#i like to have 2 songs for like the lead up and then the embrace/aftermath

[dykeferatu]

ppl who have playlists for vtm ocs: do u have a song/songs that represent their embrace and if so what

[podcastlimbo]

My honest honest opinion on second citadel season 3

Uhhhh... short answer? I didn’t like it much.

Okay wait before I go on to my long answer I need to say that this is all just my opinion and it’s all subjective. If you liked sc season 3 that’s awesome! I get why you do and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

But I really wasn’t a fan of where they went with it (even from episode 1), and I’m gonna go on a long rambly and repetitive rant about it.

I’m not gonna talk about the way the season ended and the setup for s4 because I haven’t fully formed my opinion about that - to form my opinion means to relisten to the season and i don’t really feel like doing that.

Anyways, these are my unfiltered 2am thoughts about the Rest Of It - maybe I’ll neaten it up later to make it more palatable but for now it’s wordy n messy and you can just. Not read it bc it’ll probably make you mad, or feel free to pick it apart and tell me I’m wrong, or unfollow me (and at least one person has already done so lmao) but like that won’t change the fact that I just wasn’t feeling s3 so uh. That said.

Long answer? I love the second citadel... at least the first two seasons

I love the world building, how the setting is such a unique, deliberate step away from eurocentric fantasy, how refreshing all that is! The Second Citadel (the place) is rich with culture and history from the brief glimpses we get of it (mostly in knight of the crown). Not to mention the monster society, with its own rules (or lack thereof) and environments and personalities.

I love the storytelling, how different mediums are woven into the way each episode is formatted. Rilla has her tape recorder, Damien his prayers, Caroline her letters, and each medium is so well suited to each character, and it truly lets us get a glimpse of what’s going on in their minds, and I find it utterly fascinating how a protagonist of one story could just as easily become an antagonist (or at least, an annoyance) in another

And the characters! Each one so compelling, with their own goals and motivations, their own intriguing backstories and potential.

Most importantly, the way these characters play off of each other is what makes second citadel amazing. Getting to see people with similar experiences but different world views clash (Caroline and Mira), people with fundamentally different beliefs reconcile and meet in the middle (rilla and arum), just, Kabert created so many interesting characters, and watching them bounce off one another is a joy.

And that’s what made season 2 so great for me. The exploration of each character, getting to see their good sides and bad, through either a medium tailored for them, or through interactions with others, as they explored a fascinating world.

The end of season 2 left me so satisfied, but still with so many questions and excitement about what was to come. I wanted to see Talfryn come into his own and step out of his brothers shadow. I wanted to see Damien, Arum and Rilla navigating their new relationship. I wanted to know more of the fate of Rilla’s parents, Damien’s past, the consequences Arum would surely face after defying the monster court. I wanted Marc to finally be recognized by his fellow knights, to watch as Caroline lead the journeymen knights, while learning to trust in others as she was beginning to do. I wanted Angelo continuing to unlearn the implicit biases that had been instilled in him as a result of his upbringing, or more details on Caroline and Quanyii’s relationship. I was also curious!! How would human and monster relations change after the events of the finale? And would we learn more of the past, when humans and monsters lived together in peace?

I was buzzing with excitement for season 3, and then.. it came, it aired, and then it went.

And I felt... meh?

Don’t get me wrong. There were moments that I liked. Some of what I hoped to see did happen (see the above paragraph lmao), getting a glimpse of the western wastes with its own culture a joy. The dynamics between Olala and some of the characters were really fun! And the direction the story took at the end was one I didn’t expect, but left me open to more.

That said,,, everything else about the season just. Didnt gel with me.

Everything I loved about second citadel pretty much wasn’t there??? Aside from Caroline, Angelo and Quanyii, all the characters they spent so much time introducing to us and fleshing out over 2 seasons were just relegated to the side??

I think my main problem with season 3 was that it felt like a completely different show. Characters introduced as part of an ensemble became side characters in (what was supposed to be) their own stories. Character arcs that got set up were dropped, and mysteries/backstories teased were forgotten. Heck, the monster court and senate wasn’t even brought up! The aftermath of the fear bugs attack ont the citadel went unexplored! It’s like nothing in the past season even happened!

And I’m sorry I gotta say this, but the problem is Olala.

I mean. Okay I don’t wanna be super mean- she’s perfectly fine as a character. We root for her, we cry when she cries, and we cheer when she wins the day.

But since all the episodes were centered around her, we didn’t get to see anyone else’s inner worlds. And like okay, yes, they did it for this season of Juno Steel too, where Juno, the previous POV a character for 2 seasons, became a part of an ensemble, and was a side character for many episodes. But this choice worked for Juno and not Second Citadel, because it was a natural progression for his story! We spent 2 seasons exploring Juno’s character, his backstory, his motivations, we saw him come to terms with his family history, grow and change as a person, and by the time he joined the Carte Blanche, we’d gotten to a point with Junos story where we’re okay to step away for a while, and see events through the lens of others.

But that just?? Doesn’t work in second citadel? Because unlike Juno, the characters introduced in s1-2 are virtually unexplored! There’s still so much about their stories we don’t know, and so many ways for them to progress.

But we didn’t get any of that! Stuff established in s1-2 barely got payoff in this season. Characters stagnated, and when previously it was amazing to watch them interact with each other? Having each episode throw different combinations of characters together and seeing how they clashed and came together? Yeah we didn’t get that, it was all the same characters bouncing off of Olala, which is fine at first, but honestly? After the first couple episodes, it got stale.

And remember how before, we would get to see the characters tell their story through a medium suited for them? Well I noticed that the format of this season was a lot moreee audio drama-y (basically a TV show but with no visuals) and while there’s nothing wrong with that, one of SC’s strengths was in using the medium in unique ways, presenting the episodes in unique formats depending on the POV character. And with the exception of a few moments, the season really lacked that!

I know there were episodes in s1-2, like caves of discord and the Janus beast which didnt follow that format, but I think it’s a fan consensus that the episodes that do (moonlit hermit, KOTC lots, lady of the lake) are favourites, because they fully embraced the advantages and limitations those framing devices offered, and were truly perfect for character exploration.

It’s like. Idk. Imagine wolf 359 s3 where the si5 were introduced, and there was like 1-2 episodes of them interacting with the rest of our cast, but then after that the rest of the season just completely focuses on Eiffel and the new characters, and everyone else just disappears n twiddles their thumbs and doesn’t even do anything during the finale. That’s what happened this season, and that’s the kinda weird vibe I’m talking about.

Since I’m already rambling, I might as well just say some more stuff. I was disappointed with the music this season. I can tell Ryan Vibert was trying to figure a way to make SC sound different from Juno, and he was getting there in s1-2! The pieces that stand out now are the soft, acoustic guitar pieces, like Rillas song, or the lone melody line of the guitar in the SC theme. I thought he was getting it with s3e1, when Marc fought the dinosaur while traditional Japanese instruments were playing!! But then for the rest of the season, it was just samey echoey ambient electric guitar, like how it is for Juno. There could’ve been so much potential to give this world its own musical identity, but in the end, that attempt was dropped (at least that’s how it come off to me), just like so many other elements introduced in s1-2!

I’ve gotten this far in my rant, and I haven’t even talked about the story. And the story is. Hmmmmm

Like. It’s completely serviceable? Kabert are good at what they do so the story is a okay I guess? But to be completely honest, the characters and story were so tied together in previous seasons, so much so that in this season, even though the plot was just fine, it stayed just that. Fine. it always felt like there was something missing because the characters were the story, and to have just. So many holes in that department meant that the story itself was fundamentally empty.

Anyways uh. All of this is to say that this all boils down to character. I had my nits to pick with other elements but the fact that Rilla, Arum, Damien, Marc and Talfryn got completely sidelined (Tal most of all) when so much of the previous seasons were spent setting them up- in favour of a completely new storyline featuring new characters and settings when there was still so! Much! Left! Unfinished! From unfulfilled arcs to dynamics left untapped, and creative potential lost, the essence of the show was watered down and it left me with the intense feeling of

:/

Idk. Season 3 felt like a completely different show. I liked s1, I loved a2, but s3 just. isnt second citadel for me. I’ll probably still listen to the next season out of loyalty, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel as passionately about the shows future as I do it’s precious seasons, especially if they continue this way.

Sorry.

[allisondraste]

Temperance 30/42

Pairing: Nathaniel Howe/ Female, Non-HoF Cousland

Story Summary: Nathaniel and Elissa were childhood friends, but time and distance tore them apart. In the aftermath of the Fifth Blight, and Ferelden’s Civil War, both Elissa and Nathaniel must attempt reconstruct their tattered lives. As a series of events lead them to be reunited, both are reminded of so many years ago when things were much simpler.

Chapter Summary:    The Grand Tourney defies Nathaniel’s expectations

Note: That’s right, y’all! We have a final chapter number (and the big 3 - 0)! I have a few notes that I wanted to make about this chapter as well.  Due to the amount of suggestion, innuendo, and things referenced in this chapter, I thought it warranted a note that there are some more mature and sexual themes explored in this chapter that I did not feel necessitated a rating change. However, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up! ^^   Also, shout out to the WoT V.2 for providing me with the excellent backdrop of this story (if you haven’t read Nate’s entry, I highly recommend) as well as to @daydreamingdragonage for coming up with the awesome tavern name featured here.  Finally, I just want to thank everyone for being so patient with me in updating!  November has been a hellish month with internship apps due, a draft of my dissertation due, a conference, and some personal/mental health woes that all just knocked me on my butt, but I’m back and so happy to be writing again.  I’m so grateful to all of my lovely, wonderful readers and friends.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart. 

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

[AO3 LINK]

Tantervale, 9:26 Dragon

For all that Starkhaven made Ferelden seem like a small, dirty hovel filled with unrefined brutes and barbarians, Tantervale made it seem like a land of impious sinners.  Not only was the large marcher city-state pristine and orderly, but it’s people were quiet and mild mannered. On its own, it was not a particularly beautiful place. Plain, uniform buildings stood side by side for as far as the eye could see.  The Chantry was the only exception. Decorated with stained glass and golden filigree, the building was nothing like Nathaniel had ever seen, vibrant and large as the palace in Starkhaven and as imposing as Fort Drakon’s shadow.

Down every street and every corner, Andrastian icons and images could be found, accompanied by a fully armored Templar or two, who served as city guards and watched through the slits of their helmets with vigilant eyes.  Still, the city and it’s people seemed to revel in the presence of the Grand Tourney, decorating their plain buildings with pennants of blue and gold. Citizens and guests alike danced and sang in the street as wine flowed freely. Nathaniel wondered how the Chantry felt about the influx of pleasure-seeking outsiders pouring into Tantervale, bringing their sin with them.  Then again, it was likely a profitable venture. How else would they afford to feed their chancellors to excess or erect a fiftieth marble statue of the Holy Bride of the Maker?

The sheer opulence disgusted him, and yet he was in no position to complain.  He’d only ever read about the Grand Tourney in books, or heard about them from Liss who always enthusiastically rambled about her favorite contests and competitors.  Even her emphatic descriptions did not do it justice. He wished she could be there to see it. He imagined her face lighting up with excitement as she took everything in, and  laughed as he thought about how she might slap him on the arm repeatedly as she pointed at something she did not want him to miss. He had not seen her in four years, and yet there was a big hole at his side where she belonged.  At this point, he had no hope that it’d ever be filled.  

He shook his head, attempting to refocus on the present, where he stood in the center of the festivities in Tantervale, with a new pouch of coin resting heavily in his hand.  Ser Rodolphe had given it to him after watching him compete in the Grand Melee. Nathaniel had stubbornly entered the contest with a bow as his weapon, determined to prove to his mentor how archery could be useful in close-quarters combat.  He was faster than his opponents, and managed to duck under, dodge, and evade the many clumsy attacks against him. That is, until the end.

Nathaniel typically enjoyed irony, but the Orlesian bastard that finally managed to disarm him and force him to yield bore an uncanny resemblance to his own father.  He had piercing blue eyes and a cruel smirk, and seemed to take great pleasure in disarming Nathaniel, knocking him to the ground, and holding a sword just above his throat.  Nathaniel did not enjoy that one bit.  

To his surprise, Ser Rodolphe seemed pleased with his performance -- or at least as pleased as he’d ever seen him be.  He claimed it was “entertaining” to watch him outmaneuver his opponents, and even admitted that he might have underestimated Nathaniel’s abilities.  The knight handed him a purse of coin, gave him a good-natured clap on the shoulder, and went on his way. Nathaniel remained where he stood, dumbfounded, staring at the purse in his hand with a smirk twitching at the corner of his lips.

It was Ben who finally drew him from his pleasant stupor, running up and throwing his arms around Nathaniel, patting him on the back with some force.  His fellow squire had grown considerably over the past two years, and he did not yet know his own strength. It reminded Nathaniel of every young mabari he’d ever met.  Fully grown, with all the excitement of a pup. It was as uplifting as it was annoying.

“Nate,” Ben shouted right near Nathaniel’s ear, before releasing him from the smothering embrace, “You were fantastic!  I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. What did Rodolphe say?”

Nate grinned and held up the coin purse by its strings, letting it swing back and forth in front of Ben’s eyes. “He said to use it wisely.”

“That means ale, yes?”  Ben fidgeted eagerly. “And food?  One of the locals was telling me about this tavern--”

“Let’s go,” Nate said, laughing and putting an arm around Ben’s shoulder.  The younger man smiled in response, and they headed back toward the center of town.  

It was early in the afternoon and many merchants from around Thedas stood at kiosks that lined the streets and squares, bringing color and life to the city.  At one of the stands, Ben found a replica of Hessarian’s Sword of Mercy that caused his eyes to glitter with youthful excitement, and Nathaniel had no choice but to purchase it for him.  He swore he saw his friend’s eyes brim with tears as he thanked him profusely.  

They continued on, but Nathaniel stalled at the site of a stand owned by a Dwarven merchant with a thick, braided beard and a doublet of bright red and gold.  On the table beside him was a series of small, mechanical music boxes that the man claimed were hand-crafted. One, in particular, caught Nathaniel’s eye. It was a tiny, bronze bronto that sparkled in the sunlight.  Twisting its tail produced a tinkling, plucky sound, and a song that Nathaniel had never heard before. Liss would have loved it, he thought, remembering all the times she’d talked to him about Dwarven culture and brontos.  He wondered if she’d gotten to “meet” one yet.

Without giving it much of a thought, he bought it, and the merchant thanked him repeatedly for his business.  Apparently the people of Tantervale and the visiting Tourney attendees were tough customers when it came to mechanical, dwarven-made music boxes. Nathaniel was happy to oblige.

“Finally,” Ben said, and pointed in the direction of a tavern straight ahead of them.  The sign that hung above the doorway featured a humble templar kneeling in front of a curvy figure wearing the robes of a Revered Mother, whose face bore an unusual, shocked expression.

“The Kneeling Knight?” Nathaniel snorted and raised his eyebrows as he followed after his friend.

“Thought you’d like that,” Ben said, turning back and winking at him. “Apparently the locals aren’t as buttoned up as they pretend to be.”

“No one is as buttoned up as they pretend to be.”

“Including you?” Ben offered his typical mischievous smile as he opened the door, motioning for Nathaniel to go in first.

“Especially me,” Nathaniel answered with a shrug, and then entered the crowded tavern.

The Kneeling Knight was a spacious tavern, with a main floor filled with many wooden tables, as well as the bar area where several barmaids an a man who appeared to be the owner worked rapidly to fill mugs and flagons and carry them to guests.  A second floor housed a few more tables as well as a balcony where a minstrel stood, performing her songs and poems.  

They pushed their way past the dense crowd of people gathered chatting and celebrating to occupy one of the few vacant tables that sat against the back wall.  Several of the other patrons pointed and stared, whispering so loudly that it could hardly be called whispering. They’d watched the melee, or so it seemed, and Nathaniel was recognized as “that Fereldan dog who nearly won.” Nearly.  He huffed, and attempted to ignore the dozens of eyes that bore into him.

“What’ll you boys be havin’ today,” chirped one of the barmaids as she bumped her hip against Nathaniel’s shoulder.  He flinched, but did his best to not look as annoyed as he felt. Ben laughed into his hand.

Offering his most charming smile, he turned his head up to face the barmaid, whose lips were painted red as blood, and offered her his entire purse.  “Whatever this buys us.”

The woman grinned mischievously, taking the pouch and tucking it down safely into the top of her dress. “Say no more, sweet thing,” she said and bumped him with her hip again.  This time he rolled his eyes.

It was not long after she left that the propositions began. Handfuls of people, person after person, most of them at least twice Nathaniel’s age approached the table, batting their eyes at him, touching his arms, making completely inappropriate remarks involving his bow and their quivers.  If his face was not red, it was missing its chance. He declined each and every one of them politely, and when the barmaid returned with the first round of ale, Nathaniel could not have downed the first tankard any faster.

“I can’t believe you sent that last one away,” Ben said after they’d finished a few rounds, “He was right handsome.  That woman too! The one with the--” he made a lewd gesture with his hands.

“Ben.”

“What?”  He offered Nathaniel a bewildered expression, foam from his last sip hanging just over his upper lip.

“They’re people, not… play things.” He grimaced and Ben seemed to notice the froth on his lip, wiping it off with the back of his arm.

“Right. Sure,” Ben answered wiggling his eyebrows. “If I were you I’d really be playing up my second place finish.”

“Second place is just another way of saying that I lost the slowest,” Nathaniel mumbled as he stared at the music box he’d sat on the table as they came in.  He didn’t know why he thought the ale would make him forget about her. It never did anything except make him numb.

“You’re impossible,” Ben prodded good-naturedly, “You’re a young, decently good-looking man who just got himself some attention.  Enjoy it, man! Live a little. Unless, of course, you’d rather pine over that Fereldan lass for the rest of your life.”

“If I wanted to talk about Liss, I would have brought her up.”  He leaned back in his seat and sighed, forcing a smile he didn’t feel. “If you want me to enjoy myself, you’re doing a terrible job of helping me.”

Ben snorted.  “ You’re the one sitting in a tavern, with beautiful men and women throwing themselves at you, while you stare longingly at a toy bronto like it broke your heart.”

“Oh, piss off,” Nathaniel snapped, wishing he had something to throw at him.

“Fine, Fine,” he said, throwing up his hands.  He surrendered, but not before throwing Nathaniel a smug expression. “Here I thought that thing with the prince knocked you out of it.

“What ‘thing?’  There was no ‘thing.’”  He was lying, of course.  He and Sebastian had, in fact, had a thing.  He thought he’d been discreet enough that Ben did not know.  Clearly, he was mistaken.

Ben smirked, and shook his head. “RIght. ‘Course not.”

Nathaniel sighed and glared at the red-head, muttering. “Once.  It was one time.”

“Only because his parents forced him into the Chantry.”  His typically rosy cheeks were even rosier, as he teased.

“Ben.”

“A shame, that,” he continued, completely oblivious, “You seemed to really get on with him.”

“Ben,” Nathaniel hissed again, clenching his fists at his side.

“You could have tamed that wild boy prince for them.  No need to bother the Maker with it, really.”

Instead of speaking again, he stood and reached across the table to flick his friend forcefully right between his eyes. Ben flinched and reached up to touch the now reddened patch of skin on his forehead.  “Ow. Maker! Fine. I’ll stop.”

“Thank you,” Nathaniel muttered dryly, small smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth.  Suddenly, he felt much better.

Eventually, Ben got some attention of his own, a young woman with dark eyes and porcelain skin approaching, and whispering in his ear.  He blushed, and offered her a seat next to him. He widened his eyes at Nathaniel as she looked away briefly. They exchanged a few flirtations, and wasted no time making their lips acquainted with one another, hands moving where hands shouldn’t go in public.  He had to remind himself that Ben was barely more than a boy. Still, Nathaniel was not inclined to remain at the table and watch their publicly-displayed affection. He moved to stand quietly, but staggered a bit, vision swimming. He’d nearly forgotten how much he had to drink.  Once he steadied, he made his way to the door, and out of the tavern.

He was not certain how he wound up in the middle of the archery range, only that he did, and that a skillful arrow had brushed past him, nicking his cheek slightly.  He reached up, wiping a trickle of warm blood from his face, disoriented and searching for the direction from which the arrow came. One more step, and he’d have been dead, he thought.  Or perhaps, someone else said it. It was difficult to tell. There was shouting, a woman’s voice, and a string of profanity, and he looked down to see an elven woman, as angry as she was petite standing in front of him and glowering as if she, in fact, were his size.

“Are you mad,” she shouted, Antivan accent thick on her tongue. “You could have been killed!”

Nathaniel did not answer her immediately, completely disarmed.  She was lovely, with her deep green eyes beneath furrowed brows.  Her auburn hair was braided loosely over one shoulder, rustling slightly with the wind and her own agitated movement.  The fact that she looked at him so sternly did nothing to make her any less attractive.

“Hello,” she drawled, waving a hand emphatically in front of his face.  

He shook his head and straightened his posture, hoping to regain what little dignity he could muster in his current state. “You call yourself an archer?”  

The elf flinched, clearly offended.  “What does it look like, human?”

Nathaniel looked around dramatically and shrugged before returning his gaze to meet hers.  “No offense my lady, but you seem to be a terrible shot.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, first, you missed your target by quite a bit.  And second” he slurred, holding up two fingers for emphasis, “You nearly killed a man.”

“Because that man stumbled out onto the field like some sort of confused druffalo,” she spat, shaking her head in complete disbelief.  Nathaniel should not have enjoyed it as much as he did.

“Excuses,” he teased.

“You think that you could do better?”  She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I know I could,” he replied with a smirk.

The elven woman seemed to relax at his words, and offered him a smirk of her own.  Reaching behind her head, she took an arrow from its quiver, raised her bow, nocked, and fired in one smooth motion.  The arrow flew past his head and straight on into the bullseye of the target. Nathaniel observed the arrow for a moment before meeting her lovely eyes again.

“Prove it,” she said, thrusting her bow at him and handing him an arrow.

“Very well,” he answered, bowing playfully before turning around and shooting the borrowed bow, matching her shot exactly.  He was impressed with himself, considering how his head still swam. Though he was no longer certain how much of it was from the ale, and how much of it was the prospect of a beautiful woman testing his archery mettle.  He almost wanted her to beat him.  

They spent the better part of an hour taking turns making increasingly more difficult shots, each time matching one another perfectly.  A small crowd amassed watching them and cheering, and occasionally they looked at one another exchanging smiles. It was the most fun he could recall having in years.  Eventually, they tired, and decided to call it a draw. When they shook hands, Nathaniel found himself not wanting to let her go. Ridiculous, he knew, the workings of a disinhibited mind.  He did not even know her name.

“I am Erina,” she announced, as if reading his mind, “And that was… impressive.”

Nathaniel chuckled.  “It is nice to officially meet your acquaintance, Lady Erina.  I am Nathaniel.”

“You flatter me,” she answered with an embarrassed laugh.

“Is it working?”  He did not know what possessed him, nor did he care.

“Perhaps.” Erina grinned playfully, then scowled at him again. “I still think you are a fool who is lucky I did not shoot him.”

“I never said I wasn’t,” he began, “A fool, that is. I do, however, feel rather lucky.  It has been my pleasure not getting shot by such a lovely, competent woman.”

She laughed gently, darting her eyes away from his quickly and looking toward the ground where she kicked the toe of her boot into the soft, grassy dirt.  After several moments passed, she looked back up at him, embarrassment gone from her features. “What are you doing this evening?”

“Nothing,” he answered quickly, though he could not shake the feeling that he was forgetting something.  “Do you have something in mind?”

Erina grinned, eyes sparkling as she took his hand and led him away from the range, and toward the outskirts of the city.  They climbed the steps that led to the top of the battlements on the walls surrounding Tantervale, green grassland extending off into the horizon.  The sun had not yet begun to set, but it hung low in the sky, and the breeze had become cool with a hint of the approaching evening.  

“So, Nathaniel,” she said as she crawled up to perch on the parapet, legs dangling over the edge. “Tell me about yourself.”

Moving forward to rest his elbows beside her on the parapet, not trusting his current balancing abilities to keep him from falling to his death, he asked, “What would you like to know?”

“Everything,” she answered.

Nathaniel obliged.  They spent the next several hours talking, sharing stories of their troubled pasts.  He told her of his childhood and his strained relationship with Father, of the Couslands and their hospitality.  He explained how he’d been forced into a squireship in Starkhaven, but had not hated it as much as he expected. He even complained affectionately about Ben and Ser Rodolphe.  In turn, Erina told him her own story, about how she’d grown up in an Alienage in Antiva City, and trained to become a Crow, one of the infamous assassins known for their skill and ruthlessness.  She’d been disappointed when they turned her down, and so she left, hoping to find mercenary work to help her family get by.

“Why did the Crows reject you,” Nathaniel asked, “I can’t imagine that it was lack of skill.”

“They said that I was too headstrong and compassionate.” Erina chuckled. “Not exactly what one looks for in an assassin.”

“Perhaps not,” he said with a laugh of his own.  Thankfully, the effects of the ale had begun to dissipate, and his thoughts came more clearly. “But they are desirable qualities for...other things.”

Erina turned abruptly to face him, smirking. “Yes? Like what, exactly?”

Nathaniel could not bring himself to answer, instead holding her gaze for what could have been an eternity.  It was an odd sensation, he thought, to be so ridiculously attracted to someone he’d just met, so drawn to her that only a few hours left him hoping he could see her again.  Catching himself staring at her for entirely too long, noticing the knowing smile that continued to twitch on her lips, he shook his head and looked out over the city.

“It is starting to get dark,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Is the big brave archer afraid of the dark?” She elbowed him.

“Not exactly, but I am just unfamiliar enough with the area, and just drunk enough that I do not trust myself to find my way back to the inn in one piece.”

“Then, I shall escort you,” Erina remarked cheerfully.

“You don’t have to--”

“I do.”  Her words were serious as they left her lips, and he found himself unwilling to argue.  

By the time they made it to the inn where he had been staying, the sun had set completely, stars twinkling brightly against the dark sky above.  Erina entered with him, and he was glad to see that the inn was much more subdued than the tavern had been. He was grateful that Rodolphe and Ben still seemed to be absent as they would both no doubt tease him relentlessly for his drunken escapades.  He was not certain if he intended to tell them.  

“This is me,” Nathaniel stated softly, somberly as he pointed to his room.

“Oh,” Erina replied, tone resonating similarly to his. “Good.”

“I have had a lovely time,” he admitted, scratching the back of his head, “Much lovelier than I’ve been allowing myself to hope for.”

She smiled brightly.  “Me too.”

Silence stretched on for eternity between them, as Nathaniel searched for the proper words to say.  Finally, he found them. “Listen, I apologize for being so forward earlier. I was --”

He was not able to finish his apology, as Erina’s lips found their way to his, soft yet powerful, just as everything else about her seemed to be.  He stumbled, back bumping into the door so that he was flush against it. With as much force as she had given him, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him more closely, bending down to deepen the kiss, breathing in sharply as their tongues met, as if it were his first breath in years.  Perhaps it was. Reaching behind him, Nathaniel turned the door knob and pushed open the door with his back, pulling Erina into the dark room with him. He caught a glimpse of her glittering smile in the light from the hallway just as she kicked the door closed behind her.

Nathaniel awoke to a pounding at the door, sunlight flickering directly through the closed curtains and into his eyes.  Ben’s voice was muffled through the wooden door, calling his name repeatedly, Nathaniel’s head throbbing with each word, and again with each knock.  He’d definitely had too much to drink, without question. Never again, he promised, massaging his temples as he turned to get out of bed. It was only then that he realized he was naked.  His pulse quickened as he could hear Ben fiddling with the door knob.

“Shit.  Erina,” He muttered and then turned over to where he expected her to be in the bed, but she was nowhere to be found.   Had he imagined the entire night before? Had it been some ridiculous drunken dream? His heart sank at the thought, but he did not have time to be sad, and rushed back into bed, pulling the coverlet and sheets up over his head just as been burst through the door.

“Nate,” he shouted and tugged the covers down from off his head, “There you are.  Rodolphe’s been looking all over the place for you. Said he wants to know what you thought of his joust.”

“What,” Nathaniel asked hoarsely, squinting his eyes in the still unwelcome light.

“You did go to his joust, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did,” he lied in his most annoyed tone.

“I didn’t,” Ben said, laughing mischievously, “Unlike you, I actually had a good time last night.”

Just as Ben finished his sentence, a petite figure emerged from the bath area of the room, auburn hair a disheveled mess, and clad in Nathaniel’s shirt.  “Hey, Nathaniel I --”

She froze as she saw Ben, eyes darting nervously between the red-headed stranger and Nathaniel.  A wide grin slowly stretched its way across the young man’s face, eyebrows raising so high up on his forehead they might as well have flown away.

“Ben,” Nathaniel snapped, pointing to the hallway, “Out.”

“Nate, you dog ,” Ben exclaimed excitedly, unmoving from his spot in the middle of the room.

Nathaniel glanced over at Erina, who smiled, and brought her hand up to cover her mouth.  Thank the Maker she did not seem embarrassed. “Ben. Out,” he repeated, “Now.”

“Oh, right.  Sorry,” he answered, flustered, clambering to leave the room and close the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Nathaniel sat up on the edge of the bed, so that his feet touched the cool stone floor, and brought his hands to his face.  He sighed as he attempted to scrub away the remnants of sleep and hide any evidence of his shame. The bed moved beneath him and there was a warmth at his side, a weight on his shoulder, and he dropped his hands and looked to see Erina, leaning against him.

“So that’s Ben,” she remarked cheerfully, turning her face up to look at him, smiling.

“That’s Ben,” he sighed again.

She shrugged.  “He seems… enthusiastic.”

“You have no idea.” Nathaniel laughed, trying his damndest to not stare at the woman.  She was even more beautiful than she’d seemed the night before. He was relieved he had not simply dreamed her up.

“I hope I get to know him better,” Erina stated, returning  her head to its spot on his shoulder.  

“Me too,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her more closely to him, his eyes fixated on the dresser at the far end of the room, where a small, bronze music box sat alone.  “Me, too.”

[inevitably-johnlocked]

got any good domestic johnlock fic recs??

Hi Nonny! 

YES!! I certainly do! I love domestic Johnlock! Done lots of lists in the past, so check out the additional lists, and I’ll update those lists with these latest ones I’ve sorted!

DOMESTIC JOHNLOCK Pt. 4

See also:

Platonics and Domestics

Platonics & Domestics Pt 2 / Hugs, Cuddles & Kisses Pt. 3 / Tooth-Rotting Fluff Pt. 4 / Love Confessions, Slow Burn & Dev. Rel. Pt. 2 / Established Relationship Pt. 3

Platonics / Bromance / Friendship Pt. 3

When Morning Comes by Youarethelightoftheworld (T, 423 w. || Christmas Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Lazy Mornings/Morning After, Fluff and Angst, Sleepy Cuddles, Domestic Fluff, Cuddling / Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort) – “Sherlock,” says John solemnly, “I’m not sure we can go anywhere today.”

Promises Kept by grannysknitting (K+, 844 w. || John POV, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship / Pre-Slash, Sherlock’s Violin, Worried Sherlock, John Whump, Post-TGG) – When they were in hospital, Sherlock made a promise to himself. Now he’s keeping it. Set after ’Polygamous Marriage’ but before ’Back in the Saddle’

Realisation by Susie.Donym (K+, 957 w. || Sally POV, Pre-Slash / Friendship, Humour) – It takes her a while but Sally finally makes a huge realisation.

Like Any Other Day by wearitcounts (T, 1,145 w. || Fluff, John’s Birthday, John Loves Sherlock, Sweet / Thoughtful Sherlock) – Just when John thought Sherlock couldn’t get any more strange…

Together is What we Have, Together Protects Us by Phantom of the Black Pearl (K+, 1,566 w. || Post-TRF, Friendship / Platonic or Slash, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Sherlock, Worried Sherlock, Slice of Life) – After a case one evening in the flat Sherlock voices a concern that causes the pair to consider why they’ve chosen to stick together after all that’s happened.

Like Euphoria and Scotch by FinAmour (M, 1,856 w. || Five and One, Alchohol / Drinking, POV Second Person Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock’s Imagination, Armchair Sex, Fluff, Happy Ending) – 5 different ways it all could have gone + the one way it actually works itself out.

One in Ten Thousand by Blind Author (K+, 1,856 w. || Post-TGG, Friendship / Pre-Slash, Discussions of Violence, Worried then Curious Sherlock, Scars/John’s Bullet Wound, Medical Anomolies) – John seems to have unusual mobility for a shoulder wound…

The Adventure of the Mysterious Appearance of Tissues by Gwen’s Blue Box (K+, 1,910 w. || Fluff, Humour, Sick John, Caring Sherlock, Hurt/Comfort) – In which there is a case, John has caught a cold and is not interested in investigating, Mrs Hudson is away and Sherlock does the shopping.

The Case of the Missing Blogger by nicknack22 (K, 2,147 w. || Fluff, Humour, Friendship, Worried / Anxious Sherlock) – Alternately titled, The Case of the Oblivious Consulting Detective. In which Sherlock comes out of his mind palace to discover John missing. 221B does not fair well as a result.

Risotto by Richefic (K+, 2,153 w. || Friendship, Angst, Misunderstandings, Apologies) – The first time that John cooks dinner for Sherlock is almost the last. Fortunately, Sherlock is really quite observant. Inspired by John’s reference in “The Great Game” to there being some leftover risotto in the fridge.

The Many Faces of Concern by sdrawkcabemdaer5 (K+, 2,473 w. || Friendship, Angsty Fluff, John Whump, Mildly Clueless Sherlock) – John is injured on a case, leading to some surprising reactions and discoveries about their friendship.

Bored Games by patster223 (K+, 2,769 w. || Cluedo / Board Games, Friendship, Humour) – Sherlock is bored and John decides that they should play Cluedo. In retrospect, it was a truly awful decision.

The Rational Machine by Solstice Zero (K, 2,924 w. || Hurt / Comfort, Malnourishment / Fainting, Doctor / Minder John) – Sherlock passes out. John muses on the reasons why. Containing an absorbing case, two bags of shopping, and a few apples.

On a Sunday Morning by SD_Ryan (G, 3,136 w. || Fluff, First Kiss, Obsessive Sherlock, Pining Sherlock) – Sherlock has a little problem. He can’t stop obsessing about John Watson. {{Note to Self: ‘Cheese Tease’}}

Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down by standbygo (M, 3,282 w. || Post-S4, Five Plus One, Missing Scenes, Parenthood, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Hurt/Comfort, Declarations of Love, Fluff, Food, John Whump) – Five times when Sherlock and John ate together, and one time they didn’t. A history of the boys, in food.

The Bee Charmer by dreadpiratewatson (M, 3,314 w. || Est. Rel., Captain / Soldier John, Idiots in Love, Domestics, John in the Army) – Greg goes to 221B to check up on Sherlock after a strange phone call pulls him away from an important case, and is stunned to find himself in front of a gun brandishing soldier with a sleeping Sherlock on his chest. John Watson is a doctor, a war hero, a husband, and the only one in the world who can soften Sherlock’s heart.

Bored Games by SparksMayFly (K, 3,492 w. || Humour, Friendship, Cluedo / Board Games, Big Brother Mycroft) – Sherlock asks if he can take Reverend Green in for interrogation. John explains that’s not how the game works.

Every Step of the Way by Shi_Toyu (G, 3,795 w. || Car Accidents, John Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Slash, Caretaker Sherlock) – When John is injured on a case, Sherlock can’t forgive himself. Everyone expects him to give up on his flatmate and get bored, but he’ll prove them all wrong by sticking with him…every step of the way.

Five Times John Cooked Something with Peas and One First Kiss by 221b_careful_what_you_wish_for (T, 3,915 w. || 5 and Ones, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Cooking / Food, Sick Sherlock, Music, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss) – After John cooks five dinners that slowly reveal their hunger for each other, Sherlock and John finally share a first kiss.

Jukebox by standbygo (T, 3,990 w. || Fluff, Singing/Music, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Hurt/Comfort, Humour, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss) – After the music halls of Sherlock’s mind palace get damaged by accident, John learns that Sherlock never forgets a song. Even the ones he’d rather forget. But the random singalong brings some unexpected benefits.

No Good Without You by textsandscones (T, 4,021 w. || Case Fic, Sherlock’s Violin, Dancing, Soppy Fluff) – A diverting new case surrounding musicians and stolen instruments captures Sherlock’s attention, the consequences of which lead both detective and doctor to see one another in a different light. Part 1 of Prompt Fills

Breakfast, acronyms and brotherhood by Rose de Sharon (K+, 4,074 w. || TBB Fic, Friendship/Bromance, Hurt/Comfort, Protective John, Fluff) – Set after The Blind Banker: my take of Sherlock and John’s conversation over breakfast. S/J friendship, bromance, no slash.

The Care and Keeping of Your Mad Genius by Janieshi (T, 4,553 w. || Post-TGG, Friendship, Anxious/Worried Sherlock, Light Humour/Teasing, Alternating POV, Cranky Sherlock) – If he hadn’t been so focused on holding the bastard still, John would have laughed aloud. This maniac really thought John was the pet in this dynamic?

Welcome Home, John by slashscribe (G, 5,504 w. || Post-S3, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Awkwardness, Stabbed Sherlock, Protective Sherlock, Panic Attack (Sherlock), Self Esteem Issues, Love Confessions, First Kiss) – When John moves back to 221B, he thinks he’s the broken one, but after a while, it becomes clear that he might not be correct.

Of Razors, Pipes, Red Notebooks and Rugby Jerseys, Or: Sherlock Doesn’t Like His Doctors Clean Shaven by allonsys_girl (E, 7,313 w. || Est. Rel., PWP / Porn With Feelings, John’s Beard / Beard Kink, Roleplay, Love Declarations, Banter, Rimming, Anal, Domestic Fluff / Bliss, Idiots in Love, Emotional Lovemaking, Pet Names, Obsessive Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Bottomlock, Cranky Sherlock) – John grows a beard. Sherlock really likes it. Part 1 of Consulting Husbands

On Favors and Keeping Score by Ewebie (G, 7,622 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Sick Fic, Fluff, John Whump) –  John woke up to the horribly unpleasant sound of his clock alarm. Which meant he’d slept through his phone’s alarm. And for a moment he glared blearily at the noisemaker before smacking at it with his palm. Ugh, he felt like rubbish. The back of his throat was burning with the irritation that heralded a proper dose, his nose was threatening to drip every few seconds, and he had the uncomfortable flush that normally suggested a fever. Nothing high, just uncomfortable. Nothing deadly, just irritating. Nothing worth calling in sick with, just a full day of discomfort in the face of other people’s discomfort. It was going to be a day where he was forced to bite his tongue from telling people off. “You’re not as sick as I am, so off you pop.” Part 7 of Tumblr Shorts

Speak My Language by Itsallfine (T, 7,479 w. || Thanksgiving, Love Languages, Love Confessions, First Kiss) – When Mrs. Hudson introduces John and Sherlock to the concept of the five love languages, Sherlock descends into a dark mood and John’s curiosity gets the better of him. What is Sherlock’s love language, and why does the whole concept set him so on edge? Part 1 of A Holiday Triptych

The Name Game by ItsClydeBitches221B (K, 8,958 w. || Humour, Family, Platonics / Friendship, Sort-of Parentlock, John/Mary, Mary is Nice, Five and Ones, Baby Watson, Mycroft Loves Baby Watson) – The names that baby girl Watson comes up with for her extended family. Or: how everyone—Watsons, Holmes, and others alike— just learned to give up and embrace their weirdness.

How To Give Your Boyfriend Who Doesn’t Know He’s Your Boyfriend the Best Valentine’s Day Ever byunicornpoe (T, 9,832 w. || Valentine’s Day, Fluff and Crack, Soft Sherlock, POV Sherlock) – Sherlock is pretty sure that John Watson is his boyfriend. He’s also pretty sure that John doesn’t know it. But with a little help from a magazine, some friends, three crepes, five dates, one awesome CD, and a stalker van, John is bound to realize just in time for Valentine’s Day.

A Is For Aftermath by ElvendorkInfinity (T, 10,567 w. || Injury / Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Pre-Slash/Bromance/Platonics, Hallucinations, Introspection, Insecure / Worried John, Big Brother Mycroft, Alternating POV, Anxious Sherlock, Self-Deprecating, Mildly Possessive Sherlock, 3G Moment) – John is still hallucinating, Sherlock cannot sleep, and Lestrade has a new case for them. But will life at 221B ever be able to return to normal? Epilogue to M is for Moriarty.

Shuteye Shenanigans by Ayakae (K+, 13,263 w. || Post-TRF, Friendship / Epic Bromance, John’s Nightmares, Angsty Fluff, Bed Sharing, Humour, Cuddles, Taking Care of Each Other, Domestics) – John Watson has never slept with Sherlock Holmes. Never ever ever. And never will, thank you very much. Well, there was that one time, but John didn’t count that. It was completely different, just like the second time it happened. And the third. And the fourth. Epic bromance, but it can be read as pre-slash if you wish.

Hope for Heroes by Richefic (K+, 16,887 w. || Post-TGG Fic, Introspection / Flashbacks, Friendship/Epic Bromance, Hurt/Comfort, Worried/Anxious Sherlock, Sherlock Admires John, BAMF John, John Deduces, Fancy Party, John’s Self Esteem, Domestics) – In the final moments of “The Great Game” Holmes hopes he will have the chance to tell his flatmate that he was wrong. Heroes do exist after all and the one in front of him is called Dr John Watson.

Through the Clouds by Mazarin221b (E, 20,004 w. || Retirement, Sussex, Bees, Home Improvement, First Time, Romance) – Sherlock takes a remarkably early retirement at 47, and convinces John that a change of pace would do them both good. They buy an old cottage on the South Downs, and exchange their nonstop life in Baker Street for quiet contemplation, bee studies, and book writing. They might go completely insane, but sometimes it takes stepping outside of the life you’re living to find the life you want. Part 1 of Through The Clouds

Chaperones by MissDavis (T, 34,114 w. || 11 Years Post-S4, Fake Relationship, Parentlock, Disney World, Bed / Room Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, First Kiss, Obsessive Sherlock, Insecure John) – Right. Of course. Everyone assumed they were a couple and no one would question it. John put his elbows up on the table so he could rest his head in his hands. “You want to pretend to be a couple so we can chaperone a trip to Disney World with Rosie’s class and you won’t have to share a room with a stranger?” “Exactly.” Sherlock beamed at him. “Don’t worry about the cost. The Birmingham case last month paid more than enough to cover expenses for all three of us.”

The Book of Silence by SilentAuror (E, 60,056 w. || S4 Fix It / Post S4, Virgin Sherlock, Rosie / Parentlock, Domesticity, Fluff, Praise Kink, Sex Toys, First Person POV) – As spring blooms in London, John and Sherlock begin to take new cases and cautiously negotiate this new phase of life with John living at Baker Street again. Despite how well it’s all going, John struggles to forgive himself for the way he treated Sherlock following Mary’s death as well as trying to figure out how to finally put his long-time feelings for Sherlock into words. Part 1 of The Book of Silence/Rosa Felicia

[girlonastring]

List of Future H50 Fic

1) Graceless:

Danny loses visitation/rights until the reassessment of his job adjourns; after discovering Rachel is moving with Stan to Hawaii, he transfers to HPD. No one there knows about Grace (until he knows his fate, talking about her is too painful), not even after joining Five-0.

Until one day, he hears that precious voice say ‘Danno’ and he turns to the best sight in the world: his baby girl.

The bulk of the story will be of that scene, and the events that follow. It’ll have angst, drama, family moments - and pre-Mcdanno. Depending on how long it goes, they may even be starting a relationship. But they are definitely end game.

2) Any Man of Mine:

A combination of Steve things like the song, or the opposite to it. I still haven’t quite worked out all the details for that, but it’s what I’m aiming for. Will start off with a memory of Danny singing along to the song with Grace, and later will have her bringing up the similarities of their song and Steve to Danno, and bonding over that.

It’ll be pre-Mcdanno, but also that lovely trope where they’ve basically been dating for forever, but only one of them really notices it. Which will be Danny! Also, a 5+1 because I LOVE that!

3) Undercover WitSec:

This one is pure indulgence for me. I love the idea of Danny having been undercover when he worked back in Jersey, so in this he’ll have been undercover (thinking maybe with the mob?? Still deciding) and gotten close with a kid (placing this before!Grace, but still with Rachel) and when all is said and done, the kid (an OFC, because I can) is put in witness protection.

Shoot forward however many years, and he’s in Hawaii, and the only ones who know about this girl are Rachel (because she’s a big reason why he wanted a kid) and Grace (honorary big sister no one knows about; why she knows exactly I don’t know?? Haven’t figured that out yet) so when this girl shows up, calling Danny something no one understands in Italian cue the shocked reactions!

The reason she was in witsec is ‘dead’ so she’s back and it’s getting their lives resettled, have some nice pre-Mcdanno going on, then low and behold, the reason is not really dead and we have some action. Ends in established Mcdanno!

4) Serial Revenge:

Thought this one up at work yesterday and I am P U M P E D for it! Still figuring out a lot of the details, so this overview will be even shorter.

Danny is friends with this kid when he’s young, who seems so normal, but one day it’s discovered his parents are dead. Not only dead, but murdered. He has his suspicions about it, but nothing is ever tied together and so the kid (who something is obviously not right about - still figuring out that detail!) is sent to a mental hospital (foster care from there?? Don’t know yet!)

Flash forward and we’re in Hawaii, and there are killing happening that Five-0 dont’ know about until somehow, there’s a Danny connection and HPD calls them in.

Grace is sent away for safety, Danny is living with Steve for the same reason, bodies keep showing up, and it’s a race to figure out who it is, then to prove it AND stop him.

Killer winds up dead in the end, we get Mcdanno happening, and I am so very ready for this fic!

5) Dolled Up Steve:

Steve watching Grace at his house while Danny has to go do - something, and they play tea party and dolls and hey, dress up for the tea party! And when Danny comes back to find Grace doing Steve’s nails, look of intense concentration while she jabs away, and Steve is looking at her like she’s his whole world? So fond and full of love? That is Danny’s ‘oh shit I’m in love with this dumbass moment’.

I have a feeling this will jump from Danny POV, to Steve POV, back to Danny POV.

6) Sunshine & Whiskey:

Follows along with the lyrics that I chose a while back, and most likely will wind up a PWP. Maybe get some lime, maybe get some lemon. Just waiting on it to let me know what we’re doin’!

7) I've Got You Under My Skin:

The sap for this one! Established relationship, living together, and during a tender moment when they’re swaying in the living room/kitchen (haven’t decided;;) along to Frank Sinatra, someone proposes. <3 Then! Another chapter of them slow dancing to the same song at their wedding. <33

8) Pour Some Sugar:

So Danny in a private moment of Rachel’s bachelorette party did a strip routine for her and at a party Kono and Malia find out about it and it turns into him doing a very funny, extra snippet for Kono’s bachelorette party which he then gets to join. No one figures this out until Kono makes a comment about a tattoo that Danny has that’s not exactly public friendly, followed by Danny saying something about bachelorette parties getting crazy.

So Steve and Chin wind up finding out, which of course leads to Steve getting to see the routine in his own private moment, but made different so it’s just for him. And yes, there will be an explanation to why Danny knows how to do a strip routine, lol

9) Pictures Worth:

So Danny overhears Kono and Malia talking about tasteful pictures being done for a wedding gift and tells them “hey, that can be done” And he pulls them aside and shows them photos he took of a high school ex that she had done as a wedding gift for her wife, and “see, tasteful, just do it like that”

They discuss it and he helps them find someone on the island who will do it and be discreet/comfortable. What he doesn’t share is that before he took the ones of his ex, he did practice shots of himself so that he could be sure the gift turned out perfect. No one else knows this - not even Rachel.

I don’t know how Steve and Chin will find out (or why they have to, but I apparently like to involve the team in this set up *shrugs*) and Steve finds out about his private shoot and there’s Mcdanno goodness!

10) Too Close:

Old friends of Danny’s come to the island for a visit, and one night when they’ve had a bit to drink he admits that Too Close by Next makes him think of Steve, talking about the hot and bothered aspect of it - he’s quite smashed at this point. At a party for the old friends to meet the new, Kono and the girl friend (or the girl friend and the guy friend {they’re married!}) are talking about how clueless Steve and Danny are and how they need to get together already etc

Later they’ve had enough and the friend mentions the song mention so Kono sets it as Steve’s tone on Danny’s phone and ‘loses’ the phone so Steve has to call. The rest of the story is dealin’ with the aftermath of that and of course the Mcdanno!

11) It Wasn’t Me:

Danny and maybe Rachel having a normal day when all of a sudden their little angel goes through singing the chorus of the aforementioned song and just flipping their shit.

After finding out that they have Uncle Matty to thank because he thought Gracie was asleep but she wasn’t and having to explain that it wasn’t an appropriate song for her to be singing and something about “Cheating is wrong” so that when Grace finds out about Rachel and Stan and later Danny and Rachel (possibly) its just “so you two are hypocrites” or something.

Essentially I just want that initial freak out, and definitely will be finding some way to put Mcdanno in it!

12) DILF:

So Steve is Grace’s teacher and she overhears him saying that Danny is a DILF and later she asks her dad what that means and the choking on a drink and going bright red and trying to figure out what the heck to do with that, how to answer. The rest is yet to be determined, but of course it will be Mcdanno!

13) Love Bug:

YOU GUYS. I forgot about this one! This is what the title says: people of Hawaii are being bitten by a love bug, and the team is on the case to find out what the heck is going on! The effects can get more dangerous the longer there is no cure, so of course Steve is bitten. Not only that, but he just can’t seem to keep his hands or eyes off of Danny! There’s intrigue, case solving, and awkward I-couldn’t-keep-my-hands-off-you avoidance that all ends in lovely Mcdanno <3

14) Sleepy Prompt #20

“I think your hair is cute when you wake up, if only you could see it the way I did.”

15) Smut Prompt #57

“If we get caught I’m blaming you.”

16) Smut Prompt #59

“Wow, I didn’t realize you were that...flexible.”

17) Whumptober Prompt #7

Isolation

18) Whumptober Prompt #8

Stab Wound

19) Whumptober Prompt #9 

Shackled

20) Whumptober Prompt #10

Unconscious

21) Whumptober Prompt #11

Stitches (continuation of day 3)

22) Whumptober Prompt #12

Don’t Move

23) Whumptober Prompt #13

Adrenaline

24) Whumptober Prompt #16

Pinned Down

25) Whumptober Prompt #18

Wake Up

26) Whumptober Prompt #19

Asphyxiation

27) Whumptober Prompt #20

Trembling

28) Whumptober Prompt #21

Laced Drink

29) Whumptober Prompt #23

Bleeding Out

30) Whumptober Prompt #24

Secret Injury

31) Whumptober Prompt #26

Abandoned 

32) Whumptober Prompt #27

Ransom (continuation of day 26)

33) Whumptober Prompt #28

Beaten

34) Whumptober Prompt #29

Numb (continuation of day 28)

35) Whumptober Prompt #30

Recovery (continuation of day 12)

36) Whumptober Prompt #31

Embrace

37) Sleepy Prompt #34

“Will you carry me to bed?”

38) 5+1 Mistletoe

Basically the 5 kisses Steve shared under the mistletoe that were platonic and the one that meant the most. Gotta find my notes for this!

39) A.D.I.D.A.S.

A 5+1 esque fic of smut scenes!

So there are the ideas so far! A few have been mentioned in previous posts, I just don’t know how to link them in this one. They will be coming out in no particular order, and it will take one time because I will wind up writing multiple ones at once. It’s just a matter of which one is speaking louder to me!

I hope someone else is excited for this with me, and please, feel free to talk to me about any of them! Honestly I am so pumped to write them all, I can’t wait to get them all started! :D

Edit: July 19, 2019  August 21, 2020

[forgiven-whimsy]

CHARACTER PROFILE – MUSIC EDITION  ♪

For many of us music is a source of inspiration for our characters, so I want to know what songs inspire and/or relate to your muse! Choose between 10-15 songs, compile them into an album and tag some friends to share the beat!

I was tagged by @rhymingteelookatme​

I’ve made a Playlist on Spotify If you would like to check it out there, I’ve also linked all the songs from youtube. 

1. Pocket Full of Gold - American Authors

2. Beautiful Jungle - Karmina

3. Big World - Ellem

4. Inner Demons - Julia Brennan

5. Head Above Water - Avril Lavigne

6. Champion - Bishop Briggs

7. Meet Me on the Battlefield - Svrcina

8. Zombie - Bad Wolves

9. You’re Going Down - Sick Puppies

10. Bloodlust - The Phantoms/Amy Stroup

11. Where do We Go - Lindsey Stirling

12. Just Hold On - Neoni

13. Where the Shadows End - BANNERS/Young Bombs

14. Alone - Alan Walker

Bonus track

Squad (My Crew) - J2, Roger Wills, Tennyson McCoy

Song analysis below the cut, it got long!

I’ve set up the songs in what I feel is chronological order.

Pocket Full of Gold, and Big World are very much Shiloh as a brand new adventurer, excited to be out in the world, and helping people, going to far flung villages and healing ills, and driving away some beasts, small differences in the grand scheme but huge for those she helps. 

Beautiful Jungle is how she views herself in the beginning, before everything starts to fall apart. Being an Au Ra Raised in Limsa she’s always been an odd duck, add to the fact that she’s introverted, and a bit of a dreamer which didn’t help her social awkwardness.  But her adopted family, her mother in particular, has always been encouraging, wanting her to step out of her comfort zone, her mom was her biggest fan, truly believing Shiloh would do great things. 

Inner Demons represents her doubts, her impostor syndrome, especially after she’s being called a Warrior of Light. She never feels worthy of the title, and after the massacre at the Waking Sands, and a couple of other not so good events that happen to her around that time, she begins suffering the effects of depression and PTSD. Head Above Water, is a call for help to Hydaelyn, or anyone who will listen it’s very much tied in with her mental illness, and her fight for recovery. this is an ongoing battle for her, throughout all of the expansions and events, oftentimes getting far worse before getting better. 

Champion is a great WOL anthem in general, it’s very much her Carrie Fisher song, the be scared but do it anyways song. This is her embracing her powers and strength, doing what is right, and needed even if she doesn’t feel like what she can offer will be enough. She’ll be damned if she doesn’t give it her all. She will do her best to be the Champion everyone believes her to be. 

Meet me on the Battlefield and Zombie, speak to the sorrow and sadness of war itself, the casualties, and often needless death of innocents. Her compassion extends to the beastmen, and the Garleans she fights, the refugees, and the people of Eorzea. When she’s put in a position to lead soldiers, and friends, into war, Shiloh will often over exert herself in order to keep her allies safe. She believes herself a healer first and foremost, and feels a resigned sadness when she must bring her powers to bear on people, instead of Primals. 

And then there’s that point when Shiloh’s compassion snaps, when she’s been pushed too far, and she becomes, in the words of Hien, terrifying, Aymeric has compared her to a Valkyrie, where she is not a healer but every bit the Warrior of Light they call her, a near blinding beacon on the battlefield. You’re going Down and Bloodlust, are very much songs that go alongside those big hero moments, the big fights, when her aim is to kill, and to make that death hurt. Lahabrea, Thordan, Nidhogg, Zenos, Vauthry, and Emet-Selch have all pushed her to that point where she embraces vengeance. Zenos glimpsed that spark in her, and the realization that if she gave in to that dark place she would be no better then him. And yet in the moment, in those big battles, where she’s un-tethered fighting with everything she has, there’s freedom, and a strange manic joy, feelings she will never admit to. In those moments she will often times push herself to near death, running on nothing but adrenaline. Raising the question in her friends as to whether she was trying to kill herself.

Where do We Go, is for all those times she still lost despite every effort, this is Haurchfant, and Moenbryda, and Ysayle. This is the aftermath of the bloody banquet. This is Zenos committing suicide, and her victory over Emet-Selch that felt like anything but. This is saying goodbye to G’raha Tia after he locks himself in the Crystal Tower, and mourning the woman Yotsuyu could have been. 

Just Hold On, is very much a song about where she is as a person at the end of Shadowbringers. It brings to mind the conversation she had with Ryne, who is walking a very similar path, and the kind of advice she might give the young girl. “If it all goes wrong, Darling just hold on.” “Where do you go when your stories done? Do you be who you were or who you’ll become.” She’s older and wiser, and she’s trying hard to not be jaded. She’s become kinder, and is starting to let the walls down, letting go of what everyone else thinks the WOL should be, and just being who she is....and finally giving thought to who that is. 

Where the Shadow Ends, represents her hope, resolve, and keeping all those she lost in her heart, “for those we have lost, for those we can yet save” and how their memories keep her going. 

Alone, is representative of the biggest lesson she learned in Shadowbringers, and that is, that she has friends she can rely on, who do genuinely care about her, and that they’ve never expected her to be or act a certain way. she is cared for just as she is, and that she still has family. Ardbert’s words struck a chord, “don’t choose the option that leaves you alone.” Because for a long time she truly believed being the WOL meant being alone. 

As for the bonus track. all her friends, the scions, Lyse, Yugiri, Estinien, Tataru, Krile, the Fortemps, Raubahn (he’s part of her crew..idgaf)....just...all of them together are a hell of a Force to be reckoned with. This song made me picture all of them in an 90′s early 2000′s rap video. and it’s fun to play while running Trusts. 

Honestly anyone I would have tagged has already been tagged, so if you see this and want to participate consider yourself tagged, I highly encourage you to do so! it’s a great character building exercise. 

[nonagaye]

Incest Playlist?

Sexy Mother Fu*ker?

I just found out about this Jonsa Game of Thrones playlist. And I’m shocked to see ‘Sister’ by Prince on the playlist, but then I get to thinking, out of all the incest songs to link, they choose Sister. But I then thought to google a list of incest songs and I see ‘The End’ by The Doors is there, which is also on the GOT playlist.

I’ve never heard this song before so I look up the lyrics on Genius. I click the annotation for these section of lyrics:

He took a face from the ancient gallery And he walked on down the hall He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he Paid a visit to his brother, and then he He walked on down the hall, and And he came to a door And he looked inside "Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you" "Mother? I want to..."

And here is some of what Genius has to say:

Interpretation #1

This spoken word section of the song is a reference to the myth of Oedipus, the King of Thebes who fulfilled the prophecy of murdering his father and marrying his mother.

Interpretation #2

However, this portion of the song is also, according to John Densmore, a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. Morrison believed that one should “kill the father and fuck the mother” which essentially can be broken down into two parts; the act of killing the father and the act of fucking the mother. Killing the father meant to destroy (or kill) all of those things within yourself that are not of yourself, the alien concepts which are not yours must die. Considering Morrison’s military upbringing, and his tendency to proclaim his parents were dead, the father makes sense as a metaphor for alien concepts. The mother is a reference to mother nature, and the natural. By fucking the mother, one is returning to natural concepts and hence, reality. Morrison meant by this excerpt “the end of alien concepts, and the return to personal concepts.”

Now in my opinion, either interpretation is concrete evidence for a twist in the plot. Interpretation #1 is plain and simple about incest/Odepius complex--and it supports a theory in Jonsa Fandom, which can be seen here .

Interpretation #2 to me reads more like a metaphor for Jon’s parentage reveal and the aftermath. Jon will more than likely go through a transformation or an out right crisis in season 8. Leading him to question alien parts of himself(Targ), and embracing what comes natural (Starks) in the end.

He took a face from the ancient gallery And he walked on down the hall He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he Paid a visit to his brother, and then he He walked on down the hall, and And he came to a door And he looked inside "Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you" "Mother? I want to..."

There are other things that can be taken away from the lyrics that I’m too lazy to write (as simple as a scene being described).

Anyway, I just find it strange that D&D used two incest songs. One being ‘Sister’, which needs no explanation, and the other being a song with metaphors for Oedipus--entire Jonsa metas have been written on this. This post isn’t concise and detailed because I woke up to this info and jumped into writing this little piece. Someone may have already made the observation.

By the way “The End” is followed by “Girl from North Country”

[Verse 1] If you’re travelin' the north country fair Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline Remember me to one who lives there For she once was a true love of mine [Verse 2] If you go when the snowflakes storm When the rivers freeze and summer ends Please see if she has a coat so warm To keep her from the howling winds [Verse 3] Please see if her hair hangs long If it rolls and flows all down her breast Please see for me if her hair's hangin' long For that’s the way I remember her best [Verse 4] I’m a-wondering if she remembers me at all Many times I’ve often prayed In the darkness of my night In the brightness of my day [Verse 5] So if you’re travelin' the north country fair Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline Remember me to one who lives there For she once was a true love of mine

Game of Thrones: The End is Coming

[cogentranting]

I can't help but draw some similarities bet daredevil and arrow in terms of how they present first love. Arrow had L/O which was mostly on the past and toxic. Couldn't it be said for Matt and Electra? In 1 episode we saw their relationship develop and crash but it was all in the past. Matt just needed closure like oliver in 5:08. Am I the only one obsessed and seeing parallels bwt arrow and daredevil? Who do u ship matt with? Karen, Electra or Claire? How do u compare their dynamics?

Careful, throwing Daredevil and Arrow at me in one ask, I’m liable to write a book.

I think there is a lot of difference between the two ships. Matt and Elektra, pretty much all the negative stems from Elektra alone. Whereas with L/O, you have significant problems on both sides, with the (by far) biggest one being on the part of Oliver. Arrow seems to have much more of a ‘had their chance and messed it up irrevocably’ vibe, while Daredevil seems to me to be more ‘inherently doomed by nature of who they are’. At the same time, I feel like Matt and Elektra have a much stronger connection. They are two people who understand each other and believe in each other in a way that no one else can really match. It’s more of a matter of that not being enough to counteract the way they feed into each other’s destructiveness- so they have this deep passionate love for each other, but it can only ever end with an argument over a knife, or shot full of arrows on a rooftop. They’ll always be torn apart because they believe such different things, or be destroyed together. Oliver and Laurel on the other hand, don’t have that level of connection. They’re two people whose lives have been intertwined and who care a lot about each other but who have never found a way to actually be a unit. And I feel like situation defines them a lot more than Matt and Elektra.

There is that similar note of the past love that ended in some form of lies and betrayal. And those experiences shape the character and eventually it seems to lead to a more healthy love. So I think both have shows have some idea of there being relationships that drag you down and you grow past them and find a love that lifts you up. But they play with it in different ways.

As far as the idea of closure, I’m first gonna have to challenge your ideas about Arrow. I think for Oliver it was less about closure, and more about the idea that both Oliver and Laurel were, to some extent, in love with an idea of the other person. They always imagined the other would be the love of their life. And I think they sort of demanded that ideal from each other, and neither was ever gonna be able to realize that, and so, post-island, the relationship was never fully going to end until that idealization was shattered. I would argue that for Oliver that moment- that closure, if you will- came mid season 2. I don’t think any moment after that between the two of them is romantic for Oliver after the argument outside Laurel’s apartment. I would argue that 5x08 is more about Oliver getting closure for his guilt relating to how he treated Laurel and how she died. Not their relationship itself.

For Matt and Elektra, I think the connection is a little more transcendent. Because there is that unique connection on a base level of their identities, I think that as long as Elektra is around, Matt will go back to her. And no amount of closure will ever change that. It’s still a doomed romance every time it happens but Matt will choose it every time. Partly because of his martyr complex. And partly because he truly loves her, and she loves him more than she is capable of loving anyone else. [Defenders spoilers]] However, I think in terms of letting her go in the face of death, it’s possible that Matt just needed greater closure there. On the rooftop, he felt like they could have had a life together and he didn’t do enough to try to protect that. In the cave, he had a better realization that choosing Elektra meant choosing destruction and he embraced that. If she IS dead ( I think she is) then I think he’ll be able to move on this time because he feels he gave everything to loving Elektra in that moment and there could have been no other end. [[ End Defenders spoilers]]

And no you are not the only one obsessed with Daredevil/Arrow parallels. I am right there with you.

Daredevil ships. I kind of ship all of them. Kind of ship none of them. Depends on how you define ‘ship’. I am totally okay with any relationship outcome. Elektra, Karen, or Claire. or Jessica. And I enjoy any and all of them when they’re ongoing.

Matt and Elektra are basically the song Red from Taylor Swift. They love each other very very deeply, very very passionately. And one way or the other it is always always going to end badly. Because I think they are simply too different in their beliefs to ever coexist peacefully. In times of war, they will be unstoppable together. And if they don’t die there, they’ll self-destruct in times of peace. I think Elektra means something to Matt that no one else will ever be. Not that he necessarily loves her more, but that he loves her in a very special way. But I also don’t think Elektra will ever change, and I think she loves the parts of Matt that are Daredevil- not that she loves the persona (in the Mary Jane loves Spiderman, has a crush on the public figure type of way) but that she understands and is drawn to the specific parts of Matt’s character that caused him to create Daredevil. And because those are the parts she loves, when he’s with her those parts are taken out of proportion and allowed to dominate.

Matt and Karen are a little hard to pin down because most of their interactions are tinted by the amount they don’t know about each other. we haven’t seen them really with each other since she found out his secret, and he doesn’t know her past, about shooting Westley, or a lot of what went on with her and Punisher. As is, my tendency is to see this relationship as the opposite of Matt and Elektra. Karen loves Matt Murdock, but the more his Daredevil traits come to the forefront, the more she clashes with him. Karen brings out the softness in Matt. She encourages him to see the beauty in the city. She reaches out and offers comfort when Matt is hurting. She pushes him to strengthen his relationships. She paints pictures for him with her words and urges him towards belief and trust. But she also tries to pull him away from Daredevil- again, not the persona as much as the traits that inspire it. Part of her rebels against that protectiveness from Matt, that temper. In Defenders, she is actively trying to get him to give up Daredevil and seems to think his life is better when he denies that side of him and it’s a big moment for Matt when he claims Daredevil as a part of himself. There seems to be a lack of trust, as well. She lies to him, she won’t open up, and to a certain degree I don’t think she believes that he’ll make the right choice. And a large part of her resistance to Daredevil is fear for Matt’s safety, but I think she doesn’t yet realize how essential it is to his identity. However, with this relationship, I don’t see it as doomed like Matt and Elektra are. I think all of this is just growth that has to happen. And, admittedly, Karen’s exposure to Daredevil happened in large part during a time when Elektra was emphasizing some of the most destructive elements of it so Karen had good reason to be wary of it. And there’s just something so sweet and innocent about the way Matt and Karen interact when they’re together, despite their individual darkness.

Matt and Claire.  Here my tendency is to put Claire as the middle ground between Karen and Elektra. She meets Matt first as the Matt side of Daredevil, which I think gives her a really unique side of him. She seems him kind of vulnerable and open to analysis. And I think Claire, more than the other two, is able to understand where Matt’s at. She sees the vigilante and the man simultaneously. She seems to understand why it’s important for him to be Daredevil- both from the perspective of the people he protects and from his emotional/psychological state. Claire also seems most capable of holding him accountable; she’s able to push back against his bullheadedness and call him out when he’s making a mistake. So she is a moral influence in a way that Elektra is not. She also can be a real partner to him, in a way that Karen doesn’t really have an avenue to be- Claire as the Night Nurse (type role) is a real part of Daredevil’s crusade. And so they both have sort of this superheroish role to play. Additionally, I think they both push each other with a reciprocity that isn’t always present in the other two- Claire holds Matt accountable and keeps him grounded, while Matt gifts Claire some of his idealism and pushes her to really participate in making change happen, where the other two range towards Karen makes Matt better and Matt makes Elektra better. Plus, Claire is really even-keeled which  is good for someone as passionate and ready to fight as Matt is- both Karen and Elektra are more on the explosive/impulsive side with Matt. The thing is they don’t have that much actual content so a lot my assertions can be challenged because it’s extrapolation. And… they seem to have really walked away from each other, so it seems that they’re not nearly as committed to each other as either of the other two characters. Still, if I were writing things, I would have Claire, having embraced the superhero mindset through her time with Luke, and Matt, having found a little more balance in his life and a little more concern for his own well-being in the aftermath of Defenders, work their way back to each other.

And haha! a surprise fourth ship appears! Jessica and Matt. Now, thus far Jessica and Matt are completely platonic, and if I had to guess what’s going to happen in the end when all’s said and done, I  think it will stay platonic and Jess and Luke will be together as in the comics. And I prefer that (I think). BUT. If they DID decide to make Jess and Matt romantic… it would be awesome as well. Because Matt and Jessica completely stole the show in the Defenders (as far as dynamics between the four are concerned). They instantly connected and seemed to fall into sync. They’re broken in similar ways and they have sort of these complementary approaches to life. They snark at each other and yet also get along really easily with a sort of natural ease to their communication. And Jess tries so hard not to care and then Matt comes along and aggressively cares about everything and ends up pulling her along for the ride. And Matt tries to fit into what people think he should be and Jessica shows up in open defiance of what everyone else thinks. And Matt won’t ever open up and let people in even though he wants to so he really needs someone like Jessica who is actually very good at understanding people and when she needs to get past Matt’s walls she just kind of… takes the doors of the hinges and is belligerently supportive. The intuitiveness with which they understood each other’s approach to heroism even though their approaches are so different. And they manage to inspire each other to be better without rejecting any part of the other and without making the other feel less worthy, but they DO make each other better.  The amount they care about each other after only knowing each other for a few days. And the blue and red lighting look so good together. But yeah- obsessed with them platonically and would totally jump on board if the shows decided to make it romantic.

[atcostmag]

At Cost Magazine 2019 in Review - Top Albums

Photo: Nanna Øland Fabricius of Oh Land

2019 Album of the Year  Oh Land - Family Tree

In the speed and scale of today's playlisted music economy, it seems almost impossible that a classical piano album like Oh Land's "Family Tree" would receive the attention it should. To be completely honest, it's an album that I completely overlooked in the first place as it eschews many of the pop hooks alongside the bold and bright elements which have made Oh Land's previous records so attractive in the first place. To paraphrase what Iranian-cinema great Abbas Kiarostami said about film, "there are movies which completely take you by surprise, but leave you empty afterwards; the best films are the ones which put you sleep but you find revisiting later again and again". The same premise holds for Oh Land's "Family Tree", and while we're not saying it's a snore, it is rather unfortunate that this would not be something which the viral nature of today's musical climate would appreciate per se. The merits of "Family Tree" rather lie in its depth of composition, Nanna "Oh Land" Fabricius' sly wit and deeply-rooted metaphor showing her reverance for the natural world. 

We witness these moments in the beautiful fragility of "Brief Moment" where Oh Land references BBC's Planet Earth capturing the Japanese pufferfish building intricate patterns in the sand to attract its mate; the brutal honesty of "Human Error" which Fabricius retraces the aftermath of personal tragedy; her academic knowledge of estuarine systems in her theatrical pour of emotion in "Salt" and her holy worship of "Sunlight where Nanna's gospel on trees reflects on nature's beautiful resilience. "Someone I Can Be Alone With", however stands as a personal favorite of mine. Its aqueous blur recalls some of the darker moments from Oh Land's debut LP "Fauna" and snapping percussion from track's like "Rainbow", as the track converges with its stringed intrigue and whistling woodwinds. Furthermore, we see Nanna's very characteristic humor peaking out of the song's darker moods, as the solemn tone of the track contrasted with her lyrics, "My head is exploding in slow motion..." before the track's blossoming orchestral darkness is shrugged off with the warmth of Oh Land's words, "... but when I'm catching my breath you'll be 'Someone I Can Be Alone With'". A re-drawing of Oh Land's musical portraiture, it’s an album that shows incredible boldness and risk, one of a continually evolving artist. To reference an old cliche, it's an album we certainly need but don't necessarily deserve in this playlisted era where albums are rarely-listened from start to end. 

Human Error (Live)

Read our interview with Oh Land written on our sister blog Swede + Sour

#2

Luna - Trance  Original Russian title (ЛУНА - ТРАНС)

A record for the Gosha Rubchinsky-era of Post-Soviet aesthetic, Luna or Kristina Gerasimova's embracement of the New East is obvious here. But while its place in the Post-Soviet sphere certainly strikes a presence, it's the aesthetics of sound which ultimately drive Gerasimova's appeal. Working with then-fledgling but now mainstay producers like Shumno and Alessandro del Schuko, Luna saturates in the immersive qualities of arguably the New East's strongest genres through enveloping deep house and rave sounds. We find the pinnacle of Luna's vision on track "Love in Every Golden Petal", where she gloriously harmonizes between the harsher rave elements of the track with her heavenly beckon. However, dotted through the album, we find Luna leaves gems of every color across the spectrum. On "Palmira" we see Luna's post-rock grit where Luna recalls her influence from the Soviet Union's most notorious rocker Viktor Tsoi, as in she how she was quoted on previous album "Enchanted Dreams". There's also her first single "Dolphins" where Luna walks her along famous melancholy, edging the lines of blissful sadness as solemn piano keys clash with the clink of its glitchy sci-fi spook. Finally, we have "Lilac Paradise", which recalls the bygone days of electroclash. With its heavenly breath, Luna uses the short, staccato spurt of her Slavic tones, to cut across alternating octave scales and the euphoric layering of synthesizer production, in what could be an appropriate tribute to the early days of electronic music pioneers Ladytron.

“Dolphins”

Luna’s “ Love in Every Golden Petal” made our 2019 track of the year 

#3

Melis - Undercurrent

While it can be said that most music is notably written about love, few on the topic as vividly as in Czech-Turkish singer, Melis' EP "Undercurrent". Written and produced, in conjuction with her former collaborator in duo IYES Josh Christopher, the album is intricately assembled with a poetic prose that speaks literally and carefully structured hooks with reveal minute details upon every loop. On the album, yearning emotion is echoed through Melis' tearful delivery as whimpery tones yield to the dramatic envelopment of sound that so succinctly defined Josh Christopher's production on IYES. We hear the thunder of sharp crescendos all throughout the album, with most notably on the anxious build on "Piece of Your Heart". There the dramatic energies of Melis' tender vocals ignite to grabbing synths that underscore her yearning emotion, with ample space between elements to illuminate the mystery of the track's wonder. Furthermore, on the record we notably see Melis' strongest track to date "Waves", a back and forth of conflicted sentiment whose vivid emotion feels almost spoken in its visual storytelling. Building on multiple anacruses, careful production works over every loop to not only build lyrical emotion, but introduce easing elements like infusing broken-beat percussion and the sustain of its ghosting creak to richly nuance the track. However, like any well-curated album, Melis' Henry Green-produced track offers a reprieve to seemingly close the album on a high note. Titled "Falling into Place", the dreamy of wash of its spiralling percolation is coupled to the saturated reverb of Melis' distant cries which upon repeat build into a meditative mantra. If you've read our top singles of 2019, Luna's obvious placement on the year's best records seems only fitting.

Waves

#4

Musia Totibadze - Boy Original Russian title (Муся Тотибадзе - Мальчик)

Musia Totibadze first burst onto the Russian-language music scene with her disco-vivalist "Dance, Little Vitaly", a kitschy yet ultimately enjoyable affair. It's something hard to describe, but you need not understand Russian to comprehend the Moscow-born, Georgian singer's charisma. With her lead single from her EP "Boy" (Мальчик), we see her compelling cover of Natalya Vetlitskaya's '92, Italo-Disco single "I'll Stay with You" (Я останусь с тобой). Taking the reverb-saturated original, and bringing warmth with her spurting breathiness yet undeniable warmth from her rosy timbre, Totibadze modernizes the early, Post-Soviet track with a fun-friendly track that resonates to its glitchy textures and gooey synths. Like "I'll Stay with You", it's this joie-de-vivre that persists throughout the album and continues with a few keynote tracks. On "Night" we see the drip of acidic synths dot the track's scaling synths and Musia burgeoning roar; the shocking shrill and retro-futuristic clink of "Running Up" (Разбегаюсь) while on "Birds" (Птицы) the grooving funk of its downtempo bass lines soar to the beaming lift of its Italo-disco production. “Fly” (Лети) stands as a particularly exuberant track, building on the machinations of its plunking clink. Building over the feathering trickle of synths, we see Musia rocket with her vocals to top off the exhilarating ride that is “Fly”. As an aside, Musia also offers "Sea", a reprieve from the album jubilant prose. On "Sea", passive melodies eventually build and inundate to the whitewater of Totibadze's aqueous current; concentrating Musia's vocals into a heavenly saturation of drifting mantra. However, its appropriately chosen title track "Boy"  (Мальчик) without a doubt lies as Musia's strongest. Trickling arpeggios give "Boy" a quirky and unbelivably fun invigoration. While Musia's vocals certainly capable of keeping a stronger sustain, she keeps her delivery short and succinct allowing the choir of children's voices and its groovy funk to resonate. A seemingly anachronistic effort, Musia's infectious joy of being and Soviet nostalgia points to something hard to rationalize; perhaps somewhere between Yuri Gagarin's boylike smile or a furry Cheburashka we will find our answer, but don't really know to be honest :) 

I’ll Stay With You (Я останусь с тобой)

#5

Erika de Casier - Essentials

Something ironic about living in the age of social media is that its staunchest criticisms come from social media. However, Erika de Casier doesn't fall into this rather hypocrite prose, and fully-embraces the zeitgeist of living online in the youthful naivete of "Essentials". On Erika de Casier's "Essentials", we see the revival of early Internet-age anachronisms and this bewildering blend of past, present and future. Here we see R&B harpsichords clang to the drip of "Little Bit"; the gangster funk and strutting swagger play out in the cute abjections of "Do My Thing"; the playful innocence of tracks "Story of My Life" and in the kitschy "yeahs" of "Puppy Love". A takeway track however would be the Oriental cascades of "What U Wanna Do?", where the glitchy cyberpunk of the track plays over the club cuts of its feathering synth jolts. 

“What U Wanna Do?”

#6

SA Zeiner - The Only Scars I’ve Got I Got in My Sleep

Blurring the realm between ethereal and the organic, Sigrid A (SA) Zeiner illustrates the conflicted emotions of love in this stunning display of four single-length tracks and two interludes. Carrying an oceanic air to her turbulent calm, Zeiner's vocals effortlessly sweeps heady emotion and hazy falter. As seen in her debut track, the impossible beauty of vivid emotion and Sigrid's peaking emotion converge in the synthesizer plateaus of "Could You Be Good to Me?", while its follow-up single "Good for Your Ego" though similar in stance offers a quick retort. The sharply-spoken words of "Good for Your Ego" are contrasted with its percolating depth where the crystalline fantasy of its spiralling synths spell a dreamy disillusion. As for the remainging two single-length tracks, "Prodigy" and "Forever, Here" are decidedly more organic in prose. The careful and quiet optimism of "Prodigy" speaking of what could be, are echoed in the sentiments in the wuthering murmur of SA Zeiner's before converging on her rather characteristic plateaus one again. Finally, we have "Forever, Here" with its tearful piano flow and wavering vocal vibrato, we have the track blossoming over the rich nuance of its strings and warmth of SA Zeiner's howling reassurance. A decidedly short record, but enough to say given the right promotion, Scandinavia could easily add another pop heroine to add to its prestigious retinue. 

Could You Be Good to Me?

[such-a-common-girl]

WALKING DEAD MASTERLIST

Will be updated regularly!

*= Smut

Series/Two+ parts:

“Feelings” Rick Grimes x Reader- You grew up with Rick as a child, and are in his group now during the apocalypse. Once you settle in Alexandria, feelings for him arise. one  two  * 

“Innocence” Rick Grimes x Reader- Can you do a Rick x reader smut? Like you’re one of Carl’s friends but you’re a few years older than him, maybe 18 or 19. You’re waiting for Carl to get home from Enid’s so you’re just chilling at his house. But you’re like super frustrated because you’re a virgin and Rick asks what’s wrong and you won’t tell him but he convinces you bc he cares about you and it leads to smut one two three *

“And Then She Ran” Daryl Dixon x Daughter Reader-  After you, Daryl’s daughter, dies, he finds your diary and learns more about you than he wanted. one two three   

“Worries” Daryl Dixon x Reader-  You are 19 and dating Daryl, and he is insecure about the age difference. one two 

“Family” Norman Reedus x Daughter Reader- You find out that Norman is your father. one two 

“Scandalous Love” Negan x Reader-  In this tumultuous story, the drama begins when Negan threatens to kill your boyfriend, and group leader, Rick Grimes if you don’t join him in the Sanctuary as his wife. Over the time you spend as Negan’s wife, feelings arise, making everything a bit more complicated. one  two DISCONTINUED

Carl Grimes One Shots:

“Moments” - You and Carl get caught doing some things.*

“Home” -  In a world where Carl was the victim of Negan’s killings, reader recalls her relationship with Carl throughout the years with a series of flashbacks, leading up to her current day predicament.

“The One” - Carl’s version of “Home”, but in this version, the reader dies in the line up instead of him.

“The Secret That’s Worth It” -  You’re Negan’s teenage daughter and from the minute you saw Carl, he sparked your interest, leading to a relationship between you two.

“Traditions” -   When you and Carl sneak out of Alexandria to “explore”,  you find more than you bargained for in an abandoned house. 

“Swimming” -    You and Carl come across a river while exploring and decide to go swimming.

“The Art of Being Brave” -  You and Carl have always had feelings for each other. These feelings have been left unsolved, until one night when the tension begins to be too much. *

“A New Beginning” -  You’re a girl around Carl’s age who happens to embrace the apocalypse- in your mind, nothing can bring you down. Whenever Rick finds you in the woods and takes you back with him to Alexandria, everyone is fascinated by your vulgar, outgoing, friendly attitude including Carl. Yours and Carl’s relationship blossoms, going from just friends to possibly something more.

“Thunderstorms and Log Cabins” You and Carl get trapped in a thunderstorm, which leads to some confessions once you find shelter. *

“Hickeys” - You have to try and hide hickeys that Carl gave you.

Rick Grimes/Andrew Lincoln One Shots:

“Addiction”-  Daryl and Rick find out that reader has a drug problem, leading to a heart to heart between the three.

“Teasing”  Andrew Lincoln x Reader- You are part of the walking dead cast and go to your first comic con.

“Surprises” - Rick takes you out on your first date.

“Unrequited Love” - After Lori dies, Rick leans to you for comfort and to help him move on- which is a problem for you, because you’re in love with him.

“My Savior” -  A one shot where Rick saves the reader after she stops breathing and smut ensues. *

“What if Someone Sees?” - My entry for Jessie’s 1k follower writing challenge. *

Daryl Dixon/Norman Reedus One Shots:

“Addiction” -  Daryl and Rick find out that reader has a drug problem, leading to a heart to heart between the three. 

“The Pain of Living” - Daryl helps you overcome addiction to opioids.

“Take Care” -  You are pregnant and Daryl worries about you. 

“We Hurt the Ones We Love” - When Daryl leaves with Merle at the prison, you are heartbroken and end up making a huge mistake that bites you in the ass when Daryl returns.

“All of You” - You’re plus sized and you’re pushing Daryl away because you don’t think you are good enough.

“Care For You” -  You’re a quiet, observant person who doesn’t talk much, a lot like Daryl, which made you take a liking to him from the beginning. You’ve never actually held a conversation with anyone, so when you defend Daryl one day by yelling at Shane, the entire group is surprised.

“Dont Shy Away”-  You’re Rick’s daughter, who happens to be crushing on Daryl Dixon. Will your shyness get in the way of a potential relationship? *

“Perfect to Me” -  You’ve always been insecure about your weight, as you’ve always been slightly chubby. This has prevented you from telling Daryl Dixon how you feel about him, since you think he could never have feelings for you back, but you’re proven otherwise one day when Daryl overhears someone talking bad about your weight and he punches them in the face.

“Wanna Bet?” - Daryl and you make a bet that you can’t shoot his crosssbow. He thinks you can’t, you think you can.

“Stubborn Love” -  Based off the song “Stubborn Love” by The Lumineers.

“What Dad Doesn’t Know Won’t Hurt Him” - You’re Rick’s daugher and you and Daryl get caught about to have sex. *

Negan One Shots:

“The Secret That’s Worth It” -  You’re Negan’s teenage daughter and from the minute you saw Carl, he sparked your interest, leading to a relationship between you two.

“The Language of Love” -  Can I request a Negan one? Where the reader grew up in France but moved to the US when she was young, but kept her French accent/French as her first language. And she gets taken as prisoner by Negan, but he treats her really well because he’s attracted to her. But one day he just pisses the reader off and she starts to cuss him out in French, and it turns Negan on a lot. And it leads to smut?

“Be Mine” - You and Negan are always flirting but it never goes past that, until one night you two sleep together. You find out later that you are pregnant, and you run away bc you’re afraid Negan will reject the baby.

“Forget” - You find Negan on the side of the road, suffering temporary memory loss. You fall in love with him but you’re terrified he wont return the feelings when his memory comes back.

Glenn/Maggie One Shots: 

“We’re Family”-  Could you do one where like the reader has been with the group since like Atlanta and she looks at Glenn and Maggie like parents and one day when all three of them are on a hunt she actually addresses one or both as ‘mom and/or ‘dad’ and is totally embarrassed but Glenn and Maggie both look like the happiest couple ever, saying that they looked at her like their own kid for a long time?

“The Aftermath of Being Gone”-  The reader is like a daughter to Glenn & Maggie but after the prison the reader got separated from everyone in the group and is on their own for 2 years. While on a supply run for Alexandria the couple find an abandoned camp with a bloodied photo of themselves & the reader & a journal detailing what happen over the years and how she views them as her parents. With evidence showing that the reader may have gotten away the set out to find her. After weeks of the group searching some are losing faith but Glenn & Maggie push on. Later after more searching they find her and saving her from a group of raiders, the three then reunite and she calls them mom/dad.

“Ohana” -  So I would like to request a Gleggie daughter one please. They had their baby in Alexandria before Negan and the reader distances herself from them, opting to go hunt to give them space. After they don’t see her for a few days they corner her and she confesses that her 1st adoptive family abandoned her after getting a baby. Happy family make up and reader gets to hold their baby sibling and something cute happens.

[elizabethrobertajones]

I really felt the ending montage of 12.11 was unnecessary. With the song, it did make sense in regards to the episode but still felt out of place to me. The song gave me a lot of Jensen feels however (he's spoken at cons about pretending to be a cowboy as a kid). Idk, i just kinda wish Dean had kept those memories/feelings he had while under the spell. It would have been interesting to see him try to grow as a character knowing he had (unconsciously) put "performing dean" away for a bit. 1/2

2/2 It was like they introduced a new facet to the character, with so much more to explore but then ripped it away very quickly (similar to Demon Dean). I identify very much with Dean and his “performing” and would have like to see him struggle to reconcile his facade with his true self, knowing Sam has seen it.

I feel like there’s room for interpretation that Dean does remember it, at least until Rowena stuff happens again and forces and answer - for one thing because the “who’s this hippie” moment played off a deeper Dean and Rowena bond, and also because she unloaded a fair amount onto him and Dean keeping her secrets along with his own is interesting to me - 

- that said there is a fair amount about this episode that feels really deep and multi-faceted but for me juuust toes the line of sloppy writing. I’m not that judgy - if you’ve seen my Dabb vs cars tag’s origins you know I have a fondness as wide as the ocean for Dabb and his (previously?) godawful continuity, or I’ve waxed lyrical about Edlund making shit up that digs giant plotholes (Robbie too, on occasion). 

I like this episode a lot better than 12x05 but I do think this episode had a lot of quibbles about plot and characterisation. Agreeing on a timeline/logical explanation for the events at the bar/leading up to Dean going to the bar seems far too hard. He both went there to blow off steam after they decided it wasn’t witches, and just happened to be packing witch-killing bullets (not their usual ammo) and stumbled on (tracked?) the witch at the bar. With 2 versions of events, at least, and the episode playing with both being factual it’s such a headache I wish they’d instead of doing the montage, put a disclaimer like in Yellow Fever or Slash Fiction that it was Jensen goofing around on the bull and not really a part of the episode. Since it was presented AS part of the episode, we have 2 seemingly contradictory narratives in it, before we even get to “Does Dean remember everything AFTER he was hexed as well?”

If he does, then it’s right back to performing Dean. I was JUST writing a long addition to an old post of mine covering a lot of this ground so you’re kind of serendipitous but also maybe I should finish writing it and post it :P I was just musing on how the take away from Sam and Dean about Dean’s adventure was “I can’t believe you rode Larry” and Dean gloating about he was like a god… Obviously he did that BEFORE he was cursed and if Sam was going to mock him for something he revealed during the curse it would be like, “I can’t believe you’ve watched Finding Nemo” and Dean snapping back that of course he has and he went to see Finding Dory too, which WOULD be bringing something out from behind the barriers of performing Dean. Of course using Larry means that Dean does remember it because if his memories are restored then even if he doesn’t have everything between curse and cure, the last thing he did was the bar, so that’s been definitely restored to him.

It’s still interesting because he was doing something in Sam’s eyes very un-Dean like, and owning to it, and his reaction during the return to the bar on finding out he did it had a fair amount of interest for analysing it because of how without his barriers he was just proud of himself for riding it and interested to know if he was good, so in a way he’s *sort* of bringing something out from behind the barriers, but it still doesn’t really commit, does it?

The post I’m working on I referred back to this ask from before the episode:

http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/157016005768/i-cant-wait-for-dean-to-enter-the-amnesia-phase

where I was talking as an aside about how stuff could be revealed to Sam and challenge his perception of performing Dean, and I was reflecting on how well it did that… Obviously it showed Sam a lot of stuff, but the follow up was short, and Dean has a free chance to willingly pretend he’s forgotten everything, and to put the barriers back up, and so his actions during that time are now walled off, and we had no serious reflection on it all. Whether Sam looks at Dean differently is going to be up to us to reflect on in other episodes to come but I’m assuming we’ve pretty much missed the window for a discussion directly in relation to events of this episode, though as I said, when Rowena returns there’s always a chance if she and Dean have any obvious signs of sharing this secret again, it confirms my take on it that he remembers and she might know but was warning him from talking in front of Sam about HER life and simultaneously thanking Dean for doing that by backing up in front of Sam that he doesn’t remember to save Dean discussing it with him… 

I guess either way Dean knows that Sam saw him vulnerable, and while the Larry thing sort of shows he’s maybe coming out of his shell a bit (compare that to 11x15 and how he had a ton of fun ALONE in the wrestling ring but immediately became a clumsy socially anxious mess when someone walked in on him doing it) and gives us an idea that Dean is embracing some parts of himself, as you say we didn’t get anything to work with on Sam’s reaction in the aftermath to dealing with a vulnerable Dean. Like with 10x12 he focused on the immediate victory and whether Dean would have preferred to stay that way or not, and not really looking at his perception of Dean? 10x12 ended with the Taylor Swift thing where Sam CLEARLY hadn’t learned much about Dean, and again Dean was sort of embracing the change and letting go some aspects of performed Dean, but Sam didn’t handle it very well, and I think the good growth has to happen when they’re on the same page. 

Anyway. Character stuff in MotW tends to stretch further than it seems, so I’d be interested to see how Sam treats Dean for a while after this and how Dean behaves around him… Things like a lack of performed!Dean moments might be hard to spot if they’re not neon signposted as Dean doing something different, but in season 10 they WERE for multiple episodes all in a row in the middle of the season… Which didn’t get us very far in the end, but it would be interesting to see what happens here, and if they stick to the development. I don’t think any episodes are randomly picked and they have strong links to each other and emotional subplots that run all the way through, and I’ve been really enjoying picking them out and following them this season (the subtextual Sam and Mary angst for like… 5 episodes in a row was killing me at the start of the season, but it was only openly brought up in one short conversation and the rest you had to deduce they were/still are I assume tying themselves up in knots about it.)

Meh, I liked 12x11 but I agree the end didn’t stick through very well on the emotional stuff. On the other hand this is now like the dark version of a post I’m about to go back to work on for a few final thoughts which celebrate a lot of the stuff I really liked about this exact thing so I guess I’m releasing the B-side of that meta first with this which is probably a bad idea because I am the holder of many contradictory opinions on everything and I normally try to buffer with the positive ones first >.> 

[torentialtribute]

Jurgen Klopp engraves his name into Liverpool folklore

The great Liverpool managers live on in folk stories, depicted in banners waved from football's most-famous terrace. Their veru images are all that required and in conversation surnames suffice: Shankly, Paisley Fagan, Benitez.

Superficially Jurgen Klopp fitted the bill. After all, no-one has communicated better and more convincingly in this job than the smiley-faced German No-one since Shankly, that is. And given that no-one in British football has quite matched the Scot's turn of phrase, that's a high bar.

He certainly had the tactical brain. He, along with Pep Guardiola and last night's opponent Maurico Pochettino, have revitalized the Premier League . And he had the charisma. Who could not win over by that beaming white smile, those goofy eyes and the sheer physicality of his personality?

Jurgen Klopp has ended his – and Liverpool's – wait for a trophy with Champions League glory

Mohamed Salah scored from the spot to give Liverpool an early lead against Tottenham

For Salah, it was a moment of retribution after going off injured in last year's final

Well, plenty of it turned out. Jose Mourinho would slyly drop in about managers who were all the rage yet had never won anything in England. We all knew who he meant. That was cat nip to an army of social media warriors, who would delight in branding him and fraud. No matter those two Bundesliga titles and a domestic cup in his homeland. He was all Germanic smile and no substance.

Well, he has the biggest and best of those trophies now. The one that seems to have an affinity with Anfield. Shankly built a club, so remains the greatest. But he never won this. Knock has, at the third time of asking.

Kiev last year it turns out was just a dress rehearsal. He was treated harshly in the aftermath. Concussion or not, it was felt that his pig-head failure to address the obvious goal-keeping issues cost him. But Klopp is nothing if not willing to learn. Alisson was purchased and in the final quarter of this game, those athletic leaps to keep Christian Erisken, Lucas Moura and Heung-Min Song at bay were decisive. Liverpool had learned.

It wasn't that close to being their best performance. They had saved that for the semi-final second leg against Barcelona. But still Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson marauded forward, the extra dimension Klopp has added to this side this season. And there was Virgil van Dijk, an immense figure all season and again last night.

By Klopp's standards, it was a relatively subdued performance on the touchline that matched his teams. Beat paced the technical area for much of the game. He is harangued and cajoled but not quite like normal. At the end he sought out Pochettino, the fourth official and his back room staff he picked up Jan Vertobghen and embraced him. There was none of the leaping and bounding we associate with him. But it had been done. Liverpool, the team for whom 97 points wasn't enough, had the biggest trophy of all.

The Liverpool bench reacts as Salah fires their team into the lead early on in Madrid

Liverpool toiled in large parts of the game and Klopp tried to cajole his side into action

Knocked off a rusty Roberto Firmino and replaced him with Origi in the second half

Neither team would have had the first major incident or the game down for the 21st second. Those three weeks on anticipation, the endless running through of scenarios and their tactical breakdowns, all changed almost before Imagine Dragons had left the makeshift stage for the opening ceremony. It was only Tottenham's fourth touch of the game. Eight of their players didn't have a kick.

Poor Moussa Sissoko. You can see why it was given. He did raise his arm in an enormously-obvious manner to point out to who knows whom – someone behind him? – which position he should take. But the ball did strike him on the join of the arm and chest, though the latter first. So technically, yes. Once you might have got away with those. Not these days.

Mo Salah required – just – from the penalty. Certainly this final was going better than last year's. But just as the Liverpool fans seemed a little shocked at the abruptness of it all – there was no real time for tension to mount – so the team seemed a little inhibited. Tottenham established a foothold back in the game but neither side sizzled. It was almost as if they had used up all their magical properties in the semi-finals.

For Klopp, clad in familiar baseball cap, training top and tracky bottoms – the modern managerial trend to dress to impress – it posed a new challenge. He seemed relaxed initially but soon was wielding arms and pressing his side on. They were in danger or settling back into false comfort. The press seemed less urgent than normal. The synchronicity less fluid. By the end of that first half, Trent-Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson were making the expected headway down the flanks. Both had shots tipped over by Hugo Lloris. They were a little more like Klopp's team.

Klopp was right in the run-up to this game. He insisted that it wasn't true to say he's a loser in finals. After all hey, won the German Cup in 2012. Yet since then? The Champions League final (twice), two Germans Cup finals, a Europa League final and League Cup final have passed him by. So it's understandable if people were starting to feel there was a little inauspicious about him in the final analysis, despite the undoubted talent and charisma.

'If we sit here in four years, I think we win one title , 'he said when he took the job back in 2015, almost four years ago. "If not maybe my nest job is in Switzerland." Fair to say, they are not preparing to welcome Klopp to the land of chocolate and mountains any time soon.

But when Klopp said he would win 'one title ', you suspect no-one really expected this one. Yes, there was a league title challenge a year before. But the departures of Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez meant Liverpool seemed a long way from recovering the distance to the Premier League elite, let alone the Europe's best.

Mauricio Pochettino threw on Tottenham's semi-final hero Lucas Moura in search of a goal

But for Pochettino and his Tottenham players, it is all a case of what might have been

The goofy, quirky German hero the world spell bound that day the clu b announced his appointment. Liverpool is the natural habitat for messianic figures. And Klopp had pedigree. Still, you feared for him. Expectations can run amok here. You wondered if he might be swept up and drowned in the surge of enthusiasm, so powerful and yet also dangerous.

And when early on his led players to the Head after nicking a 2-2 draw against Tony Pulis West Brom and celebrated there in true Germanic style, players holding hands, the crowd egged on to cheer every wave, you feared he might be swept up by his own apparent naivety. Certainly a football nation sniggered.

Turned out Klopp was building something bigger than a scrappy point against West Brom. He was eyeing up the big one all along.

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[soyoureviewhiphoptoo]

Soundtrack of the Week 21/07/2017

It might be a day late but it is that time. It is time for the Soundtrack of the Week, the SYRHHT blog segment where I discuss latest music releases and other projects that I listen to over the space of 7 days. So, here is the Soundtrack!

French Montana- Jungle Rules Released July 14, 2017 Label: Bad Boy Records, Maybach Music Group and Epic Records

I am going to start off with a confession. I can count the amount of French Montana songs I have heard on one hand; I have never gone out of my way to listen to him before. I never had a major problem with him per say and I did like what I have heard but nothing really pushed me to listen to him more. Then, French released Unforgettable featuring Swae Lee (one-half of Rae Sremmurd). The song itself is wonderful, an interesting mixture of dancehall and afro-beats with Swae Lee laying down vocals that were certainly unexpected. However, what intrigued me most about this lead single was the music video and short documentary attached to it where French would go to Uganda, to embrace the culture and witness the musical and artistic talent within the African nation. It gave me a new view on the South Bronx M.C. and built an intrigue towards his upcoming project.

I walked into this project with relatively low expectations; Unforgettable was the only song I had heard and I have never heard a previous project from French Montana. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. Jungle Rules includes an impressive mixture of hip-hop, trap, dancehall and afro-beats. The rap songs are very well produced and have catchy lyrics and melodies that stick with you while the songs that feature afro-beats and dancehall themes feel genuine and it does not feel like French just appropriating these genres amidst their rising popularity in pop culture.

I will definitely say that this album was a pleasant surprise with multiple songs that could become anthems. I see Jungle Rules taking French Montana to new heights and it is certainly a top project for this year.

RATINGS

Concept: 2/5 Production: 4/5 Lyrical Content: 3.5/5 Flow and Delivery: 3.5/5 Repeatability: 4/5 Did I enjoy this project? A lot more than I thought I would Songs to Recommend? Unforgettable, A Lie, Whiskey Eyes, Hotel Bathroom, No Pressure and White Dress

Final Rating: 3.4/5

French Montana featuring The Weeknd and Max B- A Lie I bet you were expecting Unforgettable to be on here. As a huge Weeknd fan, I had to place A Lie here. With a bumping bassline and lyrics that are difficult to not sing along to, this is a great song to follow up the uber success of Unforgettable

Tyler, The Creator- Who Dat Boy/911 Released June 30, 2017 Label: Odd Future Records, Columbia Records

I have two more confessions I would like to say. 

I have known of Tyler, The Creator for 6 years (which is a large portion of my life unironically) but I had never been a fan.

I first learned of Tyler from a diss toward him.

Hip-hop's dead, and I'm the lucky savior I'm kinda mad and I don't wanna pile up the anger All these no-flow, gimmicky-ass, fired-up behaviors With wack beats and gap teeth like Tyler the Creator Motherfucker, you not dope So you tryna get some attention by cussin' And eatin' a fuckin' cockroach? In "Goblin"? You get no props on it It sucks so much I get blowjobs from it

Taken from Hopsin- Ill Mind of Hopsin 4

This diss placed a certain perception of Tyler which was further supported when I would go on to listen to Yonkers for the first time. The beat was strange, I was fixated on Tyler’s weird mannerisms and how he would go on to eat a cockroach, vomit and then hang himself. It was a lot to take in as a 14-year-old. Two years later, a friend of mine would recommend Tyler to me so I said “f*ck it, let me listen to him”, I would go on to listen to his albums Goblin and Wolf and once again I found it hard to get into him so after a few listens of both, I left them. What finally brought me back to Tyler, The Creator was a combination of a few things: Tyler is one of the funniest rap personalities ever and recent verses on songs that I really like. This leads to my second confession

I spent this past week listening to a majority of his discography.

Jungle Rules and the next album on this week’s Soundtrack were listened to in between listens of Tyler’s discography. In the space of this week, I have re-listened to Goblin, Wolf and listened to Bastard for the first time. This listening experience has opened my eyes to many things and I do not know how to react. 

The reason I have placed Who Dat Boy/911 here is that, aside from being the first single for his latest album, Scum F*ck Flower Boy, I did not want to break down every single project in Tyler’s discography....on the Soundtrack of the Week...

Who Dat Boy/911 consists of two tracks: Who Dat Boy and 911/Mr Lonely, the latter of which follows the trend of having a song on the project consisting of two or more songs. Who Dat Boy is an awesome back and forth between Tyler, The Creator and A$AP Rocky while 911/Mr Lonely is a dark self-reflection of a person’s loneliness and solitude. Two very strong songs that set the tone for Tyler, The Creator’s most controversial project to date (because he came out as gay?)

Tyler, The Creator featuring A$AP Rocky- Who Dat Boy

Tyler, The Creator- 911/Mr Lonely

Dr Dre- 2001 Released November 16, 1999 Label: Aftermath Entertainment, Interscope Records

What brought around this listen of 2001 was the release of The Defiant Ones. The Defiant Ones is the HBO documentary series displaying the rise of Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine (record producer and co-founder of Interscope Records), the build of their friendship, the impact the two men had on the music industry, all the artist they have worked with and their $3 billion selling of Beats Audio. This documentary is split into four parts and includes interviews with numerous artists as well as Dre and Iovine. Part three included a montage compiled of the parallel rises of two of Interscope’s most controversial figures, Tupac Shakur of Deathrow Records and Marilyn Manson of Nothing Records. These were two men I never saw as similar but just a few minutes of vivid imagery blew my mind. I absolutely recommend everyone to watch The Defiant Ones.

Coming back to the album., 2001 is my favourite Dr Dre project...I daresay it is his very best work. To me, this was the height of Dre’s production prime, compiling a strong showing of iconic G-Funk beats and bringing together some of the best artists to not only be on Aftermath but in the entirety of hip-hop. Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Xzibit, Nate Dogg, Eminem, just to name a few of the iconic names that help shape this timeless album. While the lyrical content was controversial (I think that is the word of the day), it was a reflection of the gangsta rap that helped Dre and many of his associates make names for themselves and it has some of the most memorable lyrics ever.

There is only one problem I have with this album and I will show you with a handy diagram.

This pie chart is a visual representation of the artists and performers who offered vocals to 2001. I would like to direct your attention to the unattached segment of this pie chart. That is the second largest segment and it belongs to an artist some people may not have ever heard of...Hiitman. 

Aside from sharing a stage name with one of the most famous wrestlers ever, Los Angeles M.C. Hiitman is the most featured artist on 2001, one of the most famous hip-hop albums. Despite making NINE vocal appearances on this album and being signed to Aftermath in the 90s, he had not released a project until 2005, six years after the release of 2001 and long after he had already left Aftermath. Hiitman’s most famous single Last Dayz, is a song that was on the B-Side of the far more famous Forgot About Dre. What makes this worse is that Hiitman is a spectacular rapper; his flow is smooth yet methodical and he reels off strong gangsta lyrics with ease...it is a damn shame.

Still, 2001 is one of the most iconic albums in history. It would be difficult to find some who have never heard songs like Still D.R.E, Next Episode, Forgot About Dre or Xxpolsive. If you’ve never heard this album as a rap fan, you need to really question yourself.

RATINGS

Concept: 2.5/5 Production: 5/5 Lyrical Content: 4.5/5 Flow and Delivery: 5/5 Repeatability: 5/5 Did I enjoy this project? Yes...of course, I did Songs to Recommend? Still D.R.E, Next Episode, Forgot About Dre, Xxpolsive, Some L.A. Niggaz and The Message

Final Rating: 4.4/5

Dr Dre featuring Eminem- Forgot About Dre I had to put this song. It is my favourite collab between Dre and Em, it has my all-time favourite Em verse and even though the music video version cuts the verse short, it literally acts out the words Shady was saying...it’s just amazing And the music video version even has an extract of Hiitman- Last Dayz...which is also a very good song