#bristling duets

[starsenha]

DUET - freaking out (chapter 13)

The studio was rather quiet, except for your footsteps as you moved across the floor, your movement sharp and precise. Jay stood by the mirrors, his arms crossed, watching you with an expression that was hard to read. He was still angry; everybody knew that Jay wasn't the type to let go of things easily, and he was still hurt by what Yuna had told him, but beneath that anger, he was starting to worry for you.

You finished your sequence and paused, breathing heavily. You reached for your water bottle, your hand trembling slightly as she took a sip. He noticed the way you shoulders slumped, the exhaustion etched in your features, but he didn't move from his spot.

“You okay?” Jay asked, his voice colder than he intended, but the concern in his eyes betrayed him.

You glanced at him, your expression guarded. “I’m fine,” you replied quickly, too quickly, as if the words were meant to shut down any further questions.

Jay raised an eyebrow, not buying your answer for a second. “You don’t look fine. You’re exhausted, Yn. When’s the last time you took a break?”

You bristled at his tone, your defensiveness flaring up. “I told you, I’m fine. Just tired from all the practice. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Jay frowned, his frustration mixing with the worry he didn’t want to acknowledge. “You’re pushing yourself too hard. You can barely keep your form right now, and that’s not like you.”

Your jaw tightened, and you took another swig of water, as if it would help wash away the frustration building inside you. “I’m doing what I have to do, Jay. We have regionals coming up, and I’m not going to let anything mess that up.”

Jay’s eyes narrowed, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. He hated seeing you like this—so determined to push through, even when you were clearly struggling. But the memory of Yuna’s words, the idea that you might be looking down on him, kept him from reaching out to you the way he wanted to.

“You don’t have to do everything alone, you know,” Jay said, his voice softer this time, almost hesitant. “We’re partners. We’re supposed to help each other.”

You blinked, taken aback by the sudden change in his tone. You looked at him, really looked at him, and for a moment, the distance between you seemed to shrink. But then you remembered how cold he’d been lately, how distant, and your defenses went back up.

“I appreciate the concern, Jay,” you said, your voice measured, “but I’m fine. I can handle this. I’ve always handled it.”

Jay stared at you, the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat. He wanted to tell you that he could see through your defenses, that he knew you weren't fine, that he was worried about you. But his pride, and the lingering doubt planted by Yuna, kept him silent.

“Alright,” Jay said finally, his voice flat. “But don’t come crying to me when you burn out.”

The words were harsh, more than he intended, and he saw you flinch, a flash of hurt crossing your face before you quickly masked it. You turned away, focusing on the mirror as if it could shield you from the sting of his words.

“Don’t worry,” you replied, your voice steady but cold. “I won’t.”

As the practice wore on, it became clear that your exhaustion was catching up to you. Your steps, usually so precise, began to falter slightly, your movements less sharp than they should have been.

Jay noticed, of course. But before he could say anything, you suddenly stumbled during a particularly fast turn, your balance slipping as your exhaustion finally got the better of you.

“Whoa!” You gasped, your eyes widening as you felt herself falling.

In an instant, Jay was there, his reflexes sharp as he reached out and caught you. His hands gripped your waist firmly, steadying you before you could hit the floor. The suddenness of it all left them both breathless, and for a moment, everything else seemed to fade away.

Yn found herself pressed against Jay’s chest, her heart pounding as she looked up at him. Their faces were so close, she could feel his breath against her lips, and the intensity in his gaze sent a shiver down her spine. The world around them seemed to blur, leaving only the two of them, frozen in that charged moment.

“Are you okay?” Jay’s voice was low, almost a whisper, his eyes searching yours.

“I… yeah, I’m fine,” You replied, your voice shaky. But the way you said it, even you didn’t believe it. You were too aware of how close you were, too aware of the heat radiating from his body, the way his hands felt on your waist, and you cursed yourself mentally that you had to wear a crop top today because his hands were in direct contact with your skin.

Neither of you moved, caught up in the tension that crackled between you like electricity. Your eyes flickered to his lips, and you could see him doing the same. The space between you seemed to shrink, almost imperceptibly, as if you were being drawn together by some invisible force.

Jay’s grip on your waist tightened slightly, his gaze darkening as he leaned in just a fraction. He could feel his heart racing, the logical part of his brain screaming at him to stop, but he couldn’t help it. You were right there, so close, and the pull between you was undeniable.

Your breath hitched, your pulse racing as you found herself leaning in as well. It was as if the world had slowed down, and in that moment, nothing else mattered but the two of you. You could feel the warmth of his breath against her skin, could see the way his eyes softened as he looked at you, and you knew that you were seconds away from crossing a line you'd never crossed before.

But just as your lips were about to meet, the door to the studio burst open.

“Yo, Jay! I forgot my—”

Jake’s voice cut through the tension like a knife, and both you and Jay jerked back as if you'd been shocked. Jay quickly let go of you, stepping back as if the space between you could somehow erase what had almost happened.

Jake, standing in the doorway with a smirk plastered across his face, looked between the two of you, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” he teased, clearly enjoying the situation far too much.

Your face flushed with embarrassment, and you quickly stepped away from Jay, putting more distance between you. “It’s not… we weren’t…” you stammered, but the words wouldn’t come out right.

Jay ran a hand through his hair, trying to regain his composure, though his heart was still pounding. “Jake, don’t you have somewhere else to be?” he snapped, his voice rougher than he intended.

Jake just grinned, clearly unfazed by Jay’s irritation. “Just came to grab my bag,” he said innocently, though the smirk never left his face. He strolled over to the corner of the studio where he’d left his stuff earlier, moving at an infuriatingly slow pace as he made a show of picking up his bag.

“You two should really be more careful,” Jake added with a wink as he slung the bag over his shoulder. “Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”

With that parting shot, Jake sauntered out of the studio, leaving both of you still reeling from what had almost happened.

The door clicked shut behind Jake, and a heavy silence settled over the room. You could feel your cheeks burning and you couldn’t believe how close you'd come to kissing Jay. And the worst part was, you didn’t know what it would have meant if you had.

“I… I should probably go,” you said finally, your voice quiet, almost hesitant. “I’m tired, and I need to rest. Clearly, I’m not at my best right now.”

Jay didn’t say anything for a moment, still trying to process what had just happened. His mind was a whirlwind of conflicting emotions—anger at Jake for interrupting, relief that things hadn’t gone further, and something else, something deeper that he didn’t want to admit. You avoided his gaze as you gathered your things. You could feel the tension still hanging in the air between you, heavy and unresolved, but you weren't sure what to do with it. Jay watched you go, his expression unreadable.

previous / m.list / next

TAGLIST: @sincerely-sunny @realrintaro @onlyhyunjin @mari-oclock @jooniesbears-blog @isa942572 @minhosimthings

[sunoksunny]

nicknames/pet names enhypen would call you (maknae line)

nicknames/pet names enhypen would call you (maknae line)

genre: fluff, a bit of humor in riki’s

warnings: established relationship, kissing, playful teasing, pet names

word count: 0.8k (837)

Kim Sunoo

 - i think sunoo would use sweet nicknames

 - i think his favorite one is probably “cutie”

 - but sometimes i think he will also go for “sunshine”

 - he sees you as the sun in his life that helps him shine to others<3

Sunoo had a lazy smile on his face as he pulled a brush out of your makeup bag. He had practically begged you to let him do your makeup, pleading with round eyes and pouting lips. How could you ever deny him? When you said yes, you swore his eyes literally shone. He had a similar gleam in his eyes now as he gently cupped your face with one hand, tilting your head upwards.

“Close your eyes for me, cutie.”

You complied, feeling the soft bristles of your brush glide over your eyelids shorter after. You could feel Sunoo’s warm breath hitting your cheeks, and knowing he was so close paired with the fact he was likely intently staring at your face made heat rise in your face. Of course, Sunoo noticed, he was holding your face after all. With a light giggle, he squeezed your cheeks together as you let your eyes flutter open. He still wore a soft smile as he gazed at you. His grip loosened as he leaned forward to press a light peck against your lips, lingering near your face before meeting your eyes.

“I’m so glad you’re mine. You’re my sunshine.”

read the rest under the cut!

Yang Jungwon

 - for some reason i see jungwon using kind of,, old timey endearments?

 - not old timey persay but something like “dear”

 - although another thing i think he would do is learn terms of endearments in other languages and call you by them

 - for example, “cara mia” (’beloved/dear’ in italian), “media naranja” (’my better half’ in spanish), “mon petit chou” (’my little cabbage’ in french)

“You ready, dear?”

You shrugged on a coat, turning to Jungwon as he stood by the door. He held out his hand as you approached, and you took it with a smile. Your fingers locked together as you stepped out into the night air, a cool breeze hitting your face. The two of you walked in a comfortable silence, simply enjoying each other’s presence. As you neared the park, Jungwon peeked at you out of the corner of his eye. He hesitated before speaking up in a soft tone.

“Cara mia, do you want to get churros? There’s a shop just around the corner that sells them even this late.”

Jungwon had a hopeful look on his face, swinging your joined hands as you walked. You nodded in agreement, letting a wide smile cross your face. The two of you changed directions to make the quick detour, securing 2 churros before returning to your original path. Jungwon munched happily on treat as the two of you sat down, resting to finish your desserts before beginning the walk back. You shifted closer to him and he wrapped one arm around you, the both of you gazing at the sky. 

“You complete me, media naranja. I’m forever yours.”

Nishimura Riki

 - i think most of the time he would call you silly nicknames

 - like “snookums” or “pookie” LMAO like he would just use the stupidest things but it never fails to make the two of you giggle

 - but when he’s alone with you or he’s feeling clingy

 - he will call you “あなた“ (anata) which between couples represents something similar to “dearest” or “darling” in japanese

The studio was quiet except for the light laughter of none other than you and your sweet boyfriend, Niki. You had been practicing a duet, but most of today’s practicing wasn’t taken very seriously. The two of you were in a fit of giggles as you danced, each making silly faces whenever you caught the other’s gaze. By the time the song ended, Riki was doubled over in laughter as you failed to hide your giggles behind your hand. He caught his breath enough between laughter to call out to you.

“Okay, okay, one more time! This time we’ll be serious, snookums.” He grinned, a snort leaving you at the nickname. 

Niki snickered before gesturing at you to get into position as he crouched by the speaker, ready to begin the music. After receiving conformation that you were ready, he hit play before dashing beside you. The two of you glided along with the music, in sync with each other’s bodies as if you were one. You still made eye contact often, but it felt different now. Both of you were focused on each other and the music, blocking out everything but this moment. When the song ended, you both stared at each other, breathing heavily. Riki reached up and grabbed your face, pulling you in for a sweet kiss. The world faded out again, now only focusing on Niki and the way his soft lips moved against yours. When he broke away, a smile stayed on his face.

“I hope you know how much you mean to me, あなた.” 

a/n: here’s the maknae line version! this was fun to write because i love them<3 (can you tell i almost got carried away with niki’s)

permanent taglist (open! send an ask or fill out the form in my pinned):  @starrpt2 @sunnytheos @kalabasaa 

[hetamyuist]

what i say: i'm fine

what i'm actually thinking: isn't it crazy how emotionally charged austria and italy's relationship is in hetamyu. like yeah animanga austria is fond of italy deep down and italy is still affectionate with him but it's not like. intense. meanwhile you have hetamyu austria bristling with almost vicious possessiveness at the mere possibility of italy becoming independent from him, "So Italy has no intention to be independent at all, right? You will never go anywhere, RIGHT?", he has a duet with england where they basically bond over being possessive foster fathers/caretakers, austria pushing italy away to protect him when he's being attacked by prussia and italy attempting to help him despite it, italy crying in austria's arms about how holy rome disappeared and he doesn't want anyone else to disappear because of him....... there is so much emotion and unspoken love and it is UNPRECEDENTED. isn't that insane

[artaxlivs]

Trick, please? (Only if there's still time 😄)

Okay soooo I did go to your blog to make sure I'd be in the right realm of interests (Even though its a trick and I get to pick, I still want you to like it) and I saw these two things...and couldn't resist the combo.

Drumrolllllll, a frog leans out of the skrim on the stage and wails, "It's the special Halloween Muppet Show with tonight's guest star, His Royal Highness Arthur Pendragon!"

"And cue the dancing girls."

Arthur looks over to the scrawny dark haired man wearing the headset. He looks frazzled and strangely cold because it's sweltering backstage but he's got on a jacket and a red scarf around his neck for some reason. Maybe he's sickly?

"Excuse me-" Arthur starts to say loudly, trying to get the man's attention.

"Shhhh!" A chicken hisses at him.

A chicken.

Arthur raises an eyebrow and glares at her but she's not cowed.

A scraggly looking bear in a neckerchief leans across Arthur and looks out to the distance, waving his hands cheerfully, and says "Wokka wokka!" Then he wanders away.

Arthur sighs, turning to get the man in the headsets attention again.

"Listen, Arthur? Is it? I'm gonna need you to move aside. The dancing girls are coming straight through here in a second and you'll get run over." The man whispers, nudging Arthur into the corner behind his podium.

Scoffing and bristling because how dare he, Arthur starts to step back toward the man but a line of kicking cancan girls dressed like witches all linked together at the elbows kick their way past him. They continue kicking, linked together well into the hallway. Arthur shakes his head and moves back near the man again.

"Now, see here. You may address me as Your Royal Highness-" Arthur starts to say but then a pig in a black evening gown and opera gloves pushes him to the side. He thinks she's supposed to be dressed as Mortica Addams since the frog was wearing a pin striped suit and had a mustache drawn on.

"Merlin, Merlin, where is my Ker-my?" She pouts to the man in the headset.

"He's dealing with that blown tuba in the orchestra pit, Miss Piggy." He cringes a little like he's preparing for a physical blow.

"I need to talk to him about my number!" She hurumphs; her facial expression morphs into anger and she's squeezing her hands...hooves? No she has fingers - hands - into fists.

"Well, I'm here and His Royal Highness is here if you wanted to talk about your duet," the man, Merlin, waves his hand toward Arthur. When Miss Piggy gasps and crowds Arthur, Merlin's whole body relaxes and he turns back to his work, keeping one eye on the stage and one on his call sheet.

"Ohhhhh Arthur, may I call you Arthur? We're going to make such beau-ti-ful music together." She turns her body so she can lean into him and gaze up, eyelashes fluttering.

"Uh..um, er...yes. I mean, yes our duet will be good but no, you're not allowed to call me Arthur, it's Your Royal Highness," She starts to shake like she's going to explode and Merlin inches away from her, though he doesn't look over at her, almost like he's afraid to make eye contact. "You know what, just for tonight, you may call me Arthur."

She melts instantly, leaning in again, eyelashes fluttering, "Oh Arhth-y, I'm so hap-py. I have to go warm up my voice but I'll see you soon, okay?" She makes an air kiss and turns away. A chicken run across her path and she growls, voice dropping low and gravelly, "get out of my way you stupid chicken!" But then she simpers back of her shoulder, "by-yeeee!"

He can hear her singing "I Put a Spell on You" By Nina Simone as she walks away and he gulps.

"What-" Arthur starts to ask but then a Muppet in a chef's hat mumbles by, knocking Arthur into Merlin who ducks his head and blushes. "Excuse you!" Arthur almost shouts and the chef doesn't looks him just mumbles gibberish as he pushes a cart with a bubbling cauldron on stage.

The chef immediately starts throwing in whole bottles that say "eye of newt" and "dragon's teeth." The impact splashes and slooshes liquid over the sides of cauldron and it hisses as it splatters on the stage. He continues to mumble happily the entire time.

"If you'd get out of the way, Your Royal Highness," Merlin says snarkily, "you'd stop getting pushed out of it. Sit here." And he points to a chair next to his podium.

For a moment, Arthur thinks about being difficult because this person, this stage manager, this Merlin, can't tell him what to do, he's royalty, dammit. But then he nearly gets bowled over by the chickens again as they run across the stage in the middle of the chef's skit for apparently no reason.

"Why did the chickens cross the stage?" he asks in confusion.

The bear leans in from nowhere again, waggles his jazz hands and says, "To get to the other side! Wokka wokka!" and then he wanders away. Again.

Arthur sighs, sinking into the chair. What is wrong with these people?

The entire show seems to drag on for an eternity but also is over like a whirlwind and Arthur finds himself sitting next to Merlin for all but the two skits he's in. One where he's afraid that Miss Piggy actually did put a spell on him and another where he fought a dragon to save Miss Piggy.

The dragon was actually just four Muppet monsters wearing a big shaggy pink rug with a hole in it where one of the monsters stuck his head out and growled at Arthur menacingly before he stabbed it with a rubber sword. When Arthur returned to his chair after that one, he found Merlin smiling down at his call sheet, the tips of his ears as pink as the shag dragon.

As the night wears on, Arthur has to admit that he finds Merlin rather charming, efficient and well organized. When Miss Piggy comes to collect Arthur for their skit, Merlin blushes again, nodding to Arthur and advising him to break a leg, "but not really."

It's endearing really. And even amid the loud chatter of a herd of Muppet monsters and a broken tuba that sounds like a foghorn, Arthur finds his eyes drawn again and again to Merlin, with his secret little smile and his ears that are just a little too big. But every time he goes to ask Merlin out for coffee, there's some calamity happening that can only be solved by the stage manager.

After the final bows, Arthur returns to the stage manager podium, hoping to find Merlin but instead he finds a note addressed to "The Once and Future King." It contains only one sentence, "Not yet, but soon." It's signed with a drawing of a wizard hat.

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 193 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: mowing the lawn.

"but the mist that curls its bitter weeping ache around his legs that bristle up with shivered gooseflesh stained with red that’s not his blood whose blood he bled but this is not from him and yet he knows he loved this blood when once it beat within a heart that joined to his through choice or circumstance but now it stains his weeping edges scarlet gloating now of all the butchered ugly fates that might already have befallen what you still might boast he loves at hands that might be moved by others or that might just now be his what have you done what have you done what have you done what have you done " Uhhhh... That's going to age horribly...

JON: "To someone so close to it, I imagine it would be a state of… agonised bliss. I can feel it… the… completeness of it all passing out from him. I can see everything from here, and that’s still just a hint of what he must be feeling –" MARTIN: [Warning] "Jon…" JON: "– as he watches a man run screaming down endless dark alleys that close and crush and press –" [RUMBLING SOUNDS START TO RISE] MARTIN: [Hard warning] "Jon…" JON: "Hm?" MARTIN: "Stay with me." This is the moment it seems we're losing Jon. Until now, yes, the fear fed him and it felt good for it. But now he really seems to crave it, consider it...

MARTIN: "Look, I know it’s all about dream logic and metaphor and all that… stuff, but, y’know, what if we just… what if we just grabbed him and, y’know, pulled him down? Or just threw something heavy at him?" It's a valid idea. Also I would love an Elias pinata! OMG, tma-themed party with an Elias pinata! An you get a pipe prop to beat it!

JON: "Ah, no, it isn’t that – Ahh…" [CEASELESS CHANTING CEASES] [BACKGROUND STATIC LIKE RUSTLING PAPER ECHOES THROUGH THE CHAMBER] [STATEMENT STATIC RISES] MARTIN: "Again? But you just did one for Ro– [Realisation] Oh no…" Those gasps of Jon that follow! Like he can't even try to swallow it down again, or keep it together a bit longer. Completely gone, he can only take one last breath before the wave hits him.

And another job interview! These are really heavy Eye stuff...

"He feels that prickly panic building in the back of his skull, that worry that spills through: he knows. He knows I’m high." Okay, imagine me, calmly pushing the lawn mower up and down the length of the garden, suddenly bursting into laughter XD

I wonder what's up with the parts that are spoken by Jonah!Elias. It is Ben's voice in there, and it is the same effect as Elias has as pupil of the Eye. Is this statement a group project? Jon and Jonah!Elias singing a duet?

"The image of a scuttling, filthy creature, eight eyes glinting out in the darkness, crawls into his mind, and he shudders, looking away for a second. But the uninvited thought keeps going. He imagines the spider moving up his leg, his body, he imagines feeling its bristling hairs against the skin of his shoulder, his throat, his cheek. It’s spindly probing legs finding their way up his face. Elias can’t stop himself picturing that spider sat there, venom dripping from fangs that hang, poised over his eye. He can’t shut his eye. A cough from over the desk breaks his train of thought. His interviewer is staring at him, and all at once he’s back with himself, burning with embarrassment. Those eyes stare, impassive and stern as ever, but… is that a twinkle of satisfaction? As though he has been given him an answer he likes." Elias did something like this with Rosie as well... Did he do this at every interview? What would this have looked like at Jon's interview? Martin's? Sasha's? Tim's?

"What should he say? That he had no idea why he wanted this job? That he was all alone in the world, no friends, no family, nothing but the deep certainty that he deserved better." Jonah preferred people like these I think. People who wouldn't be missed if they suddenly vanished, or had a sudden change in personality.

[STRANGE STATIC RISES. A FAINT REPEATING RUMBLING SOUND STARTS UP] "Elias has the briefest of flashes, a sudden burst of terror, an image of himself, strapped down, helpless." I like that repeating rumbling sound that keeps playing for the rest of the statement.

MARTIN: "Was that… the real Elias? Is he still in there then?" JON: "No… No. It was…" Me, pushing the lawn mower: "An Echo!"

JON: "an echo." me: “HA!” (I'm so proud of that moment XDD)

JON: "If we kill Jonah Magnus, I take his place." MARTIN: "Oh god." JON: "And I think… that’s exactly what it wants." Is this what the Eye wants, or is this what Jon wants...? Also Martin will comment on this perfectly in the next episode...

@a-mag-a-day

[mousegard]

the first "season" of aria comes to an explosive, song-filled conclusion in the latest chapter!

Episode 13: G'''

Hibiki fights an oni, Tsubasa eats something she shouldn't have, Dorothea finally gets her duet with Maria, and Byleth makes an extremely unwelcome discovery about her Divine Pulse.

The woman who’d been trying to kill Professor Byleth and Edelgard was beyond the shadow of a doubt the most woman Hibiki had ever seen in her life. She was at least as tall as Genjuro, and maybe as wide as him, too—and that had been before she’d started growing scales and horns. Her skin was alabaster white, peppered with silver and gray scales like freckles and lined with fissures that glowed nearly white-hot like molten steel; broad, straight horns stood out from her short curls of emerald hair, and her mouth bristled with fangs. She was tall, brawny, with a hungry fire in her sharp green eyes, and she wasn’t very modest, either, since all she was wearing from the waist up was a sports bra (Hibiki half-expected it to be tiger-striped, given how much the woman looked like an oni). Hibiki felt the sudden urge to slap herself, or take a cold shower, or something. And then the brawny green oni woman grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the floor. “Must I squeeze the life out of you to get you out of my way, little girl?” she growled, her voice dropping an octave. Hibiki’s mind went blank. “You’re not my type!” she squeaked.

[dustedmagazine]

David Long & Shane O’Neill — And you can’t dream that (Country Pylon)

Photo by Noel Farrell and Sabrina Colley

And you can't dream that by David Long & Shane O'Neill

David Long and Shane O’Neill are two Irish musicians of a certain age, who had their brush with the mainstream a few decades ago, Long with the stark Joy Division-influenced post-punk of Into Paradise, O’Neill with the early 1990s new wave Blue in Heaven, which seems to have taken a page from the Bunnyman handbook. Both groups had their fans, but neither broke big in the way that, likely, everyone hoped. The two work together in the guitar-fuzzed, hook happy Supernaut and, since the turn of this decade, in a series of duet recordings: a pair of singles, the soundtrack for the short film Whelve, an EP called the Age of Falling Stars and now And you can’t dream that. This latest album is quite good, surprisingly varied and utterly beguiling, as good as an argument as you could construct for making music for the joy of it.

“The Last Night” is a shambling, shuffling, bittersweet beauty, akin to vintage Teenage Fanclub the way that blistered guitars erupt from wistful melodies. It mourns the gentrification of Dublin, not likely something that would have bothered Long or O’Neill in their heyday, but that’s the only hint of age. “Memory” moves faster, a blur of guitar propulsion that recalls the Feelies. It’s a delicate balance of romp and daydream. The hard backbone of drum and riff melt into echo-sheathed rainbows.

“It Comes and Goes” dips back into the two musicians’ post-punk-into-new-wave beginnings, a rifle shot beat puncturing romantic flourishes of string, baroque swoops of sung melody. The title track saunters trippily, a miasma of overtones enveloping Primal Scream-ish slashing drones. It’s the black leather basic rock song of this particular disc, a little blues in its slanting vamp. Elsewhere the floor pulses with strobe flashes, as on pulsing “Taxi,” a psychedelic raver wrapped around confessional songwriting.

The point is that the songs are all different in subtle ways and all quite good. These songs have soft, self-revealing centers, but bristle with banging rock noise.  Here’s to second acts that sound like they could be first ones, and records made for their own rewards. 

Jennifer Kelly

[boliide]

♪ : singing them a lullaby and brushing their hair Neff shall sing her a song uwu

With her head nestled against the softness of Neff's thighs, the gentle glow around her entire body is truly irrefutable.

The gentleness of Neff's lullaby encircles them both; a sweet and gentle soundtrack punctuated only by the slow and delicate strokes of the hairbrush she uses to comb through the thick silvery tresses that cascade across Doli's shoulder and back before pooling behind her where Neff concentrates most of her gentle ministrations.

With each slow draw of the bristles, the little star's breath begins to deepen with the only indication of her being awake being the broken, whispery little hums that escape her on an odd exhale when she attempts to duet Neff's lullaby.

[spuddlespud]

🐉💀 A Trip to the Ghostarium 💀🐉

My fill for this @flashfictionfridayofficial's prompt 'a ghost from the past'

AO3

🐉💀🐉 Masterlist Link 🐉💀🐉

Skelly rubbed their temples in frustration, returning bone framed glasses onto their usual wonky position on the bridge of their nose. "It's really not that hard to understand."

The dwarf behind the stone counter was already ruddy cheeked and had adopted a cross-armed stance that was universally known to spell trouble for anyone in the vicinity. Anyone watching closely would see her thick arm hairs bristling even where they were plaited. Not that it mattered to Skelly, they had more important things to think about than a pissed off dwarf. The dwarf replied in almost a growl. "I didn't say it was hard to understand, I just said that you weren't being specific enough."

"I just need a Ghost from the Past." Skelly managed to say through gritted teeth, desperately trying not to give in to the urge to scream.

"Yes, and as I told you, all of our ghosts are from the past. We're only a ghostarium, we're not a Time Vortex Market or something." The dwarf motioned pointedly round the stoppered glass jars that covered every available shelf in the dingy shop. Each one had a unique shape and shimmered different colours, leaving your eyes twisted if you look upon them for too long. Her thick black spiderweb glasses protected her from the ghostlights, but not from demanding customers. She muttered into her beard, "and I wouldn't have to be here dealing with uppity necromancers."

"Not a ghost that was killed in the past, a Ghost from the Past. As in one of the ghosts that was used in the creation of the book of the Past."

Drastic realisation dawned across the dwarf's face. "What in the Deepest Cave Below would you want with a Ghost from the Past."

Skelly looked the dwarf dead in the eye. "I'm going to braid it's hair and sing duets with it."

"Look bonefiddler, if you want to blow up your entire castle that's your business, but don't say I didn't warn you! It's dangerous stuff. You could cause an explosion, or open a portal to the otherrealm, or..."

Skully grinned, "that's what makes it fun."

Instead of the bristling reaction that they'd expected, the dwarf seemed almost impressed with their response.

"Fine, I'll go get it from the back." She looked over to where Andrew was poking his skull head from behind a stack of haunted books. "And behave, you!"

Several minutes and a significant amount of banging and clattering, she was passing across a perfectly spherical jar. Unlike every other Ghost Jar in the shop, this one was made out of opaque black glass, with no indication of what lay beneath.

Skully could have sworn they felt a crackle of energy as they stroked the smooth surface. Perfect. "Thank you very much, kind vendor. What's the damage?"

The dwarf shook her head as she carefully wrapped the jar in a paper covering."For something as rare as this, I should think at least a level two charm."

"I think I've got a 'Nights Commune with a Dear Departed' one at home if you can wait for me to bring it by next week?"

They firmly shook hands, and Skully couldn't help but notice what a nice smile the dwarf had.

Skully headed straight for the door, leaving Andrew to scuttle after her and trip over a rack of protection charms. As they exited the ghostarium to an unnecessarily loud bell, Andrew looked up at Skully. "The shopkeeper was pretty cute."

"I hadn't noticed ."

"Right, then what's that?" Andrew pointed one of his legs in the direction of the parcel. A little examination revealed some writing on the wrapping said 'Thursday night, Betty's Tavern. Fleur xxx' in big bold letters.

"Shut up, Andrew!"

[thesinglesjukebox]

QUAVO FT. LANA DEL REY - "TOUGH"

but fair...

[5.27]

Julian Axelrod: Lana hopping on a Quavo song seems random until you look through her posts from Hangout Fest in May and realize this is exactly the kind of song you'd make after spending a weekend in Alabama partying with Jelly Roll and Sexyy Red. Even more impressively, Quavo meets her on her home turf and acquits himself nicely, from the slurred-sung verses to the swampy hook to the bit on the outro where they recreate the end of the "Telephone" video. I tend to bristle when non-country artists try on the genre signifiers and half-ass the music, but everyone involved keeps a straight face without feeling too stiff. Quavo's coming off a tough year, and if he wants to make his Did you know there's a bando under ocean blvd, I'll welcome it with open arms. [7]

Leah Isobel: I mean, it’s nice to hear Lana do a song that’s attempting some kind of pop resonance. She’s so deep into her own mythology that hearing her try to reconnect with the mainstream is interesting. But while “Tough” achieves an easygoing appeal from its guitar twangs and loping rhythm, it only ever feels like an aesthetic exercise, an experiment in negative space: its attempts to accommodate both Lana and Quavo result in a flattened song that complements neither. [5]

Alfred Soto: The moment for this duet has passed -- imagine it on Lana Del Rey's Lust For Life seven years ago in conversation with the other collaborations. As an abstraction -- a distraction -- "Tough" is not much at all. [3]

Will Adams: Quavo and Lana sound good together, but so did she and A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti on their respective Lust For Life collabs, both of which were more interesting than this bland soup of country signifiers. At times it really feels like the hook is going go to, "Tough like the new Ford F-150. Lease now with 0% APR." [5]

Harlan Talib Ockey: The chorus sounds just like the Weeknd’s “Starboy”, which I realized halfway through writing this review and now find incredibly distracting. That aside: Lana Del Rey’s previous collaborations with rappers have sounded like they’re work friends, rather than real friends. (It’s still unclear whether she and A$AP Rocky were even talking about the same thing in “Summer Bummer”.) In “Tough”, however, her chemistry with Quavo is not only existent, but genuinely moving. Quavo’s delivery alternates between soft and anguished, coming off as particularly vulnerable -- Del Rey’s sighed initial consonants do the same. Using thickly reverbed guitars to create a pensive, dreamlike feeling is a trick that doesn’t go out of style. “Tough”, for all its nostalgia, never sounds retrograde.  [8]

Nortey Dowuona: Jaxson Free, co-writer of previous Kane Brown's "I Can Feel It," is credited alongside prodigy Maddox Batson, singer/songwriter of "Tears in the River," and Elysse Yulo, whose only other credit is Dan Harrison's "Running Out of Radio." Their contributions are those of many a songwriter in the music industry: patiently and with great humor assembling a patchwork of lines, melodies, and counter melodies into a track left with each of their publishing companies, praying to the empty sky that their hard work will yield them a windfall. This song of theirs is not very compelling despite the effort poured into it by all parties involved (except Cirkut, who probably put in the terrible trap drum pattern), but it has become successful, and thus Jaxson, Maddox and Elysse live to write another day. [4]

Taylor Alatorre: The producers, led by Andrew Watt at his most sangfroid, go to great lengths to pre-empt any hint of discord or chaos to convince us that what we're hearing is natural and normal and, most of all, inevitable. This is Quavo and Lana doing a wistful country-trap duet about a Southern-fried romance, and this is what was always going to sound like, and you're a sucker if you expected or hoped for anything different. The repetitive insistence of the sixteenth-note click track seems to taunt me with its imperious sense of destiny -- the aural manifestation of There Is No Alternative. "If you come from where you come, then you were born tough." Yeah I guess. [4]

Katherine St. Asaph: I've written the same blurb on every Lana Del Rey single for years because we have a core, unchangeable musical incompatibility: I do not enjoy soporific music, which is what Lana Del Rey primarily makes. "Tough" seems custom-engineered to prove my point: the first YouTube closed caption is [TWANGY GUITAR MUSIC STARTS], and I was fully prepared to just make that my blurb because nothing else was sparking any interest. Then Quavo's part comes in, and maybe I'm just confusing quality with loudness or the presence of a beat (it's happened), but it's astounding how much dynamic the song becomes in that instant. (Someone else can unpack the morass of politics.) [5]

Jessica Doyle: There is a risk, in talking about the silver linings of a particular cloud, of being seen as endorsing the cloud. (Elif Batuman just talked about this, in relation to David Copperfield: the horrible treatment David receives in school persisted in part because his classmates, looking back, waxed nostalgic.) The signifers in "Tough" all point back to clouds: the specific horrible tragedy of Takeoff's murder, but also more general adverse childhood experiences (the "stuff in your grandpa's glass" line becomes more ominous the more you think about it). Reformers push back on the idea that treating people badly to make them "tough" has net benefits, and rightly so. But it's difficult to do this without suggesting that your listener is erring in finding the silver lining of their own adverse experiences: your rejection of their retelling of their own story. There's a political dimension here, too -- or, rather, multiple political dimensions, in that the likelihood of having lived through adverse childhood experiences is in itself a class divide. (See Charles Murray's now-outdated bubble quiz, or basically anything Rob Henderson has written.) The adult who suffered less as a child may be better equipped to estimate the damage done, but also may be driven to smug, condescending judgment; the adult who suffered more may be justly proud of what they've accomplished anyway, but may also be driven to defensive bleating nastiness. I don't know if "Tough" was conceived or written to thread this needle, with Lana, presumably on one side of the divide, offering affirmation and a sympathetic ear, and Quavo, on the other, trusting her with his story. (Sentimentalist that I am, I want to believe that someday they'll go on a road trip and she'll introduce him to her friends at the Florence Waffle House.) I'm inclined to call "Tough" not great but very good, a skilled piece of American mythmaking. Which may be exactly why others might hate it. And they might be right. But we may never have the world where it's not necessary, no matter how much we improve, and given that, we'd be worse off without it. [7]

Jonathan Bradley: Quavo and Lana Del Rey are each practiced at creating rich dramas from the artefacts and artifices of their respective worlds, but in “Tough” they struggle to find a way to mesh their outsized personalities into a coherent whole. Del Rey likes to play as a damaged all-American princess or fallen starlet who can be as plucky as she is fragile, but she doesn’t seem to know which side of herself to put forward here. Somehow she barely leaves a mark on a line pitched perfectly for her like “I’m cut like a diamond in the rough”; the only time she only does more than waft is when she giggles in the outro in response to Quavo’s charming invitation to play Atlanta tour guide. The woozy, gothic arrangement is Del Rey’s territory, and Quavo finds some smart ways to adapt himself to it, accentuating the melancholy in the icy allusion to his band’s recent past on “if you ever lost someone that you love,” but he more often sounds like he’s restraining himself from overshadowing his duet partner. The pair finds fleeting connection at “tough like the stuff in your grandpa’s glass”: for a moment, all the details sound real, the imagery interlocking in the burn of an old man’s rotgut whiskey. [5]

Ian Mathers: Two middling tastes that taste... fine together. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[icytatribe]

Ruby

A Trek Starlit from Home

I supposed she must have wandered a bit far from home, perhaps from the scariest human tribe called “The Winter’s Claw”. The clan leader looked so intimidating with that large husk of a mount. I think I overheard her shouting their name as “Bristle”, but I could be wrong. I was just too scared to go in further for that tribe. Avarosa could’ve been better. Ashe looked so nice, no wonder Arc’hantael II still appreciates her. I hope she remembers and does, too! But I believe this little one shall be safe here. Fortunately, it was right before the biggest blizzard Icyta Tribe had to endure. Is Anivia fighting with her demigod brothers again? Keep us safe and warm, Auriel’enya. 

I inquired with the Grandmaster from the library when I could, only if time fits for a meeting. He told me they were called pigs where he lived! But they were normally pink. This one here balances herself like yin and yang yet white like snow! 

“A snow pig!” I exclaimed, “No idea what I would name her. Don’t get me started her Icytian name.”  

The Icytian Zoo is still open for newcomers! Unfortunately, she’ll be by herself since it’s just one of her kind. I’m not sure if there’s more out there. I dread to even think about Valiere’s findings. I don’t even want to think about that absolutely handsome face of his, ah! 

But her only company is me, the best companion where winter decides for duets and ensembles to form. 

I picked her up slowly, unburying her from the snow. And she snorted it my face before comforting herself upon my feathery chest. And then tickled my neck when her pink nose tickled to sniff all the curiosity she can get. She suddenly squealed in a high pitch, and looked back at the spot I picked her up from. 

“Was there something there?” 

I placed her down as she walked back to the spot to forage with her nose for something under the snow. I helped dig further down and noticed a familiar flower! The Grandmaster told me about these before! A star flower! He did tell me to notify him immediately if I ever found one. I wondered: Why “immediately”? I’ll tell him when I get the chance. He left as soon as I got the answer of what our snow pig is. The Grandmaster seems so busy nowadays, so I hope he get a vacation every now and then. 

The snow pig laid near the star flower and felt at ease. I picked them both up to carry them to their new home. 

Hmm, she must like these comforting star flowers. I mean, who wouldn’t? They are beautiful, mystifying, and quite warming. Hmm, red like a Ruby and golden like a fallen star, Perhaps fate of the starlight brought us together, and I shall name her “Ruby”.

“Ruby, that is your name,” I spoke to her as if I assumed she could understand me, “Not because of her colors but the thing that makes her special.” 

Ruby squealed a gentle pitch as she hugged the star flower with her hooves tightly upon my chest. 

[kaykay-13]

Hello, Ideas anon here, back with more long asks and more ideas for the isekai AU.

I think I should be excused because 1) I give you ideas. 2) I write your outlines for you.

(But first, to make things legible I'm gonna split them into multiple asks. They get shorter I swear! )

SO, You know how the Canon Yun Jin is popular for her voice and her operatic singing?

What if, for whatever occasion or ceremony, the Duke and the crown princess are required to sing together during the spotlight of a festival to symbolize how in harmony they are together? How they suit each other perfectly?

Typical isekai cliché.

Now... We all know how ATROCIOUS xingqiu's singing is.

Chongyun having an easy way out of this predicament makes a suggestion: He could be the one to sing and xingqiu could just sync with him since he actually has a nice voice and had practice (in his previous life) and singing to his younger siblings (chongyun having a lot of younger siblings and being a mom when he's not playing the role of a knight is a headcanon I'll take to the grave)

Xingqiu has essentially claimed the rights over chongyun's voice.

Of course, the crown princess is the main singer and the Duke is the background singer. He can easily hide behind her and pretend to move his mouth to the lyrics.

If he just looks to the side, he can see chongyun behind the stage's curtains, singing along. And somehow, despite yun Jin dominating the performance, the Duke can't help but find his focus straying to the softer, more gentle counterpart to yun jin's segment.

His voice carries on soft and sweet against yun jin's sharp and strong notes, the contrast making for a good balance to the whole piece.

As the performance comes to a finale, the audience erupts into cheers and the royal duo are praised for the euphony and accord they share and how well they go together. They bless their union together bleh bleh.

Then comes the FL. Who wants a contest against the power couple and coincidentally... She requests chongyun to join her in a duet!

Cut to chongyun banging his head onto a wall.

He is eventually pressured into taking the stage with the FL who looks proudly and confidently onto the gossiping onlookers.

They start. The FL starts to sing and right away, you know she's gonna win. FL powers as always.

Chongyun contemplates just fainting right then and there and pretends the FL's voice was so heavenly and divine that he saw white. The light of God.

(overplayed but desperate times call for desperate measures)

He is about to cut his losses and start singing because, if he played his cards well (not let the FL intervene), the outcome would prove well for the princess and the Duke anyway because no one would disbelieve a Duke over a mere noble.

Yes, his reputation would take a hit but he's his lord ship's knight. His job is to protect him from all harm, even shame.

(The side characters are always made to be scapegoats anyway, right?)

Then-

He hears the most awful of screeches.

So bad that the FL actually slips up with the lyrics.

Chongyun, dumbfounded, looks to the side only to see this:

The Duke and the crown princess are standing behind the stage to the side. Xingqiu singing his heart away, badly. And yun Jin just standing there cupping her ears as she gives chongyun a thumbs up.

The FL winces and losses her rhyme, even her perfect voice cracks at some parts but she continues to determinedly sing on.

...

Even though the FL had a phenomenal start, the middle and the final were just atrocious.

The crowd boos and the FL escapes in tears.

The Crown princess and the Duke emerge victorious and they celebrate backstage.

Chongyun congratulates the two on their win.

Yun Jin of course corrects him by telling him it's THEIR win.

The Duke has been silent all along. Yun Jin comments on how she did not expect him to be THAT bad.

The Duke "bristles" and condescending claims that if it weren't for chongyun's sorry ass he wouldn't have to put himself out there like that and how he now has to bear the shame of having his voice heard and made public....Then he dramatically adds that chongyun has failed his duty by allowing for the Duke to make a fool of himself in front of his closest companions. He is exaggerating ofc.

Yun Jin Bursts into laughter and chongyun soon follows with short, halting chuckles while xingqiu glowers over them.

But then chongyun grimaces and yun jin asks what's wrong. Chongyun answers that he's been having a splitting headache ever since his faux performance with the FL. He's feeling a bit light-headed (for real).

Yun Jin gasps when blood starts sprouting from chongyun's nose, just pouring out profusely, staining his white uniform (signifying the loss of his virginity jkjk it could symbolize the loss of innocence too)

Chongyun not being able to handle two embarrassments in the same night, flees, leaving the royal "couple" a bit concerned.

"it's your singing isn't it?" yun Jin the ever-smart princess comments.

Chongyun escapes to the forest where he bemoans his existence once again, wiping his nose. He bumps into the FL who is shocked at the sight of blood. She makes assumptions right away.

"He hit you didn't he?!"

She assumes the Duke hit him for agreeing to sing with her.

(cue to FL thinking chongyun's being abused and is pushing her away to heroically protect her)

Exasperated, chongyun is about to correct her when she starts apologizing.

"Sorry for forcing you into this lost cause. Sorry for bringing embarrassment and shame into your name. It's my fault"

Hm? Chongyun is actually surprised at this one.

She's sincerely apologetic and means well so reluctantly he ends up reassuring her because no one's around to see.

(This is a build-up for another idea I have. Don't worry, there is no true redemption for the FL. Just development for chongyun hoho)

The next day, chongyun, being the earnest boy he is, apologizes to the Duke and the crown princess for showing such a shameful side of him lol.

Would the duke strain his ear closer to hear better when chongyun thoughtlessly hums a tune while going through the tedium? Probably. (1)

anon you are Slightly Maybe Very correct........... yun jin in this au is actually educated in all sorts of fine arts while her half brother crown prince does nothing but fool around with women and he’s going to take the throne simply because he’s a man.

cue yun jin hatching a plan with xingqiu to take over the kingdom to benefit them both. cue yun jin flaunting her skills while trying to shame yun jie (her brother). WHAT IF......... WHAT IF ALL THAT, BUT IT'S PRESENTED BY YUN JIN TO THE EMPIRE TO SHAME HER BROTHER............ under the guise of "friendly competition between siblings" of course................. AND HE TRIES TO FIND A SCAPEGOAT............... CALLS IN SOMEONE ELSE TO SING FOR HIM.............. AND THAT SOMEONE IS CHONGYUN......................... yum

[vermillioncrown]

Can I infodump/brainstorm for a bit? It's over DBD. Mostly xichen because I crave his pov as much as hou-shifu.

So I don't know anything really about your personal headcanons on lxc so I'll be going off my own assumptions (aka there is no way mans isn't riddled with internal issues. no one is just perfect like that. especially with that fucked up family of his. yeah no. i call bullshit.).

The first interaction we see with lxc and zyx is the disaster gege crying fit. And then lxc keeps trying to approach while zyx bristles like a cat. I find it interesting that more than once lxc has said something towards them but then when trail off before correcting, it happens everytime he uses "I". Basically lxc keeps accidentally making things too personal and then has to rear back and figure out how casual he can be while still maintaining the polite aloofness (that was prob instilled into him since birth by the clan).

Also your lwj pov. One of the first impressions zyx gives him is that "wow someone chose me over my brother. this has never happened before. you chose me so I'll choose you." and then friend jealousy occurs (speaking of which, objectively the situation of lwj's jealousy is kinda funny. Have you ever been so jealous of your crush for making friends with your friend crush? But also kinda jealous of your friend crush for, well the same reason, but with your crush?)

Anyways (sorry this is turning into a rant), I feel like lxc is just as put off/surprised by zyx as basically all the characters they interact with are. Although he politely tries not to show it (god forbid people have emotions. Gusu Lan does not condone). So lxc heard (idk how much cuz he could have heard the whole piece but he said tail end but we don't know his pov) a part of the song zyx played for lwj. Comes up and immediately zyx starts crying and runs away.

Could lxc be jealous of lwj? He requests for zyx to play the same some they played for lwj and was denied (but hey! he got a duet out of it...which according to lwj pov he subtly showed it off "I wish you had heard it"). This has never happened before. No one's ever chosen the second jade over the first. lxc has grown up as the oldest which, regardless of the burden and responsibilities of it, means that he gets the most attention. And well oldest child syndrome is a thing right? so he's jealous of not being the first to receive attention. especially when zyx goes out of the way to avoid him, but they don't do the same to lwj.

That might explain why lxc is so adamant on being friends with zyx. lwj and zyx are basically same generation. with ancient china hierarchy, lxc has to work harder to get close with zyx (like with the honorifics). Or maybe he's tired of being put on a pedestal which is why he has that horrified expression when zyx uses ultra politeness, because this is a little kid doing the same as all those adults. although lxc is still a good big brother so he makes sure to help lwj with his friend crush (and romantic crush) situation because he wants his brother to be happy. Also I think it was refreshing to him (maybe) how zyx goes out of the way to (politely) avoid him. As the first jade of Lan, I can assume that he's usually approached by a lot of people. And he's constantly under purview of the public, clan, uncle, brother, etc. and HAS to be perfect (hello father who is in seclusion). Now there's someone who kinda just,,,doesn't care? Would rather not associate with him at all? How odd. (Kinda like wwx pov where his attention is caught by being clinically dissected and ignored). Also also, maybe he likes the bluntness of zyx? They are polite, yes, but then they also academically tore into him when given the opportunity and how many people would tell him to his face (and not in convoluted ancient china prose) where he went wrong and what he could improve on. Not many I suppose. Plus the whole teasing(?) almost kinda manipulative thing that happened at the third CR visit (and the part in an earlier chapter where he leads them to the music pavilion to segue into asking to be played that song). lxc has a dark side. i just KNOW it.

Something I don't really understand or have a hypothesis about yet though is when lxc reprimands zyx over lwj. I don't get his reaction to zyx saying they'll apologize? OKay so maybe lxc is so used to reading lwj microexpressions (which means that he can read zyx rbf pretty well too because no one is on lwj's level of stoic) that he forgets other people can't. So maybe it's surprising to realize that huh not everyone understand lwj's intentions like i do even though it seems pretty obvious? But there's something about the stuttering there that just doesn't fit that theory. At least not fully. But that's an oh well kinda thing because I'm sure we'll get more insight in an lxc pov.

i really like what you're saying. i really do. and i only wish i could have more me's to write for fun so we can get to lxc pov

most things have been nailed on the head (and i won't say which), and anything else will be in the pov bc i don't wanna spoil

but i guess if i write it decently enough, it's more about my portrayal and less of 'gotcha' surprise

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Boys and sticks - Chapter 67 👙

Fandom: Hobbit (College AU)

Characters: @linasofia x Thorin, @laurfilijames x Fíli, me x Ori

Words: 1,7k

Warnings: trauma, insults, reference to nudity

Previous chapters

“Will you swim naked?” Thorin raised his eyebrows, holding his nice, neat little sports bag in his huge paw.

“Thorin, it’s a Country Club…we can get a new bikini on the spot,” I laughed and slapped his arm playfully; whatever did he think of in the morning?

“We are happy to provide fluffy towels for our beloved,” Fíli declared as he joined us, holding out said pieces of cloth like an offering.

“They’re mum’s, not Fí’s…but they’re the best we have,” Kí declared wisely as he handed them out.

I had to admit that they were indeed very soft and smelled like fresh linen rather than stale cigarette smoke like mymother’s usually did; once again, they turned out to be the far superior family.

“Ok, so, car plan,” Fí’s mother came out and – between the ‘adults’ – the arrangements were soon settled; I had the great honour of driving my own car, taking Ori, Dori, and Nori, while Balin packed all of the others into a minivan worthy of the line of Durin in the sense that it was battered, old, and had been black at some point.

It had seen better days for sure, but the engine purred like a kitten, and I was sure that every scratch and every dent had a history that I would have loved to hear.

“Are you a good driver?” Nori eyed me suspiciously but didn’t object as Dori literally tried to cram him into the backseat, pushing and shoving against him as if he was a stubborn Ikea box that didn’t want to fit.

“I am an excellent driver, thank you very much,” I replied, sliding behind the steering wheel, and connecting my phone to CarPlay to listen to some music in the background.

“Eh, I challenge you to sing something,” Nori grumbled when he heard me hum beneath my breath along to some sweet popsong.

“Nori, back off,” Ori tried to stem the tide of his brother’s enthusiasm, but I could see in his face that he also preferred hearing me sing my heart out to the curtain lecture Dori was getting ready to deliver in his mind.

Hence, I pulled into the driveway of the Club, windows down, bellowing ‘Underneath your clothes’ in a ludicrous duet with Nori while Dori wore the expression of an Italian Madonna looking upon Jesus Christ slain at the hands of Pontius Pilate.

It had been a long drive for the poor man and this shameless praise – in song – of his youngest brother’s naked body was more than he could take with a straight face.

Unfortunately, the next crisis was just waiting to break like a raincloud over our heads.

“You cannot park here,” a man in livery tried to explain to Balin.

“Of course not, nobody wants to park here,” I interrupted, “you are to take the cars away…obviously.”

“And who might you be?” the man asked in a rather snarky and arrogant tone that made Thorin bristle and puff up like a literal cat, ready to throw the dude into the hedges in a perfect arc.

“That is my only child,” a dark, suave voice behind the man resounded, “and…her friends?”

“Father…” I sighed, “meet my in-laws.”

“In-laws are they now? We’ve come a long way from ‘these are my friends’, have we not, daughter of mine?” he mocked and waved his hand at the car-boy impatiently.

“Ah, yes, your father has called me,” he then said to Lo in a voice as soft as butter in the sun, “are you going golfing?”

“No, we thought we’d use the spa,” Lo replied with an affable smile and pointed at the assembled group to introduce them.

“Ah, Jia’s Ori I recognise. You’d bring them here, Jiji?” his cold, shark-like eyes returned to me.

“Well yes, evidently you’re also here. It seems this is where family goes on a Sunday afternoon,” I shot back pointedly.

With a chortle, he turned on his heels and wanted to stride away but turned before he could take a single step.

“I’m about to leave, your mother has a function tonight. We cannot make it to your concert, I’m sorry. Enjoy the spa,” he muttered, but there was no regret or warmth in his eyes.

“I didn’t expect you to come, father,” I smiled; it was always the same play: I invited them because they were my parents and they didn’t show up because they were busy.

“Feel free to throw your name around…and hers, to get what you want,” my father shrugged slightly, nodding at Lo.

Suddenly, his eyes blazed into life though – much to my astonishment – as he exclaimed: “Oh Jiji, since the Encyclopaedia Britannica I’ve not seen you look so happy about getting something! You were never one to hold things tight, maybe because your mother and I…we weren’t around as much as we would have wanted to, but you look…content.”

A thin-lipped smile cleaved the finely lined face.

My father did not ask me if I was treated well, he did not inquire where I had spent my night, or if I was being safe; he just assumed that I knew what was best for me, the same way he had always done.

“I am almost…disappointed to miss my friends’ faces when you turn up in the spa with Durin’s folk,” he sighed, rubbing his temple, and nodding at the assembly, “well, can’t be helped. You have a nice day.”

And with that, he rushed away for good. I would not get to see my mother, probably buried under expensive mud, and filled with champagne, but I didn’t mind that in this second.

“He’s awful,” Dori cried out as if personally attacked.

“Where is your mum? Why doesn’t she run out here to see you?” Fí’s mother expostulated in the same horrified tone.

“Mum is busy; she’s seen me for my birthday, and she’ll see me for Christmas,” I replied calmly; they would never understand that the word ‘family’ held a very different meaning for me.

“A concert? You’re in a concert? When? Where?” Kí asked, taking my hand, and rattling it as if I was a stubborn vending machine.

“Tomorrow night, nothing special,” I tried to escape his curiosity, almost ashamed of myself and of bringing it up.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Tova screamed, earning a shocked look by the parking assistant.

“It doesn’t matter now, please, Tova,” I begged and dragged her and Lo to the nearest bikini shop to get swimwear.

“We’ll be right back, please feel free to go to the lounge and have a drink,” I invited the others and waved them through the big glass doors encouragingly.

“Really?” Tova, in a black bikini, cocked an eyebrow at the demure one-piece I had chosen.

“No, wear something nice…How about…this?” She held up a dark green bikini that would push my tits under my chin, a fact she was very aware of and seemed to encourage actively.

“Ah come on, it will be fun…we’ll do some camping on top of swimming…you know because of the tents!” Lo, leaning lasciviously against the edge of the cabin in an indecent golden thing that seemed to be made up of only strings and whisps of dreams, grinned.

Finally, I was convinced to buy something I’d feel terribly uncomfortable in, while I was trying not to imagine people making fun of me the way they always had, so when – upon entering the lounge – we caught the end of a conversation revolving around me, I was at my most vulnerable.

“She’s never been much to look at, but this is going a bit far…I mean, isn’t she a bit old to be going through her rebellious phase?” one man said to the other and chuckled.

“Ah, now that she’s lost some weight, she might have done better though? Her parents say that she’s meek and all, but she didn’t have to aim that low! He’s a handsome enough fellow, I guess, but that family…” another replied with the same disgusting laughter.

“The gall of that chick though, I mean, that man is my tailor – a good one, no doubt about that – but I don’t want to see common folk here!” the first one exclaimed with a disgusted cough, “she’s a shame to her family. Maybe, she’s really an awfully boring and distasteful person and no self-respecting kid her age would hang out with her? They didn’t parent her much…”

I froze and my vision blurred.

Those were some serious insults, levelled against not only me, but also my friends and family.

“Jia, don’t…” before Tova could finish her sentence, I had turned around and run into the opposite direction; it was such a nonsensical instinct to just turn and run, but it was all I had my parents ever seen do when they were in a situation that overwhelmed or hurt them.

Slowly, as I was trudging through what might have been a golf course, I sifted through the words I had just heard. I was ugly, that was nothing new. I was a disappointment to my illustrious parents, nothing earth-shattering there either. I had chosen Ori because I hated myself and either didn’t trust myself to be able to do better or – literally – couldn’t get anyone better; this one hurt, I had to admit because it insulted both of us. I was but a name, he was but a pretty face.

Was I so starved for attention and some basic attention that I’d take it from anywhere?

It took a few seconds to admit that yes, wanting to give me those things was reason enough for me to believe that someone was good and worthy; had I been fooled?

“Them,” Lo said in an ice-cold voice to the security guard, “they’ve spoken most disrespectfully of a young woman. I will make sure to bring this to the attention of the board.”

The men were ushered out of the lounge, no doubt invited into a private room where they could talk shit about Jia some more in private, but Lo didn’t care, she just needed them gone before she would throw herself at them and gouge their eyes out with her nails.

“What is going on?” Thorin strode towards them immediately, his eyes and ears attuned to trouble, and already, his back straightened and his shoulders were squared as if he was getting ready to be in a physical fight.

“Where is Jia?” He went pale, nodding his head toward the exit and, patting Ori’s hand, Balin got up and – together with Nori – went to seek out the runaway girl.

This time though, the men were unwilling to be left behind and – very soon – the whole group was trampling through a golf course.

[vera-the-witchynerd]

Here’s a little Mystery Skulls short fanfic of Vivi, with a lot of angst.

Heartaches & forgotten Birthdays

Vivi walked into work and was greeted by silence. It wasn’t always like this, she would walk into work and be tackled with a hug from her coworker Chloe and a nice hello from her Boss Duet. That all stopped after the accident with Arthur.

Vivi walks to the back of Tome Tomb to put her things away. Passing the front desk where Chloe was working. Vivi gives her a cheery hello and smile. Chloe completely ignores her, Vivi just keeps walking as a pain in her chest starts to bloom.

She reached the back room where Duet is unpacking a new shipment of books. Vivi says hello to Duet, he gives her a nod back. There once was a time when Duet and her would talk for hours, but now she only gets a nod.

The morning was mostly quiet in Tome Tomb. Vivi spent most of it stooking books and doing some light cleaning. Another part of her job is to offer help to customers but they all avoided her or ignored her when she would talk to them. The pain in her chest grows as the day goes on.

When her break came around instead of sitting out front of Tome Tomb watching Pepper Paradiso, she went to the back room. Though she can’t remember why she liked watching Pepper Paradiso’s place on her breaks, she does get a sense that it gave her joy, but not anymore. The ache in her chest throbs at the thought.

Chloe was in the back room when Vivi walked in, she sits down at the table and chairs they have in the room. Wanting to ignore the ache in her chest Vivi pulls out her phone. Going through her calendar. Arthur and she are heading out on a trip today. Arthur says they need to look for someone but he won’t say who. Vivi taps on October 27th, today’s date and notices a birthday icon next to the date. Without thinking, Vivi says aloud

“Whose birthday is it?” out of the corner of her eye Chloe bristled.

“What Do You Mean ‘whose birthday is it’” Chloe practically yelled at Vivi “It’s L-” A high pitch ringing started in Vivi’s ears as her vision became consumed by magenta. For a moment Vivi can’t remember anything. Everything feels numb. Vivi is brought out of the haze by Duet’s voice.

“Wh-what?” Vivi says, blinking a couple of times. She cant remember what she was doing or talking about. Was she talking to Chloe? She looks around but Chloe wasn’t in the room. Vivi looks a Duet, she could tell he was worried about her but there were some other emotions there too, that she couldn’t identify.

“Vivi why don’t you go home early.” What? Duet was sending her home early. She still had 5 more hours till her shift ended.

“Chloe and I can handle it. It’s been slow today anyway and I know you’re leaving on your trip today. This way you have more time to get ready” Vivi couldn’t believe it. Duet was kicking her out. This is the most Duet has said to her in weeks and he’s telling her to leave. The ache in Vivi’s chest was becoming unbearable. Now she wanted to leave as much as they wanted her gone. Too scared to say anything Vivi just nods her head and goes to collect her things.

As Vivi walks out of the backroom she could hear Chloe talking very angrily and Duet trying to calm her down. Vivi wanted to hear what Chloe was so angry about so she crept a little closer, the bookshelves hiding her perfectly.

“HOW! How Could She Forget HIM! I Don’t Believe Vivi Has Amnesia, Duet!”

“Calm yourself, Chloe, this isn’t the place for this.”

“SHES LYING DUET! I Know She Is! How Can She Forget His Birthday?! HOW CAN VIVI FORGET HER BOYFRIEND!?” Vivi couldn’t take it anymore, she stormed out of Tome Tomb. the ache in her chest was overpowering now, making it hard to breathe,e or maybe it was the fact that she was running. Running like something was chasing her. She ran and ran, not knowing where she was going in tell Kingsman Mechanics came into view. Only then did Vivi realize she had been running in the rain. She guessed that it was a good thing, now no one could easily tell she had been crying.

Vivi stumbled into the garage dripping wet, only to come upon something she wasn’t expecting. Arthur sitting in front of a birthday cake with candles almost burnt down to nothing.

“Vivi?!” Arthur saying her name pulled her eyes up from staring at the cake. He had the look of a deer caught in headlights. With the crippling ache in Vivi’s chest, she brokenly says.

“W-wHO’s bIRtHday I-Is it ar-ArTHurr?”

Author’s note: hope you all liked it! I’ll be writing more little one offs like this. From different points of view. Might draw some fanart too >~<

[dustedmagazine]

Cecilia Lopez and Ingrid Laubrock — Maromas (Relative Pitch)

Freedom so often arrives with the magnetic precision of stealth, a small stone in a hailstorm or a knowing word between friends. Maromas, the new collaboration between saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and synthesist Cecilia Lopez, often functions in that communicative sphere, as is the case at 1:43 of “Sentient Pipes.” It all begins as simply as Laubrock accenting one note in a phrase and Lopez emitting a similar pitch. That tone is bandied about like a tennis ball or a beloved phrase, and it’s difficult to tell if Lopez grabbed and modified it or if it was generated in some other synchronous way. Both artists then expand it outward, building rose-petal-fragile but crystal-clear counterpoint from those tiny dialogic pointillisms.

The disc brims and bristles with similar moments. “A la vuelta de Greenwich” begins with the grinding of what sounds like processed  soprano saxophone which then dips and dives forward with Lopez’s response, delivered in swooping curves. It’s so tempting to pull a Hendrix or Prince sonic reference or two out of Laubrock’s quasi-linear distorto-shredding, but her playing is equally atomistic, evident as “Fabulations” stutters onward. The collaborators occupy an entirely different space in “Don’t Believe It”’s murky opening drones, shards and atoms replaced by sustains while the minuscule elements of microtone and breath vanguard themselves with startling clarity. Each overtone and harmonic bubbles to the surface of a brew equal parts spice and strength and garnished with amplified attacks and piquant saxophone scales at an almost tender volume.

It would be difficult to imagine a more symbiotic approach to duetting. The players’ respective sound pallets are remarkably close, unnervingly integrated in terms of articulation and sonic envelope. If the opening conglomerate of “I Don’t See It” doesn’t convince, as it inhabits a shuddering world of rhythmic ambiguity even as pitches swirl in and out of distorted focus, nothing will. Best of all though, the sounds are all but bone-dry. So many electroacoustic collaborations rely far too heavily on reverb and delay, presumably to enhance repetition. They travel down long corridors of memory, their edges and intimacies obscured to the point of ineffectuality. Laubrock and Lopez confidently square each gesture against a backdrop of something that isn’t really silence but often threatens to be. Each musician’s prickly and mellifluous spontaneities hit the ear with a stunning directness that adds to their musicality and allows all of that precious counterpoint to be heard. Repeated audition shows the moments of freedom to be components of a larger and wonderfully formed dialogue fashioned of concise and adventurous interactions, each moment a kind of aphoristic poetry in sound as direct as it is poignant.

Marc Medwin