#but hey i wouldn't have seen sleep token if i'm with them still

[shittybundaskenyer]

winged insect—funeral pyre

[sleepanonymous]

I was just gonna reblog the original "hey look I am toe-to-toe with this tiny ass stage" post I made, but I have a Mother Token face reveal + marriage proposal video to share with you all below the cut 👇

So some good news first, my ears are fine. Zeal & Ardor got a little loud near the end but, I had no ringing or tinnitus and no noticeable hearing loss. I had watched some videos of Zeal & Ardor and Gaerea on the East Coast from earlier on this tour, and the videos seemed fucking loud 🤷‍♀️ Not complaining, it was still great.

Backing up a few hours: my original plan was to get to the venue around 2-2:30 pm. I started getting ready around 1 pm, thinking that should give me enough time (venue was a 4 minute walk from my hotel). Turns out faking a '90s-style blow-out with a flat iron takes 3 times longer than just straightening your hair 🤷‍♀️ Who would have guessed? Anyway, after that and makeup and having a mini crisis about my outfit, I ended up going to the venue around 4 pm; 2 hours before doors. I must have PTSD from Sleep Token or something because I was expecting a full line but I ended up being #9.

Two Sleep Token girlies got in line behind me, but I was too shy to try talking to them really until later on. One of them, plus about three or four people in front of me, had a VIP meet/greet with Gaerea. About an hour before doors, a rep for that band came out and collected the people with those tickets and got shirt sizes and all that and I figured "okay, cool, he's gonna bring them into the venue an hour early." NOPE. Senhor Vocalist just fuckin waltzes out two minutes later to meet everyone. Like, I can't explain it because I haven't seen his face before but I recognized him instantly by his shoulders (then later by his tattoos). I made really fucking awkward eye contact with him and then decided the only safe place to look was the railing outside the venue. Anyway he greeted everyone really quick, then walked back inside for a minute, came back with the guitarist, and then the rest of the band joined them after another moment. Then the band just walked off with the VIPers and those fans didn't come back until doors already opened.

After the ID/ticket check, we lined up on the opposite side of the venue and I ended up at #5 in line (after letting the remaining Sleep Token girlie cut me, since she went in to use the restroom). They let us in right at 6 pm and I was the second one to the stage, standing right next to the first guy in line at center stage, which was literally only 2 feet tall btw. I had looked up photos of the venue online and it's literally worse (or better depending on personal perspective) in person.

The first band, Zetra, played us about an hour's worth of Mortiis music between doors and their set, which quite literally is DnD dungeon music. 10/10 do recommend, very vibes, much atmosphere. The duo themselves were amazing, and I realized after the fact that Sleep Token's manager plus Lyns (Espera) follow them so 👀

Halfway through Zetra's set, I realized the guy next to me was taking photos, so I worked up the courage to film two of their songs. I felt super awkward about it because I was three feet away from the guitarist. Afterward, he came out in a jumpsuit after the set to help break down, but was still in full corpse paint and had his hair stuffed into a baseball cap. He chatted with the front row a tiny bit as he worked and he’s super nice and funny 🥹

Right before Gaerea went on, a girl with a media badge squeezed in between me and the other guy at center stage for the first two songs. I'm still trying to find her social media because she got tons of great shots and some footage. Meanwhile, me on the other hand, got three and a half chaotic videos that consist mostly of Senhor Vocalist's groin 😭 Like, ISTG Senhor, I'm not trying to film your crotch, its just that I cannot hold my phone any higher (would literally be shoved in his face) or lower (I wouldn't be able to see my phone screen) 😭😭 About 75% of the time this happened I would panic and film the guitarists and bassist or the drummer. Aaand then the video below happened 🤩

I guess we are legally married now 🤷‍♀️ idk I don't make the rules. Anyway, hi, that's me, making major heart eyes for like 3 frames. You can also see the Sleep Token girlies right behind me. In my search for the media girl's profile, I actually found one of their TikToks instead: thecottagecorehore

Even though I was in the front row (I keep wanting to say barricade but there was no barricade lol) it got really hot between Gaerea and Zeal & Ardor. Like I was regretting wearing a turtleneck sweater (Yeah that was my panic outfit, black turtleneck + 90’s hair + ripped skinny jeans + platform oxford shoes because I am insane). It didn't cool down either, half the guys around me plus Zeal & Ardor were drenched in sweat halfway through. Didn't affect their stage presence at all though; Manuel is actually very smiley/giggly and it made everything a million times better. Actually, the fake setlist gives you a pretty good idea of the vibes:

Wake of a Nation Götterdämmerung So yeah this is a fake setlist And if you're reading it and we will play some songs you like it Thanks for coming to the show ☠️WOW NEAT☠️ We like to call the song To My Ilk Turbo Milk Do you like our joke Encore Garbage Thanks Phoenix Love Zeal and Ardor Clawing Out

Vessel should take notes 😂 I appreciate Sleep Token being upfront about the Teeth of God setlist and not trying to hide it from the fans on the barricade, but imagine if we got something like : "Oh bugger, this is a fake setlist. Cheers!"

Also Manuel's water bottle sticker says Defend Equality 🖤

I uploaded a few videos to YouTube already. Depending on my data usage, I might upload a few more at the end of the month/next month.

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 28: Tom/Jane, Visit

Tom/Jane, background Tom/Daria/Jane if you really squint

~700 words

Non-canonical scene from The Transitive Property 'verse, by which I mean I make no promises that this is the future

*

"Do you know any straight people?" Jane asks abruptly, into a protracted but not unpleasant silence. She'd been lazing out to the sounds of students playing Frisbee down two floors below them on the grass of the quad: loud voices and shouting through the crack of the open window. Just like at BFAC and Raft, the beds at Bromwell are narrow but long. She has nowhere else to rest but half on top of Tom, with her ear against his chest, his arm around her.

Another sound, existing on a different plane than that of the voices below, is the steady thumping of his heart. It sounds faster than she imagines hearts should sound. Maybe that's because he's still coming down.

His breathing stutters at the question: first a deeper breath in, like he's gathering air for his answer, then a breath out, and a moment later maybe something different than he'd initially meant to say.

"I'm the straight person other people know," he says.

Jane smiles. Yeah, that's right. "The token," she clarifies.

She hears him humming, a vague assent: hears in the normal way one hears and also the vibration of it through his chest. "Yeah."

All of the Bromwell friends he's introduced her to this weekend are queer, except for his roommate, who seemed all right but not quite like he should be counted among the others. Like her own back at BFAC, just someone else occupying the same room. Jane had joked, when they came back up after lunch, that they should put a sock on the door just in case.

Before that, they'd been like old friends with each other. Inside jokes from high school. A mini tour of the campus, during which he'd barely touched her. He'd brought her to the school's art museum, let her wander at her own pace through it, and afterwards they'd gone to dinner and that night she'd slept in her sleeping bag on his floor. He'd introduced her to all of his friends as another friend, someone he knew from Lawndale. She'd laughed on the inside at how simplistic that was.

But when she'd joked about the sock, he'd said, "Yeah, probably," doing that thing where he takes her all too seriously again. That thing she'd fallen for back in high school, that hook upon which she'd hung their whole relationship. He was staring at her without smiling, except a very little at the corner of his mouth, like he was fond. She stared back at him so long, it took all of the self-control she'd ever had not to kiss him right there in the hall.

"So which two of those girls are you going to date next?" she asks, imagines him rolling his eyes without bothering to look up at his face. He slides his arm down, wraps it around her waist and squeezes. His hand feels warm and big against the bare skin of her belly.

"Funny."

"I thought so."

The thin breeze through that cracked open window is cooling the sweat still on her skin. The whole train ride from Boston, she'd wondered if they'd end up fucking. Like that was ever any kind of question, really.

"Hey, look—" And she does hesitate, though she'd started the sentence sure she wouldn't have to. She hugs him a little closer. "I'm sorry Daria couldn't come up, too."

Tom shrugs. "I get it. Midterm deadlines suck. Did, um—"

She watches her own hand, splayed across his ribcage.

"Did you talk about it with her?"

"Is 'it' the possibility of you and me ending up naked in bed together?” Jane asks.

"Yes."

Obviously. "Yeah. She said, 'I know it's going to happen. Just tell me the details later.'" She does her best Daria voice for the quotation, that is makes her tone as deadpan and steady as possible, but she can't imitate the absolutely unreadable calm and resolve she’d seen in Daria's stare.

"Yeah," Tom answers. "Sounds like her."

"Don't worry," Jane adds brightly. "I'll leave out the part where you came screaming my name."

"I didn't—"

"That's why I'll leave it out." She turns her head briefly, presses her nose against his chest, like she's muffling a sound there or hiding a kiss. Then very seriously, and very quietly, she says, "She'll visit soon," and feels Tom pull her that much closer with the arm curled around her waist.