#im bringing this back bcs i added links hahA!!

[winterrhayle]

if you could remove five songs from 1989 and replace them with the vault tracks, what would they be and why?

i'm gonna do this but WITHOUT suburban legends because no 1989 song deserves to be replaced by that mess, sorrrry (i swear im not a hater i just think it's the worst song on the album)

also while i'm here i reordered the whole album hahahha

okayyy so here's my ideal version of 1989 (vaults are underlined)

new romantics - i think this is the ideal album opener, just because wtny isn’t really a well loved song when you take it out of the context of it being the first track of 1989 (even though i like it personally, its on the bottom half of mine and most peoples 1989 rankings) but new romantics still works bc it sounds like a song of new(romantic) beginnings, and its kinda the thesis statement of 1989,, about how the album is supposed to be super free and light hearted (also the intro of this song is so iconic and its perfect as a track 1)

blank space - im kinda trying to do this album somewhat chronologically, but also im trying to get the themes and production to flow,, blank space is a perfect track 2 bc it still sounds like a city track like new romantics, but it also sounds equally beach-y, and those are the 2 aesthetic elements of 1989 so its a good joint album intro. ALSO blank space gives u a good idea of how Taylor was seen at the time, as a dramatic serial-dater or whatever..,,, which leads me into track 4…

“slut!” - like i was saying,, blank space is about how she’s seen, and slut touches on the same topic of being slut shamed, but this time its about what SHE actually feels, and it flips it into being like,, its worth it bc i met this really cool guy aka:

(harry) style(s) - and this is the first sense of like. problems in the album, as in its pretty clear from this song that the mysterious guy she’s dating is not someone that she’s gonna last with,, also it gets us back into the city vibes smoothly bc the rerecord of this song has added sparkles which is reminiscent of the beach songs, but of course style overall is a city song so it flows well

wonderland - this is a perfect track 5 bc its a super emotional song that details the relationship + the breakdown of it, also its a BOP (y’all need to appreciate wonderland more)

out of the woods -🚨 BOP BOP BOP BOP BOP BOP🚨and like most of this albums its a lyrically sad bop and it fits with wonderland and explains the anxiety further

i know places - same purpose as ootw, it explains why the relationship was doomed from the start as its 2 very high profile people

say don’t go - fits chronologically, and talks abt how he didn’t love him back, and all he needed to do was not go,, (as in all he had to do was stay if u know what i mean)

this love - this love came back to me woahohoh (i think this is where it fits chronologically? where mr lover man comes back)

all you had to do was stay - she decided its too late to get back together tho RIP HAHA

now that we don’t talk - post break up realisations, lhh isn’t that amazing

wildest dreams - back to the beach rq, with a side of post-breakup mystique and i bet you think about me energy

clean - still keeping it beach-y, and now she’s clean from both the relationship, and the album booklet secret message is ‘she lost him, but she found herself, and somehow that was everything’ which is nice bc self love,, and she’s moved on , ALSO LINKS BACK TO THE ALBUM THEME OF FINDING URSELF

shake it off - ngl i put this here bc i think going from the emotional song clean to SHAKE IT OFF is funny, and every ts album needs a jumpscare at some point. but honestly this kinda fits thematically, because its talking about her persona like in blank space, but this time instead of leaning into it she’s shaking it offff and she’s clean (^) from the expectations to be what other people want or expect her to be. also its a fun song and brings up the energy for the home stretch of this longgggggg album

is it over now? - is it ever really over????????? NO (also i would consider this song to be a city and beach song because the AUUU HAAAAAAAAAA parts remind me of seagulls) alsooo if u loop it the ending of this song leads nicely into the intro of new romantics

deluxe edition :

16. you are in love - the deluxe is my excuse to put my QUEEEN you are in love on here bc it didnt fit anywhere

ik u probably intended for me to replace songs that have similar themes with their corresponding vault but theres so many songs that i just cant bear to take off😭 but heres the parallels anyway: blank space / slut, all you had to do was stay / say don't go, style / suburban legends, wildest dreams / is it over now?(this is a reach), now that we don't talk / idkkkk i cant really think of an equivalent

[heleizition]

I am just now finding out about your chosen one au and must know more

ok so i decided to copy paste everything i wrote to my friends when talking about it so its gonna be long Oups ... but it's the most complete ill ever be about it !

so this is set in a universe where gods, old and new are very present and usually they have humans serving them, regularly called chosen ones, every century or so. it's considered an honor and every sanctuary and gods have different missions for their chosen ones and it can go from taking care of the temple every week while being allowed to have their own life to go on a mission to erradicate evil. humans usually know that they are destined to be taken in by gods because of marks on their body, specific to the god(s) they'll serve. the mark starts to glow and guide them to where their god is waiting for them once the god decides they want them.

the story is set on an island stuck between two different temples. on the island stands gotham which is a strangely sunny city,  and then you have the deep sea in the bay, and the deep forest north of gotham. if gotham is mysteriously devoid of bad things, its because it's been giving every century a child to the old gods temple in the deep forest. and time is coming, soon, another one will go.

so here you have the wayne family, they mostly have the same backgrounds ? kind of ? cass's parents were mercenaries that went into the deep forest, where no one (haha) in gotham dares going due to fear of breaking the old gods protections, never came back, and left cass on her own in town. bruce adopted her. dick's parents were travelers on a ship that sailed not far from the island and while they did not survive, the gods in the deep see allowed dick to stay alive until he reached the coast. immm not quite sure of what happened to jason's parents yet but uh he's here and alive woo

damian is a bit of a mystery to most people. he was delivered to bruce's doorstep when he was only a few days old. what they dont know is that nine months earlier bruce went into the deep forest himself. 

so added to that is timothy drake. young boy of the drake family, the two parents who dont seem to care for him much. the boy is quiet but full of smiles and affection to give and when jason and cass drag him to the wayne estate after a day out, bruce opens his arms to him. he's a regular at the wayne house and a few days after he turns 11, he stops showing up. bruce's kids cant find him. the drakes dont seem disturbed by their missing son. and bruce knows the drakes by now, know they wouldnt give their affection to someone they knew would disappear, and bruce realises tim is gone, to the old gods in the deep forest. 

so tim, 11, wakes up sweating and his room lit up with a green light that he's never seen before but in dreams and he knows that it's time. he knows that this strange mark spreading across his back, shaped like a dragon, is glowing green. he's being called.

he moves by himself, not thinking, opens the door to his room and the one that leads outside and it's so fitting when he notices that his parents arent even home, that he'd leave without them caring. soon he's reaching the deep forest and for the first time in his life, when looking at the dark depth, he's not scared, and he walks on. 

tim walks and walks and there are eyes looking at him bu the soft green glow reassures him, and he knows where he should walk, and soon he's reaching a temple, strong stone and green plants and a setting sun carved on its floor, and there is a man - a god ? - walking out. and his eyes are glowing green like the mark he knows is glowing in his back, but it feels wrong, and when tim looks around again everything looks so much hostile, 

tim made researches on the deep forest temple, since he knew it was gonna be his future, and he knew that temple was supposed to host old gods who were dying, so why does it feel so wrong ?

tim approaches, despite himself, and waits for the man - god??? - to say anything. there is a hand, wrinkly and uncomfortable and cold, on his cheek, and tim looks up, and he's shivering when the god - he knows hes a god. he knows he is now. - speaks up.

"i am ra's al ghul. you were given to me to serve me. you will obey me in any way i see fit, and you are to never return to your human town." 

tim did make researches before he was taken. he knew that usually the child taken by the deep forest gods could travel to town without punishment. he knew that, with pattern, they were taken early, before they turned fifteen. he knew that he would most likely be lucky, have a mostly free life. he didnt know that a new god in quest of power had taken over, chained some of the old gods inhabiting the temple, killed others, simply for power and magic. he didnt know that he would be chained to a scary and cold temple, with a terrifying and powerful god that could turn him to dust on a whim. 

so thats basically,,, the intro ? the first part ?

so a few months after tim disappeared, it was jasons turn. 

jason, much like tim, had marks on his wrists and arms, long lines following his limbs. they're signs of being of the all caste temple, chosen one for those gods. for the ones in the deep sea. now these humans linked to temple in the sea are a bit different than the kind that tim was supposed to be. the all castes purpose is protection, and while there always is a human chosen for them, they're not always called for their purpose, in fact, no all caste chosen one had been guided to the temple in the deep see in generations.

however, one day, jason woke up, glowing white lines on his arms, told dick that he had to go to the sea, and disappeared for months.

jason doesn't remember going into the sea when he wakes up in the temple, doesnt know how he survived the journey there, but he's there, by the will of the gods, and he's informed of his purpose.

something hover over the island. something bad. it's already there, its root in the islands ground, and it must be killed. that will be jason's purpose. he doesnt know where. he doesnt know when. he knows it will happen.

so they train him. they give him the weapons and magic he will need to defeat the enemy. they want to protect the island and its inhabitant.

several months later, jason leaves again, with new knowledge and strength, and washes up on the beach, and dick finds him, unconscious. he brings him back to the wayne estate, where he tells his tale of sea gods and protection and prophecy where he is the hero.

years pass. its been about nine years since tim disappeared, since jason went to the sea temple for the first time. damian is 16 and damian wants answers from his father. he knows he's from the deep forest. he knows his mother is there. he wants to meet her, he wants to know her. but bruce never talks about her, never says anything about their meeting, like he was commanded not to, and damian decides to go against all beliefs he has grown with and he prepares. he will get in the forest. he will find his mother.

except jason know his little brother and he knows and sees him planning and on the night he leaves, jason is here, not stopping him, but ready to follow him into the forest. he has a feeling. something is there for him too .

so they travel in the forest, they're not really sure how to find damian's mother with how little bruce ever said about her, and they find creatures along the way, some of them recognize damian as one of their kin, which is how they realise damian's mother is either part god or part spirit, and jason as a god's messenger. they do not guide them, but they do not attack them. 

until they walk into a territory they feel they shouldnt have walked into

a small being with wings and claws attacks, telling them to not trespass, it's smaller than jason had been at 14, but it's furious and cold and it strikes right. and when jason finally looks up he's terrified to see that he recognizes the child in front of him. and its wrong, because tim should have been nineteen by now, but he doesnt look older than 15. 

finally the fight draws to a close when jason calls out for tim, a name he musnt have heard a lot, or not recently, not with care and not without an order behind it. tim stops. tim looks. he recognizes the boys in front of them, even if its been nearly ten years. after all they were two of the last humans he ever saw.

"you cant be here. you cant be here if he knows he will kill you and i cant let you die. please you need to go"

im not quite sur how they get tim to follow, or if they get in ra's territory, but they camp in a safe zone with tim, and tim tells them his story

[torture mention, non consensual body modification]

after ra's took him, he tortured him, he experimented on him. after all he was his first ever human tribute, to obey and be controlled at will, a toy for an immortal, and after many games of the new god, he settled on making tim a sentinel for his property, one that will age slowly and wont feel pain, a puppet with no strings but one that is scared of ra's power, enough that it will obey. jason and damian are Angry. something at the back of jason's head tells him that this ra's might have something to do with his own prophecy. 

so after that its more blurry but tim reacts strangely to damian, he's a bit scared of him and he figures out it's bc of his heritage, that he has links to ra's, and he leads them to talia who's half god half spirit and hidden deeper and deeper in the forest, away from her father, and it makes tim leave the territory he's supposed to guard, disobey ras, which makes ra's angy bc tim never disobey, not since the first few times when he was 12/13 and thought he would still get out,,,

so there is a bit of a final showdown w tim talia jason and damian facing ra's, ra's using his hold on tim to hurt him, and talia torn between her father and her son + tim who she's seen grow up from far away and who she feels she should have protected from ra's,, jason eventually has a one on one with ra's and the prophecy does happen and he kills ra's and angry old gods who were chained in the temple wake up and banish ra's soul from this realm.

they heal tim from whatever ra's did to him, with the promise that he will travel to care for the god's temple again, as his duty was supposed to be 

they all get back to gotham, tim still looks 15 but will grow to his real age within a few months, he has many scars and the mark on his back changed for a setting sun like what was carved on the temple's entrance, damian has his Mom, and jason is free from his all caste duty.

the end woooo this is over 2k long rip !! feel free to ask if u got more questions :0 !!

[taichissu]

hi yes please tell me more about a3!! is it a rhythm game bc i am VERY interested in the fact that theres a gnc guy in it but im only really able to dedicate myself to gacha games if theyre rhythm based :pensive:

under cut because i got carried away-------

it’s not rhythm unfortunately 😔 it’s too bad because this series has VERY AMAZING music and they really got their hands on ones of the best (imo) composers in the field (like yuyoyuppe or emon(tes) or hige driver <3) but it’s Sadly just a card collecting game like enstars (i feel you though, i can’t really get into mobage if they’re not rhythm either, it’s a miracle i still play a3 everyday-) :( if you can’t get into the game though, there’s a currently running anime :D it’s very ugly (compared to game art) but <3 i still love it <3 even if it’s not perfect haha

it promotes itself as an otome game but it’s Really not, it’s just a story heavy card collecting game you’re y/n [izumi] tachibana and you take over mankai (jp: full bloom) company after it’s about to be demolished because your father disappeared and failed to pay off the debt; your job is to bring the company back to its former glory as the director (and work as a personal therapist to all of your actors-) i’m sure you’ll like it if you like the found family trope, because the mankai company to everyone there is a place where they belong and feel safe there are 4 troupes in the company, each specializing in different play genre spring: altered versions of known stories (for example: romeo & juliet, the wizard of oz, some original stories following a similar vibe) summer: comedy (slapstick and tons of ad-lib) autumn: action (if there’s no fighting it’s not an autumn play-) winter: mature and serious stories, often tragic

it’s a really cute series that can get kinda serious at times (there are matters of abuse, child neglect, kidnapping+unconsented drug use, and death (off the top of my head) if that makes you uncomfortable)

the writing sure is flawed; masumi (obsessiveness portrayed as cute and funny), citron (making the only (?) character of color the butt of a joke---), how they portray their ND-coded charas like misumi and homare as jokes too, but i still think it’s possible to just ignore those aspects i mean............... not in MY canon-

the gnc guy is yuki rurikawa and he’s my fave <3 he’s a “crossdresser” (i don’t really like that word but that’s what he calls himself) who loves sewing and is the costume designer (aside from being an actor) for the company, he has a cute appearance but a sharp tongue and sassy attitude <3 he’s strong and mature for his age, if he wants something he’ll get it something i really like is that nobody in the company really questions or comments purely negatively about his choice of clothing, which is very refreshing another character that isn’t really gnc but Borderline Could Be is azuma yukishiro, who speaks in a very delicate and feminine manner and is said by some characters to “feel like a woman” <3 yuki even calls him “azu-nee” (big sister azu)

overall, if you don’t check out the game, i at least recommend you checking out the music because it’s honestly one of my favorite things about the series <3 all 24 characters have solo songs, group songs (4 troupes), plus each released play gets 1 to 2 play-themed songs and i think they’re all great (imo better than some idol-franchise music but not calling any names-)

if you need recs; my faves are

more on the rock side: just for myself, muddy hero, the contract, second shot

ballad-like: minority (yuki’s solo song; the lyrics are very lgbt-coded but we don’t get much of it in game), loner, monologue  

other genres i can’t quite name??: susume pirates, exciting charmer (PLEASE consider tasuku hatanaka (who voices kumon) i’ve been absolutely obsessed with his vocals), mikansei na sora de, buzama, living the dream, shoutai, scarlet game, kiteretsu poemer (literally a musical masterpiece?? it’s so fun????)

sorry for linking so many but literally every single song in this franchise is amazing????? there’s not ONE song i dislike like how??????

i’m also really sorry for rambling on sajfkhsakfjash i just love a3 a lot 🥺

[iamacolor]

aahhh i see what you mean by mad dog kinda 'preparing you' for the sound bc of the title and it being a rap song. youre right the mixing is different with sticker and i think the flute is more pronounced simply bc theres not much else going on instumentally? like the song isnt very cohesive so at first listen it sounds like a lot is going on but actually its just a few simple beats and the really loud flute. hence the very clean vocals. its jarring but also so much more softer? slower? less intense? than what i expected from an nct title track. anyway idk why but i feel like it'll grow on me. i really like the rest of the album actually! nct's b-sides Always slap like their ballad's are just *chef's kiss* but also lemonade is. amazing. everyone's saying it shoulda been the title track (like they said for nonstop during punch era) and though i understand how its so much more digestible on first listen i still feel like it doesnt sound like an nct title track if you know what i mean? anyway yeah i like how a lot of the tracks remind me of songs theyve done before like the opening of breakfast gives me replay (pm 1:27) vibes and im enjoying all of them a lot right now to pick a favourite. do you have a favourite?

yesss exactly!! on first listen it's hard to understand all that's happening because it's so odd and even just the structure of the song feels odd, it also kind of feels like the melodies/rap/instrumentals aren't all matching you know? I personally think this instrumental fits the vocals better than the rap parts. like it's really a song that highlights the vocals (not just in power but also in range, flow and harmonies) and how experimental they can get. and you're right it feels very "soft" almost laid back for a 127 tittle track!! we're not getting slapped in the face by the chorus, it is quite "soft" too especially since it's so melodic, I have to say that most of the vocal parts of this song have already grown on me, I love them! also the choreo is really nice!!

and I'm so glad you like the album! I love it too, it's super rich and full of so many good sounds. I can see why some songs reminds you of some previous ones, I'm bad at remembering titles so I didn't always link similar sounds together but I really like how they always make sure to explore their experimental/loud songs without forgetting to explore their ballads and their r&b side and that always have a mix of emotions in their albums (mix of weird and bittersweet and cheerful). they have their sound in different genres which is quite hard to achieve! for me the vocals are really the standout parts of this album (not just the main vocals members but in general how they use harmonies, play with the range in their voices and don't just stick to the higher part, switch from singing to almost speaking or chanting...just how they play with their voices!)

on first listen my faves were lemonade (it's SUCH an nct song omg I love it and like sticker it's quite stripped back for an nct song! and I agree that had it been chosen as the tt there would've been less of a buzz around it when nct want to create a shock everytime they come back - also that is jaehyun's song)/promise you (this is perfect for end of concert) /rainy night (it's soooo beautiful and it sounds so vast and intimitate at the same time) /far (it's very fun and very nice nct noise in a more melodic version also love the use of lower ranges of vocals mixed with ad-libs) but after a while bring the noise (it's so fun, kind of gives me superm vibes tbh) is going up the list and so is road trip (it's so cute) ... also breakfast (kind of superhuman adjacent? but with some mix of genres) ... so no clear favourite for now haha but I can already this album is going to be great in concert, what are your faves so far?