#but they're mostly used in the beginning to show listeners a bit of taste of all the songs displayed

[camellia-salazar]

Hearing "Stand clear of the closing doors, please." when I was watching Annie (2014) got my AJR loving ass to get all hyped up all because I heard the same damn voice saying the same damn thing from their "Making of Bang" video.

[a-doubleh-x]

Why I like Charlastor

The other day I noticed there was some negativity in the Charlastor tag, including antis and people feeling the need to defend against antis, so I thought I might as well take a step back and just write candidly about why I like the ship.

I only got into Hazbin in October of last year, but already it has inspired me a lot to write and fantazise about it. Like most people, I started with the classic "they look cute together", but as I kept looking I couldn't help but think there was something else to these two than first met the eye.

For starters, I love Pollyanas! I think they get a bad rep for being naive, but I just appreciate an optimist like Charlie who just wants to make people around her happy because it makes her happy. I also like bad boys 😳 I'm a pretty heteronormative guy, so I haven't had a big chance to explore that part of myself yet, but I do like the danger and excitement someone like Alastor brings to the table.

I will admit when I started writing Charlastor I felt like I was handling dynomite. It's a lil scary to ship a boundless altruist with a manipulative sociopath, but bear with me.

I think each of them has something the other needs. I think Charlie needs someone to challenge her, someone to steer her in the right direction while she's mostly isolated. At the start of the series, practically nobody but Vaggie takes her seriously, and Alastor is no exception. He mocks her, teases her, but she still listens and I think it's because somewhere deep down she understands there's something he's trting to communicate in his annoying, but curious way.

Of course, I also love the fanon Charlie who's down bad for Alastor, and even if that Charlie is a little naive, I think it's also sweet and she can use some indulgence while most people treat her like a child.

On the other hand, when it comes to Alastor, this is a bit of a theory on my part, but I think he's secretely lonely. He has friends, certainly, like Rosie and Mimzy, but they're not good enough friends to live together with him. They don't seem to be able to save him from "pure, absolute boredom". But Charlie, for some reason can, even though she's a stranger at the beginning when Alastor chooses to move into the Hotel.

Alastor is not as much of a cynic as someone who chooses to see things in a perspective that benefits him. He doesn't think redeeming sinner is "hopeless", but "hilarious" instead, which has interesting implications to me. That's why he chooses to hover around Charlie, not because he thinks she's lame, rather because he thinks she's silly. She makes him laugh. Which I think is kind of how Alastor sees "love".

And then you have fanon Alastor who, depending on the writer, is either a horny animal, a wisecrack edgelord or a soft boy who's mean to everyone but Charlie XD I like several of those interpretations, but I kinda prefer mine just out of personal taste. I think the best part about Alastor is that he doesn't *care* what anyone thinks of him and always does what he wants, even at the expense of other people, which I find pretty enviable.

They're kinda both outcasts in their own ways. Charlie by being unable to fit in and Alastor being unwilling to compromise. But they don't judge each other. He supports her in his own weird way and she houses him and is delighted of him in general, which is tasty food for his ego. I do wonder why Alastor is interested in Charlie, both in canon and in a fandom vacuum.

There's some cool potential for drama there, but also growth and healing, in my opinion. Personally, I think Alastor doesn't want to actually *hurt* Charlie, but he may hurt those around her, which will be a moment to start settling compromises if Charlie puts her foot down.

That haz bin my review so far! I'm honestly pretty grateful for Vivziepop for all of the work she's done so far, I know directing, animating and writing two shows over the course of 5 year or so ain't easy. I'm also grateful to the fandom who shares their thoughts and vision, which calms the terrible voices I started hearing in my head since I bought this weird old radio.

I'm in the middle of a break, but if you're interested in my fanfics I'll get back to writing very soon. Cheers! 🌈❤🦌

[crossedsabers10s]

I really like the ship klamon but the thing is i haven't a clue on how it could fit in canon. I'm like thinking of a gradual thing where they're like slowly going from enemies? to allies to frenemies to lovers, (all the stages filled with appropriate sass, sarcasm and bickering ofcourse) because I'm a sucker for slowburns. Like they are somewhere between allies and frenemies in TVD and then in TO they finally get together. Do you have any ideas on how this could happen in canon. And how to stick klamon in 'The Originals'? And how it would change the plot?

akf;dlfjakdfj a okay, just a warning, this ain't my rodeo. I'll do my best, but I don't consider myself good at writing Klaus. Plus their respective control issues make this a lil tricky...

Okay, so. You know how Alaric was possessed by Klaus that one time? That would make a good beginning. Give him an up close and more personal perspective on Damon, who he'd only know via rep and Stefan before this. I mean I think he'd mostly considered Damon someone who was Katherine's toy and was still dogging after doppelgangers (Elena) at that point? But in Alaric's body, he'd be a bit closer, have a measure of trust. So Damon wouldn't be quite as in-ur-face-fuck-you as he would have been. (I mean. Still, a little, bc I think he's allergic to showing genuine emotion at that point, at least under normal circumstances, he let his guard down around Elena a lot more) So mayyybe Damon kidnaps AlariKlaus to try and find out more on Big Bad Klaus??? Research spree, contacts some witches whatevs. They probably hit a bunch of dead ends, evenif they did manage to find a lead, AlariKlaus would nip that shit in the bud. Just trailing along, having fun listening to his own legend and watching Damon get more and more frustrated.

Maybe they learn more about what Klaus did to Katherine or someone else or a hundred other stories where he'd taken revenge on a person and burned down their entire life. And Damon, annoyed and doing that im-not-joking-but-people-will-assume-i-am thing alludes to his Augustine revenge spree. Maybe something along the lines of like 'yeah, well, that's not special, I've done similar. Just ask-*insert massacre here*' Which. Alaric would not connect those dots. He'd think it some kind of joke in poor taste. Klaus? Connects a few. He'd heard about it. Those deaths had obviously been a vampire, but no one had known who. Until now.

Damon is suddenly a little bit more interesting.

And he's got to have some kind of hobby so he starts trying to unravel Damon Salvatore. Starts paying attention to him. Does a good job of acting friendly, but starts shedding a little of Ric. Then a little more, less on purpose. Starts fucking with his head, making him second guess his relationships, make him question if he's still chasing after Katherine by trying to protect Elena. All under the guise of pretending to be his friend.

Wow this got a lil dark.

Anyways. Canon. Except Damon has to contend with the fact that he'd liked the person he'd thought he was becoming close with. And that person is not who he thought he was. And Klaus is still studying Damon, who he now knows better and maybe holds a bit more regard for.

Okay my brain is fried, i need nap. Hope u like the start tho. Feel free to use it as u please.

[nosti-hate]

If my ocs were in Winх🦋. Part 1/4.

Bohdan is a boy. Yes. But we really need some more male fairies, so why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

He has the power of fire, and even though he and Vilda (oc) grew up on Earth, they were still born on different planets. It was probably Domino because: Bloom, fire, no parents, yada yada.

If we talk about the original Winx. I think they will meet, and the Winx will be for them as guides in this magical universe and friends more experienced in this. Like, they're definitely bad teachers (as of season 4, episode 1), but remember Roxy and her interaction with the Winx. She will also take a big role in this because Rainbow shouldn't be throwing a bolt🔩 at her after being part of the main characters team.

They would also be 3-4 years apart because after s4 (s5 is mostly bad, it needs to be rewritten with Aisha starring 👉 Unicorn of War) they are 19-20.

And Sophix and Lovix will be here more. They deserve MUCH MUCH more screen time.

About his behavior. He would act more like Roxy. Annoyed, not believing in it, but eventually accepting the facts. I think he will be friends with Aisha first. They have more in common and she will be the first to have a deep conversation with him (due to the non-existent episode with the accident where they were left in a cave alone with a villain somewhere nearby. A little teamwork, yada yada) And he will accept be learned by Winx, at Bloom's suggestion.

He will be on good terms with Flora. She is innocent in his eyes. He has a bit of a crush on her, but gets over it when he meets her boyfriend. He has never had pets, so Flora gives him advice and helps him take care of the cute animals. He also helped her with carrying and sometimes watering her flowers when she was on a mission.

He's on par with Tecna. They can talk about technology. He explains about human ones, she - about Zenits. There are many conversations about the Internet, and warm ones about some "dumbs", slangs, memes. And sites with Vil help her understand her emotions more. He's fine with her in his room, when Musa gets too loud with the music and she asks him to work here. She's quiet for the most part, so there's no problem for him.

Musa and Bohdan do not have much in common. But still. They show their favorite music. They came together on a few songs, mostly because they have different tastes. He accidentally overhears her phone conversation with Reven. And when they meet with other specialists and the couple argue, they talk. She didn't exactly agree with him about Riven's toxic behavior, but the conversation stayed in her memory for future reference. They may also disagree on missions. They are going to work together because of the force of the situation, at the end of the day they teem work becomes better. After that, she gets him new headphones, so they have silent reconciliation. They work well in combat.

Stella is a bit annoying in the beginning. Something he could agree with the Musa. He thinks she's too into clothes and fashion, but by mid-season he gets used to it. They are more like sibling fights than anything too serious. She took him up on it when he was "forced" to hold some of her fabric with Bloom and a slightly annoyed Muse as they made their way out. She can't find a good outfit (for the concert). He recommends some clothes to her and she thinks they are beautiful. She starts asking his opinion more and he casually says he wants to try on one of her outfits. She is surprised and funny, but with conversations, she is funny, but also good with it. It's really cool for her to have a boy friend who has taste and likes to wear skirts (rarely, but still). They are getting closer. He listens more to her talk about fashion and helps out when she and Brandon have a fight. She compliments his transformation form. Kind of reminds her of her transformation base.

Aisha. He definitely thinks she's cool. They both play sports. She helps him more with the gymnastic part, and he helps with the hitting. (He goes to the boxing section) They agree on parts of the activity and get along well. The dance, of course, is not for him, but he tries. Sometimes they watch some exercise videos with recommendations and go to the gym, but after a "villainous accident" they end up doing well at home and sometimes outside. He likes her magic training parts the most. After he finds out about Naby, he helps her when Stella tried to send her off with another boy.

Bloom. Oh Bloom. Ehh... I'm not sure, but I'll try. In the beginning, he did not go with her. As with others. He is in disbelief. Because she tries the hardest to talk about it, he distrusts her the most. Intuitively. He still feels freaked out after that and doesn't fully trust her. It fades when he sees her helping people and fighting alongside her friends, it reminds him of his own friendship. She explains to them all(ocs) that she has been in their situation and it helps to trust. He doesn't always agree with her choices, but sometimes he or she agrees that they're wrong in the end.

He finds it funny and strange that they don't transform instantly, as if waiting for disaster. Like, a villain could take advantage of that. Transforming immediately is much easier. Bloom agreed a little embarrassed. This is not the first time someone has pointed this out. She helps him calm down when he gets freaked out after his first transformation. They are both Dragon Fire users. This makes learning with her easier to understand. But magic still works differently for them, so more comes with practice. He's a little jealous of that dragon thing.

Roxy helps him overcome this "magic thing". He expects something along the lines of "it's true, you have to believe it", but when she talks about her first interaction with a Winx, he's surprised. She shows him her powers. He doesn't fully believed in it and sees them more as a very well-trained trick. But after that you know what's happening. The "Cave" situation. There he believed and accepts it completely. But Roxy was the one who made it clear because she was in that situation. She can relate. She helps them all get over it and helps the Winx understand how to interact with others.

Roxy patient in this. She also sometimes tells parts of the s4 story. Helps get over it. Understanding, that you are fairy. She and others surprised that there's four non Morgana's fairies, and the fact that one of them is male (mostly Roxy, i think others should have seen male fairy before.. maybe. (Winx know, that he's having magic, but thought he would be wizard, not fairy). Maybe Stella would be surprised in a good way and talking about this at the start) She explained about many things, met them with pets and her dad, and job.

They ask each other for advice and training. Not much talk about parents/grandparents, just over time, but no spoilers.

By the way, the Winx live in a two-floor house.

Aaand, I think that's it for now. Wow. I had no idea (how) to write their interaction, but damn. This is not so bad for very small information.

Maybe I'll write it for others.

Also, I was writing this while listening to the 2003 tmnt intro

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Finished the Peacock & Gamble Edinburgh interviews from 2012 and 2013. Those were mostly quite good. I had four left after my last post, and I greatly enjoyed three of them. I can't quite tell whether I would have enjoyed the Tom Binns one if it weren't for the sex offender thing, there was a fair bit in there of talking about psychic stuff so maybe not. Obviously it was being talked about by people who knew it wasn't real, but I find the whole magic entertainment thing annoying whether people are claiming it's real or not. I'm not even sure why, I'm just not interested in it. Put supernatural things next to food in terms of things I'm not into when they mix with comedy because I don't find them entertaining - that's why I'm not following Peacock or Gamble to the projects they did after this (Off Menu, ParaPod). Mr. Swallow's memory tricks are an exception, those are cool as fuck.

The Tom Binns one was weird. There was one bit fairly near the beginning that got really weird. I mean, if you listen to any interview with someone from before they were convicted of sex crimes, you're going to find something you can point to and say "Look, evidence that they were secretly like that all along!", and it's just someone making a sex joke, as everyone does, whether they're secretly a sex criminal or not. But the jokes they made early in this episode did get really specific, saying you don't have to actually touch any kids to get arrested for that stuff, you just have to look at it, and that's why Tom Binns never lets anyone near his computer. I don't think it does mean he was "secretly like that all along" or anything, it's just a creepily coincidental joke, but it is a very creepy thing to listen to in 2024.

Anyway. The other ones were cool. Of all the guests they had in both years, Daniel Sloss was the only one who claimed to have listened to the other episodes, because of course he fucking was. That's annoying. I like Daniel Sloss, mostly, I guess. I very, very much like his three (chronologically) middle stand-up specials. I liked his latest one too, but not as much, I found it hit and miss and some bits really annoyed me. And his first special, the DVD he put out when he was 20, is quite typical stuff from a guy that age in those years, before he'd got old enough to learn that edgelord-y stuff only works if there's some actual thought behind it, just saying offensive phrases isn't inherently funny. Obviously, early-twenties version of him that made that DVD is also the version of him that went on the Peacock & Gamble podcast and said he loves their work, and was the only guest who could reference previous episodes. I don't want to have the same taste in podcasts as 2013-era Daniel Sloss, but it's not shocking that that's how it worked out. It was quite a funny episode though, especially at the end where Ray Peacock kicked things up a notch and deftly showed him how a proper comedian does over-the-top offensive.

They also had Gary Delaney and Sarah Millican (separately). I have vaguely disliked Gary Delaney for some time, and about half the reason for that is his blurb that I read while going through the 2010 Edinburgh Festival program, because that's the sort of thing I do in my spare time:

I get that he's being sort of intentionally confrontational about that for fun, but still, given that lots of the "regular joke writing comedians" hold genuine animosity for storytelling comedians, I figured playing into that so dismissively made him a dick (especially given that he married one of those comedians who has a fair bit of whimsy). But I also figured, maybe it's just a sort of inside joke I don't get.

In this interview from 2013, three years after that, Gary Delaney said he used to genuinely not respect comedy that was too different from his own one-liner style, but in the last couple of years he'd opened his mind and watched more of it, and had realized that storytelling comedy and stuff like that takes its own special skill and now respects it far more and regrets how he used to look at it. Which made me think, okay, I guess that blurb was meant to be straightforward and not some tongue-in-cheek inside joke, so he was being a dick, but then he changed his mind, so maybe he's all right. Then I remembered the other half of the reason I dislike him is he calls himself a "right-wing libertarian", so I still don't like him. The only thing I know of his actual comedy are the one-liners he told in his occasional Mock the Week appearances, some of which were good, but I thought he was the least funny one in their rotation of one-liner comedians. You probably shouldn't judge a comedian by their Mock the Week appearances but I don't feel the need to find more.

Anyway, they also had on Sarah Millican and she was excellent. Absolutely lovely, and I hesitate slightly to use that word because I know it gets over-applied to women so I try not to do that (I cringe so hard when I listen to old Radio 4 stand-up shows where the compere will constantly introduce men as "funny" and women as "lovely"), but in this case I think it's justified. She is not lovely because she's a woman, she is lovely because she's charming and engaging and I could listen to her talk for ages. I think I called Gareth Richards "lovely" when I was commenting on this run of interviews from earlier on in it so it's fine, it's not gendered. But because I try to be careful about calling women a potentially gendered word like that, you know if I do call a woman lovely, it's because I fucking mean it.

I mean, obviously she was also funny. Very funny, funnier than a lot of the guests were in these interview episodes that were sometimes funny but sometimes more focused on just being an interesting chat, it wasn't always comedians on their comedy A game. But this one was. Things Ray Peacock would do that would throw most guests way off, that made Daniel Sloss lost for words, didn't cause Sarah to break stride for a moment. She'd just smoothly keep talking and throw in, on the fly, something both very kind and very devastating. She's great at contradictions like that, similar to how good she is at doing jokes that are wholesome/lovely and very sexual at the same time.

So that was fun. I reached the end of those and jumped into the first episode of their FUBAR radio show today, just finished it and I'd forgotten just how crude they get when they're not in "thoughtful Edinburgh interview" mode and are back to absolute filth. I got probably three whole minutes into listening to Ray Peacock have phone sex with a listener before I thought... "Hang on, I don't think that's a real listener." Then I remembered the first episode didn't go out live so of course it wasn't. Then the situation took several more turns that... it is weirder that they wrote that beforehand than it would have been if they'd done that with a genuine listener call and the guy just went along with it. Why did they write in the bits where the phone line goes fuzzy? Anyway they made me lose my breath laughing many times across three hours and I'm definitely going to listen to all of them. So there's an update on how my Peacock and Gamble adventure is going.

[theeclipticarts]

One very importance experience relating to music for me occurred in December to January of this year. I met a new friend who was interested in the same fandom I was and we were both artists / animators and fanfiction writers so we had a LOT of importance in musical ties to our projects. For a while we would spend hours ever day chatting about music lyrics and associating them with parts of the fic we were planning together. I have a lot of songs now that are really important to me because of that and I really feel as if music is what really brought us together and held us there until we eventually mostly parted ways due to changing interests. It's the same with a lot of important things in my life, I associate and bond over music.

An old internet best friend and I bonded over the song Break the Distance by Ashton Edminster. My current best friend is She by Dodie. My old lease horse was Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. The DreamSMP is The Valley by The Oh Hellos, my art pieces all have musical associations for example my most recent piece is associated with El Tango De Roxanne. One of my OCs is Spider and the Lamps from Razia's Shadow. Everything has an association and they're all incredibly important to me. I connect with people through these associations. I create through music as well.

Another story that's really important to me is how my dad and I have connected through our music tastes. It started in about 2017 when I started choosing music to play for our long drive to school and back. We really connected over Five Bells by Coco and the Butterfields and The Election of 1800 from Hamilton, both of which I'd discovered recently in Warrior Cats MAPs. This only grew from there. Soon we were singing along to the Star Wars soundtrack every day, our favourite piece was "The Throne Room and End Title" from A New Hope. We played this together and bonded over it for years. Then I introduced him to Dodie, and to this day we both tap out the rhythm to Monster, which became one of his favourite songs of all time. In return he showed me old favourite instrumentals that he loves like Hooked on Classics which I adored and listened to for months. The Mandolorian theme was a big one that we shared and The Peninsula of Wild Ponies from Star Stable was a big, big one when I introduced it to him! I can still sing along to both 1 and 2 to this day. There were so many small associations that brought us together and we are finding more and more every week but the most important so far is our discover of Cody Fry.

Now, Cody Fry is my favourite musical artist of all time. He's been a favourite since day one, really. He is most likely most recognizable for the massive tiktok hit "I Hear a Symphony" which was MASSIVE in the DreamSMP fandom while I haunted it. I cried to it in my English class because it was associated with and mentioned in a devastating fanfic I was reading at the time. Even now I am a bit struck thinking about it, even though it really shouldn't have been anything of consequence. (Much like another fanfic of that author's who caused Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber to bring me to tears every time without fail to this day). At the time, I Hear a Symphony itself wasn't really something that aligned with my music tastes though and so I never added it to my playlists or explored Cody Fry's other songs. Fastforward about a year and a half later and I discover a small, unfinished animatic to the song Underground by Cody Fry (the new, breathtaking orchestral version). This was the beginning of the end for all other music. And for my sanity, as to this day I have found nothing quite like Cody Fry's recent music. I watched it again and again, quite possibly about fifteen times in a row before immediately searching for it on Spotify.

Ever since then it has been at the top of all of my playlists, frequently with its majestic prequel orchestral piece "Caves". My recieptify on Spotify hasn't changed since early 2021 besides one song moving up one or two ranks. I listen to easily 4 hours of music every day, often more depending on what I'm hyperfixating on at the time. Since discovering it halfway through 2022, Underground is the only song which has reached that top 10 and has sat comfortably as my most listened song for easily a year now. Not only that, but the same song from a different album appears to be creeping up very quickly to join it. Upon checking it appears that it has jumped up to 3rd and will no doubt overtake the second soon. A top 10 that hasn't changed since early 2021 and Underground managed to get on there TWICE. Suffice to say I might like it a little. Anyway, I was listening to Underground in the car with my dad for probably the third or fourth time so far? This was the first time he paid attention besides being somewhat impressed with the big break of the song. I still remember it vividly, he does too. "Wait a minute, did he just get hit by a fucking train?" (Me, laughing delightedly) "Yes!". From there it was over for him as well, poor fool. His attention was finally drawn and suddenly he was in just as much awe as I was over the incredible, indescribable instrumental of Underground (and soon Caves). As well of Cody's voice of course, which is absolutely gorgeous. He was born to sing in our eyes. This started the next stage of massive musical bond between my dad and I. We listened to more Cody Fry, developed more favourites, and became more and more impacted by every song. When we need some familiar music, it's Cody Fry. When dad makes pancakes on weekends, we listen to Cody Fry over the speaker. When we want to test speakers? We got them out to play Underground and we will play Underground (I still vividly remember the incredible experience of dragging out old studio speakers that he got somewhere and booming Underground in such high quality. I think the only thing that could sound better is a live performance which is something both he and I have obsessed with the idea of since discovering him. Unfortunately the shows are inaccessible to us even in our wildest dreams right now. The best we could possibly get is Australia in a few years when the world finally recognizes how truly beyond incredible Cody Fry really is. Perhaps even New Zealand if we wished upon a few thousand shooting stars). When we buy headphones, the test song is Caves and Underground. When my mum bought a new car I forced her to let the first song played be Underground. When my dad and I went on a train trip recently we were playing Underground almost all of the way, amongst other fantastic pieces like Eleanor Rigby, Waltz for Sweatpants, Photograph and Fix You. Every time we have gone on planes since discovering Cody Fry we've listened to Flying on take off and landing. It's habit to make sure the other has Flying downloaded before any flights now. I listened to it the entire flight once and couldn't even bring myself to pause it to watch downloaded YouTube videos or listen to audio books. I frequently hear of dad going out to cafes when he needs a break from things to go out, work, listen to Cody Fry and then, of course, Frody Cry. We're both very affected by music but I don't think I've ever seen him so emotionally affected by any other music pieces. It's actually extremely impressive.

Honestly I don't think I could ever sum up how important our connection over Cody's music is to me. Even this massive emotional brain dump of words doesn't do half of it justice. I think Underground really brought us together again musically after being very much separated on that kind of level.

If you haven't listened to Cody Fry's music, I recommend it more than words can say. His more recent stuff is very heavily orchestral, and not in the cheap way that quite a few artists lately appear to be attempting but in the true, rich way. His dad is an orchestral composer, and that is absolutely zero surprise when you hear his music.

My Recommendations:

- Underground

- Caves

- Photograph

- Fantasietta on a theme from Photograph

- Photograph / Clair de Lune

- Flying

- Fix You

- Eleanor Rigby (also extremely important to my dad and I)

- Waltz for Sweatpants

- God Rest Ye

- From the Cold

- Underground (The original guitar version. While I'm not so passionate about it, it's still brilliant like all of his music)

- More than the day Before

- I hear a Symphony

- Start a Wave

- Interlude: At the edge of a cliff

- If only my heart could speak

- Wander Anymore / Dunes

- Pictures of Mountains

- Want me Back (With Cory Wong)

- Coming Back Around (Also with Cory Wong, definitely my favourite collaboration).

There's many more to explore but these are my dad and I's favourites.

Honestly the only way things could get better right now is for either Underground's instrumental to finally get released (my dream second to only seeing it live), Cody to announce a tour to Australia or even New Zealand (in my dreams, maybe) Or for anyone who is even half as good as Cody to appear who does songs in the style of Underground with such brilliant details (e.g using the doppler effect as the train rushes past or and creating the rhythm of the train going along the track with the orchestra) and has such a stunning voice. Simply so I can consume more of this gorgeous style he seems to have created from nothing (at least nothing that my dad and I can find after a year of searching). He also does amazing videos where he explains details in the songs, shows off the scores, explains his thought processes, etc! And he's really funny too, definitely worth following on Instagram. He also did a beautiful song for big a Disney fountain show!

But really most realistically, my dad and I would kill for an instrumental version of Underground or even better an interactive like the one that was used to introduce Fix You where you could select music elements to turn on and off. THAT I JUST DISCOVERED HASN'T DISAPPEARED AND HAS BEEN INTRODUCED FOR WALTZ FOR SWEATPANTS TOO!

Alright I'm off to Frody Cry thinking about how important these songs are to me now. And also go experiment with the listening experience for Waltz for Sweatpants! (codyfry.com/fixyou/). Thanks for reading the absolute mess if you made it this far, I'm just really passionate about Cody Fry's music and I want to talk about it even though I can't properly formulate my words.

Edit: Now have scrolled down the post on my profile and seen how long it is. If you've honestly made it this far I salute you. You've gone farther than I could go lmao

i have a favour to ask all of you:

i’m writing a speech about how music (of all different genres) can bring people together. so my favour is that you guys either comment, reblog or even message me your music stories (direct or indirect), and how music has helped bring you closer to people. please make sure you mention specific artists and genres when you tell these stories (if you don’t remember that’s okay too). i’m hoping that i can make a collage of stories from all different people of all different backgrounds. i want pop stories, country stories, hip hop, blues, rap, bebop, classical, jazz, give it all to me.

a couple important things: please make sure that if you share that you are willing to have this story be spoken out loud to people (if you are not, please tell me before you give me the story. i’d still like to hear them even if i cannot share them) also, i would like names so it’s easier for me to tell the story, but feel free to give me fake names if you would like :)

it’s not enough to have stories from people i personally know, or people in my family. i need stories from everywhere.

and please, please, spread this around. i want as many stories about music as possible.

so please, let me know :)

[lhrry]

personally, i think the playlist was curated by john delf himself according to louis' personal tastes in music, but that louis requests certain songs to be played on certain days, some of which may not already be on the playlist prior to his requests.

however, he's keen on communicating with his fanbase through cryptic ways so he clearly saw the connection fans were making between louis & the songs in terms of their relevancy to him (as seen by his follow). which makes me believe at least most of the newer songs were direct requests from him to make a certain point.

and they're beautiful and all, but its prokofiev that is truly making me emotional. classical music is not an outro song, especially not for louis' concerts. such a piece would not be found on spotify playlists with a similar feel to the other outro songs. but we do know that harry listened to only classical music while writing harry's house, and its not like that is particularly widespread news reported by major news outlets, or a talking point on social media. so the fact that he added it was most likely more for himself than for communication with fans. it probably just reminded him of all the pieces H liked listening to while writing harry's house.

yeah, i agree, i think louis requests the post-show song and john delf was probably adding them to a playlist that then served as a playlist for the crew as well (at the same time i think it may mostly collect what louis requested and that the crew works to something else as well, because you can see by the dates that the songs are really added gradually with new shows and at the beginning of the tour that would’ve been quite a limited playlist), but i do think that seeing that we picked up on it louis decided to give us a little bit of a nod, and that prokofiev is so extra and so unlikely a background for the crew to work to that that must’ve been totally purposeful and i love it

[phoebeprufrock]

Chapter 8: Something Is Rotten In The State Of Denmark

Pairing: F/M, Midge/Lenny (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) Rating, Chapter(s), WC: Rated M, Chapter 8/22 is 3.7K Tags: #Romance #Medium-speed burn #Mild Hurt/Comfort #Fluff #Humor #Canon-adjacent Warnings: #canon-typical drinking and smoking #mentions of drug use #Palladinos-typical chaos #Susie-typical swearing #self-indulgent descriptions of Europe Chapter summary: Unpleasant traveling occurs, Midge and Lenny have a conversation, and a lot of food is discussed. Previous chapter | Chapter 1

Read on AO3 or see commentary and author notes after the break.

This chapter marks the beginning of the angstier part of the story, Midge and Lenny have a lot of stuff to work through and they haven't really faced any of it yet... But rest assured, it won't veer into particularly more angsty than the show has been so far, and it will still be funny (though that's mostly dependent on my writing, lol). They're off to London next chapter, and it's something a little bit different - but I've had a really great time writing it, so I hope you'll like it too.

Here's a picture of the Nyhavn harbor (where they have gløgg on their first night) in 1958:

And today, so you can see the colorful houses:

The first picture - the only one I could find of the time - is taken a bit further down from where the bars are, so the second one is closer to where they actually are. It's a truly beautiful place, and it's the most photographed place in the city for a reason. I had to put them somewhere nice to compensate for the Rostock-Gedser ferry, which is the absolutely worst place I've ever been in and unfortunately also the most convenient way to go from Germany to Denmark without taking a plane.

Onto my food rant!

Danish(es?): Okay, technically, they do have danish pastries in Denmark, but a) it’s not what they’re called; b) they’re fairly different from what you’d get in the US when you ask for a Danish (why you would even put cream cheese on puff pastry is beyond me…); and most importantly c) clueless Midge is my favorite Midge.

Frikadeller: the burger/meatball they’re eating is called frikadeller. It’s not strictly a street food, though most hot dog vendors also have them, and it’s genuinely delicious and the healthy kind of greasy.

Gløgg: listen, gløgg/mulled wine in general is a very polarizing subject, but I am firmly in the camp that the best one is the Danish one (don’t @ me Germans). The spice blend is exceptional, and getting to eat the boozy nuts and raisins at the bottom is an excellent treat.

Smørrebrød: alright, I’ll just say it: smørrebrød is disgusting. it’s not just that danish bread is gross and frankly, shouldn’t count as bread (it’s a moist patty of grains?! It’s brown and has like, four different consistencies?! THAT'S NOT BREAD), but there’s not a single topping that’s acceptable food. There’s like a weird fried fish thing that’s not too evil, but then all the sauces are either sour or generally gross. 0/10, would not recommend unless you've lost your taste buds.

Roast duck: my Danish friend’s mom made it for me once and it was the absolutely most delicious thing I’ve ever had. I’m talking crunchy skin, layers of nice melt-in-your-mouth fat, and tender, savory meat that goes perfectly with that sweet berry sauce. To this day I have no clue what kind of berry Danes put in their sauce - or rather, I have no idea what they're called. All I know is, they're red and I've never seen them outside of Scandinavia. It’s a shame traditional Danish restaurant in Copenhagen are all ridiculously expensive or bad, because their dinner food is really, really, really good.

Bonus, a pic of the famous Malmö windmill:

I have no idea why it's there, but everyone always goes, "Oh, a windmill!" like it's the most incredible thing they've ever seen. Although it's probably because it's just sitting there in the middle of a city park.

As always, thank you for reading, and I'll see you in London!

[amane-by-together]

Hanafuda || Amane Yugi

(Part 1 of 10)

genre: fluff, school, slice of life, modern au (where all wonders live)

summary: amane yugi spends his school days skipping classes until he meets [name] [surname], a student from the other class, who was also skipping classes and eventually the two of them formed a platonic friendship. cutting classes and playing hanafuda together strengthens their friendship but soon unexpected feelings blossom between the two.

“Amane-kun.” [name] was shuffling the hanafuda cards together for them to play, she glanced over to the choppy haired boy who was sitting crossed legged against the rooftop's railings. “You going to the next class?”

“Nah.” Amane answers while fiddling with his locks of hair. “We probably skipped three classes this day, wanna skip classes in fourth period?” he smirked playfully.

“What class do you have in fourth period?” [name] asked, giving Amane some seven hanafuda cards. “Math?”

“Literature.” He received the cards and scooted in front of her. [name] flashed him a quick grin, her competitive side is showing all of a sudden when it comes to hanafuda. Amane stared at his cards and groaned. “Ugh, why do I get the worse cards?”

“I dunno, I wasn't looking when I was shuffling them.” [name] purses her lips together as she analyzes her cards. Her [eye color] colored eyes met with Amane's amber eyes. “Hm. Let's start!”

“You go ahead, [name]-san.”

“Hm~? Alrighty then~” [name] stretched her arms and let out a satisfying sound from her lips. She placed a sakura card with the tag to its match and took another card from the stack and placed it along with the cards on the center since it has no match. “Winner gets to sleep in the loser's lap.” she added.

“[name]-san, you know so damn well I'm not good with these things.” he murmured with a blush while putting a matsu card on the center.

Amane met [name] by chance. He often skip classes alone week by week, no one seemed to notice his absence which was fine by him. One day, he decided to stay on the rooftop and saw a girl sitting by herself with her phone. It must be fate or a coincidence, he thought.

The thing is, he has never seen this girl from the classes he attended to so he assumed that she's from the different class where Tsukasa, his twin brother, is. “Tsukasa-kun?!” she exclaimed at their first encounter. “What the frickety frack are you doing here?!”

Amane scratches his cheek and sweat dropped. He spoke. “I'm not Tsukasa though, I'm his older twin.”

[name] blinked she stood up from the bench and went over to Amane. The choppy haired boy slightly backed away from her. “Your tone is lowered down a bit, your eyes shaped like the crescent moon, yeah you're not Tsukasa-kun.” she muttered.

“I'm Amane Yugi, first year highschool, from class A.” he introduced himself while twiddling his fingers. “I'm Tsukasa's older brother though.” he chuckled.

“[name] [surname], same year as you but I'm from class B. Nice to meet you, Amane-kun.” [name] sat back down to the bench, she patted the extra space next to her. “Come, sit next to me.”

Amane hesitated a bit but shrugged and sat next to [name]. The female grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess you're skipping classes like me.”

“I've been skipping multiple times, no one noticed it yet, how about you?” Amane scooted closer till their shoulders touched, his bangs became parted from the side due to the slight wind that passed by.

“I started skipping on the beginning of first year.” [name] pulls out a packet of melon bread and gave it to Amane which he gratefully accepts it. Amane and [name] ate in pure silence, munching on to the bread that [name] bought recently which was originally for herself.

During those days of skipping classes, they would play hanafuda together on the rooftop. [name] would frequently win during their matches, guess luck really isn't compatible with Amane. The two of them quickly became close due to their meet ups when they're skipping classes together.

“Amane-kun, I know you have the full moon bright card.” [name] eyed him suspiciously but a shadow casted over to her face with a funny glint in her eyes. She placed an ume card with a red tag on it. “Red Poetry Tags, I win again~!”

“I couldn't even get a lot of yaku combinations.” Amane helped [name] to clean up the cards. “I knew I should give up the plain cards.”

Amane blushed at the thought of [name] laying down on his lap, he doesn't even know what to do when that happens, maybe he should play with her hair or massage her cheek?

[name] happily laid down on his lap, Amane grabbed his hoodie and placed it on top of her skirt. “Ne, [name]…” his hands reached over to caress her hair with his fingers. “Let's have lunch together.”

“Sure, I don't really have someone to share my lunch with,” Amane looked down on her laying on his lap and gave her a soft smile. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and started to pet her head, he reminded her of a cat. [name] would often keep her distance from others makes her cat-like according to him.

Though there's a part of [name] that doesn't want to open up to people, Amane was pretty much the same as her. “I got tired from work, yesterday.” he mentions with a small chuckle.

“Wait, you have a part time job?” [name] asked as her eyes piqued in interest, wanting to know what he does for work. “Where?”

Amane's cheeks grew warm, he slightly drooped his eyes and said. “I'm not telling you.”

“Why though?”

“You'd probably show up if I did.”

[name] turned her head to face his embarrassed look. She smiled playfully while wiping a dramatic tear from her eye. “You know me so well.” she faked a sniff.

“It's embarrassing...” Amane grumbled. [name] reached her hand out and placed it on to his cheek. He leans against her touch, the feeling of warmth and serenity made him smile a bit.

“But it's not. The fact that you're working is admirable.” [name] assured him with a smile unbeknownst to her that Amane's heart definitely skipped a beat on that act. “Pinch~” she cheekily grins while pinching his cheek.

“Owsh—” Amane tried to say while his cheek is being pulled by [name] and by that she releases her cheek. “That hurts...” he pouted.

“Have this for payback.” Amane returned the favor by pinching her cheek. Her cheeks were like mochi, which he likes to point it out just to tease her. “Mochiii~”

[name] deadpans. “You're treating me like some kind of mochi instead of a person.”

“Exactly.” The bell suddenly rang interrupting the two teens. Amane grabbed his bag that was on the bench. [name] punched a hole on the juice box using a straw and took a sip.

Amane leaned back against the railings, unboxing his lunch and ate. [name] didn't feel like eating, a juice box can satisfy her stomach after all. “[name]-san, don't you have lunch?”

“I forgot it at home.” she replied nonchalantly, she kept on having a stoic face until her stomach betrayed her by letting out a small growl. Amane stop eating halfway at the sound. “That’s nothing~” she denied that she was hungry.

“Here, I’ll give you some of my lunch.” Amane picked up a piece of egg roll using his chopsticks and raised it in front of [name]. “Say ahh~”

“O-Oi!” [name] flinched as she backed away from him. Amane’s brow creases in pure confusion. “Y-You don’t have to...”

“I can’t let you skip lunch, [name]-san.” The choppy haired boy smiled while putting the egg roll near her mouth, then his smile turned into a painful one. “Just take a bite, my hand is getting tired.”

[name] sighed in defeat, she was very hungry and was wrong about the juice box making her full. She tucked a hair behind her ear and ate the egg roll that Amane offered for her, his heart skipped a beat whilst she pulled away. “I guess, sharing lunch is not a bad idea...”

“Also, your lunch tastes good.” [name] scooted next to Amane to see his boxed lunch, she pointed at the ghost-shaped sausages, the bunny shaped rice balls and egg rolls. “You made that?”

Amane nodded with a slight blush on his face but the smile on his face didn't falter. “Well yeah, at the first time I made one of these they were all sloppy but practice makes perfect so I'm able to make one. If you'd like, I'll make you one or we can be matching too~!”

“Let's have matching lunches, duh.” [name] opens her mouth and ate another piece of egg roll that Amane was offering her. “But before that, I'll make us some lunch for us to share.”

“[name]-san, here have a sausage.” Amane feeds her the ghost-shaped sausages which the latter hummed contently. Amane took a bite on one of the sausages, he pulled out his phone and swallowed his food. “Hey, [name]-san,”

[name] stopped chewing her food. “Hm?”

“Wanna go home early?” Amane said with a mischievous grin, he's mostly the bad influence when it comes to reckless things like skipping classes. [name] had no idea why he has a lot of plans regarding this. “This is getting boring, don't cha think so?”

“And how do we plan to sneak out from school?” [name] asked, quirking a brow whilst waiting for an answer.

“We can jump off the roof.” Amane suggests.

“No. We'll freaking die if we did or even break our bones.” [name] shuddered. “If we did, they'll think it's just some lovers' su—”

“Nevermind that then.” Amane flailed his hands in front of her. “I guess we should wait till dismissal then...”

“Wanna play again?” [name] asked as she showed him the small box containing the cards.

Amane smiled. “Sure.”

Amane sat alone on a concrete bench, listening to the soft pitter patter of the rain surrounding him. Holding the clear umbrella from his right hand, he sighed as if he's gonna make a monologue or something.

He has friends from his class but none of them made him feel real. The only person who can make him feel like himself was no other than [name].

[name], to Amane, was everything to him. Meeting her was fate as if they were meant to meet in the first place. Back then, Amane admired some girls yet only because they're pretty. None of them were ever even close to him, he only felt shallow for them.

“Sorry for making you wait—” [name]'s voice cuts him off from his inner monologue. She held up her school bag on top of her head to prevent her from the rain. She grins blithely. “You don't have to be sitting the exact same way.”

“My uniform is a bit soaked.” [name] added with a wince. Amane licked the side of his lip and stood up to put the umbrella above her. “It was literally sunny recently.”

“Hm, I'll be taking you home.” Amane hands her the umbrella to [name], went over to his bike and puts his school bag in the basket. “Which way is your house?”

“That's like a novel way to put it but I guess that works.” [name] pointed out. “Sounds like a romance cliche, not gonna lie, lmao.”

Amane stepped on to his bike, [name] held on to his shoulders from behind. He was thankful that she didn't get to see his blushing face, because that's lowkey what every guy felt when there's a girl behind them on a bike.

Amane started pedalling. [name] closes the umbrella and sits down instead. “It stopped raining, by the way.” she declared.

[name] wrapped her arms around his torso and that's how Amane's face erupt in a huge blush. “[name]-san?!” he stammered at the sudden action.

“...Don't say a word about this.”

“I'm sorry, what?”

[name]'s face flushes, she buried her face on his back and that's where his heart started to beat faster. Out of all the girls he admired throughout the years, his feelings for [name] is different.

How so you may ask? When Amane is around [name] it's like he's sitting on a fluffy pink cotton candy or maybe standing on water that reflects a pastel pink sky with soft looking clouds with her. “You know, with you hugging me from behind isn't that kinda...” Amane turned his head towards [name] and smirked playfully. “Bold for you~?”

[name] tightens the hold in irritation. “Ack—” Amane's hold on the handle became wobbly but managed to maintain his balance. [name] elicits a small giggle in return.

“Hm, wanna skip again tomorrow?”

“If its with you, why not?”

“You're so cheesy.” [name] slightly smacked his shoulder. Amane turned ahead, a smile forming from his lips.

‘Nonetheless, I don't really mind skipping with you even if it means being with you...’

“Hold on tight, we're going downhill!” Amane gripped on the handles of his bike. [name]'s eyes widened when she saw that that they were about to go down on a slope.

“Cheers to us delinquents!” [name] cheered before they go down to the road.

Definition and terms:

hanafuda - flower cards that can be played in a variety of games such as koi koi (the type of game that [name] and amane are playing with the cards)

sakura - cherry blossom

matsu - pine tree

ume - plum blossom

-end of part 1-

thank you for reading, make sure to like and reblog if you love this post~

taglist: @closetwaffle @closetweebsmh

[danieyells]

Messy mutterings about Chapter 55 spoilers with a small angst warning, copypasted from discord with little cleaning and edits lol

I'm imagining Raphael sent Luke away so he wouldn't interfere with him killing/fighting Michael and Simeon went along with the idea and is in the human world too so Luke's not, y'know, on his own in a strange new world and to reduce Luke's suspicion and all. But as Michael and Raphael are fighting or whatever Luke somehow learns what's going on/realizes why things are off and rushes home to try and stop it.

He tries to get between Raphael and Michael(perhaps his back, Raph perhaps striking while Michael is lost in thought missing the brothers, spaced out, staring at the wall where their portraits were) and is struck violently by Raphael's spear instead. Simeon, ofc, followed him home to try and protect him but is too late because of Luke's own determination to protect Michael bonus if he grows a little in this scene--just magically, because his current smol form is too weak to help surely but if he were a little bigger, a little stronger, maybe he could make it in time--!! and Luke is impaled.

He doesn't die but none of the three wanted Luke hurt in this confrontation--Michael is angry at Raph for attacking/being violent in the first place, Raph is mad at Simeon for failing to restrain Luke, and Simeon is like is now really the time for this because hello Luke is hurt.

Angels are made of strong stuff, he's not gonna die but he'll be in a bad spot if they don't get him to an angel who specializes in healing. I've elected this to be Uriel for now although I've been told that Raphael is generally percieved as the angel of healing--but with OM canon his reputation sonfar is so hostile I'm gonna say that may not be the case. Michael (or Raph) can stave things off for a bit but he's not healing specialized either--they're all Archangels and Seraphs but their fields are elsewhere, mostly combat.

(Luke tries to assure that he's fine and attempts to remove the spear. They don't allow this because the spear is, of course, keeping most of his blood in at the moment.)

They can't fly him to someone because it'd be bumpier so they have to carry him or call/run/send for help--so other angels do learn what's going on and speculation begins. Luke is hospitalized and Raph and Michael and Simeon stay with him while he sleeps, kinda tensely, not really ready to talk out whatever happened. But before he passed out Luke tried to tell Raphael not to fight/kill Michael, to talk to him instead. He wanted to tell him to talk to the demons/humans too, they're not as bad as they think(he and Raph are very likeminded so he thinks 'maybe Raphael will listen to me since I'm starting to see that I was a little wrong maybe') but he couldn't get it out.

Simeon messages the demons, Solomon, and MC and says he won't be returning to the human world/devildom for a bit because Luke was hurt in the CR. Mammon, having had recently gotten attached to Luke, is stunned and angry and anxious and wants to know what happened. Simeon isn't ready to tell them yet, and Mammon demands Barb make a portal to the CR for him to check on Luke--surely Barb is also worried because he cares for Luke too!

Diavolo says they're not allowed to go and Barb agrees(he felt as much before Diavolo said anything too.) Simeon agrees because there's some unrest now and speculation and with an exchange student angel having had been injured by a notoriously demon-skeptical Archangel some angels are worried the demons may be involved in this somehow and if demons suddenly showed up it'd make things worse. Mammon curses his helplessness because his new little brother minion is hurt and he can't even check on him. Simeon feels helpless too--he's an archangel, a Seraph, but he can't help Luke either.

I imagine MC then offers to visit instead--they may be a powerful sorcerer now but they're still just a sheep human with an inhuman aura right? They wouldn't be as concerning for the general populace. After some consideration the demons and Solomon agree this would be okay, as does Michael and Simeon [and Raph maybe] but they say to wait a few hours/a day or two before doing so, just to allow some cooldown/recovery in the CR.

(In the meantime Mammon reviews one of Luke's recent text chains to him where he's baking something. He tries to copy all the steps and instructions and clumsily makes some cupcakes. They're ugly and Mammon isn't known for his stellar cooking, but they kinda relieve him a bit and Beel says they taste alright, so Mammon asks MC to bring them to the CR for Luke for him--there's enough for Michael too since he's probably going through a hard time. It's not like he cares or anything!! He's just building up credit! They'll owe him with interest when this is all said and done!!!)

Idk what'd happen afterwards--it's probably the first time MC meets Raph so it's not under the best circumstances and he definitely wouldn't trust sweets from a demon. And even if he was gonna fight/kill Michael he doesn't trust that Mammon would give him anything safe and instinctively would tell Michael not to touch them, let alone Luke if he's awake to do so. So it's not like he hates Michael, he just. Things need to change and he tried to incite it the only way he knows how--or, rather, the most effective way, given how quickly things changed after the Rebellion. A spear to the throat makes anyone listen. A rebellion is what made Michael change, so maybe it will help him go back to normal too.

(Maybe Luke is awake enough to hear them talking about these things and weakly asks if Raph is going to be exciled over this--the first thing he says since passing out. They're surprised because. He got injured trying to protect Michael but he's still trying to protect Raphael, Michael's assailant? But Luke understands how Raphael feels because he feels the exact same way--or he used to. He didn't trust demons or humans or sorcerers or the exchange program, he didn't think they should get along at all. And he saw how sad Michael was without the brothers and hated them for that too--and Raph feels the same way, right?

Angels are all family. Raphael, Michael, Luke, Simeon, even when they disagree, when their views don't align due to time and perspectives and experiences and ages and positions, they're all brothers. And Lucifer and them were their family too. Even if they disliked them or how they behaved, even if they resent their rebellion and its effects they were still family and they loved and cared about them.

And Raphael doesn't want to see Michael hurting anymore either--certainly not over people who don't care anymore, certainly not over people who turned on them and Father, who must hate them as well. . .but he's been with the brothers for over a year now. Maybe two or three at this point. And he may have only learned it recently but. . .they haven't forgotten. They probably don't hate them. And the demons, the humans, even those unfaithful and the practitioners of dark magic, the fallen, they're not as bad as they thought. They're not necessarily their enemies. Raphael doesn't know it like Luke does because he's never left the CR aside for war and maybe visiting the human world briefly too, right? But if he'd consider things differently, if he's allowed a chance to learn, Luke himself promises Michael, promises Father who's surely watching as he always is, that he'll understand. Raph made a rash decision albeit after many many years of consideration-- but it was out of ignorance, so please forgive him and give him another chance and don't excile him? On top of that he needs a chance to learn and do better--imagine how he'd feel, being turned into something he hates or fears? It will help him learn, sure, but it also may only make him feel worse or make him do something more rash or result in another Fall if he has supporters.

Raphael doesn't hate Michael--he just wants things to be different. Perhaps to go back to normal. And he doesn't want Michael to mope over the loss of the seven brothers and Lilith anymore either.

And maybe in this time, since they'd have to decide what to do about Raph, Michael requested Diavolo come over too--y'know, in case Raph is exciled, they'd want Diavolo's approval and reassurance to keep an eye on him too. So maybe he or Barb, as they arrive in the room, would approve of Luke's appeal--ask what Michael and Simeon And Raph and MC think. They could always bring him in as an exchange student too! 😘 That worked for Luke!

Ultimately Raph probably wouldn't be exciled/become a Fallen but be given another chance. Maybe he's stripped of his title temporarily, until he's sufficiently deemed to learn about demons, angels, their history together, culture, whether or not they can get along, etc--so he's bitter, but thankful. And Michael understands that perhaps he's been allowing how much he misses the brothers and Lilith to cloud him and maybe it's time to move on and make changes to the Celestial Realm again after all this time. Bonus points if the bros came along and he was too distracted to sense them--someone's like "oh you're moving on? So we came here for no reason after all?" and ofc he's happy to see them again and gets to hang out with them again for a while before getting to say a goodbye with more closure. And he hangs off of Lucifer's neck the whole time they're there lol he and Dia bond over being Lucifer fanboys too.

Luke's okay in the end--a little worse for wear because being stabbed by Raphael is Not A Small Ordeal but he's okay and he shows a little more maturity. But he's also still same old Luke who will happily point out how awful demons are and use it as an excuse for distrust/fear--but he's more mindful of it now because he feels like he needs to set a good example for Raph lmao.)

[toho-literature]

Curiosities of Lotus Asia - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Illusionary Bird

Marisa visited Kourindou carrying one of the beautiful crested ibises that had been increasing in number in Gensokyo lately. After catching it near Hakurei Shrine, Marisa was planning to cook it and eat it with Reimu. In the now lively Kourindou, the owner Rinnosuke was immersed in thought about the reason for the increase in the ibises...

Chapter 2 of an original story based on the Touhou series!

Illusionary Bird

“Hey, Kourin! What's up? Today's our routine hot pot day!”

She shouted as she threw open the door. As far as I'm concerned, today's Animal Protection Day.

“Oh, it's you, Marisa? What's the meaning of coming here and claiming this to be a 'hot pot day'?”

Marisa showed me what she had in her right hand, and there it was, a limp, red-and-white lump...

Some way from the Human Village in Gensokyo is the Forest of Magic, and close by this forest is my shop, Kourindou. In other words, it's halfway between where the humans live and where the youkai are. I thought that I could do business with both humans and youkai in this location, but the truth is that I almost never have clients of either kind. Well, it gets lively at times, but...

“Isn't that a crested ibis? What happened?”

“Yeah, I caught it by the shrine. Reimu's preparin' stuff for the hot pot, so she'll be late.”

“And why did you decide to meet at my place? You never even asked.”

“What are you talkin' about? This'll make a great meal! Sure, he looks a bit worse for the wear, but...”

The crested ibis. More and more of these birds have been appearing in Gensokyo every year. Wherever they become roused, the sky would become dyed in their colors. Yet their meat tastes good, despite their shabby appearances. The hot pot too, would end up dyed in that ibis color, almost a scarlet red. Not a nice way to put it, but it'd look like a human hot pot made by a vampire.

“Well, I guess it's fine, but why hot pot, all of a sudden?”

“Isn't it obvious? Cold days are all about hot pots.”

Marisa continued to chatter while barging into the kitchen. "Well, I just found 'im by chance, but he was pretty lively until a while ago."

Gensokyo is, quite literally, a place where illusionary creatures dwell. At some point, the people in the outside world wrote off “illusionary creatures” as nothing more than “fantasy creatures”. But, of course, illusionary creatures and fantasy creatures are very different. A fantasy creature is just another name for a delusion, misinterpretation or misunderstanding. On the other hand, an illusionary creature is one that can only be found in Gensokyo. It goes without saying, then, that both Marisa and I are also illusionary creatures.

However, the reason behind the sudden proliferation of crested ibises is something I don't understand. Could it be that they have become “illusionary birds”? That would be unthinkable in the outside world I knew, but then again, too much time has elapsed since then. As much as I try to imagine the outside world from limited literature and old memories, it would amount to nothing more than imaginations. An imagination plagued by imaginations is no more than a fantasy. For imaginations, I rank them in the order of Fantasy, Delusion, Prediction, the Virtual, and Illusion.

“Sorry for the wait! Marisa is here, too, right?”

“...I wasn't waiting. How could I when you girls showed up so suddenly?”

“Well, of course we came suddenly. But you should be waiting at all times. Isn't this a shop and everything?”

Reimu came just as Marisa said. She was carrying several bags with her. Ingredients for the hot pot, I guess.

“Hey, Reimu! Took ya long enough! Let's get this hot pot cookin'.”

Marisa had her arm outstretched, with a feeling of “C'mon, hand it over!” to it.

“I brought everything, yes.”

“Huh? This is red miso. Who told you to bring red miso?”

“I didn't need to be told. Red miso is the obvious choice for ibis broth!”

“Hey, hey! The hot pot is already red enough, so we should make it with white miso. Putting red miso in red broth? Are ya some kind of Communist?"

“It's not like you aren't going to eat because of the color. Since ibis meat is red to begin with, it shouldn't bother you, right? And why white miso? This isn't the Genpei War.”

The two of them went on about food coloring, but I wasn't listening. Regardless, Marisa was holding the ibis, and every time she gave it a squeeze, the ibis would squawk. It was kind of weird, like the ibis was supporting her. I'm sure Marisa was doing that on purpose.

"Don't red pickles go with tonkotsu? Wouldja put it in miso ramen?"

"And doesn't fukujinzuke go with curry? But knowing you, you'd probably throw it in cream stew.”

“Having somethin' red in the middle of somethin' white is the sign of a Japanese soul!”

“I'm already red and white enough. And what part of you has a Japanese soul, Marisa? Do you even know what 'Wabi-sabi' is?”

“I don't think ya know yerself, Reimu.”

“Of course I don't.”

“Anyway, we're not makin' a hot pot like that.”

“Wasn't it you who came up with the hot pot idea? We can't eat this ibis raw.”

“So is that how it is? Alright then, let's just divide it now.”

“Decide it?”

“Yeah, that'll work, too. Wanna go?”

In the end, it seems like they decided to settle the matter in a shooting duel, without so much as asking for my advice (even though they came to my shop uninvited). The rules were: 1-on-1 with Spellcard Rules. If Reimu won, the hot pot would be done her way; if Marisa won, she'd apparently make her go buy white miso. Never mind that I had white miso in my place, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, so I just let them be. Speaking of which, I actually know the tastiest way to cook a crested ibis...

“Marisa, what do I always tell you?”

“If you're gonna fight, then go outside, right?”

“More importantly, could you divide the bird up for Marisa, Mr. Rinnosuke?”

Their objectives seem to have changed already. Whatever the result is, I guess they'll happily eat it however I cook it. I could go as far as to think they arranged this scenario from the beginning, since it always follows the same pattern. Those two are frequently dueling to decide the most insignificant things. On top of that, they've been using attacks with lots of projectiles. It's extremely bright, and hard on the eyes.

Their duels are always a study in contrast. Against the gung-ho Marisa, Reimu – either on purpose or naturally – fights in a more laid-back style. The duels mostly go Reimu's way, but Marisa doesn't always lose. It's just that Marisa attacks with all her skill and might against Reimu, who looks just like she was made of air; it's like trying to pound a nail into dust. In any way, when looking at Reimu, she gives off a feeling that she is not quite from our own world. Anything more than that is something one cannot quite grasp.

“Hey, that's dangerous! What if it had hit me, Marisa!? Geez...”

“Aw, c'mon! Why didn't it hit?”

“Your bullets swerve to avoid me on their own. How nice of them!”

“They're flyin' straight...”

Since I could hear their voices, I went to see how things were going. Reimu looked like she would practically teleport at times. And her bullets would fly guided in impossible directions. It was kind of unfair.

Well then, this nice, round ibis looks really tasty; I've never seen one like it before. Speaking of which, Marisa said something that bothered me...

“Sorry for the wait, we've just made a decision.”

“Yes, you always make me wait like this. I already made the hot pot. With red miso, as expected.”

“Grrr... You already prepared the hot pot? What would ya do if I had won, Kourin?”

“I would have had you eat an ibis cooked in the tastiest way.”

The Hakurei Shrine is located in the edge of Gensokyo. And by edge, that doesn't mean only in the physical sense. There is the border between the outside world and Gensokyo. Because of that, the Hakurei Shrine is not an entirely “illusionary place”. And Marisa said she caught the ibis by the Shrine. It may be that this ibis is indeed from the outside world. So it would seem that crested ibises are not Illusionary Birds yet. I feel somewhat relieved.

[dan-alexander-art]

Personas

Man it has been a long time since I posted anything. I wanted to apologize for that, things have been hectic. Especially with University but through all that I've been doing a lot of self discovery and realized I'm not one person, but actually six (plus a train of thoughts). Most people might think it's Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID or Multiple Personality Disorder) but that's not what I have. After talking to a therapist about this she's helped me see that they're just different parts of me. I knew it wasn't DID to begin with since I didn't have blank memories. It took awhile but after trying to listen to my different parts I figured out who they are and their own stories. Most have their own tastes of music and that has helped me a lot in figuring out on who they are, what they do and what they're like. So below I their bios as well as a short story of them and how they came to be. This is right to left.

Name: Love and Memories

Nickname: Rose

Likes: Listening to Maroon 5 and songs about love. Look back at happy memories. Giving Lillies or Bonsai Trees to friends.

Bio: Love has been around a long time, he's the second longest persona that existed. When he's around he doesn't care what to wear. When he's present he likes to go back and remember both the good and bad in my life. He has a deeper understanding between a good relationship and a bad relationship. The vines represent a current relationship I have, weather it's a friendship or family relations. When the vines are mostly thorns rather than flowers it means the relationship is toxic and should be fixed. If there are more flowers than thorns then the relationship is healthy. The point where the toxicity has gotten really bad is when the rose on his right eye begins to wither. Whenever we get friends he symbolically gives said friend either a lily or Bonsai tree since these require lots of care, love and patience just like a real friendship. Love isn't too hesitant about forming new bonds but only after a certain amount of time. He's not shy but most people would assume since he doesn't speak much, but in reality he just doesn't know how to communicate well and worries it might come out wrong, misunderstood or offensive.

Name: Beast

Nickname: ---

Likes: Feeding off my insecurities and taunting me

Bio: Beast is a dangerous persona that requires me to have full control of what goes on. Beast can control the other personas. For example Beast can make Love rewind traumatic memories and leave me feeling paralyzed. He is the embodiment of negativity and he enjoys seeing me suffer. If I'm not careful he can and will slowly crawl up behind me. Starting with small whispers of insecurities then building on until he's shouting taunts at me. Shouting all my fears, my worries and my worthlessness to the point of crying.

Name: Hurt

Nickname: Wolf

Likes: Listening to Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Katy Perry and any type of strengthing music. Wearing rings and bracelets.

Bio: Hurt carries a lot of scars and wounds on him that represent emotional and mental scars and wounds I carry. He doesn't mind showing them off, he actually finds them empowering. To him it shows not only what he's been through but even through all that he's still here. Hurt isn't afraid aside from Beast. Beast is the only thing that scares him. Hurt also doesn't mind crying, it just means he's human like everyone else. When he's around he lets me cry when I need to but also reminds me that there's always a better tomorrow. That whatever is going on in my life doesn't mean the world is going to end and this experience is only going to make me stronger. Hurt's nickname comes from his ability to change into a wolf. The form represents the pride he has for being able to continue walking down this path dispite the curveballs life has thrown at us. Hurt is very wary of new people and doesn't open up on the spot. Though he's very kind and is willing to comfort people who are hurting. He always puts other people ahead of himself. The cracked eye shows that Hurt's soul is part broken, since the eyes are the windows to the soul. The cracked has a tendency to bleed every now and then and because of the cracked eye his perspective is warped. What caused the cracked eye is something Hurt doesn't want to talk about or explain.

Name: Ying & Yang

Nickname: Unity

Likes: Listening to NoCopyrightSounds (NCS) and other types of beat music. Wearing a black hoodie.

Bio: Yang has a deep understanding for human behavior and human emotions but doesn't understand his own. When he's around I just have a strong emotion of movement and color. Yang is very powerful, he can alter my reality. He helps me see different perspectives. Yang also has a different side called Ying. Yang is calm, collective and uses his ability to make my day brighter. Ying is a bit more unstable, he changes my reality in order to escape it. Ying doesn't always show up but when he does it's often from stress and a sense of lack of control. Unlike Yang, Ying doesn't see color. He only sees static black and white. This static helps calm my mind by focusing on less. Ying is also chaotic and makes me go through healthy mental breakdowns. Though Ying's mind is also disturbing compared to Yang's. Ying doesn't mind listening to twisted music and watching gorey movies.

Name: Smart Alec

Nickname: Yukio

Likes: Listening to lo-fi and reading music. Reading fiction books. Peace and quiet whenever possible.

Bio: Alec is the first persona to be around, he only focuses on school and is always planning ahead. He rarely makes me forget to do HW. Alec would often scare me into doing HW fast and early. Though it pays off. He loves reading especially the Wings of Fire series. The combination of music and reading helps keep him immersed into the world. He's often very technical and often likes to argue with science. He's all about the facts and research, he sees educating one's self is important especially with the type of world he's in this time around. He's hardworking and studying whenever it's necessary. He use to push me to my limits but is now more lenient and doesn't make me overdo it when it comes to studying. He's not really too comfortable in crowds and prefers to be with a small group or being alone. He doesn't mind a challenge, in fact he actually welcomes it. Alec doesn't see any reason for emotions and he lacks a lot of emotion himself. Although he doesn't see it as bad he does see it as a burden, especially if when I'm upset but there's a task to be done. Though he encourages me to do said task, like he always says: Once you hit rock bottom, the only way now is up.

Name: Creativity

Nickname: Twilight

Likes: Listening to Alan Walker, Zedd and any upbeat music, but mostly music in general. Drawing and painting, especially adding a new drawings to my bedroom walls. Playing videogames, mostly JRPGs. Wearing hoodies and comfortable clothes.

Bio: Creativity likes to turn Yang's vision of colors into meaning. He often translates those colors into drawings. The same goes when he listens to music. When he's around he always compeles me to draw even if it's late. He gives me a drive to continue drawing. He also looks out for my wellbeing by helping me balance between downtime and chores. Creativity is also the one who gave the other personas nicknames. He's mostly shy but that shyness doesn't stay around when he's playing competitively. He won't hesitate to pick up a controller when it comes to games such as Smash Bros. Playing games helps with the ongoing stresses in life but also helps spark new ideas. Creativity also likes to world building and create new characters for his world building. He's always positive and helps me through my hard times by drawing vent art. Creativity is a Walker fan himself, if you're curious he's Walker #37804.

Name: Lust

Nickname: Blaze

Likes: Listening to Ke$ha, Avril Lavigne, Green Day and any type of party music. Think about sex as a means to relieve anger, frustration or irritation. Wearing multiple necklaces and high tops.

Bio: Lust didn't always have free will especially early on. He was always fueled by rage, hate and anger. He often protected me by being cold and learning to fight back. He was present in my early years of starting Elementary school as a way to keep a distance from people who would try to hurt me. Though because of his lack of free will he would often make me feel angry and ready to clock anything even if it was just bothering me. The lack of freewill came from Beast. In fact Beast and Lust use to be one. With Beast fueling his anger with hurtful words. It wasn't until Ying and Yang helped them be their own person that Lust started to control his anger. Now he just likes to display himself as someone against authority when he believes something is wrong. And he uses that anger as a passion to participate in marches and protests. Though Lust hasn't completely shed influence from Beast. He possesses the ability to become a dragon. He can do this at will but not when he's angry. The angrier Lust gets the more dragon like he becomes. Only when he gets enraged does Lust become a full dragon. Lust is very protective, not just protective of me but also of my friends. He cares about other people and displays it as being protective. If anyone messes with my friends, Lust won't hesitate to get even. He's also very raw when it comes to intercourse and sees it as nothing more than human nature and not something to be ashamed about. Though he also holds consent to a high standard. If we're out he'll make sure me or someone there doesn't end up getting taken advantage of or be in a dangerous situation. Intercourse is very secrete to him and not something someone should have the ability to abuse.

[iamacolor]

Hey Violette :) Thank you so much for answering my idol turned actors question. It was very enriching to read your pov because I have the opposite story.

I started listening to kpop before watching kdramas so the idols made me watch the shows (very few because I can't sit there for an hour to an hour and a half and focus on this). I mainly watched shows with either my biases or members of groups I liked. I'm no kdrama expert but I've always struggled watching my faves or idols I knew do something so different from what I'm used to. I was kinda scared to realize they weren't as good as expected. I still have that fear from time to time but I let go of it with time.

I have to agree with you that in most of the shows I've watched, the idols did a correct job playing their roles. I don't think I've been blown away by a performance but I think they did really good.

Also, while my memory is still working, I'd like to point out that a lot of idols have been cast in entertainment companies because they wanted to pursue an acting career, not an idol one. I've seen my fair share of idols looking almost "empty" while on stage and brought back to life when acting. It links to what you said about idols being pretty and learning how to sing/dance on stage. It seems, to me, that a lot of idols have been deprived of their long-time dream for so long and now they're taking the opportunity to act all the roles they want to play. Which is also interesting because I don't think I've seen an idol play a role that's far from their idol image. I mean, most of them either play a student or a young crush. This is sad because they are able to be more than that. I'd love to see more idols play crazier and deeper characters.

Like you said, it's not because idols are cast in a show that they're for sure worse actors than those who decide to make a career out of it. It's mainly due to the fact that people seem to enjoy putting idols in this "they're only good at being pretty" etiquette. Stop with the clichés please!

And that's a wrap! I don't remember what I wrote in the beginning (save me). Thank you for making this conversation so interesting. It was nice talking to you about this.

hello anon! ah my pleasure, really, i'm glad you read throught it all!!

(honestly i relate why are episodes so long, there are some shows where i've ended up just skipping every 10secs and still managed to not lose the plot - so i often watch dramas while doing something like knitting or eating or anything with my hands otherwise i lose focus) and i understand that fear honestly, especially if it's someone you really enjoy listening to or watching perform it'd be weird to find that they're really not made for it - also i sometimes worry about seeing the idol rather than the character because with other actors i mostly know nothing about them outside of their characters but if it's an idol from a group i like it usually means i've seen them in variety content or interview - and it's good that you've managed to let go of that! especially because you can always see people improve and you don't have to watch anything if it's not up to your tastes - there will always be people having contradictory opinions on anything we think is good or bad anyway so even if i think someone is good others might not anyway

and that's a very good point actually!! i remember discovering that when reading about an actor who was also a trainee, they all get to learn a bit of everything at first as well and also a lot of them are often casted for their looks even if they don't necessarily have any plans to be an idol or work in the entertainment industry so it's not like being an idol was always their dreams since they were kids (and singing and dancing and all the training that go with it is very taxing) so it makes sense that their agency would have them do both and that they would enjoy acting and pursue it (i did both choir and drama club growing up but i know i would enjoy acting 100% more than being a singer lol)

and yeah they often start as either part of a romantic pairing or as sweet or funny secondary character, it's only after they've acted for a few years that they can "stray" from it and go for more diverse roles (withou necessarily a romance, or something more melodramatic or a thriller...) so i find that a lot of 2gen idols get to do these more complex roles and step out of the cute stories or the sweet/fun characters but even then it's very rare to see them play a vilain? the only one i can think of is taecyeon from 2pm in vincenzo but he's already in his 30s, he's done his military service, he's well into acting now (and even then it surprised a lot of people) or ksyungsoo from exo in the movie swingkids who isn't a vilain per se but very much a grey character who's not very sympathetic at first and it's all tragic (i rellay recommend this movie btw). and the problem sometimes is if they've played two similar-ish characters people tend to put them in a box and think they can't do more (the exemple i have of that is eunwoo: after a few secondary roles, he did a college drama and a high-school drama, both romances, and people kept saying he was doing the same roles all over again and that he couldn't act and that he was typecast etc despite doing a sageuk in between and now doing a fantasy thriller) - and so of course it must make it scary for them to go too out of the box because they might be afraid people will think they're trying too hard and casting directors might not think they have the range etc especially since the actor-idol are often the visual members

also this made me think and there don't seem to be as many female idols who go into acting as male idols do? or at least they don't go on to get to play leads as much as the men, i've seen maybe 5 or 6 of them as leads - sejeong, nana, hyeri, sooyoung, joy, krystal...- and a few get secondary roles but i went throught the list of all the dramas i've watched and i found so many male idols

i think i've just wrote all of this to simply agree with you lol but this was very interesting to think about, thank you anon!! 💜