#anyway these aren't songs the characters would listen to just ones i associate with them

[batbux]

Batfam as music pulled from my library

Bruce Wayne

The Darker The Weather // The Better The Man by MISSIO "Sun shines through an open window, Close the curtains real slow to hide the light, But in time, maybe I can change it We'll find someone who feels the same as me."

Dick Grayson

HE by TAL "But I wanna believe in that notion I'm needed. I really just wanna be wanted. I don't want my work to be currency Used in gainin' your love. I just want you to- Please, clap for me, Laugh at my jokes, don't ever let go. Please, brag on me, with a smile, Tell me it's fine if I stay a while."

Barbara Gordon

Invincible by OK Go “When they finally come to destroy the earth, They'll have to deal with you first and now, My money says they won't know about, The thousand Fahrenheit hot metal lights behind your eyes.”

Jason Todd

Hell's Coming With Me by Poor Man's Poison "There was a drifter passing through that little valley, See he had promised he was coming back to town, They didn't know him by his face, or by the gun around his waist, But he come back to burn that town to the ground."

Cassandra Cain

GODDESS by PVRIS "So come back from the dead, Keep 'em guessin', Lazarus, Is she a wo— or a man? I'm a motherfucking brand."

Tim Drake

You're a Man Now, Boy by Raleigh Ritchie “I was a Small Soldier and I still am. Can't say what has changed apart from days and, I loved Jurassic Park, well, I still do. Actually, I'm the same except that now I take a pill or two.”

Stephanie Brown

Lady Jesus by UPSAHL “Welcome to my funeral, please take a seat. Right here lies the body of the bitch I used to be, She was crying every night, I sacrificed her in her sleep. If she didn't get to Heaven then I hope she rests in peace.”

Duke Thomas

Show Them Who It Made You by Kai Straw "Are you made to break, or made of stone? Will you live afraid of showing your glow? Will you step into the light, And kill the devils you hide? Oh, you can be free, my son, You've got a king inside."

Damian Wayne

It’s Alright by Mother Mother “It's alright, It's okay, it's alright, it's okay. You're not a demon, there's a reason, You behaved in that way. It's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay. I believe, yes I believe that you'll see a better day.”

[chipistrate]

do that with Cassie

Sure! :D

Cassie:

favorite thing about them I adore how sassy she can be- like yeah she'll go down and save Gregory from the ruined Pizzaplex, that's her bestie she'd do anything for him, but that won't stop her from complaining about it. i.e. "Under Roxy Racers? *huff* that's all the way on the other side, I'm not even close." Also I believe her VA said something about her not being scared when going into the Pizzaplex iirc cause she "didn't know she was supposed to be scared" and I think that's interesting,,, "yeah that old, decaying, falling apart, creepy Pizzaplex? I don't see why I'd be scared. Gregory wants me to go there so I'm sure it's safe. Plus, what could possibly be hiding inside anyways? Bugs?" <---clueless

least favorite thing about them I'm not good at picking out least favorite things about characters I love LMAO They're just precious and beloved and I see no wrong in them<333

favorite line "that was too close. I was almost a Cassie sandwich" the DELIVERY. I love her so much even in the worst situations she's still making little shithead remarks/aff

brOTP Her and Gregory are the siblings ever<333

OTP Again- if these can be purely platonic and have no familial or romantic meaning, then her and Ellis should be and would be best friends and I stand by this forever and ever

nOTP x

random headcanon When she met up with Gregory again after SB she started helping him tear down his missing posters. She didn't know why he wanted them gone or why he was so hesitant in public, but she didn't want to pry too much and just wanted to help out. She tried, couldn't get a lot of answers out of him, and realized it was just too out of his comfort zone to talk about whatever happened while he was missing, so she just resorted to helping him however she can!

unpopular opinion Tbh I don't think she'd be angry after the elevator fall or even believe it was Gregory- at least not immediately!! Like- I could see her becoming angry over time, but I honestly think that at first she'd 100% think it was the Mimic- I mean- she literally just met a giant endo that was trying to kill her that mimicked her friends voice and communicated through speakers, I don't think she'd assume her best friend would try and kill her after meeting a dude like that. Maybe she'd end up thinking it was Gregory later and becoming way more bitter about it afterwards if we're going the Vannie route, but I think at first she'd just be really tired and sad and upset at the Mimic, but not at Gregory. She probably just thinks "he's my best friend, he would never do that. I'm sure he's on his way to get me right now, so I just need to survive a few more hours and I'll be fine." or something like that

song i associate with them Hmmm if we're talking Vannie arc then I'd say "I'm Irritated" by Fishy Bishie. If we're talking normal Cassie, then I don't listen to a lot of songs that I would consider "Cassiecore" that aren't specifically made to be Cassie songs if you know what I mean? But maybe that one really good part of "One Normal Night"

favorite picture of them

She's so confident and happy how could you possibly hate her<333

[yoshifruit]

i respect your mario opinions very much and i repsect your music opinions even more. I know you just made a post decrying the tendency of people to commodify music as an art form through the lens of fandom brain however i was wondering what do you think luigi would listen to

Viewing music through the lens of other fandom (because to be fair, people enjoying music can also be a form of fandom) mostly only annoys me when it's mostly the only thing talked about in a YouTube comments section for a song, cause I feel like it steers a conversation into talking about some show or game rather than the song itself. If it's on people's personal blogs though I don't mind, since this is something I myself do. But also I do realize this mindset makes a hypocrit. Anyways I ended up writing more than I thought I would, so I'm putting it under a read more. Thank you very much for sending this ask. 💚

Usually whenever I think of a video game character's taste in music, I tend to base it on what songs represent the character in the games, and what music genres the composer was most likely inspired by when composing those songs. With most Sonic characters this is easy because of Jun Senoue deciding to use different music genres for each character in games like Sonic Adventure and SA2. I think it's a bit harder for some Mario characters though, since most songs in many Mario games aren't use to represent Luigi himself, or Mario himself for that matter.

So for Mario, I tend to think of his taste in music in association with the music that Koji Kondo was inspired by when composing for the earlier games. And I think Mario and Luigi would have mostly similar music taste, considering they're close siblings who still live together, and thus probably listen to a lot of music together. I'm basing this on my own sibling experience though, since this was the case when I lived with my sister. But also whenever I hear music that reminds me of music in Mario games, I tend to think of many Mario characters rather than just one.

So because of that, I think both of them would be into jazz fusion, artists like T-SQUARE and Lee Ritenour and other 70s/80s jazz fusion artists. Like I think Mario would own multiple jazz fusion and smooth jazz albums in vinyl and would put them on to relax or to do chores around the house and Luigi would happily listen with him, sometimes putting on the albums himself. Thinking about artists like Al Jarreau, Spyro Gyra, Casiopea, George Benson, Bobbi Humphrey, etc.

I also think they would eventually find and enjoy 70s/80s J-pop (aka City Pop). Similar to a couple jazz fusion artists, some people have pointed out that Kondo might have taken inspiration from city pop artists like Piper and Tatsuro Yamashita (though I think these comparisons to Kondo's work are a bit debatable). I think Mario and Luigi would enjoy this style of music in a similar way. I think they would like artists like Masataka Matsutoya, Hiroshi Sato, Masaki Matsubara, etc. Though maybe I think this because many of these artists were inspired by jazz fusion, jazz funk, and disco.

Oh I also think Mario and Luigi would love disco. Not necessarily because of any of the music in the games. I imagine Mario and Luigi grew up and lived in a New Donk City similar look of New York City in the 70s and 80s, before they moved to the Mushroom Kingdom. Probably because of Native New Yorker by Odyssey, like I can imagine both of them listening to this song when living in New Donk while feeling a bit sad about their lives at that time, but then listening back to the song and feeling nostalgic about that time. I feel like Luigi would be way more into disco than Mario would be though. Like I can imagine him going to the disco clubs as a young adult. But maybe this is just because I read him as being gay lol. Oh, and I think Pauline would also listen to disco. I think Luigi would be into Italo-disco as well.

Oh, and I also think Luigi loves flamenco, though he's probably not listening to it with other people often. Like it's a music genre that other would be surprised he'd be into. Think this specifcally because of his theme in Mario Strikers Chraged which is really good. It makes me wanna listen to more flamenco styled music since I don't run into that style of music often, other than Blaze it Up by Mondo Grosso, not sure if Luigi would like that one though. If anyone has flamenco recs, please send them.

Thanks again for sending this ask, I'm suprised anyone cares about my opinion on these things since I rarely talk on this blog. I would've linked to more songs, but Tumblr is being weird about me adding links to this post. Sorry if this response is kinda boring. I put together a playlist that reminds me of Mario games and characters while some of these songs I've mentioned here on it, but never finished the playlist. Maybe I'll work on it again and think more of Luigi this time.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

My biggest struggle when it comes to matching songs with fics - because I sometimes like to make what are basically soundtrack playlists for fics I'm really into - is that so many of them have the right tone and almost the right relationship between the two people depicted, except for the line or two that turns it from something that could be platonic into something that is clearly Romantic. It's so frustrating, because it's so close to being perfect but it's now completely unusable if taken as a whole.

On that note... do you have any songs you associate with oop? Or ones that you have listened to to get you into the mood to write certain parts?

SO FUCKING REAL. why is everything a love song!! why is everything a BORING HETEROSEXUAL love song?? is it so much to ask for my platonic blorbos to have SOME food. honestly.

anyway hmm this is. a toughie. i don't really listen to music for writing bc it distracts my brain (not music with words anyway. i have a video game music playlist for getting in the zone for any kind of work/focus stuff) and also like we just said it's so hard to find songs that aren't romantic and also you know what songs there are like NONE of? people who met approx five minutes ago but have to trust each other and work together and get invested super quick anyway. which is like 80% of what oop's character dynamics are, tbh. also tough bc there's probably songs that ive listened to and thought "ooh that's so oop" but i don't have a playlist so i like. forgot immediately. so with that in mind here's some vague ideas:

Evelyn: like 30% ingo 30% emmet 30% volo 10% just vibes. up top bc it's also the song i mentioned in that original post. and if the mountain's gotta move, i'll find a way to circumvent it...

I'll Be Your Pilot: i live in fear that one day i'll have an Epiphany that this song is actually romantic bc right now it's so good for parent-child dynamics. anyway. ingo/emmet/cyllene @ rei and akari, also specifically: i won't leave you to suffer, i won't let them prevail, i know a trapdoor shortcut-gate into the wilds of the free air!

Ribs: clan leader theme. there aren't a ton of songs about being circumstantially pushed into a leadership role too young and struggling under the pressure so i've gotta make do with songs about Being A Teenager instead. o well. i would also like to say that that One Part is very ingo (i want 'em back, the minds we had, it's not enough to feel the lack i want 'em back i want 'em back i want 'em-!)

Machine: this is a good song for anyone who's like In Service To A God and it's bad. a mightier power who just lacks my perspective, and who lacks my organics, and who covets my defects...

[actualsunflower]

3 6 9 and 30 of the Edge asks, bitte? Hier sind kekse.

3 What is your OC's fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw? Definitely blaming everything on himself. That mindset and the shame and guilt it brings makes him very reckless sometimes. It pairs horribly with the terror of losing people/things he loves all over again. Especially with things concerning Nick, or other innocent people/creatures. But mostly Nick lol. There's a number of times in his story where he does very reckless things. One is during Nick and Jay investigating kidnapped settlers at Quincy, Nick tries to keep Jay from going with him because he doesn't want Jay to get hurt as Quincy is still full of Gunners but Jay goes anyway of course, On the way there, they get attacked by that Behemoth that's in the swamp close to Quincy. It swings its club at Nick and Jay jumps in front of him and is able to take the hit instead (I know it sounds ridiculous but he has artifact powers very similar to Lorenzo so he is VERY strong and durable!!) It does completely cripple his left arm though. One of the many times Jay does something reallllll stupid to save Nick.

6 How easily could your OC be convinced to do something that goes against their moral compass? I guess that's kind of a tricky question. The answer could be easy and hard? It really depends on who it is, the situation, yknow? For example, Jay has a very strict no killing view, but there are a few times where he does kill people like 3 of my other bad guy ocs (one is a courser, the other is my ex-brotherhood raider overboss power obsessed freak, and a going feral ghoul vault-tec scientist!) He did have to be convinced to kill 2 of them. And then the 3rd (the scientist) was out of desperation and needing to help Nick. Could a faction convince Jay to do things out of his moral compass? Also kinda. He works with the Railroad and the Minutemen. Preston and Ronnie Shaw aren't able to convince him to do any killing, however things go very very sour with the Railroad in the Institute and with the Brotherhood. Jay tries to speak to Maxson (on behalf of a faction though it took a whole lot of arguing to let him do that) and get him to willingly leave the Commonwealth stating, but Maxson refuses, and so they have no choice to blow up the Prydwen. They were very very fairly warned and he chose to stay, so no one can really blame them at that point. Still, despite how hard Jay tried he did still join the assault on the Prydwen, which of course ended in many casualties... (They DID save the kids and the cat, though. And a few BoS ppl agreed to join other factions or go free). The Institute was also raided by the Railroad (not blown up though), which he had no choice but to join because it happened suddenly without warning while he was still there undercover. 9 Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

ooooooooohhhhhhh yes I do have many songs, very many in fact and it makes it very hard to pick just one. Some would be The Kids Aren't Alright by Fall Out Boy, How Did You Love by Shinedown, Ditchdigger by Tyler Lyle, Shake it Out, Free, No Light No Light, and King all by Florence and the Machine (but there's a lot of others too. Idk they just share alotta vibes), Sunlight, Wasteland, Baby!, and Would That I and No Plan by Hozier, and a bunch of other songs and artists... But there's a ridiculous amount of music I listen to that always makes me want to draw Jay, or Jay and Nick. But it's funny if you listened to all these songs you probably wouldn't get a very clear picture of Jay and his entire character, just because I tend to focus on very specific traits/times/experiences separately instead of him as a whole when I listen to music. You'd have to pick through my entire brain's library of Jay to find the specifics of each one. Idk how to explain what I'm trying to say here honestly. I'm just rambling at this point XD

20 Does your OC have a tendency to get jealous? If so, how does this manifest?

I'm going with 20 here since I wasn't sure if maybe the 30 was from a different ask list I rbed or not, sorry if I got confused with this one! He doesn't get jealous very often, honestly. Sometimes when it comes to Nick he does, a lot of people like Nick and he can get a little bit possessive, rather than jealous. Not to an unhealthy level, just enough to earn scowls and extra affection.

In life he also doesn't get very jealous of others often. Occasionally it may be jealously of other people's emotional stability lol. But he accomplished quite a lot in his life prewar and was pretty comfortable with himself and what he had. And in terms of bad character flaws he would be too caught up blaming himself for short comings rather than feeling jealous of others.



Sorry this is so long!!!!!! Thank you so much for asking though I loved answering these!!!!!!! Please ignore any typos XD

[mxddyhero]

damien and oz from mp for the character ask?

yEAHH THE SCRUNKLIES !!! I'm gonna do both of these in one post since I don't think I'll have quite as much to say as I did about juza shgdjsv,, but still!!! Ty again for the ask Gomper, aaa!!! ^^

In reference to this post !! (feel free to send an ask!)

Character: Damien LaVey

Favourite thing about them

His fiery, tsundere personality !! He's just so silly and honestly, if an arson date doesn't sound appealing, that's on you.

Least favourite thing about them

King please open up to your friends more, they are your friends for a reason :( you're allowed to have feelings, no one is gonna judge you for it

Favourite line

"YOU STUPID YELLOW FRUIT! WHATS YOUR DEAL? YOU THINK YOURE RICHER IN POTASSIUM THAN ME?!"

brOTP

Your post was absolutely correct,, Liam and Damien when they aren't at each other's throats are so great together. The Prince of hell and hipster vampire should by all means be besties and they seem to get along pretty well.. their power.. also damien and vera could be unstoppable crime Lords together and I think their relationship is so silly. Sawyer and Damien are also interesting I think, horn buddies and demon pals so they understand each other where the other monsters might not. Also Sawyer might help damien embrace the more "feminine" aspects of his personality like makeup and hair styling bcs dude what even is gender anyway.

OTP

Listen I know this is an unpopular ship, but ozmien my schmoopies ♡ I love them so so much,, I think the quiet, laid-back voidy boy and loud, boisterous Prince of hell could help balance each other out !! Sillies ♡ I'm not biased bcs I kin oz and love damien nope

nOTP

I literally do not have one, man fucks.

Random headcanon

Hc that his dads often took him to theatres and ballets and such as a kid, where he began to appreciate hair and makeup as part of a performance and that's why he's so into it.

Unpopular opinion

I don't think I have one other than the arson is funny and he should be allowed to do it ♡

Song I associate with them

Black in Every Color by Happy Hour

Play With Fire by Sam Tinnesz (ft. Yacht Money)

BURN IT by FEVER 333

Riot by Hollywood Undead

Favourite pic of them

God I remember being so smitten when i got this ending. Mans literally fought the sun and won. Its the smirk, its the charred fist, its the burnt suit. He's just *chefs kiss*

Character: Oz (Yellow)

Favourite thing about them

God his design is everything. Its so gender,, I love his lil phobias so so much and it reflects his sweet, introverted personality so much!

Least favourite thing about them

The fact you can get choices wrong :/ /j /j /j (his former voice actor :/ took me a while to get past that ick, iykyk)

Favourite line

Since he doesn't technically have lines, I'll choose my favourite player choice line.

"A bowl of knives. The essence of... knives"

brOTP

OZ AND VICKY BESTIES PLEASE,, I love these two soo bad !!! I feel like Vicky brings oz out of his shell and Oz really listens to Vicky when she talks. I can imagine these two just vibing, hanging out, talking about their classmates or watching movies together. They're very scrunkly,, I adore their dynamic soo bad.

OTP

obligatory ozmien, but I'm also a multishipper and so I love oz and milo too-

nOTP

Literally no one, they're all just vibing

Random headcanon

Oz's phobias would absolutely go to the counter and be like "he asked for no pickles" if they could

Unpopular opinion

Idk if i have any

Song I associate with them

You're So Creepy by Ghost Town

Rhinestone Eyes by Gorillaz

Stupid by Brendan Maclean

Are You Happy? by Internet Friends

Favourite pic of them

okay not a pic but still!!! I remember tearing up the first time I saw the monster camp credits... seeing the lil guys moving to the absolute banger was just 😭����💞💕💝

[retvenkos]

Hi I am v annoying and we haven't like chatted in a while so I wanted to pop in and ramble honestly idk this is not gonna be structured and say HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <3 miss you bestie,, sowwy I missed your cym thing (honestly though cym as lines of your writing I would DIE). I have NOT started bridgerton s2 yet… hopefully soon though love like honestly the show is trash but it's MY trash aksjsjsjsj. When you have time you should watch Alice in Borderland cause it's a FANTASTIC J-drama and we're getting s2 this year!!!1!! Do you have a bias of bts yet?? I can't listen to Bastille now without thinking of you if you made me a playlist of songs that remind you of me I would literally kiss you on the mouth hahaha anyways! Miss you lots bestie!! I got a new book the other day and I'm so excited to read it <3 <3 I would love to go to a bookstore with you and buy books and come back and read in each other's laps… eating oranges and almonds like we're in the freaking 19th century akdjsjdj

lindsay my bestie!!!!!! my k-drama enthusiast!!!!! my bookworm extraordinaire!!!!! my wife (no, i will not let you forget - even though i looked it up and i can't gain citizenship in canada based off of marriage status alone, smh)!!!!!!

honestly, this ask ran me over like a lawnmower it's so unhinged, but i love you for it, asdghjhgfdsdfgh.

i hope you get to watch bridgerton s2 soon! i just started episode 3, and i hope to watch more later tonight and this weekend. we'll have to see how it goes, but from what i can tell you spoiler free - i simply missed the shenanigans. so many great characters,,,,, so many perfect dynamics,,,,, so many hilarious lines and occasionally heartfelt moments..... there are definitely times where it is not..... the best show ever, but this season is already sO much fun. i was a little taken aback by the use of a classical version of material girl by madonna,,,,,,,,, it felt like a cover that stuck out more than the others, although, perhaps it's just because of my familiarity, but hey! that's just bridgerton for you <3.

and alice in borderland!!!!!! yes!!!!! i've been meaning to ask you about that - it seems really interesting, and kinda something i want to get into, but i've been told to watch squid games instead by a few friends. i only trust your opinion, though, (esp. since i don't think they've seen alice in borderland?) and which one i should prioritize - alice in borderland or squid games? i'm leaning toward alice in borderland, ngl, but i just know squid games is a Thing™ for a reason,,,,,,,

and as for a bts bias, i'm going to be 100% real with you and tell you i'm still trying to figure out who it's going to be (honestly, i feel like i need to watch interviews with them or something because outside of the context of their music, they're still such an abstract in my mind), but, i have to say i'm leaning toward namjoon. i just think he's neat.

and you associate bastille with me???? that is such a compliment, lindsay, and i have given you lindsaycore bastille songs before (poet? you mean lindsay???) but!!!!!! i must also say you align with pompeii quite nicely. idk what it is exactly, but those vibes just remind me of the vibrancy of you.

and omg,,,,,, watch me make a playlist with songs that remind me of you <3. i have thoughts already,,,,, wait until i put them down in your inbox.

and lindsay!!!!!! what i would give to go to a bookstore with you! we'd have to go to one that's in a shopping center so we can go shop to shop, stopping in the clothing store to try on jackets and dresses we aren't going to buy, browsing through lipglosses at a makeup store and buying overly-priced scented hand lotion, getting specialty ice cream and giggling in bookstores,,,,,,,,, i am yearning.

[dreamersscape]

In Which I Attempt to Wreak Havoc Upon Panharmonium's Heart. Or Something.

Because I am an awesome friend, clearly, and possibly making people sad/verklempt is definitely an excellent way to (belatedly 😔 but I did start before the 15th!) celebrate Kakashi's birthday, right? ;)

I will admit up front that this is nowhere near as deftly structured and compiled as your Kakashi fanmix, @panharmonium, but that is precisely why I'm not even going to try to organize all these songs into individual playlists. Yet. Plus, I have a tendency to over-explain so this way I can better expound on why certain songs remind me of certain characters. Sorry that I sorta went a little... overboard?

Everything--except a few that aren't available on spotify, I'll link to them directly--can be listened to HERE.

What I'm Looking For - Brendan Benson | Kakashi → I may be a little biased with this one because it fits SO many of my favorite characters so well, somehow, but there's just something about the upbeat/tongue-in-cheek musical cues/delivery of lines such as 'I visit hell on a daily basis, and I see the sadness in all your faces' that just feels so Kakashi to me.

Happy Ending - MIKA | Kakashi → This is presumably a breakup song, but I enjoy it so much more in a non-romantic context (and the song itself isn't really boxed in with overtly romantic framing, so I appreciate that!). Anyway, some very important instructions IMO for listening to this with Kakashi in mind: everything before the bridge is about Kakashi up through his ANBU years, but when you get to the 'little bit of love' refrain, picture Kakashi meeting Tenzo, and then becoming Team 7's sensei, opening back up to Gai, adopting all the other leaf genin, assimilating Sai and Yamato into Team 7, and it keeps building with Kakashi gaining more and more loved ones to fill the hole in his heart, and then cry tears of joy with me! Just my personal suggestion. :D

Light - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team 7 (/all his kids)

with every heartbeat I have left I will defend your every breath

→ I've seen this song used for ship vids and I'm all ????? about that because this is clearly a song about the love you have for your child! But I suppose if one of my favorite pastimes is aggressively re-interpreting love songs in non-romantic ways, I can't begrudge the opposite process... too much, lol.

Heroes - MIKA | Team Minato

your blood on me/and my blood on you/but to make you bleed/the only thing I wouldn't do/.../I wish there was a way/to give you a hand to hold/'cause you don't have to die in your glory/die, to never grow old

Long Lost Friends - Transit | Kakashi & Obito

how long/do you have to say that/this is not the person I used to know/you are not the person I used to know/.../because lately, you've been looking at me like you've seen a ghost/and isn't it obvious who's been missing who the most

→ What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck! What the heck!

Against the Voices - Switchfoot | Kakashi

'cause everybody knows/the hardest war to fight/is the fight to be yourself/when the voices try to turn you into someone else

Out of the Darkness - Matthew and the Atlas | Obito? Yamato? Kakashi? Itachi & Sasuke? Naruto & Kurama? → I'm a bit undecided about this one, or if I should just not worry about choosing one character and just let myself feel all the "inner darkness is not an innate characteristic, Danzo! They're just grieving/in a lot of pain, and they can find their way out of that dark place!" feels.

Save A Place - 1969 | Kakashi & Sasuke

so I'll keep away and save a place for you/and I'll only make the same mistakes as you/.../when all the blood all over your fingers is dried up/the pain will still linger

→ I'm not uber-confident in picking out really fitting Kakashi & Sasuke songs yet, but I hope this hits a lot of the right notes for you. :)

Thrive - Switchfoot | Kakashi

I'm always close, but I'm never enough/I'm always in line, but I'm never in love/I get so down, but I won't give up/I get so down, but I won't give up

→ See, it says right there that he's never in love! Not the crux of the song, and he's not always 'in line' either, but still! :)

Disarm - The Civil Wars | Kakashi & Obito

the years burn, burn, burn

→ I don't know how I keep collecting fictional relationships that work so well for this song, but literally every single line of this song hits so hard for these two?? Will never recover from this. (Also, I usually disregard when 'my love' pops up in the last line of the chorus, as the mood dictates. :) It's pretty incidental as is IMO.)

Renaissance - Paolo Buonvino & Skin | Sakumo & Obito & Kakashi & Naruto

let me show you one last time/let me show you one last sign/you can find it/I can't say that I can change the world/but if you let me, I can make another world for us/let me suffer all for you/make this vision all brand new/we can fight them/I can't say that I can win it all, [but] come with me and I will make my words stand tall

→ Okay, this is a very odd choice given that it's actually the theme song for a different show about the Italian renaissance (if you happen to see this, Mirjam, don't hate me!), but this could be IT! The "those who break the rules are scum, but those who would abandon their friends are worse than scum" anthem that's all about building a better world based on these principles! I really hope our sharing-a-brain talent translates to listening to this song in this way because I am feeling SOME KIND of way about this!

The Lament of Eustace Scrubb - The Oh Hellos | Kakashi → I really liked the song you chose from this album for your fanmix, so now I've feeling a tiny bit too on-the-nose with my choice, but I guess this is just a Kakashi album all around. 😆

Glass Heart Hymn - Paper Route | Kakashi(+ Obito) & Sasuke(+ Itachi)

memories as heavy as a stone/ I am empty, in my end you are my beginning

This Is Home - Switchfoot | Yamato & Kakashi (+ Team 7)

and now, after all my searching/after all my questions/I'm gonna call it home

→ All finding-where-you-belong songs are actually Yamato songs. True story!

Faust, Midas, & Myself - Switchfoot | Obito

you have one life left to leave/you have one life left to lead

→ Could this be any more perfect for Obito? It even has creepy-old-man!Madara!

Pluto - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

Always Gold - Radical Face | Kakashi & Obito/Sasuke & Itachi/Naruto & Sasuke

all my life, I've never known where you've been/there were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend/and I heard you say, right when you left that day/does everything go away?/yeah, everything goes away/but I'm going to be here till forever/so just call when you're around

→ ...but mostly Kakashi & Obito because 'there were holes in you' 😭😭😭

Lemon Boy - Cavetown | Yamato & Kakashi → You already know the delights of this song of course, but I gots to be comprehensive. :)

Everywhere I Go - Lissie/cover by Sleeping At Last | Kakashi & Team Minato

danger will follow me now everywhere I go/angels will call on me and take me to my home/well, these tired eyes just want to remain closed

→ I chose the Sleeping At Last cover for maximum angst, 'cause sometimes it be like that.

Uneven Odds - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

maybe your light is a seed, and the darkness the dirt, in spite of the uneven odds, beauty lifts from the earth

→ ...just like an earth style: mud wall :') Okay, okay, bad jokes aside, the seed metaphor of course makes me want to associate it with Tenzo, but this is clearly a Kakashi song!

Twenty-four - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito

life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago/and I'm not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago/still I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/you're raising the dead in me/I wanna see miracles/to see the world change/wrestled the angel for more than a name/for more than a feeling, for more than a cause/I'm singing spirit, take me up in arms with you/and you're raising the dead in me

I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) - John Rzeznik | Kakashi

and how can they say I never change?/they're the ones that stay the same/.../they can't tell me who to be/'cause I'm not what they see/.../and their words are just whispers/and lies that I'll never believe

→ Yeah, I might've accidentally imprinted on Treasure Planet as a 14 year old, and then someone made sure this song would forever live in my heart by making a fanvid of it with my favorite character from my robin hood show, but! He's still here!

See You Again - Wiz Khalifa (feat. Charlie Puth) | Kakashi & Obito/Team Minato

how can we not talk about family when family's all that we got?/everything I went through, you were standing there by my side/and now you gon' be with me for the last ride

→ I am being very unoriginal here, and there are in fact already fanvids made for these relationships set to this song (along with many others featuring different Naruto relationships), but I don't think I'll be able to rest until I translate the movie playing in my head whenever I hear this song now into an actually watchable format. After all, they have come a long way from where they began, and I intend to make that both as touching and ironically hilarious as possible!

Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers | Kakashi → Admittedly, I got this idea from a magnificently crafted fanvid done for my robin hood show, but I genuinely think it would be really interesting to make something similar for Kakashi centered around the time he technically died but got better? I don't know how to explain it, but I think it fits quite well.

30 Lives - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi & all the people he's loved and lost → can be listened to here.

A Pound of Flesh - Radical Face | Kakashi

then today I wake up feeling easy/and find I'm on more familiar roads/I got a darkness wrapped inside me/but now it ain't so hard to let it go/so keep a candle burning in the window/I'm almost home

Hold Back The River - James Bay | Kakashi & life getting in the way of him being with his precious people (you may be sensing a pattern here) → @the road of life: Let! Kakashi! And his People! Hold! Each! Other!!! Also, 'tried to square not being there, but think that I should have been' is absolutely about Sasuke's defection and Kakashi adding it to his long list of undeserving self-recriminations.

The Fall - Imagine Dragons | Yamato & Kakashi → 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Shadowman - K's Choice | could work equally well for Kakashi or Obito, I think

any time tomorrow a part of me will die/and a new one will be born/any time tomorrow/I'll get sick of asking why/sick of all the darkness I have worn/any time tomorrow/I will try to do what's right/making sense of all I can/any time tomorrow I'll pretend to see the light/I just might/.../and doesn't it make you sad?/to see so much love denied/see nothing but a shadowman inside

Paint - The Paper Kites | Kakashi & Team 7

still there's a wound and I'm moving slow/though it don't show, though it don't show/I've got a hole where nothing grows,/how little you know, how little you know

→ A song for just how much Team 7 doesn't know about their sensei.

Always Find Me Here - Transit | Kakashi → ...most likely at the memorial stone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (why am I like this)

Taste - Sleeping At Last | Kakashi

it’s bittersweet, it’s poetry/a careful pruning of my dead leaves/it’s holy ground, a treasure chest/I'm on my knees and only scratch the surface/like fists unraveling, like glass unshattering/we’re breaking all the rules, we’re breaking bread again/we’re swallowing light ’til we’re fixed from the inside

Help - Hurts | Yamato & Kakashi

take my hand and lead the way/out of the darkness and into the light of the day/.../'cause I know what I've been missing/and I know that I should try/but there's hope in this admission/and there's freedom in your eyes/.../I can feel the darkness coming/and I'm afraid of myself/call my name and I'll come running/'cause I just need some help

→ NO ONE TOUCHE ME.

Your Soul - RHODES | A mish-mash of Kakashi & Tenzo and Rin & Obito & Kakashi and Gai & Kakashi vibes? → So like, 'oh you know when you're alone/I'm holding on and on and on and on/to your soul' reminded me of your 'when you're all alone...the only thing you really think about is dying' 'but when there are two of you...the only thing you can think about is surviving.' and now kakashi - who just saved his life - is asking him 'did you want to die' and yamato is saying 'no' there are two of them and yamato wants to SURVIVE. tags as well as Gai's steadfastness as a friend, and 'I just wanna hold your hand' made me think of Rin's "Well then, I'm just going to have to connect the two of you." while holding their hands, and the sunlight/'soul shine'/'your light' motif is just A Lot in this song!!

7 Years - Lukas Graham | Kakashi → Alright, yeah, there are already approximately a gazillion pre-existing Naruto AMVs for this song and even one or two focusing on Kakashi, but they don't capitalize on all the angst possibilities in many of the lyrics or reach the fluff potential of 'will I think the world is cold or will I have a lot of children who can warm me [when I'm old]' and I cannot abide that!

Putting The Dog To Sleep - The Antlers | Kakashi & Sasuke → Okay, on one hand, this song is One Big Oof. But I do like the (potentially odd) way I've conceptualized it for Kakashi & Sasuke? Like, the first half is Kakashi going through all the tragedies in his life and getting lost in ANBU, but then in the second half it transitions to him wanting to prevent Sasuke from having to be as alone as Kakashi once was and they can face life together? It makes me emotional!

Trust Me - The Fray | Kakashi & Obito

I found a friend, or should I say a foe?/said there's a few things you should know/we don't want you to see/we come, and we go/here today, gone tomorrow

→ There are a few lines that call Tenzo & Kakashi to mind, but mostly it's Obito & Kakashi.

The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?) - Snow Patrol | Kakashi → I had to, right? My mindscape is a little murky/scattered about what specifically I want to think about when I listen to this, but obviously it has to do with Kakashi in one way or another.

Kettering - The Antlers | Team Minato(???) → Honestly not sure if this will make any sense, but yeah, vague team minato vibes?

Swans - Unkle Bob | Kakashi & Obito/Rin/Minato/Kushina/Sakumo → They should be by his side always!!!

Looking Too Closely - Fink | Kakashi → I honestly feel rather ambivalent about this one too, but I can't deny 'truth is like blood underneath your fingernails/and you don't wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself/looking too closely' always destroys me because... well, you know. I love suffering. :(

Souvenirs - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Obito & Rin

wolves - Switchfoot | Kakashi

snowfall for the battlefield/roses for the father's sons/see them red on the ground:/bleeding/when the revolution came/we were more than hungry men/we were hoping for more:/bleeding/end. begin again./all of my world is collision and spin/hope is a world that has yet to begin/awaken, oh sleeper/awaken, oh sleeper/a new day begins

→ I wanted a wolf-related song too. :)

PRODIGAL SOUL - Switchfoot | Obito, Itachi, & Sasuke; just all them wayward Uchiha boys

Coming Down - Dear Euphoria | kid!Kakashi & his relationships

the shell/that I wore/it wasn't for fun/it wasn't to make you/stick around/it was for survival/it was what I've learnt/it was for the sun/.../our love has grown/our love has flown

→ Another one I'm a little unsure of whether it makes sense outside of my head or not, but I like the vibes?

Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford & Sons | Kakashi & Yamato? → Hmm, can I maybe submit this as a Kakashi-&-Yamato-just-need-to-mske-it-through-this-war-so-they-can-have-a-bright-bright-future song?

All Is Well (It's Only Blood) - Radical Face | Kakashi → ...he said as he's bleeding out or after he's thrown himself in the line of fire protecting someone he thinks is a better person than himself...

Bleeding Out - Imagine Dragons | Kakashi

when the hour is nigh/and hopelessness is sinking in/and the wolves all cry/to fill the night with hollering/when your eyes are red/and emptiness is all you know/with the darkness fed/I will be your scarecrow/you tell me to hold on/oh, you tell me to hold on/but innocence is gone/and what was right is wrong

→ In a similar vein to the previous song. But goodness gracious! Were they NOT straight up describing Kakashi here?

Amaryllis - Shinedown | Yamato & Kakashi → Just tossing this one out there, not sure if it will make sense or if it's a reach... but I like it?

lost 'cause - Switchfoot | Kakashi & Sasuke

are we a lost cause?/or are we just lost 'cause/we won't be the future we refuse to see?/and if I'm your lost cause/it'll be your lost 'cause/you won't see me as I am, the possibility/that I'm not the enemy

→ 214 feels. (And before and after that, but yeah.)

Through the Ghost - Shinedown | Kakashi & Obito

so many silent sorrows/you never hear from again/and now that you've lost tomorrow/is yesterday still a friend?/.../everything that mattered is just/a city of dust/covering both of us/did you hide yourself away?/I can't see you anymore/.../did you hide yourself away?/are you living through the ghost?/did you finally find a place/above the shadows so the world will never know?/the world will never know you like I do ... like I still do

Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men | Kakashi → Just Kakashi having little chats with his ghosts, totally the most heartwarming way to conclude this section. 😅

Sleepyhead - Passion Pit | Kakashi → Just kidding! Here's a slightly less morbid song for the Most Tired Boy Of Them All.™ (Random aside: this was my customary song to listen to on my walks to 8AM organic chemistry classes; I found it strangely soothing! On a different occasion, after a particularly long day for her, one of my roommates didn't have the energy to make it to her bed but nevertheless requested a lullaby from us. So I obliged by playing this song for her, but she didn't seem to gain the same peace of mind from it as I did. 😄 I know it's not my place to propose anything like this, but it does amuse me to imagine bookends!Kakashi in these situations, even though it's not OChem classes he has to go to.)

General/Miscellaneous:

Rise Above It - Switchfoot | Ensemble

don't care what they're telling me/we can be what we want to be/.../just because it's law doesn't mean that it's fair/.../don't believe the system's on your side/.../the curse is spoken/the system's broken; rise above it

→ I mean, how could I not think about Naruto when this song also has the lines 'hear us sing tonight like the last night on earth/we will rise like the tide/like dead men coming back to life/we are rising, rising'? It's fun to be literal sometimes!

Doorways - Radical Face | Allllll the traumatized children → Someone has to put all those tragic childhood flashbacks to good use, after all.

Ghost Towns - Radical Face | take your pick of Itachi, Sasuke, or Post-Kannabi-Bridge!Obito

there's no comin' home/with a name like mine/I still think of you/but everyone knows/yeah everyone knows/if you care, let it go

Blinding Light - Switchfoot | Hey, Hiruzen? You may have coined the phrase, "children are the king" but I don't think you truly understand it... (insert Princess Bride joke here)

hey boy, don't believe them/we're the nation that eats our youth/.../still looking for the blinding light/still looking for the reason why/still looking for the sun to shine/all my life I've been living in the darkest night/still looking for the blinding light/to take me higher and higher

Brother's Blood - Kevin Devine | EVERYONE → ...but certainly so much you could do with Itachi & Sasuke, Obito & Kakashi, Shisui & Itachi, even Hashirama & Madara! Sakumo's teammates turning their backs on him and saying 'I don't know one thing about my brother's blood'?!?! There are SO MANY ideas I have for this song! It gives me chills and makes my brain scream.

We Need Each Other - Sanctus Real | Ensemble → Already mentioned this one to you, but I have to include it here for thoroughness' sake!

Whispering - Alex Clare | the Hidden Leaf's lost/ostracized children/orphans

who will care for the falling?/who will care for the falling leaves?

So this is probably a strange concept to come up with and apply to this song, but the 'whispering, whispering, whispering' parts brought Konaha's virulent gossiping/passing judgement about others and often kids they don't even know problem to mind, too, and yeah?

The World You Want - Switchfoot | Ensemble → If I were to make a fanvid set to this song, I would definitely keep a broad focus, but I can't deny that the lines 'you start to look like what you believe, you float through time like a stream, if the waters of time are made up by you and I, I could change the world for you, you change it for me' FOR SURE has strong Obito & Kakashi/Kakashi & Tenzo vibes.

Red Eyes - Switchfoot | Ensemble, but definitely many dashes of Uchihas 😄 → I would like to thank Masashi Kishimoto for creating a world where red eyes are a Thing of Importance so I can one day make a fanvid using this song in not just the tired or teary bloodshot-red eyes way, but in a very literal sense too.

TAKE MY FIRE - Switchfoot | The Will of Fire → 'Cause I think I'm sooooo clever. 😄

Above The Clouds Of Pompeii - Bear's Den | various parent & child relationships → This obviously derives from the not-caring-about-your-female-characters problem, but it always gets me that all the single parents in the Naruto universe are almost invariably the fathers! I guess sometimes you can safely guess that the mothers are still alive/exist, but either way we hardly ever get to see them. :/ The one exception I can think of right now is Kurenai, but maybe I'm forgetting another conspicuous single mother. Anyway, I don't know if this helps or hinders more a potential Naruto fanvid for this song, but regardless, it still gives me feelings?

Who We Are - Switchfoot | Ensemble → It just makes me inordinately happy that the chorus for this song starts with 'who we are (in the fever of our youth)', you know? :D

Brother - Kodaline | all the friendships we can stuff in here and then some → Quite a well known song I'm pretty sure, but I love how many dynamics one could showcase in a potential fanvid of this. And, not gonna lie, 'oh brother, we go deeper than the ink beneath the skin of our tattoos' deserves to be used in some sort of Tenzo 'n' Kakashi or Team Ro fan creation!

Special Bonus:

Shake It Out - Florence + The Machine | Kakashi & Obito → I'm not sure whether I would have realized how well this works for Kakashi & Obito on my own, funnily enough, but then I found this fanvid of it (containing only scenes you've seen naturally!) and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's so well done!

[tonguetiedraven]

letter writing angst? any aoex character is fine :)

I went Yukio&Rin, I hope that's okay :) Day 5.

Dear Rin,

She told me to do this so that I didn't 'regress' which was just her way of trying to sound clinical. I don't know why she thinks I'll listen to that sort of talk and not her.

I found it offensive. I don't know why. Maybe because it was about you and that was never how you spoke? You joked and chided and were always so damn blunt. God, you drove me crazy with your bluntness. Dad had nothing on you.

She told me to do this, so I'm going to do it, but I don't think it'll make anything better. It's not like you're actually here. I don't know where you are -- I haven't believed in heaven since I was a bruised child, but I think you deserve it. I hope dad's with you, and I hope you're both making all the dumb jokes you possibly can. Send me a few if you can? I'm going to need some laughs.

All I really know is you aren't here, and I am. Writing to you...

Did I ever tell you about that? When we were young, and you didn't know about the Exorcist world, I would write you letters about what had happened. About all the things I was learning and the scary demons I'd encountered. It helped me not spill the beans when we were especially young, but it also reminded me of all the things I wanted to tell you about someday. I'd completely forgotten about that. Funny what you'll remember, isn't it?

Anyway... this feels like that. No matter what I write in this notebook, you'll never actually see it. These words are for me.

You were never much for reading anyway.

Day 17.

Dear Rin,

The silence is so loud. I never realized how much silence there was until you weren't around anymore. It's grating, the silence. I keep straining my ears for any sound of you. You were always so loud in everything you did. You'd stomp through the house without being angry, you just didn't see a point in being quiet. You'd bang open cabinets, slam shut drawers, clang around utensils, and you were always talking. Did you realize that you were never silent? When you weren't holding a conversation with a person, you were talking to whatever object was close to you. You'd narrate your activities to it or just hum so the silence wasn't there.

I've taken to playing music. I've had to create a new playlist solely to fill the silence. Just instrumental doesn't quite cut it. I miss the murmur of voices. There was a song you used to sing all the time, and I can't remember the lyrics.

I wish I could hear you singing it again. Maybe if I could resolve that melody, I could be okay in the quiet.

Day 39.

Dear Rin,

Sometimes it feels like everyone's still waiting for you to appear, but they're just kind of stuck with me. I'll walk somewhere and see two seats. I automatically head towards them just to arrive and...

Why did I go for two when there's just one?

And it's the worst with Kuro. I'll come home, and he'll perk up like the sun's just risen and bounce around until he realizes... it's just me. It's only ever just me. Then he sits by the door and I just... every door slam, every footstep in the hall, every distant laugh... every sound makes him think it's you, but it's not, and I can't figure out how to tell him it'll never be you.

I'm not enough. I'm not the footsteps he's listening for. If he didn't associate me with you, I don't think he'd even notice that I was around.

I don't blame him.

Day 73.

Dear Rin,

I thought about you last night. It was over such a stupid thing, too.

Remember the Satos? The wedding dad officiated, where everyone but the groom got 'sloshed?' I hadn't thought about that disaster of a wedding in decades. Then, for absolutely no reason, Tsubaki brought in a bottle of the exact same sake dad found on the bride and I just...

Do you remember how many empty bottles of the stuff we found? They were clinking around everywhere for weeks. It became a game. You found the last one, and you gloated about it for weeks. It was a stupid bottle, and you kept it on your desk for years like a grand trophy.

I wonder what happened to that bottle.

Day 183.

Dear Rin,

It’s been half a year of letters and I still don’t think it’s helping. Half a year since I started writing to you, and I’ve filled three and a half notebooks. I don’t think I’ve written this much since school. Did I talk to you this much when you were here? I feel like I spent most of the time letting you do all the talking.

There were so many things I should have said and they just… what’s the point in putting them down in ink? You hated reading. The words always swam when you tried to read, and you’d just end up having me read it to you. I should be recording these. That would have been the best way to communicate with you. You’d always rather a phone call over a text.

My phone never rings anymore.

I don’t know if I want to keep doing this.

Day 1448.

Dear Rin,

I found this yesterday and spent the better part of the day reading over the letters again.

I… It’s been years, but there are still moments when I can’t breathe. I woke up the other night and for a moment, I couldn’t remember your laugh. It terrified me.

What if I forget it all one day? I know that’s a risk of growing old, forgetting — and god I wished you had grown old with me. I know… we were never going to grow old together, but it was never supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be the one comforting you.

I don’t want to sound like it hasn’t gotten easier, because it has. There are days when the thoughts of you only bring smiles, or I’ll see some silly something and think about you and I’ll leave feeling lighter.

But the bad days… they still hurt so much, and even that makes me think of you. It was like you had some kind of sixth sense about me. The moment I’d start to cry you’d appear and, god I miss your hugs. I always complained, but now I’d give anything for one more hug.

I don’t know why I’m even writing this. You’re still not going to read it.

I guess... I just want you to know I love you. I’m healing, but I’d still give up all my ‘growth’ to hear you laugh or watch you smile.

I don’t think it’s possible to stop missing you. Love, Yukio

[penzyroamin]

Fanfic ask game: D (Davey at a distance), E (tied together), and H

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with davey, at any distance?

oddly enough, there isn't. which i know is VERY off brand for me. i didn't start making defined playlists for fics until i started working on tied together, which had a lot of music in it, and then i kind of caught the bug and went from there. i will say that i listened to a lot of the chicks while writing it, especially their "landslide" cover

(weird tangent here, but part of the reason this story had a lot less of the stuff i normally organize around a fic is that it changed a LOT as i was writing it. it was actually initially based around one long conversation that the two of them have, as adults, when jack drives by davey's old house after returning home, sees him through the window packing boxes, and goes inside to say hello. that conversation would have been broken up by flashbacks to what became the actual body of the story. the whole idea first came to light when i was packing up my grandparents' old home-- the house davey's house was based on-- and after a while it just turned out to be a less interesting concept than the whole of what happened to jack)

E: If you wrote a sequel to tied together, what would it be about?

if i were to write a COMPANION fic, definitely davey's life up to and through the events of tied together, probably titled "tangled up". he's got a LOT of stuff in that universe that's touched on but not explored as deeply as jack's background is-- his dad's alcoholism, his community work, his past relationships, the ridiculous extent to how stupid in love with jack he is.

as it stands, i like how this fic ended so much that i can't really imagine writing beyond it. their future is up for y'all to decide

H: How would you describe your style?

ooooooo boy. it kind of varies depending on the piece, but i'll hesitantly say... conversational. i don't write first person, but i do like to connect a lot of the central character's thought process into how a scene flows, and a lot of the time it feels a bit like the character is having a chat. as such, there's a lot of sentence fragments and other grammar/punctuation choices that mirror how someone would speak, rather than a smooth, flowing sentence. there are still those, of course, but especially in fics like stunning stasis and flowers that have a humorous edge to them, i let myself fuck around with sentence structure and let the characters say their bits

i think i do this because i like letting characters decide what they want to reveal. it's no fun to know all their secrets! you aren't going to find out about jack's backstory in stunning stasis until he NEEDS to share it. you dont find out about davey or jack's backstories in flowers until they share it with each other! and, on top of that, they lie! to themselves! and then implicitly to you, the reader! and sometimes they don't even know it's a lie! jack saying he's straight? buzz buzz, return to start. stunning stasis jack is going to lie his ASS off to you about how uncaring and callous and cool he is.

god. anyways.

yeah, conversational. and maybe a little too wordy.

[sofwrites]

The shout out was SO cute. I cannot tell you how honoured I am that you mentioned me 💕

Sutton was also my fav character from the show, and when it came to the choices they made with her... well, let's just say that I have questions but even more so I have complaints

Girl, I'm so relieved to find out the reference wasn't in this one. I went full clown swiftie looking for clues that aren't there with this one. New Year like the song??? Them facetiming because "a tiny screen's the only place I see you now"??? Benji was previously mentioned but maybe I didn't pay enough attention then??? I even read the chapter twice because the first time I did so was late and I figured maybe it passed over my head eventhough I'm a radar for all things related to her. I'm already excited about the next chapter, but knowing the reference is going to be there will be an extra treat for me. You don't have to, but I cannot explain how much it means that you go out of your way to include it. That's so lovely of you 💕💕💕

Her lyrics do fit Penelope so well. The thing about Mr. Perfectly Fine is that I can't listen to it or even read the name of the song without remembering Sophie Turner's insta story. That's when I snort. Even when you associated it in the fic with the incident, I was still amused. Blessed be female friendships

I love mutual pining and angst, as long as there's a happy ending. I'm not suffering in vain. Possibly the only fic that I've read that ends in tragedy, was the one you wrote about Colin being too late. It made me feel things, mostly sad ones. Even at that, I thought you did a great job at exploring the plot, that could have been a possible outcome if someone else would have courted her. I think I've read it like three times? But then i go and revist fluffy fics to make myself feel better. You know, for self care purposes

Your efforts not only show, but they also pay off. The fic is so enjoyable and it's very impressive how you manage to pack a whole plot on short text messages. I love it so much. As for rereading your fics, the thing is, they bring me comfort, WCBCR especially. Polin, in case it wasn't obvious, is my fav couple of the books and your fic is what I would have liked the book to be like. I mentioned it in a previous ask, that for me it just makes more sense than the original story (no disrespec to JQ). I go through all the emotions when I read it and aren't we all in need of that? I'm truly thankful that you continously decide to share your talent with us ordinary mortals, we are not worthy 💕💕💕

Now, on today's episode of me projecting my life on your fics, I also picked up crochet and am watching reruns, just that in my case is of Teen Wolf. The only thing I'm lacking is a cute guy to be in love with me. I'm cool with that though, we're still in a pandemic and I don't want people to get near me

AND YESSS! WHAT? IS? SHE? PLAYING? AT? This is the chaos era, but I'll enjoy it as long as she keeps giving us stuff. Between her releases and your updates, the serotonin won't stop coming my way

[I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO SAY I DID CATCH THE LIZZIE MCGUIRE REFERENCE. YOUR FICS ARE WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF (I had to, you know I had to)]

- YOU ARE SO CUTE. These messages give me life and you're just the best

- yeah Sutton and Richard were so good that they just decided to make up problems for them and just... fixed it without actually fixing anything it was rude

- no I'm so sorry you had the stress of going through it again!! I even read through it because I was like "wait what was the reference I put in there" cause I wrote my tags so long ago 💀this certain reference is from one of my favorite TS songs and it's such a Polin song and I know you won't miss it!

- Sophie Turner posting a screenshot of Mr. Perfectly Fine was iconic. Miss queen is iconic for that and I love any woman who clowns her husband

- I can't believe that the only fic without a happy ending you've read is mine AND that you've read it multiple times... Like oh my god that's so overwhelmingly heartwarming. I actually love that story and don't mind at all when people don't want to read it (hence why I was so clear in the tags), but knowing people like it even despite the ending is so wnejfnasjkdfnskfd

- STOP you're honestly so kind I'm basically crying while reading your message. I wrote WCBCR so completely on a whim and that the fact that it became 100k is maddening and even more maddening is that people use it as their comfort fic. ACK I constantly am going between missing writing it and being so relieved that it's done

- no literally re: Penelope spending her life in quarantine is literally just what I did. I watched Love Island and learned how to crochet. However, I too was lacking a cute male (and a cat 😭)

- she's actually crazy and being a stan is so tiring and I'm not even one of the ones that deciphers her codes

- OH THE LIZZIE MCGUIRE REF. I actually went to Italy 2 years ago and basically word-for-word copied the Instagram caption from my own post 🤪ANYWAY ILY FOR CATCHING THAT

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering how do you handle an adult life? I'm 17 and the fact that I'm going to be an adult is starting to panic me more and more. Like I CANT talk to adults. I stutter&I'm a mess. I'm even bad with my peers. Some advice on how you do it would be nice. I try to ask my parents, but they aren't very helpful and seem ready to drop me into the deep end to "teach me" a lesson about being an adult. (Sorry again about non blog related question. No obligations to answer)

Oh boy, I’m gonna do my best to answer this, but full disclosure? I’m pretty bad at being social. I have some issues, and talking to people is really hard for me. That might be helpful in this context if you’re coming from a similar situation, but I don’t know if that’s the case, so it’s possible that my stuff won’t work for you. I’ll give it a whirl anyway.

I actually was thrown into the deep end when I was about your age, because I ended up going to college in a state where I pretty literally didn’t know a single person. I don’t know if that was a positive thing or not, but I can definitely say that I’ve gotten significantly better about talking/adulting since then. I’m still terrified of everyone older than me, but I can fake my way through the majority of it now. 

For me, the biggest step was increasing my self-esteem. When I started living on my own in ‘14, my goal was basically to be invisible (a skill that I mastered a looooong time ago). I have this thing about people looking at me, so I didn’t like any kind of attention. It definitely affected the way I talked to people (I didn’t) and the way I acted.

That shifted after I discovered a couple of things

1) some attention is positive, and positive attention feels good

2) I’m imagining a lot of the judgement I feel from other people

The truth is, people don’t pay as much attention to you as you think that they do. We’re all trapped inside our own heads, right? My frame of reference puts the majority of emphasis on me, because that’s the only person I can hear and the only emotions I can feel. The same is true about you– you hear your thoughts and feel your feelings, so it seems like everybody else should be focussed on you.

That’s your mind playing tricks. Don’t believe it. Everybody else is focussed on themselves, not you, and that’s a good thing! They’re not actually looking at you. They’re just looking around. As soon as y’all walk away from each other, odds are you’ll disappear from their mind. It means that you don’t have to worry about doing everything perfectly. They don’t actually care. 

Repeat that to yourself whenever you feel like you’re doing badly. It doesn’t matter. They don’t care. They’re not that concerned about the things that you do.

Two tactics for increasing your self esteem:

Find something you’re good at and do it. A lot. I started writing fanfiction when I was 18, and it straight-up changed my life. I’d never had that level of positive reinforcement before�� for the first time in my life, I felt better than mediocre, and it made me proud of my own skills. Once I knew I was good at something it became a lot easier to talk to people.

(This is where you need to bear in mind that I’m not what the kids call “mentally stable” so like…. this might not be healthy) For a solid two years, I played this mind game where whenever I felt like somebody was judging me or being unkind to me, I picked one of my more angry favorite fictional characters and imagined them yelling back at that person. It worked really well for me because it let me fight back without actually doing it myself. I don’t really get angry, so I imagined someone getting angry on my behalf. Thing is, after awhile I really could think things like “I don’t deserve this” and “hey asshole back the hell off” in my own voice. I don’t know if I can explain that any better

Practical tips for maintaining a conversation:

Ask questions. It’s a lot easier to have a conversation if they’re doing most of the talking, and they won’t think it’s weird if you seem interested. Just keep them talking by asking for more information about whatever they just said.

They’ll get more comfortable (and more talkative) the more emotion you express. Listen actively. Nod along. Say stuff like “Really??” Your eyebrows are your friends. React to the stuff they say.

If you don’t know what emotion you’re expected to express, draw your eyebrows slightly in, rest a hand on your mouth/chin, and say “interesting.” They’ll interpret that as whatever response they were expecting.

 I feel more comfortable if I’m prepared, so I straight-up have memorized anecdotes that I practice until they go smoothly. I mostly use stories about my siblings, but I also have this speech about communism that I use every time someone asks me what I’m thinking about.

I don’t know what kind of English you speak, but I realized a long time ago that if I amp up my accent, other southerners trust me more and everyone else sees me as less threatening. If that applies, use it.

Don’t be ashamed of your interests. It might seem embarrassing, but other people don’t see it that way. Niche comic book knowledge actually goes over pretty well at parties. Related tip: find The Interest of the person you’re talking to, and your life will get a lot easier. Let them teach you about it and they literally will not shut up. It’s great. Also you get good recs that way.

Tips to get people to like you:

Be helpful. Good in two ways: if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing and that makes you feel anxious, ask whomever is in charge if there’s something you can do to help. They’ll be charmed, and you won’t feel awkward anymore. Also good because people really like the folks that do them favors. They also like the people they did favors for, so let people do things for you if they offer.

Everybody likes the kid that brought food. Bake cookies. Bring cookies. New friends. Even if you don’t talk to them afterwards, they’ll have a positive opinion of you. I never spoke to the majority of my dorm neighbors, but they all liked me because I set candy and juice boxes in the hallway every holiday. In a classroom setting, offer to share your gum, buy extra scantrons, and lend people your pens. 

I befriend people solely by throwing gifts at them until they feel my love. Ask any of my mutuals. They’ll tell you.

Kindness honestly goes a long way? A lot of people, especially young people, really need someone to be kind to them, and they’re not used to getting that. If you can be that person, it’ll help them and it will make the two of you a lot closer. That’s how real friendships start. 

Always be respectful of other people’s trust. If they tell you important things about themselves, treat it seriously. Try to understand how they feel, and then let them know that you understand. Don’t tell other people’s secrets.

Tips for forcing yourself to Do The Thing:

I keep my to do list on post-it notes stuck to my dresser, one item per note, so I can pull them off one at a time as I do them. It’s more satisfying that way.

Personally I’m a lot more willing to do the things I hate if I feel like I’m doing them for someone else. Easiest way is to get one of my friends to ask me to do it (Hey in an hour text me and tell me to go to the grocery store). The best way is to bargain with one of my friends (if you call your doctor, I’ll make a real dinner tonight)

Again… I don’t know if you’re coming from the same place as me, but it really helps me to be open about my problems. I just tell my friends about my mental health issues, and then they help me to work around them.

Treat!!! Yo!!!! Self!!!! Seriously reward yourself for getting things done. Give yourself an episode of The Office for every page you write. Buy yourself ice cream for getting your errands done. If you’re going to do something stressful, have a plan for something relaxing afterward (I’ll go to the induction ceremony, and then I’ll go to the puppy store and pet a beagle)

[Eliza voice] 🎶 T a k e  a  b r e a k 🎶 If socializing is hard for you, realize that you don’t have to do it all the time. It’s okay to opt out, especially when you won’t lose anything by doing it. Personally, I go out of my way to make sure that no one speaks to me on the bus, walking across campus, or during lunch. Those are me-times. You can make sure people get the memo by wearing big headphones, bringing a book (even if you’re only pretending to read it), and avoiding eye contact. 

I find music really helpful for prep/recovery too. It works best if you find one song and play it on repeat until you get to the stressful thing, and  then do the same thing on the way back. Focus on one element of the song at a time. If you do it right, you can hit this meditative sweet spot where you stop thinking about what you have to do.

Stress relief (take it with a grain of salt because I am 95% stress at any given time):

Make your bedroom into a happy place. Pick a strong scent and make that part of the atmosphere– your brain will start to associate that scent with calm. My room smells like Irish Spring soap. When you finish something stressful, go to your room, take a few minutes to lie down and relax, breathe in and out, smell the happy smell. You did it.

Do stupid shit that makes you happy. Blow bubbles on your porch, put colored glassware on your windowsills so the sunlight turns red and blue, sing in your bathroom so it echoes all over the place. 

I hate admitting this with every fiber of my being, but exercise does actually reduce stress. So does eating healthy and sleeping normally, but I’ve never tried those last two.

If something makes you happy, keep it around. Save birthday cards, display presents from your friends, keep a happy tag online so you have a list of stuff to come back to. Your brain will remember the positive reaction, so it’ll undo some of the damage when you’re upset. 

Making other people happy will make you happy. Easiest method? Hit that anon button on the asks, pick the top five people on your dashboard, send them a nice message. Wait for excited response

It’s okay to google “cute babies” and scroll through pics until you feel alive again

I find it helpful to make things. I don’t know, there’s something about spending a long time on a project that makes me feel more productive, especially if there’s a visible product.

Things to remember: 

They aren’t watching you. They don’t care if you mess up. Your brain is lying to you.

Your worth is inherent and cannot be diminished by any of your actions or failures

Odds are the people you meet now won’t be the same people in your life in a few years. That means you don’t have to impress them. If you embarrass yourself in front of the lady at the brochure stand, it doesn’t matter. You probably won’t ever see her again.

It’s okay if this is hard for you. You don’t have to love meeting people.

You don’t have to like everyone. You don’t have to be friends with everyone.

It’s okay to say no. I repeat: it is okay to say no.

You’re going to be okay. You have a destiny, and you will fulfill it. It’s going to turn out exactly as it should. You don’t have to worry about your future.

These things get easier with time.

There’s no shame in seeing a therapist or talking about your problems

You have talents. You are interesting. You deserve attention and praise.

You know where to find me if you need anything