of coffee.

It's not normal to wake up and go for a run before even having breakfast?

She's teaching Lightning to use social media more regularly (for better or for worse). His homework is to send her a funny meme or video that he found that week.

The result of this can sometimes be catastrophic. She'll never be able to unhear him uncertainly attempting to use outdated slang.

Almost every race, there's someone complaining about how she doesn't weigh enough and it's unfair to the rest of them. So she forces them to watch as race officials put extra weights in her car.

Has cussed Danny out in Spanish across Pit Road and will do it again if he carries on-

Is probably the only person on Team Dinoco that is actually nice to Cal and doesn't try to tease him. They get along well.

Tim Treadless:

6'0 with a broad frame and light muscle tone.

Tanned skin and tousled brown hair.

Straight ally.

Just call him Mr. Charismatic, everyone loves him.

Everyone except Jackson, that is. Jackson is the only person who brings out his anger to the point of wanting to throw hands.

Has a wife and a baby, bc of course he does.

One of those guys some people hate for being irritatingly perfect. Usually people that don't actually know him.

Has type 1 diabetes and a bad nut allergy.

Was pulled out of a race at the last minute when he went into anaphylactic shock - the entire race was almost stopped when people started to whisper that it was foul play. The race went on, but the only reason for Treadless' absence was that he had to be pulled for "unforseen medical issues".

Some of the other racers still blame Jackson, who actually had nothing to do with it.

Danny Swervez:

5'10 and fairly slender. Not a lot of bulk to him.

Tanned skin (he's Latino) and short black hair.

Cishet male.

This man is FULL of himself. What an attitude.

Genuinely a good racer, but not many people like him.

He's not a good guy. He's given Cruz some trouble for being a woman, though after she embarrassed him by publicly cussing him out in Spanish, he's learned to keep his unpopular opinions on her to himself.

Isn't exactly what we would call "faithful".

But hey, at least he doesn't cheat on the track (smh)

Has just as little respect for the older racers as Jackson, but is less vocal about it.

Is very bitter about Jackson and Tim being more popular than him, yet still does nothing to change himself for the better.

Has at least attempted to physically fight with other drivers that messed with him on the track several times.

Chase Racelott:

5'9 with a build somewhere between Danny and Tim.

Pale skin and dirty-blonde hair.

Straight ally.

Generally a pretty likeable guy. Not as well-loved as Tim, but he has a good amount of pretty dedicated fans.

Makes jokes about being single/available.

Has pretty average performance on the track, not great, but not poor.

Fairly high energy, he gets along well with Cruz.

Probably one of the best with kids. Has a lot of younger fans because of how he interacts with them during meets and signings.

One of the few who will try not to leave until he's spoken to every fan who wanted to meet him, no matter how long it takes.

Often seen hanging around with Ryan - the two of them cause some pretty good natured trouble together, often involving pranks on the other racers.

Ryan "Inside" Laney:

5'11 with a broad build similar to Tim.

Mixed race (¾ Caucasian, ¼ African American), with short black hair.

Closeted bisexual.

Friendly, but not really a standout character as far as the fans are concerned.

Kind of cocky, but in a cool way.

Has a girlfriend who travels with him.

Agent of chaos when he spends too much time with Chase. Don't turn your back on him.

Bubba Wheelhouse

Absolutely massive 6'2 gentle giant

Another gorgeous black man (fight me), his skin tone isn't quite as dark as Jackson's

Closeted homosexual

Has a fake relationship with a lesbian woman who's actually just his best friend (the racing world is scary and the US South probably wouldn't love an openly gay driver)

Kids ADORE him. Him and Chase are the drivers with the most kid fans.

Throws a football around with fans over the catch fence during rain delays (this one is based on the real Bubba Wallace bc its wholesome af)

Gets asked all the weird gay questions by everyone in the friend group. (Ex. "Is it gay if...?" "What is X actually like?")

Legit just trying to mind his own business, he doesn't want any part of drama or rivalries.

Occasionally finds himself roped into girl talk if the guys have their S/Os around. They're very excited to include him. He's too polite to decline.

[aurora-daily]

AURORA at Glastonbury 2024 on her Bring Me The Horizon collab and Wembley plans

An interview with AURORA by Andrew Trendell for NME (June 30th, 2024)

The Norwegian art-pop star told us how she and Oli Sykes "bonded over Palestine", and feeling love all around at Glasto

Shortly before she took to the stage for a blissed-out performance at The Park, the Norwegian art-pop star spoke to us backstage to share what it was like to lend her vocals to BMTH’s ‘Limousine’ from new album ‘Post Human: Nex Gen‘.

When asked about the collab earlier this month, Bring Me frontman Oli Sykes told NME: “I know what I wanted on that song and that was someone to bring something that could level it up – someone like a really ethereal, haunting, beautiful, voice,” he told NME. “I wanted someone to elevate it and take it somewhere else. The song itself is very Deftones-influenced, almost to a point of parody! For this whole record, we’re happy to admit that the songs all are very nostalgic homages to loads of bands, but it’s also felt very important that we do something where we were pushing it as well to make it our own, put our own stamp on it.

He added: “AURORA for me is what a pop star should be,  what the next wave of pop stars should look like; someone that has the songs, but is a real person who dares to speak what they believe in, who gives a shit about the world.”

NME: Hello again AURORA. Welcome back to Glastonbury.

AURORA: “It’s really nice to be back. I love this festival. It’s overwhelming. So I feel kind of glonky, you know, but I’m so excited to play. I love to be outside again. Festival season is the best.”

Glastonbury’s sense of peace, love and like reconnecting with each other seems to like tie into the themes of your new album ‘What Happened To The Heart?’. Discuss.

“Yes, discus…ting! But yes, it’s true. It feels like the the main purpose of these festivals. We need to go outside, touch the grass and feel the air and just be in touch with each other. It’s super nice to see how people are so cohesive. They even sway the same way without knowing. When the bass is high enough, you know that people’s heartbeats will beat the same ≠ you can feel it, the connection. It’s very needed. I’m very grateful.”

We just spotted a Chemical Brother backstage. They’re friends and collaborators of yours. Could they be surprise guests for your set?

“Oh, no. We work as friends now. So he’s here for emotional support. I don’t know how to do this without Tom [Rowlands].”

Since we last spoke, you collaborated with Bring Me The Horizon on ‘Limousine’. What did it mean to have that come together?

“Well, I’m a very big metal fan. I heard Bring Me The Horizon when I was a teenager. They were with me for some time. I was introduced to them by a lover. My first lover who actually died. It is sad. But it’s beautiful as well. Because now when I listen to them, and now when I made a song with him, I know that he would be just – it felt very full circle in the journey of grief.”

We heard know Oli slipped into your DMs and you kinda were like, “Fuck, yeah!”

“We bonded over Palestine. Because I was like, ‘We need to stick up for them’, and he was like, ‘Yeah, we do. It’s true’. Then he was like, “Do you want to make a song?” I was like, ‘Yes!’

Is it a sign of things to come? There are some gnarly songs on your album too. Could you go make a metal record?

“I think so. My heart won’t be complete without it so yeah, definitely. I really want to do it because I just love it so much. It’s such a force. Like a wave, a deadly wave coming at you, which is so cool. So I will, I have to for my Norwegian ancestors. Until now I’ve been purely a disappointment to them. Finally I will make them proud.”

Next year you’re playing a show at Wembley Arena. What do you have in store for that?

“I forget about that all the time. It’s huge, isn’t it? It’s crazy business. I’ll put the big guns out, metaphorically.

What are you going to do straight after your Glastonbury set?

“Drink beer. I’m immensely excited.I am terrified of this festival. It’s so fuckin’ huge. Maybe if I have a beer and I become a bit braver, I can try to see some things but I am quite terrified!”

[jade-parcels]

Continuation of the idol au. 🐝 anon… get ready babe

(Posted under this since it’s long ☺️) part 1 of 2

⚪️Gen 1⚪️ 90s- early 2000s

⚪️ICEE was an OG idol group made up of the Tsaritsa and 6 others who are now pretty much nameless. She outshined her fellow group mates to the point where she left her group and company to be a soloist in another company (the same that owns HARBING3R). She is more business oriented now and doesn’t really sing much anymore but does plenty of public appearances. She’s fantastic at marketing bro damn!! An amazing asset to have on your side. She worked her way up enough that she had/has a LOT of control over marketing for HARBING3R and FAiRLADiES. She is stil engaged in marketing (and even recruiting!) for new groups under her company’s name

⚪️M4GIC was a group of four. The group gained pretty much no traction but that’s where Alice debuted! She later did a lot of solo work and had 3 hit singles in her 5 years of being an active idol. She’s more family oriented now and spends most of her time with her daughter Klee. She sponsors her step son, Albedo, who is currently an idol. She is often pictured taking Klee to his group’s concerts! She also posts on her twitter about him whoever she sees him on TV or on posters

🔴Gen 2🔴 2000s

🔴HellBringerz was one of the first big groups in Teyvat. Made up of Pantalone(vis, dance), Capitano(lead, rap) and Dottore(vocal/dance). At the time, they were fresh out of college and scouted by a brand new company that literally needed anyone. The trio wrote and produced a big hit seemingly out of nowhere. Once their popularity surged, their manager, Pulcinella, quickly changed their name to a more appropriate ‘Harbingerz’ (which was again later changed to ‘HARBING3R’ after the trio claimed to fucking hate the Z at the end). Think of HARBING3R as a SHINee/Super Junior sound-alike, their signature sound is that classic early 2000s bass and extreme auto tune. HARBING3R has gone on many hiatuses but have pumped out 17 albums in their 16 years of activity. Pulcinella wanted the group to try to appeal to a wider audience so, he threw 2 new trainees in there without announcing it to the public, thats where Kuni and Ajax got their start. They only remained in the group for 6 months before leaving the company to join other, newer groups. Outside of HARBING3R comebacks, Dottore owns a private practice, Capitano is casted in action movies and Pantalone does his own solo music that has a… more mature theme…(he also does audio porn under an alias shhh) They’re all older now but are dug up when The company needs money or there’s music award shows to attend. Even though we got bitches in their late 30s, you know their company is about to make them sing for a check babe lmao. They’ll squeeze dottores arthritic knees into leather pants and shove him out onto the stage they don’t care

🔴FAiRLADiES is a group put together by the Tsaritsa herself. Since she is so influential, she is pretty much a trainer. Arlecchino, Signora, Sandrone and Columbina were scouted and trained under Tsaritsa. They debuted a year after HARBING3R as their female counterpart. They share a company so, with Tsaritsa’s encouragement, they often but the two groups together for collaborative albums. While thinking about FAiRLADiES, I listened to AOA’s ‘Miniskirt’, which inspired the ‘mature woman’ visuals in the group. They almost exclusively wear black or silver along with high heels. They carry a serious air about them but fans get to see their goofier side when their company films their dance practices. Those dance practices are what really attracted fans. While their music is fantastic, getting to see these usually serious girls giggle and dance around made fans like them even more. The group has not officially disbanded but much like HARBING3R, they don’t do much together anymore. Signora and Columbina have moved onto a lot of solo jobs, Arlecchino has made her debut in a few romance movies and Sandrone has worked diligently on a fashion line, all pieces created by her alone. But of course, when they’re called back to perform together they do so happily, they’ve publicly stated over and over that they’re a very tight knit group

🔴☆YATO was a soloist with a sexy, mature theme. Bold leather outfits, smoky eye makeup, crazy hairdos (Taemin’s Lucifer hairstyle oh my god), platform shoes… he embodied the whole gen 2 aesthetic. Kamisato Ayato is a nepotism baby by definition, his parents were/are crazy rich with connections throughout the business and entertainment industry. When Ayato showed interest in being an idol, he was picked up by a company within a week with a contract, a big budget and lots of creative freedom. He didn’t write his own songs, in fact he later admitted to being unable to read music at all but he could sing, he could dance, he had the energy and he had his good looks lmao. His parents, the ones who encouraged him to pursue being and idol quickly came to regret it as Ayato sang about seducing women and thrusted his hips on stage in front of thousands of people. They believed he was tarnishing their family name by acting this way. They gave him an ultimatum: he either got to continue being an idol with no shot at taking over the family business OR he could retire and have a guaranteed 25% of the company when he turned 22. He performed for the last time on his 3rd anniversary of debuting, apologizing to his fans and crying on stage in front of them. After his parents unfortunate passing, he took over the company when he turned 28 and now manages his sister, ☆YAKA(we’ll discuss her shortly). A second gen idol and a fourth gen idol in the same house? Oh god….

🔴Dr. BAi, Baizhu, debuted shortly after Ayato. He catered to a similar audience since his long hair, pretty face and strong vocals drew people in. He even collaborated with Ayato more than once. Baizhu was well known for his ‘Love Doctor’ album which was raunchy, dark and seductive. (Think ‘Sorry, sorry’ and ‘Bonamana’ from Super Junior cause those songs have a fuckin beat dude) He got some backlash for it, saying he was overly sexualizing doctors but he didn’t care cause he was going to be a doctor before he debuted, he was in medical school!! Dr. BAi had a sizable, dedicated fanbase. They were very invested in his personal life which got to be a bit overwhelming for him. He has an issue with his lungs which gets in the way of dancing for long periods of time. After facing criticism for being a ‘lazy dancer’ and having people trying to visit him at the hospital during his treatments, he sadly left the idol spotlight. He took some time off but later returned to appear on talent shows as a judge. People praise him for his kind and constructive criticism instead of bashing contestants on the show. Baizhu adopted Qiqi and provides a comfortable, loving life for her and his beloved pet snake Changsheng (Changsheng has her own instagram she’s kinda a celebrity herself)

🔴elec2ro is a still active duo comprised of Ei and Yae. They’ve steadily released music since they’ve debuted and while their release schedule makes it so the wait is LONG between albums/singles, their music is worth the wait. Think of how IU’s ‘Lilac’ makes you feel like that song is fresh and feminine, it’s just nice to listen to. That’s what elec2ro is. Their music is just nice to listen to and lacks the insane usage of auto tune like the other groups from this era. Ei and Yae were college roommates and they wrote music together just for fun. They submitted auditions to a few companies just for the hell of it, they were bored and had nothing else to do. Little did they know, they’d have 3 companies trying to grab them up at once! Crazy how things like that work. They refuse to do any jobs without each other, no solo work and no ‘one of you sing with this group’. They’re a package deal!! Always have been and always will be. They’re very active with their fans, they’re always retweeting fan art and setting up meet and greets with their own money cause they just love to travel and meet fans. Yae is the more social one between the two and Ei is a bit more reserved. Fans always try to get Ei to laugh and when they succeed, the whole place will erupt with cheers as they see her smile and laugh!!! so sweet. They’re not making new albums currently but they still release a solo song now an then, make plenty of appearances and interact frequently with fans online and in person

[altocat]

I think you’ve told us what Seph’s and Gen’s favourite foods are. What are Angeal’s, Cloud’s and Zack’s favourites in your HCs?

Angeal has very fond memories of cooking with his mother throughout his childhood. He especially loved spending the day with her baking bread or some other cherished dessert his poor family rarely got to eat. His absolute favorite food is his mother's beef stew, reserved almost exclusively for birthdays. He also really loves fresh raisin bread, as well as spicy rice dishes. And fresh fish. A nice cooked bass or catfish is a big win in his book!

Zack loves junk food, much to Angeal's dismay. He is a seasoned patron of cake, sugary cereals, ramen, pizza, and waffles. He and Sephiroth are also both mutually feral about greasy messy burgers, a realization that often fills Zack with unbridled delight. They're probably terrible influences on each other in that regard, with Zack often sneaking Sephiroth fast food like it's a dire underground operation. Angeal makes sure that Zack's training regimen is filled with plenty of strenuous physical activity to keep the calories at bay. And, fortunately, Zack also benefits from a very high metabolism.

Cloud's favorite food, according to that Yokai Watch thing is...milk? Like, just the drink. Just milk. Ooookay, Cloud. I have QUESTIONS. For the sake of expansion, however, I'll say that he's just a big fan of dairy in general. Yogurt. Ice cream. Choccy milk. Custard. And CHEESE. So, so much cheese. Cloud is cheesed to meet you.

...I'll see myself out 😂

[aenaxes]

OMG ok for the 200 follower celebration (based on your smoking post) PLZZZ write sharing a spice blunt with cross or any batcher of your choosing I would simply die 😩💅🏻❤️

vapor trails

[crosshair & hunter x f!reader] you don't really run with the fett twins' crowd, but you find yourself at one of their parties anyway (in reference to this post lol)

warnings: college!au, recreational drug use, suggestive themes, but consent is sexy & mandatory & sober babes

w/c: 3.8k

a/n: anon, you ask for one batcher, but why not two? thank you for enabling me nonnie & @mallr4ts lol (im so sorry to all the previous requests for the event, this one has just been needling in my brain all day and i had to get it out hsdfs)

event details here! requests are open until july 4th!

You don’t know much about the Fett twins.

They’re something like campus legends even though they’re only a year your senior and at the tail end of their fourth years. But as much as you’ve heard their names slung around in weekend plans and excited chatter, you’ve never once met them, much less seen them yourself. Between idling class whispers and dining hall conversations, all you can piece together from the rumors is that: one, they’re from a big family (you’ve heard anywhere from two to twelve other brothers, yikes); and two, as much as they work hard (because the venture capital and pre-professorial tracks seem rigorous enough), they play even harder.

It helps that they apparently own one of the biggest apartments off campus, one in which you find yourself hopelessly and miserably lost. And overdressed.

Great.

It hadn’t occurred to you that your roommate, who is nowhere to be seen, had been dressing up for her girlfriend, and that most people who had half a mind would wear something comfortable that could withstand a few spilled drinks and ash. So seeing the rest of the room in rumpled tees and sweats has you and your little black dress seeking out the nearest wall as you fiddle with your questionably sweet cup of margarita mixer.

You feel like a first year, and it sucks.

But for once, with everyone too busy mingling amongst themselves over the heavy thrum of some mumble rap beat, you manage to slip by unnoticed.

Every now and then, you dart your eyes around the ever shifting landscape of faces in the dim room, looking for even the vaguest familiarity that might let you feign being tipsy and join a group for the night. But every time you try, there’s no luck.

Fuck, you haven’t even seen anyone here before.

But there might be a god watching out for you yet when the crowd shifts just enough that you catch sight of the couch, and on it, someone you suspect to be one of the twins as he greets a few girls with a disinterested nod.

Emboldened, but mostly nervous that in the crowd of bodies and red solo cups you’re still helplessly alone, you push off the wall and squeeze past huddled cliques of conversation to make for the dark couch.

By the platinum bleached hair and big-name consulting group quarter zip, Crosshair—at least you think it’s him—lounges over the couch. He isn’t the only body on the suede seats, but he keeps to himself, his head dipped low as he works one hand over a small metal canister in his other palm.

If you weren’t having luck with the other nameless faces around you, maybe the Fett twin would keep you company—at least until your roommate came back to find you (if she did). And worst case, you’d just slink back to your dorm and mope until your roommate apologized to you with your favorite overpriced smoothie bowl the day after.

Mustering every ounce of courage you have, you plant your feet by the couch and finally speak.

"Is your name actually Crosshair?" you ask.

The man on the couch pauses, his motions stilling over the small metal cylinder in his palms, and he lifts his chin just enough to flick his eyes up towards the sound of your voice.

You always thought the girls in your droning 9AM gen-ed were wildly exaggerating his hype for their own devices, squealing over his (apparently) brooding charm and sharp looks to nip at his stash for free. But for all the vague haze surrounding your perception of the twins, you never thought that they were telling the truth.

If you had been in broad daylight under the incandescent glow of your creaky lecture hall lights, you might have called him cocky, almost haughty, how he meets you with an unreadable look for having interrupted him. But in the purple LEDs and heavy haze of vape juice and shitty tequila, he’s captivating, all dark eyes and perfectly lit skin, marked only by the needle-thin design tattooed over the right side of his face and a worn wooden toothpick bitten between his teeth.

You swallow down the dry lump in your throat when you catch him flick his eyes from your face, down the short length of your dress, and back up again.

"Smoke with me; maybe you'll find out," he drawls, toothpick bobbing as he speaks. He twists the cylinder once and offers you a wry smirk. And when you stay, speechless but there all the same, Crosshair scoots to the side and pats the narrow space between him and the couch arm, inviting you close.

"I've never smoked before," you admit a bit shyly as you drop down beside him. Your dress hikes up your thigh, and you shiver when your skin presses up against the soft denim of his jeans.

"Not even cigs?"

You shake your head. And you tell yourself that when he leans close and brushes his shoulder up against your arm, that he’s only doing it because someone’s boosted the bass, and you can’t hear him over the reverb.

"Well, good thing I'm here, yeah?"

He gives the metal canister a final twist and sets it down on the coffee table before you. Swapping the canister for a small brown sleeve, you watch in a daze as he pulls a semi-transparent leaflet from the folder and tears a strip of cardstock straight from its flap. He has pianist fingers, you think wistfully, neatly kept nails and slender grace, and you wonder if he’ll entertain you if you ask to compare your hand to his.

“What’s your name?”

You scrabble back to the present at the sound of his voice. “Uh, y/n,” you offer.

“Well, y/n,” he says with a soft laugh, having caught on to your daydreaming. “Step one, you fold your filter.”

You nod along absently as Crosshair artfully crimps the thick paper into a neat roll. As if there isn’t thirty-some odd people crammed into his apartment, he quietly takes you step by step, offering you the filter, the paper, then the contents of the canister (a grinder, he explains) like it’s a game of show and tell. But with every piece he places into your hands, you gravitate closer, closer, until you’re flush against his arm and practically hanging over his side to watch as he gently taps a line of bud over the paper.

“Here, let me give you a better look,” Crosshair says.

You expect him to bring the neat line of bud to you, but when nothing comes, you look up and find him waiting for you, one arm open in invitation as the other pats once on the dark denim of his thigh.

“Uh—”

“Sit,” he says as if you haven’t just met him fifteen minutes ago. “Front row seats if you want ‘em.”

On one hand, you barely know Crosshair outside of the rumors you hear on campus. On the other hand, he’s a genuinely pleasant person, careful to accommodate for your boundaries and offering a snide playfulness that’s banished your nerves from earlier in the night.

He’s also really fucking hot.

“Okay,” you murmur, and you let him wrap his arm around your waist and tug you onto his lap. And he’s right. Perched over his thighs, you see with perfect clarity (and without the strain in your neck) as he gently folds the paper over the mound of bud and carefully twists. It’s the prettiest joint you’ve ever seen—though it might be because it’s the only one you’ve seen.

"Final touch," Crosshair's voice rumbles over your back, shooting straight into your core as he lifts the paper's vellum edge to your lips. “Lick it for me.”

Since you sat down with him, you’ve only been the passenger, nodding along as Crosshair’s long, nimble fingers creased over filter paper and patiently pointed out things like the stray pistils in his baggie and the keef gathered at the bottom of his grinder for if you really want to get fucked up. And even though you aren’t doing much (because licking paper doesn’t really seem too crazy), it’s a step forward from the comfortable rhythm that had settled between you, and you twist around in his lap to shoot him an uncertain glance.

“Just,” Crosshair flicks his tongue over his lower lip, flashing a brief glimpse of a ball piercing towards your wide eyes. And if you weren’t so flustered, you might have recognized the coy playfulness in his gaze. “Give it a lick, right over the edge.”

“I—uh, what if I—” you stammer.

“You’re not gonna mess this up, darling,” Crosshair chuckles. If his hand squeezing brief over your waist wasn’t enough to bring heat searing over the tops of your ears, his next words, crooned low and breathy into your ear, certainly do. “You’re a smart girl. You can do it.”

"My brother giving you trouble?"

Another voice cuts through the din of the party, sparing you your stammering nerves as you whip your head up in its general direction. You’re greeted with the sight of his brother, peering down on you as he takes a sip from his cup.

“You’re such a killjoy,” Crosshair mutters, drawing his arm tighter around your waist as he jabs the half-rolled joint to where Hunter sprawls down onto the couch beside him. “No, I’m not being a creep. I’m teaching our pretty underclassman here how to roll.”

Oh.

Heat rushes over your cheeks, and you can’t decide whether you want to shrink into yourself or bask in it and beg for more.

He called you pretty.

“With her in your lap,” Hunter snorts into his cup.

“It was your idea to invite your entire fucking rugby team. Where else would we do it?”

“I’m so sorry he’s like this,” Hunter laughs, tilting his head and looking up at you through his (unfairly) long lashes. Where you thought Crosshair’s tattoo was bold, Hunter’s practically blows him out of the water, a well-worn swath of ink on the left half of his face, curving into neatly stylized teeth right at the edge of his lips. “I’m Hunter.”

Huh, maybe you do have a thing for tattoos.

“Y/n,” you squeak. “It’s, um—it’s nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure’s all mine, sweetheart,” he says as he offers you an easy smile. “Has my baby brother been treating you right?”

“God, two fucking minutes,” Crosshair snaps. You hear the embarrassment seeping from the vitriol, and it strikes you like a shot to the head that he’s trying to play cool in front of you. “I come out two minutes after you and—”

“We’re fraternal, and I got all the oxygen in the womb. Explains why he has awful people skills,” Hunter fake-whispers loud enough for Crosshair to hear, and you giggle as the other man groans from behind you.

“No, he’s been really nice,” you say softly once you realize that you’ve been laughing a little too loud. “He’s teaching me about weed.” It sounds juvenile when you say it, awkward and clumsy on your tongue. It’s a dead giveaway that has Hunter’s smile mellowing into something soft.

“Your first time?”

“Mhm.”

“Well, Cross here’s high as shit at least four hours every day. Says it helps him do the math. I hate to say it, but you’re in good hands.”

“You try running a nonlinear regression sober,” Crosshair snorts. “Anyways, we were just finishing up this joint before you decided to kill the vibe.”

Crosshair lifts the half-rolled joint back up to your chin, and this time, he leans forward and presses his chest close against your back as the playful snark leaves his tone, in its wake, something patient and calm as his voice rumbles by your ear.

“You gonna help me finish the job, sweet girl?”

You surprise yourself when the initial trepidation vanishes as you tip your chin down and stick out your tongue. Maybe you’re showboating now that you have an audience, feeling Hunter’s dark eyes on your lips when you touch the tip of your tongue out over the edge.

Whether it’s your lip gloss or the fine crumbs of bud stuck to the roll paper that fills your mouth with something earthy and sweet, you can’t say. All you know is they’re both following you with that intense intent, the bass and blend of voices faded out around you; just you in Crosshair’s lap and Hunter pretending to care about the drink in his hand as you lift your tongue off the far corner of the paper and close your lips.

“Good job,” Hunter muses, and you’re pretty certain he’s not talking about the joint when you feel his gaze boring into you alone.

The smell of smoke pulls you out of Hunter’s gravity, and you look back in front of you to see Crosshair snap a scuffed metal lighter shut and toss it onto the coffee table. He brings the joint back down in front of you, blowing a neat stream of whitish gray smoke past your ear.

“You know how to pull?” Crosshair asks, and his chin brushes over your bare shoulder as he speaks. He’s so close. You can smell the burn, acrid and sour, but it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t smell like some bubblegum vape when you feel his breaths curling over your skin. You just want more.

Mutely, you shake your head.

“Mm, you know how to shotgun?” Hunter offers, and you hear Crosshair huff laugher from behind you. “Might be easier for your first try.”

You shake your head again.

“It’s,” Hunter pauses, and his brows knit close as he thinks for a moment. “It’s kind of like a kiss. But not really. I take a hit and you catch my smoke. That sound okay?”

You don’t think it matters that someone’s hit shuffle on the playlist, filling the room with a hard electronic beat that might have otherwise drowned out all sound. All you hear is your heart pounding in your ears as you nod and watch Hunter lift the filter to his lips and inhale deep, then pass the joint back to Crosshair.

“C’mere,” he murmurs, white trails of smoke curling over his upper lip as he lifts one hand to cup over the base of your neck.

“Open,” Crosshair whispers.

Wordlessly, you obey. Your lips part just as Hunter pulls close, so close you feel the heat of his skin spreading warm over your cheeks, and blows a soft stream of bitter smoke into your mouth. It can’t be more than a few seconds, but all the while, you can’t seem to tear your eyes from his.

“Breathe in, deep,” you hear Crosshair instruct as he begins to rub one thumb over the curve of your hip.

The smoke is thick, sluicing down your throat and filling your lungs like nothing you’ve ever felt before. It’s not bad, just new, and pressed between the twins over the couch, you think it just might have been worth being ditched by your roommate earlier in the night. But your lungs ache, and you slowly exhale, watching as your vision fogs with a loose cloud of smoke until your chest feels clear again.

“And you didn’t even cough,” Hunter smiles. His calloused fingertips follow the slope of your neck, lingering one moment more before he pulls away. And you aren’t sure if the low buzzing in your fingertips is the weed or their combined warmth as Hunter rubs over your knee and Crosshair leans his head against your neck. “Good girl.”

“Wanna do it again,” you whisper as the buzz begins to crawl up your neck, fizzling around your temples as you lean your cheek over where Crosshair nuzzles into your shoulder.

“With him or me?” Crosshair murmurs, his lips brushing over your skin.

“You,” you say dreamily, and Hunter laughs, a sound that suddenly seems so far away as you tip your head and press close against Crosshair’s silver hair.

Crosshair leans into your touch, pressing his cheek up against your neck one last time before he’s lifting his head and bringing the joint to his lips. You hear the hiss of his inhale, smoke curling up through the narrow body of the joint as the charred end glows warm beside you.

And instead of Hunter’s approach, level with you, Crosshair looms above you, meeting your wide eyes with something of a fond smile. Dragging his hand up your chest, he follows the line of your neck and holds snug over your chin. He squeezes softly, and your jaw falls slack, lips parted in a soft ‘o’ as he dips low. He's closer than Hunter as you feel his mouth just brush over yours and breathe smoke over your tongue.

This time, it’s easier.

You swallow down the smoke and hold, just a beat longer than before. But both Crosshair and Hunter notice as your lips stay parted, and they share a soft laugh that has you exhaling smoke and pride all at once when you finally relax your diaphragm and breathe out.

“Fast learner,” Crosshair muses, nosing up under your jaw as you sink back against his chest.

You mumble incoherently, chasing his touch as the high creeps heavy and warm from your chest to your collar and settles at the back of your throat. It anchors you, molding you up against Crosshair who feels nothing short of perfect as he circles his arms loose over your waist.

You turn your head to thank Hunter when you distantly register him pressing a cool cup into your hand (water, you think you hear him say), but the words slip back down into your throat, your eyelids suddenly unbearably heavy and coarse over your blurry vision.

“You wanna lay down?” Hunter offers, and his voice comes to you like you’re underwater, warped and bubbling past the din of the party around you.

You're pretty sure you nod.

For a few moments, you catch traces of an unintelligible exchange between the twins, only aware of the rumble of Crosshair’s voice at your back, and then you’re being lifted up off the couch, the music and raucous laughter fading behind you.

A door opens, squeaking half-shut, and you wince as a light clicks on beside you. Whoever was carrying you sets you down on something soft and cool, and you sway as the light dims and you settle into your seat.

You’re on a bed, you think.

Crosshair’s, judging by the shock of light hair that you can make out through your lashes. He helps you into a worn tee that reaches past the short hem of your dress, and you wiggle into it with a soft whine, holding it tight.

But where you expect a familiar weight to dip down next to you and pull you close, your eyes fly open when you see his figure turn away from you and towards the neon lights of the party outside.

“You aren’t staying?” It's the most coherent you've been through your first high.

“Not tonight,” Crosshair says softly. He turns back towards you and reaches up to fix the strap of your dress as you sit on his bed. “Baby’s first tokes got you all dopey. Right now, what you need is this,” and he presses a plastic bottle of vitamin water he’s seemingly produced out of nowhere into your palm. “This,” he adds, pressing your phone into your other hand. “And a good night’s sleep.”

“And what if I say I need you, too?” you pout.

Some part of you—the conscious part locked away in the back of your skull—bangs up against the hazy high at the crown of your head because when you’re good and sober and when Crosshair inevitably turns you down, you won’t be able to look at yourself in the mirror for the next semester.

But he breaks into a smile that crinkles at the corners of his eyes before he leans down to press his lips to your forehead. It’s just a split-second of warm, chapstick-soft lips on your skin, but it floods you with an indescribable good from the top of your head all the way down to your toes.

And as high as you are right now, you have a hell of a hunch that the flutter in your chest is going to stay, even when the room stops wobbling around you.

“When you’re all sobered up in the morning, we’ll make you breakfast, and we’ll figure it out from there,” Crosshair says after he’s pulled back, reaching up to smooth his palm over your hair. “Sound like a plan?”

You nod, probably with a little too much enthusiasm, but you’re rewarded with another low chuckle that’s practically music to your ears. His hand gentle and firm over your shoulder, Crosshair guides you down onto the bed and pulls the covers up to your chin.

“Now text your roomie so she doesn’t call the cops on us, get some sleep, and drink all of that, okay?”

“Okay,” you respond.

“Good girl.”

And when the lights click out, you curl into Crosshair’s pillow, breathing in cold, fresh notes of his cologne, and then you’re asleep.

You climb out of bed the next morning, your minidress rumpled under a long shirt. It's not like a hangover, no, you just find yourself a bit lightheaded and throat parched, and the disorientation makes your head spin as you’re greeted with the smell of fresh coffee and something savory—

Your roommate doesn’t wake up earlier than you, and she can’t cook for shit. And why were your sheets grey? Whose shirt were you—

Oh.

Fuck.

You practically burst out of Crosshair’s bedroom, and you’re not sure what you expected, but somehow you hadn’t expected to see Hunter sipping mildly on a mug of coffee while Crosshair pushes something around in a pan over their kitchen range.

“Mornin,’” Hunter offers you a small wave, and reaches for a third mug on the countertop. “Wasn’t sure how you liked your coffee so we just made it black.”

“What happened last night?” you gasp. If you weren’t so panicked, you’re certain the sight of them sporting nothing but grey sweats would have been your only concern, but you’ve just woken up with foggy memories and the slimy dread of anxiety that follows a blackout night.

“Easy, easy,” Crosshair assures you as he steps away from the stovetop. “Nothing happened after we smoked. You took, like, two hits, and you were so hazy you couldn’t remember your dorm number, so we put you to bed, and I slept out in the living room. Fetts are wild but we’re not scumbags, promise.”

And judging from the throw blanket sliding off the edge of the couch cushions, you’re fairly certain you can believe him. Relief floods your chest.

“Oh thank God,” you sigh, and your shoulders sag as the weight of panic sloughs off your back.

They both laugh softly, the sudden tension lifting from the bright morning light, and you can’t help but join in. And when that rosy relief gives way to silence again, it’s Crosshair who speaks next.

“So, you staying for breakfast?”

“Can I borrow some actual clothes first?”

“Done deal.”

[gutmeats]

Sea of People

AO3 Link Fandom: High School Story Prime Pairing: Wes Porter & Simon Klein (M!MC) (GEN) Length: 612 Words Rating: General Audiences (if u ignore the one (1) cuss word) Prompt: an image of a large group of people, many with rainbow flags Summary: Large crowds of people aren't for everyone, even if its an event for gay people and you are a gay people. A/N: for @choicespride. just personally speaking, as someone who gets overwhelmed in crowds. today's prompt image of a crowd is vaguely overwhelming to me. so i wanted to write something that reflected that. also i havent ever written wes before so if he's not in character. whoops. its a 600 word fic idc.

Simon knew he should be enjoying himself, but he was hot, and thirsty, and his binder had never felt as tight as it did now, with sweat suctioning it to his chest. Not to mention the crowds, and with crowds came noise, and noise meant overstimulation, but he didn’t dare turn off his hearing aid just in case he needed it to find the friends he had lost after his band, Kingslayer, finished their set.

It had been nice to be up on stage with his friends, since they all went their separate ways after graduation, but now that the event had lost it’s shine- at least for him, anyway- all Simon felt was tired and overwhelmed.

He staggers through the crowd, almost aimlessly, trying to find his way out, or at least someone he knew, but it felt like trying to swim against a current with concrete shoes on.

“‘Scuse me, Pardon me,” he mutters quietly as he tries his best to fight his way over to where the booths were set up without smacking the daylights out of anyone by accident.

Then someone grabs his hand.

As tired and disoriented as he was, he decides to just let this whoever-it-was tug him through the crowd and to the outskirts of the park the pride event was set up in.

When they stop in the shade of the tree, Simon flops down with a sigh. As he catches his breath, his savior hands him an ice cold bottle of water.

“Oh, thanks…” he rolls the bottle over his forehead for a few seconds, eyes closed. Then he chugs about half the bottle and pours the rest over himself. “Fuck, that feels good.”

His savior laughs and sits next to him, and now that he’s had a moment to calm down, he realizes that it’s--

“Wes!” Simon tosses an arm around him. “I didn’t think you’d be here!”

“Yeah, big crowds like this aren’t really my thing, but Ezra wanted me to see Kingslayer preform. I’m glad I caught you, though. You looked like you were about to pass out.”

“Yeahhh… I was too busy putting away my bass to realize everyone else had scattered until it was too late. Thanks for getting me outta there.”

“It’s nothing.” Wes bumps his shoulder against Simon’s.

They people watch for a few minutes, but it doesn’t take long for Simon’s sweat and water soaked binder to begin to really bother him.

He wiggles in place, trying to tug it away from his body enough to get comfortable.

Wes looks at him. “You doing alright?”

“No! It’s so hot and noisy and my binder feels way too tight!”

“Do you want to get out of here, then? Come back to mine and Ezra’s? We could get dinner and catch up.”

“That sounds nice. Way better than this.”

Wes and Simon grab each other’s hands, both pulling in opposing directions to tug each other up.

“Let me just text Ez and let him know that we’re going. He was planning on staying out later than me, anyway, so he’ll probably catch a ride from one of the others.”

“‘Kay.”

Once Wes’ phone is back in his pocket, he tosses an arm across Simon’s shoulders and leads him back around the crowd and out of the park.

Simon gives one last look over his shoulder and sighs. “I tried to like it, I really did. I just wasn’t expecting it to be so… much.”

Wes laughs quietly. “You don’t have to enjoy big pride events like this just because you’re queer, Simon. You can celebrate just by being yourself.”

“...Yeah.” Simon smiles at him. “That’s way better.”

[mlm-mod-taka]

Hi! Pretty sure this counts as a headcanon request?? It’s not rlly an x reader thing either but you can make it that if you want :0 anyway can I request what you think Makoto, Hajime, and Shuichi’s texting style is like? If that makes sense. Thank you!

TEXTING HCS • makoto, hajime, shuichi

hello, so nice to see you requesting again! i decided to not make this an x reader for a change in paste, and i also put some general texting hcs to make this more interesting. i hope this is good for all of you!

tws/cws: none that i can think of.

|| -> mod taka <3

i feel like he just followes whatever texting style is most common and trending at the time. so, right now he chats in all lowercase without any punctuation other than commas, sometimes.

"hi!! good morning how are you :D" 100% uses emoticons way more compared to actual emojis on his phone. just thinks they convey what general vibe he has most of the time, plus most of the emojis he wants to use mean... very different things in his generation.

wants to use the "😇😂😬😀" emojis but they're all used very ironically with people his age, so he'd rather not have others misunderstand what he wants to say because of that fact.

will use the ":] :[ :< :o :/ :'(" text emoticons as well, thinks they're all very cute looking. just really likes those, but he's not the biggest fan of kaomojis or how they look.

the only ways he ends his sentences is usually with "!!", "-", one of his text emojis, or just not using anything to end it at all. thinks its very awkward to actually put a period at the end of his text, it intimidates him when others do it.

is also that one person that adds extra things to his messages so he sounds more nice and welcoming. "hey"? never heard of them. "heyy!! :D"? ah yes, his good old friend.

if you send him something funny, he'll chat you "BAHSHAHHA", or something along those lines. he doesn't do keyboard smashes since they're not his style, so he'll just say "baha" in all caps and a few different letters to express it.

the man just sounds like an average, friendly gen-zer. doesn't stand out too much, other than that he doesn't use actual emojis or kaomojis. is a very comforting man to text with.

he has auto capitalization on, so he wouldn't do the common lowercase thing going on right now. but, he doesn't use punctuation unless he's serious, so it's still pretty similar to how most of us chat.

uses tone indicators, because he's well aware that he makes some pretty strange/violent jokes at times. the ones he uses the most are "/j, /hj, /lh, /gen, /pos".

also uses emojis since he does know what all of the ironic meanings are, and think they're pretty funny. "Lol you are a homosexual but dw me too 😂😂 /j"

he thinks abbreviations are very convienent, so its in almost every one of his texts. if there is a way to shorten a certain term/saying, he will be the first to use it.

is that one guy that, on a whim, decides to use a random emoji, ends up liking it, then after that is the process of overusing it in every possible conversation, stopping gradually, and then choosing a new emoji. his newest emoji to overuse is the "👪" one.

uses it whenever he decides to simp over a fictional male character. he'll say something along the lines of "Hey can we 👪 please /hj" if you send him a photo of his current big crush.

has a whole album in his gallery for reaction photos and reaction videos. expect him to send really strange out of context photos in that big bold meme text you see everywhere. the man has a gigantic collection of those photos, and its hilarious.

the reaction photos he has are the ones with a bunch of people looking confused, that switches to a different face whenever the extremely bass boosted music makes a beat.

if you send him something funny, he will send you keyboard smashes, that often look very ugly. "IQYWIAUWIWUW" is what most of them look like and he doesn't know how to fix it, so please bear with him.

a very chaotic person to chat with. expect to be bombarded with a reaction photo that somehow matches the conversation perfectly, and a bunch of different videos with extremely loud music. he is a very fun person to text though.

uses proper punctuation, but types in lowercase when talking to his friends, and also adds alot of things to it so it doesn't actually look all that intimidating.

"hi! are you all free today? 😇" yes, he uses every single emoji genuinely and doesn't get any of the ironic meanings to them. please don't think he means anything else but nice things when he uses the "🥺" emoji, he's trying his best.

isn't the best at understanding lingo, even though he's a youngster himself. its to the point where he thinks "wtf" means "why the face". do excuse him if he tells you wtf when he can tell you're sad.

his phone has auto correct on and he doesn't know how to turn it off, so there are times when his messages don't make any sense because of his phone.

spells check all of his texts before sending them, so you will not find any typos or grammar errors in his chats. although, he does have trouble spelling restaurant, so please bear with him while he tries to spell it for a good three minutes.

actually uses kaomojis sometimes. he thinks they're cute when they're used sparingly. the ones he uses the most are "♡´･ᴗ･`♡" "(;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ`)" "(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞" and "ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ".

responds immediately. you dont know how, you dont know why, but he just does it. unless he's forbidden from using his phone, he'll almost always see and respond to your text right away.

is a fast typer, its just that he has to spell check. and because he types so fast, he often gets things wrong on the first try. have fun watching the texting bubble go on and off for a few minutes.

responds all at once compared to breaks and pieces, so maybe thats why it takes so long to him. he just prefers to have things in one place and be completely organized, even in texts.

is just a delight to have a vitual conversation with. he sees your messages, starts typing up a response, and uses alot of nice and cute kaomojis with it. 10/10.

[xynetak]

Last night, I killed my first open mic since the March 2020 lockdown. 🤘

I wasn’t expecting much from The Sandwich Factory Lounge and Sports Bar in Neffsville, PA, but the place was packed with old head blues rock biker types, with a few scattered withered millennials. (It was busy in a way that disconcerted me, a triple vaxxed human, but I know that’s something I will have to learn to get over as we move forward into an ever nearing post-COVID future)

I love doing open mics, because no one ever knows what to expect of me. Whether you’re a dude who’s been shredding for as long as I’ve been alive, or the owner of the coffee shop who set up the night, rarely am I pegged at first glance as someone who can competently perform. Probably because I’m a woman, but we’ll just gloss over that for the moment and get to the good part.

The gentleman who was clearly in charge, Jerry, wasn’t taken aback when I said I’d be performing by myself, but he looked a little disappointed. I was only allowed 3 songs, so I did 2 covers and an original. I tend to choose my songs based on the audience, so I decided to open with Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz (for the withered millennials), then do Sellout (gotta have an original, may as well play a classic where my voice sounds good), and then finish out with White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (always a hit, especially with the boomers and older gen Xers).

Realizing how long it’s been since I played White Rabbit with a full band (over a decade, been a long time since Wonderland), I decided to bite the silver bullet and ask Jerry if he knew the song. The way his eyes lit up- “I love that song. We can back you up on bass, too”. I had instantly made a friend.

I signed up for slot 3, so I didn’t have to wait long to play, but I am not exaggerating when I say I had absolutely no fucking clue what I had walked into.

First off, there was a house band. A full house band. One of the dudes played keyboard and bass and sang at the same time, VERY WELL, mind you. I don’t know if they think of themselves as the house band or just as the dudes who show up every week, but you could tell they all knew each other and knew how to play together. It was also as loud as a stadium concert for some reason, maybe because most of the clientele was people over 50 who have been attending rock shows since their teens.

I was almost nervous to follow them, but fortunately a teenage girl butchered a cover of Wonderwall to take care of being the one absolute bomb of the night. Poor kid, it happens to the best of us.

Soon it came time for me to fly solo into uncharted territory, and of course I forgot a battery for my guitar, so we tried to mic her, then that didn’t work because she’s quiet as hell, so I asked if I could borrow the last dude’s acoustic guitar. He graciously agreed and helped me get set up.

I love when a room gets quiet for me. It starts slowly; like a wave, and some people never shut up, but it sort of echoes out from front row. They realize I’m doing something worth paying attention to, and their conversations slow. Their heads turn. Suddenly, someone is trying to turn my mic up, or the volume up, or something to hear me over the din. I finished Clint Eastwood to round of pleasant applause, but I don’t know how many people recognized it, just that I was doing something vocally that intrigued them.

Next came Sellout, which is when I just decide to floor it. These dudes had been shredding and being loud all night and I don’t get to use my Big Girl Belt that often. I growled. I wailed. I let my voice consume my throat and swallow up all the air in the room. I let myself howl. This time it was a much more enthusiastic round of applause.

Now, it was time for me to join the Sandwich Factory Rotating Blues Rock Quartet. Jerry hopped on drums and I turned to Mr. Keys-Bass so he could see what chords I was playing. I left lead guitarist to figure it out, he’d been lighting up his fretboard all night so I knew he’d be fine.

And when I say we played White Rabbit, I mean WE PLAYED WHITE RABBIT.

And when I say I sang White Rabbit, I mean, I SANG WHITE RABBIT. That song is a journey that I will enjoy taking every single time I am privileged enough to fully do so. Big Girl Belt and all. There’s just something I can feel that changes in me when I’m singing to my full power, a switch that flicks off, or is it on? I don’t know yet.

Commence the thunderous applause.

Commence people coming up to high five me the rest of the night.

Commence the “where did you come from”

The “Who is Kate Nyx?”

The “you’ve really got something”

I’m thinking about going back next week. 🖤

[strideofpride]

Gossip Girl and Old Money vs. New Money

tldr: I broke down the family background and class status of the Archibald/Van der Bilt, Bass, Rhodes/Van der Woodsen, and Waldorf families. Because even among the 1%, old money vs. new money is still a very real difference to them.

Archibald/Van der Bilt (aka Vanderbilt) family: In the world of the show, Nate's family is presented as the oldest money of them all. His mom is a Vanderbilt (spelled Van der Bilt on the show presumably for legal reasons) a real wealthy American family. Although, among the insanely wealthy, the Vanderbilts are technically not old money. In America, old money technically refers to families who made their money prior to the Revolutionary War. Anything else is technically new money (although one anthropologist has stated starting from the 1930s on you can refer to the Vanderbilts as old money - they would just be Lower-Upper compared to an Upper-Upper family that made their money in the 1600/1700s). The Vanderbilts didn't make their money until the Gilded Age and they did it by building a shipping and railroad empire. To my knowledge, the real Vanderbilts are not a political family; the show probably took from the Kennedys there.

The Archibald family, on the other hand, are clearly not old money. I don't remember specific scenes or episodes off the top of my head, but that's implied throughout all of Anne and Howard's interactions and you can just sense it in their dynamic. I do think Howard probably still grew up rich what with Dartmouth and all (also let's be real, Anne wouldn't have married him if he wasn't), but he was probably a first gen rich boy, and I think that tracks with him going into Wall Street and investment banking instead of something more "proper". Also I think it's canon that William Van der Bilt purchased the family home and boat for them? So yeah.

Bass family: The Bass family on the other hand is as new money as they come. Bart might be evil sure, but he's truly a self-made man (or as self-made as a billionaire can be - no one earns a billion dollars without exploitation of their workers - but Bart was canonically born poor). In 107, it's established that a lot of Bart's resentment of Chuck comes from the fact that Chuck was born and raised in privilege while Bart came from nothing.

The Bass family is primarily a real estate family, owning hotels and buildings. Obviously, I have to make the most obvious family comparison here: the Trumps. The Bass family is a rival of the Trumps in the show and I think there is an obvious parallel of Bart as Fred, the shady developer who built his family fortune from the ground up using dubious methods, and Chuck as Donald, the son who earned none of what he was handed, a sexual predator, and all around asshole who ended up taking his father's company and running it into the ground multiple times. (God I'm just realizing that if Chuck was real and ran for president he'd unfortunately probably win too).

In the books I think the Bass family even owns the Plaza, just like Trump did, although this was probably changed to the Palace in the show since they were more willing to let them film regularly there.

Rhodes/Van der Woodsen family: In reality, the oldest money of them all would probably be the Van der Woodsens. Van der Woodsen is a Dutch name, and that implies that they are a family that has been in New York since it was New Amsterdam, such as the Stuyvesant, Gansevoort, Schuyler (yes like the sisters from Hamilton), and Van Cortlandt families (I believe this is the case in the books). And yes, doctors make good money, sure, but you can't afford a penthouse apartment in Manhattan on a doctor's salary, let alone yachts or private jets or anything else Serena and Eric seemed to have grown up with. I think it's safe to assume that William comes from a very wealthy family.

Now the Rhodes family on the other hand is more complicated. Cece married a record executive and moved out to California with him. However, she clearly came from an elite Upper East Side family and I think this tracks with her choosing to raise her children in Montecito, a classier, more traditional and conservative neighborhood up in Santa Barbara compared to rich Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Beverly Hills and Brentwood. (Although did she live in Los Angeles with Rick pre-divorce and only moved herself and the girls up there after the split? Unclear.)

In 113 though, Blair makes reference to the Waldorf name and reputation while disparaging Serena, implying that her and her family have a trashier reputation. So my guess is that Cece marrying a record exec and raising her kids out in California probably knocked her down a peg in Upper East Side society. Lily probably gained some of that prestige back by marrying a Van der Woodsen, but then the three divorces by the time of the pilot probably sunk them back down again.

Waldorf family: The Waldorf family is the most confusing one to decipher. The name Waldorf obviously makes you think of the Waldorf Astoria (I'm sure that's where Cecily von Ziegesar got the name from) and the Astor family, one of the Upper Upper old money families of America. Waldorf actually comes from Walldorf, the name of the town in Germany the Astors were originally from. However, the show Waldorfs seem to bear no relation to the Astors or the hotel.

Harold almost certainly came from money. He went to Yale, and I believe he was a lawyer? Which again, sure, lawyers make good money, but not Manhattan penthouse, French chateau, and private jet money. There must have been family money involved.

Eleanor, on the other hand, I'm not so sure. She seems like a self-made woman and she makes a big deal in season 2 when Blair considers not going to college and going down the Maureen van der Bilt path about how "Waldorf women are not socialites". Also it does not seem to be a big deal for her at all to marry a Jewish man (Cyrus), something that might be different if she was a true born and bred blue blood WASP.

And certainly successful fashion designers can be extremely wealthy (Ralph Lauren's net worth is estimated at 7 billion), but Waldorf Designs is clearly a much smaller company than Ralph Lauren (it's not even public). She probably has a net worth in the tens of millions, but believe it or not that's still not regular access to private jet money. Which makes me think Harold almost certainly does have family money. And again, this tracks since in 113 it's made clear that the name Waldorf means something in Upper East Side society. So my guess would be that the Waldorf family is closer to old money than new money. But still nowhere near the level of the Van der Bilts.

[utau-bowl]

Looking at all the Voicebanks on the Arpasing website

This is a project that took a good amount of time to write and publish, so I’m glad I’m finally here! For context, there is an unofficial Arpasing website with reclists, plugins, and USTs to use. There’s also a list of avilable Arpasing voicebanks to try out, and here’s where I had the idea to download and talk about-all of them. These will generally be pretty short, but I hope they’re at least somewhat informative. Many of these voicebanks are in beta/unfinished to a degree, so keep that in mind. Since a lot of these are old beta voices, if you don’t want your VB on here, just send me a message and I’ll delete it.

All of these voices can be downloaded at the Voicebank Directory on the Arpasing site. 

A few of the links on the site didn’t work, so sorry Cherry, Daichi Hayashi, and Armani. I’m also not including the Arpasing prototype VB since it’s just recordings and has no oto. For people who don’t know much about arpasing: 0.1.0 is the original version of Arpasing with 219 samples, and 0.2.0 is an updated later version made by Kanru Hua that has 334 samples. I also bring up the alveolar tap a little bit. The alveolar tap is a consonant common in american English (it’s the “tt” sound in butter, better, and letter). Since Arpasing was optimized for American English, it’s surprising that most of the reclists for it don’t include the alveolar tap! So I might point that out when I see it added into a vb.

Aero-gen Shinsu by Wolfe Nebula

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 3 ※Has FRQs?: Some Aero is a mild adolescent sounding voice with lots of noise. He generally sounds pretty sweet and light, I love his voice a lot! There is a decent anount of background noise, which some may be picky about. Still, it doesn’t affect the quality much and he works with most resamplers. Putting high BRE on him makes him sound pretty good. I generally had no issues with his oto, but the CC transitions aren’t otoed very well and some are off time.

Aino Erufu by Jasputing

※Reclist: 0.2.0  ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes, also has full llsm and pmk files Aino has a very unique voice acted timbre, and it’s almost difficult to find a song to match her. But when you do, she’s a sweetie. ^^ She has a sweet, louder voice and sounds best above A3, or even higher in the soprano range.  She is touchy with resamplers but works well with fresamp and world4utau.

Aki Toka/幸兔雪  by Yukito Yuki 

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes Aki is clear and strong and has a good tone. good tone, clear. has full frqs. got one of my favorite accents. Despite being monopitch, he has a very wide range and can go a little below his stated range of F3-C5. The mid/low range sounds best though imo. He comes with a guide for aliasing for those new to Arpasing, and a list of all the sounds which were affected by the VP’s accent. The Finnish accent does come through in the vowels and ending consonants, but the duplicates allow for more varied pronunciation so it’s not a big deal. Akihana ENG [radiance] D3_beta by Lunamageice ※Reclist: 0.1.0, uses phonetic filenames  ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes Akihana has a low, rich, full voice that’s good in bass and baritone range. I’ve used his VCCV before, but the Arpasing actually has more natural pronunciation. It has been in beta all this time, but it’s still worth it to use because of the rarity of this voicetype in UTAU. Angus by ReticentResolve

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes    I was blown away by how good Angus was! He’s a deep, soft masculine voice ranged F2-G4 with a nasal quality. He comes with a tripitch VCV JP bank for those who’d want that too. The mic he was recorded on picked up a lot of background noise and makes him sound muffled, but he’s still a decent vb.

AWG YukiList verKLAD by Adlez27 ※Reclist: YukiList with modifications ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No This is an example voicebank for the Yukilist arpasing recording style created by YukitoYuki. It has 800+ samples and a lot more coverage than basic Arpasing. It’s a tenor vb with a mild tone. The alveolar tap (dx) samples are in a separate folder for some reason and aren’t fully otoed, but they work fine. Some of the VC transitions aren’t configured correctly, but generally the oto is good.

Canary by SlightlyShredded

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 (D3) ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm Canary has a really pleasant voice! He’s a sweet, fruity baritone with power in his voice. He’s very suitable for pop/edm. His oto kept spitting out errors while I used him but he sounds mostly fine despite that. 

Eon_Arpasing by fmccaddy12 ※Reclist: Custom (made by fmccaddy12) ※Number of pitches: 2 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm Eon is a very realistic baritone voice. He sounds a little congested but is overall one of the best voicebanks on this list. He can be pushed a bit out of his range As far as I’m aware, his official site/character revamp is not done yet but his dl is still up on this website. Not even sure if I should share the link but it is still up publicly...

Hailey Denali by CatMoun

※Reclist: Custom  ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm  Hailey has one of the cutest tones one of all these voicebanks. She’s very nasal and sounds almost voice acted. Her reclist is 500+ samples long and doesn’t lack anything. However, all the vowels and most of the consonants are 2-3 syllables. Hailey also comes with an automatic updater.

鳳鐘ユウリ(Houshou Yuuri) by さきた (Sakita) 

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Some  Yuuri has a range of about A3-D5. She has a heavy Japanese accent but a decent range. She’s very emotional and pretty sounding, especially in the higher ranges. Though, if you want to use her, know that her oto requires a lot of fixing, as a lot of VC transitions are configured incorrectly.

Johatsun Kikuro Arpasing by Awes0meBr0/Biohazard-P

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm/bak/pmk   He has very quiet samples which causes lots of distortion in the program. Nevertheless, he still manages to sound realistic somehow-? He reminds me of older vocal synths like Microsoft Sam almost. I did mess around a bit with resamplers/flags for Kikuro and the best combination I’ve found so far was f2resamp and F0g1H20h0C10. Using Kikuro requires some effort but he’s sill pretty good.

Kara Kokone by SunGuardian524

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 5 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Some  Kara is most impressive for being one of the UTAU with the highest number of pitches on this list- each of them has a different tone, with one being a falsetto and another being a shout pitch. Her range is pretty wide, reaching almost into alto and being able to hit the high soprano notes too. However, this bank really does feel like a beta that hasn’t been touched in a while. It doesn’t have a fully configured prefix.map and the oto is pretty off and requires a lot of adjusting. I also wish she used a more comprehensive form of the reclist, since there is a lot missing. At least there’s a lot of duplicate entries.

Kayaka Konagi Arpasing(English) by こむぎこ (Komugiko)  ※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes Konagi is very good, her pronunciation is clear and she has a nice tone. She is a bit finicky with resamplers and flags, probably meant to be used with default settings. She does have a Japanese accent but it’s a little less pronounced than Yuuri’s.

Kevin Futarine STUDIO (VP2 Arpasing) by FRAloids

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No  Kevin is another baritone voice with a youthful flavor. It has a good amount of flexibility, being sort of emotional and soft sounding but also capable of producing a bright, clear sound. He was recorded at E3 but has a flexible range and even sounds good higher. His pronunciation is pretty on point, but the t/d are a little mixed up. His dh sounds are also so short they’re hard to hear at times. The oto is generally good but might need some adjusting out of the box. He has a ton of extra samples of sighs, laughs, whispers, etc. I’ve been a Kevin fan for years and this voicebank definitely keeps the tone his Japanese vbs have.

Kii Nane by kii ※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Some   Kii Nane is a sugary sweet voice that sounds best at C4 and above. Her samples have a lot of reverb, and there is some background noise which affects the output. Her pronunciation is very good, but a little slurred and off because of the engine noise. Resamplers are hit or miss, she does sound good with world4utau though.

Koyanagi Sayuki DEITY by Mango-tama

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 4 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No, but has full llsm  Sayuki is a very realistic voice ranged F#3-G5. Her low range is soft and her mid/high range is loud and clear. Lovely to tune and use in anything, I don’t have much negative to say about her.

Koyanagi Takehiko_TSUNAMI (BETA) by Mango-tama

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 (G3) ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No, but has full llsm Takehiko is very cool sounding and bassy, and the voice acting makes him distinct from his sister. His best range is from D3 to G4 and he has sorta a soft tone that can be boosted via resamplers. He sounds great with f2resamp.

KYE by WinterdrivE

※Reclist: 0.1.0 + a few Alveolar tap samples ※Number of pitches: 5 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No, but has full llsm Kye needs no introduction-he’s the guy who got most of us interested in Arpasing in the first place! His abundance of pitches works in his favor. He’s probably the best of these voicebanks to just plug and play to learn how to use Arpasing-if you don’t mind waiting for all those 1000+ frqs to generate. He is by far the best in baritone/bass range. A lot of the D4 pitch actually has pitch/frequency issues that can’t be fixed without workarounds, so using him from B2-C4 is your best bet-or just using a different pitch for the higher ranges. He does have a sort-of lisp but overall, not many oto or pronunciation issues.

Marie Kagekine Arpasing (v1.0) by AdagioFantasque

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes +  some llsm, pmk, and uspec  Marie is an operatic voicebank who tries to recapture the charm of Prima in an UTAU format. She has a wide range of B3-F5 and a mature, yet high and bright, sound. She has some of the best understandability out of any of these voicebanks. I really like her <3

Mikone Samu by codyboyo

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes Samu/Sam is a port of Microsoft Sam done in a similar way to how Defoko was made. He’s a crisp sounding masculine low voice. Due to the samples being short, he can sound very stilted. But for a jinriki (?) like this, he is very high quality.

Resonance Harmony (Arpasing English) by Hazu/パワ 

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 6 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes I have a lot to say about Harmony, and no good way of wording it. Okay. Resonance is very nasally and high, she has 3 base pitches plus growl, power, and whisper appends, and some vocal fry. Conceptually, she seems like a pretty good bank but I’ve always had trouble using her...it feels like a hit or miss on whether she’ll sound good or not. She sounds decent with f2resamp and w4utau but not many flags make her sound better. If anyone else wants to download her and play around, I’d love to hear it.

Rose Mae Arpasing BETA by Monochrome Rose ※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm Rose has a bright, tomboyish, androgynous voice. The readme file notifies us of the non-native accent in the vb. It does have a drawl and some of the consonants aren’t recorded/otoed right, but overall the vb sounds very smooth. Honestly, I care more about recording conditions/oto/general feel than accent most of the time, and Rose does well in those ways.

Ryuunosuke Aoyama by Mattsuran 

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 (B3) ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes + llsm Ryuunosuke is a childish, boyish voice with a strong Chilean accent. I think this vb may have actually been recorded by a kid, so that’s a point for uniqueness at least. He sounds best with fresamp and f2resamp. He has a gentle tone that can work in a lot of different ranges.

Tarek by Tadashi

※Reclist: 0.1.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 (B2) ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No, has llsm Tarek has a clear, loud tone with a noticeable lisp. UTAU recommends using him as a baritone, but I found putting him into higher ranges generally worked too. His samples sound less like singing and more like talking. He was recorded on a midquality mic which causes some distortion in the output. Still, I think his voice is really cute and I’m a sucker for baritones.

Thoma by Nythoma

※Reclist: 0.2.0 + vocal fry/alveolar tap ※Number of pitches: 1 (F#3) ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes   Thoma is an androgynous alto/mezo soprano. They have a soft, plasticy sort of feeling to their voice. They sound best from C3-F5. I feel a little..weird linking to/talking about Thoma since they were redesigned and are supposed to be a private voicebank, but the download is still linked on this site. Also please check out Nythoma when you get a chance, they make the best Arpasing USTs which helped me a lot while making this post. I feel like I haven’t checked in on anyone here in a while. How are you doing? I’ve written most of this post within the span of a few days and I think my brain is not capable of producing any thoughts other than “monopitch.”

Tsubasa Arugo Arpasing (BETA) by WinterStar

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 1 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: Yes   Tsubasa has a soft, androgynous voice that sounds best from E3-A4. The samples are full of static, which causes some distortion. The ending vowel sounds also cut off too much at the beginning, making them too breathy. Still, it’s always nice to see another soft vb.

Xiao Meihua by 実偽Migi

※Reclist: 0.2.0 ※Number of pitches: 2 ※Has fully generated FRQs?: No Meihua has a realistic mature voice that’s also sweet and friendly sounding. She has a sort of low voice, and sounds the best from G3-C5. The download comes with a natural vb and a Sweet append, both monopitch. I listed them as being different pitches because they aren’t recorded at the same note. The Sweet voicebank is nasal and stronger too-it sounds more solid than sweet. She’s one of the vbs on this list that sounds the best with little to no edits. Her oto is smooth as butter :0

And that’s all of them done! Thank you SO much for reading if you got this far, seriously. You are what makes writing this blog worth it <3

Also I wanted to list my favorites of the bunch! This isn’t meant to pit any vb against each other or anything, just the ones I’m likely to go back to. -Canary -Eon -Xiao Meihua -Marie Kagekine -Kii Nane -Aki Toka -Thoma -Kevin Futarine Studio

Who are your favorites?

[sinceileftyoublog]

Riot Fest 2021: 9/16-9/19, Douglass Park

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Much like Pitchfork Music Festival earlier this month, this past weekend’s Riot Fest felt relatively normal. Arriving at Douglas Park every day, you were greeted by the usual deluge of attendees in Misfits t-shirts and dyed hair, the sound of faint screams and breakneck guitars and drums emanating from nearby stages. The abnormal aspects of the fest, at least as compared to previous incarnations, we’re already used to by now from 2021 shows: To get in, you had to show proof of vaccination and/or a negative test no older than 48 hours, which means that unvaxxed 4-day attendees had to get multiple tests. Props to the always awesome staff at Riot Fest for actually checking the cards against the names on government-issued IDs.

For a festival that dealt with a plethora of last-minute changes due to bands dropping out because of COVID-19 caution (Nine Inch Nails, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr.) or other reasons (Faith No More/Mr. Bungle because of concerns around Mike Patton’s well-being), there were very few bumps in the road. Whether Riot Fest had bands like Slipknot, Anthrax, or Rise Against in their back pocket as replacements or not, it very much felt like who we saw Thursday-Sunday was always supposed to be the lineup, even when laying your eyes on countless “Death to the Pixies” shirts. Sure, one of the fest’s main gimmicks--peeling back the label on Goose Island’s Riot Fest Sucks Pale Ale to reveal the schedule--was out of date with inaccurate set times and bands, and it still would have been so had Faith No More and Mr. Bungle stayed, since Fucked Up had to drop out last minute due to border issues. But the festival, as always, rolled with the punches.

The sets themselves offered the circle pit and crowdsurfing-inducing punk and metal you’re used to, with a few genre outliers. For so many bands of all styles, Riot Fest represented their first live show in years, and a few acts knew the exact number of days since their last show. For every single set, the catharsis in the crowd and on stage was palpable, not exactly anger, or elation, but pure release.

Here were our favorite sets of the festival, in chronological order.

WDRL

Last October, WDRL (which, amazingly, stands for We Don’t Ride Llamas) announced themselves with a Tweet: “y’all been looking for an alt black band,, well here you go”. A band of Gen Z siblings, Chase (lead guitar), Max (lead vocals), Blake (drums), and Kit Mitchell (bass guitar), WDRL is aware, much like Meet Me @ The Altar (who, despite my hyping, I couldn’t make it in time to see) that they’re one of too few bands of POCs in the Riot Fest-adjacent scene. Their set, one of the very first of the weekend during Thursday’s pre-party, showed them leading by example, the type of band to inspire potentially discouraged Black and brown folks to start punk bands. Max is a terrific vocalist, able to scream over post-punk, scat over funk, and coo over slow, soulful R&B swayers with the same ease. The rest of the band was equally versatile, able to pivot on a dime from scuzzy rock to hip hop to twinkling dream pop. Bonus points for covering Splendora’s “You’re Standing On My Neck”, aka the Daria theme song.

Joyce Manor

Joyce Manor’s self-titled debut is classic. The best part of it as an album play-through at a festival? It’s so short that you can hear it and you’ll still have half a set for other favorites. So while the bouncy “Orange Julius”", “Ashtray Petting Zoo”, and ultimate singalong “Constant Headache” were set highlights, the Torrance, CA band was able to burn through lots from Never Hungover Again, Cody, Million Dollars to Kill Me, and their rarities collection Songs From Northern Torrance. Apart from not playing anything from Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired (seriously, am I the only one who loves that record?), Joyce Manor were stellar, from the undeniable hooks of “Heart Tattoo” to the churning power chords of “Catalina Fight Song”. After playing “Christmas Card”, Johnson and company gave one final nod to the original fest cancellation, My Chemical Romance, who were slated to headline 2020, then 2021, and now 2022. If you ever wondered what it would sound like hearing a concise punk band like Joyce Manor take on the bombast of “Helena”, you found out. Hey, it was actually pretty good!

Patti Smith

Behold: a full Patti Smith set! After being shafted by the weather last time around, a sunglasses-laden Smith decided not to fuck around, leading with the inspiring “People Have The Power”, her voice as powerful as I’ve ever heard it. Maybe it was the influence of Riot Fest, but she dropped as many f-bombs as Corey Taylor did during Slipknot’s Sunday night headlining set. After reluctantly signing an adoring crowd member’s copy of Horses, she quipped, “I feel bad for you have to cart that fucking thing around.” It wasn’t just the filthy banter: This was Smith at her most enraptured and incendiary, belting during “Because The Night” and spitting during a “Land/Gloria” medley, reciting stream-of-consciousness hallucinogenic lyrics about the power of escape in the greatest display of stamina the festival had to offer.

Circa Survive

“It feels good to dance,” declared Circa Survive lead singer Anthony Green. The heart and soul of the Philadelphia rock band, who cover ground from prog rock to post-hardcore and emo, Green was in full form during the band’s early Friday set, his falsetto carrying the rolling “The Difference Between Medicine and Poising Is in the Dose” and the chugging “Rites of Investiture”. While the band, too, can throw down, they’re equally interesting when softer and more melodic, Brendan Ekstrom‘s twinkling guitars lifting “Child of the Desert” and “Suitcase”. Ending with the one-two punch of debut Juturna’s introspective “Act Appalled” and Blue Sky Noise’s skyward “Get Out”, Green announced the band would have a new record coming soon, one you hope will cover the sonic and thematic ground of even just those two tracks.

Thrice

Thrice played their first show since February 2020 the same day they’d release their 11th studio album, Horizons/East (Epitaph). To a crowd of fans that came to hear their favorite songs, though, the Irvine, California band knew better than to play a lot of the new record, instead favoring tracks like The Artist in the Ambulance’s spritely title cut and Vheissu standout “The Earth Will Shake”. Yeah, they led with a Horizons/East song making its live debut, the dreamy, almost Deftones-esque “Scavengers”, and later in the set they’d reveal the impassioned “Summer Set Fire to the Rain”. But the set more prominently served to emphasize lead vocalist Dustin Kensrue’s gruff delivery, on “All the World Is Mad” and “in Exile”, the rhythm section’s propulsive playing buoying his fervency. And how about Teppei Teranishi’s finger tapping on “Black Honey”?!? Thrice often favor the slow build-up, but they offered plenty of individually awesome moments.

Smashing Pumpkins

William Patrick Corgan entered the stage to dramatic strings, dressed in a robe, with white face paint except for red hearts under his eyes. He looked like a ghost. That’s pretty much where the semi-serious theatricality ended. The Smashing Pumpkins’ first Chicago festival headlining set in recent memory was the rawest they’ve sounded in a while, counting when they played an original lineup-only set at the United Center a few years back. It was also the most fun I’ve ever seen Corgan have on stage. Though they certainly selected and debuted from their latest electropop turn Cyr, Corgan, guitarist James Iha, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, and company more notably dug deep into the vault, playing Gish’s “Crush” for the first time since 2008, Adore’s “Shame” for the first time since 2010, and Siamese Dream barnburner “Quiet” for the first time since 1994 (!). Best, every leftfield disco jam like set opener “The Colour Of Love”, “Cyr”, and “Ramona” was quickly followed by something heavy and/or recognizable, Chamberlin’s limber drum solos elevating even latter-day material like “Solara”. At one point, Corgan, a self-described “arty fuck,” admitted that years ago he would have opted for more experimental material, but he knew the crowd wanted to hear classics, the band then delving into a gorgeous acoustic version of “Tonight, Tonight”. And while Kate Bush coverer Meg Myers came out to sing Lost Highway soundtrack industrial ditty “Eye”, it was none other than legendary local shredder Michael Angelo Batio who stole the show, joining for the set closer, a pummeling version of Zeitgeist highlight “United States”. Leaning into the cheese looks good on you, Billy.

The Bronx

Credit to L.A. punk rock band The Bronx, playing early on a decidedly cooler Saturday early afternoon, for making me put in my earplugs outside of the photo pit. Dedicating “Shitty Future” to Fucked Up (who, as we mentioned, had to drop out), the entire band channeled Damian Abraham’s energy on piercing versions of “Heart Attack American” as well as “Superbloom” and “Curb Feelers” from their latest album Bronx VI (Cooking Vinyl). Joby J. Ford and Ken Horne’s guitars stood out, providing choppy rhythms on “Knifeman” and swirling solos on “Six Days A Week”.

Big Freedia

The New Orleans bounce artist has Big Diva Energy, for the most part. After her DJ pumped up the crowd to contemporary Southern rap staple “Ayy Ladies” by Travis Porter, Big Freedia walked out and showed that “BDE”, firing through singles like “Platinum” and “N.O. Bounce” as her on-stage dancers’ moves ranged from delicate to earth-shaking. At this point, Freedia can pretty much do whatever she wants, effortlessly segueing between a cover of Drake’s “Nice For What” to “Strut”, her single with electropop DJ Elohim, to a cover of Beyone’s “Formation”. Of course, the set highlight was when she had volunteers from the crowd come up and shake and twerk--two at a time to keep it COVID-safe--all while egging them on to go harder. Towards the end of the set, after performing the milquetoast “Goin’ Looney” from the even-worse-than-expected Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack, she pulled out the beloved “Gin in my System”. “I got that gin in my system,” she sang, the crowd singing back, “Somebody gonna be my victim,” a refrain that compositionally not only leaves plenty of room for the thundering bass but is thematically a statement of total power--over sexism, racism, the patriarchy--even in the face of control-altering substances.

Les Savy Fav

During Les Savy Fav’s set, lead singer Tim Harrington at various points--*big breath*--went into the crowd, deepthroated an audience member’s mohawk spike, found a discarded manikin head with a wig on it, revealed the words “deep” and “dish” painted on his thighs and a drawing of a Red Hot on his back, rode a crowd member like a horse, made a headband out of pink tape, donned ski goggles, surfed on top of a door carried by the crowd, squeezed his belly while the camera was on it to make it look like his belly button was singing, and referred to himself as a “slippery eel.” Indeed, the legend of Les Savy Fav’s live show starts and ends with Harrington’s ridiculous antics, as he’s all but out of breath when actually singing dance-punk classics like “Hold On To Your Genre”, “The Sweat Descends”, and “Rome (Written Upside Down)”. We haven’t heard much in terms of new music from Les Savy Fav in over 10 years--their most recent album was 2010′s Root For Ruin--but I could see them and the extremely Aughts genre in general become staples of Riot Fest as albums like Inches, The Rapture’s Echoes, and !!!’s Louden Up Now reach the 20-year mark. Dynamic vocalists, tight bands, and killer grooves: What’s not to love?

State Champs

This set likely wins the award for “most immediate crowd surfers,” which I guess is to be expected when you begin your set with a classic track 1--album 1 combination. “Elevated” is the State Champs number that will cause passers-by to stop and watch a couple songs, the type of song that can pretty much only open or close a set. And because they opened with it, the crowd immediately ramped up the energy. It’s been three years since the last State Champs full-length, Living Proof, so they were in prime position to play some new songs. As such, they performed their bubblegummy “Outta My Head” and “Just Sound” and faithfully covered Fall Out Boy’s “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago” (releasing a studio version earlier this week). But the tracks from The Finer Things and Around the World and Back were, as usual, the highlights, like “All You Are Is History”, “Remedy”, “Slow Burn”, and set closer “Secrets”. At the end of the day, it didn’t entirely matter: The crowd knew every word of every song.

Bayside

Putting State Champs and Bayside back-to-back on the same stage made an easy decision for the many pop-punk bands at Riot Fest. Bayside’s been at it for twice as long, so the breadth of their setlist across their discography is more variable. Moreover, they’ve thrice revisited their discography with acoustic albums of old songs, so even their staples are subject to change. They provided solid versions of Killing Time standouts “Already Gone” and “Sick, Sick, Sick”, Cult’s “Pigsty”, and older songs like their self-titled’s “Montauk” and Sirens and Condolences’ “Masterpiece”. For “Don’t Call Me Peanut”, though, they brought out--*gasp*--an acoustic guitar! It was a rare moment not just for one of the most popular pop punk sets but the festival in general, a breather before Vacancy shout-along “Mary”.

Rancid

“Rancid has always been anti-fascist and anti-racist,” said Tim Armstrong before the band played “Hooligans”. It was nice to hear an explicit declaration of solidarity from the street punks, reminding the crowd what really matters and why we come together to scream and mosh. The band expectedly favored ...And Out Come The Wolves, playing almost half of it, and they perfectly balanced their harder edges with more celebratory ska songs like “Where I’m Going” from their most recent album Trouble Maker (Hellcat/Epitaph). My two favorite moments? The breezy, keyboard-laden “Fall Back Down” from their supremely underrated 2001 album Indestructable, and when they asked the crowd whether they wanted the set to end with “Time Bomb” or “Ruby Soho”. “We have 4 minutes left, and it’s disrespectful to play over your set time,” said Armstrong. It’s easy to see why Rancid continues to make an impression--instrumental and moral--on touring bands new and old.

Run the Jewels

The brilliant hip hop duo are masters of balancing social consciousness with the desire to fuck shit up for fun. Live, the former tends to come in between-song banter, the latter with their actual charismatic, tit-for-tat performances of the songs. However, Run the Jewels also are probably the clearest live performers in hip hop today, Killer Mike and El-P’s words, hypersexual and woke alike, ringing in the ears of audience members who don’t even know the songs. (Looking around, I could see people smiling and laughing at every dick joke, nodding at each righteous proclamation.) Some of the best songs on their most recent album RTJ4 (Jewel Runners/BMG) are perfect for these multitudes. Hearing both RTJ MCs and the backing track of Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha chanting “Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar” on “JU$T” as the rowdy crowd bounced up and down was the ultimate festival moment. For those who had never seen RTJ, it was clear from the get-go, as Killer Mike and EL-P traded bars on “yankee and the brave (ep. 4)” that they’re a unique hip hop act. For the rest of us, it was clear that Run the Jewels keep getting better.

The Gories

It felt a little weird that legendary Detroit trio The Gories were given the first set of the final day--I’d have thought they’d have more draw than that. No matter what, they provided one of the more satisfying and stylistically varied sets of the festival, showcasing their trademark balance of garage punk and blues. Mick Collins and Dan Kroha’s guitar and vocal harmonies were the perfect jangly balance to Peggy O’Neill’s meat and potatoes drumming on “Sister Ann” and “Charm Bag”, while folks less familiar with The Gories were treated to their fantastic covers of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” and The Keggs’ “To Find Out”. Smells like time for the first Gories album in 20 years!

FACS

I thought it would be ill-fitting to watch a band like FACS in the hot sun, early in the day. Their monochrome brand of post-punk seems better suited for a dimly lit club. But the hypnotic nature of Brian Case’s swirling guitar and Alianna Kalaba’s slinky bass was oddly perfect in a sweltering, faint-inducing heat. Just when you thought you might fade, squalls of feedback and Noah Leger’s odd time signatures picked you back up. Songs from their new album Present Tense (Trouble In Mind) such as “Strawberry Cough” and “XOUT” were emblematic of this push-pull. And everything from the band’s red, white, and black color palate to their lack of stage banter suggested a cool minimalism that was rare at a festival that tends to book more outwardly emotional bands.

Alex G

On one hand, Alex G’s unique combination of twangy alt country and earnest indie rock makes him an outlier at Riot Fest, or at the very least a mostly Pitchfork/occasional Riot Fest type of booking. On the other hand, like a lot of bands at the festival, he has a rabid fanbase, one that knows his back catalog hits, like “Kute”, “Kicker”, and “Bug”, as much as if not more than hyped Rocket and House of Sugar singles, like “Bobby” and “Gretel”. Backed by a band that knows when to be loose and when to tighten up--and the instrumental chops to do so--Alex G was better than he was a Pitchfork three years ago. He still sings through his teeth, making it especially hard to hear him on louder tunes such as “Brick”. But when the honesty of his vocals combines with the dreamy guitars of “Southern Sky” and circular melodies of “Near”, it’s pure bliss. 

HEALTH

The formula for the LA industrial noise band has pretty much always been Jake Duzsik’s soft vocals contrasting John Famiglietti’s screeching bass and pedals and BJ Miller’s mammoth drums. Both in 2018 and Sunday at Riot Fest, the heat affected Famiglietti’s pedals, which were nonetheless obscured by tarp. Or so HEALTH claimed: You wouldn’t know the difference given how much their sound envelops your whole body during one of their live sets. Since their previous appearance at the festival, the prolific band has released two new records on Loma Vista, Vol. 4: Slaves of Fear and collaboration record Disco4: Part 1. Songs from those records occupied half of their excellent set, including battering opener “GOD BOTHERER”, “BODY/PRISON”, and “THE MESSAGE”. It was so wonderfully loud it drowned out K.Flay’s sound check drummer, thank the lord.

Thursday

Last time Thursday played Riot Fest, Geoff Rickly was battling heroin addiction, something he talked about during the band’s triumphant late afternoon set on Sunday. He mentioned the kindness of the late, great Riley Gale of Power Trip in extending a helping hand when he was down and extended his love to anybody in the crowd or even the world at large going through something similar. To say that this set was life-affirming would be an understatement; after 636 days of no shows, Rickly was at his most passionate. He introduced “Signals Over The Air” as a song the band “wrote about men beating up on women in the pit,” that a record exec at the time told them that it wouldn’t age well because he thought--no kidding--sexism would eventually end. Rickly’s voice, suffering from sound issues last time around, simply soared during Full Collapse’s “Cross Out The Eyes”, No Devolucion’s “Fast to the End”, and two inspired covers: Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” and Texas Is The Reason’s “If It's Here When We Get Back It's Ours”. The latter the band played because TITR guitarist Norman Brannon’s actually on tour with them, though Rickly emphasized the influence the NYC post-hardcore greats had on Thursday when they first started. Never forgetting where they’ve come from, with self-deprecating humor and radical empathy, Thursday are once again a force.

Devo

Much like the B-52′s in 2019, Devo was the set this year of a 70′s/80′s absurd punk band with some radio hits that everybody knows but with a swath of die-hard fans, too. It’s safe to say both groups were satisfied. You walked around the fest all day wondering whether the folks wearing Devo hats were actual fans or doing it for the novelty. By the time the band actually took the stage after a career-spanning video of their many phases, it didn’t really matter, because it was clear the band still had it, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale’s vocals booming throughout a massive crowd. They ripped through “Peek-a-Boo”, “Going Under”, “That’s Good”, “Girl U Want”, and “Whip It”, which caused the fans waiting for Slipknot (and presumably some Devo heads) to form a circle pit. And that was all before the first costume change. Mark passed out hats to the crowd, fully embracing converts who might have only known “Whip It”. The feverish chants of “Uncontrollable Urge” and synth freakouts of “Jocko Homo” whipped everyone into a frenzy. And the band performed the “Freedom Of Choice” theme song for the first time since the early 80′s! I had seen Devo before, opening for Arcade Fire and Dan Deacon at the United Center, but the atmosphere at Riot Fest was more appropriately ludicrous.

Flaming Lips

“The Flaming Lips are the most COVID-safe band in the world,” went the ongoing joke, as throughout the pandemic they’d give audience members bubbles for their bubbles to be able to play shows. The normally goofy and interactive band scaled back for Riot Fest. Before launching into their traditional opener “Race For The Prize”, Wayne Coyne explained that while the band is normally proud of where they come from--Oklahoma City--they’re saddened by the local government’s ignorant pandemic response and wouldn’t risk launching balloons or walking into the crowd because they might be virus spreaders coming from such an under-vaccinated area. To his and the band’s credit, they wore masks during the performance, even when singing; Coyne removed his only when outside of his bubble that had to be deflated and inflated many times and that sometimes muffled his singing voice even more than a mask. Ever the innovative band, they still put on a stellar show. Coyne autotuned his voice on “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1″, making it another instrument filling the song’s glorious pop melodies. Less heavy on props, the band favored a glitchy, psychedelic setlist that alternated between beauty (”Flowers Of Neptune 6″, “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”, “All We Have Is Now”) and two-drummed cacophony (“Silver Trembling Hands”, “The W.A.N.D.”). They’ll give a proper Lips show soon enough, but in the meantime, it was nice to see them not run through the motions.

Slipknot

Apart from maybe moments of Slayer, I’ve never witnessed a headliner at Riot Fest as heavy as Slipknot was. Even the minor ethereal elements present on their most recent and very good album We Are Not Your Kind, like the chorus of voices during “Unsainted”, were all but abandoned live in favor of straight up brutality. Sure, there were moments of theatricality--Corey Taylor’s menacing laugh on “Disasterpiece” and pyrotechnics in sequence with the instrumentation on “Before I Forget” and “All Out Life”--but for the most part, Slipknot was the ultimate exorcism. Taylor’s new mask, with unnaturally circular eyes, seemed like it came from a particularly uncomfortable skit from I Think You Should Leave. They bashed a baseball bat to a barrel during the pre-encore performance of “Duality”. And the songs played from tape, like the gasping-for-breath “(515)”, were designed to contrast Slipknot’s alien appearance with qualities that were uncannily human. For a band whose performances and instrumental dexterity are otherworldly--who else can pull off tempo changes over a hissing, Aphex Twin-like shuffling electronic beat on “Eyeless”--the pure seething emotion on songs like “Psychosocial” and “Wait and Bleed” shone through. Like Smashing Pumpkins, and like so many other successful Riot Fest headliners, Slipknot abandoned drama for pure, unadulterated dirt.

[acloudkat]

Gossip Girl 2.0

So. . . I was unsure of whether I was going to talk about this or not but… in the end, here we are!

I shall be talking about the Gossip Girl Reboot.

Now quick disclaimer and mild *excuse you* to HBO, please find ways to make your content accessible to Europe because there are those of us that are interested and unfortunately your "Max" service is US only and honestly i see no reasonable logic behind it. Therefore my means of getting access to this content shall not be discussed.

Extra disclaimer, there will be spoilers. Doi.

Now I am a big die hard fan of the original GG series and despite the outdated (to today’s standards) comparisons and slang, some of the topics hold up even today. For anyone curious or questioning my opinion, based on my generation, I am mildly in the middle as a Zelenial at 23. I did not grow up with GG, I learned about it when I was 14 but watched it for the first time when I was 19. Since, I have watched it up to 14-17 times; more than 10 for sure. So you can do with that as you please. The main reason I mention this is due to some articles and comments pointing out that maybe it’s a “Gen Z only media” or that “Millennials are just bitter cause it’s not theirs”. Keeping that in mind I will be as per usual showing the ups and downs of the show (so far and later on) from my own personal perspective.

After watching ep 1. (& now 2 which will be in a separate post after this) I have a few questions, comments AND concerns. So let’s get into those shall we :)

So let's do a little round up of our characters.

We have newcomer Zoya Lott that is moving to NYC on a Constance scholarship! But little did anyone in the show know, it was all a plot to get to be with her *half sister*. WHAT?! So the tldl on that is that Zoya and our other main character, Julien Calloway, share a mom! Mom, that i quote "left Julien's dad for Zoya's dad and the dads hate each other" because of which hate, they had absolutely forbidden their daughters from communicating. One thing led to another, a friend request was sent and this is basically the parent trap. . . . but for the kids. . .and they're aware of it cause they made it. . . I suppose? The parents haven't really been mentioned to matter in their plan, however, they do keep bringing up their middle names as "Zoya Jane and Julien Elizabeth" as clues left by their mother? Now some rumours around the web have connected the names to the Pride and Prejudice novels and while that would be extremely Gossip Girl-esque to do, and I am entirely up for that, hell yea!!! I'm wondering if it's as simple as... their mother's name was Elizabeth Jane... but maybe GG will be the one to discover that secret first? Other than that, Zoya is very much a very trusting "innocent type" character that probably has more past than we know about so it will be quite interesting to see how that elaborates going further into the series.

Then there is self-made influencer Julien Calloway. She is the new version of queen at Constance but as stated, they "don't do the patriarchy anymore". While she appears all smiles and kindness, personally i feel as if JC is kind of fake? She has things she cares about yes, but the moment someone or something interferes with her followers and her social standing or Obie (more on him later)

"the gloves come off and the claws come out" - Serena Van der Woodsen

When it comes to Julien I am honestly more curious to see who she is once you take away the followers and the media. Will she be an actual person or just a shallow obsessed spoiled brat? I just hope it won't be the typical story of "have to be perfect and have to have everyone like me because my mom left" ie. has mommy issues. That is how that cliche goes after all. So I am greatly hoping that's not going to be it for this one.

Obie Bergmann! We get introduced to Obie as Julien's boyfriend. Throughout ep 1, the things we learn about Obie are that he is basically the richest in the group, and lives in Dumbo. (irony from original GG for anyone that can guess it). He appears like a super nice and kind dude, a supportive boyfriend, kind of bland and tired of the relationship but the main thing that bothers me about him so far is his impossible to ignore "white guilt syndrome". For anyone unaware, "white guilt" is "remorse or shame felt by a white person with respect to racial inequality and injustice". While it's not a bad thing trying to make up for the in-equality in the world, here's hoping that's not his entire character cus that would get old quick.

Then we have the bestie, Audrey Hope. Audrey. . . is cold but to the point. Very analysing and observing. Definitely the type of character that would take all the info first and decide what to do after. I both like and am confused by her? Her cold mannerisms are quite enjoyable among the masses of drama and emotion I won't lie. However, i do predict a juicy threesome between her, boyfriend Aki and one Max Wolfe. Honestly, I am highly interested in how their relationship evolves.

Aki Menzies is kind of a mystery as of the moment. As to be expected with just 1 episode, we won't know too much about all the characters. He is the very supportive boyfriend that tries to keep the peace between everyone.

Max Wolfe on the other hand appears like the much more flamboyant version of Chuck Bass, if Chuck Bass had a supportive family environment and no limits on who he's dating. That's more or less for him but kuddos for his 0 hesitation to basically have a pic of his dick sent to everyone. I will never not find that hilarious. But again, between these three is my prediction for some juicy interactions. Cause to be fully honest, the chemistry is undeniable.

Monet de Haan. Ah. She is honestly the savage that we need around here. She is the control and the power behind Julien's brand honestly. I am curious how come she helps Julien with her brand rather than have her own? If we go off anything said in the episode, she is more feared than adored so maybe that's why? But Monet honey, fear can also have a following, just . . a different one.

And then there's Luna La, "The stylist" while we don't know much about her, some of her one liners are actively giving me life. Her and Monet are definitely a package deal and i wonder if there is juicier gossip there that we don't know yet.

Lastly, we have our new Gossip Girl. Young teacher, Kate Keller. I won't lie, i did not see us knowing who GG is from the get go. I am however wondering whether this will drag her down to the level of highschoolers (besides the fact that she looks younger than some of them xD) Something that is bothering me in the reboot however, is that technically, characters that represent adults, spying on minors??? Like they even make the point that "i shouldn't have these, i should be in jail" in regards to having almost naked pictures of the kids. Like it's not really okay??? In the original yea no one knew who GG was but they always knew it was someone their age. The teachers didn't care at those times. But they do now and I am not fully sure how okay it is.

And of course, the extras like some of the other teachers behind GG and the parents. We however, don't know too much about them as of now so we shall see soon. If any new characters are introduced they will be addressed but for now, onto the episode!

The half sisters plot is definitely interesting so I would love to know where the whole middle names thing will go. The story line I'm most interested in at the moment however is between Audrey, Max and Aki. I want to see that unwind into something horrendous but then beautiful! It has so much potential in my opinion. In terms of character development however i want to see who Julien is without all of her fame and followers. When the focus is not the media and the attention. I want to see that Julien.

The first episode definitely introduced us to a lot of things at once so far that is my take on them. I'm sure that in the future both the teachers and parents will be a bigger part but one thing is abundantly clear. Unlike the OGGG, there won't be more than maybe 2-3 seasons depending on the ages of the students. The teachers won't follow them onto college will they? Or will things drastically change along the way? It was rather amusing seeing them talk about all the old characters however, and reference the OG Gossip Girl. I am vaguely offended that they categorised twitter as "a glorified chatroom for memes for people over 30". Like dude. . . that hit me hard. I am happy that FB was never even mentioned as existing tho! Cause let's be honest that is not the "hip" thing anymore. But the rules they put down at the party definitely made my head spin. Had to listen to them twice to even get what was happening.

But that's probably enough of me babbling on about this xD If you want to find this on an apparently dying type of media, here's my blog post about it as well lol: https://acloudkat.wordpress.com/?p=960

[cheri-translates]

[CN] 100 Days - Shaw (Day 51 - 100)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for e-mails which have not been released in English servers! 🍒

What’s the 100 Days Companionship Event?

Day 1 - 3: here

Day 4 - 30: here

Day 31 - 50: here

Day 51

Learnt a new card magic trick and will leave you wide-eyed today. You coming?

Day 52

Instead of thinking about raising koi to change your fortune, why not buy a can of cola. As compared to nothing, at least my mood will be good.

Day 53

I have two tickets for an e-sports competition. It’s at 8pm. We’ll meet at the entrance of your place.

Day 54

The competition yesterday was pretty bad. I may as well have participated myself. Let’s not go for today’s competition. We’ll level up at home.

Day 55

Sign in. Come to think of it, you’re pretty amazing - you can come up with so many topics to talk about every day.

Day 56

I heard that you have plans to try jigsaw puzzles. I’ve sent you one with 30,000 pieces - it’s completely white. No need to thank me, and I wish you an early completion.

Day 57

The professor keeps complaining that his snacks go missing. Placing the snacks in a laboratory where people walk to and fro - he deserves it. Don’t you agree?

Day 58

I found the snacks thief - it’s a big fat crow. Whoa, it’s awfully sly.

Day 59

Jensen has been working hard on practising his rap. Today, I even heard a flow in his snoring, and recorded it. Want to hear?

Day 60

It’s the day of Frost’s Descent. Of course you have to eat marbled beef with me.

[Trivia] 霜降 (“shuang jiang”) translates to “Frost’s Descent”, which refers to the last solar term of autumn. Shaw’s use of “marbled beef” is a play on words because in Chinese, “marbled beef” is “霜降肥牛”!

Day 61

Even three-year-old children know that they have to wear more clothes when it’s cold. Looks like you’re only one-year-old.

Day 62

There’s a small stall on Westmoon Street selling Double Ninth cake. It’s tastier than those in other places. Come out quickly, I’ll take you to taste the delicacy.

Day 63

Head to the hotpot shop first. The Old Man wants me to meet some of his old colleagues. How troublesome. Remember to order a plate of tripe for me.

Day 64

You want to compete to see who can replicate the most number of animal sounds tomorrow? You’ll definitely lose.

Day 65

Fine, I lost… But why do you know how to imitate the sound of a hippopotamus?!

Day 66

Are you really angry today? In that case, if I wear a pompom hat next time, I’ll let you tie a knot too.

Day 67

That song you shared with me before - its orchestral arrangement is still passable, but its effects will be ten times better with the bass. I’ll record a section for you later.

Day 68 (Halloween)

Title: Costumes

This is what you called an incredibly amazing costume? Wait at home. I’ll show you what’s truly “incredibly amazing”.

Day 69

A performance without an audience is pretty fun too. It’d have been even better if someone were around to record it. I think you’re pretty suited for it.

Day 70

Today’s challenge: To sneak away under the eyes of the professor.

Day 71

I signed in late today, but you can’t blame me for oversleeping. It’s all because the sun didn’t appear and head to work today.

Day 72

Unlocked a new breakfast combo. Even though I don’t see a need for it, I can recommend it to you.

Day 73

There’s a bad ending to that drama you haven’t finished watching, so I’m giving you a heads-up. I wasn’t wrong when I said fairy tales weren’t believable, was I?

Day 74

Feels like you’ve been busy for several days. Want to sneak out to relax for a while?

Day 75

Realised that my phone battery is running low, and can’t slack off and send you messages anymore. How unlucky.

Day 76

I’ve been busy preparing for exams recently, but you can still send me messages at night as usual. At most, I’ll reply you the next day

Day 77

There’s a sports meet in school next week, and I’ve been dragged in to fill the numbers. Come watch if you have time.

Day 78

Let’s compete in a round of “flash sale” tonight. The loser will buy whatever’s in the other person’s shopping cart.

[Note] Shaw is talking about 秒杀 (“miao sha”), which directly translates to “seconds kill”. It’s a term used in online shopping where once popular items are placed on the Internet, dozens of them are immediately snatched up, sometimes in a single second.

Day 79 (Single’s Day)

The rain in November is pretty cold. I’ve decided to shower and sleep early today, so don’t disturb me after 12am.

Day 80

I can brush off how you added ginger ale to Cola the last time. But this time, what do you think you’re doing by adding indigo woad root?

[Note] Indigo woad root, also known as the root of Isatis tinctoria (板蓝根 - “ban lan gen”)is a traditional Chinese herb used for flu relief

Day 81

Horror techniques like inserting a jump scare in a comedic clip is too elementary. Next time, please come up with something new.

Day 82

Are you awake? Head out once you’ve signed in, or what I taught you about the skateboard will be completely forgotten.

Day 83

The graffiti wall I brought you to the last time has been torn down. I found a new unfinished building, and you can practice here.

Day 84

No one can be certain of the future. I can’t be bothered to think about it either. As long as you run in the direction you want to go, it’s enough.

Day 85

This semester’s elective course is almost over. There are some assignments I haven’t finished. If there’s anything, come to the library to find me.

Day 86

I don’t feel like writing anymore, and am prepared to head out for a stroll tomorrow. Give me two recommended locations from your collection of reviews.

Day 87

One principle applies to both ice-skating and skateboarding - you won’t learn it if you don’t fall a few times. In the worst case, I’ll catch you when you fall.

Day 88

Watched as someone failed to stick a straw in after three tries, and didn’t allow me to laugh out loud.

Day 89

That hook you hummed today was a little familiar. Did you watch the live performance of that very popular underground band recently?

Day 90

Call me along the next time you go to a Live. Relax, I’m on pretty good terms with the bassist from that band. I’m not going there for a surprise brawl.

Day 91

The Old Man’s a little sick, so I’m bringing him medicine. Since it’s along the way, I’ll bring the umbrella you left at my place to you.

Day 92

Didn’t expect you to grasp the move I taught you today so quickly. I’ll award you with a can of Cola.

Day 93

The punishment for today’s game are biscuits filled with mustard, and the person who loses will eat them. Do you have the guts?

Day 94

Have I been infected with your bad luck recently? Even the things I get in blind boxes are duplicates.

Day 95

Not just old antique shops - I can also find all the old game shops, old phonograph shops, and old appliances shops in Loveland City.

Day 96

Adam forgot to take the pot away the last time he had instant-boiled mutton hot pot in Live House. We could use it again today.

Day 97

Instead of believing in some “Mercury Retrograde”, why not come along with me to pray to Emperor Yang Gu, so he’ll save you from calamities.

Day 98

It’s become a habit to chat with you every day. If there are such challenges in the future, look for me too. Got it?

Day 99

It’s the second last day, and we’ll soon see the outcome of who has won this round. Are you sure you’ve been signing in every day?

Day 100

If there any other bets or challenges next time, I’m always ready and waiting.

[beardedniall]

Chasing

Author’s note: I’m sure I’m not the only one writing about this scenario but I had to have my go at it. This is based on Nice To Meet Ya and everything Niall has said about it so far. Club hopping, finding and losing each other at each one, the saucy stuff eventually. Big thanks to @undertheniall for basically outlining the whole plot with me. Love you!!

Words: 5k (rip)

Warnings: NSFW, drinking, a bad pick up line, unsafe sex

-

“Four Gin Tonics, please”, Alicia shouted at the barkeeper while she held up four fingers so he would definitely understand what she wanted.

Your eyes roamed through the club. It was well patronised but not too full. While you were looking for the spot where the other half of your group of friends was waiting for you and the drinks, you felt something on your arm. 

“Careful there.”

The voice came from behind you and the person who it belonged to had grabbed your elbow to stop it from knocking over a bottle on the bar. You turned around only to be met with a set of stunning blue eyes and a charming grin.

“Oh uh, thank you”, you laughed nervously, “I’m a bit clumsy sometimes.”

“I’m Niall.”

He let go of your arm and offered you his hand to shake it.

“Y/N.”

“Mind if I’d get ya a drink?”

You hesitated for a second. Alicia already ordered for you and you didn’t want to leave her alone with four Gin Tonics to carry. But you also didn’t want to reject his offer. Before you knew it, a “Yeah, sure” left your lips with a smile on your face. Alicia would understand.

“What do you drink, love?”

“Gin Tonic?”

“Gotcha.”

While Niall was distracted with getting the barkeeper’s attention, you quickly turned around to your best friend who was already trying to get all the glasses in her hands.

“It’s alright Y/N, I can see you’re occupied”, she giggled, “He’s really fucking handsome.”

“I know right? You’re the best, thank you.”

She gave you a big grin and accepted the smooch you placed on her cheek before she made her way through the crowd with the bunch of drinks between her hands. You gave your attention back to Niall who was now ordering and handing a bill to the barkeeper.

“Thank you”, you said to him a few moments later when he handed you your glass and clicked it with his beer bottle

“Wanna get to a corner that’s more quiet?”

He leaned in closer than necessary to ask you that question. The music was loud and it was quite packed around you but you could understand each other rather well face to face. Still, his breath hitting your neck sent a flash down your spine. All you could do was nod as an answer before you wrapped your free hand around his biceps and followed him to an empty space next to the bar.

“Are you here alone?”, you wanted to know, half expecting him to say yes because the way he approached you practically screamed that he was only here to take someone home with him eventually.

“Nah, I’m with some friends. Actually, I should be getting them their beers but I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Oh? So you’re the unreliable friend of the group?”

“I got my priorities straight.”

A light blush started to grace your cheeks. You usually weren’t one to be easily impressed by a random dude trying to pick you up at a club but the tone in Niall’s voice sounded so genuinely charming to you that you secretly hoped that you were on the same page here about were this was supposed to lead to. The more you had of your drink, the more intense the flirting between the two of you got. Until something rather inconvenient messed with you.

"Sorry, I gotta use the bathroom real quick. Be right back", you excused yourself while placing your hand on his chest and brushing your fingertips over his torso as you walked away. After you had reached the women’s toilet and taken your place in the line, someone bumped into you and clutched at you, almost dragging you down as they stumbled further into the room.

“Y/N shit I gotta-”

The next thing you heard was your friend Jen throwing up into one of the sinks for the lack of a free bathroom stall. While the women and girls around you gave her a disgusted look, you made a big step towards her and put your hands on her waist to help her stand.

“Oh God Jo, what’s wrong? How did you get drunk so quickly?”

After she had rinsed her mouth with water, she supported herself on the edge of the sink and took a few deep breaths.

“I’m not drunk. I didn’t have a lot to eat today. And to be fair, someone had to drink your Gin Tonic.”

“And that had to be you with an empty stomach?”

She only shrugged her shoulders and gave you a halfhearted smirk.

“Should we call Andrew so he can pick you up?”

“Yeah, that’s for the better I guess. I’m not much use like this.”

“I got you. Stay here and drink some water, yeah? I’ll call him.”

When Jen’s boyfriend was informed and on his way to the club, you brought her outside to be with her until he arrived. While you stood there and listened to the bass roaring through the party inside, you checked the time on your phone, thinking of Niall waiting for you. You hoped that he was a patient one and would still be there when you got back inside. 

In the meantime, Niall was having a look at his watch for what must have been the tenth time in the past two minutes. He was sure the queue to the ladies’ bathroom was long but it had been almost fifteen minutes now and by how hastily you had interrupted your conversation and left, he started to think that maybe you wouldn’t come back at all. A hand on his shoulder ripped him out of his thoughts.

“Hey man, the fuck are you doing here? We’ve been waiting for our beer for ages now”, Willie slurred into his ear.

“Looks like you got it from somewhere though.”

“Yeah but like… I was worried you died on the way to the bar or something.”

“Don’t worry mate, I’m fine. Waiting for a girl I met at the bar actually.”

“Oh? So you got yourself some already, huh? Well don’t let her make ya wait for too long. We’re ‘bout to head to the next club if ya wanna join.” 

“Alright, see ya there in a bit if she doesn’t show up anytime soon.”

Andrew kept his promise of coming as fast as he could because only a few minutes later, he picked up his girlfriend and thanked you for taking care of her.

“Yes, thank you Y/N,” Jen whined before getting into the car.

“Anytime. Let me know when you’re home.”

As soon as they left, you made your way back inside the club and to the other end of the bar where you were hoping Niall was still waiting for you. Luck wasn’t on your side as you looked around from the spot were you had last seen him. You even made quick side trip to the men’s bathroom to see if he was waiting in line there but after not getting lucky there either, you joined your group of friends who were just about to leave as it seemed.

“Y/N, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me handsome guy was a disappointment”, Alicia asked you with pitiful tone in her voice.

“He wasn’t at all”, you sighed and then explained to her what had happened.

“But you collected karma points with this one. C’mon we’re going to the next one. You’ll get distracted there.”

The club across the street was so packed that you were wondering why they still let people in. Thankfully, one of your friends knew the owner so after you had squeezed yourselves through the crowd and to a separated area - you could call it VIP but the people in there usually weren’t that important -, it only took her a few minutes of discussing with the security guy until he opened the cordon for you. While Alicia was looking for an empty booth for you to sit, you scanned the area for familiar faces. And unfortunately, you made a find. Niall was leaning against the backrest of one of the couches while talking to a beautiful tall blonde. When he caught a glimpse at you, he stopped for a second before looking away again.

“Hey c’mere, there’s a group leaving”, Alicia shouted while tugging at your arm to make you move to the other end of the area, “What’s wrong?”

You nodded in the general direction of Niall and waited until your best friend caught up on what was going on.

“Oh fuck. Maybe that’s his cousin? And he’d be happy if you said hello again?”

“Yeah sure”, you playfully rolled your eyes and followed her lead to the booth.

What you didn’t notice was the piercing glance that lied on your back from a certain handsome guy from across the room.

An hour later, Alicia was yet again tugging at your arm. This time to let you know that she was tired of all the pretentious people that had nothing better to talk about than which Rolex their daddy was going to buy them next.

“Can we please go somewhere else?”

“Gladly”, you stated. 

You hadn’t seen Niall with the blonde woman again but ever since that encounter, you hadn’t been in the mood for partying so you were hoping a new location would change that. Alicia and you left the rest of the group behind. They wanted to stay and you knew they didn’t like the club you wanted to go to next anyway. It was a bit of a sleazy one compared to the other clubs in this part of the city but they played a lot of good old rock music and other classics from past decades. Since you were there for distraction, the two of you went to the dancefloor right away, headbanging to Dropkick Murphy’s Rose Tattoo within a crowd of mostly students and Gen X people that were still young at heart.

“This is so much more fun than those snobs in the other one”, Alicia gasped half an hour later while you were sneaking your way towards the bar. When you were standing behind her just like you did at the beginning of this night, something - or rather someone - next to the bar caught your eye. Niall kept up the eye contact for a few seconds before a smug grin appeared on his lips and he winked at you.

“I may or may not have a handsome guy emergency.”

“Huh? He’s here?”

“Yes and he winked at me. That’s code for ‘I’m not mad at you for letting me wait for so long, would you please come here’, right?”

“Yeah I’m sure that’s what it stands for”, Alicia giggled, “Well go then. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay if I don’t come back, please let me know when you got home safely, yeah? And don’t you dare walk this time.”

“I’m grown, Y/N, I’ll be fine. You let me know if handsome guy’s legit or if you need help getting rid of him.”

“Love you, talk to you tomorrow”, you said goodbye to her before kissing her cheek and making your way over to Niall.

“We keep bumping into each other, huh?”

The tone in your voice was supposed to sound as casual as possible but you were afraid he saw right through you. 

“We wouldn’t if you hadn’t leave me hanging the first time.”

“Well yeah… sorry about that actually. I know this is gonna sound like a very lame excuse but my friend was puking her guts out at the bathroom and I took care of her until her boyfriend came to pick her up. And when I got back to our spot, you were gone. Understandably.”

“It does sound like a lame excuse, not gonna lie. But you’re here, aren’t ya? So you’re either very desperate and changed your mind or you’re telling the truth.”

“Or I’m very desperate and telling the truth?”, you suggested with a grin, making him laugh.

“Well lucky me then. You look like you could use a drink?”

“Oh God yes, I’m so thirsty.”

“You better still be here when I come back”, he joked as he left you behind to get the two of your something at the bar.

“Promise.”

While he was gone, you wanted to check your phone but noticed that the network of your wireless carrier was pretty much dead here. A few minutes later, Niall came back with a beer and another Gin Tonic for you in his hands.

“Thank you”, you grinned at him and clicked your glass with his bottle, “I’m glad I ran into you again.”

The smile he gave you was genuine and probably the softest one you had seen from him so far.

“So am I, love.”

“Do you know the Champions League results from tonight? I don’t have a signal.”

He raised an eyebrow as he fumbled for his phone in his pocket to check if he had any luck.

“Football girl, are ya?”

“I am. Why? Are you one of those guys that think women are only into football to impress men?”

“Not at all, darling. Love me a woman who’s into watching sports. Which team?”

While he scrolled through the app on his phone, you took a step closer to him and put your hand on his arm to sneak a peek.

“Liverpool... what about you? Oh man 0-0? Well at least Munich didn’t score an away goal.”

“Derby first and foremost but Chelsea in the Premier League.”

“Hm, you don’t have anything to do with Champions League this season then, huh?”, you stated with a cheeky look on your face before sipping on your drink significantly.

“That’s rude, Y/N. They’ll get there again.”

“Hmhm, sure.”

He gave you an amused side-eye before putting his phone back and giving his full attention to you.

“I feel like I should change the topic”, you pretended to think aloud, “What brought you here from the comfort of that nice little VIP area anyway?”

“Saw you leaving and might have followed you. Not to be creepy.”

“So you usually wouldn’t come here?”

“No I would. I really like his one so I’m glad you forced me to go here.”

“I didn’t force you to do anything. You’re stalking me”, you declared playfully enraged, “Wait… were you watching us dancing?”

“That really makes me sound like a creep, huh? I mean… I wasn’t staring at you. But I checked if you were still there every now and then.”

“You like the chase?”

“I like you... based on the conversation we had earlier. And I like a challenge, yes.”

You smirked at him before you emptied your drink.

“Would you trust me to use the bathroom again? I swear I’ll get back to you. Even if I have to drag a puking friend over here.”

“Very flattering. I’ll wait, darling.”

Even though you were pretty sure that no one would interrupt you and even if, that Niall would have a little more patience this time, you hurried to get to the restroom and get back to where you left him. He had his back facing you so once you stood right behind him you placed your palms on his shoulder blades and let them move upwards to his neck, causing him to throw back his head and chuckle. After you had let go of him, he turned around to look at you.

“Glad it’s you. That would’ve been awkward if it had been someone else.”

You giggled and took the empty beer bottle out of his hand.

“My turn to get us something to drink.”

“I’ll come with you.”

The area around the bar was a little more crowded so it took you some time to squeeze through all the people, one of Niall’s hands constantly on your waist, until you had reached the barkeeper to order two beers. A man who looked like he had already been riding a Harley Davidson way before you were born offered you his barstool to sit on.

“Oh thanks.”

Niall was still right behind you and now leaned forward to support himself by putting a hand on the bar, basically trapping you between the wood and his body. And you couldn’t say that you minded.

“So here you drink beer instead of Gin Tonic?”, he asked you with a smirk on his face, as if he was making a little fun of you.

“I do, I just don’t like to start my night with it.”

“You’d rather end it with beer?”

“So to say.”

“There’s a lot of it where I live. If you wanna end the night there.”

You couldn’t stop yourself from bursting out into laughter.

“Was that supposed to be smooth?”

“Yeah I knew it was awful the moment I said it.”

“I can get over it if you bring me to that place where all the beer is.”

“So it works?”

“You work, not your bad pick up lines.”

“Wanna get outta here right now?”

You nodded as you took a sip from your full bottle before you put it on the bar and took his hand to let him lead you through the crowd and out of the club. Once outside, he called an Uber and pulled you closer to him for the time being.

“You cold?”, he asked you while stroking your arm.

“I’m a big girl, it’s fine.”

His hand wandered from your shoulder over your neck to your cheek where he gently pushed your head towards him to place a kiss on your temple. The Uber didn’t take long to arrive and as you closed the car door, an euphoric feeling of excitement rushed through your body. This night had been rather chaotic and now you were really on your way to this guy’s place, hopefully not only to drink beer. That reminded you of texting Alicia quickly.

Leaving with handsome guy now ;) xx

Throughout the whole ride, Niall’s fingers had brushed over your thigh. He had kept it lowkey so far but you had a feeling that once you were at his home, the tension between the two of you would take care of that. You were a bit stunned when you saw where the driver was stopping but then again, Niall already smelled rich. You had thought that he wouldn’t bring you to a greasy shared student flat but this was a lot more than you would have expected. As soon as the door fell shut behind you, he grabbed your waist and pulled you against his chest before leaning down to place little kisses all over the nape of your neck.

“I think the beer can wait if ya don’t mind?”

Instead of giving him an answer, you turned in his embrace and involved him in a deep kiss. Your lips found a rhythm right away. It wasn’t as hungry as you would have thought, rather slow and soft, almost careful. You let your hand wander from his chest up to his neck before running your fingers through his hair. A slight layer of hair products covered your fingertips but his little sighs every time you tugged on one of his strands sounded too good to be bothered by that. He leaned into the kiss, his hands roaming from the small of your back down to your butt where he let them rest. Yours in the meantime were sliding down his neck again and over his collarbones.

“Can I take this off?”, you asked with a fake innocence in your voice as you played with the collar of his shirt.

“Let’s get this to the bedroom, shall we?”

It wasn’t a question. He let go of you only to guide you to said room where he closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes, but not without placing his lips on yours again. You slipped out of your high heels, making you a few centimeters shorter all of a sudden which made both of you chuckle as you interrupted your kiss. Niall pressed his body against yours again and took a step forward to indicate to you that he wanted you on his bed. When the back of your knees hit the edge, you let yourself fall down with him right on top of you. He stood up a moment later however to open the remaining buttons of his shirt before throwing it on the armchair behind him. You watched him from your position on the bed and moved around a little while your fingers fumbled with the zipper of your pants.

“Let me take care of that, darling.”

Niall crawled on top of you again, kissing you passionately and opening your pants slowly so you could wiggle out of them eventually. 

“You smell amazing”, he whispered as he buried his face in your neck and took a deep breath.

You leaned into his touch and brushed the tip of your nose over his ear while running your fingers through his hair again.

“Gonna get you out of this, yeah?”

It certainly did something to you that he asked for permission to take off your longsleeve even though you were already in his bed, making out half naked. You lifted your arms to help him as he sneaked his fingers underneath your shirt only to let them wander up the skin of your stomach, dragging the fabric with them. His touch was followed by small kisses that he placed all over your torso as he undressed you painfully slowly. When the hem of the shirt had reached your chest, his fingertips brushed over the sides of your bra while his lips caressed the valley in the center. He carefully nibbled at the swell of your breasts before finally pulling the shirt over your head and giving you another gentle kiss.

His palms stroked over your lace-clad boobs, making you bend your back into a curve so you could press into his touch. He got the hint and sneaked his fingers under your body to fumble with the clasp of your bra. After he had opened it, he slid the straps down your arms and got back up again, taking in the sight of your naked body beneath him.

“Ya stunning”, he stated with genuine awe in his eyes that made you blush.

“Can’t have you getting stunned now.”

Your response made him chuckle before he stood up from the bed to take off his pants.

“Would ya lie down properly for me, love?”

You sat up and crawled over the bed until you were right in the middle of it where you laid back down, letting your fingertips wander over your own torso as you watched him get undressed. After being left in only his boxer briefs - that already showed off a nice bulge -, he joined you on the bed, positioning himself between your ankles that he meaningfully spread apart. He bend down to lie between your calves, his hands wrapping around your legs to pull your center a bit closer to his face. His lips brushed over the inside of your thighs, kissing you there, nibbling at the sensitive skin, probably leaving a mark for the next morning. When his nose nudged against the hem of your panties, you knew what was going to happen next. He got back on his knees and hooked his fingers under the waistband to dragged them down your thighs slowly, over your knees and off eventually. While he got into his former position, he turned his head to the side to kiss your leg until he reached the inside of your thigh again and lied on his stomach.

Niall leaned forward to place an open mouthed kiss on your pussy. A blissful sigh left your lips as you stretched yourself and put your arms behind your head, closing your eyes and enjoying what this beautiful man between your legs did to you. His lips caressed your slit, teasing you because they were careful to not touch your most sensitive spot yet. Instead, they wandered to the part where your thighs met your hips, leaving a few kisses there before getting back to the center. 

The tip of his tongue sneaked between your folds and went from your entrance to the top, nudging against your clit, causing you to whimper quietly. He closed his lips around the little bundle of nerves and sucked on it. A flash started right at that spot and ran through your whole body, covering your skin in goosebumps. You could feel yourself getting wetter while Niall kept eating you out as if he had waited all night for this. He used two of his fingers to spread your lips so he could properly lick his way up and down your pussy. His other hand teased your entrance, a fingertip dipping inside of you to the first knuckle, only to draw back again.

“Niall… please.”

He looked up where his gaze met your flushed cheeks and closed eyes, an expression of pleasure and desperation on your face. Instead of giving you want you wanted, he let go of you with both his mouth and his fingers, leaving you high and dry beneath him as he sat up on his knees. You opened your eyes, giving him a pleading look but all you got in return was a smug smirk.

“Don’t worry, love. I got you”, he let you know before he took off his boxer briefs and got further between your legs. While you let your eyes wander up and down his body, biting your lip in anticipation of what was to come, he wrapped his hand around one of your calves and lifted your leg slightly to have better access.

“Are ya on birth control?”

You nodded in response before you added, “Please…”

“Please what, darling?”

“Fuck me, please.”

When he had asked, he had been expecting you to say something along the lines of “Need you” or “Want you inside me” but those words out of your mouth made his cock twitch. For a quick second, he thought about teasing you a little longer but that would only be teasing himself as well.

He wanted you. Bad.

As he bent down, one of his arms supported him while the other one pulled you towards his center before he guided his cock between your folds. You wrapped your leg around his hips and sighed in pleasure from the delicious feeling of him filling you. 

“Fuck, you feel incredible.”

His voice was hoarse and you could hear how he was trying to hold himself back and not fuck you senseless right away. He gave you time to adjust to his size before he started to move slowly, carefully, as if you were made out of glass.

“Niall”, you whimpered, “Fuck me.”

Again, his dick twitched. Encouraged by your words, he picked up the pace, sliding in and out of you in a strong steady rhythm. The noises you made were filthy. Hungry moans, skin slapping against skin, the wetness of your pussy audible.

“Such a perfect little cunt”, Niall gasped before using his free hand to slip between your bodies and play with your clit.

You lifted your arms and reached out for him, making him bend down to let you place your palms on his back and involve him in a passionate kiss. He kissed you just as deeply as he fucked you, moving with you in perfect sync as you felt the familiar knot building up in your lower stomach.

“‘m close”, you

His mouth had brought you pretty far already and you had secretly hoped that he would make you come like that. But you then realized that Niall was a tease, that he wasn’t one to give you what you wanted but something better. Your words seemed to motivate him to bring you where you needed to be. He hit you deep, the force of his thrusts sent shocks of pleasure through your bones. His thumb on your clit was the final straw for you when he perfectly timed both the sensations inside and outside of your pussy.

You clenched around him uncontrollably. Your back left the sheets while the warmth spread in your whole body and made you shiver. His name left your lips a thousand times and your fingernails digging into the skin of his back would leave some marks tomorrow without doubt. While he gently fucked you through your orgasm, his hand stroked your cheek lovingly, adding the blissful feeling of affection to the pleasure you were experiencing. You came down from your high slowly, panting as he kept sliding in and out of you, chasing his own orgasm. Your pussy still twitching around him tipped him over the edge.

“Fucking hell.”

He threw back his head and stayed still as the exciting flashes pierced through his nerves. You could feel his cock throbbing while he spurted his cum inside of you. The look on his face was relaxed, satisfied and in your post-orgasm bliss, he looked like a piece of art above you. A few moments later, he slid out of you, leaving you uncomfortably empty but pleasantly aching, before he collapsed next to you, careful not to crush you. You cuddled into his side and kissed his collarbone, your leg wrapped around his as you listened to his breathing getting back to a normal pattern. He put an arm around you, turned his head and lifted your chin with two fingers to give you a sweet gentle kiss.

“Are ya staying?”, he whispered after letting go of your lips.

“If you don’t want me to leave.”

“I don’t. One time is enough for tonight.”

You buried your face in his neck, smiling as you already imagined how to wake him up in the morning.