#in a way i guess all my poetry sound like songs and all my songs sound like poetey

[squeiky]

Rap is made with poetry the way songs are made to ryhme, so espio and vector are infact intertwined

Espio's writing poetry as vector ryhmes his lines, music's past and present are now equally combined, so if rap is made with poetry the way songs are made to ryhme, what the fuck is charmy singing?

[snailmail444]

Can I get a headcanon of the bachelors and how they'd be sexy with you when you're down? Like, if they're trying to cheer you up and be a little goofy with it but also tryna HIT. THAT. 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks Snail, ILU.

Bachelors Goofing Their way Into Your Pants

18+ 🌱 MDNI 🌱 NSFW (-ish)

This one was a tough ask Libby but I’ll do nothing if not stand and deliver 🫡 Honestly might be my favorite head cannon list for the bachelors I’ve ever done so THANK YOU for this prompt icon. NSFW? -ish under the cut (lewd?? Idk lol)

Harvey-

💚 Perhaps the goofiest about this

💚 He would not try to come onto you when you’re down unless he KNOWS it’s going to pick you up

💚 So once he’s confident let’s start there

💚 It’s a song and dance

💚 Dissappears, and when he’s back he’s got his med kit

💚 He gets out the stethoscope and all. The whole nine yards.

💚 That’s right folks. We’re paging Dr. Love

💚 Will NOT let you stop this routine. Dr. Love WILL be completing the full assessment. Listening to your heart rate, checking your throat and ears, somehow always having to complete a chest exam

💚 (M or F he will be groping your tits for this one)

💚 The diagnosis is in

💚 There’s Only One Cure for What Ails You

💚 You guessed it! You need a little lovin’ (Dr. Love’s catchphrase)

💚 Important note: Dr. Love is not a licensed medical practitioner

💚 This works a little too well perhaps. He’s so confident for no reason at all LMAO

💚 Lowkey want to write a Dr. Love oneshot now because this is really fun and cute

Elliott-

❤️ If you’re feeling down man will preform the absolute worst ad lib poetry

❤️ Silliest lymrics you’ve ever heard

❤️ Dumb dumb dummmmmb

❤️ Very dirty and stupid bad poems about you

❤️ Specifically about his favorite parts of your body

❤️ Or his favorite things you do during sex

❤️ The worse it is, the better as far as he is concerned

❤️ Raunchy dirty filthy

❤️ But like. In the most grade school mother goose style he can manage

❤️ No flowery language here

❤️ Takes off your clothes to expose the parts of you the he’s referring to

❤️ When you do x thing (then tries to make you do x thing)

❤️ Will be proving his point. Period!!!

Alex-

🤎 Physical touch legend

🤎 Wrestles

🤎 Winner gets whatever they want from the loser

🤎 Has a wrestling name and all

🤎 Does the John Cena theme

🤎 His hands end up in all sorts of places that they don’t need to be

🤎 Most wrestlers aren’t grabbing ass 🤨

🤎 Gets you in some really tight, close pins, but somehow you end up winning anyway

🤎 No I didn’t let you win don’t be ridiculous I respect the sport too much to ever—

🤎 He let you win

🤎 You can take your prize now 😌 Whatever you want 😌

🤎 And if his hard on is pressing against you? Well. Maybe he has some ideas about what your prize should be

Shane-

💙 Gets you through the hard stuff first, so once you’re on the mend he’s goofing to the max

💙 KING FLEXER!

💙 Aw babe come on? How can you be so sad when you have these guns to look at?

💙 Runs through a series of absurd poses to show off his muscly farm boy arms

💙 Lays it on really thick about being a stud

💙 “No matter what at the end of the day you have a trophy husband” (even if he’s not married to you. ESPECIALLY if he’s not married to you)

💙 STRIP! TEASE!!

💙 Showing off everything you’re so lucky to have with a big goofy grin on his face

💙 Throwing his clothes across the room and everything

💙 Making the music sounds with his mouth

💙 You HAVE to whistle or hoot at him or clap or something

💙 He demands applause from his audience if he’s not getting some singles at least

Sam-

🩷 Another song and dancer

🩷 This man was born for the stage I fear

🩷 Genuinely and truly putting on a SHOW about it all

🩷 The drama of it. Uh oh, he’s compromised!

🩷 Will end up ‘stuck’ under the couch or table or anywhere else

🩷 Uh oh! I hope nobody takes advantage of me 👀 When I’m so exposed 👀👀 and vulnerable 👀👀👀

🩷 The worst stage acting you’ve ever seen in your life

🩷 Starts stripping in the middle of the living room because he “didn’t see you there!”

🩷 Pretends to be scandalized when you finally succumb to his advances

🩷 What are you doing?! Huh? What do you MEAN I was coming on to you? I always take off all my clothes in the kitchen, that’s ritual

🩷 insists he’s been objectified and taken advantage of

🩷 That kind of turns him on though let’s be so fucking real

Sebastian-

🖤 Okay so we’re going blunt king here

🖤 Two possible options

🖤 Uses it as a way to hard reset the system mid breakdown

🖤 Full crying, upset, whatever, he’s been holding you and trying to calm you down but it’s not working

🖤 “Wanna have sex?”

🖤 DEADPANNNNNN delivery

🖤 It never fails. Tried and true

🖤 Option two?

🖤 This is ONLY if mans is super comfortable in your dynamic

🖤 A classic

🖤 Whips it out

🖤 Thinking about that one tweet of the boyfriend who was in the mood and just put his dick on her shoulder while she was watching tv

🖤 Like that but buried under sixteen levels of irony

🖤 “I know what’ll help” and then he pulls his dick out

🖤 Probably the least likely to actually hit with these methods

🖤 However, he’s maybe the most likely to help improve your mood substantially

🖤 Through sheer presentation if nothing else. Man can deliver, and knows when to hit with the absurd to make it the most impactful

[starstruckgoateepuppy]

looking like anne hathaway

sana x f!reader

sypnosis: you have christian parents and dont support your choices but oh how could you not love someone like minatozaki sana

warnings: death, abuse, suicide, homophobia, not proofread

genre: angst

wc: 1.4k

a/n: i read too many poetry on tiktok with sailor song 🙁 this one was actually inspired from a poetry “bloom.” by wavespoetryinc on tiktok pls read it ❤️

dating a girl as a christian girl yourself has to be the most painful experience ever. having to be super careful is not a choice.

you knew it was the biggest sin and secret you have ever done to God and your parents. you felt so guilty but it just felt so right dating her.

sana, your beautiful girlfriend has always cared for you, not caring that you were christian. you saw her in the rightest way, a way that no one else could see her.

she was so special to you, you couldn’t even imagine your life without her.

however, every good thing must come to an end.

-

you sneaked out in the night going to meet your girlfriend, sana, to take a walk. you have done things like this many times, you were basically a master at it.

your parents are extremely strict and would never let you leave the house without them knowing. you wished it was easy to go out, you wish life was easy. you just wanted to live your life freely, not be like a caged dog.

sana was the opposite of you, carefree and loved by everyone. no one would have guessed that she was into girls. every man that tried hitting on her failed. oh how they wished they were you. but sometimes you wished you weren’t yourself.

at first, you wouldn’t admit at all that you liked her. “just a small feeling, just friends it should be fine. the feeling will go away.” you thought to yourself.

it didn’t, it didn’t go away.

now you are doing the most unimaginable sin that you could ever do, dating a girl. you can’t imagine the looks on your parents faces if they ever find out you were dating, not just that but a girl.

somedays you begged for forgiveness, you wanted to have a less heavy heart. the guilt was creeping up to you, but you just couldn’t let go of sana.

-

you were carefully walking with sana around the neighbourhood. hoping no one from your church was nearby and recognised you. for sure they would tell your parents.

you two acted like the closest friends ever. sana understood your situation and felt horrible for you, that just made you fell more in love. you wanted to kiss her, wanted to give her all of your love.

you looked her in the eyes, she looked in yours. you admired every feature of her, no wonder you loved her at first sight.

you bought something for you and her from a convenience store nearby and sat down at a park to eat together. you couldn’t explain how much you adored her. she was so careful with you, you were like clay in her hands. both of you loved each other very much and would always do in every universe.

“click” the sound of sanas camera as she took a picture of the both of you eating a club sandwich with a bottle of sweet tea.

“y/n! this picture is soooo cute! im gonna post it on my instagram” you put her hand on her lap, ruining her enthusiasm which you wished you never had to do.”sana, my love…” “ oh. right..”

you wanted to ask her that it’s alright and she could post it with her favourite songs. “i know baby, im so sorry. one day..”

you hated the fact you had to hide your relationship with her, you hated to hide the fact that you are in love with her. having to hide your love and feelings for each other.

“don’t apologise lovely, i understand” you saw her faint smile in the shallow light. so many things you wanted to do with her, without being scared.

most of the times you felt guilty for sinning, times like this, you felt like she should leave you, like you don’t deserve her. you wanted her to leave, you wanted her to have a better and happier relationship. not to struggle hiding your relationship with her from the world because of you and your parents.

her parents weren’t supportive of their daughter being a lesbian too. they didn’t like it that much but yet sana took the risk and dated you, you don't deserve her.

-

you went out with her once again, this time your parents knew. they were furious, raging with anger, you knew how much they would hurt you but that didn't matter. the most hurtful thing they could ever do is take sana away from you. no matter how many bruises they would give you just wanted to be with sana.

at night once again, you were in the park with sana eating. the tracking app they put on you brought them standing right in front of you as you cuddled sana. the fear in your eyes as you started thinking about everything they would do to you. sana was terrified for you too. she knew how your parents were and was scared of losing you.

you wanted to kneel down in front of your dad blazing with anger but you couldn’t. your mother grabbed your wrist tightly, letting you fall down and forced you to get up. you couldn’t look behind you as you walked away with your parents from sana, but you could hear the screams and sobbing from her. you wanted to tell her that it's okay and she doesn’t need to worry about you. but you just couldn’t bare to see her face anymore.

-

weeks passed, you were never seen by sana for weeks. no text, no message. she cried for days and days, she felt helpless. she wanted to go to your house and take you out of the abusive household, she knew if she did it would just get worse.

nothing seemed right anymore to sana, she stared laying on the grass for days staring at the moon for what seemed like hours.

the moon didn't seem as bright, but she knew you were staring at the same one. she felt guilty for leaving you alone. what could she do? she started imagining the things she used to do with you, she missed you. she remembered when she kissed you for the first time, catching you off guard and looking around frantically for church members.

on your side, slaps and punches were made. bruises formed on your bare skin. cuts and scars appearing, reminding how your parents wanted to kill you. all of that trauma and abuse but you still loved her.

-

“buzz buzz”

a notification on sanas phone.

“hey, can i come over?”

it wasn’t like your usual happy messages, but sana didn't think too much about it, just happy you were okay, or so she thought you were.

“yes! please come baby”

you wanted to tell her not to call you that anymore, but you loved it, you missed how she called you with that adorable voice.

you were in front of her door, waiting for her to open it. when she opened the door, her eyes started welling up and she cried hard, you didn’t look like yourself, you looked like someone that she would never want to see. how you were covered in bruises and cuts, she cried.

“baby…”

“im sorry i never let you get the ability to post us and letting us hold hands and do all those things in public-“ “y/n, don’t please baby the last thing you should do is apologi-“ “no, please let me say what i wanted to tell you for forever. i love you, and you will be the only person that i will love this much. you are the only person that has made me feel like i have shown my true self. all the love, kindness, joy you have given me. i love you so much and if i could say it on the top of a mountain i would.”

she sobbed, she looked into your eyes, wondering why you were saying all this. you could see her confusion, you wiped her cheek with your thumb. “ baby i love you, and in all of the universes ever existing, i loved you and only you. but this just won't work out in this universe. i love you, im sorry” you couldn’t bare seeing her cry, you turned your back on her and left. she screamed, she wanted to run to you but her legs felt weak and numb. she didn’t know what you were gonna do.

after a week, she was at the burial of your body. she wanted to stop everything and get in with you but she sniffed and shed tears. everyone there was crying, she was crying the hardest. she loved you, but you couldn’t love her.

[dotster001]

For Tuna; Rook End

A/N: editing this is gonna suck, cause Tumblr is so glitchy today 😭 but as I'm sure no one is surprised...some of you have been waiting a long time for this specific ending, so I figured he deserved his own title . The next ending is a three way tie, so keep an eye out for a poll in the next couple days.

Chapters One Two Three Choose another End

“Rook Hunt, you have been chosen-”

“At last! The moment has come!”

Grim was immediately second guessing his decision. Y/N had told him all about how Rook's family had multiple villas, so he'd thought he'd be willing to put up with him the one day a year he'd have to. But the man was far too excited.

“Wonderful,” Grim said through gritted teeth. “So what we'll do is, tomorrow-”

“You're adorable, Monsieur Fuzzball. No need for that though!”

“Huh?”

“I don't need you. Au revoir!”

Rook practically skipped out of the room, singing a cheery tune to himself.

….

Grim was terrified. All day he'd been waiting for whatever Rook had planned. He'd stuck to your side all day, quivering in anxiety.

“Okay, Grim, what's wrong?” You asked, finally tired of ignoring it for the sake of his pride.

“N- nothing is wrong, human! You insult me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you muttered. 

You closed the book you'd been reading during the break in the lesson, and turned to him.

“Okay, so what's not wrong, then?”

Grim mumbled under his breath. But you soon forgot all about it, as the lights in the classroom dimmed, followed by a shower of rose petals raining down on all of you.

“Who is responsible?” Trein bellowed, but he was soon forgotten as well, as Rook appeared at the front under a single spotlight, violin music playing to his entrance.

“Bon jour!”

“What the fuck?” You whispered, quickly realizing that Grim was no longer by your side. He must have taken the opportunity to flee classes. Little rat.

“I am here because I can no longer keep silent about my affections!” He pressed one hand to his heart, the other dramatically extending to the classroom. “I am deeply in love.”

You looked to see if Trein would stop him, but just watched him sigh. Even the teacher knew to just let Rook be Rook. 

“Mon Trickster! My heart beats so hard for you, it is apt to burst into a bloody mess of my adoration.”

There was now a second spotlight on you. You looked around to see where it was coming from, only to find there was no source of it.

A gust of wind picked up around Rook, making the rose petals that had fallen to the floor pick up, and swirl around him.

“Mon Tresor, say that you will allow me to forever kneel at your feet. Say that you will allow me to sing your adoration until my vocal cords tear. Say that I can write you poetry until my fingers fall off. Say-”

“God, Rook! I'd rather have you in one piece,” you cut him off with a laugh.

He stood upright with a light smile, swirling a finger in the air to turn the rose petals into a single rose. He gently kissed it, then tossed it to you across the classroom. You caught it, sniffing it and letting the aroma wash over you.

By the time you looked back up, he was standing right in front of you. You blinked, looking at the spot he was standing, then back at where he stood now. He smiled as though he was unperturbed by your confusion.

“If I stay in one piece, will you pledge your soul to me?” He asked sweetly.

“My soul? Not my heart?”

“For Seven’s sake, tell the boy whether you love him or not, so I can move on with the class,” Trein snapped.

“Okay! Rook, I like you too!” You said quickly.

“How exciting!” He snapped his fingers, and you heard the beginning of an orchestral intro. 

Rook inhaled heavily, and began to sing.

“Goodness, class dismissed!” Trein shouted over the aria, which was not going to stop anytime soon. You gave Trein a pleading look. While you liked Rook, and were totally happy to start seeing him, this song sounded like it would go on for a while. Trein gave you an apologetic look as he shut the door of the classroom, locking it behind him.

....

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[useramor]

honestly as a lifelong fan, I enjoyed the back half more (the bonus tracks). some of the songs were her usual quality and some felt like she was trying too hard to sound poetic idk. will be bopping to at least several of the songs for sure. but idk music sounds really different when you’re entrenched in the artists style vs when you’re not and a lot of lyrics sound dumb out of context for any artist. so short answer yes I liked it as a sad slow music enjoyer but I can understand why others didn’t.

see i am a sad slow music enjoyer and i used to like taylor (folklore and evermore era. i hosted a speak now tv listening party with my cousin. some of the songs on folklore are among my all time favs across artists!) but midnights and now ttpd feel so. cash grabby. she said she felt a need to write this new album but not all art needs to be released. sometimes you can write poetry just for the sake of getting the emotion out, getting the feelings out. it’s too long of an album for all the songs to be genuinely and consistently good especially considering how she’s been favoring quantity over quality recently. more songs = more streams i guess. if she had picked the 12 songs that were genuinely good, that were honest and heart wrenching then maybe every release wouldn’t be so upsetting. i really did like her, i haven’t always been anti taylor but she’s not creating art for the sake of art anymore. she’s creating for the sake of capitalism and you can tell. back to back to back albums all with 20+ mediocre tracks and 1 or 2 that are actually good. taylor swift, who’s been a beloved artist and who’s been known for her writing skills since her debut, is doing to her music what tiktok artists do to theirs, almost. write one good line or chorus or bridge and then that snippet will go viral and people will listen to get to that moment. it’s so cheap i guess. and sad, too. that hitting streaming records and being the biggest artist and collecting those billions became more important than putting out work than means anything.

everyone’s entitled to enjoying whatever they like, but i would be so disappointed as a fan if the quality was consistently dropping the way it is. i mean, i AM disappointed because i WAS a fan. just feels upsetting.

also, i do think she made a major mistake titling the album ‘the tortured poets department’ because that implies hozier level lyricism. ethel cain level lyricism. hell, at the very least evermore level lyricism. but she didn’t deliver, which is why i think people have been side eyeing her lyrics more than normal. big name. tortured poets department is a lot to live up to, and she didn’t. if the album was titled something else maybe i wouldn’t even be so shocked at the writing to be honest because i wouldn’t be actively expecting actually good poetry.

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

The Great Gatsby

April 27, 2024 | Broadway | Broadway Theatre | Evening | Musical | Original | 2H 30M

All the sparkly costumes and grandiose set pieces can't disguise this show's intellectually and musically filthy core. With a creative team that seems to have missed the entire point of Fitzgerald's book, Bad Gatsby is a Vegas spectacle best suited to theme parks and audiences bereft of critical thought. I have no loyalty to the source material. As a lesbian, I didn't much care for the book and its protagonist who seems disinterested in women, and spent pages waxing poetry about the male physique. But even I know it's a classic brimming with intellectual nuance, while this production is anything but. The relationship between Gatsby and Nick is now only ever a passing acquaintance, rather than the very foundation. The show's aggressive heterosexuality sees Nick and Jordan (a forcibly-feminized, pick-me girlboss type) romping about as Gatsby and Daisy, somehow even duller than the book (and how was that ever possible?) sing power ballads at and about each other that say nothing, and move the plot even less.

This adaptation of the beloved classic novel gleefully excises any and all purpose. Nick's idolization and homoerotic love for Gatsby drives the book's narrative. Here, he's doing basically nothing. My kingdom for a dramaturg who seems to actually like and understand the book, rather than someone who just wants to capitalize on it being newly public-domain. Why, oh why, do people keep adapting classics they clearly do not like? I don't like Gatsby, so I'd never bother to write a musical adaptation of it.

And speaking of music, it's ill-suited to both the period and the story. Everything is all contemporary pop ballad, and as someone who doesn't care about or know much of Jeremy Jordan, it's not working. Perhaps it's my blatant lesbianism and pretentious disregard for the allure of youth, but he's never seemed overly remarkable. He's a white male tenor. There are fifteen-thousand who look and sound just like him. But from the constant shrieking up in the mezzanine, you'd have thought the Beatles had come back for a one-night-only reunion. Thankfully, in my front side-orchestra section, I was surrounded by older patrons who politely clapped and refrained from any such screaming. Also, Jeremy Jordan's accent is all over the place, and I can't imagine why.

The shallow production that sits in the (possibly cursed, at this point) Broadway Theatre, has been robbed of its social commentary, its purpose, its depth. The characters are caricatures, the subtext is spelled out on a chalkboard (A song entitled "The Green Light"???) and is in some fascinating way, a meta commentary in and of itself. A massive budget allows for not one, but two working cars to drive around on stage. The glitz and glam blinded the creatives to anything...creative.

And don't even get me started on the baffling decision to cast a Mexican-Asian woman as Daisy, the quintessential image of white privilege. What are we saying by having Eva Noblezada in that role? It's such a thankless role that it's not like her talents are being utilized. And her character is so weak and dull, even more so than the book itself. And she's out here doing a hit-and-run, and yet we're just gonna...gloss right over that, I guess? And Nick's disgusted by Jordan saying they shouldn't tell the police what they know, but then immediately goes to plead with Gatsby to get out of town? Having done no work in the show to justify this loyalty, it's just inconsistency.

Also, and now I'm just jumping around to things I didn't like, the scene where Gatsby gets shot is staged so that Wilson is pointing and shooting that gun right at the front right orchestra section. And staring down the barrel of a gun is not what I want to be doing on a Saturday evening at 10:30 p.m. He shoots that thing twice while pointed at the audience, and no thanks.

Anyway, the Florence Welch Gatsby is at the ART now, so let's hope that one actually understands the damn book.

Verdict: Someone Put This Dumpster Fire Out

A Note on Ratings

[flimflamfandom]

The Love song of Rocky Rickaby

A Vignette, wherein Rocky meets a girl. (Specifically Ari from @ladybugkisses )

WARNING for corny poetry and slightly sad Rocky.

-

"Calvin? Caaaaaaaalviiiiiin? Freckle? Cal? Freck? Mr. McMurray? Sideburns McBigEye-" Rocky's incessant knocking on the door of the apartment was answered by a slightly annoyed looking Calvin.

"Aye?"

"Calvin!" Rocky gripped his shoudlers. "I need your help - I met a girl!"

Calvin rolled his eyes. Third one this month, he thought.

"...What do you want Me for, then?" Calvin asked.

Rocky let himself into Calvin's new apartment. "You're a fanciful writer type, right, Calvin?"

"Well, I mean, I've...written before, but-"

"Perfect!" Rocky sat down by the typewriter and looked over. "I need your help writing to her."

"...this is rich," Calvin rolled his eyes, walking over. "You're the one who makes poems, aren't you?"

"Oh, sure, sure, but those are about...places, and things! But you...I've seen your letters to Ivy!"

"You've WHA-"

"And I know you're an incredibly romantic man! Please, Calvin, this time it's different, I know I need to woo her with romance instead of my usual rogueish charms! Pleas, I BEG OF YO-"

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine." Calvin sat down at the typewriter. Rocky was a bit...fast and loose with women. Never a creep, never unclear about his intentions, but always a one night sort of man - Calvin figured this would be no different.

"Oh, thank you! How will I ever repay you?"

"Don't...don't worry about it." Calvin quickly hid some papers on his desk. "So, this girl...what's she like?"

"...uhm..." Rocky blinked. He sat down for a moment. "I...well, she...uhm..."

Calvin blinked a few times. "...go on?"

"...she's...a lady...and...has...fur?"

Calvin stared for a moment. "You're sure you met her? Because it doesn't sound that way."

"I know, I know, I just...she's hard to describe! You can't always have words for Ivy, can you?"

"I could tell you what color her fur is."

"Oh, good, Zib and I have a disagreement about this, is it gray or-"

"Rocky. The love...letter? Poem? Song?"

"Poem! That I can turn into a song~!" Rocky winked and nudged his brother, then went back to looking a bit...afraid of something. He sighed. Calvin cocked his head to one side.

"Rocky...you need to help me here if I'm going to write something." Calvin stood, and walked towards the kitchen. He started to get some tea going, and looked over. "Now, tell me the very basics."

"Red fur." Rocky said. "Sort of. And these big eyes, I...I couldn't guess the color. And she had such a cute dress, and-" He blinked. "I...well. I, uh...I'm sure you get the idea. right?"

"Tell me about how she is." Calvin came back, waiting for the kettle to whistle. He sat by the typewriter, and began to take notes.

"...how?"

"Aye, how. Who. What. She's not just fur and eyes, is she?"

"No, no, of course not!" Rocky said. "She was...kind. And nice. And she was...well when she looked at me, she smiled. I nearly ran her over coming out of the café, and we didn't see each other long, but-" Rocky cleared his throat. "...is this...enough to go off of?"

"...Rocky, I think you might be more intimidated by her than in love."

"What? You're crazy! Bonkers! Wacko! Insane! I'd never be scared of someone so....so..." Rocky fought for a word, but didn't find it. Calvin nodded.

"You're clearly at least a little nervous about this. That's normal! A lot's on the line, and all." Calvin said.

"Oh, I know, but...this is just a girl. Really, all it is! And while I'm, infatuated now, and in need of your expertise, I'm sure it'll wear off eventually, as is so oft the case in this modern age!" Rocky winked, with a sense of denial that was painfully obvious to Calvin.

Calvin merely rolled his eyes.

"Rocky, if you're just attracted to her, then go ahead and ask her yerself, you don't need a love poem for this sort of thing, let alone a song."

"You're right." Rocky said. "I mean, so what if she was pretty? There's pretty girls! All over the place! Sure, I mean, none has ever made me...want to settle in, but-"

There was a pause.

"I mena really, what was I thinking? A love letter? Why, all i need to do here is find a good night with her! I would LOATHE the idea of...of waking up to her in the morning, and-" Rocky's ears drooped, "and...nestling into her as she slept." Rocky sighed. "I've never, EVER felt any affection like that - why start now? Why now turn from my lustful ways to wanting to hold her in my arms as she looks into my eyes, and...and to see, to really see what she's thinking?" His tail drooped. "And honestly, I doubt there's any woman on the face of the EARTH who could make me want to keep her safe...to kill for her, to die for her, but also to live for her, and to see things and learn things and love things I've never...loved before...oh, god, Calvin, I-" Rocky tearfully looked over to Calvin, who was hastily scribbling things down. Rocky spoke, through a choked voice.

"I'm...I've never been in love...that must be why I couldn't think of anything to..."

Calvin looked up, and smiled. "It hits you late, aye?"

"Sure, sure...did...did you get anything from that?"

"...I caught a bit." Calvin handed him something. "You can make changes if you'd like."

"...Aces."

-

It was late at night, in an apartment building in St. Louis. And a girl heard something against her window. It sounded like a pebble...annoyed, she looked out, and saw-

"...Rocky, right?" She asked. The two had talked a while, outside the café. She remembered his name. His colossal eyes, his soft smile...

He was just standing there. He cleared his throat, and took out a piece of paper. He'd foregone the song bit...but what is a poem but a song?

"...as..." Rocky cleared his throat, "As a shearwater over the sea, I too have been to many shores...but as the noble bird does, so to have I chosen one to rest on evermore."

He was different than he normally was - shaky, and nervous. He'd never tried to be this...sincere before, about ANYthing.

"Indeed, as astronomers plot the stars, my gaze has laid on many lights, but-" He sputtered, "but...as if transfixed by a celestial glow, only one star remains in my...ehm...mind? No, that doesn't rhyme, I-"

"Sights."

"Sights?" Rocky looked up at the girl. She was smiling.

"You meant to say sights. Rhymes with lights?"

Rocky smiled, too. He looked up, and perked his ears, throwing the page away. "I cannot tell a lie to you, I've had my share of loving guests, but none so lovely as you, who makes me want to build a-"

"Nest?"

"Is it that predictable?" Rocky knew he shouldn't have asked Calvin - good a writer as he was, he was no poet - but the girl let out a chuckle.

"It's a sentiment a girl hears a lot, you know." She said, which caused Rocky's ears to droop, and his tail to flatten.

"But...I mean it, I promise I do, I-"

"I know." She said.

"...you do?" Rocky held his hat nervously in his hands. The girl nodded.

"If someone is coming by to read odes to me at night, they aren't doing it because they want a quick date...or because they're afraid to be embarrassed." Rocky did feel a few extra eyes on him...including one particularly angry eye.

How was HE supposed to know she lived right next to Viktor!?

"I...I ought to come up there, then? Just so I, ehm...don't anger the neighbors." Rocky, for the first time in a long time,w as genuinely nervous - worried about his odds, and contemplating what he might do if he lost.

The girl spoke.

"Come in...but no funny business."

"Of course!" Rocky rushed up the fire escape.

He smiled all the way up.

[taylortruther]

Now that we've officially entered TTPD release month and still have minimal info about the album itself somehow...what's your current predictions about what the album is gonna sound like and what it's central theme will be? (Sorry in advance if you've already covered this recently and I missed it lol)

My guess is that it will be Midnights production with Folkmore's lyrics and the theme will be reevaluating long-harbored misconceptions about love i.e. the sharper edges of 'fairytale romances' and overcoming deep wounds that you once thought you deserved to get etc...very Red adjacent if you know what I mean.

Anyways, your(And your other anons) big brain analysis always intrigues me so I was wondering what's your thoughts on all this and why Taylor is insisting on maintaining such thick air of mystery around this project as of yet.

i don't know about production or sound - i just hope florence and her chamber pop had an influence, because i love it very much.

i have all my song-by-song predictions pinned to my blog if you want to take a look.

but overall, based on the statement we received so far (which i assume is part of the prologue, or the thesis of the album), it sounds like this will be her "defense." the whole story. the good, the bad, and the ugly. but not just the story with joe, but a statement defining her perception of her role as an artist/truth-teller.

for our evidence, she is providing:

her tarnished shield, implying she's seen a lot of conflict, but also the tarnished symbol of her family (it makes me think of the shield she created in lover and repurposed for every album since. a literal symbol of the family she was creating?)

her muses, and the pain that her lovers caused her, that she caused herself in pursuit of relationships/acceptance, and the pain of her art being used as a weapon against her (ie, "with every guitar string scar on her hand" meets "watch out dude she'll write a song about you.')

her talismans and charms, and the many way she tried to control or protect herself and her relationships (reminds me of "i'm the wind in our free-flowing sails and the liquor in our cocktails" and "wary of ... charmers, dandies and get-love-quick-schemes.")

the love bombs and this sense of foreboding, evidence that there was intent to harm.

her veins of ink - like they're running black/dark, but also, she's a songwriter, it's her life blood, and it's ink, permanent, the way a record permanently goes into the public consciousness

all's fair in love and poetry - there's no right or wrong in this kind of conflict. it implies war (all's fair in love and war), truth (as in her truth but also the honesty of art), and also a lack of remorse. i mean, why should she feel sorry? it's her art. it's love. there are no rules.

the chairman of ttpd - time to teach some lessons.

[pyrotechnicarus]

As a lyricist who doesn’t compose for your productions, what is your approach to writing lyrics?

Depends on the composer! I'm a very lyrics-first person (though I've been experimenting a little more with music-first composition styles and having fun with them.) I like to write a complete, well-structured lyric, hand it to my composer to set, and then we go back and forth with little edits if needed (they might ask me for fewer syllables in a certain line, I might ask them to make the melody go up on a hook, etc.)

When all is going well I am possessed by a mad spirit of creativity whispering me rhymes in the middle of the night and I write a complete, almost formally perfect, well-scanned lyric in the wee hours of the morning (Jimmy July, I Don't Know You Anymore, Litany of the Martyrs, A Little More In Love, and Blood Oath were all written this way.)

When I'm struggling to write a song, usually I'll outline it as formal sections (what is the main thought of the A section? What is the main thought of the B section? How does that change in the final A?) and then collect related rhymes and words for a few days in a notes app until I'm ready to sit down and grind it out. Mostly class assignments fall into this category, and certain opening/closing numbers (Day In Court (reprise) my behated) or songs I'm too scared to approach head-on without a formal guide (e.g. The One Who Pulls The Strings).

I guess one way I'm different from strict bookwright/lyricists is that I often come up with a tune for my lyrics as I'm writing them. This helps them scan* regularly in my first draft (usually I have to go back and scan them again, to make sure, but they often come out pretty rhythmically sound.) Upon request I've sung my composers these tunes before, but unfortunately my little tunes are usually the melody to some popular song I've forgotten I know, haha! This is a beautiful thing about having different people do the words and composition -- they can approach the lyrics with a fresh brain and always come up with something way cooler than my initial instincts.

*I dunno how much musical theatre writing technical terminology you know, but here I'm talking about the scansion of my lyrical lines- the usage is essentially same as when people talk about scansion in poetry. Unless it's dramatically motivated, you generally want the emphases in each line to land in the same place, so that they eventually align with the downbeats of a measure. It gets a lot more complicated fast, but it's a good rule of thumb for making sure people can tell what your lyrics are saying the first time they hear them.

[oliverreedmasterass]

Synopsis: The members of Greta Van Fleet agree to do an interview with the Human Napkin himself, Nardwuar, and find themselves ridiculously unprepared for his interview style.

Words: 2k

Warnings: language, some sexual innuendos (kinda?), mentions of stalking, the void™️

Notes: Shoutout to @skywaydrifter for the amazing fic idea, and sending me down a wild Nardwuar binge-fest

----------------------------------------------

Nardwuar theme plays with the animated intro video. The shot opens to show NARDWUAR standing in front of an impressive display of vinyl records, next to JOSH KISZKA. 

NARDWUAR: How are you?

Nardwuar shoves his microphone into Josh’s face. Josh flinches back a bit, but then leans into the microphone.

JOSH: Absolutely groovy. 

NARDWUAR: Tell me who you are. 

JOSH: That’s a bit of a loaded question. I’m a dreamer, a mere mortal, a man with a dream…

NARDWUAR: Your name. 

JOSH: Oh. Josh Kiszka. Frontman for the group, Greta Van Fleet. 

Josh curtsies to the camera.

NARDWUAR: Welcome to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And right off the bat, I have a gift for ya.   

JOSH puts a hand over his heart and looks at the camera in shock.

JOSH: Now I feel bad, I didn’t bring you anything. 

NARDWUAR (continued): I’ve got this 1966 album, All About Miriam. 

JOSH: (taking the album and cradling it in his arms) Oh my goodness.

NARDWUAR: I heard that you’re a fan. 

JOSH: Miriam Makeba? Oh yeah, she’s one of my favorites. My parents had a few of her albums that they would play all the time when I was younger. She’s got such a rich voice, I can only dream of sounding like that. 

NARDWUAR: But you do have a pretty distinct voice that I’m sure a lot of people are jealous of. How did you find that sound? 

JOSH: I started screaming and then I guess I kind of found my way, eventually. (chuckles) No, but actually, my vocal coach, Ron, I call him “The Master” because he genuinely saved my vocal cords. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. 

NARDWUAR: How do you do it? Is it special vocal warmups? Some kind of mystery technique? 

JOSH: Well, you see, if I told you, I’d have to kill you. 

NARDWUAR: I’ve got another gift for you here, Josh. 

JOSH: Oh god, now I feel super bad. 

NARDWUAR: Costumes are a big part of your stage presence. Here, I’ve got a piece that might look familiar to you. 

Nardwuar holds out Josh’s infamous golden pants, and Josh reluctantly takes them.

JOSH: Oh boy, I forgot how shiny and see through these were. 

NARDWUAR: You wore these in the sweltering sun on the iHeart Radio festival stage in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, September 22, 2018, didn’t you? 

JOSH: I’m not sure if these are the exact pair…

NARDWUAR: They are. 

JOSH: Huh? Did you dig them out of the dumpster or something? 

NARDWUAR: Now, Josh, can you tell me about Sean Reyes?

Josh looks at Nardwuar with intense skepticism.

JAKE: (offscreen) What the fuck? 

JOSH: Now how do you know about Sean Reyes? 

NARDWUAR: It’s Josh Kiszka trivia!

Josh squints at Nardwuar, uncertain.

JOSH: Sean Reyes was my third grade teacher. 

NARDWUAR: And he was the one who encouraged you to write poetry, right? 

JOSH: Yes…..

NARDWUAR: Like haikus? 

JOSH: Mr. Reyes would play a lot of folk stuff for us, like John Denver, Joni Mitchell, all the classics, and he could tell I really dug it. He pulled me aside after class, showed me some of his favorite lyrics, and explained how it was a form of poetry. I took that to heart and spent a lot of time outside of class writing poems after that.

NARDWUAR: Were they any good? 

JOSH: Well, some lines ended up in our songs, so you tell me. 

NARDWUAR: Well, I heard your twin brother behind the camera just now. Let’s bring him out here. Come here, Jake! 

JAKE joins Josh’s side in front of the camera, looking nervous. He’s wringing his hands, avoiding eye contact with Nardwuar.

NARDWUAR: Hello, Jake. 

JAKE: (short) Hi. 

NARDWUAR: I have a gift for you. 

JAKE: Uh, okay. 

NARDWUAR: It’s a poster from H.O.R.D.E. Festival at Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana featuring big names like Blues Traveler, The Black Crowes, and Taj Mahal from 1995. Something important happened at this festival, right? 

Jake pales.

JAKE: Uh. Uh. 

Josh is staring pretty hard at Nardwuar.

JAKE: (to Josh) There’s no way he knows about that. How could he know about that? 

Nardwuar sneaks the microphone closer into Jake’s mouth. 

NARDWUAR: Well? 

JAKE: Okay, uh, they might kill me for admitting this on camera, but my parents are pretty sure that’s where Josh and I were conceived. 

NARDWUAR: Do you like Taj Mahal? 

Jake struggles to rebound from that 180. 

JAKE: Um (beat) yeah. I’d list him as a big influence. 

NARDWUAR: And another gift for Jake Kiszka! 

JAKE: (whispering to Josh) This guy freaks me out. 

NARDWUAR: Here you go! 

Nardwuar tosses Jake a ziploc bag containing something brown. Jake’s reflexes get the better of him and he grabs the bag out of the air, and then blankly studies what’s in his hands. 

JAKE: What the actual fuck. 

NARDWUAR: Tell me what you’re holding there! 

JAKE: Hair. It’s my hair. 

JOSH: What??

JAKE: I’m not even joking. This is what they chopped off, like, last year before our second leg of the Dreams in Gold Tour. 

JOSH: (growing defensive of his brother) Where did you get that from?

NARDWUAR: What was the reason for the big chop? 

JAKE: I could have sworn my hairdresser said she was going to donate that. 

NARDWUAR: Oh, she did. 

JAKE: I’m sorry, what? 

SAM bounds into the scene in front of the camera, looking energetic. 

SAM: This is fun! Do me now! 

NARDWUAR: Sam Kiszka! Alright, Jake. Thanks and doot doola doot doo…

JAKE: Huh? 

NARDWUAR: (finishing for Jake) Doo doo! (turns to Sam) I have a question for you. 

Sam is hopping from foot to foot and clapping his hands with glee while Jake confusedly wanders off camera.

SAM: Fire away! 

NARDWUAR: Your aunt works at State Farm in Chicago. 

DANNY: (offscreen) That’s not a question. 

JOSH: How could you possibly know that? 

NARDWUAR: Have you ever had to file a claim with her? 

SAM: Well, actually one time…

JOSH: Ssh! Don’t tell him anything. 

NARDWUAR: (entirely unbothered) I have a gift you might like, Sam! 

SAM: Oh my god! You guys aren’t gonna believe this. It’s my birth certificate! 

JOSH: What kind of interviewer are you?? 

NARDWUAR: I’m just a fan, guys, just a fan. I love your music! 

Sam’s phone rings. 

SAM: Whoops, sorry. I know this is unprofessional but, one sec. I gotta take this. 

Instead of going off camera to answer the phone in private like a normal person, Sam answers the phone and puts it on speaker. 

SAM (continued): Y’ello? 

KAREN: (obviously shaken) Sam? 

SAM: Hey Mom, what’s up? 

KAREN: Are you boys alright? 

Josh grabs the phone from Sam. 

JOSH: Mom? What’s going on? 

KAREN: Someone broke into our house while your dad and I were on our trip. We’re worried it might have been a stalker since they took a lot of your possessions and some important documents. 

JOSH: Oh my god, are you okay? 

KAREN: Fine, just a bit shaken up. But, I’m so sorry, they stole Sammy’s birth certificate. 

Sam calls into the phone over Josh’s shoulder.

SAM: Don’t worry about it, Mom! I just got it gifted back to me! 

Josh hands Sam his phone and rushes away. 

JOSH: (screaming offscreen) RICHARD! WE NEED BACKUP!

KAREN: I’m gonna have to call my sister to file a claim. They broke a crazy amount of our windows. Like, way more than they needed to. What a headache.

DANNY: (to Nardwuar) You have a lot of explaining to do. 

NARDWUAR: I’ve got a gift for you, Daniel! 

Nardwuar pulls out a pack of old Beatles cards. 

DANNY: I don’t want it. 

NARDWUAR: It’s a pack of 1964 Beatles collector’s cards, in mint condition! 

DANNY: Wait, I do want it. 

Danny takes the cards from Nardwuar and looks at them with delight. 

NARDWUAR: You’re a big fan of the Beatles, right? 

DANNY: Oh yeah, I always have been.

JAKE: You’re not seriously continuing this interview. 

DANNY: (while opening and flipping through the pack of cards) I mean, this is a pretty cool gift. 

JAKE: (evidently at his wit’s end) This guy 100% broke into my family’s house, and he for sure did the same to your parents. 

NARDWUAR: Would you say there was a specific Beatles album that most inspired you? 

DANNY: Definitely Rubber Soul. I loved hearing them try folk. 

Jake throws up his hands in exasperation. 

DANNY: Norwegian Wood genuinely changed my life. 

NARDWUAR: In what way? 

JAKE: Nope, we’re not doing this anymore. 

Jake thrusts his finger up into Nardwuar’s face. 

JAKE (continued): What else did you take from us, you son of a bitch? 

NARDWUAR: Does it count as “taking” if I give it back to you? 

JAKE: Yes! 

NARDWUAR: I’d beg to differ. 

DANNY: (looking through his cards) Woah! I’ve never seen this photo of Ringo Starr before! 

Josh comes rushing back to the scene with their bodyguard and pal, RICHARD. 

RICHARD: (scanning around on full alert) Where is he? 

JOSH: (shrill, pointing at Nardwuar) There! 

Nardwuar simply grins at Richard. 

NARDWUAR: Can you tell me about Grubbyknot? 

Richard is obviously thrown off, and he lets down his guard. 

RICHARD: Huh? Grubbyknot? That was my metal band in high school. But we only played like two shows. One was in my parent’s garage. 

JOSH: Don’t let him get into your head, Richard! You’re our big guns, we can’t lose you! 

SAM: Do you have another gift for me, Nardwuar? 

Nardwuar stares at Sam, entirely expressionless. 

NARDWUAR: No, I don’t. Doot doola doot doo…

SAM: Doo-doo? 

Upon Sam’s words, he vanishes into thin air. Jake is so terrified, he falls to the ground and cowers on the floor. 

JAKE: Jesus Christ! 

NARDWUAR: I usually like to speak with only 1-2 people at a time on camera. It’s getting a little bit too crowded for me right now. 

Nardwuar looks at Danny, whose attention is finally away from his cards, and is gawking at the empty space where Sam was just standing. 

NARDWUAR: (continued, making eye contact with Danny) Doot doola doot doo…

Danny stares back at Nardwuar in horror, his mouth sealed shut. Nardwuar sings the little tune again, holding his microphone up to Danny to finish it. 

JAKE: (cutting in) Doo doo! (beat) Fuck! 

Jake disappears. 

JOSH: (explaining to Richard and Danny) He has this condition where he can’t handle hearing an unfinished tune. Poor guy has a curse.

NARDWUAR: Just one more to go. 

Nardwuar focuses his attention back to Danny. 

DANNY: Where did you send them? 

NARDWUAR: To another place. 

DANNY: Super helpful, thanks. 

NARDWUAR: Don’t mention it. 

DANNY: Are they still alive? 

NARDWUAR: I can’t see why not. I’m a fan! I wouldn’t hurt you guys. 

Danny sighs. 

DANNY: Okay. Send me away so I can do some damage control. 

RICHARD: No! 

NARDWUAR: Doot doola doot doo…

DANNY: (unenthused, clapping his hands on the beat) Doo doo.

Danny is gone. 

RICHARD: My boss is gonna kill me. 

JOSH: I’m pretty sure I’m your boss. 

Richard widens his eyes and holds his hands up in a defensive position, backing slowly away from Josh. 

JOSH (continued): Oh, come on. I’m not gonna hurt you, Richard. 

RICHARD: You did dump an entire bag of flour over my head that one time. And kicked that giant chocolate bar in my hands. And swung a folding chair at me backstage. 

JOSH: All tiny, insignificant hiccups.

NARDWUAR: Josh, you’re gonna love this next thing that I’ve got for you. 

JOSH: Please, no. 

Nardwuar hands Josh a Scooby Doo plushie. 

NARDWUAR: Tell me what that is. 

Josh studies the stuffed animal, trying to discern how it has any relevance to him. 

JOSH: Scooby Doo? 

NARDUWAR: What was that second word?

JOSH: Doo?

NARDWUAR: Wait. Say it again? (under his breath) Doot doola doot doo…

JOSH: Doo? 

Nardwuar taps on his ear, signaling that he didn’t hear Josh. Josh huffs and rolls his eyes. 

JOSH (continued, enunciating maybe a little bit too much): Doo! 

Josh disappears. 

NARDWUAR: Well, this has been fun. Keep on rockin’ in the free world and doot doola doot doo…

It’s silent around him since there’s no one there to finish his jingle. Nardwuar continues to grin wider and wider until he’s nearing uncomfortably close to uncanny valley. 

The scene shifts to a confusing plane seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once. A pattern reminiscent of Nardwuar’s red and green plaid Tammy cap stretches from the floor to the sky. Josh and Richard appear in the mysterious space, Josh screaming with terror. 

JAKE: Hey. 

DANNY: Nice of you to join us. 

It takes a while for Josh to collect himself but, when he does, he notices Jake and Danny standing in front of him. 

JOSH: Where’s Sammy? 

DANNY: He went to take a piss. 

RICHARD: Hey, wait, I didn’t say the doo doo thing. Why am I here? 

Josh shrugs. 

JOSH: We must be a package deal or something. 

RICHARD: That’s wildly unfair. 

SAM: (off in the distance) Woah, I had a lot more in my bladder than I thought. I wouldn’t come over here if I were you, guys. I can cross “building a manmade lake” off my bucket list.

JAKE: God, I need to get out of here. 

DANNY: And how are we gonna do that, Jake? 

Jake has no clue. He’s frankly dumbfounded. 

The scene jumps back to Nardwuar, still in front of the records. He seems unaware that the camera is still rolling. 

NARDWUAR: (to someone offscreen) Yeah, yeah. They should be gone for good. Yup. The plaid void, where I sent Dave Rowntree. We should be good to steal their identities now. God knows we’ve done enough research. 

Back in the plaid void. 

DANNY: Holy shit, is that Dave Rowntree?

RICHARD: The guy from Blur? 

DAVE ROWNTREE: CURSE YE FOUL BEAST, NARDWUAR! 

Fin.  

Note: The names/facts listed in the interview within this fic are all entirely fictitious. I'm not about to start leaking private and personal information about the guys.

[ashbeanss]

I’d never heard of precious jewel armor before reading your post talking about c!wilbur songs and now I’m listening to these songs and doing a thousand yard stare into the distance coping with all these emotions, GREAT artist thank you for the inadvertent recommendation!

ofc man! there are a few other dsmp musicians that i always think about: (this will be long check under the cut)

amanda fagan made some of the very first songs for a few characters, most notably her ‘take you down’ for quackity, ‘bittersweet’ for jack manifold, and ‘promises you couldn’t keep’ for niki. i will be very blunt, i do not like how she writes wilbur, and i would not recommend her wilbur songs, but ‘take you down’ is still the best written quackity song out there, and ‘bittersweet’ is incredible. do check out her work.

kanaya is a name most people have heard before but i need you all to listen to a song that is not marionettes or violence because guys. guys my god. yeah ‘i’ll let it burn’ is alright whatever have you heard ‘november 16th’? have you heard ‘us against the world’? please. i love her work. she did a collab with precious jewel amor where she wrote tommy’s song and precious wrote tubbo’s, they’re both great. ‘little hero’ is gorgeous. if i don’t think about ‘no reprise’ it can’t hurt me.

kroh made the ranboo song of all time and i will forever be greatful for that. go listen to ‘typical me’, amazing song, ‘hush’ is cool too. oh yeah kroh also made ‘mr bones’. i guess. but who gives a shit about ‘mr bones’ when ‘typical me’ is so good, you have to believe me. ‘home’ is also really good and way more underrated than ‘typical me’ so you should listen to it as well, more even.

candlebard only made two dream smp songs. and one of them is a dream song. that i haven’t listened to. but i would be fucking wrong if i didn’t tell you about ‘disappear’. oh my god ‘disappear’. i could write essays on this song. i love it so much. it is the c!wilbur song of all time, nothing will ever get him like ‘disappear’. it has everything, seasonal metaphors, an empathetic perspective on wilbur’s fall into destruction, incredible music. that’s all you need to make me happy really. this song has less than 200k views and that’s a crime. go listen to it please.

cjack, like candlebard, only made two dream smp songs, and i have only listened to one of them, but i physically couldn’t not bring up ‘phantom feelings’. it’s so important to me. no ghostbur song is like ‘phantom feelings’ i’m telling you. go listen to it, every other ghostbur song will be ruined for you forever. you will never be able to appreciate ‘blue’ by derivakat again because you will know there is better. and you have heard it.

hatorbee is a musician i’ve literally never seen anybody talk about but i needed to bring them up because they’ve made? so many songs? and to be very frank with you, are they all great? no. like musically some of these songs are not the best, but fuck damnit they should write poetry. also they get these characters more than some songs that sound amazing so. you win some you lose some. ‘one more dance’ was a core part of my dsmp phase and also the only skephalo song i’ve ever heard and the only reason i gave a shit about them. the timing is weird, the vocal performance isn’t perfect and is mixed strangely, but you can feel the passion oozing out of it. they also made the only karlnapity song with precious jewel amor and winks, and it’s kind of incredible? i might cry? also lies in the letters is very good wilbur characterisation. i’m giving it a strong stamp of approval.

bonus: ‘the mad king wilbur’ was deleted in it’s original video form recently but the topic reupload and an animatic still exist. watch one of them, the song is incredible and gorgeous. also not fansongs but cyborg blood’s crimeboys animatics make me very emotional and you should watch them specifically their ‘by your hand’ wilbur animatic.

thanks for reading my essay. have a good day. listen to los campesinos!

[blankvort]

you've probably answered something like this but favourite songs from the stage show and i want details, GO‼️

pezberrywhoreee i cannot even begin to describe the dearth of times i have answered anything related to mean girls and the amount of times i have internally cried and screamed wanting to interrupt a conversation to talk about mean girls. i say that god is dead but you are doing his work right here. putting this under a read more because you said details and this became a study of why every song in the stage show is better than opioids and thin mints combined <333 no articulacy here just 8000+ words of vibes and ranting

first of all if cady sings a single line i am violently shoving every note of the song into a mental folder called faves in such eldritch fonts that my brain computer is halfway to summoning cthulhu whenever it loads the soundtrack. she is described as the heart of the story on the backstage casting call page for a reason and that reason is her absolutely incredible range as she struts from the plucky guitar gyrations and membranophone-focused percussion of it roars into the candid, confiding, crescendoing (and other c words you can probably guess based on the verbiage i use in dms) keys of stupid with love and then climb the vocal volcano that is apex predator and akfjskhfidbdihgshejfhiajw i love her and i love her songs and i need to shut up now i’m sorry

second (but not really because i’m still going on and on about cady i’m sorry) i’m upset abt most other productions burying cady’s fourth-wall breaks and kind of making the segue into revenge party less. i don’t know riled up?? because 1) where did my girl janis’s influence go it is so much more impactful when cady’s main reason for going along with the revenge plot and pushing it further is hearing about janis being outed from janis herself! when her main motivator becomes aaron, who she likes super superficially by the time more is better rolls around, you think wow! what a bitch! for even longer! like you don’t even have to cut the “your hair looks sexy pushed back”/”are his eyes gray or green” conversation that prods her into sending gretchen over the edge this isn’t a time issue 2) where did cady’s brain go bring me a whole box of profound regret and impulsive decisions let the people in the back hear the hows and whys of her descent into plastichood and moreover i would like her to sing more and most of all i love it when characters break the fourth wall. by that i mean i want the “sounds kind of bad right to spy on someone but they’re the first friends i’ve had and i don’t want to have none” things back because the narrative nudity and the way it follows the melody of the verses in fearless is a+++

now. my legitimate favorite songs from the stage show in chronological order

a cautionary tale: the repartee the art freaks have is elite and so are their riffs. The lyrics are 3am notes app poetry lines and that’s an amazing thing for mean girls. It’s not the typical broadway opening number but it’s rough and brash and brilliant. To me the cast of mean girls strikes the perfect balance between caricature and lived-in character and the insouciance of this song towards seriousness reflects that wonderfully. Janis assuming the worst of everyone by saying that the temptation to be popular and hot is far too great and saying that you can’t buy integrity at the mall is some nice, if blatant, foreshadowing regarding cady losing her integrity as she gets caught up in the perilous biome of shopping centers with such dangerous patrons as build-dat-bear. The last line of the chorus abruptly changing the amount of beats in the measure adds an extra kick layout fosse quality that i love too. The ending is the apotheosis of mezzo-soprano/tenor harmonization. Need both janis and damian to step on me but for different reasons. No i will not elaborate

it roars: i have a soft spot for wild life but it roars is superior in every way to me because it introduces cady, the show’s sense of humor, the cast’s incredible skill when it comes to singing and dancing (seriously i had never seen an ensemble that made me want to be ensemble before mean girls), and the perfect transition from a cautionary tale will always get me hyped. i have many thoughts about the many changes the mg script and score have gone through throughout the years but oh my god my jaw dropped at the breathtaking belting of “i have danced with the maasai, i have climbed kilimanjaro” when i first heard it mashed up with it roars and the callback the verse gets in fearless 2.0(?) totally dislocated it. Also i know that it’s a pairing so unpopular it’s basically nonexistent but hear me out when i say that it roars is just a more optimistic, afrobeat inspired version of what’s wrong with me. Cady never seems to think that it’s the student body that needs to change, she thinks she needs to fight and win to belong just as gretchen thinks she needs to serve the most powerful person in school to be deserving of… idk anything?? Of course you cannot trust me on this because i will ship cady with anyone if you give me the chance. Writing cady/the marymount girl fanfic as we speak

it roars is the first indicator that musical cady is pretty different from movie cady in that she earnestly wants to go to the us, wants to have more/better friends, wants to try high school and skateboards and rapping and starbucks venti chai. which makes sense because you know you gotta have that sick i want song so characters feel less tossed about and more thrusting into. there’s a better way to word that but i don’t have the skull size to summon a less immature dictionary right now. a curious thing about it roars, though, is that kenya, being a country and all, has high school and skateboards and rapping. no starbucks because apparently rwanda was an easier location to settle into but that’s a good thing actually nobody should support starbucks. either way you can really see that cady’s been sheltered from the realities of any society past the stone age and idolizes this incredibly abstract view of friends and people. she’s equal parts desperate and determined, artless and acute. it’s ironic, i feel that at first her speech patterns (lions and birds and stuff) seem at odds with her sub-saharan surroundings as though she’s already trying to integrate herself with this slangy teenage culture she knows nothing about and then when she finally finds herself in slangy teenage culture she compares everything to the survival-based rules of the savannah. i know this is probably for streamlining purposes but it’s also so interesting to me that her immediate reaction to her parents’ funding being cut is wow adventure wow possibilities. she knows that everybody wants connection but she doesn’t yet know why connection has to be culled by all these arbitrary rules like fashion or acting cool. like i don’t remember where i read this but some novel said that the only thing worse than being smart is being smart and sensitive because then neither the logical nor emotional explanations for any event can make sense. i swear i will find that book someday to take a photo but today i am bedridden because i walked the five or so inches from home to the grocery store

back to it roars. i hate the grammar in the line “none of my closest friends even has hands” but i love everything else about the song. the beat is so bouncy and the ostinati of the wind and brass sections are top tier. the comedic beats are underscored by cutting the music and then the vocals come back in soaring alongside the strongest bass since george perry and i could die happy if hospitals changed the flatline noise to any cady singing “so exhilarating”.

two paragraphs and we’re still going strong dead god help me. personally i feel like the best delivery of the ensemble lines have to be as obnoxious and deafening as humanly possible but i get people who feel differently. it’s just really great to me when cady is polite and confused and very presumptuous and sonja aquino’s actively going through act two of the exorcist in real time. i think that’s why danielle wade is my cady of choice too. love it when autism: the song is put through the epiglottic funnel of anxiety. also i’m wiping tears right now about the fact cady refers to phones as little screens in her first act one song and in the act two opener she’s glued to her phone because she wants attention so badly and still doesn’t feel like she has enough even though she talks about how america and the plastics are so much more than what she’s used to. Also very interesting that cady views inclusion as a game that needs to be won (and eventually comes to view baleful adoration as winning) even though she later exhibits a sort of survival of the fittest mentality that shows up as early as her mention of baboons attacking those that go near their pack. Fun fact i think her takeover of the plastics mirrors dispersal in male baboons wherein mature male baboons leave the pack they were born into to find another troop to temporarily stay in and usually if they end up replacing the alpha male of that non-natal troop they commit infanticide because then he can reproduce with the alpha male’s old mate/s. That’s not super fun but it is a fact to me. but i’ll talk about the strange views musical cady heron seems to hold about winning more in my do this thing essay which i am definitely going to write despite my best efforts to make this post under five thousand words

gonna slide the it roars reprise in here too because it’s not on the soundtrack but it still makes me feel things. “i’m sixteen just like everyone here but not like everyone here” and what if i said mean girls is the best dissection of the torturous dichotomy between being desperate to belong and being desperate to be unique. There’s a thing called theatrical exaggeration but for mental health purposes i choose to believe that north shore class of x immediately clocked cady as a weirdo utterly undeserving of trust or respect when they saw her wear socks and sandals. I know i just complained about people calling every iteration of cady boring but i feel like i haven’t seen actual hate for musical cady (at least not as much slander as i’ve seen sent to og movie and especially movie musical cady) because you can better bear witness to her most vulnerable moments when she’s singing directly at you instead of saying things in a soundproof recording studio. She’s not quitting she’s regrouping! Which is a fascinating choice of words to me because regrouping in math is basically carrying over values because they’re too much. She gets sucked into this idea that more is better even though she has to compartmentalize the information she’s learned from hostile classmates and teachers and draw connections to her experience with animals because more is not better without proper management. Also this bitch is gonna get e coli if the janitors don’t care enough to clean the slut-shaming graffiti on the wall they are not wiping down those cubicle doors

where do you belong: i love gay people. “so what if all the ducklings think you’re ugly it’s because they’ve never seen a swan” is ted talk worthy material. never getting over the fact that damian knew this girl for all of maybe one introductory french class’s worth of interaction, accused her of doing drugs, and then built her confidence back up from the seventh circle of hell. the “your mother called you baby girl?” “singing!” exchange is peak best friend banter and showcases the art freaks’ dynamic of frank, funny jerk with a tarnished heart of gold and budding broadway babe with a shocking amount of wisdom obscured by hilarity and hypocrisy. the debate team rejected damian because he was too fabulous to be deigned to one oregon-oxford role i’ve decided. i love unreliable narrators and damian shooing cady away from the mathletes as soon as she shows the barest interest in them is an entertaining way of showing that nobody in this story is free from social norms. the lunch tray percussion is something all marching bands should adopt and so are the lighting cues. janis’s reactions to damian killing his dance breaks are the best. rachel hamilton is my fave ensemble student i don’t care if she gets maybe two or three lines total.  she was giving bombastic side eyes before anyone knew the word bombastic. i desperately need to know if she knew what cady was actually saying or if she thought cady was just a lion king stan asking to be canceled. damian painting everyone but his two-person clique as problematic is also peak teenage behavior. everything at that age is just finding the lesser of two evils and figuring out whether or not you want to meet the bigger evil anyways. janis deriding “the geeks and the freaks” despite being labeled as an art freak by every mg promo is also amusing and barrett and mary-kate’s deliveries of “christian believers” could send me to heaven any day they want. the ending is so satisfying to listen to and even more satisfying to watch. also i do mean it when i say that cady was adopted by the local gays in this number. are janis and damian aware that having their own table in a school that makes juniors and seniors have lunch at the same time makes them more powerful than all the politicians of the globe combined

stupid with love: ALSKAJLDJASLDAJLLKJ. stupid with love is the best musical representation of how a crush driven by hormones and being treated with the barest sense of humor and dignity can devour a person taylor swift eat your heart out. the music really sweeps you up into this story like you’re a close friend privy to even her most embarrassing thoughts and the way her love life flashing before her eyes just shuts out whatever aaron was going to say about lebron james is the funniest thing because yeah! you can be convinced you’re totally in love with someone when you’re that age while ignoring everything that makes them a well-rounded human being! the way cady’s clearly grown up in a caring household that’s so chock full of trust that her parents can’t fathom that she’d do anything remotely dangerous while having the whole house to herself for more than one hour BUT also feels like she doesn’t “get” love is super interesting to me to like most sixteen-year-olds have the idea that their parents don’t understand them sure but has she come to the conclusion that familial love isn’t enough? that she doesn’t get enough familial love anyways? that love is unknowable? does she wholeheartedly believe that she fell in love at age five? stupid with love is a song of so many possibilities and it’s as giddy and delusional as you’d expect, every emotion heightened by cady’s new brand of eloquence. fetch may never happen but calculust absolutely should. the little snippets of dialogue in between are so endearing on both cady and aaron’s ends to the point where i can forgive ms norbury clearly not knowing how to conduct a class. who’s gonna tell cady to raise her hand before she answers. i’m kidding she can do whatever she wants, even ignore the existence of multiplication. multiplication is a bitch cady i get it

we once again see that cady is determined almost to the point of self-destruction and that she’s desperate to live a ‘normal’ life by getting together with the normalest boy of all time and the song so perfectly sets up why we should care about cady and aaron as a couple–he’s the only person thus far to not even suggest what she should think/do, encouraging her in a teasing way to be herself (ie smart) instead of telling her to be dumber so he can feel better about himself. cadaaron is the only straight ship ever argue with the wall. also the instrumental on its own is literally such a bop?? i’d drop a grand piano on myself daily if the keys could just perpetually play the song. quoth my own blog my heart belongs to every video out there of a cady opting up on the last “i learned math so i can learn love” it just fits so well thematically and makes the song even more satisfying because it makes you think yes!! summon that girlfailure swag and learn love. also this song is so next to me from twihard: a new musical coded with the pencils and/or feet providing the musical pulse. this is me very subtly begging you to listen to twihard: a new musical as put on by the esoteric ensemble productions and uploaded like a full decade ago starring danielle wade 

apex predator: i love women. i love bon jovi. i love zoology. this song was made for me tina fey told me herself. i can even forgive whoever made halls rhyme with dolls because of the regina furry confirmation. the first few chords kind of give me jaws theme vibes. it’s grinding and warning and doused in grit. you get the brightness of cady’s other songs cut with the flinty, darker strings of janis’s numbers. the heavy drum sort of sounds like a heartbeat, quickening as cady realizes the might of the pride and considers how regina’s help compares to janis’s in an almost clinical manner. shout out to erika henningsen’s “exotic pet” obviously. that line should be studied by every ivy league with a literary program because regina and cady considering the other an exotic pet instead of a real friend but still seeking each other’s approval……. maybe the narrative foils are really reflections of my tin foil hat but hear me out. it’s so interesting that they refer to regina as an apex predator because apex predators are animals without natural enemies but almost every single friend or admirer of regina’s exhibits an envious kind of awe when it comes to regina. regina’s so magnetic that you can’t be her enemy but close enough to pseudo-celebrity that you can’t exactly be her friend either. also the harmony at the end combined with the epic percussion deserves its own award. no longer does egot mean anything. One must be an egota (emmy grammy oscar tony apex predator singer) to be considered showbiz royalty

stupid with love (reprise): cady is so so smart and so so stupid. aaron getting confused at a genuine compliment not solely based on his looks is adorable but i also love it when the line delivery gets changed to be more like “wow i already know i’m cool but it’s nice to hear it from the cute possibly murderous girl who sits behind me”. same goes for cady’s “shit” right after aaron swears off dating–it’s funny as hell whether she’s smiling through the pain or so disappointed in herself she looks like she’s experiencing medical shock. her making love into a function is similarly messed up but funny as hell. i literally have a google drive folder full of audio clips of the “i just don’t get it–i’ll never get it–i just don’t get it–somehow…” part it’s so serious

sexy: this is modern feminism talking i expect to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in - the greatest mind of our generation karen smith. if the national emergency alarm was changed to the ending riff i would become an arsonist just to hear it over and over again. a youtube commenter said that she sings every line like she’s waiting to be shown the script and redo it and whenever acting and singing can waltz along in magnificence together i sob in joy even if that waltz is set to trashy pop. literally every costume shown is worthy of fashion week and then some. the sex doctor bit is beyond saturday night live. sexy rosa parks deserves the world. modern feminism is a mess but at least it built the last verse of this incredible song.

someone gets hurt: regina pretending to cry and aaron being confused again and then being manipulated into a makeout session is so so funny. so terrible but so funny. the incredible blare of noise after that first “until someone gets hurt” feels like being pushed off a cliff and into a sea of warning sirens which feels fitting. if any song from the stage show were to be played by a chamber orchestra i would want it to be someone gets hurt because everything about it is almost four seasons by vivaldi to me. as i said do not expect sensible comparisons from this review. it’s really dark and intense like all of regina’s numbers but this time her style of seduction is on full display, highlighted by some heavy timpani work and a male ensemble that’s carrying more than just regina on their backs holy cow. squidward would worship regina with how she made the bass clarinet sultry despite hitting something in the high fs during each “hurt” and holding that “go” for like five seconds. the ending is giving celine dion’s villain arc. it’s also maybe the first time the audience sees aaron through the eyes of anyone other than cady who’s so starstruck she might as well be blind and we see a guy who’s still susceptible to regina’s yknow reginaness. she guilt trips him about his potential infatuation with his body and then gets extremely touchy with him while wearing a playboy bunny costume. she asks if she was a game he wanted to play despite (maybe devoid of remorse) playing him just to get back at cady. she’s making so much shit up because peeling away too many layers of her perfection would be dangerous but so would losing aaron to cady’s actual openness. first she says “fine” to mean that she’ll be fine without aaron in the reverse psychology sense, then they say “fine” to mean that they’re both hot af, then he says “fine” to agree to get back with regina and possibly to convince himself that his interest in cady can and should be pushed aside because being with regina is better for them both. love this song. hate being unable to sing a single note of it.

revenge party: my overall fave song of the obc album, the stage show, and the movie musical. words alone cannot describe the excitement that electrocutes my nerves when i hear “now you know, caddy—” because everything from that line onwards is going to be stuck in my head for at least a week. some people can’t function until their first cup of coffee in the morning, i can’t function until my first listen of revenge party. in slight relation to that gretchen’s squawking will make me spit out any drink; such has been scientifically proven over the course of several years. i actually have a line-by-line analysis of revenge party drafted so i won’t go into detail right now because i need viewer retention but i mean it when i say art freak harmonization is the best kind.

whose house is this: if kevin g has one fan it is me. let the man rap even if half his lyrics don’t make sense. i have heard the big fun from heathers comparisons. i have heard the halloween from be more chill comparisons. all of them are so incorrect i could set several houses ablaze with the rage i feel at the very suggestion that whose house is this isn’t a masterpiece. no joke this is the first song on my workout playlist. the way nobody even cares about cady in this number is hilarious and so is kevin refusing to swear. gretchen deserves all the thank yous and so does the horns section. karen’s actions are just. Absurd as they always should be. the mario kart ass instrumentals during that “turn the freaking music up” segment make me pleasantly stressed. there are traces of jungle techno but little to no traces of cady’s signature sound and the usually lax but articulate and expressive rhyme scheme of her songs switching to frenzied verses full of immaturity and inconsideration makes me feel things that should not be felt while listening to a rave number with flatulent bass.

more is better: the only romantic duet to ever exist if you ask me. the fact that cady switches from the more sincerity-charged love to like most likely because the plastics’ philosophy is to be cool about things makes me want to bite the bars of alcatraz prisons. the way cady’s signature sound only really returns after aaron chooses to leave her because she’s become regina 2.0 without even acknowledging it is the stuff of emotionally resonant legend. as i said in my aaron review post the only thing that bothers me about this number is aaron kissing cady while she’s clearly drunk and he isn’t but cady kind of gets him back after do this thing so. yay equality. aaron’s so tired of being manipulated and told to shut up i feel so bad for him. cady’s so in denial about missing her old home in any capacity and being uncomfortable with the skin she’s tried to grow into for aaron’s sake and i feel so bad for her. the shimmering sound that comes with cady singing “stars” makes me feel better though. 11/10 would be sad again. say no to excessive air conditioning and light pollution

someone gets hurt (reprise): i like it when gays have bad breakups without even dating. what more do you want. but actually i am obsessed with the way this is blocked out because the way the chaos of cady’s house gradates into the dark street where there’s nothing but her and her crumbling friendships. the link between janis and regina is really reinforced by this song and it makes me feel insane.

world burn: the only way regina can redeem herself for wearing a black turtleneck and black pants is by slaying so hard you forget she’s just printing shit and polluting the corridors and she does it in world burn. her having a recurring set of notes to follow until she absolutely loses it is iconic. i learned so much about hernia formation through this song so i think it’s also an educational heritage site. the contrast of her 1984-esque lyrics and beats with lines like “trang pak is a grotsky byotch” is beyond hilarious but in the context of the show it makes my timbers shiver. she is both manipulated and the master manipulator. renee rapp’s opt up for the ending is golden but every regina brings their own flair and intensity to it. something that really interests me is how different actresses interpret the lines “this is what i get for helping / helping someone lame fit in” because to generalize regina either thinks she was actually helping cady or is trying to convince herself/the audience that her primary motivator was controlling cady’s every action before she got too hot to ignore or because she saw her hanging around janis and damian or because regina can’t ask a girl out like a normal person. idk it’s very fun and very satisfying to listen to and ramps up the ante for all antagonistic songs ever!

i’d rather be me: did you mean the feminist anthem of the twenty-first century? i’d rather be me is pure janis in her sort of jumpy, edgy, eleven o’clock exasperated glory tuned to this effusive fusion of pop and rock. the energy this has is soooo good because every girl in school is tired of being treated like shit because of the expectations placed on them by society and the idea that by i’d rather be me the female student body of north shore is so exhausted of the plastics’ bs that they parade janis around despite shunning her for years is amazing. most criticisms of this are abt how wordy it is or how it’s not worded right but hello janis is a teenager her inner and outer monologue is not going to be as mature as fucking grizabella the glamor cat and it can include words that anyone would study for the sats like sycophant. sycophant is not that fancy a word i learned the word sycophant from a star wars fanfiction i read when i was seven how could you not know the word sycophant at age seven squared after making a living out of reviewing shows written by wordsmiths like sondheim. sorry that was mean i’m just tired of people either going “they wouldn’t talk like that they’re teenagers” or “they shouldn’t talk like that they’re part of a theatrical production worth millions of dollars!” lmao

ok so i think that janis was losing herself just as much as cady over the course of the revenge plot taking place because okay she’s ruined regina but she’s barely changed anything about herself and if her plan had worked without hitches wtf was she going to do. was she going to keep hanging out with cady. was she going to fill the power vacuum left by the plastics herself. was she going to run regina over with a bus herself. i’d rather be me is the culmination of the crushing pillars of her revenge plot and the full realization that revenge wasn’t what she wanted–she wanted to change the way the world works, change it into a place where people can just do and be without being ostracized. to me the instrumentals and the mockery in the lyrics are almost stinging?? someone with even could describe this better than me but the strings during the instrumental section between verses remind me of a mosquito bite because they’re high and sharp and put against the heavy drums and cymbal crashes they really paint this picture of a dam of anger breaking and giving way to a new wash of awareness. 

also i cannot stand it when ppl say this song is the show giving endorsement to janis being a hypocrite there is a reason why all the lyrics are in future tense. she is wrapping her mind around the notion that there is no pleasing everyone, that there is no true gratification gained by holding grudges and letting them control your every thought, that if you don’t let yourself have the liberty of lashing out you’re only going to manifest your maliciousness in worse ways with longer-lasting effects. that being said let girls be haters

also the obc album should’ve let janis swear. every public performance of i’d rather be me should let janis swear. let her have a line with bite before her throat turns into a cavern where vowels go to melt into a singular solution

also janis’s costumes over the course of the whole show are amazing but her look in i’d rather be me goes so hard. if i had any of janis’s jackets i think i’d curl into it like a cocoon and wait until the heat death of the universe for metamorphosis into coolness

do this thing: no joke this is the second song on my workout playlist. i hate the title so much but i love also the audience reaction when ms norbury starts singing as if she didn’t just slay the what’s wrong with me reprise gets me every time. truly the actresses in the adult women track are so underappreciated and so are the adult women in general. kevin g’s unabashed doing of the thing regardless of the haters is iconic. the return of the heavy percussion is so enjoyable and so are the mathletes’ lines lining up with the steaming kettle sound somehow behind each buzzer even though i hate buzzers because in real life mathletes nobody wants to answer on beat. ms norbury best matchmaker ever i LOVED the detail of aaron being present for the mathletes’ win but cady clearly focusing on the competition above all else. i’m pretty sure the mathletes are also the only characters to drop an f-bomb in a song which is just fantastic + the gretchen/regina parallel between kevin and marwan regarding schquillz is phenomenal. “the limit does not exist” being both the answer to the question that signifies cady’s return to her old self with more self-assurance and the theme of the musical in terms of not limiting other people is a level of genius i will never reach.

i see stars: i’m sorry they gave cady a big finale where she calls everyone beautiful and bright and holds hands with the other girls she’s hurt and you expect me to not love it?? this one had to grow on me though because i was so bothered about the stars imagery coming up maybe like five songs before when we’d been following animals and math for the whole show. as we all know characters can only have one or two interests before they become completely incoherent. but now i know more about light pollution and have played the video of this song with the pride chorus more times than i’ve blinked so i get it. shane oman also breaking his crown during the escalation of the instrumentals from a very optimistic but singular combo of strings and cymbals into the violins and heavier drums and whatever else is such a good detail. i still get goosebumps with that “you stars” there is just so much emotion packed into this finale and the rest of the ensemble joining in is as effective as onions being cut directly into my eyes when it comes to crying. obviously my fave version of this is the one with cady and janis’s mini duet during the rhinestones don’t shine part but guaranteed this one will make me cry no matter what

now. for the songs that didn’t make it onto my absolute fave list they are still my children just bastard ones and i will go into detail about them too because there is no point in writing this post if it does not crash the tumblr dashboard for you

a cautionary tale (reprise): akin to its origins, the reprise of a cautionary tale kicking off act two is there to introduce the act, but unlike its first iteration, the reprise is literally just there. no jokes no nothing. would love to see it reworked into something that reminds the audience they’re north shore freshmen being told this story by janis and damian because i forget about that framing device until the dialogue break in i see stars every time lmao but other than that it’s serviceable and any song that involves art freak harmonization is a solid song

meet the plastics: maybe i don’t love women as much as i claim to. I don’t know why i don’t like this song more truly. Maybe i just need to listen to it more lmao because the lyrics are great, the tempo changing with each introduction is great, and gretch waiting until regina’s out of earshot to try and convert cady into a fetch truther is great. Maybe it’s the “humps my leg like a chihuahua” line that turned me off from it because nell benjamin i do not care that you wrote legally blonde i do not think regina george would bring up animal humping imagery considering what her mother puts her through unless she was hopped up on pain meds. All that being said i would die for the polyphony at the end and karen playing with cady’s hair near the end is so cute

what’s wrong with me: gretchen it’s not you it’s me and i like songs with a specific sort of climax and what’s wrong with me really does feel like a music box piece played by some dusty not-quite-antique you find in the attic that makes you feel a particular, peculiar strain of melancholy because it’s so cyclical and fragile. which is the point, probably! It just sounds really different from the rest of the show and i feel like the lyrics don’t quite fit the language we’ve heard gretch using so far but maybe that’s also part of the point. That being said the line “see that you see what’s wrong with me” makes me go mad because there are so many ways to interpret it. Is she telling the audience that they should be able to see what’s wrong with her? Is she saying that the audience sees something good in regina that she can’t see anymore because of her constant mistreatment? Is she once again asking what’s wrong with her or has she finally had a breakthrough about her dismal self-esteem?

fearless: oh my god a cady song and act ender that i’m not totally into sound the sirens. but really fearless without the revisitation of the it roars/wild life passage that tells the audience what makes her fearless aside from wanting to move to america (which might make her more fearless than i thought now i sound that out but still) isn’t my favorite songs despite it having some of my favorite moments like karen’s ribbon dance, gretchen’s very cool dance, cady mirroring regina’s pose on top of the cafeteria table at the start of meet the plastics at the end, the mini someone gets hurt reprise at the end, it isn’t my favorite to listen to because the lyrics are just all over the place. Cady why are you saying that she’ll go cry to mama do you think mrs george is sober enough for that. Cady why are you spouting live love laugh merchandise ass quotes. Cady why are you quoting dwayne the rock johnson “imagine stronger, better, bolder” are you going to play a lacrosse game against regina. Why does karen not wear more vests after this number

You know what made me care about fearless?? The fearless reprise. Oh my god the fearless reprise. I need to make a separate post about the fearless reprise but i can’t listen to it more than once a day or i’ll end up crying for hours on end.  

stop: is it homophobic of me to put three damian songs on this list? probably but i make up for it by filling that broadway cares bucket every time i can. and it’s not that i even really dislike stop!! I have so many thoughts about stop!! i just don’t like it when compared to the other songs that can hold up inside and outside the context of the show!! i just feel like it has to be experienced live to understand its award-losing enormity unlike where do you belong and even then it sounds noticeably different from the rest of the show + essentially pauses the narrative to talk about a whole other story that never gets resolved outside of damian being ghosted (i thought theater was supposed to provide escapism 😔) and then frays a bunch of threads out from the ensemble in a way that doesn’t feel quite as well sewn in as the worship we see during apex predator or after rockin’ around the pole because like. it’s funny sure but just the act before we saw that things can be funny while also moving the story along past attempting to hammer in the message “stop ignoring your real friends” in cady’s thickened-by-makeup head. 

also how does damian even know about her word vomit. cady barely even word vomits in the stage show. it’s all just word coughing fits of confusion and unintentional comedy under peer pressure. whenever she says something embarrassing she either gets cut off or turns it into a whole song. i’m sorry damian i love you and your stupid straw hat but we just saw the whole show we don’t need a recap of everything that happened in the last hour with almost zero internal rhymes and without the frantic pacing of ya got trouble from the music man. cmon.

onto things i love about stop tho which are a) the gaiety (and gay-ty) b) the dancing and c) the staging. i love it when gay characters just get to be silly goofy instead of singing themselves to their graves and even if damian was built off the dramatic thespian homostereotype he gives me the impression of a silly goofy teen trying to balance the interests of his best friends with his sanity through the medium he’s most comfortable in which happens to be literally show-stopping song-and-dance number. also we get cadnis content in the background and the choreo i’ve seen for how janis plays keep away with cady’s phone only gets better (which of course is a synonym for gayer. let the babies hold hands before they yell at each other in the street and see a 15-second death they’re both sort of kind of responsible for). the dancing of course is wonderful. i mean does it make sense in-story for damian to somehow be popular enough with the ladies to rally them into a giant dance break after asking them to divulge their biggest, darkest secrets like an hour after being kicked out of the girls’ bathroom and calling one of them danny devito? probably not. is it really enjoyable when you aren’t itching to get back to the main story? yes. it also makes north shore feel more authentic in a sense?? obviously there’s so much about the social hierarchy exaggerated for comedic effect but yeah public high school is that crazy one day you’ll hear that a classmate got into a drunk driving accident and the next you’ll hear that the same classmate scored an audition for the x factor. and the transition from the art classroom, which is one of my fave sets in the whole show because aghhhh i want to pause everything and analyze art whenever it comes up in a tv show or movie or video game or musical because it’s almost never just art present for the sake of filling the set! there’s a reason why the set designers put that there or downloaded that asset or whatever! based on the official yt video in stop we see a sort of cubist portrait of janis ian, a few monochrome figure studies, and some more abstract pieces and i so want to know what this number would’ve looked like in-universe. did cady legit just run out of class to confront damian and get swept into a gay tea spilling session until the end of the day. be glad you got suspended girl

so. while i cannot begin to fathom the stamina it takes for damian to go from that gorgeous dance break into the grand vocal ending—philip doesnt know what he’s missing out on for sure—stop is not something i play on purpose but if the obc album shuffles to it i won’t complain!

what’s wrong with me (reprise): is it homophobic of me to put every gretchen song sans whose house is this on this list? probably but again it’s just not something i can put on repeat/a number i think depends on the production to arouse much entertainment value. it’s fucking hilarious though i’ll give it that. like it might be in the top three of mg songs when it comes to unadulterated comedy. my heart breaks when gretchen realises she’s stuck in this cycle of servitude and is still being hurt by the people she most desires the approval of and her work is still going unappreciated and then i get a heart attack from laughing because regina’s reign of terror is so absolute even her own mother has feared her from the age of three onwards?? in addition to that what’s wrong with me reprise is why i cannot stand for mrs george hate she’s just a girl too. a toxic girl who never emotionally developed past high school but like. what do you want her to do. she has never had a heartfelt conversation with her daughter ever. also “why couldn’t it just be drugs” is so funny to me because yknow. reggie gets hit by a bus and spends the rest of the show so high she forgets her love languages are acts of slanderous service, passive-aggressive gifts, weaponized physical touch, quality time spent playing hard to get, and words of refutation. taylor louderman deserved a tony for pulling the kalteen bar scream off every night too i think it’s night queen aria levels of difficulty.

the funniest part of this song to me is probably the way it starts and ends so abruptly. usually you can tell when a song’s about to start in a musical but gretchen nearly breaking down into sobs as soon as cady turns her non-self-tanned back without missing a beat is both relatable and hysterical. my girl is clinging to les mis motifs and middle school herd mentality in a world meant for fosse tributes. the spotlight is only on her when she talks about how dim her light feels in comparison to other characters. then mrs george joins in and you get the first female/female duet to rival defying gravity since idk. everything in fun home. i take cash and credit not criticism.

but really the gretchen/mrs george connection is so interesting because they tether themselves to regina in a style that’s irreconcilable with happiness on either end and they know that but possibly for a mix of selfish and sympathetic reasons don’t want to leave in any capacity. the way they’re separated on stage by little more than a change in colored lighting is interesting too and raises the question of whether or not they’re aware that regina’s sun is burning those closest to her in general.

also. can plastic cady snap and yell at me i want to feel something

in conclusion i love you pezberrywhoreee thank you for asking this. i think i said the words “also” and “but” more times than i said the word “gay” and that’s a real hurdle to fly over. i think i expect many random things in your inbox hereafter as retribution/reward depending on how you see it

[fearfylsymmetry]

less of an ask and more of a compliment i love the way your tags are organized…”decay as a commodity” “bodies shifting in narrow spaces” etc is it your own original work or quoting from a song/poem/or something?

helloo angel and welcomee to the show, its always such a joy when people appreciate my silly little tagging system. they're all just random sentences i thought up ages ago, , just to make sense of the mess in front of you etc y'know how it gets love. i couldn't really get behind tagging things as "art" "people, faces places things" etc. i needed to inject a bit of flavour to the whole thing (let this not be read as a subtle jab towards any new york based tumblrinas , we're above that c'mon now). i wouldn't say these little phrases are "personal" by any means but they have been motifs i wanted to actively explore in the art i make so no harm putting them up here i guess haha

for posterity's sake i thought i'd just copy an explanation of my tags from an old ask

decay as a commodity : okay so i envisioned this as a way to just summarize modern living? i think of a whole blueish neon color scheme with this one. my line of thinking was,, with the world slowly rotting away and living becoming so expensive and exhausting, whats the one commodity we all share? wouldn't it be decay? aren't we all slowly fading together etc etc. i use this for images with cooler muted tones and anything with a futuristic vibe,, along with some grimey, monochrome photography

the setting dawn: this is the polar opposite of decay, i think of it as "hope beyond hope" a la Prior Walter's line in Angels in America. i know "the setting sun " might sound more natural but i think of it as,, dawn , when the sun breaks through - in this short period the world starts to wake. qs the dawn sets the day kicks in, with all its routine misery. Dawn i think, is the only time the sun is kind to you, because its still hidden away at least slightly. But the day truly starts and itbeats down on you. And yet we continue to live, past the boredom and the pain, we live past hope, past the quiet comfort of dawn. I use this for pictures with earthy tones and things on the more uplifting side

bodies shifting in narrow spaces: this has some overlap with the decay tag, im not as organized as i need 2 be. i use this for figures & portraits ill want to draw or just really any photography i like that features a human presence. think of it as people so dependent on an outside gaze they constantly try to reinvent themselves, or just, everyday people, getting less and less time to live, having to work and forcing themselves into relationships with any real connection

original sin and other contingencies: im trying to fit this in for more risque photography and maybe things on the more gory side. how do i explain this.. okay so... when there's nothing left to do you'll always have sin to turn to just yo keep yourself occupied, along with other methods/contingencies u get the jist

linen that lingers: my fashion tag nothing more 2 it

the canvas as testimony: for art that is made for the gallery or art that is held in higher regard i guess, more high culture. it includes painting, sculptures,along with architecture,, but maybe i should make an architecture tag. i think of the things here as more personal efforts

motion on a still surface: for art that is energetic and really pops off the page. includes comics, manga, fanart, animation. stuff here may be more low culture but really its not. i just differentiate these art tags as ,,one is stuck to the canvas whatever that canvas may be, while the other leaps off the page

word on a wing let me soar: books, poetry, articles, journals , all words that i adore

a conversation with the self: i wanted this to be for things that are very personal to me but i just use my other tags

angels in descent: my little funny haha tag for yknow ,,, funny haha. yknow the "devil's rejects" the movie? like its a way of saying people so horrible no even the devil would take them. okay so i thought " god's rejects " but that's lame. so i landed on this, like idk...imagine angels falling from grace

arcade shuffle: for my little viddy games lol. sorry for being a #gamergirl but yes it happens sadly ,,moving on

jet jump jive: for songs

at the pictures: for movies,, like imagine im going "cant talk im at the pictures wheee ^_^"

there is such a great distance between now and later: to track my art and writing progress but i barely use it cause it barely draw or write these days i blame the wave of despair that washeth over me

proof of concept: photos i took but there's like almost nothing here

misc that are just funny 2 me like i do it 4 a little chuckle i deserve it:

screw it posting hole - for hole the band

bowies in spaaace - for bowie, after the flight of the concords song cmon its a little funny at least cmon now

twink speaks- for twin peaks lol

[bogkeep]

lounges across a chair with a cup of tea. you know, i could do a little bit of aroblogging. for old time's sake. for new time's sake? 'cause there's a thought i've been rotating for a bit, something i've been wanting to knit into a piece of poetry - maybe some day, just not today. it's something i've not seen discussed very much, or at all, really - probably because i haven't been looking in the right spaces, or looking at all. probably because it's going to make me sound kind of pretentious or arrogant, but i'm used to that, so: it's just - the strangeness of being an aroace person people keep falling in love with. i think "kind of person people keep falling in love with" is just something that happens if you're a person who's comfortable with yourself, or when you have a lot of interpersonal relationships, or if you just share much of yourself with other people. just, having contact with people around you in some way. feelings happen when they have the opportunity to grow! i don't know how it works! but i've been that person, at least a little bit, you know? it kind of happened as i grew older and grew into myself. it was very confusing, too, because like okay, i like myself, but i'm not necessarily expecing others to like me, it's great when they do but i wasn't banking on it! what!!!! it's very sweet and all but it also means - facing the conundrum: do i Want this, or do i just Want to Want it, or am i just Curious about what it would mean to Have it? i've Tried, and i still don't know. personally, i'm glad for having tried, because otherwise i'd be asking myself for the rest of my life what it would be like to Try, and that's a me thing. i'm not immune to the yearning! you'd think being aroace would make you immune to the Yearning. i want my money back? it also means - that no, i'm not aroace "because i can't get some," i promise, but it's not an argument i should have to make in the first place. it's such a strange spiral of an accusation, because in the world i live in there's nothing shameful about being single or a virgin regardless of orientation. to me it's a relief to not have to have sex with another person, but apparently i live in a society and in that society that's such a fundamentally alien notion i'm impossible to relate to. sorry about that.

it also means - i have to be the person who rejects people, and there's always so many stories about being the person who gets rejected, and there's mountains of sad songs and sympathy for being the Rejected One, the Lonely One, and of course, learning to handle rejection with grace is an important, painful thing. never got many saturday morning cartoon lessons in how to reject, though. not just in romantic pursuits, but in general. always running the treadmill of the scarcity mindset and You Must Never Hurt Anyone For Good Reason and there i was, crying my eyes out at my childhood friend's trampoline in the sunset telling him i'm sorry i can't love him back that way, and there i am, replying to the kindest social media DMs with i'm sorry i can't be your friend but it's not something i can force - i know it hurts, and who would we be if it didn't hurt, and if i didn't hurt you i would have to be the one to carry the pain. it's hard to make relatable, i guess? always the fucking relatability! i know a lot of people can't Relate. because we're young and lonely and yearning and starved, because we're social animals, even if we're fiercely independent or enjoy the solitude. not to make assumptions! i know we're all different and want different things from life! but there's not a lot of frameworks for how to fill our cups when every beverage we're offered is the wrong flavor. i know coke makes my teeth feel weird but there's so, so many commercials for it, and it looks tasty in all of them, and i haven't had a drink in forever, how do i not crave it? i'll still show up to the party asking for a water and everyone is gonna give me the weird looks. am i sure? am i sure? i'm tired of feeling like a wrecking ball, i say. uhhh okay idk what that is about, they'll say, but water? that's a little boring, isn't it? we have so much soda, though. there's coke, coke, and vanilla coke. just tap water, please and thank you. hope i don't ruin your party.

[hatsukeii]

hiii! im relatively new to your blog, but after read just one fic (guess which hahah), im stunned. your writing falls into place like absolute poetry. i wanna ask which books/media inspire you write or influence your style! im also craving ring pops now lmao. all in all, thank you sm for all the great fics, im gonna have a very fun night reading them all 💗💗💗

hihihihi!! welcome to the blog!! so happy to hear that you enjoy my work<33

i like to think of my style as a bit of an amalgamation of everything i've consumed before, whether it's actual books or fanfiction :)

a lot of my dialogue is inspired by how i talk with my friends, as well as by normal people by sally rooney! i love the way that rooney writes dialogue, it's heartwrenching and to the point, and doesn't drag on, so it feels real! normal people is such a great read as well, i will never get over that book HAHA

in terms of my general style, im a big fan of imagery, since it's kinda right in my ballpark and one of my biggest strengths in writing. it does get a bit hard thinking of new descriptions for similar things, so im working to try and improve on that. i think it's always a good idea to incorporate symbolic imagery into more sentimental works, so that's where a lot of my personal voice is derived from when i write angsts or complex emotional connections!

when it comes to humour i tend to use deadpan dialogue and absurdity because it just hits different LOL idk how to explain it tbh im a fan of writing character and relationship dynamics that are feasible, but also relatable in a way that gets people giggling:)

if you go down a deep dive, you might realise that almost all of my works are inspired by lyrics and song titles, because i actually get most of my style from how a song sounds! that's why i have my playlist linked in my intro post LOL i like to just sit there and shut my eyes for like a solid minute with a song in the background so i can figure out what vibe im going for in a piece

anyways that's all i can think of atm, but thanks so much again for liking my writing! it makes me really happy to hear that my writing sounds like poetry to you like it makes me giggle and kick my feet a little bit ngl ;PP

[blue-moon-writes-crap]

Zephyr (Gojo x OC) - Chapter 2

Description (Mirae's POV) - Being a trainee and being cut right before debuting was hard. Then being set as the manager for the same group? A whole different thing that I wasn’t ready to take. I just don’t know if it’s good or bad? I guess the best thing I could do is do my job, support my friend and hope for the best.

⚠️TW⚠️: None!

I DO NOT own Jujutsu Kaisen or any of the characters (Except Mirae, Yui & Inori who are MY OCs).

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The audience started rolling into their seats. Backstage, everyone was getting ready. Mirae rushed around looking for Mei Mei’s dress, since her’s was accidentally delivered to the wrong dressing room but they didn’t know which one. She rushed to each of the girls’ dressing rooms, knocking on the door before asking if they had the dress. They all didn’t, so now, she had to find the head manager of “BRiLLiaNT DaY”, Kiyotaka Ijichi. She looked around and was finally able to find him. “Manager Ijichi, I need to ask you something.” The man turned towards Mirae. “Oh, you’re the manager for “Lyra”. Is there something you need?” She quickly explained what was going on and asked if he could help see if any of the boys accidentally received the dress.

The two of them checked three of the four band members, but none of them had it. Finally, they headed to the dressing room of Satoru Gojo, the leader of “BRiLLiaNT Day”. Manager Ijichi knocked on the door and asked if they could enter. Once they got an okay, they entered. “We were wondering if a dress was accidentally dropped off here.” Ijichi explained. “Oh yeah. It should be on the sofa.” He said. Mirae wondered why he didn’t send someone to ask about it, but her thoughts were broken with a question. “So, you're the manager of “Lyra”, huh?” Gojo sounded surprised. “Yes, I actually am.” He stood up from his chair and walked towards her. “You look like you could be an idol.” She was flattered at the compliment, but responded with a small thank you. “But I guess some people are just in this position to meet famous people.” That statement hit her in the wrong way, so she decided to thank Ijichi and leave quickly. “I’ve wasted a lot of time anyways. Why should I care how some random idol’s views people?”

Everything else went fine and nothing went wrong afterwards and Idol Knockout started. 

(A/N: The rules of the show are that there are two teams (Divided by idol groups). Each team would get a question about the opposite time, your usual, simple Q&A question, with 30 seconds to answer. With each correct answer, the team would be rewarded a point. The group with the most points would get to pick a charity to give 1,600,000 yen (A bit over 10,000 dollars), while the losing team would have to do a punishment (Like the pie face).)

It was close to the end of the show, each team was tied with 20 points each, so they decided to hold a tie-breaker round. The question went to “BRiLLiaNT DaY”. “Our final tie-breaker question is… Who is the writer of the song “Poetry” by “Lyra”?” None of the boys were able to answer so when the time was up, the host asked “Lyra” to answer. “The answer is… Me!” Yui revealed. This left everyone kind of surprised, but out of everyone watching the show, it left Mirae the most surprised, since she co-wrote the song. Mirae quickly searched up the song to see if it was true, and it was. 

Once the show ended and everyone was off set, Mirae walked up to Shoko and asked her if she knew. “Yeah, Yui said she did. What’s the matter?” This confused both of them. “The song ‘Poetry” is a song that Yui and I co-wrote before you guys debuted. She didn’t leave me any credits. I mean, she did ask if she could pitch the song as an idea and I agreed, but only if she left my credits too.” They decided to confront her about it tomorrow. 

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Word Count: 653

Zephyr Masterlist