#but i had a lot of thoughts when i saw that clip originally and this is the first time ive seen anyone else mention it!

[nhothicket]

people (american liberals) are so sick in the head abt skin color and don't realize that their fanatic adherence to drawing bdubs w the "correct" skin color is upholding this sick whiteness = purity narrative. because-- get this--bdubs identifies as white!!!! he is 1/4 assyrian, through, so I guess that means he can't be white. (btw assyrian skin tone is like. pale to olive.). his mc character has darker skin bc he wanted to have a tan. he said this 2 weeks ago!! but god forbid an artist draws him w "incorrect" skin colors or they are erasing pocs (which bdubs literally is not). i think the skin tone thing is useful when we're talking abt when ACTUAL pocs are depicted as lighter skinned then they are irl but it really falls apart with bdubs. a White Man. so tiresome!!!!! sorry youre having to deal w this.

Okay, well, I wouldn't go that far. I think there's plenty of valid concerns when it comes to Bdubs' skin tone in art, but I personally don't think my art is any sort of offender.

But I did see the clip you're talking about and I thought it was very interesting! As a mixed guy (although I'm half-mixed), I understand the confusion a lot. It's something I personally have struggled with sometimes, I mean I could never pass as white, but even then not feeling dark enough to count is something super common.

All that to say, I do think Bdubs is a poc, but if he considers himself white then its his prerogative. It's his identity in the end and it's frankly none of my business, I'm not gonna fight him on who he is. I'll say I certainly think there's a difference between him not caring about his friends depicting him as white and the fan community doing it, but it's obviously not really a concern of his.

Seemed like it was a revelation to him that people would consider him to be anything but a tan white dude, which I'll have to admit did make me chuckle the first time I saw it. Imagine that's how you find out you're not white? God bless him.

But, yeah. Whitewashing Bdubs is a weird thing to do even if he doesn't personally take issue with it. Ion think I did anything like that, but it is what it is. I'm going to use more saturation in the future, it's not that big of a deal to change it up.

[gguk-n]

Yes or No (Jeon Jungkook x Reader)

Summary- Some one moved in to the empty apartment next door. What if Jungkook is falling in love with his neighbour?

Inspired by Yes or No from Golden

appa- dad noona- older sister hyung- older brother

Jungkook was sat in his apartment cuddling Bam, his doberman when there was a knock on his door. "Bam-ah, appa will be right back" Jungkook said scratching his ear and walked to the door. When he opened the door, a pretty girl was stood in front of him. "Hi, I'm Y/N Y/L/N. I moved in the apartment in the front. I got some rice cakes" she bowed handing Jungkook the plate. He bowed back and took the plate from her. "Thank you. I'm Jungkook" he said. "I hope we can get along" she said waving him good bye. Jungkook walked in and placed the rice cakes in the kitchen and headed back to Bam who was waiting for him. "A pretty noona moved in" Jungkook told Bam taking his original position.

That apartment had been empty since Jungkook had come apartment hunting. Jungkook wasn't sure he would ever have neighbours but here he was and he had a pretty neighbour, he thought. Jungkook found himself thinking about the neighbour a lot, surprisingly.

The next time they met was when Jungkook was on the way back from his evening run and she was carrying a lot of grocery in her hands. "Do you need help?" Jungkook asked. "If you don't mind" she smiled sheepishly. He swopped in and took the groceries out of her hands. She pressed the button to their floor. "Thank you" she smiled watching Jungkook carry the bulk of her grocery. "Ah, it's no big deal. What are neighbours for?" he pointed out. The elevator dings signalling that they had reached, Jungkook followed her into her house and placed the groceries on her counter. The apartment looked very much like his but inverted. "Here" she said handing him a bottle of lemon flavoured kombucha. "Thank you for helping me" she said, grateful for the help. "don't mention it. I'll enjoy the drink" Jungkook said, slightly shaking the bottle in his hand and walking out. Y/N waved him good bye as he entered his house.

The third time they met, Jungkook was about to go out for a quick morning run with Bam before he left for work. Y/N looked like she was on her way to work too. "Oh, is this your dog?" she asked itching to pet him. "Yes, you can pet him if you'd like" Jungkook laughed. "Can I? Thank you" she beamed and started petting his head. "What's his name?" she asked. "His name is Bam" Jungkook replied. "Like night?" she asked. "yeah" he nodded. "You didn't clip his tail or that ear thing" she said making gestures with her fingers. "No no, that's just cruel to the dog" he said. "Thank goodness you didn't. I don't think we could be friends if you did" she said continuing to coo at Bam and give him all the head scratches in the world. In that moment Jungkook thanked his parents and his hyungs for raising him to be kind and compassionate. He couldn't believe she considered him her friend either, this day just got so much better. "You know that drink I got you, it sold out. Can't find it anywhere. Not even online" she commented. Jungkook felt guilty. It was his fault the drink was sold out. He may or may not have spoken about it in his live and his fans may have bought them all. He too was disappointed when he found out. "oh" was all he said. "It was my favourite flavour" she commented. "It is what it is" she laughed. Jungkook laughed along, guilty for being the reason she couldn't drink her favourite drink. There were weird feelings that Jungkook had started to feel. He didn't realise it but he started to wish he ran into her or talk to her more often. He wanted to hear her talk as much as he could.

The fourth time, it was 3 am in the morning. Jungkook was live, belting his heart out when there was a knock on the door. He was scared, what if it was some stalker. He checked and saw a very cute Y/N at his door. She was wearing a bunny sleeping eye mask, in baby pink top and shorts, he almost cooed at her when she rubbed her eyes. "Hey, Jungkook. Sorry to disturb you but I have an important meeting tomorrow morning and I can't sleep because of the n-music. Can you turn it down a little?" she asked. "I'm sorry. Was I that loud?" he asked sheepishly. "Kind of. Sorry to disturb you" she said apologising again and slowly pulling herself to her door. "No, I'm sorry. Good night" he called out. She turned around and smiled at him meekly and closed the door. His sleepless nights were gonna be the end of him and any chance he has with his pretty neighbour. Jungkook headed in, Bam was waiting for him. "The pretty noona you met in the elevator said I was too loud. I guess I woke her up Bam-ah" he whined. Bam just titled his head and watched his dad. "She'll think I'm some weirdo who blasts music at 3 in the morning." Jungkook groaned face planting himself on the couch. "She probably hates me Bam-ah. Appa's chances of asking her out died before appa could even try" he cried into the pillow.

Today was one of the rare day when Jungkook didn't have work. He was resting at home when there was a knock on the door. A large part of him was hoping that it was Y/N but after the last stunt he pulled, he wouldn't be shocked if she was put off by him. To his surprise, Y/N was stood at the door with a bright smile. "I was grilling beef, just because and I thought maybe you would like to join me" she said shifting on her feet. "I would love that" he almost shouted. "Bam can come too" she said trying to look for Bam. Jungkook nodded and quickly called Bam over and they headed to her apartment.

She had set a portable grill on her dining table with a huge assortment of meat, sides, cold drinks, beer and soju. "I got unseasoned lean meat for Bam and a few treats" she smiled. "What if I didn't agree to come?" Jungkook cocked his head. "I would've come over and handed it over to Bam myself." she chuckled. "You know how to get to a man's heart" Jungkook said, his heart eyes visible. "Ah..this it's nothing really" she brushed him off. Jungkook took over the grilling, offering to do it since she had graciously invited them. Y/N was busy playing with Bam and feeding him the cooled meat and sneaking in a couple treats. Jungkook could imagine walking up to her and Bam; he thought of all the family picnics and camping trips they could have. Bam soon feel asleep full from the food. Y/N made a wrap for Jungkook and fed it to him as he continued to grill. A faint blush visible on his cheeks. They sat there laughing and eating. She had moved from her initial place across the table to the seat next to his. She leaned in a little when she laughed, brushing her hand past his to grab something, placing her hand on his thigh as she laughed a little loud at something stupid he said. Jungkook's head felt like mush, his skin was burning. He wished that this wasn't just a drunk habit and that she felt something special between them like he did. He wished her skin was on fire where he touched like his was. He wished his scent intoxicated her like her's did to him. He wished that this wasn't a one time thing. He felt his heart skip whenever she handed him food. She made not falling for her so difficult.

Y/N felt like Jungkook's ideal type fell from the sky. He had started imagining a life with her, he had a crush on her. He was so scared to say or do anything; what if she didn't feel the same? Then what? In this moment, where Y/N was feeding him a piece of grilled meat after blowing on it with her chopsticks giggling when he ate it calling it delicious, Jungkook wanted this to be his forever. What was he going to do? He was so fucked, he thought.

[heck-theo]

TMayNT Day 14: Favourite turtle movie.

The Rise one :P

Ok SO I disappeared because when I saw this prompt I wanted to finish this. Now to try and catch up, or at least continue TMayNT. If anyone would like to guess at themes and motifs I'd love to hear it because I remember putting a lot of thought into the initial concept ^^

More info about the creation of the video below:

So a lot of this isn't up to my personal standards BUT I'm proud of it because: I have started dozens of projects like this and almost never finished any. I am fighting my perfectionism and sporadic ADHD motivation. I believe I conceptualised this at the end of 2022 or early 2023 and reanimated/redrew the storyboard at least 3 times over the first half of 2023 before it was abandoned. Until now. Also I've never had a "camera" to play with before so I'm very inexperience with that.

It's a bit inconsistent: 1. because it was partially an experiment using Moho. It was my first time properly using it and I definitely need to look at some tutorials because I' strong armed it and made things a lot harder than I'm pretty sure I am not making the most of the features lol. Its also a vector program, which I'm not used to. 2. because I redrew the storyboard multiple times (and kept various aspects of it for the final ver) and then redrew it a final time after like a year.

So I credited those artists for popularising the meme but I actually have no idea where specifically I got the idea. I do not remember referencing any other "Is It Cold Outside" memes. I'm like 99% sure I sat down and wrote out a plan/script in word but it's possible I was inspired by or referenced someone specific and don't remember, so if anything is ringing any familiar bells please let me know.

I can't find the original sped up audio used in these memes but I believe this was the original original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KorGLK9VXcU (If anyone can tell me more info about the audio used in this meme, let me know). Storyboarded on Clip Studio, animated on Moho, minor editing on Kdenlive.

[kishdoodles]

The Strokes mspaint Collection Part 1/? is done! It's of notable songs from Is This It, and while it's not every song I wanted to get to (I'm eyeing Someday and Trying Your Luck) I'm pretty happy moving on for now :)

Thoughts on each piece under the cut!

Is This It:

Before any other song in the album, I knew I liked this one. A lot of folk hyped Is This It as THE Strokes album and while pre-2020 I could see why, when I first listened to it I really didn't get it. Now with my frankly ludicrous amount of Strokes lore knowledge I've gotten quite the fondness for this album, especially as their debut. I wanted this piece to carry that sense of initial camaraderie the band had, while also sort of foreshadowing both the direction of the band and reflecting what the song's about.

On the surface I wanted a fun way to incorporate the spirit of both the original album art and alt art into a piece. Julian's the way he is here because 1) the general attitude of the song Is This It he affects, 2) at the end of the day he's still the most focused on as the frontman. While they want to think they're all equals in this there is still the sense that everyone's still sort of following him?

The rest I didn't put in that much thought. Albert is directly behind Julian because. They were roommates. But you could argue Nikolai was closer, but hey, turned out the way it did. For me there's a sense that Albert, while not exactly in Julian's shadow, chases the fame and regard Julian has, even til now. In that sense he's wrapped the closest. That's simultaneously also how I feel about why Albert doesn't exactly have bands like his bandmates in solo work, but I digress. He's really only a small part here 😭😭😭

Nick and Fab and Nikolai are really just chilling. I think it's fun to have friends sitting around, smoking, drinking, as they did in the old days. I like to think this is backstage, after a performance. That's really all there is to the rest of this piece. Fun to do overall!

Hard To Explain:

For a piece with as much drive as this song had I wanted something that encapsulated the theme the MV brought of forward momentum, and constant buzz. In that way vehicles were put into play. Travel really played a big part in how The Strokes got where they are now, be it the initial touring around different cities and states, or their big trip and tour to the UK that brought them their initial international hype.

Again, another composition with Julian still as the conductor of this train, but I added nods like Nikolai looking at Albert, Fab recording (hearkening back to In Transit) (Even though in hindsight Nick should be recording) and Nick commenting on it. I still want that sense of how everyone still looks out for each other in the midst of their first craze.

Stars outside the window's another callback to the alt album cover, and the arrows on Hard To Explain is a reference to the clip of arrows originating out of Singapore in the MV (yes I'm biased!) The arrows coming out of Julian is in reference to how he was the link to a lot of them meeting each other (Julian and Albert meeting, Julian and Nikolai's bestie status, Julian and Nick meeting in school etc. I think Fab met him through Nick though) and how, again, they're really following him at this point, especially since he has sole songwriting credit for Is This It.

The Modern Age:

Short and sweet, this is in reference to the music video. The base of the mic stand is in reference to their first EP of the same name. Fun!

This song's here because it really did make the appeal of them as a live band click for me (which is funny since it's a year after I Actually saw them live). Like yea, these guys were here to blast your socks off in a live setting and here to bring good ass music to the people. I did a sort of POV of someone in front row, not really looking at them, just jamming. Nick's pose was one he struck during one of his solos I think, thought it was cute. I like how obvious Albert is from his shoes. I really do believe he owns 19 pairs of shoes back then.

Overall colours, addition of the red is thanks to the EP. That's about it!

Last Nite:

Here's a disclaimer - I don't really care about this song in particular. But I think it's a little too iconic to their phenomenon to leave out.

I'm not part of the generation that catches The Strokes on MTV or any TV or anything, just part of the one that found them through the internet and fell in love. In that sense I kind of did a monitor of dubious origin. Whether it's TV or PC Monitor, I don't know, I just drew a screen.

Rest of the scene is dark to literally be night. A beer bottle I drew in because I found it cute how Julian in the video drank, and probably the folk watching were too. I drew a speaker behind it, but I don't think that's immediately obvious... But it's more to reference all the accounts of people in Meet Me In The Bathroom (the book) about how they played The Strokes on their speakers, and just enjoyed the music.

I could've reproduced any scene from the MV, but I got drawn to the initial start of it. Of when the lights on stage were just slowly coming on but the band itself isn't lit yet. It's fun anticipation, and it sorta fits the mood here.

So yea shoutout The Strokes for giving me shit to watch and jam to even after 20+ years of existing. What an awesome band

[yumeka-sxf]

Thoughts on Spy x Family CODE: White

My thoughts on CODE: White will likely be different from most people since I knew pretty much the entire plot beforehand. I'm a spoiler fiend when it comes to my hyperfixations like SxF, so I read the novelization of the movie back in January and kept up on all the promotional videos and images that were released. But when it was finally time to see the movie for myself, did that ruin my enjoyment? Not at all. For me, it actually made me enjoy it more because 1) I knew what to expect so I wasn't disappointed, and 2) I found myself looking forward to seeing all the scenes I only read about or saw short clips of.

With that said, yes, I enjoyed the movie so much! If you're a Spy x Family fan, or even just a casual enjoyer of the series, it's a ton of fun. It has all the elements we love about the series: clever humor, sweet family moments, and spy action/drama. And because it's a movie, we get to see all of this with a movie animation budget instead of a TV series budget, which is another plus!

One thing to keep in mind with these original, stand-alone anime films based on series is that they're meant for a more general crowd than just fans of the series. Since theaters attract a wider audience than late-night TV and online manga chapters, movies like this serve as a means to introduce the series to people who may only have a vague idea of what it's about. That's why these movies contain a storyline that can fit mostly anywhere in the series chronology and don't have anything canon-altering.

CODE: White is an interesting mix of plots that, for the most part, blend together well. There's the main plot that continues throughout, which is saving Operation Strix by having Anya learn how to make the meremere for the cooking contest, but then there's the Yor jealousy plot B which is resolved in the first half, but is then replaced by the next "plot B" in the latter half of the movie, which is saving Anya from the military.

A lot of people didn't like the "Yor gets jealous" subplot when it was first revealed before the movie even came out, since it seemed to be a rehash of her being jealous about Fiona. I personally didn't have a problem with this since I don't think it's unreasonable for her to get jealous a second time, especially when she thinks she sees Loid doing something extreme like kissing another woman (as opposed to just talking). But the way it was resolved could have been a bit better in my opinion. The ferris wheel scene in the movie very much mirrored the bar scene from the series, but the reason the latter is so effective is because we get to hear Loid's inner thoughts during it; we know he's going full Twilight-mode and isn't being sincere, and that's why Yor kicks him. But then at the park, he talks to her much more genuinely and they work things out. But in the ferris wheel scene, we don't get to hear his inner thoughts so we don't get any indication as to whether his repeating of the marriage vows, etc, is him being sincere or not. Then she smacks him, they insist they aren't fighting when Anya brings it up, and that's the end of it.

I do like the fact that Anya reads their minds and seems happy with what she "hears" in their heads, but I still think the subplot would have felt more complete if it ended after Yor realized her mistake rather than have Loid do the ambiguous Romeo act again. Or it could have been brought up one more time later in the movie, for example, Yor apologizes for hitting him, he talks to her more sincerely, etc. If you're gonna rehash the bar scene, at least rehash the scene that brought it closure, which is the park bench scene. Again, I'm totally fine with the jealously subplot overall, just thought it could have been wrapped up a bit better.

Other than that, there were just a few little issues I had, like how was Anya able to afford what was probably an expensive liquor? (was she really packing that much dough in her little bag? She went straight from the bedroom out the window so it's not like she "borrowed" any money from Loid). Also seemed weird that she didn't pick up on Yor's infidelity worries until last minute. A few things stretched the line of believability a bit far too, like Loid's ability to make perfect masks so quickly, and Anya just happening to hit her head on the button that conveniently opened all the windows on the bridge. Also something here and there that didn't align with the manga, like Yor not having any reaction to sharing a room with Loid, whereas she has a totally different reaction to this in chapter 94. Maybe a bit more resolution for the fates of the villains too. I guess Luca and Dmitri survived the crash, but what about Snidel? Did Loid actually kill him or just knock him out? And if it's the latter, Snidel seems like the type who would want to get revenge. A quick cameo of what happened to them in the end would have been nice.

Speaking of the villains, normally I wouldn't like the fact that they're pretty one-dimensional and not that interesting, but for a movie like this where most people just want to see the Forgers being themselves in fun and exciting scenarios, taking time away from that to make more developed villains who likely won't be seen again in the franchise, would have not been the best choice, lol.

But even though I had some criticisms of the movie, all of them are minor and not enough to overshadow everything else that was enjoyable about it. Besides all the humor, of which there was plenty, there were so many cute "awww" family moments that perhaps didn't lend anything to the plot, but were still important to establish the characters and their relationships, and thus make us care about what happens to them. Like the scene of Anya, Yor, and Bond playing at the hotel...it could have been skipped without anything seeming out of place, but it reveals so much about the characters without being blatant about it: how Yor wants to please Anya despite being a bit embarrassed at first to take part in her game, and then how Anya's eyes light up with happiness when Yor starts playing with her...for a series like SxF that's character-driven rather than plot-driven, scenes like this are so important and I'm glad the film creators realized this too!

There were also so many cute, subtle scenes as well, like when Loid and Yor smile at each other after chiding Anya, as if they're happy to share this moment of exhausting yet satisfying parenting; when Anya reads Loid's mind after he saves her but doesn't reveal what he's actually thinking yet we can imagine what it is based on her expression; Loid showing feelings of comradery with the restaurant owner because their pasts are so similar; Anya quietly and sadly hugging Bond in the bedroom; and in the ferris wheel after Yor feels so embarrassed about misunderstanding what happened with Loid and the woman but then can't help but smile with motherly love when she sees Anya waving at her...the movie is filled with moments like this that are like little love letters to fans who know the true heart of SxF isn't so much the action and spy drama as it is the family relationships.

And of course, as I mentioned before, the animation of the movie is fantastic! Not just the action scenes, which are great by the way, especially Yor's fight with Type F, but the character expressions as well. Anya's always had the most varied and hilarious faces of all the characters, but the movie goes even harder with her expressions, especially when she has to hold in her stool! Her faces were making me both cringe and laugh at the same time! The animators did such a good job making me feel sorry for her but also laugh at her.

I'm not a fan of potty humor, but I was confident SxF would make it funny, and I was right! The poop god sequence in particular was as equally cringe as it was hilarious!

To conclude, CODE: White is a must-see for anyone who likes or loves Spy x Family. I can't say it's a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but for what it's supposed to be - a fun and enjoyable film for those who like the series, it definitely delivers! Can't wait to see it at least two more times during its showing in the US...and more times in the future!

[justarandombrit]

Okay, so in case anyone couldn't make it to the livestream (and just because I wanted to), I wrote down some notes while watching it, so if anyone wants to read them, they're below the cut. (Also sorry ANI fans, my dad came in to borrow a pencil while the ANI segment was happening, so I missed a lot of it)

. There was a 4 minute long intro voice over before AVPM

. James watched AVPM

. 600,000 and Lauren plays the green screen piano

. 700,000 and Lauren does an architectural digest on the green screen house

. Jon really loves Ready To Go

. Darren keeps letting Joey know he sounds like shit on old recordings

. Pinball Pete’s burnt down 🙏🙏

. MAMD was the first student produced album to make the charts

. A Very Potter Sequel’s name came before A Very Potter Musical

. They accidentally wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

. James gave Julia Albain leg splints

. During Starship the entire cast was breathing fibreglass

. Starship was called “knowingly amateurish”

. Darren was supposed to write 15 songs for Starship, but he got cast on GLEE

. Darren flew in to join a rehearsal as a surprise, ran in singing Beauty and everyone was so pissed

. Everyone still loves Kick It Up A Notch

. Nick: “Which was Holy Musical B@man-

Lauren: “Fuck yeah”

. They made up Sweet Tooth, and then found out he was an actual Batman villain

. Matt came up with “Calendar Man, your days are numbered” in his dream, and it was so good it forced him awake to instantly call Nick

. Everyone thought the flying machine joke was the best AVPM joke

. Goin' Back To Hogwarts Reprise made everyone cry

. AVPSY was five hours long

. Curt saw AVPSY

. Darren arrived 2 hours before the show and didn't get a chance to read through a lot of the script

. Darren came up with “I hope you find that swimming pool”

. Joey ate one banana on the day of AVPSY and during Sidekick went “I'm losing my vision”

. They had to pay the hotel union $11,000 to use THEIR OWN microphones, and Darren's STILL BROKE

. Jeff accidentally washed out his Aladdin hair dye

. A.J. Holmes had the same agent as Jafar's original VA, and they got him to do the intro and say “pee” and “poop” in Jafar's voice

. ANI was, as we know, expected to be a hit, and, as we know, it was not

. TTO was, as we know, expected to fail, and, as we know, did not

. TTO had a batshit cast party

. Pierce used to ask Matt insanely complicated questions before bed, e.g, “How did WWII happen?”

. Firebringer was a really old concept

. Literally no one questioned why the “I don't really wanna do the work today” clip had loads of people dressed as cavewomen + cavemen

. Firebringer was the first show Jon saw live

. They made up all the Hatchetfield shows at the same time

. Nick kept making sure Paul was having fun

. The song from the Pirate Show, “Born To Be Wretched goes so fucking hard. Like if a sea shanty was a musical theatre song essentially

. Mariah: “Rich gays, please give”

. Lauren choreographed Show Stoppin' Number

. People actually gave Lauren their phones when she asked in Inevitable, and they would take them backstage and take selfies before giving them back. One time it was locked and she shouted “WHAT'S THE PASSCODE?!?!?”

. Joey: “I'm in the middle of Wiggle”

. Everyone was ill during Black Friday

. Bryce saw Black Friday

. BRYCE GOT THE APPLE

. Nick told her “Interesting things happen here” when showing her to the seat

. Ahhh when Jeff played Tom…

. Angela was in Jaime’s improv class

. Angela is no longer on vocal rest

. Angela had to kill Sherman with a finger gun one night

. Will was 100% ready for NPMD

. Will was at a party they went to during A Very Starkid Reunion

. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR STARKID

. Rip Kim

. The Docks of Troutspear is sung by Matt’s favourite character (it also slaps)

. The Pit Stop in Hatchetfield livestream is going to be a tag team deathmatch

. I love Starkid so much

[theokusgallery]

Hiiii I saw you say you have Notes on your Remus and Janus designs 👀👀?

Could we see/hear some tidbits?

FOR SURE !! Here's what the original doodles for their designs look like, first off, (I know you didn't ask for Virgil but I did these three at the same time)

When I drew this I had just finished an exam and had to wait another hour until I could leave the classroom, so I wrote down enough notes that I had to flip the page instead:

Virgil:

- Virgil has light brown hair that he dyes black (badly). It is essential that the dye job look like shit. It looks artificial, his roots are showing, there's patches where the color didn't take, etc etc.

- He also has blue eyes, which I decided on mostly because it makes it even more clear that his hair isn't naturally black.

- He wears earrings, but his ears aren't actually pierced — they're fake little little clip-on things.

- He wears black nail polish at all times, but it's always chipped because he gets the cheapest stuff he can get his hands on.

- His hair (especially his bangs) get very long at times because he gets too socially anxious to go to the hairdresser. Back in middle school, he used to have Janus cut them for him (Remus could have done a better job but trusting him with scissors would have been a mistake). Now he mostly cuts it off by himself — it looks about as good as his dye job.

- Virgil's purple hoodie is a leftover from Remus' fashion design endeavors that Remus thought didn't look weird enough.

Janus:

- He has naturally strawberry blonde hair. The length is very important to him — he started growing it towards the end of middle school. (He allows Remus to experiment with hairdos sometimes as long as he doesn't cut anything off. I need to draw that sometime)

- I'm not entirely settled on his eye color. I know at least one of his eyes is a very pretty brown, but I have half a mind to give him a yellow glass eye for his left side — I'm not sure it'd make any logistic sense for his situation, though

- He got his ears actually pierced when he was 16.

- He also may or may not have a forked tongue. Not sure how I'd ever be able to show that off — but if he does have one, then Remus definitely was the one to encourage him to do it.

- His fashion style was definitely influenced by being around Remus (who may have used him as a mannequin/dummy because he's small.) so much. Remus also attempted to make clothes for him, but Janus is very fancy and picky, so he doesn't wear those clothes very often (though he might accessorize with stuff Remus made for him occasionally).

Remus:

- He has naturally very dark hair. He uses temporary/surface level dyes a lot, but if he's using permanent or semi-permanent dyes, he's usually limiting himself to the grey streak — it's kind of a sample strand, since it's already bleached. He 100% copied his hairstyle from Roman's.

- He (and Roman, of course) has greenish blue eyes.

- Janus paid for him to get his ears (and eyebrows) professionally pierced because otherwise he was just going to do it himself with a sewing needle.

- He has a lot of very shitty stick-and-poke tattoos he made/makes on himself. They're almost always hidden by his outfits.

- Speaking of which, Remus makes most of his outfits costumes himself. The quality of the work may vary, but they are always way too over-the-top for casual wear, because he stands out anyway, so... in for a penny, right. (As I said in the tags of a post: he is very creative and has no shame or social anxiety at all, so he had his whole aesthetic ("overdramatic green") figured out by the time he was 13)

- He also has SH scars, but, again — they're hidden by his outfits 99% of the time. He's a slut who never shows an inch of skin

[accio-victuuri]

it’s not a secret that i’m a ttxs bros fan and i love that show! it was my end of week treat and i knew that no matter how stressful the weekdays were, i have ttxs and wyb to watch and be my sunday reward. wyb had 3 performances for 2023 nye and we knew about the 2 and i was excited for it but that night, my fave would be his duet with dls of the song that never ends. aside from the dls/wyb/wh moment, i think that personally, it was the kind of performance i needed that time. nye stages are expected to be flashy but sometimes what we really need is a heartwarming song to remind us of the past year and the people that we love. it was really special <3

so i’m sharing this clip of dls/wh talking about that stage:

DLS: I remember that Wang Han said something casually before, so I wrote it in the song, but he said that there are some things that cannot be said or forgotten, and cannot be even thought about, because as soon as you touch it, you will feel it, and then the feeling will disappear. going back, I have written this song for more than two years. I originally wanted to make this song my own, and I thank Hunan for allowing us to be on this stage. Later, Wang Yibo and I sang this song live. I used to sing it and it felt so good. I sang and performed, and that night, maybe I felt that Wang Yibo didn’t know that we were going to sing this song because of Wang Han, and we both had the mentality that this song is coming, are you sure we should start singing it, because when we sang it, the feeling was... We will come back a lot. When we were together, we kept talking about whether we should watch Wang Han, because you know, we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to sing when we saw Wang Han, and we would start crying. Then later we found out that Wang Han was watching from below.

How can I say that I feel that sometimes there is a relationship or a piece of work that will always end. When it becomes a song, a paragraph, a poem, a painting, it will always be in our hearts. In this melody, Wang Han and I are slightly different in age. But I feel that my friendship with Wang Han is like a song that can never be finished.

WH: Thank you. In fact, the time gap is not particularly long because it was December 31st and today is only March. Da Zhangwei means a lot to me.Every time, I look forward to him coming, and then I'm so afraid of him coming. I really want to see him but i’m afraid cause i don't know what to say. The two words he says the most are, "Just be happy. Just be happy. You'll be happy." So what I especially want to say is that if he wants me to see him happy, I will see him happy. If one day he wants me to see him unhappy, I just need to use my eyes to see him and my ears to listen to him. Wang Yibo is cold and he is warm. They are my cold and warm life.

THEY ARE SO PRECIOUS 🥹🥹🥹🥹

[yuzuyoon]

Lily, as someone with knowledge of singing and vocal technique, I'm hoping you can answer something I've been thinking about since I watched the mini-doc about the creation of Muse.

When Jimin and his crew go back into the bedroom--it's almost midnight, at this point--Jimin says, with some uncertainty, I believe--that the key they've chosen is "quite high." Two keys ahead of the original! Later, the guitarist asks him if he's going to sing it higher and then nods approvingly..."that's art."

But is it really better to sing in such a high key? Would it not have sounded as good in a slightly lower key? Is it the reason for the auto-tune so many people are complaining about?

I thought about this while listening to Be Mine. There's that one line that seems excessively high--so high I feel like it might attract any dogs in the vicinity. Do you think it needs to be/should be that high?

Btw, whatever the key, Be Mine is one of those songs that is deceptively difficult to sing, isn't it? People aren't talking enough about Jimin's vocal prowess here.

i want you to listen to two things. first, listen to the original version of dynamite. then listen to this version:

now tell me which one sounds more like a bts song. the original dynamite was a song in quite a high pitch, and many people agree that the version in a lower pitch sounds more like a bts song.

this concept applies to all songs. some songs sound better at a higher tone, some songs sound better at lower tones. im sure when considering the pitch of who, jimin took two things into consideration:

1) is he capable of singing it live (and we have seen yes he can)

2) what sounds best vocally and instrumentally

im pretty confident jimin chose the right key because of one main reason: it fits perfectly into jimin's vocal sweet spot

we all have vocal sweet spots when we sing and they're not all coherent. for example, i'm really comfortable in my lower-mid range and my high range, but i struggle when it comes to mid-high range. jimin's sweet spot seems to be that very high falsetto/mix that he does in the who prechorus

who is a challenging song to sing, but jimin chose it because he knows his voice and he knows what sounds good. i believe, had he chosen one of the lower pitches, we wouldn't have gotten that resonant note. (jimin also seems to be so proud and confident of his vocals now after taking those lessons and he's been showing it off a lot. a challenging key would the perfect opportunity to show off something he's proud of)

because i love making videos to try to explain things, here's one of who in different keys so you can get a feel for why jimin chose to have to song be that pitch:

im pretty confident the original pitch sounds the best.

now for be mine: yes the prechorus for this song is also absurdly high. like absurdly. the real test on if that was the right key choice for this song is if jimin can sing live (fingers crossed the bonus clip has be mine in it). based on the who performances, i am so confident he can

and yes, be mine is challenging to sing because youre reaching a spot where its hard to even use a falsetto to reach those notes. jimin and i have similar high key ranges and its so incredibly difficult for me to get to those notes and make it sound nice. jimin really saw people ranking him at no. 4 for vocal capabilities in bts and decided to come for his rightful no. 2 spot as a lead vocalist. all the kudos to him, that is a power move if i ever saw one

[gazsluckyhat]

The Set Up

Thank you @miss-vanta-likes-to-write for encouraging me to write this idea out. This was not how I originally thought it'd go. At all.

TW: dubious consent, sex acts, the works

Kylie didn't need a alpha. She was just fine without one.

or

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Kylie was on her fourth book of the month. She'd stayed up late to finish the third last night. She didn't sleep much anyway. She was four chapters in, her tea perched in her hand when she smelt it. Alpha. She sat up a little taller, took her hair clip out of here hair so it covered her scent gland. Focusing on the ducks swimming in the pond she listened for a sign of someone. She'd picked this spot because no one came this way. It was quiet and calm. She didn't have to worry about the alpha's trying to court her or the screaming children. Whoever it was, was getting closer, the smell of timber and musk floating it's way into her nose. There were two scents, but she didn't feel like untangling them. Alphas were Alphas and she was not in the mood today. A migraine was crawling it's way up her neck.

"Hi." Kylie didn't wanna look up, the sun was bright today. But she was not rude. Two men. One was sun kissed, the other slightly darker. They were both bulky, clearly spent a lot of time outside. They were the same height, which towered over her.

"Hello." They were grinning ear to ear, like they'd just found hidden treasure. The one with the mohawk sat to her left while the other one chose her right. Both threw their arms across the back of the bench. Men and their audacity. "Can I help you boys?" The book closed in her hand, she took a sip of the tea.

"I'm Kyle, this is Johnny. We noticed you and had to stop and say how beautiful you look." Kyle smelt of verbena and lemongrass. Johnny was timber and musk. Both intoxicating. Both strong. The scent sent her head into a spin.

"Thank you, but I am in fact not interested." She hoped they could catch the hint. Johnny lent closer and took a deep breath in. He was pressing his face agaisnt her hair and the scent gland there.

"You're not mated, can't smell anything but you Bonnie." Kylie gave a firm push. This was out of hand. Forcing herself up she shoved the book into her bag and faced them.

"That is none of your business. In fact this is on the verge of sexual harassment." Kylie wasn't some tiny little omega who'd roll over for them. "Now if you don't mind, I'm leaving." Turning she stomped away. Not knowing that instead of deterring them away she'd given them a bone to chew on.

Done. Completely done. The pond had been abandoned, Alphas had invaded her safe space. Kylie had tried a coffeeshop. Sat in the farthest corner with airpods shoved in. A hours of nice and calm with a huge tea. Until the smell hit her. She didn't even have to look up to know who had slid into the seats before her. The next day she'd chosen the library. Two huge alphaholes would never been set foot in there. Until they did. Both smiling and fucking off. So done didn't even qualify to describe how she felt. She wasn't dumb though. She knew military when she saw it. She'd done her own research and happily found who their commanding officer was.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Candance was the omega everyone wanted. All pretty smiles and soft curves. "What about the police?"

"I'll be fine Candy. I'd rather not talk to the cops." The parking lot was slammed. Meaning everyone was on base. "I have to hop off. I'll let you know how it goes okay?" With a sigh Candy hangs up, Kylie shut the car off and puts her phone into her pocket. Getting in was gonna be the hard part. There were two soldiers stationed at the guard house. Forcing her face into a stern look she stopped in front of them men.

"Can we help you?" Kylie nodded.

"I need to speak with Captain John Price. It's about two of his sergeants." Kylie straitened her back. Men assumed she'd roll over and play dumb, but not her.

"Yeah? You another one of their little playthings?"

"Hah! Did they dump you and now you're all upset? Gonna cry to their daddy?" Red colored her face. A whore? They assumed she was a simple whore?

"I would never-" Their faces dropped as a shadow was thrown over her from behind.

"Don't think daddy would like to hear you talkin' 'bout the girl like that." Turning around Kylie was met with a black hoodie, she had to tilt her head all the way back before making eye contact. Brown eyes surrounded by a black mask. Her stomach dropped. Fear enveloping her bones.

"Sir! I'm so-" The man just nodded his head.

"C'mon, dove." He started to walk in front, before stopping and turning to see if she was following. "Don't stand there. Daddy wants a word."

Everyone watched as they walked across base. The tiny little thing following behind the big hulking soldier. Kylie was terrified. She'd had a whole plan but at the sight of, whoever, she'd forgotten it. Her hands were clammy and she couldn't think stright. He'd smelt like salt and orange. Her omega was going crazy. Three Alpha's who seemed to know her already so close? She was basically dripping. Coming across a door the man stopped to open it for her. As she went to walk through he stopped her, ducking his head to scent her.

"Boys were right." Coulda swore he said but he was already moving to allow her in. It was a housing area. Barracks, she assumed. The man was right behind her, he'd set a hand on her shoulder to guide her. She needed to get out. Couldn't help but feel like a trap. "Here we are." The door was cracked, a low light shining from inside.

"Captain, girl's here." Kylie was gonna throw up. Her nerves were rattled. Stepping in she smelt cigar smoke, and pine. At this point her omega was clawing it's way to the forefront of her mind. Basic needs begging to be fulfilled. Sat behind the desk was a middle aged man. He had a cigar balanced between two pink lips. Facial hair dotted his jaw to his ears. He was smiling at her. She couldn't help but feeling like a naughty child being brought to the principal.

"You must be the pretty little omega my boys have been telling me about?" Her cheeks darkened again, fear crawling up her spine. "What's your name, darling?" She was frozen in place, couldn't move let alone remember her name. He stood up and walked around the desk to tower over her.

"The guards were giving her a rough time. Scared the poor thing." A hand was rubbing her hair. Like a mother to a scared child. The Captain used two fingers to tilt her head even further back.

"Poor thing. Did they scare you Lovie?" He knelt down to her level. They were mocking her. Shame filled her head. Anger following right behind it. Shoving his hand away and stepping from the other man Kylie puffed her chest up.

"Get off of me. Neither one of you have permission to touch me. I've come here to file a complaint about your two sergeants, but maybe I should go higher up." Before she could step out she was pressed agaisnt the wall, two noses tucked right into her neck.

"Told ya' cap. She so pretty." Johnny.

"Smells like honey." Kyle. I'm were a goner. Her brain was melting from the heat on her skin. 

"You boys did good. Getting us a pretty little omega to play with." She could see the captain watching from beside the tall one. They watched as Kyle and Johnny kissed and sucked on her neck.

"Please. I want to go ho-mmm" Pressure was forming along her pelvis, leading down between her legs. Her omega was whining.

"That's a good girl. Sound so pretty." Kylie couldn't think stright. Not with the continuing pressure and the added kisses to her neck.

"Now boy's, let Simon have a turn." With horror, Kylie watched as the boys parted to allow the giant of a man between her legs. Everything about him was large. Hands took up the width of her back, his hips pressed down into her to keep her still. He pulled her hair back into a fist to get a big whiff of her scent. The growl from the back of his throat sent heat to her core. Her omega wanted this, whatever this was. Kylie tried to pry him off her, tried to grasp the last of her coherent thoughts that told her to leave but it was no use. She was fully pressed agaisnt the way, Simon's hand latched to her flesh as his hot and wet tongue made a track across her cheek. What she thought was a whimper turned out to be a loud moan. It was like her senses had been turned up to ten. She was burning up. Simon was a thousand degrees and it was stifling. His mask was ripped off leaving behind a scarily handsome face marked by scars. He nipped at her jaw, forcing two fingers into her mouth.

"Neem 'em nice and wet dove, think you can do that?" Kylie moaned around them. Just like the rest of him they were huge and thick. She didn't need him to tell her what he planned on doing. With a wet noise he pulled them out, replacing them with his own mouth. His kiss was messy. All gnashing teeth and little nips. Kylie didn't have time to argue, he quickly shoved them inside of her, watching as she sobbed into his mouth. He could feel her jump a little, trying to get away from the intrusion.

"We need her nice and soft Simon." The captain was watching, sat behind his desk. She was fully wrapped up in Simon, his fingers working her open. Kylie tried to push him away, it was all too much. But someone was pinning her hands above her head. The Captain. "Now, be a good girl and hold still. We're gonna make you feel good, doll." He was pressing his lips into her neck. Simon was fully sucking her lips into his mouth.

"She's so fuckin' tight Price." The captain grunted in reply. The pain was turning into pleasure. Fast and hot and straight to her core. Her fingers were speeding up, she was close to breaking apart. Mumbling to try and get him off was failing. "She's close. Can feel 'er squeezing my fingers."

"Good girl. Just like that. Cum on Simon's hand." Price was whispering in her ear, licking the shell of it. "Need a bit more? Need daddy to play with your clit?" It was degrading, how he was talking to her. But it made the lava that much hotter. He slipped his hand between her and Simon's bodies. He found her dripping around Simon's hand, her clit engorged begging him to touch her.

"Fuck. She liked that." It was too much. The pressure inside her felt like it was gonna blow, she was gonna pass out. She could feel it. Price kept twisting and stroking and rubbing. Something was tightening inside her, like a string. Kylie was sobbing now. Sobbing from the intense pleasure.

"Look boys. Look at our good little omega. Gonna cum for us already." It snapped. White light seemed to wrap around her as she tightened every muscle she had. Simon continued to finger her, drawling out her orgasm to the last second. "That's enough Si. We still need her conscious." Kylie couldn’t feel a thing, she could hear voices and feel herself being manhandled then something hard agaisnt her back.

"Gentle Johnny, don't break her on the first go." She could feel something nudging between her lips, the ones between her legs. They brushed agaisnt her clit and she whined. It was still too sensitive. Something warm and wet wrapped around one of her nipples and she tried to pull away. "Now, now. C'mon doll. Don't run away."

"Too--much." A hand wrapped around her throat. The thing between her legs began to push into her, stretching her wide. The thing on her breast moved to the other one.

"You're gonna take it Bonnie. Every. Single. Inch." Each word was punctuated by the slam of his hips. The hand pressing harder on her throat causing her to go dizzy.

"Mmm. She so soft." Kyle whined as he bucked into her thigh. "Gonna blow my load watching you fuck her." Johnny laughed, he was repeatedly slamming into her, her head now hanging over the edge.

"Mouth open?" A pause then a grunt before Kyle was placing himself over her head and filling her mouth up. Kylie was completely gone. Her omega purring happily as the guys continued to fuck her stupid. She'd forgotten her reason for coming here in the first place. The intense pleasure was beginning again, but harder. It was happening quicker too. She tried placing her feet on the desk, was choking on Kyle's dick down her throat.

"Don't you dare knot her McTavish." The captain was grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. Kylie moaned around Kyle. Price met her eyes. "That's my job." Kylie's omega was mewling at the sound of that. Stright up begging to be knotted.

"Yes, yes captain." His hips were stuttering. He was gonna finish. With a muffled noise Kylie came, her lips tightened around Kyle, him finishing in her mouth. Johnny quickly pulled out and finished across her stomach. She was wore out. So tired she could hardly keep her eyes open. But they weren't done with her. Hand made their way up her sweaty and redden skin.

"Mmm. Can't." She couldn't properly make words out.

"Simon, hold her up for me." Then she was being lifted and held agaisnt a chest. Lips pressed agaisnt her ear. Simon was breathing loudly, it was hot and heavy on her skin. Her legs were lifted up and bent so her knees touched her shoulders, Simon looped his arms under her knees and locked his fingers. She was trapped agaisnt him. He had her pried open for Price to feast on.

"Look so pretty like this 'mega. Like a dinner, all laid out." His fingers strolled through her folds, her muscles spasming in Simon's hold. John pressed two into her, loving the sound of her whimpers. "I think you have two more in you, Yeah, Simon?" His lips moving agaisnt her ear.

"At least, Capin'." His fingers tightened. John's were removed and instead replaced with his cock. Leaking and thick as he pressed it into her. Loving the way she sucked him in. "Hmm. So hot taking the Captains cock, dove. Gonna fill you up, get you on his knot so you can't run." In the depths of her mind Kylie knew this was wrong. Knew that knotting her without her consent was the bad thing. But her omega was controlling things now. And she wanted nothing more than his knot.

"God doll, you're so fucking tight. Want you to cum arounds me. Want to feel it gushing." Kylie couldn't control the blinding pleasure that was licking it's way across her skin. Crying she shook her head. "Yes, be a good girl and cum for your daddy." Kylie screamed, loud and clear with a sob on the end. Her body went limp in Simon's arms, John continuing to pound into her, his knot catching. With one final and big slam he was locked in. Her body convulsing in their arms, one last orgasm pulled from her. Her eyes falling shut as her body finally shut down.

tags: @miss-vanta-likes-to-write

[slavghoul]

Interview from Rock Hard [FR] Magazine 5/2023

In which Tobias talks about Spillways, Phantomime, how he chooses what songs to cover, the state of the world, why he loves churches, and some touring technicalities.

--

Rock Hard: Let's go back to the version of "Spillways" that you recorded with Joe Elliott, the singer of Def Leppard. How did this collaboration come about?

Unfortunately, this story is less sexy than it would have been if I could have done exactly what I wanted. Before Impera was released, I regularly mentioned Def Leppard in interviews because some of the experimentation on that album was inspired by that band, their writing style. […] As I often mentioned Def Leppard, people around me eventually told me that Joe Elliott and Phil Collen regularly spoke highly of Ghost in interviews. Since I obviously thought it was cool, someone suggested a collaboration. A good collaboration shouldn't be forced, it should happen naturally. The best ones are often the ones that weren't supposed to happen. Two drunk musicians somewhere accidentally writing a good song... Crosby, Stills & Nash style. People who, by chance, find themselves together in a different context from the one they are used to and do something together, by accident. Something magical! That's how I would ideally have wanted it to happen. So I said I was ready to call Joe Elliott and see if we had a rapport. We started talking on the phone and texting a lot, me living in Sweden and him in Dublin. As we were both on the move almost all the time, and he was on tour, we couldn't meet. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he tells me that he has recorded some vocals for 'Spillways'! Quite frankly, I was surprised because I wasn't expecting it. I was anticipating a possible collaboration, but in a different way. To be honest, I thought we would create something new later on. But when I heard the result, I thought two things. Firstly, I found it very flattering. Secondly, I thought Joe brought something new and cool to "Spillways".

But you would have preferred to have the opportunity to write a new song with him.

Yes, that's the way I saw it, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. And then I said to Joe, "You know how we post those funny little episodes on our social media?" He replied "Yes, I think I saw that!" and kindly agreed to participate in one of them. Nowadays, many artists are over-solicited to record video clips for anything and everything in order to keep their channels updated: "Come and see us in concert in such and such a city!", etc. etc. The aim is obviously to keep the media space occupied.

By creating "content"!

Exactly! And that's exactly what I don't want to do. That's why, instead of all this crap, we started some time ago to create these little humorous episodes. One day, for example, I came up with the idea of an episode set in 1969 featuring a sort of "pre-Ghost" group. To do this, I obviously had to write a new song, which I did with this psychedelic track, 'Kiss The Go-Goat', which I thought was funny. When we recorded it, 'Mary On A Cross', another song of the same type, came along. So we ended up with two sides of a single that became 'Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic.’ Instead of just announcing the release on our networks, we chose to shoot a new video in which we featured Papa Nihil and explained the origins of this so-called 'pre-Ghost' band. I thought it was a much more clever and fun way of presenting the single. We do the same when it comes to announcing an album release or a future tour. Joe Elliott has a great sense of humour and is capable of self-mockery, so he kindly agreed to play this little game.

Ghost have made a habit of releasing an EP between their albums, mostly, if not entirely, made up of covers: If You Have Ghost (2013), Popestar (2016) and now Phantomime. How is it not just about “creating content”?

For me, it's a kind of exercise. I like analogies. Let's imagine that the place we are in is a theatre, and that this theatre, in order to be viable, has to host performances all year round. At least fifty weeks a year. Daytime rehearsals, evening performances... You are the director of the place and you know that the play that is currently being performed there will end at the end of the month. So you look for something else to program in order to make the most of the place and keep your staff busy. Maybe an old classic like Doctor Glass (Hjalmar Söderberg, 1905), an adaptation of John Steinbeck, or a rereading of Shakespeare's Hamlet that you could revisit by inviting this actor or that director, renting out your theatre for three extra months for the occasion. Working on this old material, even if it means not releasing it if it doesn't work. We do that to keep the team active, enthusiastic, focused. That's my way of working. I worked simultaneously on the Impera album and the demos of the covers that are on Phantomime. One day I could record 'Spillways' and two hours before leaving the studio to go home, I could look at any of the covers and decide which ones to keep. So, as soon as Impera was finished, I was able to concentrate on those covers that the album's producer wasn't interested in putting on the record. Which was fine with me. I spent some time sorting out the covers I had recorded as demos. There were ten in total, but I only kept five. Because with those five tracks I thought I could come up with a really strong rock EP. In my albums, there are highs, lows, really metal tracks, ballads, instrumentals, etc. So I thought it was a good idea to make a really strong rock EP. I felt it would be cool if this new EP was viscerally rock’n’roll. The opening track, "See No Evil" by Television, sounds like the Rolling Stones on methamphetamine! (laughs)

You like the songs you cover, that's a prerequisite. But their lyrics also play a very important role in your choice.

Yes, that's what makes me choose a song or not.

Is that the number one criterion?

Erm... (he thinks for a long time) If I hesitate between two songs, yes, absolutely! Let's go back to Leonard Cohen, for example. For the bonus tracks of Prequelle, I chose "Avalanche" because it seemed to me to have a biblical and existential significance. This was not the case with 'Take This Waltz', another Cohen song that I liked as much, if not more. The latter, with its Viennese waltz feel, would have metaphorically taken us to Austria, which would not have been very coherent, unfortunately.

Should these covers speak about God, the Devil, ask questions about religion?

They must speak about evil, about good. Be existential, biblical, philosophical, but seen from a certain perspective. Or at least tick one of those boxes, like 'Hanging Around' (The Stranglers) which is about Christ. Some of the other covers I've recorded are more specific, such as 'Phantom Of The Opera' (Iron Maiden), which is about horror. I also make my choice according to the humour of the songs I want to cover. It should be close to my own sense of humour.

You mentioned the first Phantomime cover, "See No Evil". It takes on a different resonance today because, on January 28, 2023, we sadly learned of the death of Tom Verlaine, the leader of Television.

When I recorded this cover in 2021, just after completing Impera, it was already a tribute. But obviously, with Tom's death, this song takes on another resonance, that of a final posthumous salute. I've been listening to Television for twenty years, and I love them and have always considered them a great band. In indie clubs they always play the same song, 'Marquee Moon', but Television had many other good songs, especially on their first two albums: Marquee Moon (1977) and Adventure (1978). I like those two best. It's a band that had a huge influence on one of my previous bands, Subvision. So much so that at the time, I thought several times of covering Television songs that I loved: "See No Evil", but also "Elevation" and "Foxhole".

The first single from Phantomime is Genesis' 'Jesus He Knows Me', a scathing critique of televangelist stars like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and Robert Tilton. Ugly people who have made their fortune by 'promising salvation’ to naive believers for big bucks. Can we expect to see you wearing a wig in its video, as singer/drummer Phil Collins did in the original video for this song in 1991? 

(Laughs) We've already shot the video for this cover version (editor’s note: the interview was conducted on 11 March 2023) and I'm not in it, but it's a direct nod to the original video. I've always liked this song - except for the reggae part, which I thought was horrible in the Genesis version and which I reworked - and it's funny to see how this 1991 text is still relevant today. Except, of course, for a few "old-time" words, like "phone book". The televangelists are still there on television promising things to people who take their word for it and shower them with money because they are assured of "salvation", they are promised heaven. I also rearranged Iron Maiden's 'Phantom of The Opera' after taking care to contact Steve Harris for his approval.

Indeed, in your retelling of this song, you are the Phantom and not its victim...

Yes, I wanted to be the Phantom. I submitted the idea to Steve, who gave me the green light. I only made some surgical changes. Similarly, I would have liked to have proposed the same thing to Phil Collins so that the text of "Jesus He Knows Me" would have been more in line with the times. Change, for example, "but she don't know about my girlfriend / or the man I met last night" to "or the dude I screwed last night". Alas, lack of time prevented me from doing so. And then, since this was a slippery slope, I thought: - What if Collins refuses? Or what if he gets pissed off? - We could have made these changes without asking anyone's permission - as long as the artists get their royalties, it's not a problem - but there was no way I was going to do it. Neither I nor my label wanted to alienate anyone, obviously.

In 1977, in "Hanging Around" by The Stranglers, which you also cover on Phantomime, the singer Hugh Cornwell sings about several things, but also about Christ "telling his mother not to worry because he's comfortable in the city where he's high above the ground". Is that why you chose it?

Actually, the key thing that made me choose this song from the band over any other is that I grew up listening to the album it's taken from, Rattus Norvegicus (1977), the Stranglers' first release. There are a lot of songs on that album that I would have loved to play because, as a musician, I really like to play those kinds of songs. ‘Hanging Around' was a good fit for us because of the lyrics, but also because it was more in keeping with our style. Ghost are obviously a metal and hard rock band, but also have a strong punk sensibility. Punk, but well played (smiles). For me, The Stranglers have always done "well played punk": this band knows how to play, how to arrange its music, unlike GBH and Discharge, to name but two. Mind you, I also like the latter, but not for the same reasons. A lot of punk bands from the late 70s/early 80s sounded "sloppy". It wasn't for lack of trying to play better. When The Clash and The Jam went into the studio, they tried to do their best and they sounded great! The same goes for The Adverts. Those guys were doing their best. Nowadays, some people think that being a punk is to play badly on purpose, to be messy. No, no, no ! But I digress...

What is the reason for the nod to Metallica's 'Fade To Black' in the solo on 'Hanging Around'?

Just for fun. When I'm working on a guitar solo, I throw things in here and there, like a messy painter. It's like stretching a canvas on a wall and making big brush strokes... But when I start to feel like I've got something cool, I dig in more surgically, a bit like a collage artist would. I interweave little elements, and when it comes time to insert a solo into a piece, I refine things by continuing to add new elements. Generally, a solo gives you a space of freedom in the middle of an otherwise totally structured song. That's when you can come up with different things in terms of melody. So that's the way I do it, even on the demos of the covers. I ask my sound engineer, Martin Eriksson Sandmark, to play me the draft of the solos I've been working on over and over again, and then I try out different things, whatever comes to mind. It's as if I'm drawing a mental map of what the solo will become. Sometimes, if I'm on a part sometimes, if I'm on a bluesy part, I'll let myself play a few notes of Gary Moore’s "Still Got The Blues", or, if I'm tapping, Van Halen's "Eruption". When I was working on the solo for 'Hanging Around', I felt like playing this part of Metallica's 'Fade To Black', just for fun. And it ended up on the demo. I'm a decent guitar player, but I'm not at the level I could have reached if I'd worked harder. I could just record these solos in the studio, where you can always slow things down when you play them and then speed them up and put them on the album, but Fredrik Akesson can play these parts without tricks and with much more finesse than I can. He recorded the solo for "Hanging Around" as I had presented it on the demo, with this nod to Metallica, and we thought it was so cool that we kept it.

Hugh Cornwell, the ex-singer of The Stranglers, said in an interview that, although he was not a believer, he loved visiting churches. Is this also true for you? Are you also attracted to churches?

Yes, passionately! I believe in them like I believe in Star Wars. I've always thought of churches as stage props. Walking into one of them is a bit like walking onto a film set of the original Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. It's awe-inspiring, even though you know it's just cardboard. Churches have magical powers because they are centuries-old buildings and we know that a lot of things have happened within their walls. Not that I'm trying to throw up on these places of worship, but when I go into a church I don't hear God, but the whispers of time. I am not an atheist, although intellectually I can see that there are many reasons why I should be. I believe in a Force, in an Energy. I also believe that we don't know many things, but that there is a balance between these different energies. The white and the black.

Good and Evil...

Absolutely! Right now the world is in crisis, but we're going to get through it. It's a vicious circle. We do ourselves a disservice if we think that if the world were rid of people like Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, Jair Bolsonaro and the ayatollahs of Iran and Iraq, we would be out of the woods. I think all this can happen - and I hope it will, in a way - but Good and Evil will always be there. That balance is necessary. But I am an optimist by nature. I believe that there is a future for Volodymyr Zelensky and the Eastern bloc. That there is perhaps a chance to put into practice what was tried there some thirty years ago. And I believe in a free Iran, in a possible return to what this country was in 1978. What a beautiful day that would be! But that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a new war somewhere else in the world. I'm an eternal optimist, but let's face it: history is always starting over. As I said, it's a question of balance, a permanent coming and going. Because I believe in this Force I was talking about earlier, I truly believe that the West can win, that the way we live and the way we have built our society is a step forward that shows progress and can make a large majority of people happy. Not all, but most. But even if we all lived in love and peace for five years, something else would come along to create chaos! An alien or something! (laughs) That's how it works. Our mistake is to believe in the status quo, in nirvana. It's not going to happen. It's always about balance. The Vatican and organised religion... All that crap is just to pick people's pockets, to control them, to take their energy and scare them into plundering them. The same goes for the GOP (editor’s note: the American "Grand Old Party", suspected of having Christian nationalist leanings), which only deceives people in order to take their money! That's all you need to know. It's simple, so simple to understand. All this does not mean that the energy that emanates from churches is not real. When you walk into one of them, you feel - or so I believe - the energy of all those who have gone before you, for decades, for centuries. Their fears, their hopes, etc. So much so, sometimes, that you can feel oppressed, even upset. So I can walk into a church and feel a sense of awe. I love visiting these places, especially from an aesthetic point of view.

On Phantomime, you also cover "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner. Don't you think that, given the state of the world today, we do need "another hero"?

I think Zelensky has shown how much we like heroes, how important they are to us. I think back, for example, to how the world went wild when Andrés Iniesta scored the decisive goal in the 116th minute to help Spain win the 2010 World Cup against the Netherlands. I believe in human determination and how it can inspire the world to distinguish between what is important... and what is really important. What is important for our daily lives. Yes, it's cool to have a complete collection of Venom's work, but it doesn't matter if I’m missing the most important thing. In the last ten years especially, the western world has been focusing on tons of unimportant things trying to pit people against each other, cancel culture and all that stuff... It proves that we are spoiled children. Our mentality shows it when it comes to security. Seeing Zelensky defend himself as he does appeals to our most primal instincts: it's beautiful and very inspiring. Nothing else is more important than that. It is the only thing that matters... Otherwise we have to be prepared for a lot of people to live in misery.

Next August, you will tour in the USA with Amon Amarth. I noticed that they will not accompany you on the last date, in Los Angeles, on September 11, 2023. There is no opening act, you ask the audience not to use their phones, etc. That sounds like a live DVD!

Yes, we are indeed planning to film this show, but it won't be the end of the Impera era cycle, even if we will not have so many dates left after this concert. There will still be a few shows in South America and Australia.

Nothing in Japan? A country that one might think Ghost was made for.

At the moment, it's not very clear. We had a lot of discussions with the Japanese promoters, as there was talk of us appearing on the bill of a Japanese festival scheduled for this month. Unfortunately, the festival was postponed... and then rescheduled for March! I think they originally had a big headliner, but the headliner didn't show up. So they cancelled, and then considered a smaller edition with Pantera. With all the back and forth, we ended up dropping out because it was too risky for us to play one date there after six months of inactivity. Our team is currently taking a break, but we preferred to use this time to rehearse for our next shows. The first one will be in Rouen on May 21st. We learned a good lesson the last time we played Hellfest. It was so hot that day, the conditions were so extreme, that we almost had a storm. We really had to fight against the elements and it affected me (Editor's note: the last encore of the show was not played, as Tobias was suffering from vocal problems). It was a very tough show. What really pissed me off was not the fact that I lost my voice, but the fact that the festival-goers who were there were not treated to our entire production. It was indeed difficult to foresee these extreme conditions. This summer we have to play festivals again, so we have reworked our production, which will be better adapted to the complicated weather. On this tour we will play in Spain, Finland, Norway, Greece, all within a few days of each other. So we'll be touring with two identical stages, so we can do all these shows without too much downtime. It's not very ecological, I'm sorry to say, because sometimes we'll have to take a plane to get to these cities in time. Not great, but it's the only way...

Will you play any of the Phantomime covers live?

One thing is for sure: we will play 'Jesus He Knows Me' because it's the first single from the new EP. As for the rest, we'll see during the rehearsals how the set evolves - because it's going to evolve a bit from the 2022 set. We're thinking of playing some songs from Impera that we've left out so far.

[padawanlost]

Anakin's nightmare

“Do you know where [Shmi] is?” “Why, I should expect she’s at Watto’s junkshop. I’m afraid he’s had her doing quite a lot of work there, ever since you ran away.”

Anakin winced. “But I didn’t run away,” he said. “I left. To become a Jedi.”

“Oh, of course you did, sir,” said C-3PO, his voice filled with good cheer. “I never meant to suggest that you abandoned any responsibilities you might have had here, when you were just a child. After all, we’re so very proud of you and your achievements. Not that we actually know about what you’ve accomplished in the past nine years, since we’ve never received any messages from you, but I do get the distinct impression that your mother still cares very much about you. And she does have a vivid imagination, so she very easily assumed that you must be…”

The droid was still talking as Anakin ran out of the hovel and into the broiling radiance of Tatooine’s twin suns. Although it appeared to be afternoon, when the city of Mos Espa should have been teeming with street vendors and pedestrians, there was no sign of life.

Anakin felt a sense of panic. He ran as fast as he could through the empty streets until he arrived outside the tall, bell-shaped structure that was Watto’s junkshop.

Like his own hovel, the junkshop appeared to be exactly as Anakin remembered it. Yet when he ducked through the shop’s entrance portal and entered the cluttered interior, he found that Watto had added something new: In front of a workbench, there was a low cage with thick metal bars.

A filthy figure, clothed in dirty rags, was huddled within the cage.

It was Shmi Skywalker. Anakin’s mother.

She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked. Her voice sounded old and tired.

“It’s me, Mom,” Anakin said, dropping to his knees before the cage. “Anakin. Annie. I’m grown up now. I’ve come to rescue you.”

“Anakin?” Shmi said in disbelief. She slowly shook her head. “But you can’t be. You can’t be here. You’re gone.”

“I’ll get you out, Mom,” Anakin said as he gripped the bars. He looked around. There was no sign of Watto.

“It is you,” Shmi said. “It really is you.”

Anakin tugged at the bars with all his might, but they would not yield. Then he remembered he was a Jedi. He could do anything!

He reached to his belt, expecting to find his lightsaber, but his fingers slapped against his side. His lightsaber was gone. He tried to recall if he had clipped it to his belt before leaving his hovel, or if he had even brought it with him to Tatooine.

He tried to remember when and where he had seen it last. He felt confused. How had he arrived back on Tatooine? He could not remember.

Desperate, he glanced at Watto’s tool shelf and saw a fusion-cutter and power pry-bar. He grabbed for them, but he could not pick them up. He tried again, tearing at them, but the tools would not budge. It seemed they had been welded to the shelf.

Anakin collapsed beside the cage, his head smacking against the bars. “I swear, I’ll get you out!” he sobbed.

Shmi reached between the bars and pushed her oil-stained fingers through her son’s blond hair. “Oh, Annie,” she said. “Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”

“Mom, look at you! Watto left you in a cage!” Anakin said, outraged.

“No, he didn’t, Annie,” Shmi said sadly. “Watto didn’t leave me. You did.”

Suddenly, Shmi, the junkshop, and all of Tatooine were swept away from Anakin’s vision, and he was engulfed in darkness. It wrapped around him like a cold, black shroud that cut him off from the entire galaxy.

Unable to see, his only awareness was of the steady rise and fall of his own breathing.

Something was wrong.

The breathing sounded mechanical and labored, as if it were being done through some kind of respirator. Anakin wondered if the breathing were his own, or if he had been mistaken about the sound’s origin. Perhaps, he thought, I’m not alone in this dark place. He held his breath and listened to the void. The sound of mechanized breathing stopped. And then Anakin felt his throat constricting.

The darkness coiled even tighter around him, working its way through his skin, seizing his lungs and veins and muscles and bones until he knew it was about to consume him.

Then the dream ended as it always did, with Anakin trying to shout but fearing that no one, not even he, would ever hear his cry. And then he awoke. [Ryder Windham. Star Wars Adventures - The Hostage Princess]

[btstulip]

Wait, what did I just watch?!

When I first became interested in BTS, it was because my Facebook algorithms thought I might be interested in them and kept showing me fun videos. They were not wrong and I got sucked into watching BTS more and more.

As you can imagine, I quickly started getting fed videos of popular ships... mostly Taekook. Being new to BTS (and K-Pop and "ships" for that matter), there were definitely moments that I could admit looked like the actions you might see between romantic partners and it did get me wondering if any of the BTS members might actually be together. But I also knew close friends could sometimes look like a couple to people that don't understand their relationship. I have friends I kiss and cuddle with, but never once did I plan to date them. Add to the fact that I originally assumed some of this was just fanservice, something I no longer believe after much research here on Tumblr convinced me that BTS doesn't participate in traditional fanservice after their early debut stage. I knew it would take a lot to convince me any relationship was more than that of two very close people that cared about each other very much.

So I watched these Taekook and other videos with a lot of skepticism. I dismissed many of these videos right away as just playful people that enjoyed skinship with someone they were close to. But a couple caused me to find longer clips to check context. Most of these looked like nothing when played at full speed, uncut/edited, or with conversation context. And the more I watched of BTS, the more I could see how close and unique each of their relationships were. I loved how much they cared for each other and I wasn't invested in any of these guys having more than the close family relationship I could see they all shared. Still, I was curious if there was something all these fans knew about Tae and Jungkook that I didn't, so I kept looking.

I should add here that I was only days in to my BTS obsession research at this point. I had lost more sleep than I want to admit watching "one more video" for hours at a time desperately trying to answer the next burning curiosity, but still, I had only just started learning about the members of BTS. At this point, I absolutely believe all the BTS members care deeply for each other. They are family and have a bond I don't think any of us can really understand. These are 7 individuals that each share a unique bond with each other and as a whole. I don't think any relationship "competes" with another and each should be honored.

Though I wasn't expecting to be convinced that any of these members were actually dating, my desire to put context to these cute clips I kept seeing made me want to understand their relationships more... especially Tae and Jungkook because my video feed was FULL of these! I often found tumblr posts explaining the moments/relationships that gave me clues and insights about the members that I didn't have yet. The arguments I read for Taekook seemed possible, but I was sure there were similarly convincing arguments for all the ships. So I decided that I had to research the other ships to either prove or disprove that Tae and Jungkook actually had something extra.

I decided to start looking into Jimin and Jungkook. At the time, I just picked that "ship" first. But I am sure it was because I had already noticed how close those two are. Most of the stuff I dismissed, especially anything on stage. But I kept reading and watching "evidence", rinse and repeat. Definitely cute moments, eyebrow raising moments, some super questionable stuff on stage (2018 I am looking at you!), but I saw that stuff with Taekook too. I saw GCF Tokyo mentioned several times, how Jimin and Jungkook went to Tokyo together and Jungkook made a music video. And somehow this was amazing "proof", so I decided I should look that up.

The skeptic I am, I started watching and saw two guys that are very close, on a trip together, having fun. Lyrics talking about being there for each other. So cute! They are so close and this shows how much Jimin's friendship means to Jungkook. I loved it, but I could not understand how this was the ultimate proof everyone accepted. And then, 3 minutes in, when the video was almost over and I had basically decided it was about a beautiful bromance, it happened...

Boy, I'm holdin' onto something Won't let go of you for nothing I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Eyebrows raises, well that is definitely romantic. And then, seconds later, my brain broke...

There was a time that I was so blue What I got to do to show you? I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you Runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

My jaw was on the floor. What did I just watch?!? That wasn't "proof", that was PROOF! There was no way to spin that other than a full on love confession. Did he actually do that? I can't believe any member of a K-pop group would do something so loud that is almost impossible to take any other way, unless you cover both eye and plug your ears!

I needed confirmation. More context. I read blogs all about GCG Tokyo and they delivered. Jikook fans gave me even more details, things I didn't understand because I was a BTS newborn (still a baby, maybe toddler, but growing quickly). Solo trip together on personal time, big deal. Jungkook recorded and edited the video, releasing it only a week later. Wow. Jungkook is a perfectionist that cares about his art and chose the song for a reason. Check. The song is by an openly gay artist? Why are we still discussing this?!

Still, I wanted an outside perspective. One not looking for this video to confirm anything with little context. So I made my sister watch it. Told her it was these two guys went on a trip together and one recorded and made this video. What did she think? "It's a love confession." Two of my kids also agreed... the third is a teenage boy that is horrified that his mom is obsessed spending all her time watching BTS and he refused to see it as anything other than someone saying "you need to be there for me too".

I suppose it's possible this was just about friendship. I suppose I could be wrong. I'm not Jungkook and unless he tells us, I will never know. But unless Jungkook denies it directly, you CAN NOT make me believe that video was anything other than one person telling another that they love them.

Sorry this post is SO LONG! I didn't expect it to be this long, but it was super fun. Thanks for sticking around and reading my TMI. <3

[thefrogman]

On fucking up...

The house has been incredibly quiet since my dad passed. And that quiet turns into loneliness quite often for me. So last night I decided to use every spoon I had to go to the movies. I swallowed my social anxiety and went out into the world.

The theater had these recliners that sit on a raised step. But when you are actually sitting in the seat you can't see that step. Once the movie was over I forgot about the step. I got up to leave and my ankle caught it on the way down. I flew forward and crashed into the back of a row of seats.

A middle aged gentlemen saw this and said, "Gee buddy, this your first day walking?"

And the other 8 people in the theater gave a boisterous laugh.

I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

Making a mistake feels bad.

Making a mistake in public is an embarrassing lesson in humility.

And making a mistake witnessed by 15,000 people is terrifying.

When you get something wrong and people call you out, your first instinct is to dig in. Everyone wants to dig in. Which is usually the worst possible reaction. You want to defend yourself. You don't want to believe you were wrong. And you start spewing out reasons why you can't be wrong. I think the current vernacular calls this "tweeting through it."

Over the years I have tried very hard to fight that instinct to dig in. To consider what people have said and recheck my facts to see if my original information could be inaccurate. And sometimes you find out you were right and strengthen your point of view.

But when you find out you were duped or misunderstood the information, there is nothing quite like that sinking feeling.

And when you are wrong in front of 15,000 people... that sinking feeling goes to the center of the earth.

You get sucked into a thought spiral...

"How do I fix this? Do I send a message to all 15,000 people? Do I just post a video of me repeatedly punching myself in the face? Do I delete the post? No, can't delete the post, people will think you are trying to hide your mistake. Plus all those reblogs."

You have to accept the fact that even if you publicly admit you were wrong, a lot of those people are never going to see it. They are going to believe the thing and possibly spread it to others.

You've created a runaway freight train and you just have to watch it crash into stuff.

The sad thing is I have learned this lesson a few times in my 10+ years of being a minor public figure. It has caused me to be so paranoid about passing along bad information that I will fact check things to death. Sometimes 5 or 6 sources. I'll look at reputable sources and disreputable sources. And I'll try to corroborate those disreputable sources just as an exercise to give me confidence I have the best information at that time.

But the other night I finished watching John Wick 4 and was high on action juice. I started watching every John Wick video on YouTube. My history shows about 40 videos. And at 2 or 3am I heard the director being hyperbolic in a podcast clip and thought a fun fact was too great not to share.

I thought, "I'm not telling people to eat horse paste for COVID. I'm not pretending I'm a submarine expert who knows exactly how to save people at the bottom of the ocean. It's just a flippy gun maneuver. I'm sure Chad knows what he is talking about."

So I posted the thing on my personal blog with sleep in my eyes and figured it was fine. And after 500 notes no one had really said anything, so I thought it was okay to share on my main blog.

And that was my biggest mistake. I deemed the subject matter to be trivial so I lowered my standards.

I forgot that damn step was there and flew into the seats.

There are dishonest people on the internet. Tons of them. People who will post dangerous misinformation without a care. People who have a pattern of lying. Grifters who thrive on baiting people for clicks. And I think it has caused us to react to bad information with hostility by default. People forget that there are still honest people who just make a mistake or get duped. Yet they can still feel the need to make people feel stupid for believing something that seems so obvious to them.

I have been guilty of this myself. I have called people out forgetting they are a human being behind that social media avatar.

The first person to call me out just said, "This is not true, LMFAO."

That's not helpful.

People made me feel like I was a liar. And I am very sensitive to that. For years doctors, family, and friends were skeptical of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And when someone accuses me of being dishonest, I get very anxious and see red.

But I tried very hard not to dig in. I asked for more information--for evidence. Just point me in a direction so I can figure out what's true. But I got angry when all they said was that I was wrong without elaboration. Which is another form of digging in.

I guess I'm asking people to start with compassion before hostility. Maybe if we don't know the person or they have been a mostly reliable source, we can give people a chance. If the person has a history of deception, that's a different story. Bad faith is usually pretty easy to spot.

I remember for a long time I used to love telling people their blood was blue until it was exposed to oxygen. It was just the funnest fun fact I had ever heard and I *needed* others to know the thing I knew. Giving people knowledge can be intoxicating. But then I told my good friend who just became a medical resident and he was like, "I don't remember that in medical school. I think that might be an urban legend."

I still got that sinking feeling and I still had flashbacks to every person I told... but I was grateful he was so kind when he corrected me.

You can correct someone with kindness.

I'd ask that you imagine yourself in their shoes. Think about how embarrassing it is when you get something wrong. And just be like, "Hey, I think you got some bad information. Here's why."

When someone faceplants into a row of seats, metaphorically or otherwise, maybe ask if they are okay before laughing at them.

[the-roo-too]

home -> poohers (haeyn)

clip one; representative emojis

“why do you want the bear emoji then, unnie?”

“it suits me!” haewon pouts at you. “more than you certainly.”

“hey!” you could hear all the other members laughing in the background at the small interaction. “i’m very much a bear, thank you.”

“no me.”

“nope.”

“yes.”

“nuh uh.”

“yuh.”

“lily unnie, say something!” you turned to the eldest member of nmixx, watching her quickly stifle her laugh.

“why do you want the bear emoji, y/nnie? i think haewon claimed it the moment we thought about representative emojis…”

“because! it’s winnie the pooh.” you pouted at her, making her giggle. haewon then came up to you again, her pout matching yours.

“y/nnie, can’t you have a bee emoji then? or honey? please?”

reluctantly, you nodded your head, watching the older girl’s face light up with a smile. “yes! told you guys i was a favourite!”

clip two; poohers

you and haewon were having a live together. originally, it was supposed to be a ‘y/n solo live’, but haewon said that ‘a bear is lonely without its honey’. she was just being clingy with her favourite maknae, but you’d excuse that.

“‘ship name’? as in, me and haewon unnie?” you chuckled a little at the thought while haewon looked at the camera offended.

“how can you guys not know?” you turned to look at her in surprise. as far as you were aware, you two did not have a ship name yet. “real fans do know that y/n and me are poohers!”

“what?” you couldn’t hold your laughter at the stupid name she came up with. “poohers? who said that!”

haewon pouted and leaned closer to whisper into your ear. “i thought of that… just made it up on the spot. do you not like it?”

you glanced at the camera again and smiled brightly. “yeah, poohers. i just forgot, sorry unnie.”

‘awwh’

‘cuties <:)’

clip three; workdol

you, a fan favourite, and your group’s leader were invited to film an episode together. the theme? stewardesses!

you were very excited when you arrived at the set with haewon. flying was something you always liked—looking out of the window and watching pretty views, napping in a comfy chair.

the only downside of the episode was that you two were supposed to film on a flight to japan and as a foreigner who had to receive occasional help with her korean, you could not for the life of you read the announcements.

“do you understand what’s going on, y/nnie?” haewon whispered to you in the middle of the flight, a look of worry flashing on her face.

“nope.” you saw the way she got worried before you quickly reassured her. “but i’m having a lot of fun! and you’re here with me, unnie. i think this is nice.”

“yeah.” haewon perked up at your comment, her eyes glimmering. “this is nice.”

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[zandlikething]

Perler bead qsmp eggs I made the same day they left

I haven't posted anything about it because I was still processing it. I thought Sense the eggs were coming back all the eggs would come back I was very sad to see them go but I understand why the admins left and respect their choice in leaving so please no one harass the admins

I have a message to the admins that played the eggs in the picture ( which I doubt they will see but I want to get it off my chest) so lots of rambling from this point on be warned.

Lullah: Lullah you were one of the first eggs I got really attached to and it was because of clips of you Chayanne and Philza that originally got me into the qsmp. Seeing how much you grew was so cool to see.

Seeing you go from a shy little egg who likes flowers and music to a bad ass egg who would do anything for her loved ones. An egg who survived so much and went through so much hurt but also a lot of joy.

Lullah you brought a lot of joy into people's life you certainly did mine and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Chayanne: Chayanne my first introduction to you was the clip of Max yelling at you cause you blew a hole on his property ( I know that was another admin this is for both) Chayanne you were always so chaotic and fun but so loving and protective of your siblings.

Your rivalry with Quackity was always so funny to see a grown man beffing with a pixel egg in Minecraft. You honestly remind me of my older brother which probably explains why I would relate to Lullah sometimes lol

I hope whatever you're doing you are doing great at it and I hope you know how much you did for this community

Pomme: Pomme I remember when you first arrived with the rest of the French I remember how sweet you were to everyone around you and how much fun you would have with all your parents. I would watch Bad pov a lot and the stream would always get brighter when you showed up.

Your connection to all the eggs were super sweet and all your lore was so interesting. Seeing you bond with Bad and Dapper was so cute and then Bad becoming your Dad and Dapper your brother was so cute. It was never "official" but it didn't need to be it didn't matter all that matter was you guys were family

I like all the Pomme times we got and one of my favorite streams was just following the eggs around mainly you and Dapper. It was so interesting and cool to see what you guys did and say without your parents around. I also found it cool we had something in common because I love RWBY too in fact if you scroll down my Tumblr you'll see some post I did on RWBY a few years ago.

Thank you Pomme I'm happy to see you and Dapper in Bads chat sometimes I can't wait to see what projects you'll work on next

Richardson: My boi the most bold egg lol your antics would always make me laugh. All the pranks you pulled on Bad and all the times you teased him to get a reaction were so funny. You were by far the most chaotic egg you would just pop up out of nowhere in anyone's stream it would always get more chaotic even if just a little.

Honestly your goodbye and final words made me cry yup you not Chayanne and Lullah and Philza saying goodnight you who just walked into the sunset was the greatest thing ever. The memorial you made for you Dapper and Pomme was so good I love it and I want you to know that I learned a lot about Brazil because of you and your parents I want to go to Brazil one day now somewhere I've never thought about going.

Goodbye you little rascal I hope whatever you're doing your doing it with chaos

Dapper: Dapper you are my favorite I immediately was drawn to you and your top hat. I first saw you in a Philza stream protecting Lullah from Quackity and I started watching Bad ever since.

I remember when Quackity kidnapped you in a desert temple and how scared I and the rest of the chat was. Little did we know how common that would become lol how many times did you get kidnapped like 7.

You and Bad's lore was my favorite I loved your guys father and son connection. It was clear to see how much Bad cared about you and how you cared for him back. You guys made such a good team with all the stuff you made with the create mod.

I relate to you the most for a few reasons one being all the animals you had and collected. I am a big animal person so if I could actually have cool mythical and cool animals I would but also one of my favorite signs from you is "he can't handle the uber powers of my uber autism" This made me laugh so much I am on the spectrum so when I saw this clip I was Ohhhh that's probably why I relate to this Minecraft egg so much lol

Dapper thank you for really getting me into the qsmp there were some ruff patches and a little drama but through it all I had a good time

Thank you for introducing me to Badboyhalo I now have found one of my new favorite streamers

Thank you all of qsmp for helping me and many others through our days and for an amazing year I will still watch qsmp as long as Bad streams it but I have a feeling it's going to be time to say goodbye soon. So thank you qsmp I am sad not to have these streams in this next chapter of my life but I am happy for when you were you helped me get through.

But you know what they say everyone:

"Don't cry because it's over,smile because it" happened