#glory and gore by lorde playing in the background

[vulptalia]

I also love how two of the hands are fucking France and England

Sirs, you already got your credit. Put the damn lighters down. France especially. England he already left the nest let it go

England and France, probably: B-but he wasn’t an Empire- I mean, uh, formidable nation then. Yeah…

Well, speaking modernly both France and the UK are still directly involved with the U.S. Speaking Hetalia wise, yeah those two would certainly still be obsessed with Alfred in the parental way ("I know whats best for him").

Also,,imo the U.S. is certainly an Empire, just without acknowledging it directly haha..ha... oo''

[blocky-tides]

If the Spotify drabble requests are still open, anything Zombiecleo, 31? Thank you!

31 - glory and gore by lorde

cleo could hear the orchestra playing faintly in the background from where she stood behind closed balcony doors.

it was one of the major balls her castle hosts every year. and every year since was crowned queen of the small nation people swarm her, begging for her attention. showing off in a vain attempt to earn her favor. knowing full well that their queen hated the attention.

enjoying the brisk air, they took a sip of their champagne. it was a bit too early in the night to switch it something harder, but it warmed her the same.

thud.

a faint, "oh snappers." echoed out after the noise.

cleo whipped her head around trying to the person who was insolent enough to disregard the non-verbal command to leave her the fuck alone for the rest of the night, until they had to usher the guests out with an ending speech.

tumbling out of the shadows came out a tall, lanky man with silver hair-white hair and a sheepish smile. unfortunately a face that she was all too familiar with.

"etho." cleo sighed out, already tired with his antics without him saying a single word, "why are you haunting me at this hour? i was under the impression that you had business to do with our neighbors."

etho slowly came closer to her, stepping into the dim light from inside the ballroom. his footsteps were visible on the ground behind him, soaked in blood. a miracle since who ever he killed has been dead for hours now.

etho pouted at them, canines glinting from between his lips. "aren't you proud of me? i wasn't supposed to be finished with business till next week."

cleo huffed, rolling her eyes. "you are pandering for compliments tonight."

"so if i am?" etho asked, creeping towards her.

they huffed again, hiding their amusement. she opened her arms for a hug that etho gladly leaned into. the sticky, still drying blood that covered him stuck to her silk gown and skin. she tucked her face into his neck breathing the comforting smell of ice, jungle wood, and rotting blood.

"i missed you." etho murmured into her hair.

"i'll send you away for longer so that you can miss me more." cleo promised.

[ironharvests]

creature of desire, you’ve a fever for the fire.

@bredfaith​           yajuu snickered,  “the first step to any murder is to have fun & be yourself. "

mini-ficlet:  in which godhood is a thing with teeth, sainthood was made to block the light, and kimimaro is just a man looking for divinity in the flesh.

i.

“God is terror,” the old man used to say. his pupils blue skies were cloudy with cataracts and jaundice, but he always knew precisely where to bury his knucklebone blade in kimimaro’s flesh, subtle as a camellia, to really hurt. “She is thunder and lightning and boiling seas.” a petal blooming from his ribcage.  “She is phantasm, she is black rot and sour things, she is pain and suffering and the ecstasy hidden in their blood-soaked dirt.” a bouquet, furious and glittering with rubies. “She is beautiful and sublime, glory and gore, and you are our offering to her: bone of her bone, made in her image.”

“’I am the bone of her bone,’” kimimaro whispered the clan prayers as the elders folded his spirit into his body and broke them in both in unending strokes. “In bleeding me, I am filled with her pain. In my brokeness, I am beautiful. In shattering me, you bring me closer to the Moon-eyed One.’”

beautifully broken. the child squirms under the lash, but does not whimper. beautiful. oh, how he wants to be something so simple as beautiful.

ii.

on the outskirts of water country, the boy meets a creature with a face like heaven and eyes deeper than any hell.

“God is a dream spun by the desperate,” lord orochimaru had laughed when kimimaro asked if they believe in heaven. their hand was long and smooth and cool to the touch when kimimaro fised his tiny hand around two of their fingers, and he had known in an instant that his hands were made to cling to theirs like a river-worn rock, like a knife handle, like prayer beads.

they were still in water country’s backwater wasteland where war was a cicada in summer, constantly shrieking its background song, and dead bodies were as common to see on the side of the road as toadstools. lord orochimaru thought nothing of making more of the dead. a band of bandits and the caravan they’d been attacking were cut down in a single stroke of blood and steel. kimimaro clung to the back of lord orochimaru’s robes as they led him through the carnage, stepping over the dead and onto the dying.

“Any man dreaming of god deserves to be sent to him, hm?”  lord orochimaru pressed their delicate sandal against a dead girl’s cheek, running their eyes over her long black hair, her full cheeks, the maggots creeping from her fever-stretched mouth. “With all the other delusions. If the gods exist, I will kill them.”

kimimaro chewed his bottom lip, wrinkling his nose against the labored droning of horseflies. “I think. . .” lord orochimaru had looked sharply at him then, and it had taken kimimaro a moment to realize he had squeezed their hand hard enough for his wrist bones to break skin brush against their palm. still, he could not look away from their burning eyes — so like gold coins, or scorched suns, or divinity. “. . . I think that is what a god would say.” orochimaru had stared at him for a long unblinking moment before a smile eclipsed across their lips. 

“Come along, Kimimaro-kun. Night will not wait for us.”

kimimaro knew in that moment that he was right: here before him stood god sheathed in snake’s skin, and it was his duty to love them in beauty and in horror.

iii.

for nine years, his was the path of the righteous man. where he walked, no doubtful weed could take root. where he lay his head, no dark dreams troubled dared trouble him. he basked unflinching in the violent brilliance of divine radiance, and he learned that a god hungers only for knowledge. the oldest fruit still proved ripest.

for nine years, kimimaro believed he knew the true face of god. 

their hair was a river of his black blood. their eyes, midnight suns. their beauty was as elegant as the finest blade, and they knew him by his name. he questioned nothing. it was not the role of the devout to spit in god’s face.

it was only after his near-death that the truth had been revealed to him. 

orochimaru was no god. they were terribly mortal, and their destruction was neither wanton nor ecstatic like the elders had foretold; they were cold-blooded and conniving where god was supposed to be hot-blooded and manic. the righteousness in him fermented over night. a false god. his purpose was a lie. his world folded like cards.

he dragged himself into the woods to die.

but of course he couldn’t get that right, either.

iv.

this is the part of his life he remembers little of: the wandering. the world is a smear of water colors. he weeps exactly three times over three years, and the weight of it nearly kills him. he’s dying, slowly. another thing he can’t do right. 

and then, at his loneliest, he meets jūgo again; and it’s funny, really, because arguably jūgo is kimimaro’s greatest failure.

of course it is jūgo who saves him. he falls in love with him. of course: it’s the fairytale formula.

except there is a monster living inside jūgo with eyes like violence and a mouth dripping with blood, and when jūgo takes his hand kimimaro swells with pride, but when yajuu surfaces to wear jūgo like sheep’s skin, kimimaro’s skin waxes hot, wanes cold, and every nerve ending roils and sparks like a festival night sky.

kimimaro falls in love with the monster.

of course. of course. of course.

v.

tonight kimimaro wanders through the woods, indifferent to the bite of mountain air. he moves through the trees like a breeze, following the spattering of innards and sweetmeats left in yajuu’s wake. he keeps his distance today, allowing yajuu to have their fun hunting. the cold cramps his right hand, and his knuckles split the skin just for the comfort of a familiar ache. for all the havoc it’s wrought on him, he doesn’t pay much attention to the pains of the body when there is so much to wonder about. he thinks about god and if she can hear him and if so, what does she want? he thinks about the moon and how if he raises his hand at just the right angle he can grasp it, and he thinks about how he does not know if that means anything, but it feels like it should. he thinks about insects and meat and rot and bile and—

a roar reverberates through the trees. kimimaro steps out of the copse and into a clearing, and there is yajuu.

yajuu’s hulking mass crowds a bear’s carcass, large hands that can crush boulders reaching into the sneer torn into the bear’s belly and wrenching out fistfuls of offal, viscera, sweetwet. the bear is still dying: its eyes roll sluggishly in its massive head, the droop of its eyelids matching the outpouring of its blood ( ecstasy; this is what it must look like, yes? ) and as kimimaro approaches he makes eye contact with it and holds its gaze as the lights go out. he lays a hand on its head and runs his hands through its thick brown fur, sinking his fingers into the warmth as he watches yajuu give worship to something much bigger than anything kimimaro has prayed to. yajuu notices him, and leers.

“Y’know, the first step of any murder is to have fun and be yourself,” yajuu snickers. kimimaro can feel the electricity spiking down his spine, can taste his heartbeat in his own throat.

covered in sweat and blood, their laughter wicked and dark as they spread the bear’s remains across the grass — it dredges up forgotten memories of his time imprisoned by his clan. little flashes of dancing and howling and screams around fire pits and human prisoners begging for release, and the crazed smiles on the kaguya’s faces as they nodded sympathetically and promised to release them with the edge of a knife as soon as their god had heard them.

but yajuu — yajuu is different. yajuu worships chaos without knowing they are its greatest disciple. they are not god, but they are something that would brush against her ankles; kimimaro’s sure of it. 

and yajuu chooses to follow him. him. he does not follow the thought to its logical conclusion. he can’t.

instead, he touches his throat. brushes the warm skin there and thinks about the hot press of large fingers crushing down around it as he prays. kimimaro loves jūgo, but what he feels for yajuu is something a hundred times darker.

This furious love will choke me, he thinks, and the hopeless excitement of it all echoes through every inch of him. It will break me. And in breaking, I shall be made whole.

“Come, Yajuu, flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone,” he says instead, seafoam green eyes whipping themselves into summer storms as they fix on the ring of blood around yajuu’s mouth burning with cold heat. “Let us play a different game.”

[suits-of-woe]

Cornwall and Regan for the headcanon ask?

1. If you had to change the pairing’s very first meeting, how would you change it?

They don’t have a canon first meeting but I really like the hc that they were very in love and attracted to each other but Regan managed to convince Lear he was the one forcing her into a purely political marriage and she was only obeying his fatherly will and he only realized later that she got exactly what she wanted. Plotting together from the very start basically

2. What song fits your pairing the most?

I apply this song to every battle couple ever but Glory and Gore by Lorde

3. What is your favorite AU/prompt idea/trope for your pairing?

The AU where Cornwall never died and they lived evilly ever after >:)

4. Do you prefer canon ideas or do you have your own headcanons for them?

I feel like my ideas are mostly canon? I swear they’re like the only Lear ship where you don’t need to write a whole essay to explain why their relationship might not be a total disaster

5. Favorite canon moment of them?

This is bad but it’s probably 3.7 NOT because of the eye plucking but just because like...the equality of the dynamic I guess? The teamwork? Regan stabbing someone and Cornwall leaning on her in his last moments? They respect each other so much 

6. Least favorite canon moment of them?

Less of a moment and more just how fast Regan rebounds...I don’t actually think she loves Edmund but she’s obviously very fixated on him. HATE productions where she apparently had a crush on him the whole time and never loved Cornwall

7. Favorite headcanon trope/idea? (Your own or someone else’s)

I love the idea that Cornwall was the catalyst for Regan distancing herself from Lear before her sisters could. He obviously still attacks her viciously, but she always seems more removed, less hurt by it than Goneril and Cordelia are, and I think that’s because she had another source of powerful, unconditional love and realized she didn’t need her father in that way.

8. Least favorite headcanon trope/idea?

“Regan only pretends to care about him for political power.” Nope. The fact that people see her describe one relationship as “convenient” multiple times and decide THAT must be true love for her and the OTHER one must be a political ploy...yeah no.

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

Touched on this already but the equality! The sense that they view each other as genuine partners!

10. Least favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics? (Can be headcannon)

They’re definitely brought together by hurting other people which is...shall we say...not the greatest. There’s definitely a “just the two of us against the world” vibe but in a less fucked up world, they could hopefully keep that strength of the relationship without constantly committing violence against everyone working against them

11. If they aren’t a canon pairing, how would you get them together?

They are!!

12. If you had to take them and plunk them into another fandom, what fandom would that be? Why?

The obvious comparison is always Macbeth and I’d LOVE to see them in that play, because I think they’d just...win. They’d make a much more funcitonal team in those circumstances than the Macbeths did because I think they treat each other more equally and with more respect.

13. How hard is it write/draw your pairing? Scale of 1-10.

I’ve only ever really written them as a background ship, which was pretty easy (probably like a 2 or 3). But I’ve never done anything from either of their POVs and I’m guessing that would be harder. Regan’s psychology is very hard to pin down.

14. Is there a pairing that you think rivals them?

Outside the play, again, I think it’s Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They’re the much more famous evil power couple but I like Regan and Cornwall’s dynamic a lot more. Within the play, it’s obviously Regan/Edmund, but again, I don’t think that would ever have happened if Cornwall lived.

15. Which character of the pairing do you like more? (Would you ever pair yourself with them?)

Regan! She’s the queen of my life. But no, I definitely would not, that relationship would be fun for maybe two seconds and then terrifying

16. Which character of your pairing would be the one to break up with the other? Why?

Like...I guess Regan but again I’m really not a fan of that angle. But I think she’s the kind of person who would dump someone if they were getting in her way -- but Cornwall’s not, because he’s totally on her level until he dies.

17. Are they relatable as characters or as a pairing?

Not really, no. Probably a good thing. I relate a bit to Goneril but not really Regan at all, except perhaps in the scene where they stand up to Lear together.

18. Did you once/ever dislike one/both of them?

I MEAN there’s VERY valid reasons to dislike both of them. I liked Regan from the start though, cause I’m awful. I still don’t really know if I like Cornwall...I love their dynamic but he’s just terrible. Never properly hated him either though.

19. On an estimate, how many posts have you made about them?

Just about them? Probably only like 5, but they’re a big part of my general love for the young Lear squad

20. What made you decide to ship them?

Right after I finished King Lear I read some DELIGHTFUL posts (while on an island vacation, hanging out at the hotel bar trying desperately to get decent wifi) about why Regan is the best and they’re the only power couple that matters and I was fully converted

21. Favorite genre for them? (Angst, fluff, etc.)

I like angst actually. They’re not a super fluffy ship, and as far as more explicit content, I’m not very good at writing that

[infinitylester]

so i was tagged by a few people to do this! thanks for tagging me @wlwphil @thereisnobearonthisisland @lemonheadlester!! i love you guys <3

rules: answer 21 questions about yourself and tag 21 people whom you want to get to know better :)  

nickname/pet name: loz, loza, lolly, mum (i am the mum friend in any given situation!)

zodiac: taurus

height: 5′6ish?? im not 100% sure??

last movie: ralph breaks the internet,,,,,,,,what i like kids movies, they’re cute?!

last thing googled: Bb chord piano

favourite musician: pvris, amber run and dodie (im including bands leave me be)

song stuck in my head: glory and gore by lorde!! (but im currently listening to carousel by amber run uwu)

other blogs: @nakatomijake is my new b99 blog!! (i need to start making gifs for it and adding more shit to it lmao)

do i get asks: depends on ur definition,,,,,,,i definitely get asks but not like one every 5 seconds,,,,,,,i’d say i get about three or four a day depends on what tf is happening on my blog!

following: i follow 603 bloggers and i have just over 2.5k (i’m telling u this because i need to make my post about it in a sec and start making a ps tutorial!)

dream trip: london with mads

amount of sleep: like 5-7 hours?? sometimes more?? sometimes less??

lucky number: it’s a number bro,,,,,,,,,it ain’t lucky

what i’m wearing: my pjs,,,,,,,haven’t gotten dressed all day,,,,,,im living the dream

dream job: musician 1000%! i dedicate my life and passion to music wholeheartedly and i’m going to try my hardest to persue a career in music but!! if it doesn’t pan out, i’m...not sure what i’ll be. something artsy related. maybe something to do with editing or art or whatever who knows man i don’t give much of a shit 

fave food: ice cream!!! i may be lactose intolerant but i don’t give a rats ass, ice cream is too good not to be devoured!! 

play any instruments: yes!! i play ukulele, guitar and i’m learning piano! plus i sing, which i guess is a vocal instrument brfbhbsjhdjhbdjh

languages: english but i come from a strong italian background and studied italian for three years, so i understand some words and phrases but i’m not like,,,,,crazy fluent!

fave songs: i’m just gonna list them lmao 

fireworks || first aid kit

gasoline || halsey

i found || amber run

it’s not living (if it’s not with you) || the 1975

fly a kite || little image

if i go, im goin || gregory alan isakov

chocolate || the 1975

+ literally every single pvris song,,,,,,all of them,,,,,they’re my favourite band of all time

random fact: i have seen the hunger games: catching fire exactly 14 times

describe yourself as aesthetic things: flower crowns, vinyls, sunflowers, glitter and pale pink 

and now i tag: @philiie @fondestphan @phandomsub @euphanisms @martisun @darlakoala @heartthrobphilly @goldenpinof @plantboy-lester <3

[tiny-crecher]

Okay I’m going to be keeping a log of observations about specific artists

In most Panic! At The Disco songs Brendon sings the song under the main vocals. I guess just to reinforce the sound?

Most of the backing vocals in Panic songs is just brendon singing one octave lower. All of the harmonies are really interesting though. These songs are the most interesting to listen to.

Panic definitely plays around with the different levels more than the other artists that I listen to. A lot of songs aren’t recognizable until you get a few seconds in

The songs from TWTLTRTD have the instrumental playing in the main track and most of the vocal in the background

The harmonies in Alec Benjamin’s songs are really simple, usually consisting of 2-3 notes. They sound kind of robotic. They’re cool though.

AJR songs are surprisingly boring. It’s mostly just the instrumental track. They don’t have many harmonies.

The vocals in A Car A Torch A Death constantly transition between the two tracks

Favorite/most interesting songs:

Nicotine - Panic! At The Disco

Fall Away - Twenty One Pilots

Glory and Gore - Lorde

Boy In The Bubble - Alec Benjamin

Hey Look Ma I Made It - Panic! At The Disco

Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met) - Panic! At The Disco

A Car, A Torch, A Death - Twenty One Pilots

mY HEADPHONES BROKE BUT NOW I CAN HEAR ALL OF THE HARMONIES IN THE SONGS I LISTEN TO???? I MIGHT KEEP EM

[absinthehq]

PYTHON

TWENTY NINE. HACKER & TI SPECIALIST FOR THE BONVENTRE MOB.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR DEATH MENTION.

PLEASE NOTE THIS CHARACTER IS GENDERFLUID (SHE/HER)

You can find just about anything in the world on the internet. It's all about algorithms and power -- math and physics combined together to make a beautiful mess of a chaos. You'll find whatever is it that your heart yearns for, except for Python -- not a soul can track the hacker, who's been taken in by Cesare as a Bonventre soldier since she was little, taught how to fight and never kneel before any man. She was living in the streets before then, a homeless child, when he found her -- albeit a curious, tempestuous, difficult child, she had her motives... her trust issues were deeply rooted in fear of abandonment, but when Cesare proved himself loyal, she offered him her undying loyalty in return.

Python liked inventing things. Figuring out how they worked, finding out the basics of engineering. As a soldier, she'd often find herself playing with unloaded guns to see how they had been made. But it was computers that always got the best and the worst out of her: she loved them dearly, and when given the tools to study them, Python became one of Las Vegas' most wanted cybercriminals, committing minor offences every now and then... stealing from certain mobsters' bank accounts and taking the money for herself or other loyal soldiers, aiding the Anonymous in hacking and finding predators who preyed upon the weak and the vulnerable. She got herself a name then, a funny one: Python. The one she chose for herself when she finally came out as genderfluid, at the age of twenty one. It was somewhat predictable, since she had always been ambiguous and a little tomboyish as a child, loving to play dress up with different clothes, trying on Cesare’s shoes. To her, there are no rules which cannot be broken. To her, there are no rules, period.

Everything is hackable. Everything is penetrable. Nothing is impossible -- and the internet only makes things easier, better, faster. Python became a ruthless cyber weapon in Cesare's hands, only stopped by her loyalty to him. She hacked FBI agents, Russian mobsters, Mexican drug cartel lords, anyone who dared to threaten the net of safety she had built within the Bonventre mob. She was painfully loyal to them, but it came at a cost.

The police was onto her tracks, and they almost caught her, hadn't been for Absinthe's reliable staff who covered her. It was during one of their investigations tracking her down that she met Lola, her partner. She's been opening slowly to Lola, although she fell hard, she's still cautious. And after the death of her beloved partner and fatherly figure, Python has been grieving and fighting harder.. she wants to uncover the truth of Cesare's death before someone else dies at the hands of a mysterious killer. That is, if there is a killer to be caught. Either way, she's been relentlessly working on her computer, as a self-taught programmer and hacker, she's been profitting off her skills and surviving through any means. Now that there is no Don figure to guide her, Python might as well guide herself.  Lately she has found some very interesting things about Cesare's background, feeling not only betrayed by his bittersweet ending, but also by the lies and secrets he kept from her.

It seems that he has another child with another woman, and she's keen on finding it out. And a recent FBI agent coming into the scene doesn't smell any better than Cesare's secret heir hidden in the depths of an art gallery.

GLORY AND GORE GO HAND IN HAND…

Lola Wells: Her girlfriend, and the only person she trusts. She would never spy or hack Lola, not just because it’d break their relationship entirely, but because Python knows Lola all too well. Or so she thinks... A love triangle from hell might just break them or make them.

Eduardo Lafont: She’s been hacking and sending anonymous texts pranking him, since he’s a fed that’s been looking for trouble, she’ll give him trouble. Lola’s all too confident in herself to worry about being hunted down again by the boys in the blue. 

Flynn Lowe: Flynn is the head of security at Absinthe, and one of her best friends. They’re both the tough-looking type that intimidates everyone, but deep down, they’re simply lonely people looking to be loved. She knows he needs some help with the security tech, and so she helps him every now and then.

Carlo DeLuca: It began as simple as hacking Cesare’s phone after he died.. and then a ton of secrets piled up.. his secret affairs, his recent alliances, everything.. But what caught her eye the most was his connection to Carlo DeLuca, the famous art gallery owner. He’s his child, and Python couldn’t have felt more betrayed when finding out.

THAT’S WHY WE’RE MAKING HEADLINES!

✉ SENT @ 2:54pm  → LOLA: lemme fix it for you. ✉ SENT @ 2:57pm  → FLYNN: cmon man let’s drink!!! ✉ SENT @ 7:32pm  → EDUARDO: do you know who is this? :~)

AVAILABLE. FACECLAIM: RUBY ROSE (NON-NEGOTIABLE)

[sunlightmagazine-blog]

ALBUM REVIEW: Don’t You Worry, Honey by Sir Sly

DON’T YOU WORRY, HONEY. SIR SLY. JUNE 30TH 2017. ★★★★★★★★/10

The first time I heard anything by Sir Sly was the first time I heard them live, as well as the first time I heard anybody perform live. I saw them in May of 2014, when they opened up for The 1975, and it was my first concert ever. I really liked their sound, and I fell in love with “Where I’m Going”, which would later be on their first studio album You Haunt Me in September of that year. I met Landon, the lead singer after the show, and being a young shy kid, didn’t talk to him much at all.

Since then, I’ve been listening to their music, patiently waiting for new stuff from them. They released a single called “Expectations” in 2016, which evoked exactly what the title of the song is. Soon enough “High�� was released, and was followed with 3 more singles, “Altar”, “Astronaut”, and “Change”. In between a few of those singles, they announced the title and release date of their sophomore album, Don’t You Worry, Honey. Within the time that the album was announced and released, I had been waiting excitedly until I could get my hands on it.

The first time I listened to “High” was when I watched the music video. I fell in love with the dancing and the choreography! I was so excited to see a music video from an indie rock band that had real dancing and thought and creativity. It wasn’t just 4 white dudes playing their music on a cool set, or the lead singer chasing after a white girl while the other guys cheered him on. I LOVE the song, it’s a dancy bop, and I love the talk-y bit in the chorus. It’s a very big change from their debut, You Haunt Me, but I love it. (9/10)

“Change” starts out with a beat that has some sampling from Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment’s “Miracle”, which is super sick. After the banging into, the first verse comes in with some sadder lyrics, which kind of follow through in the rest of the song. Landon mentions praying, another religious reference, which seems to be a prevalent theme of this album. Overall the song is one of those that you simultaneously dance to and cry all over yourself about all of the mistakes that you’ve ever made. (8/10 stars)

The instrumental intro to “&Run” greeted me with many impulses to dance and many expectations for the rest of the song to follow. I loved the in and out of sound at the beginning. The verse slowed down a bit, but was still bop-able, and the pre-chorus slowed down a lot. That scared me a little, until the real chorus started, and the beat dropped, and I really started dancing then. In conclusion: I Love This Song. (9/10 stars)

“Altar” is the perfect chill bop that we need. It’s a sad breakup song, one with more religious allusions, but with a really nice beat underneath it all. Some of these lyrics sound very personal. I like to hear artists putting their heart and souls into their words, and not just hiding behind cliches and what they think people want to hear. Landon does just this with “Altar”, and completes it all with a chorus singing as an homage to his roots of growing up with gospel music. (9/10 stars)

“Fun” started out with an electronic intro that I was not super sure of, but then the intro progressed into something that sounded like it was straight out of Sir Sly’s debut album, You Haunt Me. The heavy bass in the first verse was very welcoming. The chorus was very nice, with lyrics that resemble coming out of a hard time. The whole song sounds very much like their old sound, which I thought was really nice and nostalgic. But at the same time, it welcomes the new sound the band is growing into, and I think is a good tune for new and old fans alike. I like this song quite a bit. It wasn’t super exciting in my opinion, but it put a smile on my face.  (7/10)

I’m going to be completely honest in saying that I did not like “Astronaut” very much at all the first time I listened to it. I found it quite underwhelming, especially for a promotional single. It has since grown on me, but I don’t think it’s one of my favorites. I like the chorus, the feel is nice, although I feel the whole thing is a bit too repetitive. All in all, it’s an okay song. (6/10 stars)

“2 am” gave me apocalypse vibes. It’s a very anxious song. This song is what would happen if “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons met “Glory and Gore” by Lorde. I’m sure it may grown on me, but for now, that’s all I got. (6/10) stars.

The intro to “Trippin’” was all over the place, and this made me nervous. It’s quite a busy song, and I would describe this as an “Anxious-Anti-Love” song. I do like it quite a bit though. It’s very dancy, and quite relatable. Upon listening further, I realized that my favorite part of the song (“If I were you, I would say yes”) is a sample from The Color Purple! That made the song 80% more cool. (8/10) stars.

“Headfirst” started with a vibe similar to “Altar” which I’m liking a lot. These lyrics are extremely personal. It almost feels like I’m intruding on Landon’s personal life, but I am glad that I could be someone to hear what he was feeling, which I feel music does for a lot of us. It’s a big way of communicating, of telling sad stories, of getting what we feel out. The song, while extremely personal, was also relatable. It’s safe to say I was crying by the end of it. (8/10 stars)

The music of “Oh Mama” also gave me an “Altar” feel. These lyrics are also very personal, and it’s quite a sad song over a dancy beat. Landon is singing about singing with his mother, who has passed, again. It’s very heart wrenching. For the first 3 minutes of the song I was dancing sadly, and then the music slowed, and a recording started. The recording was from Landon’s mother, and was followed with the chorus. A choir joins in, but it’s very quiet and in the background. Landon then sings about what he’s lost, and the song (and album) ends on a sad, slow, piano outro. A perfect way to end the record. With the listeners all in tears, ready to hit repeat and hear “High” so we can start dancing again. “Oh Mama” is beautiful. (10/10 stars.)

Overall, Don’t You Worry, Honey was a big success in my eyes. In many ways it was different from Sir Sly’s debut, but amazing just the same. I will definitely be listening to this record on repeat for awhile, and you can definitely catch me at one of the shows on their upcoming (and first!) headlining tour.

 Listen to Don’t You Worry, Honey on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5VvCD7gVffRgdPfExxLfF4

Find Sir Sly:

http://sir-sly.com

https://www.instagram.com/sirsly/

https://twitter.com/SirSly

https://www.facebook.com/sirslymusic

Review by Vinnie Holt.

[iris-crown]

omg i ment make out! like what song would you want playing in the background while you make out with someone?

Ohhhh!! There’s a few songs I would listen to while making out with someone so I can give you a list of what those songs are.

Lorde - “Glory and Gore” and “Ribs”Halsey - “Hurricane”K. Camp - “WCW”Gerard Way - “No Shows” and “Drugstore Perfume”The Killers - “Mr.Brightside”Frank Iero and the Patience - “She’s the Prettiest Girl at the Party, and She Can Prove It”Grouplove - “Tongue Tied”Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - “Crimson and Clover”Ne-Yo - “Mad”Ray J - “One Wish”MGK - “Bad Things”SoMo - “Ride”Noah Cyrus - “Stay Together”Paramore - “Still Into You”Front Porch Step - “If I Tremble”Dane Gavin Dance - “Death of a Strawberry”State Champs - “Secrets”Moose Blood - ���Boston”Willamette Stone - “Heart Like Yours”Bring Me The Horizon - “Follow You”G-Eazy - “Let’s Get Lost”Iron and Wine - “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”Mazzy Star - “Fade Into You”Tove Lo - “Talking Body”Smashing Pumpkins - “Today” and “1979″The Front Bottoms - “Twin Size Mattress”Krewella - “Alive”The 1975 - “Sex” and “Robbers”Jaymes Young - “Habits of my Heart”

These are just a “few”, but these are a lot of my favorite songs that I would listen to while making out with someone :)

[ghostlenin]

The Ballad of Andy Richter

Speaking of things that wouldn’t fit on twitter, here’s what happened the last time we played dnd. I bring this up because while I like to do cool things in-game, I’m usually not the star of the show. But I was here, so here we go.

Background: we’re going through the Tales from the Yawning Portal book (watch out, I’m going to be spoiling the first two dungeons), hitting up all these classic dungeons now that they’ve been ported to fifth. I rolled up a stone sorcerer named Andy Richter, who at some point in the past washed up naked on the beach with no prior memory, clutching a magic notebook. The idea was he’s the latest in a long line of Andys Richter, clones made and set upon the world by some cosmic being who uses these clones to learn about the world.

Prologue: Goltheas Tree

It takes the group (me, a rogue, a fighter, a cleric, and a wizard) a couple sessions to get to the bottom of the Sunless Citadel where we’re set upon by a bunch of twig blights and the corrupted remains of a previous adventuring party and a crazy druid. Fight’s going pretty well, Andy’s charged ahead and then in a Blaze of Glory (I played the song on youtube as I did this), I rounded the corner, twinned my Burning Hands to finish off the bad wizard and bad druid, then quickspelled Scorching Ray (I think) to plink the bad paladin/fighter guy. I then go down, but we win.

Cue looting the room and investigating around. There’s this gross necromagical tree in the back, we burn it down (the wizard and I loved burning everything down, Fire Bolt ftw). Underneath the tree there’s a skeleton impaled by a wooden stake with all kinds of runes carved in it, so of course I snatch it up. The wizard is able to read it and wants to get it back to Waterdeep right quick, and after we resolve the adventuring hook for the dungeon, that’s what we do.

Turns out, these high wizards are impressed by what’s on the old stick, but also angry with us (me) for taking it without burning the skeleton, because that stake was the only thing binding an elder vampire god elf guy (Goltheas) and now we can assume he’s loose. Whoops, lol.

Anyway, we figure we’ll deal with that later and go head off to the Forge of Fury and spend a couple sessions working through the Moon Door into the Glitterhame. I was absent for the second of those sessions where our cleric straight up died from kiting like 17 orcs. He since rolled up a halfling gunslinger that rides a dog.

Part 1: The Cut Scene

Before we continued exploring the Glitterhame, our DM, the fantastic CK, said we were going to have a little cut-scene encounter with some throw-away characters the wizard’s player rolled up.

They’re a bit higher level than us, and all have great flavor, and we rp the hell out of them. Relevant bits: I was a half-orc troll barbarian raised by an elf (played by the wizard’s player) who was in love with our goody-two-shoes dwarf fighter leader who had a magical primordial unicorn horn.

Surprise, surprise, our job is to go into the Sunless Citadel and bring back the bodies our normal group was supposed to recover but never did (whoops, lol).

We pick up the scene at the entrance to the end cavern where the big boss fight and tree were. My character is hearing a voice in my head (the evil demon trapped on the first floor of the dungeon who wants someone to make a Wish so he can get out) and there’s a bunch of creepy bodies suspended from the ceiling.

Cue a really hard fight with 4 or 5 vampires. We’re not doing so hot until the paladin starts smiting things so their regeneration won’t kick in from the radiant damage. We get a strategy: pally lights em up with radiance, then I barbarian the hell outta them. We kill 2 of them I think before we hear a wave of giant rats scurrying towards us from the back with Goltheas the vampire lord surfing them. The fight’s getting pretty hairy now and we don’t have many smites left.

My dwarf crush gets hit hard and I tell the group I have a plan and shout a Wish into the cavern (my half-orc wasn’t that smart, but he does pay attention):

I wish that all of the intelligent beings in this cavern were teleported to the plane of radiance!

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See, cuz I knew radiant damage was bad for the vampires, but our good guy pally made it, so it couldn’t be all that bad, right?

At first the DM was like, well, you all die. Way faster to TPK than I thought! But then as we were roleplaying our slow agonizing deaths taking 1d8 radiant damage per turn until we die, we decided wait now–let’s just try to finish these jerks off, so we did.

While raging, my character was taking half damage and knew he’d outlast all his friends so I just charged Goltheas, did a bunch of damage. My dwarf crush figured why not and blew her primordial unicorn horn, summoning a unicorn buddy to help us out in the fight. The smiting paladin hopped on its back and started charging all the vamps. We killed off all the mobs while our characters started dying from the every-round damage. First my orc’s dad died, then the warlock. Goltheas had an action where he could jsut escape if it looked like it was going poorly, but had to do it on his turn, so we all charged him. The paladin, riding the unicorn, charged and burned his last two smites–with max radiant damage since we were on the plane–and did like 77! damage in one hit between the unicorn goring the vampire and his warhammer smites. Goltheas died died died. It was glorious.

After the fight, the DM told us he had a plan for Goltheas, that after he escaped, he was going to hunt down every Andy Richter clone in the multiverse, slowly coming for mine, but those plans got derailed. I decided then that a big part of Andy’s story was to continually mess everything up, but go on oblivious while everyone else cleaned up after him.

Part 2: The Deck

After a food break, we went to our regularly scheduled dungeon crawling in the Glitterhame. We killed a bearowl and a couple trogs, then found a magic door with a word puzzle on it. We solved it–but not before a couple people slipped in the river and almost fell down a giant hole–and inside on an alter was a Deck of Many Things.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar, the Deck of Many Things is a stupidly powerful artifact that’s been in dnd for ages. It’s made up of a bunch of cards and when a character draws them, crazy powerful things happen. So a few of us did.

The rogue drew and got 50,000gp worth of jewelry. For those counting, that is a staggering amount of wealth–if you have about 125gp in your pocket in a town you can buy pretty much anything you need except for powerful magic items. It’s so much money what she got.

I decided Andy would draw, since his prime directive is to experience as much of everything as he can. So I drew and got… the Fool, which is one of the two worst cards in there. I immediately lost a level–and we were just on the cusp of going from 3 to 4 by a few dozen xp–and had to draw again. Perfect, I thought, this is going to shake out more or less evenly. And then I drew the Void, which is the actual worst card in the deck. Andy’s body goes immediately limp as his soul is transported into some unknown object at some unknown location anywhere in the world (or multiverse for that matter).

Whoops, lol.

Thanks to Placebo Comics for the image.