#ask-the-clueless-synths

[mousy-nona]

First — I love your work and your account! Your characterization is incredible and I really enjoy your style. Second — Radioapple prompt! I know its a common one in the fandom, but I love the concept of them dancing/getting to know each other through mutual love of music. Not too specific, but I think it definitely has room to be cute! <3

A major sacrifice

But clueless at the time

Enter, Caroline

Just trust me, you'll be fine

“What is that noise?”

Lucifer turned around warily. It was always good to be wary around Alastor. “Music.”

Alastor gave him a Look. It was his “Don’t Be An Obtuse Idiot” look, the one he saved just for Lucifer. 

He sighed. “It’s a song. The humans come up with some interesting stuff when left to their own devices.” He waved to the radio sitting on his desk. “It took a bit of work, but I managed to figure out how to connect this old thing to some of Earth’s music stations.” 

Alastor’s ears twitched, a surefire sign he was interested and trying not to show it. He lowered himself down onto the other side of the sofa, and they listened in silence together. 

And when I'm back in Chicago, I feel it

Another version of me, I was in it

I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.

“I’ve never heard of these instruments,” Alastor mused. 

“Synth? It’s a pretty new invention. I believe it was heavily popular around the 1980s, and it’s gone in and out of style since then. What do you think?”

“It doesn’t have as much soul as a good saxophone or a piano riff, but it’s not horrible.” Alastor admitted. “I don’t suppose humans on Earth still listen to singers like Ella Fitzgerald?”

“Hard to match a once-in-a-lifetime artist like Ella,” Lucifer remarked. Alastor snapped his fingers, his eyes gleaming with pure, genuine delight. It was rare to see him so excited about anything that didn’t have anything to do with blood or death, and Lucifer drank it in like a man dying of thirst. 

“Exactly,” Alastor grinned. “I see you don’t have completely irredeemable taste in music.”

“She’s fantastic, but you will not believe some of the stuff they have up there now.”

Alastor glanced at him with poorly disguised interest. “You don’t say? Do you happen to listen to these stations quite often?”

“Every night.” 

Alastor paused, as if weighing his next words. “Would you mind a little company?”

The smile that exploded from Lucifer was unexpected – but not unwanted. And that was how the king of Hell and the Radio Demon declared a truce every night, between the hours of 12 AM to 1 AM.

—------------------------

“Boy, you’re in for a treat today,” Lucifer said as soon as Alastor walked in. “They’re playing electro swing on 58.3 The Breeze.” 

Alastor furrowed his brow. “Electro…swing?” He shuddered. “Sounds positively horrid. Why ruin a perfectly good thing with extra noises?” 

“Don’t be such a Debbie Downer,” Lucifer scowled. “Sit down, shut up, and give it a chance, will you?”

To his credit, Alastor did sit and shut up – for approximately ten seconds. Then he groaned. “This is a travesty. They’re calling this garbage swing?” 

“Electro swing,” Lucifer corrected. 

“No, no, enough of this swill.” Alastor snapped his fingers, and the song immediately cut off. “Let me show what true swing sounds like.” 

A moment’s pause, then a new song came on the speakers.

Heaven, I'm in heaven

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak…

Lucifer perked up. “This is…Louis Armstrong?” Just the sound of his voice brought back whispers of slower times, of smoky jazz clubs and whiskey in crystal glasses, of dreams laid out on silver screens. Suddenly, it was the 1950s again.

Alastor bowed and held out his hand, every move so darkly dashing it would make Fred Astaire weep with envy. But his eyes gleamed with challenge.

Dance with me? Asked Louis and Ella.

Spellbound, Lucifer took the devil’s hand. He placed the other on his shoulder hesitantly, but Alastor’s grip was strong and sure as he slowly led him around the room. 

“I want my arms about you, the charms about you will carry me through,” Alastor hummed along. The old-fashioned words were perfect in his radio static, as if the song was made for the two of them, for this very moment. 

Relax, you silly goose. He’s just singing the song. He’s not talking about you, Lucifer tried to reason with himself, but it was exceedingly difficult to think straight with Alastor’s face so very close. His voice – oddly lovely for a man who specialized in conducting screams – cast a spell over them. Time stopped. And Lucifer relaxed, letting Alastor’s song chase his worries away. 

“Heaven, I’m in heaven!” 

—------------------------

And I don't want the world to see me

'Cause I don't think that they'd understand

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

“You’re listening to this again?” 

Lucifer blushed and scrambled to change it to another station, but Alastor materialized in front of the radio and covered the fast forward button with his hand before he could get to it. Damn those tricksy shadows of his.  

“I…I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Yes, that is one of the benefits of teleportation,” he said, as effortlessly smug as always.

“It’s not our usual time,” Lucifer frowned, peeking at the clock. 10 PM. Far too early for what was quickly becoming his favorite hour of the day, although he’d never admit it out loud. 

“Well, I heard a cry for help coming from this room, so I thought I’d be a good neighbor and pop my head in,” Alastor said.

“Cry for help–” Lucifer started indignantly, but Alastor put a finger to his lips. 

And the damn song was still playing. 

So when everything feels like the movies

Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive…

Lucifer turned so red his entire face resembled a tomato on fire. “I can listen to whatever I want during my private time,” he spluttered.

“That would be true, but I can hear your ‘private time’ from the other end of the hotel.” Alastor sighed, as if no one else in the history of the world had ever experienced the pain of a noisy neighbor. “So I decided to check on you, just to make sure you hadn’t fully devolved into an angsty child.”

“It’s silly, I know, but sometimes listening to this stuff makes me feel…like I’m not so alone,” Lucifer admitted, not quite able to look the demon in the eye. “It’s been a tough couple of years.” Tough couple of hundred years, but who’s counting? 

Alastor didn’t say anything, but he didn’t leave either. Eventually, they turned the radio to another station – Billboard Top 100s, this time – and Alastor’s horrified face at “Think U The Shit (Fart)” made Lucifer laugh so hard water came out of his nose. 

He completely forgot about his depression. At least for the rest of the night. And that was enough. That was more than Lucifer had had in a long time. 

—------------------------

The next day, Lucifer came back to his room to find an old-fashioned ‘30s vinyl record player perched on his desk. A vinyl had already been set up, its arm perched delicately halfway through a song, ready for Lucifer to hit Play. 

Attached to it was a note.

As a thank you for all the new music. -A.

So Lucifer hit Play.

Immediately, the swing of the sax and Ella’s clear, dulcet tones filtered through the speakers. 

Blue days

All of them gone

Nothing but blue skies

From now on

I never saw the sun shining so bright

Never saw things going oh-so right

Noticing the days hurrying by

The record stopped there, as abruptly as if the entire track had been magically wiped. No matter how many times he tried to reset it and play it again, that was the only verse on the record. 

It didn’t matter. Had Alastor forgotten how ancient he truly was? Lucifer had been around for the dinosaurs, the age of ice, man’s first cities, and the launch to the moon. He remembered the greats, because that was his job. He was to live, and he was to bear witness.

He knew the rest of the song, even if Alastor had gone to such great lengths to erase it. 

Noticing the days hurrying by

When you're in love, my how they fly…

He smiled. And he sang along, letting the vinyl spin and spin until the words themselves were nothing but senseless sounds and only Alastor’s promise remained. 

“Blue days, all of them gone. Nothing but blue skies, from now on…”

[agapi-kalyptei]

The water was warm that day. Of course, the water was 27 degrees, as it always was. 27.1 degrees. Friday 2pm. I disliked having to build a mental model of children's schedules, but here it was. Thursday 4pm. 13 year olds. 6pm 15 year olds. Friday 2pm 8 year olds. I didn't mind them conceptually, but they took 3 lanes at first, and another one at 3pm, and our side of the swimming pool was getting cramped.

I realized that being observant of random useless things is very typically ADHD. Not that I wasn't fully capable of being blind and clueless, but when you can't read a book while swimming, even when I do my best not to stare, there's all these Types of people that I find fascinating. I got quite used to being humbled by 65 year old ladies swimming laps left and right without a break, while I wait a minute on each end for my heart to calm down to under 120 bpm.

Today was better. Eating twice a day did miracles to my health, and so the water felt warmer than usual, and I didn't need to watch the heart rate so much. This time no elderly athletes. One weird looking guy "on the wrong side of 40" (as if there was a wrong side to being born on a timeline) who seems to have a habit of trying to make smalltalk with older ladies on the shallow end of the pool. He's a regular. A few unremarkable people. Then a pregnant lady climbed into the pool, wearing a bra instead of swimsuit.

I have learned not to question things, especially with not having close encounters with pregnant people. And of course by now I knew not to assume people's physical prowess based on their look. The pregnant woman, of course, was tearing through the pool at twice my speed; at first at least. Her presumed husband and kid were hanging out in the small pool. It brings me joy to see families together.

A kid took the lane next to me. I play a little game where I try to guess everyone's age. The strange thing about age is that even when I was 12 at some point (as embarrassing as that it is to admit), I don't really have a clue what someone that age would look like. I still barely have a clue what any age looks like. Sure as hell I'm not going to walk over and ask. "I'm trying to build a larger dataset and I need a point of reference." I'm not that autistic, I think. She was probably a cyborg anyway, swimming 2 kilometers by the time I did one lap. Doing that pretentious Andrew Garfield underwater roll at the end of the pool that I hate so much (<- jealous I can't do it).

As the kids training expanded to 66% of the pool, our crowded lane looked more like kesklinn on Friday after work. At some point an old lady asked something and I instinctively said "sorry I don't speak estonian" while pausing my music, to which she just replied "mida?" which gave me at least enough time to connect a dozen synapses and reply "ma ei räägi eesti keelt" and adding "sorry" before realizing I also know how to say that in Estonian.

I left early - only after swimming 1050 meters, which my idiotwatch thought was 675 meters, that liar, and went to buy more acrylics and inks, and cleaning supplies from biomarket. It's been a while, so I treated myself to peanut, almond and hazelnut cups, as if I haven't been treating myself with training website subscriptions and synths and books for a few days in a row. I'm alive. I'm alive. I'm alive. I can still do better tomorrow as long as I'm alive, I thought as I reminded myself of the progress I've made towards emotional stability, much in contrast with The Bell Jar's protagonist that was occupying my mind this week.

[apilgrimpassingby]

Departing Post

I was DMing everyone with this message, but then I hit the daily limit of conversations. So, to @honksalot, @hopelessromance, @ophiuchus-interactive, @bookdragon1811, @a-marble, @litostaves, @ask-the-clueless-synths, @sisterofreverance, @rebelnurse, @adadjokeforstrings, @walkingthroughthisworld, @crusaderchinchilla, @sanvichedasstuff, @sunflowersermons, @on-literal-mars, @flowers-2006, @edwardriddle, @from-the-ship-island, @heavensmostbeloved, @myle, @cinpf, @lovelydeepestparadise, @uncomfortablecliche, @randomwholocker, @babygirlmadara, @rose-ward-ranch, @heronstairspotter, @diewilderonja, @hauntanelle, @moominpriest1951, @late-have-i-loved, @adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me, @mysticcollectorthingfan, @kingdom-0, @pink-fiat003, @cir-c, @prolifecatholic139, @madlinka, @robertvbh, @rosecuptea, @brittany-333, @australiantradgirl, @turnoutthecitylights, @itsallenadayswork, @tradcathy, @roslvet, @thepersonwhohasablog, @courage-is-when-we-face-our-fear, @doveloveroftheholyspirit1234, @riverbaptism, @godlovesyousoiloveyou, @imperial--orthodoxy, @darnitjack, @seeking101, @heyswaroop, @csholmes, @projectdarkjupiter, @wifeyism, @gothhcake, @priestess-before-queendom, @billyengland, @rejectedbytheworldthathecreated, @mmbm9082, @diaryofhannahmarie, @rich-aunt-millenial, @irishironclad,

For various reasons, my blog will be deleted at 7:59 PM Greenwich Mean Time today. Thank you for following me, and there's a little going-away present for you waiting.

[the1975attheirverybest]

no because i wanna sit in the studio with them so fucking badly and listen to demos and fuck around because i did a music tec club thing aaaaages ago now where we could record covers and mess around with plugins and stuff for fun and i was a bit clueless as im not that good a musician at all but it was so fun and i would wanna do that with them so bad especially because whenever i remember to pick up my guitar after like months of not playing i love to just play random chords and mess about with sounds because it just feels nice but doing that with more instruments and synths and people who know what they're doing would be so fun - 🐸

Omg SAMEEEE. I play the guitar too. Not super well. I’d probably be better if my ADHD didn’t prevent me from being disciplined about practice. But I know the basics. As Matty always says, all you really need is the pentatonic scale. And I had an uncle who worked in music for a while before he lost the necessary patience needed to get into the industry properly and he went and became a pilot so now he flies planes for a living. I probably remember like two of the things that he taught me lol.

But I’d wanna act dumb so that George and Matty could teach me. Like I’d keep asking shit like “what’s this button do?” And “what happens if I turn this dial all the way up?” And “could I have a turn on George’s software after he’s done? He’s hogged it for hours.”

Or simply sit silently and record everything they do and say just so I could analyze and study it later. And pinpoint the exact moment that shit like “I’m a racist and you’re some kind of slag” entered the creative orbit hahahaha. Honestly sound fun.

You know these little videos they used to post when some songs had different lyrics? Like I’m sooo curious about that shit ugh

[existentialmagazine]

Review: Blenko’s debut alt-rock single ‘Through Your Teeth’ encompasses storming bass, electronic distortions, witty vocals and a message wrapped in dry humour

Known as the former energetic front-woman of the band Anna’s Bones, the up-coming solo artist Blenko has began her own venture as a solo artist, capturing her own essence and sound within her releases in a way never heard before. With her debut single ‘Through Your Teeth’ making waves on BBC introducing and showing the first glimpse of what we can expect from this talented solo act, Blenko is here to be heard and she’s got a sound you’re going to wish you’d listened to sooner.

In-your-face with what it has to offer, ‘Through Your Teeth’ is immediately dominant in its soundscape as soon as you press play, offering a self-assured confidence in its striking instrumental hits. A storming bassline acts as the core of it all, setting the pounding pacing straight from the beginning while infusing its catchy looping plucks with a slight edge of gritty depth. Simplistic drum beats steadily accompany it, together acting as the sole instrumentals for the track but incredibly forceful in the impact they offer alone. Blenko’s quirky vocals flow perfectly atop it with quickly spoken-sung delivered lines seeping in humour and sarcasm, as well as a few moments that offer a more serious, deadpan delivery. The chorus scarcely switches up the sound, instead just adding rising synth atmospherics and a few pops of sound effects while Blenko channels a more airy, higher-toned soaring in her singing that’s a welcome shift from the verses’ more laid-back approach. Electronic, almost distorted feeling sound effects add a new layer to the second verses’ unravelling, keeping ‘Through Your Teeth’ feeling minimal in instrumentals but still developing throughout its three minute package. Scattered electronic beats and distorted effects litter the bridge while Blenko’s intriguing vocals continue before closing out with one final catchy chorus and snappy hook, all in all making a remarkably addictive slice of alternative-rock that’s only greatly enhanced by its simplistic but masterful instrumentals.

Laced with snark and brutal honesty, ‘Through Your Teeth’ reflects upon the dynamics of our ever-changing lives, nostalgically looking back on simpler times while acknowledging the complexities of the present and in turn adulthood, a topic that’s heavy and yet expressed with such casual indifference. From the almost comedically-baked opening ‘I remember when my biggest worry was when I was drinking too much coffee’, Blenko follows it up by touching upon addictions like smoking, a nod at the shifting times from the simplicity of younger years to coping through growing responsibilities with more and more unhealthy habits. Acknowledging that ‘sometimes I think we regress, and I ask your forgiveness’, Blenko realises that getting older comes with continually learning and making mistakes, as everyone stumbles through life just as clueless as each other. The chorus hook is the most hard-hitting in impact though, singing ‘we are living isolated lives, we are living in isolated times’, an almost sonder-esque appreciation for everyone’s individual lives kept apart by only thin walls and steps on the street, somehow going about completely separate and often lonely existences despite the crowds of people that always surround us. Longing for connection and true friendships, a rarity that’s difficult to be found without the communities in our youth, ‘Through Your Teeth’ all in all wraps up a message of an understandable yearning to be understood and seen. Cutting straight to the point and leaving you feel a little less alone in your own complicated journey of life, ‘Through Your Teeth’ is an anthem you’ll surely be listening to on repeat for months to come.

Check out ‘Through Your Teeth’ here to appreciate Blenko’s addictive sound and amusing yet incredibly real message.

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Unknown

// This coverage was created via Musosoup, #SustainableCurator.

[askthevocalosers]

// Had fun drawing last night for the first time in....a while. Have this dumb comic from Tumblr lol

Featuring Yohioloid from @ask-the-clueless-synths ! //

[ask-the-clueless-synths]

Hellos! I heard there was a, a, another me! :] - ask-scribbly-hio

@ask-scribbly-hio Thanks for the ask!! I hope I drew your Hio okay!!

[ask-the-friendly-red-cyborg]

What if...... A5 and Chiyu? :D

((I might have gone out of character but this time I actually looked at the wiki and ya know, just... Went ham on the Bold Fire Gal concept ckkekckdk

Also this set turn d out to be much closer in colours than the last one, but it was neat!))

[ask-dress-up-galaco]

Ausgris: *Types out message on tablet* [Hello...! I'm Ausgris. 🤔🤔 I was wondering if... I could sit nearby you two? My friends seem to have wandered off and... I'm not sure where they are... 🤔]

C: Go ahead and take a seat. Pretty sure the Princess won’t mind sharing while she’s off making sand castles. Gotta warn you though, the little guy isn’t much of a conversationalist. Unless you can talk to fish?

[askmermiku]

<-from

@ask-the-clueless-synths​

[askdefaultandpeaches]

Maybe Momo could wear 7D? 'u'

((when you are reminded of how pretty peaches are))

[asklittlemiku]

Miku has had a good year! Cupcakes?! Can Miku have one, please?

@ask-the-clueless-synths @askdrumkaito @ask-twins-of-the-synths

[askthebestcyberdiva]

Yohioloid: *s q u i n t s at Cyva* "Didn't I evict you or something?? What're you still doing here? NOT that I care or anything. 🙄🙄🙄"

“From what I’ve seen, I don’t think you have the guts to do it. Mr Dioloihoy.”

[askexperiment02]

Yohioloid: "Be honest; am I the scariest being you've ever encountered? I bet I am, but like-- just checking and stuff. Also hi again."

R: That doesn’t mean I want a reason to be scared, ahahah... 

R: i know enough people that terrify me :)

[askollieandco]

ask-the-clueless-synths replied to your post “Old blog titles because I’m looking back to the past huh ...”

I know quite a lot of these! I really like florist Piko and prosthetic Fukase, as well as sharpest Oliver and me and my stupid brother, and cop Piko.

(Gosh, your opinions are so valid, y’know that?)

[askpandaloids]

Ruko, to Meiko: "OH HEY THERE! :D I love your dress and gloves! What brings you all here then??"

aka to make miku choke every time she tries to pop the question by impulse

@ask-the-clueless-synths