#but also because how much they took from japan (the band)

[olipeaksforever]

everybody gangsta until they play rio by duran duran on its entirety

[yridenergyridenergy]

Die's Food Diary in Europe (March 2024 tour)

For the magazine Weekly Shinchou April 25th 2024 issue, Die wrote a blog of what he ate on Dir en grey's trip to Europe. Their flight lasted 14 hours.

March 18th – After landing in Warsaw, he went to a seafood restaurant but seeing as he doesn't like seafood or raw food, he ordered a beef steak, which he was satisfied with.

March 19th – Die ate breakfast at the hotel. The buffet typically contains ham, scrambled eggs, salad, bread and coffee. There were sausages and bacon, but they seemed oily/greasy and he was concerned about how much fat they contained. By the third day there though, he started getting bored with that menu.

The lunch is catered by the venue for the concert. It had ham, cheese, bread and minestrone. Because it was the first day and that preparations were hectic, he actually went on stage for that first show without eating dinner. After the show ended, he enjoyed a traditional Italian risotto with mushrooms.

March 20th – Before the second show, he ate pierogi for dinner. He commented that it looks like gyoza but that the taste is "modest"? He also highlighted how it was difficult to get used to the time of day because of how late the shows start in Europe.

March 21st – The band and the staff left on a double-decker bus toward Paris. Die bumped his head on the ceiling of the second floor because it's really low. The bunk beds are narrow for his height but they're decent once he got used to them. They all ate from a service area/stop along the way but Die, not wanting to succumb to the temptation of eating fast food, ate leftovers of a burrito prepared the previous night... which he then realizes can count as fast food too hah.

March 22nd – He ate from traditional French home-style meals that appeared to have been cooked in-house at the venue. Die was excited to try the food out but all the names were in French... The only meal that he could recognize visually was a quiche. I think he ended up trying a few regardless of not knowing what he was eating and he was satisfied.

Die was a bit nervous before going on stage because of the Bataclan's tragic event in 2015 (terrorist shooting). After the show, he had take-out bolognese pasta with thick noodles.

March 23rd – Apparently a fan from Japan gave them takoyaki, which was however heavier than pure takoyaki. He found the taste powdery. All the band members stuffed their faces with takoyaki. The band always receives a bunch of instant food from Japanese fans when they tour overseas, it seems. If someone on the bus starts eating something like ramen, the others are lured in by the smell and they will likely indulge as well. He doesn't usually take (instant?) ramen in Japan, but he finds it tasty on tour overseas.

For dinner, he had kebabs before the show, and pizza afterward. In the end, he did succumb to junk food.

March 24th – Breakfast was served on the ferry boat's restaurant. He took fried eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and bread while looking out at the sea. At night, he went to a local yakiniku-style restaurant with his American friends. While the atmosphere was similar to a Japanese yakiniku, he felt sorry for his friends about the taste of the food.

......... A menu critic highlighted at the end of the diary that Die had not eaten any fruit or vegetables hahah.

[xanticore]

𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑

Genre: fluff

Note: this is my first metallica fic so pleaseee keep that in mind. I hope whoever reads this enjoys.

Setting: late 90s ~ early 2000s..ish

Summary: Kirk is on tour and he decides to stop by the local guitar store. He ends up staying longer than expected when he overhears a riff that sounded impressive. Assuming it was a guy, but was taken aback when it was a girl...a girl who doesn't seem to know who he is.

It was the weekend and I was starting my weekend off, our next show being on Thursday and Friday of next week. This gave me time to myself to find local comic stores and guitar shops. I was honestly in my own little world as time passed by quickly; I didn't mind at all because I was going to do the whole process again on Sunday. I left the comic book store with a new manga and some new released volumes. All Junji Ito works, no surprise there.

The next stop of the day was the guitar shop. The air was cool and the store was just so fucking huge, It was heaven to me. The store had a variety of items. Vinlys, cassettes, cds, and even some band posters...but my main focus was the guitar wall. All different types of styles and colors, different collaborations of pop culture, anything you could think of-this store probably had it.

A guitar that has been newly stock was the black and red Les Paul. It looked so gothic and vampiric. Younger me was just screaming at me to get it...which It was my plan. I asked a worker to take it off the shelf so I could practice some riffs on it. Just as I imagine; it was a smooth and crisp sound. A sound I was looking feel and I probably would make this guitar debut when I head to Japan.

It was already 5 pm and James was just blowing up my phone. I forgot all about our band dinner. I sighed packing up my things and unhooked the guitar from the amp. On my way towards the front to ring up my guitar, I overheard a riff coming from a room that was being occupied. It looked like it was a guitar lesson in session.

I continued to listen and soon heard a solo. It was definitely in the metal genre. Whoever that dude was; shredding that guitar like it was the last thing on earth. It intimidated me how good it sounded. Almost making me jealous of how I didn't think to use this type of style in a song.

I heard them stop and minor shuffling going on in the room. I quickly walked away and acted like I was looking at the vinyls. I glanced over at the door and saw a tall beautiful girl. She nearly took my breath away. The way she played really matched her style of clothing. She was a goth but it was familiar style I've seen in Japan. Her hair was dyed a dark red and her make up was flawless.

I needed to compliment her and asked her about that solo of hers. I was stupidly stuck in my place but managed to get to her with a sudden boost of confidence. "H-Hey, nice guitar. I heard you playing in that room. You sounded amazing." I complimented her with a smile in admiration.

She smiled back and looked somewhat excited. Did she recognize me? Did she not expect a guitarist from the most known metal band of all time-

"Thank you so much! Are you also a fan of Malice Mizer? I was playing one of their songs."

"Malice Mizer? never heard of them.."

The girl frowned but soon lit up when she started to explain the band to me. "It's a rock band from Japan. Visual Kei style of music over there. I'm really into bands like X Japan and Dir En Grey."

I've never heard any X Japan songs but I definitely seen posters of them in Shibuya. I know they are well loved and idolized in the era of rock music over there.

"There's actually a Malice Mizer cassette next to you of their new album. You should buy it and give them a listen? They won't disappoint." She giggled. I eyed her movements when she moved closer to me, only to pick up the packaged cassette tape. The cover had a silver cross and the band's name in black in the middle. But enough about them, her little giggle was just so cute. If only I could hear that from her more often.

"I'm Kirk."

"(name)"

A beautiful name as well. I didn't want to add anymore details of my name because I knew it wouldn't matter and honestly...i'm really enjoying that. It felt more natural to speak with a non fan. Nothing was forced and she genuinely seemed to enjoy just talking about her favorite music; unlike some girls i'd meet at clubs.

"Well Kirk, I hope to see you around?"

I didn't say a word but I just nodded. I tried to stay positive but it was a pain I wasn't gonna see her again. I bought my guitar and cassette watching the cashier put it in a case. I left the store happy and somewhat sad, but, seeing that girl smile just brighten up my mood...

I hope to see her again.

a/n: so what we thinking?? yay or nay?

gif from: @ba11ltongue

dividers: cr to owners

[heartsforkento]

my jjk x kpop dr!!

i hope you all will give fucks about this post umm soo let's go

i haven't shifted here YET but once i will 🙏

soo i have the hidden inventory arc characters here + choso (pookie) + sukuna (still pookie ig?)

we're called PARA (i thought of that in two seconds) because it comes from the word 'paranormal' and our concept is themed around paranormal and absurdity and shit like that 🔥 so think dreamcatcher or redvelvet. idk what to call our fans but we'll figure it out soon.

we debuted in 2013 and we're almost like bts/nct/svt type popularity. and we work like xg, like we're japan-based but promote in south korea.

our genres are rnb, psychedelic rock and pop and city pop. so that's like tame impala, pink floyd and various rap and city pop artists. sometimes we do nct/aespa style music as well.

like i mentioned before, we have a weird concept and that changes all the time. we debuted like loona but instead of solo songs, we debuted with group songs, like the vocal team, rap team and dance team. our debut song is "the 7th sense" from nct !

we used to be in some company later bought by hybe. and the jjk manga exists, but it's kinda like how enhypen has dark moon? i'm gonna script our manga is delivered slightly better than it is here and no one fucking dies. and that it wins multiple awards asw hehe.

i forgot to mention we're a 9 member group, 3 people each for vocals, rap and dance. and we're a co-ed group: 6 boys and 3 girls. the girls have our own sub-unit as well.

we kinda have lore? we have made some songs for our manga but our discography isn't entirely based on that.

and here are our positions: (this isn't in age order btw, idk about our ages i'm gonna let the universe decide that)

sukuna. leader and main rapper. he gives off leader vibes and he's totally the main rapper like i don't think any other position fits him 🙏

gojo. main dancer, visual and face of the group. i kinda see him as an all rounder but mainly focused on dancing

geto. lead/main vocal and visual. also plays the guitar, but only for some of our songs because we're a group not a band

nanami. main vocal. he is main vocal coded idc. i was stuck between choosing the rapper position for him or the vocal and i went with vocal. oh also he's my husband just putting that out there

shoko. she's main pookie. also the lead dancer. i was going to give her vocal but then i remember she smokes a lot so ... which is perfectly fine ofc

choso. lead rapper. there is no arguing against this 😡 my pookie will rap like a pro, fight me on this. also he could be the face of the group asw no harm

haibara. he's also main pookie. (😁) and he's lead vocal btww. and maknae *yayyy*

utahime. she's a dancer. confirmed by me. (she gives off yuna vibes)

me. lead rapper. also an all rounder and face of the group. i'm also good at vocals so maybe like a sub-vocalist, like i'm not part of the vocal team but my notes always hit 😘 i'm also uhh very well known for both singing and rap and i'm also the it girl and i think that's enough 🙏 (you can almost tell i shifted to this reality)

we have sasaeng fans and they aren't all that harmful, they're just there ... sometimes annoying but not too much

our fandom is kinda like carats/atiny/nctzens but backed with the streaming power of blinks and armies (ooh we won). also scripted we have a lot of chinese fans (they are so powerful)

as for scandals, i haven't scripted anything i'll give that also to the universe (nothing too serious tho)

and ofc i scripted i have the mental capacity to deal with scandals like i'm such a baddie 💔

and ofc we win a lot of awards and go on talk shows and shit 😍

ooh and i scripted a variety show but like it's a reality tv show, pretty cool and we call it paranormal, once again took two seconds to think of that lmao

in that we basically run around doing shit and try not to kill each other (me vs. everyone except nanami, hai and choso they're too cool to be trying to kill me)

oh and fancalls, i'm scripting our fans are funny so fancalls will definitely be an experience and hopefully not like those vernon fancalls (poor guy)

oooh i almost forgot. i scripted that we start w a survival show and from there all 9 of us gets selected (can't wait to see all my emotional edits)

ooh and also it's like 2012-ish soo all the guys will 100% have the justin beiber ahh hairstyle

examples below: (thank you seventeen)

(these pictures are us predebut core 😍😍😍)

kento alr had that side bangs hairstyle i just wanna see the other guys also looking like justin beiber sooo .... (except geto he'll have long hair like jeonghan)

wait imagine a paranormal x going seventeen episode where geto and jeonghan battle each other with their long hair

anywayyy

that's all i have scripted (i think)

this was so unorganized but thank you for reading ❤️❤️❤️

lmk if there's anything else you guys wanna know

also nanami will definitely dance to newjeans songs watch out ‼️

[tootiecakes234]

@queenpiranhadon thank you so much for adding me to this writing event😇 it’s my very first one and I’m so glad to be apart of working with all these amazing people.

Syn: Kento’s wife finds out he’s been hit by a curse and turned into a frog. Only true love’s kiss can cure him.

I hope this story does the idea in my head justice.

This is supposed to be romance/comedy I guess… Enjoy😘😘

*also my longest story to date

It’s been months since you’ve been back to the home where you’d grown up. It’s gotten harder and harder to find the time between teaching your students and exercising curses.

But you and your husband always made time every year to make sure you got back during Mardi Gras.

See you came from New Orleans, Louisiana and you left home your last year of high school to attend jujutsu high. It was the top school for learning to use your cursed technique so you’d jumped on the opportunity when it presented itself.

This led to you meeting your husband, Nanami Kento and also one of the amazing friends you’d made Satoru Gojo.

Mentioning Gojo now because to Kento’s dismay, he’d weaseled his way into this trip. His entire reason for going, being the if he didn’t get to try the beignets from New Orleans, he would simply pass away.

Kento questioned everyday, how he’d managed to fall in love with Satoru’s best friend. It was the only hesitation he had when it came to dating you in the beginning because he knew he would be stuck with Gojo for life… And here he was in the cab with you guys on the way to your dad’s restaurant.

“ have I mentioned how much I love America. There’s a sweet shop on every corner we’ve passed. I’m gonna go into a diabetic shock.”, Satoru said from the left side of you.

Under his breath you heard Kento mutter, “Sounds good to me” and you elbowed him softly.

The two of them had been bickering since you’d met up at the airport in Japan. You weren’t gonna make it the whole trip without at least a few headaches.

“So it’s the first day of Mardi Gras and I know the restaurants gonna be super busy so what are you guys going to do to keep yourselves entertained while I’m working in the kitchen with my dad?” You asked them.

“Well I figured we would have lunch at the restaurant first and go from there. At some point, I have to go and take care of that curse that I promised Yaga I would look into.” Kento states.

Of course Satoru interrupts, “ I don’t know why you took that on. I told the higher-ups that this is my vacation and it’s going to be curse fucking free.”

“Yes well not all of us are the chosen one and can just tell our superiors no when they ask for something. Besides, it’s only a level two curse. It shouldn’t take me very long to handle.”

“ OK well Kento, just remembered to be extra careful. The curses of New Orleans are conniving. They’re not particularly hard to exercise, but they can get you in some sticky situations. Trust me, I know.” You informed him once more.

There weren’t many curses around here but the ones that were always tried to slip a trick on people before killing them.

“ I promise to be safe, my love” and he pressed a kiss against your temple.

“And Nanami, you know if you run into any trouble your Senpai will be there to help you. I’m just a call away.” And you would hear the cheekiness lingering in his voice.

“ for the love of God” Kento groaned.

Fortunately, for him, you were pulling up to the restaurant now. the restaurant happened to also be connected to a place where your mom and dad stayed the restaurant downstairs and their house being upstairs.

You got to your child home and you guys unloaded the car and were immediately tackled by your mom and dad.

After you guys got inside and settled, it was already time for lunch prep to get started.

“ since you guys will be the first ones here you get the best seat in the house, which is in the middle so you’re far enough from the stage to have conversation but close enough to really hear the band that’ll be playing.” You told them as you came downstairs.

“ I think I would prefer to sit right next to the band as to make sure no conversation is had actually” Nanami said on you guys reached the first floor.

“Awwwwww, Ken, don’t act like. You’re hurting my feelings” Satoru whine as he drooped his arm over Kento’s shoulder.

You grabbed Gojo by his ear and sat him down in a chair.

“Stop riling him up or I’m not making beignets for you. Do you understand??” You ask with your eyebrows raised expectantly.

“Yes ma’am” he pouts but stays quiet.

Everything is smooth for a while as you set up for lunch, start cooking, and eventually start letting guests inside.

The place was packed before an hour had even passed so Satoru and Kento were forced to give up there seats and skeedadle. Kento to handle the curse he agreed to exorcise and Satoru to try every sweet he could find in a 5 mile radius.

Business was booming from lunch onward. You didn’t have a break between prepping, cooking and serving orders in the gaps between servers.

Satoru was still missing in action and all you could hope is that he didn’t walk into a voodoo shop trying to get sweets and walk out hexed.

On the other hand, Kento hadn’t tried to contact you either, but you didn’t have much time to think about it or check in right before the dinner rush.

You tried calling him and ended up talking to voicemail, so you decided to text him. You just sent a quick message asking if he was OK and when he’d be back.

Around two hours later, Gojo came sauntering in looking like a kid who was let loose in a candy shop with a credit card. He had all types of to go bags and shopping bags hanging off of him.

He went up to drop everything off before he slid into the kitchen to see you. 

“ you haven’t heard from him since he left earlier”, he asked and you could hear the concern in his voice which only made you feel worse.

“ no and it started to make me nervous. I can’t just walk out and leave my dad to finish his dinner shift by himself.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine. I’ll use my six eyes to go see if I can find him. I’ll be back quick New Orleans minute” and the accent was so offensive you almost smacked the shit out of him.

“Just go.”

By the time Gojo got back, the dinner crowd had left, the restaurant was closed and you and your dad were in the back cleaning up.

He came in with no Nanami next to him, but both his hands hiding behind his back and a cheeky smile on his face.

“ where the hell is Kento! you’ve been gone for two hours and you mean to tell me you didn’t come back with him??” You started shouting at him.

You excused yourself from your parents ear shot while grabbing him by the ear again, and dragged him behind you.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch.” That really fucking hurts.

“ where the hell have you been? Where is my husband??!”

Satoru is rubbing his ear when he speaks, “ well I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news is I found Kinto, bad news is…” and he pulls his hand from behind his back. “ This is your husband.”

You immediately screamed because this asshole pulled a slimy, disgusting frog from behind his back!

“Satoru have you lost your mind again??? Have the sweets eaten a whole into your peanut sized brain!!! Get that thing out of here RIGHT NOW!!”

But before Gojo could speak…. The frog did.

“My love, i’m afraid this is the one time that Gojo is not joking around. It’s me.”

That voice was definitely Kento’s but there was no way. Absolutely now way.

“ I think she’s gonna pass out. Y/N are you gonna pass out?” Satoru said well balancing the frog in one hand and reaching out the other to catch your trembling form.

“Sweetheart maybe you should sit down. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

That was Kento alright. Always the worrying, doting husband.

“ it was the curse, wasn’t it? Kento I told you that the curse is here were different. How did you manage to let this happen? You’re a frog!” Your hands were rubbing circles at your temple and you were pacing back and forth.

“You were 100% right, but it was more than one curse and I was caught off guard.”

“ yeah he couldn’t exercise them in his frog form so I had to do it when I got there and let me tell you those things look even more insane the ones in Japan. I did manage to get some information out of them before I killed them though.”

“What kind of information?” You groaned. You had such a killer headache right now it felt like your head would pound for the rest of your life.

“ good news first or bad news first” he asked you with small smile playing at your lips.

The death glare you gave him would’ve cut through his infinity if he had it on.

“ OK so good news first, um, you can fix him!” He says.

“Oh thank god!” You say on an exhale.

“He hasn’t said the bad news yet, baby” Kento chirps up.

“Yeaaaa… bad news is the only way to break. The curse is with true loves kiss”

“No” the word flew out of your mouth so quickly. “No why in hell am I kissing a frog.”

“ my love…”

“Do not “my love” me Kento. There’s no way! You’re SLIMY AND GREEN!” And you’re in full blown hysterics now.

You hear a chuckle from Gojo but he quickly shuts his mouth.

“ darling, I know this is a bad time to bring this up but… I do recall a certain asking on more than ONE occasion, if her husband would love her if she were a worm, a fish, and a plethora of other little creature. And said husband said yes to all of those.”

The calmness in his voice at that moment had never made you more irritated.

“ those were hypotheticals! You can’t throw that back in my face now.” You whine again because you don’t know what else to do.

Gojo decided now to speak up again, “ I may have also forgotten to mention that if the curse isn’t broken by midnight, your darling husband will stay in this form until his dying day”

“Turn off the infinity Satoru! Turn it off now!”

“So you can MURDER ME!?!? I think not!”

“Just give me one swing at the pretty face. You’ll only have 3 eyes when I’m done with you cuz I’m taking out half your power with one punch!” You shout.

Satoru keeps his infinity up, places Kento on a table, and starts walking away from your murderous being.

“ well I’ll take that as my cut to leave. I’ll let you lovebird sort this out amongst yourselves. Umm quick heads up midnight strikes in about six minutes do what you want with that goodbye!” And he’s out the door.

“Baby.” Your husband says in that soft soothing tone of his. “ I love you and I will continue to love you even if you leave me in this state as a green slimy frog, but I would truly prefer if we just did a quick little kiss and got this over with.”

“I cannot believe this! I should leave you like this you know. I told you several times not to take on this assignment.” You mewl.

“I know. I deserve this, I truly do.”

“I’m about to miss a frog. Me, (your full name) am about to kiss a fucking frog!”

“It’ll be quick love, just a quick peck. Close your eyes and it’ll be over before you know it.”

“I think I’m gonna bath.”

“Please wait until after the kiss. I don’t want you to throw up on me, I’m already slimy.”

“Why would you say that now??” You ask him with your eyes stretched.

“Sorry, bad timing.”

“Ughhhhhh. Fuck, fine. Count me down.”

You start jumping in place preparing your self.

“3”…. You start leaning in, “2” inching closer and trying to to keep your gag reflex in order, “1” you slam your eyes shut, pucker your lips and connect them to the amphibians.

Before you know it, Kento is again standing in front of you, but there is a flash blinding you from seeing his face.

“Wow, that is true love. Y/N you just kissed a frog.” When the flash dies down you see Gojo with his phone held up to you two. He was recording the whole thing.

“Oh that does it. You’re dying here satoru! Don’t run. Why are you running you piece of shit, get back here!!” And you spend the rest of the night trying to rip your best friend head off his body.

By the time you get back home, you’d managed to destroy Gojo’s phone and any evidence any of it ever happened.

“Are you ok my sweetheart? You’ve had an extremely trying day.” Kento asks as you both get into bed.

“No. I want to go to sleep and forget the last 24 hours happened.

“I completely understand. Get some sleep sweet girl.” And he tried to lean in and press a kiss to your lips.

Your hand stop him dead in his tracks.

“Too soon Kento, too soon.” And you turn your body away from him and try to fall to sleep. You hear him chuckle behind you and snuggle up to your back.

tags : @queenpiranhadon, @cashmoneyyysstuff, @tootiecakes234, @starieq, @sweetienans, @seonne, @lovelyiida, @lady-ashfade, @4evapika, @angels-fantasy, @2melamoo2 - check out their storybook event fics too!

[noemilivv]

WHATS GOOD MIO!!! I am now here with my request 😎 if you need more information about this request feel free to DM me! anyways….

Now, May I request Lucifer Morningstar with a GN!Reader whos a Gyaru(O)? Just to explain the lore of Gyaru, If you know, Gyaru originated in Japan in the 90’s as a rebellion against the stereotypical beauty standard of having pale skin and dark hair, these gyarus — Gals or perhaps, Guys — were very flashy and outgoing, now other people except Japanese people wear Gyaru(o) and they are usually called “Gaijin Gyaru(O)” and it means a gyaru who doesn’t reside in Japan, Gyaru(O) has many sub-styles such as Hime, Agejo, Rokku, Manba/Banba, and much more from this wikipedia.

Thank you so much! I hope this isn’t too much and have fun! =)

WHATS GOOD BRAAAHH !?

this concept is crazy cool haha!! i really tried to do my proper research but if this is considered offensive in anyway shape or form, please tell me and i will either rewrite it or take it down!!

also i’m so sorry this took so long jax haha, i was bit nervous going into this because this is something i’m not that educated about, and i have definitely been procrastinating requests lately lol, so my deepest apologies!!

from what i gathered, gyaru seems to be a japanese clothing/makeup style with a bunch of variety and levels, but if i’m wrong please correct me haha

also the gif is from one of my moots so, little shoutout to her !! haha

Warrnings: Possibily inaccurate representation of Gyaru

Lucifer Morningstar x GN!Gyaru!Reader

Lucifer didn’t really know what ‘Gyaru’ was until he met, or started dating, you!

“Oh, yeah, I’m really into Gyaru.” You said to the blonde at the other side of the table whilst on your first date, you were trying to ask questions to get to know eachother, and you asked what he was interested in, and he said rubber ducks, which hey, everyone’s got a weird thing their into, so you don’t judge.

“Oh my golly, I love that band, we have so much in common, we really need to go see them!! With that one Gearoo guy on the drums who just ba-da-duh-bey!—” Lucifer rambled, even though he was very far off, he was just trying to have common interests, and on that note; he pronounced ‘Gyaru’ so wrong…

“Oh, their not a ba—” You began, before Lucifer let out a ‘Ohh’ before beginning again.

“Gee, that’s my bad, I have a bit of an old man brain, with a daughter at home and all, her and her little friends! Heheh! Sometimes I just go coo-coo-coo! Sorry, wow, I’m just crazy..” Lucifer rambled once more, his voice trailing off at the end, as if he had an epiphany, giving an awkward, and slightly cheery chuckle, slapping his knee softly, before making awkward eye contact with you with a nervous but toothy grin. Yep, you loved him already. He has zero idea how you still gave him a chance after that.

Once Luci actually learns what Gyaru is, he genuinely does find it quite interesting.

He would be tempted to try it out, maybe a makeup look or a fit, but nothing too extreme, he’s still dipping his toes in haha

Also, he’s incredibly supportive, he loves admiring you as you get ready and pick out something to wear or do your makeup or whatever and however you get ready!!

If he has a meeting, he will definitely have you style him a sick looking outfit!!

Overall, he’s very supportive, the fact that your supportive of his odd duck obsession, he loves, so he owes it to ya :)

[astrangetorpedo]

Julien Baker: Accomplish the Most with the Least

by Zachary Gresham | Photos by Nolan Knight

Julien Baker is more visible than ever. After her low-budget debut, Sprained Ankle, made nearly every best-of 2015 list, the 21-year-old Baker signed with Matador Records and went home to Memphis to record her next record at the legendary Ardent Studios. Turn Out the Lights was released in October of 2017 to massive acclaim from critics, and was met with extreme devotion from audiences. It is the rare record that one can wholeheartedly describe as both monastically spare and cinematically epic, putting her in the heady company of Tori Amos, Nina Simone, and Jeff Buckley. We caught up with Julien shortly after her return to Tennessee from a quick tour of Japan to talk about guitars, Ardent, Craig Silvey, reverb, and doing more with less.

Turn Out the Lights is really beautiful.

Oh, thank you!

I find it difficult to disconnect from it emotionally for a while after I've turned it off, which is the sign of a quality record.

That means a lot to hear. Thank you.

You made it at Ardent in Memphis, but you did your previous album, Sprained Ankle, at a studio in Virginia, right?

Yeah. Spacebomb Studios. Most of the songs on Sprained Ankle were recorded at Spacebomb, but there are two on there (two with percussion, "Vessels" and "Brittle Boned") that were recorded at Cody Landers' house. He's an incredible engineer.

Were you recording yourself before that?

When I was in high school, the band I was in [The Star Killers, later known as Forrister] put out a full-length [American Blues] album that we recorded entirely in Cody Landers' attic. We were all kids, and he took on this project because we were his friends. It was a labor of love, as well as a learning experience. We had no idea what to ask for and what sounded good. It's funny, looking back now on what we were trying to emulate.

What were you trying to emulate?

Well, Matthew [Gilliam] – the drummer and one of my closest friends – our biggest influences are probably Manchester Orchestra and Circa Survive. We wanted to sound big, bombastic, and theatrical, but with sinewy, reverb-y guitars. The other guitarist listened to Wilco, Guster, and folk-adult-rock. It ended up sounding half like Whiskeytown and half like Sunny Day Real Estate. Those are mixed very, very differently. Also, and this is true with youth, is that everything is more exaggerated. You want things as more drastic, colorful caricatures of themselves. I always wanted a 30-second reverb tail on my vocals. The guitars had to be super loud. Matthew had the biggest snare that was sold at the local music store, because everything had to be so powerful. A better way to put it is that it lacks taste or restraint. I learned so much every day, after school sitting in front of Cubase and crafting a record. Before I ever went to MTSU [Middle Tennessee State University], that's how I learned how automation works, why you track drums first, or why you don't want to put a whole bunch of reverb on the drum kit, even though it sounds cool as an idea.

You went to MTSU to study recording?

I did. I went to MTSU because they had a really notable and reputable recording industry program, but my thing was always live sound. There's an audio engineering major, and within that you can specialize in recording arts or live sound. I don't have the meticulous drive to pick apart a waveform in a DAW. I make my own demos, but they're simply for mapping out songs. I can't sit there and master forever. When I was a kid I learned how to use a PA, and then they would let me run the console at shows. I thought, "Well, I could do that. I know how to do simple circuits, so maybe I could work at a repair shop repairing guitars." I went to school to learn that, systems optimization, and building stages at festivals. But because we were all in the same program – all of my friends who were wearing their headphones around their neck and mixing at the campus Starbucks – those were the people who would say, "Hey, I have some extra studio time. Do you want to come in and record?" I think that it is important to keep yourself open to opportunities to gain experience.

You've got to get in there.

Hands-on experience taught me so much. I took so many classes on systems optimization, signal flow, and live sound mixing. But what taught me how to find my way in a live sound setting was doing sound for bands at venues. What taught me how to act, how to vocalize what I wanted, or the protocol inside a recording studio, was being able to spend that time. I think that's a good thing that MTSU gives you. There are resources on hand to take the theoretical knowledge from the classroom and apply it in a real setting. Otherwise, I couldn't have gotten to meet [engineer Michael] Hegner and do the first demos of what would eventually become Sprained Ankle. He was sitting in the library and asked, "Does anybody have a song they want to do? I've got a session in 30 minutes and no one to fill it." I was like, "Yeah."

Of course, you had to put the time into having a song.

I didn't think about that. Writing is always a compulsory thing, so I always have literally hundreds of voice memos.

Is that how you make your demos, just voice memos on the phone?

That's how I make the very first part; the writing process. If there's an idea while I'm playing guitar that I think is worthy of being explored, then I'll make a short little 1-minute voice demo and save it as "cool riff 85," or whatever. Then later it will be fleshed out as a song with placeholder lyrics. I finally took the plunge and got a real DAW. I use Logic now and I do those little MIDI things for keyboards. I can plug straight into a little one-input interface and have my actual guitar sounds from my pedalboard. Before that, I was using a straight-up 2005 Audacity program that I found. It was free. It looked awful. No hate on Audacity. But my version was so old.

It's a great program for cutting up samples.

Yeah. It's really limited. I guess that's how you learn. I was also using a Toshiba computer from 2006, because I held off for so long, saying, "I'm not going to buy a computer. This one works fine." It's so hard for me to give in and upgrade my gear, because I get used to working within the parameters I've become familiar with.

From that perspective, let's talk about going to Ardent Studios. Listening to the record for the first time, I kept waiting for the gigantic production to kick in. Almost all the songs have a moment where I thought, "Here it comes." But it never does.

It's really interesting to me that you say that. I felt self-conscious in the opposite way. I thought, "There're eight vocal tracks and strings, and my buddy's playing clarinet. This is so much." By comparison, it's much more expansive than Sprained Ankle. I was worried. I had this oxymoronic fear that it would be too similar to my past material and also too different, but not in the right ways. I wanted to have it be very dramatic – and have the parts that seem like soaring ballad climaxes – because I'm a sucker for that kind of dynamic. I think it's very emotive. But I also wanted to be careful that I didn't take so much of a maximalist approach that I weighed the song down, or it got to this critical mass where there's too much going on.

That's an incredibly mature perspective. I don't mean this because you're a younger person, but just in general. There are people who never get there.

Thank you. I'm going to acknowledge your compliment; I didn't take it as a thing about my age. But I agree. I think that restraint is such an important skill in music. For a long time when I was playing guitar in a band – and I think this had a lot to do with my insecurities about being a female in a male-dominated scene – but every time we played a show, I had to rip a crazy solo so that everybody knew I was "good." Still, one of my primary lurking fears about performing the material that I have today is that if I have a song that's three chords of quarter notes, everybody's going to be bored and put to sleep. But that's the challenge. Restraint is such an important thing. Just because you have every single color in your palette doesn't mean that every single color serves the painting. I think there are artists where the maximalist approach serves them well. When you think about a Bruce Springsteen record, like Born to Run. Or have you listened to Kimbra?

Yeah. A lot going on there.

Or St. Vincent. There are so many sounds; it's insane. But I think the challenge with my music is figuring out how to make it interesting while still leaving it pretty sparse. It's an interesting interplay. How many points of dynamic can you introduce into the song, as subtly as possible?

Do you go into recording feeling like you're going to do what you do live, but with a little extra?

There was this reciprocal relationship between the live and the recorded for this record. Another thing I wanted was not to say, "I don't know how I'm going to pull this off live, so I'm not going to explore this possibility." Now I do the weird play-guitar-and-piano-at-the-same-time. I decided if I wanted to have clarinet in there, then it'd be worth it to add clarinet. I think I was a lot more particular about the instrumentation on this record because I knew that it would be received in a different way. With Sprained Ankle, I was recording the songs as they had formed in my free time, using my looping pedal or whatever. With these songs, I sat down with a spiral [notebook] and mapped them out. I thought, "This song is tedious. What small embellishment can I add that will change the song enough to re-focus the listener's interest, without detracting or obscuring the totality of the song?" One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was from Josh Scogin [of bands The Chariot and '68]. We were at a show, and we were talking about how The Chariot's records are so interesting. They'll have this incredibly heavy breakdown, but it'll be free with no time signature at all. Or the song will completely stop and then something from Atlanta AM radio will play, and then the song will pick back up. "How do you know to do that? Is it just a novelty, or what?" Josh said, "I think you have to think of what will make people back up the track because they missed a thing." You don't want to make a song that goes on in a predictable fashion without introducing new elements.

You got an incredible guitar sound on the record. You tour with a [Fender] Twin and Deluxe, right?

Yes. We recorded a lot of Turn Out the Lights on my little 1x12 Deluxe, but I also have a 2x12 Blues Deluxe that I took the speakers out of and replaced with Warehouse guitar speakers called Veteran 30s. I got the higher-wattage option because there's way more gain room before it breaks up. My one gripe about Fender amps is that they break up too soon.

By design. A lot of people want blues.

Exactly. I get it. With the Twin, it's fine. It's a really sparkly break up. The Deluxe amps, I like the warmness of them. But when you start to break up such a warm, midrange-y amp, it gets fuzzy really quickly. I really like those speakers in that amp. I use so many of my instruments partly because they sound the way I want them to, but also partly because it took so much work for me to get them to sound the way they do that maybe my goal and my ability met in the middle. Especially with the wiring. I have a [Fender] Telecaster that I modded, and it took so long for me to figure that out when I was 18, trying to read a circuit diagram on how to get your pickups to go in series or parallel, and add that little option with the 4-switcher. Once I finally did it, I was like, "This is what I want, for sure." Whether or not it was what I was going for, I was so committed to doing it.

Do you go back and forth between series and parallel?

No. I have the blue guitar, it's a Mexican-made Tele, and then I have an American Tele, which is the butterscotch one. I leave it on series all the time. You have to put aftermarket pickups in Fender guitars. The Telecaster has the plucky clarity that I like; but I think everybody plays them so hot and bright, because that's the Nashville sound. I thought of Telecasters as country music guitars until I saw Now, Now and Circa Survive on tour. Both the guitarists were playing Telecasters. I was like, "What is happening? How are you guys getting this sound out of a Telecaster?" Then I used my next paycheck to buy a Mexican Tele. I love it.

Were you using Fender amps already?

Yeah. The first amp that I used was this Vox digital combo that was bad news. Well, it wasn't bad news, because I think those amps that have the effects built-in are good for learning. I wasn't playing big shows, so why would I need a $700 amp? The first real amp I bought was the Fender I replaced the speakers in. I had it for a really long time. Then I bought the 1x12 on tour when the tubes of my other amp broke, and now I play through stereo amps. It's interesting that the idea to do that never occurred to me, even though I had two amps on hand. Even on Sprained Ankle, I played through one amp.

You use so much reverb and delay, it's perfect for what you're doing.

Sometimes we'll be at a festival and I'll play through one amp. The way that my looping system is totally jury-rigged, I can use it into the first and second channels on a Fender amp.

It's a wonderful, underused feature, having the two channels on those amps.

It is. So much of my musical knowledge is very de facto and functional, and it doesn't result in a logical understanding of the mechanisms I'm using. On my Deluxe, there're two input jacks. I'd say, "Oh, I always plug into input 2 because it sounds different, and I like that sound." I didn't know until October of 2017 that one of them is high gain and one of them is lower gain. I had no idea. It sounded different. Now I have two A-B-C-Y splitters on my board; I send out from those two channels a dry channel and a reverb channel on one amp, and then yet a third reverb channel into a different amp.

Is the reverb channel 100 percent saturated?

It's all the way on, all the time. The dry channel is there in case the two stereo outs of my looper go off, because I'm paranoid about my loop breaking and there being no safety net for me to play through. I was not always that wise. I have been brought low by humiliation, the great teacher. Now I have one fail-safe channel. The rest of my loops come out on different outputs.

Do you use the amp reverb?

I used to have it pulled up to quarter to two almost all the time, but now I like the flat character of the amp enough, and I have three or four different reverbs. The Strymon blueSky is always on. I forget that I have it on my board, because it stays on. It's the staple of my tone.

I read that you used a [Neumann] U 67 for recording your voice. Is that right?

Yeah.

Did you do a shootout, or did you know going in you wanted a 67?

We tried out that mic because Calvin Lauber, engineer for Turn Out the Lights] suggested it. On Sprained Ankle, I recorded part of it on a [Shure] SM7B. We used a couple of different microphones on that one. I don't remember what the other one was. With the Neumann, I'm very reluctant to use mics with so much crispness, because I think my voice has a tendency to get really nitty and bland.

I respectfully disagree, but go on.

Well, okay. Maybe I'm hyper-critical of my voice. But that vocal mic sounded really nice, especially in the room. Once we started tracking with that, I was like, "Yeah, I'm really, really happy with this vocal sound." It's an incredible microphone. It sounds like it's capturing what's happening to your ears with intense clarity. Whenever I make my little Logic demos, I go in there and notch out 2.5 to 3 kHz, because it sounds really annoying. When I started singing in a band, I wanted the vocals to be pushed all the way to the back and ‘verbed out. I was self-conscious about my voice. I never really wanted to be a singer. I wanted to play guitar. Then our first show came up, and we didn't have a lead singer, so I said, "I'll sing until we find a singer." Then I became the singer. Every single time we performed live, someone would say, "That was really good. You should sing louder!"

Did you try to change the way you sing?

By the time The Star Killers had been a band for a while, I would do the shouty scream thing. But then that became a gimmick of my voice. It was atonal. It was less about the pitch and more about the intensity and having the gang vocals part where everybody sings along. It took touring for a while as a solo musician for me to become completely comfortable with my voice as an instrument. That was also probably because I still smoked at the time we recorded Sprained Ankle. Singing was really taxing on my voice. When I had not smoked for a little over a week, the way that my vocal control and the timbre of my voice changed was amazing. I thought, "This cannot be real." That made me much more confident, and it made me take singing seriously. My voice was no longer just a vehicle for poetry that I was using to "Leonard Cohen" out my lyrics. I think that's also what made recording this record a lot different. I was more ambitious with what I could do.

How long did you have at Ardent Studios?

I booked out six days, intentionally. We ended up staying there 12 hours a day. Time flies when you're in the studio, because it's fun, and exciting, and interesting. I think I limited it that way because of that fear of overproducing the record. If I gave myself too much time, I would fall into a paralysis of option anxiety. In hindsight it might have been good to have a deadline, but also take a rest. Record for a week, take a month off, let the tracks sit, and then come back with fresh ears. Maybe I was over-restrained, like I was overcompensating for my fear of overproducing.

It sounds like discipline is a huge part of your whole process.

Oh, definitely. I talk about this with so many of my friends in music. This land of words like discipline, motivation, and obsession are all fluidly bound. For any of the players on the record, like Cam [Boucher] from Sorority Noise, or Camille [Faulkner], who tours with me, the way that those people interact with music is almost obsessive, but in a way that drives them to be the most optimal players they can be. Not in a competitive way. I really don't think that trying to be the best you can be means that you have to be obsessed with being the best musician out there, or being superior.

It's its own reward.

Exactly. I think the fact you say that discipline is a huge part of the record is because maybe it wasn't that I had to apply an effort to sit down and map out the songs in a spiral notebook, or think about them and listen to them over, and over again. It's what preoccupies my mind all the time, so the only way to abate the anxiety of creating is to be engaged with it. But, at the same time, that's why I only wanted to book out six days. It's really important to get a great raw sound. We did a lot of setting levels for what would basically be how the record sounded.

It's a huge advantage not to "fix it in post."

Exactly! Get it right the first time. This thing that Calvin and I would say to each other all the time is, "It's worth it." When I would record a vocal track and it was almost what I wanted, and I felt I could live with it, we could nudge a note, or we could comp it. But I had the time. I'm not flying out to L.A. to do a two-hour recording session and we have to comp it. We had the time to get it right, and it's worth it. We ended up tracking a whole bunch of weird piano, guitar, and keyboard tracks that didn't make it on the record. But what if it had been awesome? It's worth it. When you start with good ingredients and you do less work on the back-end to try to wrangle it into sounding good, it's so much easier. And it sounds very pure and more organic, because I think you can tell when a song has had to be manipulated.

You can. It's almost never going to be as good as it would have been.

Exactly. There are so many great records that are tracked live. That's how recording used to be. Now I'm going to sound like one of those people who thinks that antiquated methods of recording are the only way and swears by tape only. No, there are amazing things we can use Pro Tools for. But I think the ethos of old-school recording is getting a great live sound. I watched a documentary about Tom Dowd [Tom Dowd & The Language of Music]. He plays the faders like a keyboard. It's so cool. Whenever I watch those documentaries, I'm amazed at that process, because it's happening to those people in real time; it's just their job. They have this very colloquial relationship with the music. Chilling out with Aretha Franklin and not knowing that it would change history. What I think you glean from those is not that it was better in the past, and we should only record to tape, and only use old vintage equipment. I think the process is that you should be able to accomplish the most with the least. You should know how to utilize a room, or you should know when it's enough. I think sometimes the necessity of having only four tracks, or having only eight channels, or what have you, makes you be more discerning. The options aren't endless. The time is not endless. You make a leaner, refined version.

Craig Silvey mixed Turn Out the Lights?

Yeah. We had a mixing day with Calvin; then he and I shot some mixes back and forth. I had very specific things I wanted out of the mix. It was really observable what Craig changed, but he didn't necessarily remove or add anything. I was amazed at how much he was able to add to the tracks. I think the people we involved on the record were all ones we wanted to use, either because of their prior work, or our prior history with them, indicated that they know how to be tasteful. Especially with Craig Silvey. I knew a few of the notable records that he had done, like Arcade Fire, but when I started to look at the breadth of the work he had been a part of, it was amazing.

Did you choose Craig, or did Matador say they wanted him?

Matador brought the idea. I was reluctant because I wanted the least tampering. They said, "We have this guy we think you'd really like. Give it a chance." I'll give anything a chance; but if I didn't like it, I was ready to say, "No." We sent a test mix, and when I got it back, I was like, "We should have the record mixed by this guy." It was ultimately a collaborative effort between Calvin being so personal and central to my life as a person and a friend, and knowing what I wanted, as well as Craig's expertise and impeccable ear. It made for a really special thing.

(link)

[turtleations]

Interview with YOSHIKI - Translation

Published in the hide BIBLE (by Akemi Oshima) 2008

Note: I wrote much earlier that I was not going to do this particular "interview" (aka free commentary after one single prompt of the interviewer) because it doesn't actually offer any information not available in plenty of other places, but since I'm doing every single other interview in that book, it felt weird to leave it out in the end. And since it's so short, I ended up doing an actual translation rather than a "summary", although I am not happy with it.

It's still long enough to warant a cut:

It’s great that you were playing your new song at the X JAPAN reunion concert at the Tokyo Dome.

Regarding “Without You” (the song YOSHIKI dedicated to HIDE), I also thought about the magnificent version performed at the Tokyo Dome, but this time there was no time for it. Whether it’ll be overseas or in Japan, I’m thinking about maybe doing the next one in a pattern that will develop into something spectacular. Regarding “I.V.” (the song using HIDE’s guitar track), I thought it would turn out cool to have the audience sing the first part before returning to Japan and then later add sound effects and the band parts. Therefore, I told the band members on the second day of the performance, “Until everyone starts the big chorus, I won’t be drumming at all.” It was really exciting, wasn’t it?

Anyhow, this time there was a lot of preparation to do, but, not limited to the hologram, things related to HIDE are of the most importance now. I started that work quite early in Los Angeles. So far, I’ve chosen a good take of HIDE’s from that live and singled out only his part. We perform while listening to this sound of HIDE’s, but it took an enormous amount of time for the sequence for that to be created. Still, it was not enough to invoke a live-feel, so for that song, SUGIZO joined us as the first guest-guitarist to play along with HIDE’s image.

When remembering HIDE, what left the deepest impression? In the end, that would be something that once happened when we went to have dinner together. I am bad at picking out fish bones. I was livid, saying, “How can I eat this?”, and next to me, HIDE went, “Wait a moment, I’ll take them out,” and cleanly separated all the bones for me (laughs). Because of things like this, he was like a mother.

As a musician, HIDE was the type who thought about things very attentively. For example, X’s songs are ensemble pieces, and I, the one who sees those vertical sounds, am the one for the ultimate details, but on the other hand, there are also things I have a rough grasp of, and it felt like HIDE was right there in between those two extremes. Therefore, filling in the duties left by HIDE for our live this time has been terrible, I think.

But, to me, HIDE had been a friend before he was a band member. Way back, HIDE came to recruit me for his band. Next, I tried to recruit HIDE. That day, I went to Yokohama’s “7th Avenue” to see a SAVER TIGER live, and I brought LADIESROOM’s George along. “Today, we’re off to get HIDE!” “Are we?” Like that (laughs). Therefore, after the live, when everyone was having an afterparty, I said in front of them all, “HIDE, join X!” Which didn’t result in much of a fight, somehow.

At that time, HIDE smoothed it over by telling me, “Let’s talk about it more slowly later.” He, too, had been betting his life on SAVER TIGER. And I had come in with a special attack like that (laughs). George had been surprised. “Please have those talks in secret, or at least not where all the members are gathered,” he said. But since talk like that tends to leak anyway, I figured it would be better do it right in front of everyone to begin with (laughs).

While there were episodes like that, eventually, SAVER TIGER ended up disbanding. I got a phone call from HIDE then. “I’m thinking about giving up music,” he said. When I told him, “Then, isn’t it better to just do so?” and heard “Eh? You’re not trying to get me to join your band?” in reply, I answered, “That’s your decision, that’s why,” and HIDE was surprised. I think I was waiting for the words, “Well, I’ll join X,” but HIDE did not say that.

When HIDE asked, “Would it be okay for me to come watch X’s rehearsal?” two or three days later, I said, “Yeah, come.” While he watched the rehearsal, HIDE appeared to be deep in thought. In those days, we often went drinking after rehearsing, but this day, after making the invitation, “Let’s go drinking!”, HIDE immediately said, “I’m joining X.” I’d somehow known that already, but it still caused big excitement.

At that point, X’s fixed members were only TOSHI and me, and so HIDE got personal invitations from a lot of different bands who wanted him to join them. Because of that, he met with a lot of people. But in the end, HIDE always cut them off with “I’m with X, that’s why.” “But, X is only drums and vocals?”, he was then told. I think it’s great that TOSHI stood his ground in this. Because guitarists had come and gone, come and gone over and over.

I think X was a band not affiliated with any genre. It was not thrash metal, not orthodox hard rock, I liked punk, but the songs we made were too melodious for that and I also liked music in a classical style. The more I talked about the sound I wanted to create, the more chaos there was among the members. Because of this, we separated from other bands more and more. I think that that while HIDE had courage to jump into that, he must have approved of us and our style in the first place. When HIDE told me, “I don’t understand it, but it looks like you’re creating something big, YOSHIKI. I’ll wager on that,” I gained confidence. “You will dash forward, so I will follow you,” he said.

HIDE got along well with the music critics. But I always had to fight with them. For example, one time, a certain critic called them to some issakaya [restaurant that also serves alcohol] in a very positive manner, saying, “Let’s think about the future of X.” Because the period in which a band like ours got positive attention from music critics was like a lifeline. But there we were told, “If all the members sported black hair and an army look, X could be a success,” and I flipped out and asked him “Are you an idiot?” HIDE tried to calm me down with “Wait a second. Please take it easy,” but I was like, “Shut up! I’m going to beat this fucker up!” (laughs)

Even though HIDE said, „It they hate us any more, it’s over for us,” I said something like, “That doesn’t matter. We’re going to perform on TV,” and just went home. At that time, rock bands never went on TV. Even after our debut, I was told by the people from the record company that TV appearances were rare, but the more they said so, the more I wanted to do it. About this, HIDE said, “I don’t really understand it, but if YOSHIKI says we should, then we will. I’ll follow you.” He always took that position.

Mentally, we were perfectly punk. Regardless of the quality of something, we wanted to dare going to places where we would be laughed at for doing what we did, or where it was not allowed. We had that strange kind of self-confidence since long ago, and I think HIDE understood that as well. For example, my background is in classical music, and so I thought there was no way I would be defeated if they talked about music, and just wanted to face them head on.

But before I could get that across to the other person, I just lost my temper. Here, HIDE interpreted for me, saying, “Actually, what YOSHIKI wanted to say is this.” At that time, he did that a lot. This isn’t a real thing we used, but HIDE would say things like, “That’s on page 60 of the YOSHIKI user manual.” (laughs) Is it okay to perform this action at that time, in a case like this, that’s what he’s saying, and so on. HIDE explained it like that to a lot of people (laughs).

In that sense, too, HIDE felt a lot like a mother. When he died, it felt like losing family. Although we are now standing on stage at Tokyo Dome like this, TOSHI was simply a childhood friend at first, and the same goes for HIDE. Before they are members of my band, they feel like members of my family. That’s why… It’s strange, isn’t it, this kind of thing.

[karanseraph]

Alien robots can have accents

This might be spoilers for The Life and Times of Skywarp fic, but just going through my process in public, because sometimes this helps me think and organize my thoughts.

Alien robots can have accents, because other planets have regions and culture and also because if we encounter them, they can assimilate our language(s) differently.

Also, Transformers media has pretty much always had this as a thing, because, with one notable exception I can think of, humans recorded their voices.

What a character's accent sounds like can differ, like if one piece of media was recorded in Canada, for example, and another recorded in Japan, let's say, then even if a character has a regional accent in both, that character doesn't necessarily have the same type of regional accent.

some non-audio media also calls out quirky speech patterns and accents in the written dialogue.

OK, that's all understood stuff we all know.

Now, I'm trying to think what accents and mannerisms Thrust and Ramjet have when we meet them through Skywarp's POV in a fic.

So, I the writer (and I've noted this bias in the various notes attached to the fic) am writing in English, because that's my language. And mostly it's North American/US/Eastern/Mid-Atlantic because that's my region. But, here and there there may be deviations or variations. The characters aren't actually speaking English on Cybertron, I'm just writing the story in my language.

The POV character is Skywarp, who, like many people, does not perceive his own accent unless someone else calls it out. So, descriptions of the other Cybertronian characters having any dialect or accent difference get filtered through the character's perception.

Skywarp, the character, in this fic, is based in Vos which is in the south and east of Cybertron. He doesn't always know what region a dialect is associated with when he first hears it. He just notices it's different or more difficult to parse.

So like, when I'm writing, I would not say "Nyonienne" is French." It's not. It's really not. It's an alien dialect/accent of whatever Cybertronian languages is spoken in that era. But, I might write that when Skywarp met Eriel and she gave her designation the way she pronounced certain airy phonemes was different enough that he wasn't sure how to spell her name. It might have been Oryal or Ariel or Auriel.

Skywarp knows Mirage, Tracks, Red Alert, Thundercracker, Flatline, and Daytrader are all from and/or based in Iacon, but he also knows they don't all sound the same and supposes this is because Iacon has 'street' and 'spire' differences as well as being a big region with suburbs.

OK, so back to Ramjet and Thrust. Skywarp has never met them in person. He knows of them. He knows they are based out of Unitrex which is generally in the north and has a cliffy Rust Sea coast and is known as City of the Stars. When there was a big Seeker meeting, Ramjet sent Red Wing and Laserbeak as emissaries, but Laserbeak is an older bot with his own fawning skeksis-like mannerisms and Red Wing was a new recruit to their team, possibly assimilating language elsewhere.

I think this version of Ramjet is like if a locally-famous rock star from a metal band (they might be The Heralds or just Heralds?) that sings songs about chaos, destruction, and sometimes romance received some regional knighthood-like honor due to his emotive spark-felt singing and took it way too seriously and acts like he's some kind of Seeker-Rock-Paladin, but it's hard to tell because whenever he's not singing his manner is over-the-top facetious and sarcastic to the point of deadpan lying about everything. But the bots on his team legitimately think he's great and consider him their leader, because he totally signed up for that! Also, he crashes through things a lot.

The Sir Rock Star thing seems British coded, even if organics are more likely to seem him as their mechanical steed than a shining white knight. Does another region have this intersection of musician and public treasure, like if one is an idol singer or such? Ramjet could also be that.

But Thrust is...loud and boasts about how great their team is, but acts mainly as Ramjet's conspiratorial spiritual advisor going on and on about the stars and alignments and the symbolic meaning of colors in other bots' decos and what elemental energies he promises he can sense in others.

Some Thrusts are vaguely Western-like? But is Thrust also Brit-coded but like old British occultist flavor? And he goes about saying every bot is a star and do what thou wilt and talking about magic?

But they aren't really British at all. They're alien robots throwing brutal warehouse raves in Unitrex as a cover to spy on the Titan-building project nearby.

[imagine-being-straight]

The urge to talk about Rupa and how her character is both unknown and known is so strong. Like what do you mean we have to chase after the little crumbs of facts we know about her to try to understand her and how that’s very much intentional. I don’t expect a Rupa focused episode, not because they couldn’t fit one in, but because I don’t think it’d make as much sense for her character.

Anyways this post was an excuse to say I feel like we should talk about Rupa’s drinking a bit more than we have. In comparison to her, yeah Momoka drinks but we get explicitly told one of the reasons she drinks so much is that she’s terrified to admit how much music means to her. So yeah hey Rupa why are you trying to drink so much???? Is it because the loss of your family still weighs on you even know and you don’t know how to forgive yourself for never expressing your love for them before they left???

We have yet to see Rupa really get angry which is something I feel like something we need to see because her guilt has been eating her up inside. Hell she even admits this herself when Nina tries to confront the xenophobic customers and Rupa admits that maybe she needs to be more “rock”. I think the band has slowly become her outlet for all the emotions she’s been holding in since the her family passed.

Now admittedly this next session is pure speculation on my part but I wonder how Rupa will react to some of her family members still being alive. From her Spotify voice message, we actually learn her mother passed some time ago which is why she and her father (who is Japanese) moved to Japan. This also explains why we only see one gurney in the flashback in episode 11.

Now the reason I’m speculating she still has some family members is because of these two frame here.

We see someone with flowers presumably in front of one of Rupa’s parents grave. Now is it possible it’s past Rupa with her long hair except everyone else has flashes to important people in their life in the present. Nina has her family at home, Subaru has her grandmother attend the concert, Momoka has Diamond Dust watching, and Tomo even has her mother whose she’s estranged with show up.

It took me a while to figure out who she was until I saw the hair color and her eye color and put two and two together.

I’m personally in favor of the theory that Rupa still has some unknown family members alive, but you know I could be looking too far in something that’s already been stated to be false in canon.

[daymxre]

i wanna be yours

suna rintarou x reader

“Y/N, BABE!! GUESS WHAT!!” he shouted the moment he enters the room, and it is rare of him to shout about something unless he is excited about it.

“WHAT??!” you shouted back, putting down your phone because his energy radiated to you to get excited about something as well.

“ARCTIC MONKEYS IS COMING TO JAPAN!” he announced.

“SUNA RINTAROU, ARE YOU SLASH S R S OR SLASH J?!?!”

“I AM SLASH S R S, SUNA Y/N!” he replied.

“OH MY GOD- THEN WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? LET’S GET THE TICKETS!”

what’s with arctic monkeys? what makes the two of you so excited to go to arctic monkeys concert?

well, that band is the reason the two of you got together.

— flashback —

suna’s pov

we were classmates and we lived beside each other, so we were neighbours too. this might sound creepy but I’ve been wondering what kind of songs do you listen to? you always have headphones which is your signature appearance. there was once I asked you the reason you have your headphones all the time at school during lunctime.

“to block unnecessary noises. I hate loudness and I love listening to songs,” was your answer.

‘I guess you can’t handle atsumu’s loudness,’ I thought to myself as I know that blonde miya’s personality.

you walked away when you answered my question — which I didn’t even notice that you did. I don’t know how you caught my attention. at first, I was curious but that curiosity only took another step that I couldn’t control.

one day, your headphones was broken and you came to school with your earphones instead. somehow, someone had the audacity to cut the wires of your earphones. you didn’t show your anger but I could tell your vibe changed real quick.

“perhaps fuck off might be too kind,” was your answer towards the person that ruined your earphones. I overheard it your voice that time and how I wished I could have done something for you. the only thing I did was threatening to blackmail them so they would leave you alone. yet, you told me that it would be a waste of time to pick a fight with them. well, the next day, I bought new headphones for you. I remembered I had to search up good quality headphones too.

that was also the moment, I knew which line that was from. it was from ‘do me a favour’ by arctic monkeys. the one you said to those idiots when they ruined your earphones.

it’s because I’m not much of a talkative person, and how you would ignore my presence because of your headphones on, we never really talked. we were never friends, to begin with. even though I managed to exchange our numbers but I was a coward to start a conversation. I prefer spending time with you actually instead of virtually. yet, I only observed you. this went on for months and the only thing I learned about you is that you listen to arctic monkeys.

which is also my favourite band. I even put it on while practising in the gym.

the team noticed my change and pointed it out. I was in denial but it got quite obvious when you were looking for me in the gym. I was stunned, enchanted and flustered at that moment because you didn’t have your headphones on, just to talk to me. I had to keep my cool but failed successfully when atsumu pointed out the redness on my cheeks and ears.

well, I cherished that short conversation though.

just by that, I went on spotify and made a playlist for the both of us. I sent you the link of the collaborative playlist which was a lame move.

the two of us listened to the playlist at the same time but I didn’t want to confess yet. well, I had a plan in mind, I just didn’t know when. the songs from the playlist went on — until ‘I wanna be yours’ started to play. that song had me unable to describe my own feelings. alexithymia, I must say. I was the one that added the song. I checked the collaborative playlist again and turned out you, l/n y/n added a song from arctic monkeys, ‘Baby I’m Yours.’

I was shocked, obviously. ‘SHIT- I WAS GONNA CONFESS TO YOU WITH THAT SONG, Y/N! BUT NOT THIS WAY. I WANTED TO CONFESS IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE! NOT HERE-! AAAAAAAA’ my mental was screaming and shouting as I was punching the air at the same time.

at that moment, I went to your house even though it was midnight. I came up unannounced. this is so not me. yet, there I was, standing in front of your door, knocking and rang the bell. the sound might have disturbed the neighbours but I didn’t care.

apparently, you opened the door, “can’t you at least text me first that you’re coming over especially at this time? what if I had my earphones on? I couldn’t listen to the bell, otherwise,” you said.

“yeah, I know. wait- you weren’t on your headphones?” I asked.

“mhm. I connected my phone with the speaker so I can listen to songs better. to be honest, you’re the first person for me to collaborate a playlist on spotify.”

“in that case, I’m honoured.”

“and what’s up with you? do you wanna come in?” you offered but I shook my head to decline the offer.

‘you can do this,’ I mentally said to myself.

“secrets I have held in my heart.. are harder to hide than I thought,” I started, my voice suddenly turned out like a singsong voice when I wanted it to be a normal speaking voice. I noticed your reaction was surprised that I sang out of nowhere. “maybe I just wanna be yours.. I wanna be yours,” I added. at this point, it feels like I’m embarassing myself but it’s worth the shot to try, I supposed.

“I wanna be yours,” I affirmly said, assuring you that I truly, madly, deeply want to be yours.

you chuckled at my attempt, “baby I’m yours.. and I’ll be yours until the stars fall from the sky, yours until the rivers all run dry, in other words, until I die,” it was your turn to reply and you took the first verse in ‘Baby I’m Yours.’

I pulled you into a hug, kissed your forehead. I still can’t believe I confessed to you with a song. you got the hint and replied with a song too.

“I got the hint from the playlist so I had to add the reply to the song too,” you said and I pulled the hug away to look into your e/c eyes.

“you’re smart huh..” I muttered.

that was how the two of us finally officially together and started to learn more about each other as the time goes on.

— present time —

21st december 2022

“I hate waiting but for arctic monkeys, I have to!” you chimed and he only laughed. thankfully, gladly and fortunately, the two of you managed to buy the tickets online. the concert will be held at Osaka - Zepp Osaka Bayside.

“the concert will be on march 15th 2023 and you know what day that is?” he pointed it out.

“our 10th year anniversary,” you answered, decided to play the playlist that lasts for 9 years already.

“don’t shuffle play it. I want the songs to be in order.”

“because the songs are replying to each other?”

“mhm,” he answered and proceed to bury his face in your neck.

“I’m finally yours,” he muttered and finally dozed off to sleep but you could hear there was a tone of relief when he said it and you’re over the moon. you smiled to yourself and hums the melody of the songs instead.

a/n :

im jealous that arctic monkeys wont visit my country.. *sighs*

ive had this scenario in my head for quite some time and the fact that arctic monkeys announced they’re going to japan made it better.

i’d love to vibe arctic monkeys with suna tbh..

[dissvicious]

I’m wondering: Do you think there is a Mugiwara equivalent to GROAR in that au? As far as I can tell this is a “modern setting” au with devil fruit bullshit still being present because it’s funny but with no pirates, so I’m wondering wether or not Luffy in this au went “Gonna be the best musician EVER!” Instead?

Both the image of Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Usopp and Nami starting a tiny little Garage band in their free time, as well as the more wacky “Luffy with his Banjo going around and recruiting just the WEIRDEST people for his giant band” are delightful. Especially the latter because like… imagine the lineup… imagine you see a band playing and there’s a reindeer on the drums…. Some guy shredding three guitars at once…. Imagine seeing accomplished pianist Nico Robin with a keytar on stage amongst all this weirdness and just wondering HOW that came to be…. They somehow got Soulking Brook on board as well…. Oh you think he passed away in the seventies? Well you got that right but that won’t stop them. Rumor has it that in their early days the daughter of one of the producers of most famous music labels ever, Arabasta studios, did vocals with them for a while before moving on to do her own thing. Their roadies include a Cyborg and a fish man.

People ask them what their musical genre is and because Luffy is just vibing and doesn’t know what a “John-ray” is, Usopp or Nami usually interrupt these days to avoid discussion. “Ska…” “Eh…. I… I’m sorry, but do you mean you’ve been influenced by Ska bands in the past or that you took inspiration from… because your style is…. Truly unique, but it would be far fetched to call it.” “We. Play. Ska…..”

Thank youuuu for bringing this up & you suggestions / headcanons

To answer quickly Mugiwaras band is DEFINITELY something in G.R.O.A.R AU, we started brainstorm something about a Punk A.U with my friend @calvin-arium and I should really go back to this because it would fit perfectly. Also Luffy playing Banjo just... makes so much sense to me, and this would be Zoro Guitar

could see Usopp at light effects & pyrotechnics and Jimbei driving the tour bus

And yes, G.R.O.A.R AU evolved to become a "modern AU but not boring" kinda, just using it to smash all my comfort characters and OC together, so it's modern settling but devil fruits & power still exist so you can take a violent hit by a guitare wrapped in offensive haki I guess. Mosh pitt must be interesting in this universe

(Captain Trio happen when G.R.O.A.R and Mugiwara has to share a scene in an antifascist music fest somewhere in japan)

[onedesertrat]

Spending 12 days in Japan was truly an unforgettable experience. I had such a good time bouncing around from city to city meeting some of my Japanese punk heroes and meeting other punks from around the world also on vacation was rad. though I'll admit I mostly just did the trip on the fly I did however make sure to do something every night even if one plan failed. There's literally so much to do in Japan it's impossible to do it all and see it all in 2 weeks.

Kappunk fest weekend was Insanely fun. 3 non stop days of punk bands from all around. Everyone drinking out in the streets and then staying up late at night for the after parties. the gigs themselves were really awesome. I saw some bands I love and some new ones I had never heard of before.

During the week I unfortunately due to poor planning, missed the life gig but I spent it out at in Osaka meeting locals and making memories with 2 new friends i had made. Although I absolutely LOVE Japanese punk, I wanted to make sure I did other shit than just go party at gigs.

Later in the week I met up with my homies out in Hiroshima and visited the Atomic Bomb building as well as the museum, which, by the way is totally different when you read about it in school or watching a documentary. being there and seeing the building and seeing the first hand accounts and remnants of that day is truly gut wrenching and infuriating that, that's how we chose to go about it during the war.

After that Masaki took me to the record shop ran by his friend after a few decompression beers and I brought back some gold from the shop. Turns out the lead singer (Guy) from Gudon owns it and after I wrapped up my shopping we went out to eat and drink with members of asphalt, which turned into to be a really fun night though at times I was left out of the loops because obviously I didn't speak Japanese nor did I understand it 😅. we did the physique and Scum Raid gig the following night and had a blast further meeting new people. I even got hit on by a cougar but she was too drunk 😂

The following days I went back to Osaka to be in time for the Framtid, Ferocious X gig. spent the night prior doing some record shopping and meeting up with friends I met during kappunk which was really nice. the following day was the gig and Nothing could prepare me for getting to meet some legends. I met members of Zyanose, Gloom and Disturd. Makino gave me a fist bump during Framtid's set and it felt like being blessed by a Saint 😂 truly a legendary night not to have been missed. I bought some merch and scooped up Framtid's set list.

The following day my buddy and I waiting for his friend to get up from the hotel room got invited over to King Cobra, where we found Sakana and a few other punks still drinking from the night before. we shot the shit for a few beers then gave them our thanks for meeting them hanging out and dipped back to Tokyo where sadly my journey neared its end.

nothing too memorable happened that night except a mad dash to buy last minute gifts for friends however the whole trip started to sink and I felt some sadness for departing from my new friends and Japan as a whole but I do plan to return so hopefully next time I'll have another fun adventure!

[firethatgrewsolow]

Curious question I hope you or someone can help with: before the Starship, how did the boys get from show to show? Especially like multi city gigs in the same state. I’ve never heard anyone mention anything. On a fun note, I’m imaging a Tiny Dancer Almost Famous scene but it’s Elvis 😂

Ahh, that does sound fun! I love that scene, and TD is one of my favorite songs. 💕 As to your question, I’ve pondered that a time or two. Which is to say I was pretty much obsessed with figuring out what they did when I was writing M&R. From what I’ve gathered, and I could easily be wrong, they had essentially three tiers of travel in the states. Europe was a bit different, and I’ll explain that in a sec.

In the early, early days, it looks like they were ferried about via station wagon, which quickly morphed into commercial flights and limos, as their success was basically immediate. There are some hilarious stories about snow storms and ruffled hair from those days - just google it if you don’t know them already. So funny. They continued w the commercial flights until they procured the Falcon jet. Not sure exactly when that was, but I know they had it by the summer of 71. My guess is sometime during 1970. Here’s Peter Grant chatting about it:

“Before that we had a nine-seater Falcon jet, which was a tremendous plane. We used to fly to every gig, into the limo, police escort, do the gig, do the encore and then – no changing, bang! – to the plane. I mean, it's wonderful isn't it, having your own plane?

“But they had to sit opposite each other all the time. And of course, there were rows, but they never lasted more than two or three hours (two or three hours ha!) a night. Somebody might get chinned by one of the others, having punch-ups between themselves. I mean, Bonzo and Robert were famous for that.

“The first time in Japan, in 1970 (it was actually 71) Robert went on with a split lip for the encore every time. And this was an argument over something they did in the [pre-Zeppelin band] Band Of Joy – Robert wouldn't pay Bonzo £37 for petrol or something.

“The thing is, in all seriousness, on that small plane you were too in that 'cocoon'. And then the 'Starship' came along. Which was only $14,000 more, because they [Boeing] wanted the publicity and that kind of thing. And we thought, well why not? We'll have a 720.”

They kept using the Falcon until half way through the 73 tour, at which time they scored the Starship. So, essentially, they scrubbed around for the first few months, then rapidly ascended to planes and limos. There’s talk of some school bus thing they used in the very beginning, but I can’t find anything concrete. In case you were wondering, the crew carted equipment around in U-haul type vehicles, staying in like mid-level budget motels, eventually sometimes flying commercial w the gear in the hold. They might also have gotten a bus at some point, I’m not sure. Im terribly uninformed about that.

In Europe, as the landscape and logistics are quite different than in the USA, they flew and took trains, sometimes personally driving to gigs. There’s a story about Robert’s car breaking down on the way to a gig in January 73, requiring he (and Bonzo?) hitchhike! to the show. I can only assume he was compelled to drive bc of a need for convenience / autonomy and not to save a buck lol! Some people theorize that he caught a cold doing this and sang anyway (as he was wont to do) - and that this was the genesis of his vocal struggles. I’d say smoking and opening with IS sans warmup a million times in a row might have had something to do with it, too. 😉

Well, that’s my Ted talk on Zeppelin transport logistics. 😁 Hope it wasn’t too boring. I really love delving into this stuff so thanks for the question! 💖 I’ll probably dig around a little deeper and see what I can find. And if anyone would like to add anything, please do!!

[taito-division]

Since you've pretty much asked this of every other division, we only feel it's right for you to answer it, as well. So...

With the COVID numbers slowly rising again (unfortunately), that's got me thinking of a question I wanted to ask...

If COVID took place in the HypMic universe, how would your OC's handle it? Would they slowly go insane from being trapped indoors? Would they develop an unhealthy drinking/smoking habit? Or would they be perfectly fine?

(😒 Darn you, Alex. But I suppose I had this coming...)

If he was back in America, Ace would be worried about COVID. And seeing as how it came from a foreign country, it would only redouble his hatred for Asian countries, specifically. But seeing as how he is stuck here in Japan as a diplomat... well, he's not too bothered. His job involves him traveling all the way from Okinawa to Tokyo to meet with the Prime Minister and other officials. But seeing as how the whole country is in lockdown and safety regulations are in place, he basically has a free vacation. He'll spend his time in Eagle's Nest on his phone on PROFILE, or playing pool on Rashaad's new pool table that he got for his birthday.

Of course, he'd keep up to date with the virus. He'd also call his family back in the States and make sure all of them are safe. Though he is worried, he knows that there is little that can be done about it.

Evelyn... this girl is going to lose her freaking mind. She is an extrovert to the umpth degree. It is not right to keep her confined indoors for too long! She needs to be outside, either on the beach, soaking up some rays from the sun, or in a nightclub, dancing the night away! She loves Eagle's Nest, and she loves Ace and Rashaad, but she can't stand being indoors forever! So whenever a chance to go outside comes, even if it's just to buy groceries, this California girl is going to take it. She'll keep up with safety regulations cause she doesn't want to get sick. But knowing her, she'll probably spend more time than is required outside. It'll take Ace calling her to get her to come back, which she will, begrudgingly.

Like Ace, she is also going to be worried for her family back in the States. She'd call them like five times a week, just to make sure they are all okay. She'd be worried sick for all of them and hope that they make it out of this alright.

Rashaad is going to be the one most hurt by this financially. He relies on customers to keep his bar going, but due to the pandemic, nobody's going to be stopping by Eagle's Nest for a drink anytime soon. He'll still keep the place open, but he'll definitely have to make some changes. For example, he'll have to change his hours: no more opening and closing at 6 or 7. Plus, he can only allow a certain number of patrons. And those he does allow in will have to either be vaccinated or must be following safety guidelines. Plus, when the bar is closed, he'll have to sanitize it from top to bottom. So yeah, things are definitely going to be tight for awhile for Japan's favorite bartender.

On the bright side, this pandemic will allow the bar owner to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Plus, with all the free time, he'll have more time to practice with his saxophone and start working on putting together his jazz band for when the pandemic is over.

Azusa... this pandemic is going to be a challenge for her, financially, physically, and mentally. She was barely making enough money as it was with her dojo. But with the pandemic, fewer and fewer students are going to be showing up for classes, putting the dojo in jeopardy. What's more, her father, who is already sick, is obviously going to be in even more danger because of COVID, since it is detrimental to the elderly and the weak. Azusa will stress to her father not to move much and to always call on her should he need anything. Though he doesn't agree, he knows that his daughter is just trying to take care of him, so he reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Azusa is going to try to find other ways to make some wealth. She'll search for odd jobs around Taitō with limited success. If all fails, she'll have no choice but to ask her teammates for a short loan for a while. She will insist on paying back once the pandemic is over, despite her teammates telling her not to worry about it. All in all, Azusa just hopes and wishes that the pandemic ends soon before it takes anything else of value away from her.

Fleuret, like Azusa, will unfortunately be out of work since the museum will be temporarily closed due to the pandemic. Thankfully, this won't bother her family none since her father receives a stipend due to his time in the service. So in the meantime, the museum curator will be taking care of the household. She'll do the cooking, cleaning, etc. So really it is no different than before. However, she hopes and prays that the pandemic will be over soon and won't harm or kill too many people. She'd be worried for her mother, who is over in the States. She'd call her frequently, making sure she is okay. She'd also have her boyfriend, Rio, come live with her and her family, since she is absolutely not allowing her boyfriend to live in the woods during a plague. She knows he may not be comfortable living indoors, but she would do her best to accommodate him.

Meanwhile, with all her free time, Fleuret would spend it either practicing her art or music, or spending time with Rio. She'd also be a stickler for safety and cleanliness, making sure that every time one of her family members steps out of the house, they immediately head to the shower upon re-entering.

Despite the pandemic, Eldrid, surprisingly, wouldn't be out of work. She and the other MMA fighters would still be allowed to compete, but they'd have to do it in empty arenas for a while. This would obviously bother the MMA champion, as she needs to hear the roar of a crowd when she fights. Fighting in an empty arena with only the officials would be boring. Still, she'd be making money and doing what she loves, so she can't complain too much. Still, she wishes this stupid pandemic would hurry up and be over with so things can go back to normal.

She'd be a worrywart when it comes to her younger brother. She'd make sure he masks up and is sanitized before he leaves the house. She'd also be the one making supply runs and would tell her brother not to let anyone in the house or open the door for anyone. Though Yuma would get a bit annoyed with his big sister's over worrying, he knows she's doing it out of love.

Kotan is going to have a lot of pressure, due to both his role as leader of his tribe and the pandemic. His tribe lives on the outskirts of the city of Hakodate and keeps much to themselves, so they wouldn't have to fear the pandemic much. Plus, due to their skill as hunters, they wouldn't have to worry about food much, either. However, their main concern is the fact that they live outdoors in the wilderness, which doesn't protect them should anyone with COVID come near them. Therefore, Kotan will encourage the tribe to mask up and social distance, even with other tribe members just to be safe. He'd also encourage them to get vaccinated, just to be safe. He would also have to quarantine off part of the camp should anyone get sick, unfortunately. He doesn't want to, but he knows that his father would have done the same. As stated, the young tribal chief would be under a lot of pressure, but with the help of his grandmother, he would persevere.

It isn't often that Ted gets sick, but he'd still take the pandemic seriously for the safety of his son. He'd encourage Aiden to be careful on his way to school and don't touch or talk to anyone if he doesn't have too. As for himself, he'd follow safety guidelines, but he wouldn't be too worried about getting sick, since, as stated, he doesn't get sick often.

As for how he would feel, Ted wouldn't really notice the pandemic happening until Kotan, Kokomi, or his son told him. He spends his time up in the mountains away from civilization, so he isn't fully aware of what is going on in the city below. He'd feel sorry for those who may get sick, or have already gotten sick. But as long as he, his son and his friends are okay, then he is content.

Kokomi would notice the pandemic a lot earlier than Ted, but would still not be fully bothered by it since she lives up in the mountains with the woodsman. She'd be worried for those who may get sick, but there is little she could do about it. Her thoughts would turn to her father, and she would debate between calling him or leaving him to wonder about her. Though he is family, Kokomi still cannot forgive him for ruining snowboarding for her, so she'd be confused about what to do.

As for guidelines, the snowboarder would mask up and sanitize, but only because Ted advised her to. Otherwise, she wouldn't be too bothered by guidelines. Not many people come to the mountains anyway, so she has more free range to ski and snowboard. Though she knows the pandemic is bad, she'd look at it as a blessing of sorts.

Thanks for the ask! (<_< Even though it took me a while...)

[askteikoku]

NaruMura with 21: Through a song ❤️

First of all sorry everyone for the disappearence, I got sick. I also passing for an art block so I only add the writting but as soon as I recover for this too I'll try to do some chibis for each ficlet! Here you have! Hope you'll like it!

Narukami had never fallen in love with anyone, he had spent his fourteen years up to that point with no interest in anyone else and love was a strange and abstract concept that only appeared frequently in the songs he listened to. A phenomenon that occurred around him uniting his friends but that did not directly affect him.

If he didn't expect to fall in love, much less did he expect that the person who finally managed to reach his heart lived more than two thousand kilometers from his city.

And yet it was inevitable for him to fall in love with the Oumihara team's engaging tactician, Otomura, whom he met during a Teikoku match against the Okinawan team when he was in his second year of middle school.

He was surprised that the captain of the Oumihara was good friends with Kidou and Otonashi, they told him how they had met a year before and how they recruited Tsunami, who also was a great friend of Fudou's and who was screaming in the sea at that time ​​because the pinkhead took his friend surfing in the same table and due to Fudou’s inexperience they ended up falling because of a wave.

They all laughed, and Narukami found that Otomura's laugh was much deeper, more intimate and extraordinary than any music he had ever heard.

From that day on, Otomura and Narukai began to talk, because somehow their passion not only for soccer but also for music allowed them to connect like two gears ready to fit into each other. Every day they spoke through messages, telling each other about their days, exchanging songs they liked and sending memes that made them laugh until they cried with sore stomachs from the laugh.

There came a time when Narukami was looking forward to finishing his daily chores at school and training so that he could talk to him. In the same way that there came a time when their conversations through messages became conversations through video calls.

During the summer of his third year of Middle School, his friend invited him to spend a few days with him in Okinawa. Doumen and Otonashi, who were up to date on the boy's feelings, not because he had come to tell them but because it was too obvious what they were, congratulated him and repeated once more that they were sure that Otomura felt the same as him.

But Narukami wasn't sure about it, it was true that he was in love, it was true that they got along perfectly, it was true that they were talking until late and that on some occasion they fell asleep because they didn't want to end the call. But it was also true that they lived very far from each other.

Summer passed and with it Narukami lived a dream vacation with long walks on the beach, cold fruit juices of vibrant color, barbecues with the rest of the Oumihara team and numerous friendly soccer matches.

Winter passed and with it Otomura lived the coldest winter of his life, with snow fights against the Teikoku boys, watching the sunset in Inazuma’s Steel Tower Park and visiting Narukami's favorite cafeterias to drink hot cocoa to recover the heat.

With that feeling in his chest hidden deep in the silence that Narukami kept, time went by, a new summer came and a new winter came. The encounters between the two boys continued to increase: Narukami went to visit Otomura during Golden Week, they saw each other at soccer matches, and they even went to a concert together of a band that they both liked a lot and that was touring Japan.

And then, when Narukami was in his second year of High School, he received some news that made his not-so-secret secret tremble. Otomura had to enter the University and he  decided to study in Tokyo.

That changed everything, since they would no longer have hundreds of kilometers separating them but would live in the same city.

When Otomura traveled to Inazuma to look for a flat, Narukami accompanied him and when he finally moved they were both unpacking, singing happily with background music coming from an old radio from the boy with light blue hair.

It got late and Otomura invited him to stay the night with him, the first night in that student flat in Inazuma near the University he had finally managed to enter. They ordered Chinese food and sat on the floor, the radio still playing.

“Which University will you apply to, Kenya?” the boy asked suddenly, causing the other to blush and choke on the noodles.

“I have decided to apply to the same one as you. Maybe we can get into a club together.”

Otomura looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows and two pinkish spots slightly coloring his cheeks, he closed his eyes and smiled happily.

"Of course. I have heard that they have a rather interesting Music Club, although the Football Club is also tempting.”

Narukami chuckled.

“Here we both continue with our two great loves.”

"Three."

Narukami's light blue eyes narrowed, heart pounding. Was Otomura hinting at what he thought he was hinting at? He said nothing but continued eating in an unusual silence, a silence that had little left to disappear.

He bathed after dinner and Otomura lent him his clothes. Narukami wasn't sure which was worse, the horrible fish joke on the shirt or the fact that it smelled like his friend.

“Kenya, before I came here I wrote a song for you, do you want to hear it?”

"Did you write a song for me, Gakuya?" Narukami's face was completely red, and he was not much different from the other boy, he nodded with a heavy feeling in his stomach and Narukami settled next to him.

The strategist took the keyboard he had brought with him and placed it on his crossed legs. He began to move his fingers decisively across the keys while the letter he composed coming out of his lips.

A beautiful love song.

Narukami stood up immediately and his eyes widened each time without interrupting despite believing that the strong beating of his heart must be interfering with the melody, until Otomura finished with an "I love you."

Then he raised his violet eyes to discover the impact of his song. He couldn't see Narukami because as soon as he pushed the keyboard away, Narukami jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly.

"I love you too, Gakuya!"