#but now I don’t even need the transcripts half the time

[avatarofthetired]

So I relistened to MAG039 because I was thinking of a silly moment from it (ghost Martin :3) and wanted to go back to it

And let me tell you

Now that I have the ability to differentiate between character voices and I can understand their tones and speaking mannerisms better

I can finally see how FUNNY Tim Stoker is

And I know on the relisten of the whole series I’m going to be so much more devastated at everything that happens (to literally everyone) because now I’m so much more connected

[f1cflcfic]

Won't Say I'm in Love (SMAU ft Lando Norris) part ii

pairing: lando norris x tennis player!reader (fem!y/n); past carlos alcaraz x tennis player!reader (fem!y/n)

summary: As a general rule, y/n does not date athletes. You've been there, done that - would not recommend. Besides, you definitely don't do love. There's no time in the world for complicated feelings when there's a career Grand Slam to be won. But what if your heart just refuses to listen?

genre: social meda/mixed au, friends to lovers

note: this is RPF and is obviously in no way, shape, or form reflective of real persons

series: part i

end of January, 2025

1st week of February, 2025

[Excerpt from Red Carpet interview]

Hi Y/N L/N! We're so glad to see you here. First of all, congratulations on your win at the Australian Open.

“Thanks so much! I’m really excited to have started the year this way.”

We’re excited too – and very happy that you could make time to come here to London for this. Your calendar must be incredibly full.

“I do try and always have a week off after the Grand Slams at least, but the WTA Tour schedule has definitely filled out over the years. It’s always a bit of a puzzle to both ensure I can play enough, win points, and at the same time strike that right balance in terms of fitness.  Both mentally and physically.”

And yet you’re adding work for yourself by not only being a top athlete, but now also a brand ambassador for Dior. What made you want to do this?

“It’s a really cool opportunity to just play dress up from time to time, to be honest. Plus, I love that they recognise athletes and sports can be high fashion, too. I always think of how incredibly inspiring Serena Williams is, both on and off the court for breaking boundaries and for showing that sports and fashion can go really well together.”

Did you get any time to relax at all?

"Weirdly, this almost feels relaxing to me, because of how much time you have to carve out and focus on yourself – without any performance target attached to it. But I’ve also taken some time to hang with my friends and family."

You’re turning 27 this year as well, and you’ve been a pro athlete for almost 10 years now. Obviously last year wasn’t the best for you, performance wise. Has that made you reflect on what those performance targets will look like in the future? What’s something you’ve learned in that time?

"I mean, the main goal for me would be to achieve a Career Grand Slam – and just play the best tennis that I can possibly play. And in terms of what I’ve learned, I would say that it’s to choose your friends, your team very wisely. Sometimes I’ve regretted missing major events, and sometimes I’ve regretted giving people too much room in my life. You need people who help you keep that balance.” People who keep you grounded, who tether you. Because being a pro athlete means you have to be really selfish from time to time, and it means sacrifice. I don’t see my baby niece as often as I’d like, for example. But it’s just the way it is."

2nd week of February, 2025

3d week of February, 2025

[Transcript excerpts of Quadrant video]

“Alright so we’ve got our pro-athletes here, ready to battle it out in a game of Wii Sports,” Max starts, quickly introducing Lando and Y/N.

“You are going to lose so bad, Norris,” she says.

“Oh I see, we’re already starting the trash talking,” he retorts. “Haven’t even started the game yet.”

“That’s half the fun, isn’t it? Are we also going to play Mario Kart after this, just to see if Lando has what it takes to beat me on there?” Y/N asks eagerly, turning to Max.

“No fucking way, you always cheat!” Lando exclaims, with Y/N heard protesting in the background. “No I don’t, I just use the shortcuts that exist in the game! That is legitimate!”

(...)

“Birdie gets a birdie,” Lando cheers, though Max quickly chides him for encouraging the competition. “What? It’s not like she’s going to do it again, she’s terrible at this game,” Lando adds, motioning at the otherwise abysmal golf score that Y/N’s Mii character has racked up.

“Hey! She is right here, and she is currently in the lead after winning the bowling and tennis already.”

(...)

“Do you feel good about beating up a girl?” Y/N pouts, after losing the boxing match between her and Lando. He immediately makes a face, spluttering out an indignant “no!” that elicits a laugh from Y/N.

“Alright, that’s enough from both of you. With Lando’s win, it’s now tied again with only baseball to go. We’ll allow you both to consult your coach before starting this next round.”

They both turn to their coach for the day, one of the other Quadrant members, before taking their places – Wii Remote and Nunchuk in hand.

“You ready?

“Ready,” they nod, looking incredibly competitive. They even try and push each other to mess up their scores, devolving into a tickle fight halfway through. “No, Y/N stop, stop, I can’t - I’m crying,” Lando laughs, face red with tears streaming down his face.

“Does that mean I win?” She looks up from where she’d all but tackled Lando onto the ground, but then Max just shakes his head.

“It’s very close – but you’ve got one more pitch to go. You’re gonna need to let Lando hit it, or at least try to.” As soon as the words come out of his mouth, he blanches. Y/N rolls her eyes but starts uncontrollably giggling nonetheless.

“I regretted it as soon as I said it,” Max apologises profusely, but the camera zooms in on Lando who’s trying to hide his face behind both his hands, wheezing as Y/N tries to stand up and compose herself. Once they’ve finally managed to continue, it’s Lando who has the tiniest edge over Y/N.

“Ugh, well. This better not be a bad omen for me this season, but I guess I’d quite like to see you win the championship, Norris.”

“That’s actually very sweet,” he slings his arm around Y/N’s waist, then cracks open the champagne and pours it out over the two of them, with Y/N shrieking loudly at the cold, stickiness.

"So glad that's not part of tennis traditions."

4th week of February, 2025

[Excerpt Exit Press Conference]

“BBC Sport here. Your track record on hard court against Iga is not the best, now with 4 wins and 5 losses. How does that affect your training moving forward?

"Well, it was really close – so I feel like those type of numbers don’t really mean that much when it comes down to just a handful of winners or errors. Iga and I have played each other quite often, and she’s just an incredibly strong player. There’s a reason she’s had a long run at #1 and has returned to that spot for now.

In terms of training, I mean, we’re moving to gravel soon so it’s a completely different ballgame. Literally. We might run into each other again at Indian Wells, so of course we’ll come up with a plan – but my focus is already shifting towards the next Grand Slam, to be honest.”

Question from ViaPlay. Indian Wells is of course known for being the Grand Slam of the West and it’s one of the few 1000s tours where both ATP and WTA players meet. Last year, you entered into the mixed doubles with your then partner. Is that something you’d consider doing again in the future?

"Thanks for the question, but no. I’m playing singles, I’m not ready to mingle – I’m ready to pringle."

Will you actually have time to pringle, as you say? Or is it straight back to training for you?

"I’m going to spend a few days just hanging out, especially because I now have an extra day off all of a sudden. So I’ll try to make the most of that, then switch gears. Thanks."

A/N: Hope this uploads from the airport!! lol - next part coming March 14th, featuring Indian Wells, an interview faux-pas by Y/N, and of course some very fast cars 👀 part iii available here now

♥ likes, comments, reblogs are always very much appreciated ♥

taglist: @linnygirl09 @julesbog @midnight-and-books @sarx164 @obxstiles @freyathehuntress @vhkdncu2ei8997 @berrnuu @lightdragonrayne

[4vanaa]

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, rafe cameron, 14

summary: y/n left the outer banks years ago, determined to build a life far from the memories of her childhood love, rafe cameron. now a botanist, she's moved on-though a quiet part of her still clings to the past. when an event brings her back to OBX, she's forced to confront the one person she never truly forgot.

cw: none | masterlist | 13 | 15 |

rafeupdates 13h

liked by cameronstan and 54,000 others

rafeupdates rafe talking about going to therapy, working on himself, and fixing his relationship with his dad... idk if i'm crying or what 🥺 i attached the clip transcript from the interview!!

#sunshinepromo #rafeupdates

user men who go to therapy>>

user who could he be talking about?? 👀

user probably the same girl he’s been talking about in all his songs

view all 2,350 comments

You stare at the chalkboard menu, your eyes scanning the options but not really reading them. The familiar hum of The Wreck—the quiet buzz of conversation, the scrape of chairs, the clink of silverware—feels strangely distant, like you’re in a bubble of your own making. You take a deep breath, trying to shake the weight in your chest.

“Still staring at the shrimp basket like it’s some life-changing decision.”

Your stomach drops before you even turn your head. You don’t need to look to know who it is.

“Rafe,” you mutter, a sharp exhale escaping your lips as you glance over your shoulder. “What are you doing?”

He’s standing there, hands shoved into his pockets, his blue eyes trained on you like you’re the only person in the room. His hair is slightly messy, like he’s run his fingers through it one too many times, and he’s wearing that same infuriating half-smirk that used to make you weak in the knees.

“Getting dinner,” he says casually, gesturing around the room. “Same as you, I guess.”

Your jaw tightens. “Then order and leave me alone.”

His smirk falters, his eyes softening. He takes a step closer, ignoring the clear dismissal in your tone. “I saw you sitting here, and… I don’t know. I thought maybe we could talk.”

You turn back to the menu, gripping the edge of the counter like it’s the only thing keeping you steady. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There’s a lot to talk about,” he counters quietly, his voice threading with a kind of desperation that makes your chest ache.

Your resolve cracks, and you spin around to face him fully, the frustration bubbling to the surface. “God, why do you do that? It’s been years, Rafe. Years. Why can’t you just move on?”

He flinches, his jaw tightening as he looks at you. “You think I haven’t tried?”

“Try harder,” you shoot back, your voice sharp but trembling. “This isn’t fair. Not to you, not to me. I have a life now, Rafe—a good one. Stop showing up like this and pretending like we can just pick up where we left off.”

“I’m not pretending anything,” he says, his voice breaking slightly. “I’m just… I don’t know how to not want you, okay?”

Your breath catches, and for a second, the fight drains out of you. You look away, biting the inside of your cheek to keep the tears at bay. “You’re the one who ended it, Rafe. You made your choice. And I had to live with it. You don’t get to come back now and act like I’m still… like I’m still yours.”

Rafe lets out a humorless laugh, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, you keep saying that. You’ve moved on. You’ve got your perfect little life now, right? But me? I—” He stops himself, shaking his head. “Forget it.”

Your voice softens, but you keep your resolve firm. “Rafe, I’m happy. That’s what matters. You should want that for me.”

He stares at you, his blue eyes searching your face like he’s trying to find something he’s lost. “I do. Of course, I do. I just… I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw you again.”

Your heart twists painfully, but you don’t let him see it. “That’s not my problem anymore.”

He stares at you, his eyes searching yours, and for a moment, he looks completely lost. “You’re right. It’s not. I just… I miss you, Sunshine. God, I miss you so much.”

“Rafe,” you sigh, your voice softer now. “You can’t keep doing this to me. You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

His shoulders sag, and he lets out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “I don’t know how to stop. Not when it’s you.”

You swallow hard, your fingers trembling as you grip your phone. You force yourself to stand your ground, even as your heart begs you to give in. “You have to. For both of us.”

Rafe nods slowly, like he knows you’re right but can’t bring himself to accept it. “I hope he makes you happy,” he says finally, his voice barely above a whisper.

You blink, your throat tightening. “He does.”

“Good,” he murmurs, his gaze lingering on you one last time before he steps back. “You deserve that.”

He turns and walks away, leaving you standing there with the weight of his words hanging heavy in the air. Your chest feels tight, your heart aching in a way you haven’t felt in years. You blink back tears and force yourself to focus on the menu, even as the world around you blurs.

a/n: going to therapy, so you can get your girl back?!!! i was unfamiliar with your game rafe 😏 also how much angst is too much angst 🫣

🏷️: @xoxo-ada @sabrina-carpenter-stan-account @sleepiibunniiii @urbrunettebombshell @sideboobrry11 @acidfeens @marleymarleymarleymarley @hadids-world @ursogorgeous1313 @louxmcl @cyberkitty1 @pogueprincesa

[mamawasatesttube]

superspotting!

T | 12k | written for @superfamilyweek day 1: "it's a bird! it's a plane!"

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Supernova, trying to process some issues, as seen through the eyes of Metropolitan social media?

[Partial transcript of Justice League Watchtower security room logs, redirected from a Hubble Space Telescope transmission to the Moon.]

[…]

GREEN LANTERN: Wow. I don’t think I’ve seen him pulverize an asteroid in a rage since… huh, since Lex won the election.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: Hmm. Yes. But I haven’t heard any news about a topic likely to set him off, at least that I am aware of. I wonder what upset him.

GREEN LANTERN: Yeah, no idea. Maybe he’s just having a rough day?

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: …I don’t think a rough day is enough to make Superman beat an asteroid into dust.

GREEN LANTERN: Uh, yeah, I mean… maybe it was a really, really, really rough day. Like, one of those days where you spill coffee on your white shirt before a big job interview, and you’re stuck in traffic ‘cuz you were trying to drink coffee on the go ‘cuz you woke up late, and then some idiot wannabe supervillain blows up the ramp you needed to take, and it’s not even a big name guy your boss would accept as a real excuse, and… now that I’m saying all this, I’m realizing that, like, none of it applies to Big Blue.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: Hmm. Indeed. Although… well, I am not sure.

GREEN LANTERN: Yeah, I dunno, it’s Superman! He doesn’t lose his cool easy. Hope everything’s okay…

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: If not, we will probably know soon.

GREEN LANTERN: Hey, at least he hasn’t cracked any moons in half this time!

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: …Hm.

GREEN LANTERN: Oh, come on, it was a joke. Don’t look at me like that. I just meant—remember when Lex won the election, and…

[…]

{ read on ao3! }

[pilot-boi]

Pilot, I know you primarily bully Jaune. But would you mind having a go at Papa Arc talking to the Vacuo mural?

Orion Arc is not a hero, even though his son always thought he was. He’s just a man who loves his family and tries his best to do right by them.

So it’s more than a little strange standing there, in front of a mural of his own son’s face. His boy immortalized and honored in ways Orion could never dream of.

His son looks like a stranger.

“Mr. Branwen thought it might help to talk to ya.” Orion’s hand brushes over the palm prints of countless children, all paying their respect to his boy. “Don’t see much point, ain’t gonna bring you back.”

His son watches him, all quiet confidence and bravery. A true warrior, a hero. Where is his brash anxious son who begged to join the Huntsman Academies? How much of his son did he lose when Jaune finally left home? Somewhere along the way his boy grew into a man and he wasn’t there to help him.

“Your uh…” He clears his throat. “Your mother misses you.” And it sounds pathetic even as he says it. Even in front of a facsimile of his son he can’t say what he needs to.

“She was beside herself when you didn’t come back from Haven.” So was he, even more so than his wife. Orion paced the house for days, worry driving him to throw himself into work, into anything that would take his mind off the attack and the fate of his boy. “We were so relieved to hear from Saph about you and your friends.”

His friends. A group of seven that from all accounts Jaune grew closer to than even his sisters. Orion glances up at the others in the mural. Four of which fell alongside his boy, and the other three were left grieving.

Ren, Nora, and Oscar, he remembers them being called. He never thought he’d see his grief echoed in faces so young.

“As soon as we saw the broadcast, your mother was packin’ our bags.” Orion chuckles. “You shoulda seen her, she was fixin’ to march up to the General herself and teach him a lesson. If I ever wondered where you got your fire, I got my answer.”

His face falls, crumpling like paper. “And I triedta douse that fire.” How many times did he tell Jaune it was okay if he failed? How many times did he refuse to train him? How many times did he let his fear guide him to crush his son’s dreams?

“When you walked into the livin’ room with your transcripts in hand sayin’ you were gonna be a Huntsman whether I wanted it or not, why…” His eyes are stinging. If there’s anything his son inherited from him, it’s his tendency for emotions to live near the surface. “Why that was the proudest day of my life.”

He’d never been more proud. Never. His boy standing there with those papers clutched in his fist, and a defiant look on his face. “I won’t let you down.” Jaune had said.

You could never let me down. It’s what he should’ve said. Why didn’t he just say it?

Orion scrubs the heel of his hand into his eyes. It does nothing to stop the flow of tears. “Did I ever once tell ya how proud I am of you?” His voice is cracking and hitching, but if he stops talking now Orion knows he’ll never start again.

“You’re so brave and you don’t quit when things get tough. I saw how hurt you were after the Fall of Beacon, but you just got right back on that horse.” His baby boy, the most caring and most stubborn of all his children. Strapping the family sword back onto his hip because “Somebody has to, dad.”

Letters where it’s clear his boy isn’t saying half the trouble, but he’s saying enough that they know what trouble is. Hearing about the attack on Haven, a week and a half of terror. Saphron sending word that Jaune made it to Argus.

And then nothing. Nothing until the broadcast from Miss Rose.

Packing in a whirlwind, sending the girls to stay with Saphron. Renting the first available airship to Vacuo and contending with his wife’s motion sickness. By the time they got there, they were met halfway by a near armada.

But no Jaune.

Orion’s hand rests on Jaune’s painted cheek. A child’s hand against the larger-than-life hero his boy grew into when he wasn’t there.

Did he ever tell his son how much he loves him?

“Come back to us,” Orion begs, no longer trying to stem the flow of tears. Why bother? His son isn’t here to see them.

[dandylion240]

Previoius/Beginning/Next

Transcript under the cut

Meanwhile at the hospital, Evan was dozing in the emergency waiting room. He jumped every time the doors opened hoping that this time the doctor was going to tell him something. Hour after hour passed and nothing. He thought he glimpsed someone familiar, in a dark suit and white blond hair. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Sulani with Hayle. Not if he was called in to work, a little voice said inside his head. 

Jumping to his feet, shaking his head he started to pace the floor as if moving would keep the dark thoughts away. Chris wouldn’t take Jayden without getting Josie here to say goodbye. So it couldn’t be him. It just couldn’t be. 

So caught up in his own thoughts Evan didn’t notice the doctor entering the waiting room. He didn’t hear his name being called until it was repeated several times. “Sorry that’s me,” he approached the overworked emergency room doctor “how is my husband?”

“He’s in the ICU but stable,” the doctor explained.

“Can I see him?” Evan asked, half turning towards the door.

“He’s resting,” the doctor said, motioning for Evan to follow him. “I have some questions concerning your husband’s condition. Did he eat anything that could have brought on his condition?”

“Nothing that the rest of the family hasn’t eaten and we’re all fine,” Even said. “Do you think it’s food poisoning?”

“It’s unlikely but we wanted to rule it out,” the doctor said “we are running tests just in case. He didn’t have anything in his stomach.”

“No it’s pretty much all over our bedroom floor,” Evan grimaced at the thought of having to clean it later. “He’s been really tired lately and in a lot more pain than usual. He had tests scheduled for,” he took a deep breath before saying the next word “leukemia next week.”

“Ah,” the doctor nodded, “that might explain it. We took several blood samples and are waiting for the results.” He fell silent before continuing “his condition is serious but not critical. We’ll know more when the test results come back.”

“Can I see him?” Evan asked again “I just want to sit with him. He hates hospitals.”

The doctor gave him a tired grin “most people do. And yes you can see him.”

Once the doctor left Evan once again wondered if he had seen their friendly neighborhood reaper. How close had Jayden been to death? Shivering Evan tried to dismiss the thought but it was ever present as he walked the corridors to Jayden’s room. Of course Chris could have been there for some other unlucky patient but he just couldn’t shake the idea that he had been there for Jayden. Opening the door he found Jayden hooked up to the by now familiar machines and he had the uncomfortable feeling of deja vu and his mind spiraling back in time to when Josie was a toddler and Jayden was in a coma he almost didn’t come out of. As much as he sympathised with Jayden about hospitals it was ten times worse being the one waiting for the patient to come home. 

“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” Bobby demanded as soon as he walked into the house, slamming the door behind him. 

“Don’t blame me for your inadequacies,” his mother retorted, eyes glowing a menacing fiery red. 

“It would have been fine if you hadn’t rushed things,” he pulled out the necklace, “what did you do to it?”

“I removed the glow just as you asked me to do,” she said with a bland expression, crossing her arms in front of her.

“And,” he prompted.

“And what?”

“Don’t play stupid,” he shouted “I know you tampered with it.”

“Don’t take that tone with your mother,” a deep voice said as a menacing figure came into the kitchen. “She did what was necessary for our survival.”

Bobby’s eyes narrowed “I found the empath. She’s mine…”

“We didn’t touch your precious little empath,” his mother retorted.

“Just the older one,” his father added “and he was hardly a snack.”

“You were only supposed to take what you absolutely needed,” Bobby stomped his feet. 

“We were hungry,” his mother chuckled.

“You ruined everything,” Bobby persisted, “she’s suspicious and her father knows what I am.”

“Fix it,” his father said.

“I can’t fix it,” Bobby said, almost jumping up and down “she doesn’t trust me.”

“Calm down,” his father demanded, “your mother knows a spell that will wipe the events of tonight from their minds.”

“That’s not going to work,” Bobby said “these empaths have powerful friends. A reaper and a dragon god. They’ll be suspicious.” He hissed in pain as his father’s hand collided with his face leaving pins and needles in its wake.

“Don’t question us boy,” his father grumbled. “We can’t afford to give up on these Empaths. They’re rarer and rarer to find and two in the same house is a goldmine. Your mother will fix this.”

“All you’ll need to do is apologize and get the necklace back in her possession and all that will be left from tonight’s events will be a vague feeling of unease.”

Rubbing his cheek Bobby nodded. His parents weren’t about to move on until they had drained the empaths of their power and only their pitiful carcases were left. “Fine but you can’t dine like you did tonight. The older empath must live so the girl can grow strong. Their bond is too strong to cut her off from him.”

“We’ll do as we see fit,” his father said “now give your mother the necklace so she can make the modifications.”

“Fine,” Bobby said knowing he had done all he could to buy Josie and her father a little more time.

[oxpogues4lifexo]

Keeping up with the Camerons

TumblrTV

Keeping up with the Camerons

Trailer:

Transcript ( / means cut scene. Bold letters means host)

Five Kooks.

/

“Hello, I’m Ward Cameron.” He says holding a proud grin to the camera as he emphasises a wave.

/

One House.

/

“Hi, I’m Rose.” She speaks looking irritable, not enjoying the experience to come. The thought of her house full of strangers for a week, itching the back of her mind.

/

One week.

/

“You already know, I’m Rafe Cameron.” He gives the camera a wink as a lustful smirk sits on his face, his arms splayed out against the back of the couch.

/

The Cameron’s lives aren’t what you might expect.

/

“Hey, I’m Sarah.” She keeps a symmetrical smile, her face not looking as believable as she thinks; Her body held in closed language, expressing her lack of excitement.

/

Having money doesn’t always buy happiness.

/

“Immm.. Wheezie Cameron!” She stutters, the anxiety of the attention taking over, but managing a sweet smile to mask her nerves as she pats down her dress hem to keep her fingers occupied.

/

At most..

/

“And this is Keeping up with the Camerons!” Each word switching between every member of the family, a smile sat perfectly and proudly on each face.

/

A way out.

//

“The Cameron’s are literal lifesavers. They practically adopted me so of course they mean everything to me.”

/

“They think they can control me like I’m their kid or something.”

/

“They’ve really helped me out money wise. Without them I’d be living on the streets.”

/

“I love seeing her happy. They’ve really changed her life. Me? They hate me haha.”

/

“I think he’s in love with her..”

/

“That pogue hasn’t got half the shit I do what’s her fucking deal?”

“Better dick..”

/

“Sarah!!!”

/

“Oh if you ask me he’s head over heels for her. Don’t tell him I said that..”

/

“Having two extra bodies around makes everything ten times more difficult. I don’t even know how Ward likes them.”

/

“I’m in charge now!”

/

“News flash he ain’t your fucking dad bro!”

/

“We gotta do something about him..”

/

“This needs to stop!”

/

“Turn the fucking cameras off!”

//

Coming to TumblrTV soon..

Check out the Instagram page Here

Looking for the episode list? Look Here

Thank you for reading. Please be patient with the episode releases! ❤️🌹

Taglist:

@viawritesstuff @mymelodylvr @rafeinterlude

Masterlist

[thinplacesradio]

orange booths in a diner, orange stools along a counter behind, light bright behind it. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[032] AN ACT OF KINDNESS. A CALLER SHARES A MEMORY. THE HOST FINDS IT.

listen to the season 2 finale here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] [cutlery clinking, low diner sounds]

I’m coming to you, I don’t know, from my studio. I don’t know how to feel. I’m at a diner. I went back and back and back. I let the road take me here. My memory doesn’t go this far back, but - I think this is what I’ve been looking for. I think it’s the last thing that I almost-remember. I wish I had something like my name, instead. But I guess this’ll have to do. 

It looks really ordinary. ROADSIDE DINER, it says in neon, but both the Es are burned out. It’s painted orange, mirrors lining the inside to make it look bigger than it really is. It looks warm inside. Booths in a U along the edges, a counter in that half-ring in the middle, by the kitchen. A thousand places like this in the continental United States. But nowhere exactly like it. Not really. 

So what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Have you been chosen for something you never meant to do?

Have you given a gift to a stranger? 

Have you forgotten how you… came to this place? 

[sigh] When - When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

You can hear me now, can’t you? Oh, you can finally hear me! Good. Good. It takes time for the planes to line up. Sometimes they never do, so. 

Please don’t worry. I can’t give you your name. You don’t need it anymore. But I can give you a memory. I can give you the night we met. 

You came into the Roadside Diner, just off of I-70. You had that look on your face - that driving-all-night look. That running-away look. Not like you were being hunted. Like you didn’t even know what you were running away from. 

You sat in that booth by the back window, near the bathrooms - yes, yes, the one your eyes flicked over to just now. Remember? You ordered a coffee. I was at the counter, talking to the server, and I told her I didn’t have enough to pay for my meal. I said it quietly. There was no yelling. You just noticed. You were paying attention to every person in that diner. Even me. You said, I’ve got it, don’t worry. [huffed laugh] An act of kindness for a stranger. 

I slid into your booth to thank you, and you said - and I’m not going to get this all right, because memory’s, y’know, tricky - you said, don’t mention it. You said, I’m sure you would have done the same thing for me. So much trust. How could I not honor it? 

I asked you if you were alright, and you told me you weren’t sure. You got out of work that day and you got in your car and you just kept driving. You missed your exit. And you just kept driving, all the way into the night. Are you happy? I asked you. No, you told me. 

You didn’t know what was missing from your life, but you knew it was missing. What do you want? I asked you. I wanted to give it to you. And this - this I remember, because this was the important part. “I don’t know,” you said. “I’m just so tired of being a person.” 

[radio static] 

I put my hands over yours, and I nodded. I knew how to fix it. I asked you if you wanted to be something else. I asked you if you wanted to stop worrying. I gave it to you for free. A deal is a deal. A gift is a gift. 

Please don’t worry. I don’t know why you keep worrying. It doesn’t matter what came before. I made it so you never had to worry again. Food, clothes, money. Where to sleep, how to live, how to keep your heart from breaking. The road provides. The road will always provide. I freed you from entropy. I freed you from death. 

[the radio shrieks and fuzzes] 

I thought you’d stop running away. I thought you’d be happy with the way I repaid your kindness. I took your kindness and your curiosity and your interest in every little person and I turned it into something better. You were a person. [The voice changes from the distortion of a phone voicemail to clear speech.] So what? [They are now beside the host.]  I made you a legend. 

And I know it’s lonely, at first, to be like us. But you’re not the only one. 

You’re not alone. 

[click] 

The host: It’s you.

The entity: Yes. 

[click]

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the ROADSIDE diner just off I-70-] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides -] [The entity: the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal. The voice of [STATIC] is Omar Najam. 

Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪(717) 382-8093. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

[moodymisty]

Part 1 (some needed context)

Author's Note: Part two, as was requested. I need to stop listening to Halsey when I write, I always end up making things too verbose and hyperbolic.

Also pspspsps @rivalriotrenegade you wanted to be tagged in the sequel? Here you go.

Summary: Angron will be leaving soon, and he comes to take in a moment of you beforehand.

Relationships: Angron/Fem!Reader

Warnings: Angron being Angron, Vague descriptions of death violence and gore, General 40kness, The most emotionally stunted man in the galaxy receives an affection, Historitor!Reader is scared but in love horny

Word Count: 1942

Guilliman hadn’t been pleased with the news. 

It had arrived to him via a distressed captain who had been attempting to deal with the issue discretely up until now, but in his attempts to track down their missing historitor, he had found you in Angron’s company. You didn’t seem to be in any sort of severe peril, but the captain expressed his concerns of the World Eater’s Primarch trouncing when he didn’t belong, as well as encroaching on someone who might hold secrets to their legion. 

Guilliman agreed with most of the captain’s concerns, but also hesitated. His hand hovered over half written parchment as ink threatened to drop from the tip of his pen.

Roboute has no desire to pick a fight with another Primarch over one historitor. And if any information ended up in the hands of the World Eaters, he would know exactly where it came from. He would deal with the matter then as swiftly as he would any other traitor.

In the end, he simply instructs the captain to keep watch on the matter. 

The scenario is unique after all; You seem to be no traitor, but now spend almost all of your time in the presence of the World Eaters. Guilliman’s captain had described the scene in a confused manner, wondering as to why the Primarch had taken such a keen, almost obsessive interest in one soul in particular. Roboute thinks he has an inkling why, but his captain simply doesn’t have the experience to understand. Afterall he’s known nothing but battleship halls and bolters, these sorts of thoughts are… Foreign. 

With no solid solution and the threat of a legion wide war with any misstep, The Macragge native elects to largely abandon the matter, and mark any information related to you with a note saying to refer to the relevant paperwork for more information.

—------------------------------

The Conqueror is the first Gloriana class battleship you’ve ever seen in anything but historical documents, and those transcriptions fail to even capture a hint of the overwhelming scale of the massive battleship. The barges you’ve seen are huge, but even they don’t compare to the size of the World Eater’s flagship.

It stays moored in the planet’s upper atmosphere, but it’s impossible not to see it lingering in the sky alongside a myriad of other ships. Servitors and other such are loading heaps of supplies into low orbit cruisers to bring back up to the massive battleship, preparing it for another long journey out into the reaches of Imperium space.

Part of you wonders if Angron expects you to join him. You desperately hope not, but in another odd sort of way, you find it almost saddening to be without him for an extended period of time. You know that there are horrors out there that can rend the mind into pieces, that being behind Terra’s walls is to be afforded a luxury so few in the galaxy will touch that the mere thought of leaving should cast you in an unbearable shame. But it seems so completely ridiculous to say that you’ll miss him. Though the thought still crosses your mind anyhow.

You hear the sounds of his heavy footsteps approaching. You’ve been away from his side most of the day, so you figured it was due time for him to eventually hunt you down. He stands not a step away from you once he finds his hunt for you concluded, looking outward towards the mass of Terran servitors and other workers hauling World Eaters requisitions to where ever they're needed.

“You are staying. If you are wondering.” 

Part of you feels a sense of relief from it. While you might have a fondness for Angron, his World Eaters are significantly less appealing to you. They only tolerate your existence due to the repeated threats of their Primarch. Khârn has also questioned his genefather; The still unfilled crack in his ceramite armor remains as evidence of it. His doubt had hurt, but you can’t help but feel his questioning was justified. 

It’s not as if you can do much for them, beyond what you do for their Primarch. In the eyes of men bred for war, you’re the meaningless byproduct of a planet they protect more because they enjoy the bloodshed of doing so than anything else. Whether you are alive or dead is a meaningless query to them.

You curiously look up at Angron, who is gazing over the massive shipyard.

"You're leaving soon, I suppose." The Primarch lets out an affirmative grunt in response.

It hasn’t been long of you knowing him, and you’re still cautiously testing what territory can be tread, and what very much cannot be. There’s not much of the former, and plenty of the ladder.

You have learned that he seems to enjoy whenever how larger and stronger he is than you- when his prowess in brutal combat, is prominent. That isn’t a hard thing to achieve, given his height you stand at roughly his midsection. The Primarch absolutely towers over you and while he knows it sends fear through you, you fight it. 

As you watch over the railing you suddenly feel a heavy weight on your shoulder, and glancing to your left it’s easy to see the bronze colored gauntlet that now rests there.

You know that whenever he does that, a weight on your body, he’s attempting to take solace in the weird ability you somehow possess. You gently lay a hand over his armored one, fingers brushing over the knicks and scratches of his worn, battered plate. He’s worn it for many years, it shows the story of endless battles and it’s still able to hold so many more.

You don’t know how long it’ll be till you see him again. The warp, it’s, power; Time doesn’t work the same way out there that it does on Terra. You want to give him one last before he leaves, but you hope that it doesn’t ruin the little bit of progress you’ve made with him.

“Can you, bend over? So I can reach you?” 

You don’t know what you had expected for when you hesitantly asked, but you hadn’t expected the Primarch to indulge you. 

His massive weight shifts, landing on his right knee with a loud enough thud, that you swear the marble beneath his knee plate is surely cracked. With him at this height, your hands can touch his face, feeling the way it’s decorated with a million different little scars. Some large- thick, deep cuts like one over his brow, or over his lips. Others are smaller, not visible from so far away but you can feel them under your fingertips.

“Can you tell me how you got some of these one day?”

Angron grunts.

“The arena, most of them. I killed anyone who struck me. They are nothing but sand now.”

Your face drops. Sometimes you forget that Angron has never felt anything but pain his entire life. And it’ll continue, as the nails will never be removed. What little you can do to them only serves to prolong what he feels. Your fingers brush over more of his mauled skin.

One might call it cruel. But you want him to have at least a few moments of peace in his life.

Your fingertips brush along the scarred skin around where the nails dig into his skull, glancing at his expression. It’s softened ever so slightly, but you can see anger still etched into his skin. 

You don’t know how you went from the brain hijacking, heart wrenching terror, to feeling this way. Part of you will still always remain frightened of him; Of the sheer strength he can barely keep in check in the best of moments, that is always boiling beneath the surface. But there’s something that over time has gradually fallen over that terror like a thick heavy curtain draped atop a coffin.

You love him.

In a way that makes you sick to your stomach, churning in a way that has you petrified to be near him, but also away from him.

You can’t say that he’s been kind. You’d be stupid to even assume as such; Even with the key you hold, he’s still him. His grip on you is rough- your body has bruises from shoulder to wrist, he speaks to you in short quips. He uses more words now, but he still will never reflect back whatever you give him. You can see the moments where he tries, but he simply isn’t capable of it. You can’t ask a man who’s known nothing but endless pain and suffering to suddenly not rip and tear every hand that reaches for him. But you can maybe numb it- put bandages over gushing wounds and cover scars, trying to give a modicum of kindness before he’s sunken down too deep into his own abyss. 

You can feel him watch you as your hands touch his face, his brow is tight knit and his armor makes soft metal noises as pieces gently knock against each other when he shifts. The hand that had been on your shoulder has long since moved, it now wraps around your elbow instead; As if he’s debating removing you.

You hold a softness in your eyes reserved for the closeness of family, friends, or lovers. He’s so rarely seen it that recognizing it was nearly impossible for him. But you look at him like that, like he’s the only thing in your world that matters. Your hands touch his face so gently he swears he can’t feel them. Like they would fall right through him as if attempting to touch a hologram.

How? 

Angron doesn't understand why. He isn’t something you can love. There’s just, nothing in him capable of receiving or reciprocating it. He’s done nothing but kill, tear, maim, splatter every wall he’s near with the blood of others or his own. 

To be the object of another’s affection is a laughable concept. He’s a creature, a creation of war; Lorgar likes to call the Primarchs the product of the Emperor’s Mastery, his sons, as much as the phrase makes bile rise in his throat- but Angron knows he’s nothing but a pieced together amalgamation of DNA made to fulfill a purpose. He was not made to feel any of this. 

You kiss him. 

You feel his hot breath on your face, his hands clenching into fists and threatening to dent the ceramite of his armor. He tries to funnel his anger there; His anger at the galaxy, at the Emperor, at the thought that you actually are stupid enough to think there’s something in him worthy of paying this level of gentleness to. He’s never felt things like this before. He’d never wanted to; Because he knows that the pain of it being taken away hurts far worse than the pain of never feeling it to begin with.

His face is rough as he pushes back into you, and you feel pleased to know that you didn’t overstep. He hears your soft sigh as you lean into him, hands still on his face.

But Angron knows there will be a point where you can numb it no longer. The nails are a part of him, an ever growing sea pulling him deeper and deeper into a blood red abyss. It drags him down no matter how hard he fights it, with no hope of safety or even temporary sanctuary. 

When he’s fully under, when he can no longer see ally from foe and your face and touch and voice becomes no more soothing to him than the likes of any incomprehensible field of demons yearning for his blade to slice their hide, as his nails scream and bite and beg for him to taste blood;

He dares to hope only then will someone fulfill his role of taking anger unto themself, and put him out of his torment.

[veinsfullofstars]

“What? I never said knighthood was easy.”

(ID: Kirby series fanart comic of young Dedede and Meta sitting side by side on a circle of grass, having a conversation about leadership and the future. Transcript below the cut. END ID.)

More childhood friends AU. Guess I’m on a role right now. Too many ideas, not enough time!

Started 10/10/23, finished 10/12/23, updated 03/11/24, updated for color correction 11/02/24. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 10/12/23. | Childhood Friends AU Masterpost

---

Transcript:

Panel 1

Dedede: *sitting grumpily* Hmph! Stupid Ms. Squishy and her stupid group projects. Who does she think she is callin’ me a bad leader?

Meta: *gazing lazily skyward* Well, you did kinda make the other kids do all the work for you, so…

Panel 2

Dedede: *holds arms out in exasperation* Hey, it got done, didn’t it? That’s already better than, like, half the class - they didn’t even finish their dioramas! We’d’ve flunked for sure if it weren’t for my excellent direction! And my awesome ideas!

Meta: Didn’t you get a C, anyway?

Panel 3

Dedede: *holds arm up confidently* You’ll see, Meta! Once I’m big and strong enough, I’m gonna be the best leader this town’s ever seen! No - better! I’ll be the King of Dream Land itself!

Meta: *looks uncertain* “King”? Hmm. I dunno, Dee. Sounds like a lot of work. (And you and work don’t exactly get along great…)

Panel 4

Dedede: *arms behind head, eyes shut, confident* Psh! Nah, bein’ King’s easy! All ya gotta do is sit on a throne and look regal all day! It’ll be a breeze, ‘specially since I’ll have you as my first knight.

Meta: *turns sharply to face Dedede, tiny wings perked up in surprise* Wh- Me?? A knight?

Panel 5

Dedede: *smiling and winking at Meta* Uh, duh! I mean, who else would I trust to keep me safe while I rule? Only someone as strong and cool and brave as me, that’s who!

Meta: *smiles and hides bashfully behind his hands, little wings curled around him* O-Oh… Uh, heh. Well, when you put it that way… (He think’s I’m brave?)

Panel 6

Meta: *looks skeptically at Dedede* Wait. If being King’s so easy, then what would I need to keep you safe from?

Dedede: *staring skyward with a straight face* Assassins, mostly.

Panel 7

Meta: *sweating, wings drooping, eyes shrunken in fear* …

[jokeroutsubs]

[ENG SUB] 🎈Birthday special🍰 Bojan Cvjetićanin and Jan Peteh for Radio Sora (07.11.2024)

On the 7th of November 2024, Jan and Bojan were interviewed by Radio Sora. They talked about what they achieved in 2024, signing up with a booking agency, working with producer Žare Pak, the tour offers from Australia and New York and the importance of being vocal about what’s happening in the world.

They also played 'Bluza' live and at the end recorded a sweet message for new year!

Transcript by X coffeebiscuitxx and drumbeat, translation by drumbeat and @chaosofsmarty, review by drumbeat and IG 10_anja, proofread by X klámstrákur and IG Gboleyn123, subtitles by drumbeat and IG marija_rocen. Slovene proofreading by X coffeebiscuitxx.

Transcript below the cut! 👇

Host: Good morning. The show 'Sveže Praženo' ('Freshly Roasted') is back on the air. Just like every Thursday, we’re serving fresh music, but only the kind of music that’s seriously captivating. And if I can be a bit kitschy right now the most global Slovenian band, Joker Out. Joining me in the studio are Bojan and Jan. Even though an early hour is a Slovenian musicians' nemesis, you two look pretty good for just a bit past eight.

Bojan: Good morning. Thank you very much for the lovely compliment.

Jan: Good morning.

Bojan: You don’t look shabby yourself. Yeah, great introduction, thank you so much. It seems to me, though, there... that this title should really go to Laibach.

[inaudible] bands? Why Laibach?

Bojan: Well, the most global, right?

Aha, okay, okay. If we’re talking about the present, though...

Bojan: But you said you’d be overly sweet, so yeah, I accept it.

Yeah.

Bojan: It's us.

I drink coffee without sugar, so now I have to sweeten this interview. The first one was 'Everybody's Waiting', everyone is waiting to shine, but once we shine, we get overwhelmed with unease, anxiety, we yearn for peace, searching for a lighthouse, to guide us back to normalcy. Now I want to know where you are, where Joker Out is, where you both are, if we separate the private from the band? You've been shining, you went abroad, made it abroad as well. And then, as you say in this song, when you get into the limelight, the pressure gets to you, and you start longing for the peace you had before. Can you find it? Maybe start with Bojan.

Bojan: I’d say yes... yes, you can... you can find peace. But you have to reconcile with a few things first, let's say, reflect on the things happening around you. At first glance, everything seems really, I'd say, enormous, like a wave that will sweep you away. But then you realize you’ve got a surfboard, and you are able to ride that wave. To refer to...

Portugal.

Bojan: Right, yeah, referring to... to our conversation before recording started.

Well, by the way, he was on vacation, in Portugal, and surfing. Everyone assumed he was...

Bojan: I was just watching, I was watching, watching the surfers.

Just watching?

Bojan: Yeah, I didn’t surf.

Oh, okay. But they thought you were a pro, and then you said you’re a pro somewhere else, but not in surfing, right?

Bojan: Yeah.

Well, let’s get back to the first...

Bojan: Let’s move forward. Anyway... yeah, a lot of new feelings awaken in you when things start happening on such an unexpectedly large scale. A lot of fears you weren’t aware of emerge, a lot of doubts you didn’t know you had also... also surface. And in a short span of time,under great pressure, you have to deal with it all, and you... you manage. And... I don't know? It seems to me that this album is a reflection of a very turbulent period for us, practically a year and a half since we made 'Carpe Diem' and went to Eurovision. It will also be evident in the music that a lot of different things were going on in our heads during this time.

That’s just it. At the beginning of the year, you went to the UK, went for a Queen-style retreat, well, if we're... I try to refer to Queen, who also needed a break to create in peace, right. But you landed there and suddenly found yourself in a foreign environment where you discovered your primal nature. You can hear it in the music, at least in what you’ve released so far, the Balkan nature. Even Stefanovski would be proud of certain riffs.

Jan: Stefanovski, yes.

Maybe... maybe...

Jan: Now you’re... you're really sweet-talking us.

That’s a compliment, isn’t it, for...

Jan: Yes, absolutely.

... for a guitarist?

Jan: It's absolutely a compliment, that’s why I’m saying... Vlatko Stefanovski... one of my favorites.

He is, right?

Jan: At least... at least from this...

I agree. Ehm, so how was it? You got there, what did you do?

Jan: We arrived at a pretty nice... actually, actually at a very nicely organised part of North London. We rented a house where we...

Bojan: A tiny house.

Jan: Yeah, a former stable.

Bojan: A former stable.

Jan: We rented a former stable, which...

That’s even more Queen-like, isn’t it?

Bojan: Yes.

Because they made 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in a stable, right?

Jan: Yes, exactly.

A prettier stable.

Jan: So...

Bojan: And a bigger stable.

Jan: And a bigger stable, right. But yeah, in that stable we lived—both literally and metaphorically, we also... we also rented a rehearsal space under a bridge, it was a damp room where everything was half covered in mold, so...

Bojan: And, by the way, the owner of that space was, by a stroke of luck, an immigrant from Serbia to the UK.

Jan: Yeah, right.

I believe wherever we Slovenes go, in the first pub or house, we meet either a Serb, a Bosnian, or, I don't know, maybe a Kosovar.

Bojan: Or a Croat or just one... one of our own.

A brother.

Bojan: Yeah, a brother.

Jan: Just recently... I was in Paris...

And again.

Jan: As soon, as soon as I landed in Paris, I went for a drink at the first pub I saw, the waiter was Bosnian.

Bojan: Of course.

Jan: Right.

Bojan: You remember Malmö.

Same?

Jan: From Postojna.

Bojan: The hotel waiter was from Postojna.

There you go, at least... at least you get to meet a Slovene everywhere.

Bojan: Yes.

So, we Slovenes are almost a global nation. Anyway, you got there, had the stable, had the place, had...

Jan: We didn’t have any song ideas yet. We tried to come up with them somehow, because, if you... if you want to record ten songs or at least eight, which I think we did, you need to have some ideas before entering the studio. So we tried to use the two months we spent in London to focus on that.

That’s it. I mean, when a musician looks for inspiration, and doesn’t even have one riff ready, what do you do? I mean, if your mind is blank, you go...

Bojan: You go to London.

And party, right.

Bojan: Yeah.

What do you mean, yeah?

Bojan: We didn’t even party that much.

I mean, do you climb a hill or something, do you try falling in love a little bit, and look for inspiration that way? Where did you find inspiration for the first song you created up there? Come on.

Bojan: Yes, the first song was 'Šta bih ja'. I only had 'Šta bih ja u ovoj crnoj noći bez tebe radio' ready, and then everything came together really well with the fact that we were in a foreign city, so I believe that soon after the riff came  'U ovom gradu nemam kuće ni adrese' and 'U ovom gradu nemam nikog koga znam', and then... Damjan Jović told me that once you have the main verse of the song, which already clearly outlines the story, you have the song. He told me once when I said, "Oh, I don’t have the song, I have the story though," and he said, "Then don’t worry, you already have the song." And actually, he’s right. Once you... you have... when you know what you’re going to talk about, you have the song. You just have to put it into words, but you already have the song.

That’s true. I think it was Noel Gallagher who said: "Write the fucking chorus," right.

Bojan: Yes.

And... that’s the essence of the song, right?

Bojan: Yes.

Yeah, then everything else builds around that, the music probably came...

Bojan: Absolutely.

... from all of you, right? Now, if we go back to the beginning, 'Gola' was a real hit, right? I was honestly really into music back then, but I was into different music, drum and bass, but I remember this girl who was always into house music, and every night she’d dance to her playlist and then came this banger 'Gola', right, and she said, "This is really good." The song 'Gola' really propelled you forward, right.

Bojan: Yes, 'Gola'...

Was that the first song you made with Žare, or have you made one prior to it? The first one, right?

Bojan: Yes, actually, it was interesting. I went with Žare to the premiere of a Tabu band film at Kino Bežigrad in 2019, I'd say, that is...  in early... in the pre-summer months, I'd say,

That was the early phase of COVID, right?

Bojan: No, no way? That was 2020.

Oh, right.

Bojan: April 2020, March. But I went with... anyway, we and Žare started working on 'Gola' then and we went together to the movie premiere and no one really knew me there, from the people in the music industry. Some people even asked if I was Žare’s son, and then 'Gola' came out, a few months later, in September if I’m not mistaken, and it really took off very quickly...

I think it caught on.

Bojan: Yes, it was a very noticeable leap, suddenly, almost everyone knew, I'd say, at least in this world, what was the most shocking thing for Žare. He said... actually, Žare said that he had never seen such an effect so quickly before.

Yeah. I feel like Žare knows how to remove the ballast, right, and leave just the parts that are essential. But now I need to ask you something I've been told by a lot of people "Žare Pak can be harsh," right. Now Deklevc, Peter Dekleva, told me what he was like with Polonca. But Polonca was a bit of a diva, so he had to ground her a bit. I've heard a story though, that you showed up to sing, right, and he told you, "Come on, Bojč, go home and study a bit more."

Bojan: Yes.

Is this true?

Bojan: He didn’t say, "Go home and study a bit more." but I came to the studio to sing 'Gola', and he stopped me after, that is, I hadn’t even finished singing 'Zimsko jutro hladno gre skoz mene'. I mean, I sang it, and he already stopped me, gave me maybe two tries, then he asked, "How do you say 'zimsko'?" I said, "Zimsko." "No, 'zimsko'." "Yes, 'zimsko'." "No, 'zimsko', 'zimsko'. The word 'zimsko', you know i' [pronounces with a long 'i'], not i' [pronounces with a short 'i']. Articulation." Anyway, I was recording that vocal part for probably about a month, maybe even a bit more. In between, when I... Sometimes I stepped in front of the microphone, after two seconds he’d send me home. Until the day I came home and started listening...

To yourself.

Bojan: ... to myself. and he also told me to stop singing, but to tell the story that I was singing. And after that whole grueling process, I cried at home once under the shower, literally, and listened to what was going on, and started discovering how the shower vibrates differently if I...

Sing differently.

Bojan: ... sing differently, so I came back the next day to the studio and sang the whole song. He let me do the whole take. And I was like, "Okay, this is it, right, I... I recorded it, right." Then I came out and asked, "So, how was it?" And he said, "It was a mess... But now at least you know what you’re singing."

Yeah, yeah. How much does Žare...  how much leeway does he have? I know that when a producer begins working with a band... I know that back then you were young, a blank canvas, he really shaped you and you created something extraordinary together, like the song 'Gola' and all the other songs that followed. But now you know a thing or two, right, about the music industry about how songs are made. Do you still, when he tries to refine the songs, do you let him or do you go: "Whoa, whoa, whoa"? Or basically... do you just cooperate together in a...

Jan: I think he...

… symbiotic way?

Jan: ... still has a very apparent influence... still on us. For instance, with 'Šta bih ja,' we came to Hamburg to the studio on the first day. We had been playing the song during the whole of the March tour, which was, I believe 21 concerts.

Across Europe, right?

Jan: Across the whole of Europe, yes. We came to the studio thinking, "We’ve got this song," right, we’d been playing it for a month now. We got to the studio, started playing, Žare was about to have a nervous breakdown or something... I don’t know exactly what his initial reaction was, but... but it was...

What... was it too much guitar?

Jan: No, it wasn’t too much guitar.

Bojan: Not enough song.

Jan: Not enough song. So, we do know something, but we do... he's still an important... important part.

The producer, right. Now, before we get to the music, if I can summarise: you finished the European tour, you sold out the vinyl from the sold-out Stožice arena, which was also a leap forward. You played at Križanke, sold out, moved to Stožice, sold out, and as far as I’ve heard, also the concerts on the European tour – most were sold out, right? Is that right? Those were... what, concerts the size of...?

Bojan: Mostly concerts the size of Cvetličarna or Štuk.

The best.

Bojan: Yes.

So, around 1000 people, right?

Bojan: Exactly.

Yeah, yeah. Then you signed a contract with an agency.

Bojan: Yeah.

What does that mean?

Bojan: Well, yes, I mean we signed a contract with an agency, but in reality, we signed a deal with booking agent Ryan Penty, who is a British booking agent, working for this big global booking company Wasserman, which handles from Coldplay onwards...

Jan: NBA players.

Bojan: NBA players are on their roster, yes, totally, because they deal with bookings and being agents not just in the music industry but across different industries.

Oh, okay.

Bojan: But, to sum up, Ryan is the booker for Lewis Capaldi, whom we also met in England, as he came to our gig in London. And at that time Ryan said it was amazing, because he came to the gig and expressed interest in working together, so we had an online meeting. We confirmed the collaboration and since then, we’ve been very, very satisfied with his work, as he operates at a top professional level. He's completely eliminated any doubts one might have, such as: "This is someone in England working with big names, will he take time for us? Will it mean anything to him?" Actually he’s constantly in touch with us, makes time for meetings, he's proactive, so we're really very, very happy with Ryan.

Exactly. In Finland, you received a gold record for the single 'Carpe Diem', and last year, it was the most-played domestic song back at home. Then there was Sziget, Exit...

Bojan: Ruisrock.

Ruisrock.

Bojan: Ruisrock.

Yes, I mean, when you perform at Sziget and Exit and that other festival, which sounds pretty big, the only thing left is Glastonbury, right?

Bojan: Yeah, English festivals are really hard to get into. Namely, British organisers truly prefer local acts, which is such a nice mindset, I'd say, and it’s something to appreciate, right, because they have a lot of talent and musicians there, so of course, the big names come from all over the world, but for that minor league and middle league...

They prioritise locals for that?

Bojan: They prefer local acts, so it’s a bit harder to break in, but we absolutely hope that we’ll somehow...

Yeah, but my friend was at Sziget and said... what was it, it was just after the storm, right, was it right after the storm?

Bojan: Probably the day before, if at all.

Oh, that’s how it was. And it was comfortably hot, but when you’re on the big stage and the audience doesn’t know you, of course the Slovenian audience knows you, the main thing is to draw people to the concert, right, and you managed to do that, which means that... that the music works, even abroad, despite having to break the language barrier.

Bojan: Yeah, festivals are a bit weird, because the reactions are so diverse. For instance, when we arrived at Exit, we had practically 20,000 people singing along, right. At Ruisrock in Finland, we had a packed stage half an hour before midnight when we started playing... which is basically in broad daylight, because in the summer, the sun never sets down there, but the energy was truly, truly insane. When you hear 7,000 Finns singing during the entire concert, it’s insane.

Finns singing in Slovenian.

Bojan: Absolutely.

Jan: Yes.

Amazing.

Jan: It’s quite a phenomenon.

Can they manage 'č', 'ž', 'š'?

Bojan: Full throttle.

Jan: A bit softer, like 'š', 'š' [pronouncing soft 'š'].

Bojan: When they’re together, you can't hear the difference.

Jan: No, no.

The best.

Bojan: Romania.

Jan: Romanians.

Bojan: Insane. Like, there were a few of those. Poland...

Wow.

Bojan: So I forgot what I was talking about, but it was really great.

We touched on festivals,  we moved on to more local concerts, but now... let’s play a bit of music to take a break. 'Šta bih ja,' as already mentioned, you can feel a nice Balkan musical theme here... Stefanovski for a guitarist...

Jan: Vlatko Stefanovski, yeah.

But actually, I leaned more to 'Suada' by Plavi orkestar. I know Saša was still a teenager at that time, and it really launched him, in a way, as well.

Bojan: Yeah.

To the starry skies of Balkan. It happened to you too, but yes, it's about a long-distance love, you were heading to UK, as we’ve already mentioned. As Bojan describes in the song - well, you all describe it... lonesome strangers, searching for love on the streets of London at night like musical streetwalkers.

Bojan: Yeah, that’s exactly who we are, musical streetwalkers.

Here we go, a music break, and back to the 'Sveže praženo' show.

'Šta bih ja' and Joker Out, in the early hours, on air at Radio Sora, with me in the studio are Bojan and Jan. We’ve already discussed where they’ve been, what they’ve done, where they sold out, now let’s move on to questions we've all been wondering about. Your colleagues and musician friends listen, they talk proudly about the Jokers, this is hearsay, I may be exaggerating a bit, but nevertheless, I’ve heard all of this, now tell us what you can: Australian tour, New York, opening act  for Kings of Leon next year on the European tour.

Jan: What... what would we choose from all of that?

No, what of it is true.

Bojan: What of it is true. Yeah, it’s true that we had two offers for the Australian tour. We should have played in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. We turned both offers down, because timewise and planwise they just didn't fit into the bigger picture. We hope, of course, we get to go one day, but the timing really wasn't right this time. Actually, if I’m not mistaken, right now we should have been in Australia, and that would mean we couldn’t be on 'Sveže praženo', and that would be awful.

Here we go, Škofja Loka, that’s how... that’s how cool we are.

Bojan: Absolutely.

Thanks, Bojan.

Bojan: New York - we also had a confirmation for a concert at Mercury Lounge, but unfortunately, we sealed the deal a bit too late, to obtain the work visas for performing in New York in time, because our musician friends, both Slovenian and two British, warned us that they can reject your entry at the border without a work visa, or even give you a ban on entering the USA for a year, which is what one of our colleagues got for five years, if I’m not mistaken.

Jan: Mhm.

A musical colleague?

Bojan: A musical colleague from... actually from Northern Ireland. So yeah, we didn’t manage to pull it off in time, unfortunately, and we couldn’t go to New York. But I believe that one day we’ll go, because based on the statistics we have about our listeners, we can see that we actually have a pretty good number of listeners in the USA. New York, is a bit of an epicenter, I think there are about 12,000 active listeners, which is... pretty solid. I mean, for one show, it should be enough, right.

And New York is also a great gateway to the rest of America, right.

Jan: Kings of Leon still haven’t called us though.

Bojan: Kings of Leon haven’t called us, I don’t know which... who started that rumor.

Isn’t it interesting in a way? I heard it from two different sources, but hey, maybe now we’ve wished on a little star, and they’ll hear it.

Jan: Because Kings of Leon will be listening to...

Bojan: 'Šta bih ja'?

Jan: Yeah.

Bojan: Can you imagine if Kings of Leon are now listening to 'Sveže praženo'?

Jan: Yeah, sure.

Crazy. And they don’t understand a word, but...

Bojan: But they totally love it.

Totally, yeah. With everything...

Bojan: When Kings of Leon heard [inaudible].

I'm curious about this: last time... last time I caught you, actually you and Kris, at Gušti's gig. At the end he was quite blown away because time really flies, and when you're young you don't realise you're living in the spring of your life. Fed Horses actually sang that, but it's a good point. Do you ever say to yourselves, or do you two ever say to yourselves, when you're with the band after a good gig: "Darn, that's it. Let's stop a bit and take in the moment, let's breathe a little, so everything doesn't... pass too quickly."

Bojan: I'd say that this decision, to present the album only in the area of, let's say, the Balkans, and on smaller stages, is sort of that kind of moment. The big question was "what do we do now?" Last year we did Stožice, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we had, I think, the best time at Cvetličarna, when we were presenting our first album - we really really enjoyed it. You're close to the fans, there's just enough of them so it's not a small space, and there's just too little of them to make it feel detached, so...

Do tell, the first one is sold out...

Bojan: Oh, yeah.

... at Cvetličarna, a bit of promo.

Bojan: Yes, Cvetličarna was sold out, the first one.

On the twenty-second.

Bojan: That's right. And we added the 23rd of November and I think there's about a third of the tickets left, so around 500. And now I want to say that out loud again, because so many people keep messaging me, because they've only seen the first one and it sold out, but they haven't...

Gotten to the other...

Bojan: Gotten to the other information, so we've added another concert.

The 23rd of November in Cvetličarna. Whoever wants to join a Balkan tour with you, they can catch you... No, Belgrade is sold out, of course.

Bojan: Yes, Belgrade is sold out. They can catch us in Zagreb, which is on the 3rd of December at Tvornica Kulture.

Good venue.

Bojan: Very good venue.Last year we played there twiceand it's really awesome.So there, too, there'sabout a third of the tickets left.They can catch us... I don't knowabout Novi Sad, I think they...

Jan: Novi Sad is the 26th of November.

Bojan: On the 26th of November they can catch us in Novi Sad.

Jan: And in Maribor, of course.

Bojan: Oh.

Jan: At Štuk.

Bojan: Štuk.

Jan: On the 6th of December.

There, we've listed a few dates now.

Bojan: And in Vienna.

Well, if we go a bit northern.

Jan: Or in Skopje.

Or in Skopje. If you'd prefer going to the South. Tell me this, too: a band has to be critical to all the crap happening in the world, right, but sometimes you get the feeling that today, because of all this information and because of the fact that a certain bit of information, which stands out, quickly spreads across all media, right... a lot of bands are quite careful here, because you can quickly offend someone. You also touched on the topic of Palestine in one of the upcoming singles, right?

Bojan: Yes, the album will have the single 'Sonce', which was this very direct... very direct reflection of how I experienced everything that was going on. A lot of... Really this sort of information bombing on a daily basis in terms of everything, but yes, these wars that've started all over and are sort of passing by like trends, and we all follow them, while at the same time we're booking dinners, searching what to buy ourselves with the biggest discounts possible online, and watc... well really this...

Instant.

Bojan: We're living an interesting double life. One moment, we're looking at the number of...

Casualties, right?

Bojan: how many... how many people died somewhere for totally no reason and people whose literal basic human rights are being violated. On the other hand we still have our comfort and our luxury, right?

Yes, and as a musician you can do something, get the word out about it. Have a sort of power, actually, do you have it?

Bojan: I don't know. Given that musicians have always sung about war, right, if... if Lennon's 'Imagine' didn't do anything, then I doubt Joker Out's 'Sonce' will manage to achieve something, but for those few, who listen it might change...

Or send them to the streets.

Bojan: I hope so. Yes.

Who knows?

Bojan: So yeah, there will be... there are two songs on the album, which are a reflection of these times, I'd say. Even 'Carpe Diem' really already pointed towards it. A lot of people heard just "We'll dance all night long We'll love each other and play," and not the whole lyrics, but thissong was actually the start of it.

Politically tinged.

Bojan: That's right.

Yes. Now, before finally moving onto the album, and finish this conversation and you play 'Bluza' live... What are your personalities like? Do you have little boxes with checkmarks, or do you simply set goals as you go? Or, as dad said, you're the happiest when you set on a road to a goal, when you reach the goal you immediately have to set your next one, so you don't get lazy.

Jan: I'd say that more from... when I freestyle life a bit more, a bit like... Yeah, exactly that, right, when you get to a goal, you know... what's coming next.

You know? Or do you just wish?

Jan: Yes, I think you know, what your next step is, or at least I do. Okay, of course I also have... some general goals in life, but I don't know, I don't plan out everyday tasks.

No, not that. But in general you have... you know what you want in private, in public, in the band, right?

Jan: Yes.

Yes. Bojan?

Bojan: I'd say that this year I've accomplished all the goals I've had in the bigger picture, when it comes to my musical endeavours. We really got much further than I'd dared hope when we... when we were starting this journey, so actually these goals now become more of this sort of, how to say, sort of achieving an inner satisfaction. You see the enjoyment in the future, that you'll be able to achieve more than a sort of goal. I don't know, it's.. that's about how I imagine that.

Jan: Well, maybe that's how it's always been.

Bojan: Oh? I don't know? I'm not sure. I sort of don't have this pressure... I won't be sad, even if I don't achieve anything else. That's how I'll put it.

Good. I hope we all someday reach that. Now... every time I have an interview, it's actually better to get to know the personality of the singer or the guitarist or whoever comes, right, because everyone knows the music. And when a 15-year-old, a 25-year-old, a 45-year-old listen to your song, they create their own picture of the singer and band in general, right, and sometimes ideals are created. But when they listen to the voice, the conversation, the personality, they actually feel the... the person more. How much do you present yourselves on a silver platter after the concert? Because (female) fans are probably there, right? Well, they certainly exist.

Jan: They exist.

They exist. Do you have a certain ritual after... after the concert, first as a band, and then how much do you let the fans in, or are you actually fed up with this sphere and just want peace and quiet?

Bojan: No, generally... generally after a concert it's nice to calm down for a few minutes, change clothes and shower, if we can, or shower and then change. Now, not every concert is the same, in terms of the conditions to meet and greet fans. Sometimes we're in a hurry to our next stop, like if we're on tour and there's a 12, 14-hour journey by bus in front of us, we have to pack up and leave really quickly. But sometimes... time allows us to, so I think we've hung out with the fans quite a lot so far. Sometimes we unfortunately have to make a break, and say we can't do it, because there's clearly too many people, who we wouldn't even be able to control, and often people find it hard to understand, but it's genuinely not a safe situation, with that many people piled together, who can't be... We don't exactly have superpowers, to be able to...

Everyone...

Bojan: Everyone... to handle everyone. But when we're able to, we're always, we're always available. So I'd say, especially after talking to some other musicians, that we've spent a lot of time with fans, especially on the tours in winter, when it's -8 °C outside after the gig, an hour or two have passed after the concert outside, so...

Bojan and Jan are giving me their autographs for my children today, but whoever wants to, can come here and can copy it, there.

Bojan: Absolutely.

For the ending, let's... we've said, again, November 22nd in Cvetličarna is sold out, November 23rd is still available, afterwards you can catch them in Štuk or on their Balkan tour. The album is coming on the 15th of November.

Bojan: Yes.

That's the correct date?

Bojan: That's it.

Jan: It is.

You've mentioned ten songs.

Bojan: That's true.

Ten songs. We know four so far.

Bojan: That's right.

'Everybody's Waiting', 'Sunny Side of London', 'Šta bih ja' and 'Bluza'.

Bojan: No, actually it's 'Carpe Diem', 'Everybody's Waiting'...

Aha, 'Carpe Diem'.

Bojan: ... 'Šta bih ja' and 'Bluza'. 'Sunny Side of London' isn't on the album.

Oh, I see, I see. So there's six entirely new songs coming. Now, you'll be playing 'Bluza' today, if you'll want to hear the next single, is that from the 15th of November onwards, or is there more coming before that?

Jan: Let's keep that a secret.

There, we're being secretive. Now, thank you for visiting this studio.

Bojan: Thank you.

I've got to admit, we were waking up together. Darn, I need quite a few hours to put myself together, I don't know how you two handle these early, early hours?

Bojan: Beautifully.

Beautifully. But do you go to bed early? Do you actually...

Bojan: Early in the morning.

Jan: Yes, early, yes, at about four AM...

Bojan: We go to bed early in the morning.

But the album is already now... the difficult things are done and now you can reap the pleasant part, right?

Bojan: That's true.

Yeah. Bojan, Jan, thank you for your visit. Now you'll play something live, too: 'Bluza' Now everyone, who'll hear 'Bluza' and Joker Out, will say: "Yeah, these guys really love to open and unbutton their blouses" but actually I interpret this song as more of like we sometimes close a button too much, and then you feel short of breath in life.

Bojan: Interesting, because the title 'Bluza' actually doesn't have any connection to a blouse as a shirt.

It doesn't?

Bojan: In the song it's 'ja u ritmu tvoga bluza'...

Oh.

Bojan: And the song's title is 'Bluza', but other than that it doesn't have any blouses in it.

I see.

Bojan: But there is the blues.

There is the blues. Have a nice day, and see you next time in the show 'Sveže praženo'.

Bojan: Woohoo!

Jan: Same to you, thank you.

Live playing of ‘Bluza’

Extra clip at the end with Bojan and Jan:

Jan: Hi.

Bojan: Hi, hi. In the name of the band Joker Out, we wish you a love, peace and health filled 2025. We hope to see you soon.

Jan: Happy new year.

Bojan: Bye bye!

[mumms-the-word]

Love Letters from Wyll Ravengard

to the love of his life, no matter the universe

Just a little gift for the amazing, the talented, the beautiful, the stunning @callmethebrightness on her birthday <3 Happy Birthday friend!!

Transcripts under the cut!

A Letter in the Hells

My darling Bennie,

You would laugh at me, trying to write a letter to you in the bare scraps of time we have between battles, when you are no more than an arm’s length away from me at all hours of these hellish days. I can hear you now, your laughter like a lark’s song as you remind me that whatever I have to say, I can just say.

But there is something romantic about a love letter, even one written while one’s partner lays asleep at their side. Letters are light, easy to carry. They don’t weigh you down, and whenever you find yourself needing a little spark of joy, you can reread them at your leisure. Perfect for the Hells, if anything can be perfect in the Hells.

Ah, but there is one perfect thing in the Hells and that, my love, is you. You would protest if I said it out loud, but it’s in writing now. That makes it true. 

But how does one praise or describe perfection in so brief a letter? I could spend pages lauding your beauty, your strength, your cheerfulness, your battle prowess, and more. Shall I tell you, again, how I love the spun gold of your hair, like golden fields of wheat? How your eyes call to mind the blue of the sky and the sea, calling me home time and again? Shall I once more extol the constellations I find in the freckles on your cheek, the hidden galaxies on your shoulders and your back? Or shall I write another sonnet to your damask rose lips, sweeter than anything found in all the realms? And all that, just for your beauty.

As for your skill, your bravery, your kindness, everything that makes you the brilliantly shining Bennie I love so much, well…we would be here for a while. I could write whole sagas about the beasts you’ve felled in the Hells alone, how you burn brighter than the sun when you raise your sword to strike down another devil. However much I may pride myself for playing a hero, I know that the woman at my side has me beat in every single category.

One day I will find the time to write it all down. Every love letter, every poem, every song, every tale of adventure, all stitched together in a beautiful leather-bound volume, my gift to you when we’re old and gray. And even then, it would still only show a fraction of the love I feel for you. I will never truly understand how or why the hand of Fate saw fit to bring us together, but I thank my lucky stars every morning for another day at your side.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, every day for the rest of my life—I love you, Benjamina Grey. You are my yesterday, my today, and my tomorrow. My lover, my legend, my love for life. These Hells will not be our home forever. But wherever you are, I’m home.

Yours forever,

Wyll

~*~*~*~*~*~

A Letter on the Grand Duke’s Desk

My darling Bennie,

I can hardly believe that tomorrow will be our first wedding anniversary. It seems like only yesterday we stumbled across each other in that wilderness outside the druids’ grove, illithid tadpoles squirming around in our skulls. Now, we lay in comfort in a palatial suite in Baldur’s Gate, husband and wife, doing what we can to rebuild the city we both love so much. It’s hardly the fairy tale we envisioned that night I proposed beside the Wilden Oak, and yet, if our time together were an hourglass, I wouldn’t trade away a single grain of sand.

Of all the happy memories we’ve made together over the last year and a half, the night we married will always be my favorite. That night, the sky lit up with fireworks in every color, glittering like a million extra stars in the sky. Whenever I look at you, I’m brought back to that night once more. Gazing at you, it’s as though I’m showered again in glitter and gold, the passionate thrum of music in my ears, swelling within my chest until I could burst out in song in praise of you, my beautiful wife. Don’t worry, I will refrain from writing yet another poem about you, my love…at least for tonight.

But what kind of husband would I be if I didn’t sing your praises just a little? I should try to find new words, something I haven’t already said before, but there aren’t enough words in any language to fully capture the beauty, strength, kindness, and bravery I see in you. You tackle the trials of this city with the same cheerfulness, passion, and determination you possess when fighting off bandits and mind flayers. There’s nothing in this world that can bring you down, my love, and Baldur’s Gate is a better city simply for having you in it.

As for me, I know that I’m a better man because of you, and I strive to become better still.

Courage, justice, insight, strategy, these are the tenants my father taught me. But love, compassion, joy, mercy, these are the virtues you instill in me every day, simply by living them out yourself. I have never met a woman quite like you, my darling, and I will never meet your equal. You are more precious to me than one hundred Baldur’s Gates. If I said this past year with you has been the best of my life, even with all the ups and downs, it would be a woefully sorry understatement. This past year with you has been more than I could ever dream. You promised me today, tomorrow, and forever. With your hand always in mine, I know that tomorrow and forever will be brighter and brighter still.

I love you, Benjamina Ravengard. Happy anniversary! Here’s to one year together, and a hundred more in our future.

Always yours forever,

Wyll

[lynzishell]

Prev // Next

Transcript below the cut:

[While waiting for the kettle to boil water, Li is startled by the sound of four tiny fists banging on the door]

Mei: Mommy! Li: Hi sweetie, did you have fun? Mei: Yeah!

Li: Did you miss me? Mei: No. Li: Well, I missed you.

Li: I was just about to have some tea; do you want to stay for a cup? Dawn: Sure.

Li: Thank you again for taking care of her for me. Did she sleep okay? Dawn: They both did, if you can believe it. I think it’s the first time Aspen has slept through the night in months. They must’ve worn each other out running around together. Li: [laughs] I can imagine.

Dawn: How are you feeling? Did everything go okay? Li: Oh yeah, it was great. Atlas and Asher were even able to be in the room, and they had this screen set up so they could see the ultrasound image. So, they got to watch the embryos being transferred, it was really neat. Dawn: That’s amazing.

Dawn: How long before you know if it worked? Li: We go back in a couple of weeks to find out. Dawn: Is that all? Li: Yes, thankfully, the wait is going to be so hard. I’m already anxious. I’ve been trying to distract myself by pre-recording as many videos as I can. If the morning sickness is half as bad as it was with Mei, then I’ll need it.

Dawn: Well, if you need any help, don’t hesitate to call me. Phoenix is working so much these days, Aspen and I can come by anytime to watch Mei. I can help out with laundry and meals. Whatever you need. Li: Thank you, really, you’re such an angel. Dawn: Oh please, you’re having my brother’s babies, you’re basically family now.

[Li’s phone vibrates]

Li: Ugh. Dawn: Who is it? Li: Nathan. Dawn: Oh, I thought you liked him.

Li: I did, he’s really sweet and funny, but he wanted to get serious right away, and I just can’t do that, so I ended things with him a few weeks ago. Dawn: That’s too bad. I’m sorry. Li: It’s okay. I really prefer being single right now, if I’m honest.

[Li’s phone vibrates again]

Li: [sighs] Unfortunately, he thinks he can “fix things” or something. He doesn’t understand there’s nothing to fix. We just want different things. Dawn: Well, if it’s been a few weeks and he’s not hearing you, maybe it’s time to just block him. Li: I think you’re right. I was hoping we could stay friends, but clearly that won’t work.

Li: There. Blocked.

[chirpingfromthebox]

The Sceptres' Post-game Press Session from 3/9/2025 - MIN at TOR

The Toronto Sceptres' post-game press session from after their home game against the Minnesota Frost on March 9th, 2025.

At the table were head coach Troy Ryan, defender Renata Fast, and goaltender Kristen Campbell.

My transcription is under the break.

[Video begins.]

Reporter:

Troy, what were your thoughts on the game overall?

TROY RYAN:

Well, how long do you have? Yeah, I didn’t think much of our performance. I think for us, when we’re successful we’re getting pucks in behind defense and we’re establishing a forecheck; being difficult to play against offensively down low and winning battles at net front. And I would say we didn’t have any of that.

Reporter:

Was it a matter of them just not letting you get to the net?

TROY RYAN:

No. Absolutely not. No. No, it’s a willingness. I think, to at least have an attempt—and not to disregard the question—but you need to have an attempt there to get into a battle before you can determine whether they’re forcing you to do something that you don’t want to do. I don’t think we even had the intent to do that. I think there was a spell there, a couple minutes in the third period, where I thought we had a half-decent forecheck and caused some trouble. On Renata [Fast]’s goal Renata forechecked and forced a turnover and obviously benefited from it. But yeah, we won’t beat anybody if we don’t forecheck hard.

Reporter:

Kind of an oddity now with 10 days off. Did today’s performance at all change what you want to accomplish in the next 10 days?

TROY RYAN:

Well, I think we have to do a little bit of soul searching. You gotta reflect on a performance like that at this point in the season and ask some questions why. It’s also important not to dive too deep into it. You hope it’s a bit of an outlier. But it’s definitely something we’ve got to find a way to deal with it. And you can’t have something like that surfacing this close to playoff time, for sure.

Reporter:

Can you sort of detail what you want to accomplish in the next- ‘cause this is kind of an oddity, to have 10 days off in the middle of the season?

TROY RYAN:

Yeah, I think if I gave you an answer right now it would probably wouldn’t be responsible of me. I think if I’m smart I’d probably watch some video and I think give the athletes some time to reflect on it a little bit as well. And you can make more of an educated kind of decision and plan. Yeah, we’ve never been a staff or an athlete group that kind of reflects on the loss, but—to me—on how that loss happened. Yeah, we’re lucky to just get a point out of it to be honest.

Reporter:

Will your leadership group have an influence on what you want to-

TROY RYAN:

Yeah, 100%. And hopefully the other players voice their opinions to the leadership group as well. You just want to try to problem solve it. You know? Not that you’re going to fix everything, but you definitely at least want to reflect on why it happened, why so many of us in one game kind of had the same type of performance. So just kind of reflect and move forward.

Reporter:

Renata, you guys seemed like throughout this game you were really using your body to force the Frost to the outside of your defensive zone. Can you talk a little bit about that mindset as a defensive group and how successful you thought you were at that today?

RENATA FAST:

Yeah, I think it’s been a focus the last two games. It’s just cutting off the opponents a little bit and I thought we did a really good job against it in our game versus Montréal and it showed. I still think we can do a better job with it, but the more we can get bumps and keep them to the outside and shut them down quicker, the quicker we can get on offense. So I think we’re doing a better job at it. I think [Megan] Carter is someone who has really stepped up in that area. But we can still work on it.

[Image Description: a screenshot from the interview. The camera is focused on Renata Fast and Troy Ryan can be seen beside her at the interview table. She is laughing and Troy Ryan is grinning. /. End of ID.]

Reporter:

Renata could you describe what you saw in your goal? Was it a nice angle? Did you see the open side there?

RENATA FAST:

Umm. [laughs]. Uh, I actually just wanted to get the puck on net. I saw Hannah [Miller] was in front creating a little bit of chaos there, so when Daryl [Watts] came around the net I just knew I wanted to get a quick shot off knowing that the goalie’s probably going from post to post. So I didn’t really see exactly a corner. I just wanted to create some chaos and it went in.

Reporter:

I know you have more of a shooting mindset [???] I don’t know officially how many shots, but do you feel yourself, kind of, in your head, “This isn’t normally where I’d shoot,” but you’re kind of leaning into that?

RENATA FAST:

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I think definitely all season I’ve been trying to look for areas to shoot more. Today I think I shot quite a bit, but a lot got blocked. So- but just being okay with that and finding the lanes. So, yeah I think looking for those shots has been a point of emphasis this year.

[Transcriber’s Note: This next reporter is addressing a question to Blayre Turnbull, the captain of the Sceptres. This is a particularly odd thing to do considering that Turnbull is not at the desk. It would seem the reporter is confused and has mistaken goalie Kristen Campbell for Turnbull in spite of the fact that they all have name cards in front them at the desk. The Sceptres are all rather confused and amused and it’s kind of a cute little awkward moment. Here’s a link to that timestamp if you want to see it for yourself.]

Reporter:

Blayre, usually when you have a disappointing game like this you have a couple days later to sort of get back at it. As captain of team how will you approach the next little while.

[Image Description: a screenshot from the interview. Renata Fast, Troy Ryan, and Kristen Campbell can be seen sitting at the desk. Fast is smiling and trying not to laugh. Campbell is clenching her mouth as if trying her best to not react. Troy Ryan is scratching an itch on his cheek and looking like one does at the end of a hard day where yet another little thing has been added to your plate and you can't help but to laugh a little. /. End of ID.]

TROY RYAN:

[As he puts his hand and Campbell’s arm] Soupy.

Reporter:

Sorry about that, Kristen.

KRISTEN CAMPBELL:

Yeah, I mean, as a goalie I guess we have a 10-day break and we’ll just kind of look at who we face next and take what they’re really good at and kind of build that into the goaltender’s game. So just tweak what wasn’t so good in the last couple games and fix that moving forward.

Reporter:

Did you have- Kristen, did you- I mean, you’ve been moving in an upwards for awhile now. And today felt like you were the only reason that you got a point; I wanna be honest. Did you feel like you’re still moving in that direction? And what do you take from this game?

KRISTEN CAMPBELL:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, the last handful or so of games I’ve felt- yeah, I feel like I’ve been playing my game and just keeping it simple. Yeah, I just want to give the team a chance to win every time I’m in the net. So gonna take what went well today, and maybe what didn’t go so well, and build on that for the next opportunity.

Reporter:

With 5 penalties taken today how hard can it be, just as a team, to build momentum throughout the game and trying to get that extra couple of points that you need for the standings?

TROY RYAN:

Yeah, difficult. When you’re killing it’s tough to get going offensively. Probably just leave it there.

Reporter:

Not to ask for too much information but, for any of you, what happens in the dressing room after a game like this where it’s a little touchy how you might all be feeling? Can you just describe it a little bit?

[The crew at the desk chuckle a little.]

RENATA FAST:

Yeah, I mean, we had a pretty good chat just as players after the coaches talked and just kind of problem solving within the locker room. And I think it was positive. A lot of people were speaking up to their thoughts and I think that’s what you want. You want to internally work through things and that’s what we did.

Reporter:

With your next game being after the trade deadline- you mentioned regrouping, figuring that out, what’s that look like with the trade deadline looming? How does that look like from a locker room perspective or from even a coach’s perspective?

TROY RYAN:

Yeah, I think there’s a lot of mixed thoughts and emotions that can happen around a trade deadline. You know, like, sometimes the players that maybe feel really, really secure in the environment? Maybe they’re wondering if we’re going to add anybody. Or sometimes a player that maybe doesn’t feel as secure in the lineup or the roster spot secure, sometimes there’s some stress that obviously comes with that. From an organizational point of view or from a coaching staff point of view we try to just go business as usual. You want to make sure you’re getting better and preparing for that next game. And then obviously trusting that Gina [Kingsbury]’s gonna do—as a GM—is- she’s gonna do what’s in the best interest of the organization in the short term and for the long term. So you gotta have a little bit of trust with that and just go about your business on a daily basis. That’s from a coach, but athletes, I don’t know if you have anything.

[Campbell shakes her head. And the desk and the room laugh a little.]

RENATA FAST:

That’s a good answer.

[Image Description: a screenshot from the interview. Renata Fast, Troy Ryan, and Kristen Campbell can be seen sitting at the desk. Troy Ryan looks like dads do when they're feeling really proud of themself after making a particularly dumb joke. Fast and Campbell are looking across him at each other with smiles that seem to say, "He's lame, but he's ours." /. End of ID.]

Reporter:

Troy, you said how the penalty kill might have slowed the momentum today, but you guys were successful in killing all 5 of the powerplays. What were the keys to success there?

TROY RYAN:

Yeah, I think the penalty kill, I think they killed 5 and then I think the other night killed 6. It’s just been successful. I think there’s been a good emphasis on not worrying about killing the whole two minutes, it’s just sometimes it’s—with the new rules—just killing that first 15, 10-15 seconds to get a clear so we can get the people that we want on the ice to kill the rest of the penalty. And for the most part, as a group collectively I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that. Just problem solving. The players do a good job. They’ll make sure they’re in a situation where they’re maybe not a normal penalty killer, just talk through it and find a way to get- at least get a clear or get a puck down the ice so we can get the people we want on.

Reporter:

Kristen, what did you kind of see on that overtime goal?

[TN: They technically say a little more after that first questions, but the reporters are extra quiet this session and I’m getting tired of having to crank my headphones up to max to try and parse it out. From the parts I can make out it sounds like they’re basically just saying the reason for the question is because it seemed really chaotic in front of the net for that goal.]

KRISTEN CAMPBELL:

Yeah, I mean I remember making a shoulder save and it landed kind of- went up in the air and landed at the back post. But yeah, she was trying to—we talked about it after—push it to me, but unfortunately their player was coming at speed and just kind of whacked it. And, yeah, it wasn’t the best goal, but we’ll learn from it and get better.

Reporter:

Kristen, there’s been a lot of talk over how well you’ve played over this last stretch, but you know you didn’t start off the season obviously great by your own standards, what do you think has changed in your game from your own mindset from that first half to the second half where you really improved drastically?

KRISTEN CAMPBELL:

Yeah, I mean just keeping it simple, I think, and getting back to what makes me a great goalie. And I think that when I do that that’s when I’m at my best. And I’ve been able to find that now consistently. So, yeah, I’d like to keep that going and leave the past in the past and just move forward.

Reporter:

What do you think makes you- I know you talked about, but what do you think makes you a great goalie? Personally.

KRISTEN CAMPBELL:

For me, like, I’m at my best, like, I use my movement to my advantage and I’m a bigger goalie so just getting to spots early, controlling the first shot, taking pride in my rebound control, and giving the team a chance to win every night. So that’s kind of the main things.

[End of video.]

[joshsilverseyebrow]

type o negative in the 10th anniversary collectors edition of Unrestrained! Magazine (2007),

(COURTESY OF BIGGESTBADDESTWOLVE ON REDDIT)

transcription:

Peter Steele says he’s a "souldier," a "tool of God." And as that tool, Steele (who's best known as the bassist/frontman of Type O Negative) claims it’s his duty to transmit God’s unpopular message any way he can — whether that’s through “rock and roll or heavy metal or graphic design, or skywriting.” Funnily enough, Steele also believes rock and roll’s not doing its job if it’s not pissing someone off, and Type O Negative has been raging proof of that belief for the past 18 years, offending anyone who dares take them or their music seriously. Now the band’s catalogue of tongue-in-(ass)cheek rudeness has a new entry.

Dead Again is Type O Negative’s seventh full-length aural offense, a “bipolar” combination of everything the band has already done, ranging from “14 minutes of falling down the ember of the earth” to “two and a half minutes of hyper-caffeinated crap,” as Steele describes it. Like a psyche patient with multiple personalities, Dead Again is an album of many faces, a cannibalistic patchwork quilt of Steele’s numerous influences — bands like the Beatles, Black Sabbath, Cro-Mags, AC/DC, and the Psychedelic Furs. As Steele readily admits in his distinctive Brooklyn accent, “I steal from a wide variance of sources.”

Equally distinctive is the atavistic rumble that is the Type O Negative sound, fine-tuned with cluster bomb precision Steele and keyboardist Josh Silver bring to nearly every Type O Negative release. “Poverty,” says Steele when asked why he and Silver are the best people to record and produce their band, adding, “I don’t need someone to come in and tell me what to do with what I hear in my head.”

Despite Steele’s ever-looming presence on every Type O Negative song, Dead Again features, literally, more voices, including guest vocalist Tara Vanflower (Lycia) on “Halloween in Heaven.” Silver and guitarist Kenny Hickey sing more as well, something Steele urged them to do. “Threats go a long way,” he says. “Josh and Kenny have very good and very distinctive voices and I just believe they are underutilized. I felt that it would add and extra dimension to the band, playing off of each other, verse/chorus, whatever the case was, harmonies… I pretty much busted their nuts and said ‘c’mon man, you can do it,’ so they did it. I think it came out pretty well.”

Though he’ll offer the odd straightforward assessment of Type O Negative’s music, Steele emphasizes he can’t be objective about any of his own songs, and his opinion isn’t immune to revision — including, for example, his previously expressed dissatisfaction with the band’s 1999 record World Coming Down — an album he has since come to appreciate. “When we were writing and rehearsing World Coming Down I had a pretty big problem with cocaine and alcohol, and I disassociated myself from the recording process. I was, at first, disappointed with it, but in hindsight the brutality of the mix kind of reflects how I felt about things at the time.”

Not that Steele has been feeling exactly sunny about life since then. “My mother passed away about a year and a half ago and it made me realize my own mortality. I’m pretty pissed off that I’m getting old and that I’m going to die,” he says (moments after declaring himself “unfortunately immortal” and bound to be doing the music thing “for infinity”).

Dead Again reflects an abundant dose of that negativity, labeling abortion “infanticide” and declaring that there would be no peace until the state of Zion converts to Christianity (“These Three Things”), or prophesying the “beginning of the end” of the world (“Profits of Doom”) — just to list a few of its messages. But even though this is no heart-warming record, Steele still argues that it’s potentially uplifting: “I wrote this album intending to steer people down the right path. Isn’t it better to learn from someone else’s errors than from your own?” Of course, he also bristles at even the thought of someone telling him that it’s “not PC,” declares the people who get offended are the “real assholes,” and adds, “I’m just a lousy bass player from Brooklyn.”

For a “lousy bass player,” Steele and his fellow assholes from Brooklyn — Silver, Hickey, and drummer Johnny Kelly — have still accomplished a lot, including achieving Roadrunner’s first platinum record (Bloody Kisses) and gold certification for the video release After Dark. When asked if those accomplishments meant anything to him, Steele answers, “I’m actually more impressed with my criminal record,” and claims the high point of Type O Negative’s career will probably be “the day the band breaks up.”

He claims it’s not only “masochism” that keeps him going, but Steele wouldn’t erase any of Type O Negative’s past even if he could: “It has been an adventure, a journey, and a learning experience. I like how this forthcoming album has turned out, and if anything was eliminated from the past this album could not be the way it is, and I would not like for that to happen.” And because we’ve still got, as Steele assures me, another 21 years before the beyond-nightmarish apocalypse arrives, Type O Negative is bound to have a future as well. Steele sees no reason to end it: “The whole attitude of rock music seems to be the younger generation is tolerating geriatric rock and rollers. I’m over the hill, but i’m not down the hill yet.”

[nexility-sims]

𝐍𝐎. 𝟓   ❛ 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 ❜   |   LEONOR'S APARTMENT, MID MARCH 1991

❧  𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲  /  𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠  /  𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬  /  𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

   ❛  After the meeting with Beatriz, Leonor spent the intervening time at home. Others had eagerly launched themselves back into the world as the mourning period ended. The isolation, the quiet, the total stillness had, at some point, mutated from a comfort to a burden. This hadn’t been the case for Leonor. She reemerged at the appointed time to find everything changed. Yet, the world continued to spin, and that fact left her overwhelmed and overexposed. Retreat to the protective embrace of home required no decision on her part. It wasn’t that her space brought any sort of peace or rest so much as that it was private. Privacy is what she craved; her sanity hinged on it, she quickly came to believe, as soon as the flashing and shouting inherent to public life fell upon her once more. That, too, had changed. Although dulled by the haze that grief had settled on her mind, the new intensity was undeniable. Listless and alienated from what—from who—had once been familiar, Leonor behaved as if it were still deep winter rather than the cusp of spring. She hibernated. Reality intruded nonetheless, springing forth like leaks in a ship.

❧ thank you to @crownsofesha for miss kore whom i love !!!! it’s been months and months but here she is 💅 also, okay, i fibbed, because i remembered that we have one more scene before the party starts (which, actually, i’m excited about), BUT ... i’m so happy to see miss leonor hanging out with a friend, looking hydrated and moisturized, reluctantly makings PLANS !!!!!! (oh, and, i didn't really decide what leonor's playing in the beginning, but let's say it's something like the platters.)

𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 ↓

TRANSCRIPT:

{Record music playing}

{Door opening, muffled conversation}

[V] My princess, do you—

[L] I’ll take it from here, Vita. Hi Kore.

[K] Brought you something.

[K] It’s not strawberry season, but I know you like them.

[L] Sweet of you. 

[L] You didn’t have to drop by. It’s a workday. I bet you just left the office. We could’ve made plans over the phone.

[K] The plan I have for you needs to be made in person.

[L] {Chuckles} Uh oh.

[L] A bar? Seriously? You hanging out at a sewage plant is more believable.

[K] {Laughs} Okay, that’s why you have to believe me! It’s the best time I’ve had in a while.

[L] I’m not buying it.

[K] I ended up there on a whim. We were on Oceanside Ave, and Sybil got in an argument with a bouncer—shocker—so we were looking for somewhere to spend another hour or two. Do you remember Carlo? He was driving by and took us there. Don’t know why I agreed. So glad I did. We left at sunrise.

[L] Not my scene, Kor. Definitely not right now.

[K] I’m asking you now for a reason. The atmosphere is good. It’s not rowdy, and there’s no normies. It’s invite-only. Cozy. You’ll know half the people who party there. It’s artsy, in a way. Just one time.

[L] {Sighs.}

[L] We’d be sorting through Mama’s things at the estate the morning after, if I went with you.

[K] Kind of bitchy to save that excuse for last—can’t argue with it!

{Leonor chuckles}

[L] Not what I meant. It feels like a sign. I’ll give it a chance. Even if I don’t like the place, it’ll be good to see everyone again before I have to go—you know, do that.

[K] I agree. And I promise you’re going to have a good time.

[L] A Kore promise? That’s legally binding. Are you sure?

[K] I’m offended you have to ask.