#instead of coming up with actual good ideas the eureka song just plays in my head lol

[redgearsmovin]

some of these song lyrics just get stuck in my head .. like:

"nani moku~ nani moku~"

"babababa good ideas!"

[giyuwu-san]

burn the stage — part 1 // dabi

—  A multi-chapter fic complete with your favorite indie and mainstream bops. Watch as you fall in love with the captivating guitarist of a band one drunken, perfect night. (BAND AU)

↱ PAIRING : Dabi x Female!Reader

↱ WORD COUNT : 5K

↱ WARNINGS : Mentions of alcohol, Suggestive themes, Strong language, Dabi being hot

↱ TAGS : @yusemis​ @lordexplosionsextra​ @astrrnmy​​ @basicallyberry​ @j-brielmalfoy​ (I actually remembered my taglist this time wow)

↱ AUTHOR’S NOTE : Thank you sosososo much to @kaikamikazi​ for allowing me to use her likeness for Kai’s character! Happy birthday to my favorite clown <3 everyone please wish her a happy birthday woot woot !!! And also huge huge thanks to @doughnuts-5ever​ and @jojosmilktea​ for helping me proofread/betaread this fic huhu it was a whole ass mess you guys are absolute legends tysm!!

↱ PLAYLIST

↱ SERIES  MASTERLIST 

------------------------------------------------✈

scene one; no song

          "Thousands of years ago, our ancestors looked up at the night sky and saw a field of lights." 

The aged man paced around the room, hands folded behind his back and hair graying by the roots. His side facing the blackboard on the wall, he continued;

          "None of them really knew what they were," he stopped and looked at the vast sea of students perched atop of chairs in the big room. "But, they made a fascinating observation."

You sat listening to your professor, your chin perched on your open palm, and eyes focused on the notebook that sat idly on your connected desks. 

          "They noticed that the patterns were predictable and had clear effects." The man said with some form of self-acknowledged eureka, his left hand coming up to the height of his face, index finger pointing up at the heavily-lit ceiling. "The seasons, the tides, the harvests."

          "Incredible, isn't it?" he resumed.

The man was about to continue on his tangent. But that was until a hand shot up in the air, followed by a voice. 

          "Uhm, professor?" the boy who raised his hand asked. "Aren't we supposed to be learning about chemistry?" 

Your professor looked at him, who now appeared to be slightly frightened by the blank but disrupted gaze of his teacher. 

          “Pfft—” 

You turned around to see your friend Kai, her head resting upon her folded arms. Was she seriously trying to sleep through the lesson again?

          “The one opportunity we got to sleep,” she sighed. “You just had to ruin it, brainy.”

          “Is that seriously what you call a sufficient insult?” you asked as you fully tilted your head towards her direction.

          “Wasn’t saying it to insult him.” She said casually as she massaged her head with the hand closest to her, face still partially buried within her entangled arms. “Wasn’t saying it to compliment him either though.”

You scoffed.

          “You’re unbelievable,” and at that, the darker-skinned girl turned to you with horror in her eyes.

          “Oh no,” she said petrified.

          “What?”

          “You’re being a Karen again.” 

You looked at her dumbfounded, sighing.

          “I am not being a Karen,” you started. “I’m just saying—” 

It was already too late, however, as Kai had both her hands covering her ears, blocking out your protests as well as all her other life issues. 

You sighed once more and turned your attention back to your professor, your notebook still open on your desk.

          “Your semester is practically over,” said your professor, standing idly in front of all the students, his left hand reaching up to habitually play with the fabric of his suit tie. 

          “So, let me have some me-time every once in a while," he continued.

‘You never let us have any me-time—’ is what you could feel the hoard of tired students internally screaming around you. 

The aged man cleared his throat and set along to once again resume his lengthy ramble. 

          “Where was I?” he asked himself, his feet already departing from his standstill position in the middle of the room as he started walking about once more. 

          “Ah yes, so it seemed logical that these lights shaped everything else in our lives. But with the scientific method disproving all these theories, why do people still look for meaning in the stars?”

A hand shot up in the air once again, only to be shot back down by a quick hand gesture from the professor.

          “Calm down now, I’m not done yet,” he said. 

          “Many prolific historical figures of our kind, such as the Iikes of William Shakespeare, have used the concept of astrology as a metaphorical expression, more than an actual study. Whether or not he truly believed in it, he still used the idea of astrology to create some of his most well-known epigrams to date,” he continued.

          “With lines such as; ‘These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us.’ from King Lear, ‘A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.’ from Romeo and Juliet— I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with that one." He faced the students once more. "And my utmost favorite, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars—’” 

          “But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” 

          “—From Julius Caesar,” the professor smiled. “Well done, Miss L/N.”

Shock settled into your form, having realized that you had said that much louder than you had anticipated. Now with the burning stares of your classmates and uncontrolled laughter coming from a seatmate you used to call your best friend, you let out an exasperated sigh, head falling onto your desk and arms protecting you from the unfiltered judgment of the outside world. 

You sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day before finally coming out of hiding, your chin once again finding shelter in your welcoming palm. You stared down at your open notebook, observing each line and angle. Stared at the drawings of orbits clashing together with the unwelcome intrusion of jotted scientific equations. A picture of the sun as each planet aligned themselves accordingly within their rotation, along with the lengthy compound formula of 4 Bromo, 3-4 Dichloro, Ethyl Hexanoate, written briskly, and uncared for.

But despite your apparent unhappiness and deep-rooted sorrow, you lifted your head forward and listened to the lesson in front of you.

"You seriously need to loosen up," said Kai, her head faced towards you. "When was the last time you danced to music alone in your bedroom?"

You thought about it for a second.

She sighed.

          "You're so sad," she sighed once more and patted your head. "Poor baby."

She brought her hand down from the crown of your head, arm now resting on your shoulders as she brought you in closer. 

          "I'm gonna get you laid tonight," she said with conviction. You looked at her profile, absolutely bewildered.

          "I'm sorry, what?"

          "That's right," she nodded her head in content. "You're having sex tonight, just leave it to me."

          "Shouldn't we work on having me dance to music alone in my bedroom first?" you countered.

          "Even better," she grinned at you with the type of grin your primary teachers warned you about. You know, those creepy man smiles that you should run away from when faced with in a dark, ominous alley? "I'm taking you to a bar."

You could feel Mrs. Peterson screaming at you to run. 

But nobody really listened to Mrs. Peterson. Sorry.

You sighed once more at your beaming friend and nodded your head slowly.

          "Whatever," you finally said. Attention spanning back to the lecture in front of you as you turned your head. "After the class ends."

Kai smiled and leaned back into her chair, legs crossing and folded arms supporting her head from behind. She looked utterly satisfied.

          "Alright Karen," she said. 

          "My name is not Karen," you grumbled.

          "Then stop being such a Karen and let me have my fun," she closed her eyes and smiled. Totally abandoning the lecture playing out before her. Chemistry was all just a bunch of bullshit anyway. 

scene two; black eyes

Ambient lighting and muffled voices were what greeted you and Kai as you both entered the bar. The light that shone down above you cast an evanescent sheen across the tiny, hidden bar. 

You fumbled in with your red dress and heeled boots, bridging the edge of comfortable and painfully exposed. It’s been years since you've last worn a dress. 

          "Are you sure this isn't some kind of ancient speakeasy?" you asked Kai, uneasy. 

          "A speakeasy for bands and stuff sure," she shrugged. "Sadly, no dancing flapper girls, so sorry to disappoint." 

You nodded and started heading towards the bar. No matter how badly you wanted to keep up the 'holier than thou' attitude, college was rough and unforgiving. 

You ordered your drink and sat down on the stool, Kai following you shortly after as she sat beside you. 

          "I heard there's gonna be a good band playing tonight," she rings up the bartender and orders a drink. 

She takes one look at your drooping face and sighed, her hand coming up to massage your shoulder. 

          "Loosen up," she takes a sip from her drink, "just for tonight, okay?"

You sighed and nodded timidly, copying her as you took a swig of your own drink. 

          "Looks like they're almost up," she taps your shoulder. "Mr. Compress is about to introduce them." 

          "Mister wha—" she shushes you before you could continue, leaving you no other choice but to sigh and watch.

The man with the strange name took center-stage with the microphone in his hand. The crowd seemed to know who he was, for they cheered and started gathering at the front of the stage. 

          "Let's go take a closer look too," Kai stood up and started dragging you with her. "Take your drink with you."

You looked at the already half-empty glass and shrugged, opting to chug it down instead. You finished your drink and walked with Kai towards the pit of people, still confused about what exactly was going on.

The strangely named man started to speak.

          "Ladies and gentlemen," he threw his free hand in the air by his side flamboyantly. "What an incredible pleasure to have you all here tonight. I am delighted to see some familiar faces, and some new ones too." 

He grinned.

          "I'm sure a lot of you are here to relieve some stress, no?" he asked, and the crowd cheered in affirmation. The man chuckled and continued;

          "Well, I best not keep my wonderful patrons waiting then." The crowd cheered louder. "Without further delay, may I present to you, The Villain League!"

The crowd roared as four people took the stage, varied instruments at their disposal, but the one that caught your eye was the one that stood at the center, a guitarist, and a good looking one at that. 

He was mostly dressed in dark clothing, aside from the white t-shirt he wore under his long coat. His features were hidden beneath the shadow cast by the dimmed lights.

And that was when the music started.

Electric guitar blinded your senses and opened your eyes. The exhilarating sound numbed the nerves that coursed through your entire body. Every hair on your body stood on its roots, awakened by the new thrill of music.

The lights turned on to the max, and the crowd went wild. Hands flew up in the air, the drinks in the opposite limb gambling on the edge of death.

It was music like you've never heard before. 

          "Holy shit," you said to yourself, the alcohol in your system taking its effect.

The man in the middle started singing, and you gasped as you took in the rest of his features. A good portion of his face and neck were covered in burn marks, as well as the top of his torso, which then spread across his arms. You awed.

How could someone who looked so damaged be so perfect?

Your eyes watched in wonder as your ears listened with delight. You made a mental note to thank Kai for dragging you into one of the best nights of your life. 

So this is what college was supposed to be like.

You smiled, feeling the bricks fall off your shoulders. You stood straighter as your eyes opened wider, and shined even brighter. 

This is so awesome.

You threw your hands in the air and let out a scream with the rest of the crowd. Kai catches sight of this and follows along with your mania, a laugh escaping her lips.

You were enjoying the aura of absolute chaos, but nothing had prepared you the moment your eyes caught his, staring right back at you. His mouth formed a devilish smile that made all the heat rush through your body in mere seconds. 

          "The girl in the red dress," he said into the microphone. Your eyes widened in unalloyed shock as they caught sight of the mischievous glint in his own. "Come out on stage with us."

What the fuck?

The crowd cheered louder and started to look around to find who he was referring to. They soon caught sight of you, who was still calculating the odds of you being the only girl in red. 

The sea of people parted and formed a direct path from you to the stage, and you were honestly shell shocked. 

Kai laughed and cheered you on.

          "Congrats Karen, you've officially been promoted to Moses!" she cheered even louder.

          "What, I—" you sputtered out.

Kai took her left hand and smacked your back, forcing you to stumble forward.

          "Go!" she yelled at you through the howls of the crowd. "Get. Fucking. Laid!"

At that, the crowd burst into an explosion of screams. Whistles and hoots were all that was heard as your shaking legs made its way towards the stage. 

You eventually made it to the edge, and the enigmatic guitarist leaned down to help you. Grasping your hand firmly in his, he hoisted you up easily. 

          "What's your name?" he leaned into your ear as he said it, his steady voice combating all other noises, and winning. 

          "Y/N," you said right back into his ear, a shiver coursing through your body as the current situation was doing its number on your sanity.

          "Nice shoes Y/N," he said cooly, and your head started spinning.

          "Uh, thank you—"

          "Let's have a good time together," he smirked at you, who blushed madly. 

You looked over at the rest of his bandmates. A young girl with a blonde fringe manning the second electric guitar, she looked at you and grinned widely at you. Eyes smiled shut and tongue jutting out, she threw you a peace sign in welcome. 

You looked behind you and saw a strange-looking man playing both the bass and keyboard. You made eye contact with him and he smiled, only for him to completely change his expression and give you the stink-eye, much to your confusion and anxiety. 

Finally, you looked over at the drummer who had dead-looking baby blue hair; he glanced at you and nodded briefly in acknowledgment.

          "Don't mind the last two," the mysterious guitarist chuckled, "they're a lot more decent than they seem."

You nodded and smiled at him.

          "So," he started. "Care to join in on the fun?" 

You took a deep breath.

          "Okay."

It was funny how you had started with not even being able to dance alone in your room. And now here you were, dancing along with countless strangers to music you never felt before.  

scene three; ilysb

            "You're new here, right?" the man said. He was sitting across from you with his head resting on his hand. His piercing blue eyes were focused only on you. 

It had been about an hour since you stepped foot inside the hidden bar and thirty minutes since you were standing on stage with the band having the time of your life. 

You looked over to the stage and saw your drunk friend Kai singing 'I Kissed a Girl,' microphone in her hands as she belted her heart out to the cheering crowd. 

You couldn't help but chuckle, before turning your attention back to the enigmatic man staring intently at you.

          "That's not slightly creepy at all," you answered jokingly. 

The man chuckled slyly.

          "I play here almost every night," he retorted coolly. "I would have definitely remembered you if you weren't new." 

You nodded. Smooth.

          "Fuck men!" you turned around to find Kai screaming into the microphone, one hand on the microphone stand and the other on the microphone itself. You sighed at the common occurrence. 

          "Fun friend you got," the man with burn marks said, attention also brought over to your crazed friend.

You sighed and nodded.

          "I'm this close to dropping her," you said with no conviction.

He seemed to have caught on to your tone and answered accordingly.

          "But you never will," he said.

          "Yup," you nodded once more.

You looked over to him again, the alcohol in your body taking full effect.

          "Wanna get out of here?" you asked him.

He looked at you with his eyebrow raised, a small smirk playing on his lips.

          "And abandon your fun friend?" he asked you.

          "Yes," you looked at him straight in the eyes as you said it.

          "Sounds fun," he said, already standing up from his seat.

You followed suit, casting your drunk friend one last look before following the strange man out of the small speakeasy.

The cold night air greeted your body that clung tightly onto the limited warmth of your sweater jacket. You walked idly with the man standing beside you, the streets painted a dark vignette by the evening sky. The night suited him, you thought.

You let out a deep exhale which invaded the darkness with its cold color, the hues fighting until the dull white was engulfed by the overwhelming darkness of nightfall.

You looked up at the stars that were scattered across the sky, their white twinkle enrapturing the night sky with its light and color. Their light so bright that it couldn't be overthrown by the darkness of black. Instead, they were displayed up in the sky, allowed to show off their beauty with no restraints. 

          "Orion's in the sky," you observed quietly. 

The man turned over to look at you.

          "The constellation?" he asked as he too tilted his head up to watch the night sky.

          "Yeah," you nodded, "I can't find the Pleiades, though." 

Absentmindedly, your feet started moving in hopes to catch sight of the constellation. The dark-haired man watched you quizzically.

          "Do you really think moving around will make them appear?" he asked you, who was now trudging farther and farther away. He sighed and started following you.

          "There're so many buildings around," you groaned in your drunken state. "Can't a girl just see her stars when she wants to?" 

He tilted his head in slight amusement and chuckled lowly. 

          "If it's the buildings you're worried about, I know where there's a field," he said. You turned around instantly.

          "Show me this field, good sir." 

          "It's this way," he tilted his head over to the right, feet already walking towards its direction. You followed him, skipping.

You eventually were led towards an open field located on a small hill in the park. Wow, we had a park?

          "Woah," you said in wonder. Your arms flying up from your sides as you spun around the grass, hair dancing in the breeze from your movements.

The man just watched you curiously, a small smile of endearment flickering on his lips.

You let out a big sigh of contempt and threw yourself down onto the grass floor, feeling at peace as the earthly bodies embraced you. The man who led you here followed suit, leaving little to no distance between your two figures as he laid down beside you.

          "Can you see the Pleiades now?" he asked from beside you.

You looked up and examined the heavens, and your eye immediately catches the open star cluster that painted the sky. A gasp escapes your lips as you point up at the constellation you were looking for.

          "There they are!" you squealed slightly, unable to control your excitement in your drunken state.

          "Why'd you want to see them so badly?" he looked at you and asked.

          "If you catch sight of Orion, then you're most likely gonna find the Pleiades too." You started, eyes focused eagerly on the stars. "There's this whole story behind them you know, about Orion and the Seven Sisters.

          "It was said by Greek mythology that Orion fell in love with the sisters, and pined over them for 12 years. He would always chase after them in hopes that they would become his someday. But that was until one day Zeus decided to turn him and the sisters into stars. So Orion could chase them forever for the rest of eternity but never once be able to touch them."

          "Wow," he said from beside you.

          "Yeah," you said from beside him.

          "You said they were the Seven Sisters," he said.

          "Yeah?" you turned your head over to look at him, his eyes seemingly glowing under the star studded sky.

          "But I can only see six at most," he stated.

          "Oh," you turned your head back to the sky. "That's because those are the only ones visible to the naked eye. If you look through a telescope, a dozen more stars are visible."

          "Is there a story behind that, too?" he asked.

          "Yup," you stated and continued. "According to storytellers, Merope— one of the sisters, is hiding her face because she's the only one of the sisters who married a mortal and thus isn't respected for it. 

          "Her husband, Sisyphus isn't represented in the night sky either, cause he was condemned by Zeus to forever roll a stone up a hill in Hades only to watch it roll down again when he almost gets it to the top."

          "That's..." his voice drifted off, "really sad." 

You hummed in affirmation.

          "You really like astronomy, huh?" he stated. "I'm assuming you're into astrology too?"

          "Yeah," you answered.

          "So, you're some type of zodiac girl," he said. "How quirky."

You scoffed.

          "What type of music are you into?" he suddenly changed the subject, surprising you.

          "I don't listen to music that much honestly," you said, surprising him, but not showing it on his face.

          "Okay," he said. "Very quirky."

You laughed at yourself.

          "Are you okay?" he asked you jokingly, maybe the alcohol was finally starting to get to him too. "Childhood trauma? Emotional baggage? Crazy ex-boyfriend?" 

          "Traumatizing college life," you said matter-of-factly. "And also just downright not having the time to listen to music."

          "Spotify's expensive, too," you added.

          "Ever heard of a radio?" he asked.

          "Yes, but I can never concentrate on studying when music is on," you said.

          "Ah," he said in a moment of realization. "It all makes perfect sense now. What's your major?"

          "Organic chemistry," you said.

          "Yeah," he nodded. "Makes sense."

          "Kindly enlighten me then, cause I can't make sense of anything going on in my life," you said.

          "You're a young adult suffering from the expectations and academically-focused constructs of our society," he said.

          "Damn," you started. "You're right." 

You sighed and placed your attention back at the azure before you.

          "The moon's crying," you stated.

          "What?" he asked, confused.

          "The moon feels sad," you answered vaguely.

          "The moon is sad," he stated beside you, eyes now focused onto the heavenly body in question. "The moon's just a broken planet that needs the sun to make it shine."

          "Just because it needs help doesn't mean their shine is any less beautiful," you said back.

A long silence passed between the two of you, he looked at you, whose focus was still set onto the night sky. Whatever had you so enchanted by them, he might never know, but as he watched your features bloom with the ethereal sparkle of night, the twinkle in your eyes matching— no, outshining that of the stars you looked so fondly upon, he just sighed softly.

          "Whatever you say, zodiac girl."

scene four; still with you

You were walking home with him in the cold night air, wind dancing softly around both of your figures as the gentle shrill tickled your senses. 

It was colder than usual, you thought. But maybe that was just from the thrill of not spending your nights like you usually did, alone in your bedroom studying a topic you couldn't care less about. You sighed.

When was the last time you were able to lay down on your bed listening to music?

You were grateful for Kai, who you just realized had been abandoned at the bar she forced you into. You prayed for your survival the following day. You say that, but in the end, you were nonetheless thankful for giving you a college experience other than cramming every day.

You thought about what you would have been doing if you weren't forced into the bar, and laughed at the predictability. 

You finally made it to your front door.

          "Goodnight," the blue-eyed man said to you. 

          "Yeah," you said back. "Thanks for walking me home."

He nodded and watched as you made your way over to your front door.

You stopped.

You didn't know if it was the alcohol in your system, the cold night air, the thrilling atmosphere of spontaneity, or all of the above. But right now, you weren't in the mood to answer any multiple-choice questions.

You wanted to live for once. You wanted to feel anything else other than the dread of an upcoming deadline or relief after a grueling exam. 

For once, you wanted— needed to be free of the expectations and academically-centered constructs of society. Constructs that you never wanted to question until now.

Even if it was only for tonight, you wanted to do the thing you wanted to do. 

Even if it turns into a mistake, you would gladly take it for a few minutes of freedom.

You turned around and ran towards the man whose names you realized you didn't even know. But you were too far gone to be stopped. 

Your hands found the side of his face and pulled your faces close, eyes meeting and lips almost touching. You breathed nervously.

          "Can I kiss you?" you asked suddenly.

Shock and confusion flickered before his eyes but disappeared just as quickly.

          "Sure—" he said, and your lips finally connected.

The kiss lasted for mere seconds until you pulled away, flustered and drunk and confused.

What were you doing?

You turned back around to enter your home and scream at yourself.

How could you just throw yourself at him like that?

But suddenly, his hand grabbed your arm and pulled you back towards him, connecting your lips once more. You could have sworn you melted.

The kiss lasted much longer, lips moving against one another and breaths being mixed together in the cold night outside your apartment building. Your hands in his hair and his arms around your shaking frame.

You pulled away to catch your breath, your air puffing up in the chilly twilight.

You pulled onto the sleeve of his jacket and led him towards your apartment, rushing past the other tenants and employees, you quickly got on the elevator where more kisses were exchanged in a drunken haze.

The elevator doors opened, and the two of you rushed out with you guiding him to your door.

You hurriedly put in your key, hands slightly shaking, the door opens and you hastily go inside.

He comes into your small apartment and closes the door with his foot, the door meeting the frame with a soft thud. He pushes you against the wall and your lips meet once again.

You didn't know how much time had passed with his lips moving against yours and hands roaming across your body, the contact sending both heat and shivers to course through your entire being. 

His lips moved to your jaw, slowly making its journey down to your neck. Your breath hitched. 

Some more time passed with low moans and heavy breathing coming from the both of you, now laying on your twin-sized bed half-naked.

You looked out the window beside your bed and saw the stars and moon staring back at you, illuminating your figures in its magical glow. 

It was like time didn't exist when you were engulfed in his arms, his lips peppering your body in kisses and bite marks causing you to moan softly. You wanted to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling, with the moonlight shining softly on his features.

Your hands found themselves buried in his soft hair, time passing by faster as more clothes were being discarded around you.

          "Y/N..." he said your name softly. His light voice passes by you, sending shivers down your spine. 

Your breath hitched. Having no name to call out to, you whimpered instead. Your bodies intertwined together under the dim light of your apartment, and your heart taking timid steps towards him, tripping and falling deeper and deeper. 

It was colder than usual, the low-pitched hum of the air conditioner you forgot to turn off comforting you from afar. Your body shivered more, not used to the sensations. It felt good, it felt really good, but there was something about it that pained you and made you want to fall apart. 

The unfamiliarity of the pleasure and sweat clouded your mind and made you think back to the times when you were studying instead. This was far different than the dull absence your mind feels when reviewing all your lessons. But even then, thinking back to the simple emotions that came from your textbooks and notes, maybe these simple feelings were special to you too.

The night progressed further, and time was lost once and for all in the midst of your shared pleasure, the night turning darker as the sparkling sky glowed onto your sweaty figures. 

You both reached your climax and breathed heavily, eyes meeting and foreheads touching in what seemed like a hazy afterglow, both your minds fogged and judgments clouded. 

Your hand delicately went up to touch his cheek, his eyes shimmering in the glow of the night sky. He looked at you with the faintest smile. Underneath it was painted the most beautiful purple, his broken and damaged face sending your heart into a fit of shooting stars. 

His body collapsed next to you on the small bed, arms encasing you tightly against his warm body.

You looked over to the window beside your bed. The sun was slowly rising, and the moon began to fade away into the brightening sky. 

You felt your eyes slowly closing, finally giving in to the sleep you denied yourself all night.

Goodbye moon.

And just as the moon left your sky that February sunrise, so did the man who slept next to you that very next day.

[krystalkoya]

Paint Me Over | 02

Chapter Summary: Hoseok doesn't want to call himself a pessimist, but what are the chances he'll run into you again? A lot higher than he thinks.

pairing: writer!hoseok x reader

genre: fluff, future angst, smut

rating: +18 

word count: 7.7k

chapter warnings:  18+ slight smut, fingering, dirty talk, pretty tame for now

The theme for this chapter (particularly the smut) is B.M.O (also by ari lennox). This whole thing was strangely inspired by a museum project I had to do, sadly i didn't get to experience the smut. enjoy 😉

01 | 02 | 03 | 04

...

Break Me Off

“I don’t see why you're making a big deal out of this.”

“It isn’t a big deal, promise! It’s just strange coming from you, that’s all.”

“Oh yeah, and what’s so strange about it?”

“Nothing, just the fact that in all the time I’ve known you you’ve never expressed an interest in coming to one of my shows before.”

“Well excuse me for wanting to support my friend.”

Hoseok collapses onto his bed, laying spread eagle on the freshly washed sheets. He had some time earlier (not really, he was just procrastinating because he didn't want to write that next section of his book) so he spent it tidying up and doing some chores around the house. When he gave Taehyung a call he assumed he would be slightly suspicious, granted he had every right to be, given the fact that Hoseok had never willingly asked to go to one of Tae's shows before, but not to this extent!

Of course, there was only one reason for his sudden interest, but he opted to keep that insignificant detail hidden from his friend. He’d like to believe it was to spare Taehyung’s feelings, but he knew the man wouldn’t be offended once he discovered how much more appealing it would be to tease Hoseok instead. And he would much rather spare himself that embarrassment.

“Fine, fine. I mean I’m not complaining. There’s one next weekend. I wasn’t planning on attending but I guess we can—"

“Great, I’ll clear my calendar.” Hoseok rushes out before Taehyung can finish his sentence.

“Uh, cool. I guess I’ll see you then? That last showing must’ve really left an impression on you…” he mutters as an afterthought.

A small smile spreads across his face as he answers. “Yeah, something like that.” And by now his grin is so wide he swears Taehyung can see it through the phone.

Next week comes much slower than expected but once Saturday rolls around Hoseok becomes an anxious ball of both excitement and anxiety. So much so that Taehyung starts to take notice.

“Okay, what the hell is going on with you? Have you been feeling okay?”

If Hoseok wanted to keep Tae from knowing the real reason he was here he was doing a terrible job at it. First asking to go to an art gala and now this? This was strange even for him.

“Seriously, you’ve been darting your head around the room so much tonight that I'm worried it's going to fall off. Did you even hear anything I just said?”

“I did,” Hoseok lies, doing his best to control himself, but his eyes still wander around the room as if in search of something. Of someone, rather.

“Oh really, what was the last thing I said?” he tests him.

Hoseok’s eyes snap to Taehyung who stares back at him blankly. The former’s expression turns sheepish when he realizes he can’t recall anything Taehyung said to him within the past 5 minutes.

Tae sighs, shaking his head at him. “I said I have to get back to my booth soon. Remember? I chose to enter last minute with some of the photos I took down at the lake with Jin the other day. Got some cool shots too. You gonna be okay if I leave you for a bit?”

Hoseok nods, vaguely remembering him saying something of the sort. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m glad you entered, people seriously need to see your work.”

Taehyung squints his eyes at him wearily.

“What?” Hoseok asks, tired of his friend's judgy eyes.

“Nothing, it’s just...you sure you’re feeling okay? You don’t usually compliment me so openly. And I'm not one to fish for compliments, trust me, but it's like pulling teeth with you. ”

Hoseok scoffs. “Not true!” At his friend’s deadpan look in response Hoseok follows up with, “Isn't the fact that I rotate out your photos as my wallpaper good enough?”

Tae snorts in response, grunting out a "For you, I guess." But to Hoseok's dismay, he doesn't quit. “Nah, there’s definitely something up with you." As Tae proceeds to break down his strange behavior, Hoseok grows more anxious, if that was even possible.

"Let’s see, you asked to come to one of my art shows, not the other way around, you were excited about it even… your head’s been swiveling around the room nonstop like the pet parakeet I used to have when I was 8, and you seem to be paying even less attention to me than you usually do.”

"You had a pet parakeet?"

"Sure did, was even training him alert me every time my brother got near my snack stash but we only got as far as a something that sounded like a garbled version my name before we got a cat and well... you know the rest."

"I'm sorry for your loss-"

"Thank you, I still miss him even to this- hey! Quit trying to distract me! I'm onto you..." he says menacingly, beady little eyes boring so far into Hoseok he's starting to think Taehyung can see straight through him. Safe to say, he's glad he wore his big boy undies today. His other boxers (the one with all the marvel characters on it) were in the wash.

He squirms under Taehyung’s gaze but he keeps reminding himself there was nothing to worry about. There was no way he could connect the dots and discover the real reason he was here. But Taehyung, the perceptive bastard, somehow always manages to prove him wrong.

He blurts out excitedly, as if having his own personal eureka! moment, though his realizations aren't nearly as profound as Einstein's. “You’re meeting up with someone aren’t you?”

Hoseok regards him coolly, responding with a calm ‘no, why would I be?’ that he is very proud of. He ups the ante on his whole nonchalant attitude by pretending to be engaged in the nearby artwork in hopes that Taehyung will drop the subject altogether. But the slight red tinge in his cheeks reveal his true emotions and not for the first time he curses his inability to control his body’s physical reactions.

“Don’t bullshit me, you only ever act like this when you're nervous. You're totally blushing right now!" Hoseok was, in fact, blushing, but despite that he still tries to deny it, clapping a hand over his cheeks to cover it up. "Am not. And I'm not acting any weirder than I usually do. I'm always like this." "Bull-fucking-shit!" Tae explains with an incredulous laugh. "Remember that double date we went on a while back? With the Park sisters? You were acting just like this. Now quit fucking with me, did you meet someone?”

"Yeah? well that was before I found out they wanted to bag the both of us. This may come as a surprise but I'm not into foursomes." He shrugs. k lashes out at that accusation, strongly refuting such a claim. Bad choice. At that moment Taehyung knows he’s right because anytime Hoseok gets this worked up over something, it most likely means he’s lying.

“Hey you passed up a good opportunity and screwed me over in the process. They were twins man, twins!" He shakes his head as if to get back on track. "Quit changing the subject! You did meet someone didn't you?” He lets out a gasp. “Was it that girl from the last art show?”

No fucking way, how did he...? Welp, the cat's out of the bag now. And Hoseok didn't even have to say anything, miraculously his friend just figured it out all on his own. If he's honest with himself, he's a little impressed. Doesn't stop him from scrubbing a hand down his face in annoyance, but impressed nonetheless. He turns to Tae with narrowed eyes. “Of all days you choose today to play detective? Why don't you take those sleuthing skills and mosey on down to the local police department. Don't you think your talents are going to waste always butting in on my love life?”

“Not at all." Tae sing-songs from beside him. "You didn't deny it so I take it it was her. I just figured because I saw you two talking the other night. And you haven't talked to a girl since..." he trails off, "so is she meeting you here?”

He wishes. “Not exactly,” he sighs thinking it was a stupid idea to even come here in the first place.

“I didn’t get her number or anything. We just talked and… I came tonight hoping she would be here…”

“You mean you don’t even know if she’s here?!” Taehyung exclaims and it doesn’t make him feel any better. In fact, it makes this dumb idea feel ten times worse.

“Well maybe if someone hadn’t been so eager to drag me away the other night I could’ve stayed long enough to get her instagram at least.”

Tae actually looks remorseful for once. "Yeah that was my bad wasn't it, sorry” he says sincerely. “But you do know it’s a long shot that you’re gonna find her. For some artist’s things like this are just a one time thing. Who's to say she comes back regularly enough to be here for the second week in a row?”

Hoseok sighs because he's already thought this through the entire week before. “I know that already. Which is why I’m prepared, more than anything, to be disappointed. We’ve been here for half an hour and still haven’t seen her so it’s not looking too good right now.”

Taehyung claps a hand on Hoseok shoulder encouragingly, if not to comfort the man whose hopes were near shot to shit. He's sincerely happy for his friend. This is the first time he's shown such an interest in someone in a long while, but he still needs to be realistic. “Hey cheer up, the night’s still young. There’s a still a chance she's here so just put all your faith in that basket." He glances behind him, expression seemingly caught between wanting to stay and help Hoseok find his mystery girl or attending to his more pressing duties. Finally he seems to make up his mind, "I’m going to head over to my booth now. You gonna be okay on your own?”

He nods to assure his friend. “Yeah, yeah. Go have fun. I know how much you love seeing the expression on people’s faces when they look at your work. As they should, you’re really good at what you do.”

Taehyung beams, a hand on his chest in shock. “Well, I'll be...you're just showering me with compliments today aren't you?" He says in a poor (extremely poor) attempt at a southern belle accent. "I’ll catch you later.” And with a wave he’s off to whatever section of the gala was his for the night.

Hoseok makes his way through the gala slowly, observing the art as he goes along, but most importantly scanning the faces of the artists who made them. Unfortunately, none of the faces he sees is the one that he is looking for. Eventually, he makes his way back to the refreshment table, located off to the side this time. This gala is a lot more minimalistic, opting to put out an off-putting combination of bottled waters and lollipops as refreshments rather than homemade cookies and punch.

Hoseok grabs a water, deciding he’s not in the mood for sweets tonight. He sighs forlornly and takes a swig, shifting his weight to one leg so that he can observe the various people viewing the artwork displayed about the room. Well, he didn’t find what he was looking for here tonight but he can’t deny it was a good showing. Just like the last one, there were several pieces he enjoyed looking at and he would’ve gone through again to get a better look at a few that caught his eye if he hadn’t heard your voice.

“Well, well, well, look who it is. How goes it stick?”

Hoseok damn near drowns drinking his bottled water. He has to hit his chest several times while he coughs up the liquid, trying his best to ignore the fact that he’s sputtering like an absolute fool as you watch on in amusement.

There’s no forced apology for startling him this time when you say, “Is this going to become our thing now? Meeting at refreshment tables, you choking on your drink?” you ask with a smirk.

He brushes off the water that dribbled down his chest as if that will change that fact that his shirt is now wet. He sighs, at least it was only water and not something that could actually stain. “I hope not. Why does it seem like I’m always at a disadvantage in these situations?”

“Oh you most definitely are.” You say as you reach past him to grab a lollipop out of the decorative bowl. "Learn how to drink properly will you?"

He stares down at you, unwrapping the lolli and popping it into your mouth, as he wills something to come to his brain so he can speak. The irony. This whole time he had been looking for you and now when you finally show up he has nothing to say.

Fortunately, you beat him to it. “So. What brings you back to another one of these shin-digs? No offense, but you don’t seem like the type to frequent galas on the regular.”

“And why not? I told you I’m an artist.”

“You’re a writer. And you don’t strike me as the ‘artsy’ type either. You’re more clear cut, precise, all sharp edges, you know? What d'you write anyway? Instruction manuals?” You question with a pop of your candy.

He ignores your question in favor of asking you one of his own.

"So what do you have a booth set up today too or are you just a member of the audience like me?”

You gesture vaguely down the room. “Yep, I actually do have a booth set up. Somewhere over there. I’m surprised I didn’t see you earlier, did you already cycle all the way through?” you ask and when he nods you quirk your head to the side in thought.

“Huh, you must’ve caught me when I was away from my booth then cause I definitely would have noticed you if you passed by.”

"Aww am I that memorable to you?" he teases but in reality his stomach jumps in glee at the thought. "How could I forget? You were the only one who pitched a fit in front of my booth the whole night. Longest argument I've had in weeks." He scoffs. "I'd hardly call it an argument. And I did not pitch a fit." You wave a dissmisive hand in the air. "Debate then, whatever you want to call it. So?" He gives you a puzzling look. "So what?" "So, did you like it? My piece?" you ask with a hint of eagerness. "Depends, which one was yours?" The smirk is there again but you don't say anything and that's when it clicks. He rolls his eyes toward the ceiling. "Don't tell me." You mime zipping your lips and throwing away the key, that infuriating smile still present on your face, only this time its wider lets him know everything he needs to. "You can’t be serious.”

It was earlier in the night, but he remembers that piece so well because it was so different from the others. Blue is the first (and only thing) that comes to mind. Seriously, the whole page was just blue. No texture marks, no additional detail that would make it seem like any other effort went into it other than grabbing blue paint and slathering it across a canvas.

“I assume you want a 10 page paper on the meaning behind the blue paint or the symbolism of using 8.5 x 11 cardstock on your desk by tomorrow?”

He sputters. “Honestly, any explanation would be fine at this point.”

It’s such a drastic change from your last painting that he doubts he would have guessed that both images came from the same artist. What, did the amount of time it took to put all that detail in your first piece drain you that much that all you could come up with this time was the color blue on a page? He couldn’t make sense of this change up.

“It can mean whatever you want. The sky. The ocean. Hell, the color blue on a fucking page. That’s it. Maybe I just wasn't done.” You shrug. "Who knows I might go back and add to it later if I'm up to it."

You must notice that he’s still staring at you with what must be a look of utter bewilderment on his face so you elaborate.

“I like the color blue, so I painted blue.”

He’s about to argue again but you stop him.

“Hey, sometimes you just got to paint what you feel.” “Look, what do you write about? I know I joked instruction manuals earlier but holy shit that can't really be it can it?” You ask almost fearfully.

“God no, I'm not that boring." You seem to visibly relax at that which he finds amusing. "Prose mostly. Short stories, mostly but I'm working on a writing something longer, a book actually ”

“Prose,” you repeat questioningly. But it’s without judgement. Now you’re trying to make sense of him, maybe. It’s funny, people usually stop him to ask questions when they hear he’s writing a book. But here you are, concerned with the genre he writes instead, not the content.

“Yeah, prose. I used to write poetry a while back but I stopped cause-“

“Wait, hold up. Poetry? You?”

“Yeah…” He narrows his eyes in question. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

You take a moment to think before you reply. “I mean, in a way it’s not. Poetry’s got all those symbols and hidden meanings you English teachers love so much but… I don’t know. I guess I didn’t expect it coming from a guy like you.”

"A guy like- you know what I'm not even gonna ask. I have a feeling I'll only be offended.

“You said you stopped, why was that?” you ask suddenly.

“Stopped what? Poetry?” At your nod of confirmation he continues, “It just wasn't my thing anymore?” He shrugs not really giving it much thought.

You shake your head as if disappointed. “That’s a shame. I love poetry. It’s like the rawest of all genres— a window to the speaker's deepest thoughts and feelings.”

He nods, understanding, “Maybe that’s why I left it. All those feelings..." he shakes his head, "yeah, it just wasn't for me anymore.”

“And what’s wrong with feelings?”

So many questions tonight. Some of which he doesn't have the answer to. You're really forcing him to do some serious reflection aren't you? Well prepare to be sorely disappointed because Hoseok hasn't done that in years. “Nothing, really. I'm just…at a different stage in my life where they aren't as needed. ” He stares down at the linoleum floor, musing that it's high time he get a new pair of sneakers, while you appease him with your sharp gaze.

Though he’s not looking at you, he presumes you’re still staring him down when he hears you hum in thought. It’s quiet save for the light chatter around the room, which only serves to make him even more uncomfortable. But that doesn’t last long because suddenly you are tugging on his arm as you mutter a hasty ‘come with me.’

He can’t do much but follow you as you pull him along past the rows of people in the main room to some back corner of the museum. He muses that wherever you are pulling him off to is better than the mini interrogation you were giving him just moments ago. No longer in the part of the building that had been sectioned off for the gala for the night, you arrive at an alcove at the back, a seemingly unnoticed part of the museum. If he had to guess he would say this part of the museum was not in use from the way it was isolated from the rest of the pieces.

“Uh…” Hoseok starts, “Are we allowed to be here?”

“Relax. Of course we are. No one said we couldn’t view the rest of museum while we’re here.”

"Yeah but... are we allowed to be here here?" he asks just to get a huff in annoyance in response.

As you burrow deeper into the alcove, he notices there is an entryway off to one side, but he can’t tell what it leads to just yet.

Luckily he doesn't have to wait long to find out when you pull him through the doorway.

“This is one of my favorite exhibits. It won’t be up for much longer though. They’re replacing it soon.” He hears you say.

Hoseok looks around at the interior of the room, and, it’s not the first thing he notices, but he can’t help but see that all four walls were mirrored. He could see his reflection no matter where he looked.

Rather, the first thing he noticed is something he can barely even describe. There seemed to be stalactites and stalagmites protruding from the ceiling and the floors of the room. He moves to get a closer look at one when you press a button on the wall and the figures light up, each flashing in almost every color of the rainbow, all of them illuminating the dark room beautifully. To Hoseok, the lighting in the room is reminiscent of his high school dance, a cheesy affair where teachers had lit a disco ball in the school gym and placed strobe lights about the room to achieve a ‘70s theme’ for the spring bash sophomore year.

Hoseok walks near to one figure, almost as tall as him in height and protruding from the ground. He touches one gently and comes to find out that it’s made of the same material of the inflatable arm floats your mom puts you in when you're just a wee toddler learning how to swim. Each are dotted with black polka dots which only adds to the confusion in trying to figure out just what exactly he’s looking at. He settles on tentacles, because though the dripstones favor something you would see in a cave, they are curved in a way that looks similar to the arms of an octopus.

Before he can ask you what the hell he’s staring at, you press another button and a voice starts speaking overhead.

It’s a female voice, and she’s speaking a language entirely different from the ones he’s familiar with. It sounds… if he’s not mistaken, like Japanese. And he’s only able to make that discernment because of the several times Tae forced him to watch that cartoon with the hyperactive redheaded twink and the emotionally distant brooding tall one. Something to do with volleyball but to Hoseok it just looked like a shoujo (was that the right term?) romance and a gangbang waiting to happen.

“'Love is Calling'" you say as you return to his side. "That's the name of the exhibit. It’s by Yayoi Kusama and she’s reciting her poem ‘Residing in a Castle of Shed Tears.’”

He takes a 360 of the room, acknowledging your words with a hum. “I can’t understand a word she’s saying, but it’s nice.” He says.

You walk over to one of the figures nearest to you to touch it. “It is. One of the things I love most about it is just being immersed in this room while listening to her speak. I can’t understand Japanese, no, but I think that’s apart of the appeal. Maybe you’re supposed to explore the room for yourself while she speaks to another part of you.”

“Okay, but what if you do speak Japanese?” He counters.

You shrug, hands behind your back as you walk to the opposite side of the room. “I assume that’s even better. Being able to understand what she’s saying as you navigate this maze of a room.”

There’s quiet again aside from Yayoi’s voice. You both listen intently, as you continue to look at the flashing lights and your reflections in the mirrored walls.

“What do you see?” you ask him suddenly.

“Huh?” He heard you clearly, but he wonders what you mean. He sees exactly the same thing as you, doesn’t he?

“At first glance, what do you see? You don’t understand the poem so your just left with this room. What do you see?” you clarify.

"Ok, we're not doing this. Leave that job to my shrink."

"You see a therapist?"

"No, but I probably should. The things I see and hear from these kids on a daily? It's no wonder I'm not crazy yet."

You laugh and poorly try to mask it in favor of saying, "Be serious. What do you see? I want to know."

Hoseok thinks about it for a moment before he settles on telling you his impression of the room when he first came in. How the space resembled a cave with colorful dripstones hanging from the ceiling and protruding from the ground, and how the figures resemble tentacles, reaching out to him now.

You come to join him as he is speaking and now you stand side by side, the both of you observing your reflections in the wall before you. Hoseok takes this moment to return the question, asking you what you see.

You laugh as if finding something funny. “To be honest, the first time I came in here I was confused…”

Hoseok nods in agreement because that was certainly an experience for him.

You continue, “…and I could see that confusion in my reflection���everywhere I looked. But after that, once the lights came on I saw some inflatable pool toys with multi-colored lights stuck in ‘em.”

“That’s it?” He asks, expecting something more profound, especially after he just gave you his testament on how the figures resembled dripstones and tentacles at the same time.

“No,” you smile. “I said that just to get under your skin.” You share a laugh at that and he should be annoyed but for reason unknown he isn't. Once your chuckles subside, you continue.

“You see, I was in here for so long, left to nothing but my thoughts and Kusama’s recitation playing in the background that I started seeing something else. The room was so dark and then all of a sudden there was light—lots of it, protruding from the ground, the ceiling everywhere. It’s hard to explain...” you say, struggling to express your thoughts clearly.

Hoseok nods understanding, “Like the candlestick at the end of a dark hallway.”

You snap your fingers in excitement. “Yeah, like that. It’s like, hope in a dark place. You must be loving this, aren’t you?”

He chuckles, not denying it. “Of course I am. Look who’s talking miss ‘not-everything-has-a-meaning.”

“Hey, I still think like that, but not in the way you think. I said art was subjective didn’t I? My meaning isn’t always going to be the same as yours.”

He takes a moment to think about your words and he comes to the conclusion that you may have a point. There wasn’t just one answer.

By this time Kasuma has finished her recitation and you pull him along again. Your doing a lot of that tonight and he's not sure how he feels about being your human rag doll.

“Come here, I want to show you something.”

You arrive back at the wall, near the buttons, only this time he notices a plaque on tacked to the wall.

“It’s Kasuma’s poem translated into English.”

Residing in a Castle of Shed Tears

When the time comes around for people to encounter the end of their life having put on years, death seems to be quietly approaching It was not supposed to be my style to be frightened of that, but I am In the shadows of my loved ones footprints, distress revisits me at the dead of night refreshing my memories Being in love with and longing for you, I have locked myself up in this “castle of shed tears” Now may be the time for me to wander off into the place, the guidepost to the other world points to And the sky is waiting for me, attended by numerous clouds Overwhelmed by your tenderness that has always encouraged me I have been searching for “love” in earnest taking my wish for happiness along Let me call out to and ask the birds flying about in the sky I want to convey to them my feelings Over many long years, with art as a weapon I have treaded the path in search of love During the days I have lived through keeping “despair”, “emptiness” and “loneliness” all to myself along the way there were times when the fireworks of life “splendidly” adorned the sky Dancing in the night sky in a myriad of colors, the fireworks sprinkled dust all over my body I will never forget that exhilarating moment Now I think is the time to dedicate my heart to you, my dearest Was the beauty of the end of one’s life nothing more than illusion? Would you give me an answer to this? Devoting all my heart to you, I have lived through to this day Hoping to leave beautiful footprints at the end of my life I spend each day praying that my wish will be fulfilled This is my message of love to you

                                                                                                                                                                                       -Yayoi Kusama

“Heartbreaking isn’t it?”

Hoseok still reads it over as he replies, “Yeah.”

“Unrequited love is the worst. But I think, like many artists, that she just wanted to share her story and if anyone could relate to that, then all the better.”

He turns to look at you. “You don’t think there’s anything deeper there?”

“Oh for sure,” you nod. “The way she explores themes of death, loneliness and unrequited love all in the same breadth? That’s deep. But I don’t think it’s invalid if you experience something different while in here. Sometimes artists just want to invoke feelings of happiness, or sadness, or I don’t know, the feeling of being in love in their viewers.”

“It’s about the experience.” He states more than questions.

You smile, probably because this is the first sign of him actually getting it. “Right, just like living in the moment. At least that's how I want people to feel when they look at my art.”

He stares at you for a moment, surprised by your well-fleshed out thoughts. “You’ve thought about this a lot haven’t you?”

You pin him with a look. “I told you, it was my favorite exhibit. I’m sad to see it go.”

He agrees with you, telling you he wished he knew about it sooner. He’s reading over the words of the poem again, absorbing Kasuma’s message but he can feel your eyes on him.

 “What?” He turns to ask you.

��Nothing, it’s just, you look really nice under these colored lights.”

He quirks a brow, “And that’s funny? Are you sure I look nice?” He hastily starts checking his reflection in the mirror.

You burst out into giggles, hands out to placate him, “No, nice I promise. I don’t even know why I’m laughing really. You look more than nice actually. Attractive even...” This last part is murmured and if you two were out in the main room he probably would not have caught it.

He peaks with interest at that and when he looks over at you are looking at him, lip caught between your teeth in a coy smile.

“Attractive, huh? Is this the part of the night where you stop insulting me and starting laying me on with compliments?" He teases.

You pin him with a hardened glare, though there is no malice in it. It's mischievous more than anything.

“I have eyes, stick. I could see how someone could find you somewhat...visually-appealing.”

He turns toward you. “The feelings mutual. Although..." he squints as if trying to see better, "it may just be the lightning doing you justice.”

You scoff, hitting his arm playfully. “Hey, I look good in all lighting, especially the shitty ones.”

You both share a chuckle and when it dies down he speaks. "Fine, ok?" he gives in. "I agree."

"Good." You say decidedly, still chuckling.

Hoseok makes the fatal mistake, then of glancing down at your lips, which are now glistening due to the tongue that darted out just moments prior to wet them.

The moment after, after you both stop chuckling is spent in silence, staring at each other, waiting for the other to say something next.

But it never happens. Hoseok doesn’t know who leans in first, all he knows is that your lips feel like soft pillows pressed against his. The kiss is slow at first, taking the time to savor the taste of the other and when Hoseok tastes the sweetness of the strawberry lollipop you were sucking on earlier he moans.

He wants to taste more, so he is grateful when he licks your bottom lip, begging you to open up to him and you do. His tongue darts into your mouth, starting its exploration into every crevice and corner he can find.

When his teeth can’t help but graze your bottom lip you moan and he finds the sound pleasing to his ears. He’s eager to find more ways to make you moan so pretty for him again when you pull away.

Your arms, which at some point had slid up to wrap around his neck, now slide down to rest on his chest.

“You don’t know how badly I wanted to keep going but goddammit I needed air.” You pant heavily against him.

He smiles, bending to capture your lips in light pecks. “I took your breath away?”

You groan and roll your eyes. A second later your groaning again, not because you’re annoyed, but because Hoseok has attached his lips to your neck.

“God you’re cheesy. You’re not like this all the time are you?”

He detaches from your neck with a wet pop, sinking his teeth into the spot before dragging his lips up to your ear. “Trust me that when I tell you that when I get you into bed, you’ll never want me to shut up." You whimper slightly at his words, managing to choke out a meek, “Still corny.”

You say this but you’re turned on nonetheless. Hoseok can tell by the way you rub your thighs together in what you think is in an inconspicuous manner. But to him, a man who has been starved of sex for so long and who is so in tune with your body because it is exactly what his is feeling, your actions are as clear as day to him. And he wants to do more, so much more just to make you beg for that sweet release he's more than willing to give you.

“It's true. And you wouldn't be able to shut me up. Wanna see how wet this dirty little pussy can get for me.” He mutters lowly, a hand travelling down between the apex of your thighs.

Ever resilient, you mumble out a 'doubt it' as you struggle to keep your composure. “Oh yeah? So you don’t want my fingers on your clit? Shoved so far up your hole and stretching you wide? Hmm?” He applies pressure with his fingertips. “Rubbing this pussy to climax again and again and again?”

He smirks when you moan, hands clutching the lapels of his open shirt as you whine under his touch.

“Still too cheesy for you? I can be quiet if you want me to, I'll be good. Promise.” He says, the palm of his hand now massaging your entire center.

“No, no you’re not. Just please touch me.”

Satisfied with your response, he hastily undoes the buttons of your jeans and snakes a wrist down your pants.

He practically groans when he feels how wet you are, soaking through your panties beautifully.

“For someone so turned off by my words you’re awfully wet.” he notes.

You’re glare at him is cut short when his fingers graze your clit, focusing his attention on that little nub full of nerves. You're expression softening into a silent moan that you are no doubt trying to keep from him.

You bury your head in his chest and give in to your pleasure when he rubs harder; smiling in victory, he lets you lean against him, enjoying the vibrations of your groans against his neck.

“Right there, keep going, please…”

To your horror, he does exactly that, but only briefly. “I don’t know…” he starts up again, much slower this time, as if debating whether to continue or not. “You insulted me. Why should I?”

“Please…” you look up at him with pleading eyes. Fearful even, probably that he'll stop and leave you high and dry. “God, I need it.”

He hums, contemplating your words. “You gonna moan pretty for me if I do?”

You release a sharp moan at a particularly harsh brush of his fingers against your clit.

“Like that,” he says as if to clarify exactly how he wants you to sound.

“Yes, yes. Just please.. Shit ”

He concentrates on pleasuring you, wanting to hear what you sound like when you orgasm under his touch. He rubs faster, arm tiring but he continues just to see your brow scrunch in pleasure like that and your pants pick up in intensity.

“Oh god…” you whisper, “how are you so good with your fingers.”

He doesn’t know whether that was meant for him to hear or not but he doesn’t mind. If you think this is good, just wait till he gives you his tongue.

But that can wait for another time. And good god he can't fucking wait. Your so fucking wet it's driving him insane. He uses some of the slick collecting it on his fingertips before travelling back up and assaulting your clit again and you go absolutely fucking wild. He has to shush you, remembering your in public, though he doubts anyone is close enough to overhear. A resounding chorus of 'yeses' and a chant of his name mark your orgasm and he revels in it. Your sounds, your expressions, the way you squeeze his fingers between your thighs as if to secure him there forever.

“Hoseok, ahh… Hoseok, I’m cumming.”

"I know baby, I know. Feel good?"

He gives you no time to answer, not even waiting for you to come down from your high when he captures your lips, still massaging between your legs though much lighter now being considerate of overstimulating you (this time). He pushes your shirt up, all the way past your breasts and his lips travel down to trail open-mouthed kisses across the soft mounds encased in a simple but cute black bra. He’s just slid one cup down, exposing your quickly hardening nipple to the cold air. He helps it along by sucking your the bud into his mouth, teeth lightly grazing.

“Ahh, Hoseok slow down.” You say, winding your hands in his hair but doing nothing to detach him from your breast.

“Can’t.” He yanks the cup covering your other nipple down and attaches his lips to that breast. “Want you so bad.” He murmurs around your nipple in his mouth.

You moan approvingly. “Me too. Want it, your cock in my mouth, my pussy…”

It’s Hoseok’s turn to groan and he does so, resting his head against your chest as he tries to calm himself down because at this rate he's going to blow his load in his pants and he can't have that.

But try as he might to calm himself he can't, not when you continue to whisper all the dirty things you want him to do to you in here. In public.

“Want you to fuck me so good, right here where anyone can walk in and see. I want you to fuck me so far up this wall I’ll start screaming with how good it is.”

“Fuck.” He says because he wants to do just that. Exactly as you described because the image is so undeniably hot that he can barely contain himself.

He’s just figured out whether he wants to fuck your pussy or your mouth first (your mouth) when his phone rings loudly from its place in his back pocket.

His plan is to ignore it but you seem to think differently when you pull away, urging him he should answer it. When he hesitates you say, ‘it might be important’. He considers saying 'this is too' but decides against it, reluctantly digging into his back pocket for the device instead.

His plan B is to answer whoever is calling, tell them he can’t talk right now, and get right back on track to fucking that filthy little mouth of yours but you are already tidying yourself up. He’s sad to see your tits go as you right your bra and pull your shirt down, looking in the mirror to fix what can be salvaged of your makeup and hair.

“Hello,” he answers the phone with a bitterness, annoyed at whoever the cockblock was on the other line.

Taehyung. Of course. He said he had been looking for him all over, concerned and he just wanted to make sure he was safe. Hoseok would be touched, if he weren’t in the middle of trying to get his dick wet so instead he winds up annoyed.

He tells him he’ll meet him out front in a few minutes, it’s obvious by the way you have cleaned yourself up that his night of fun is over.

“Yeah, see you there. Okay, bye.” Hoseok finishes up his call and when done you push him towards the exit.

“Come on, we’re not supposed to be here, this part of the museum was closed for renovation.”

“I thought you said-“

“Yeah, I lied. Congratulations stick, you’re that much closer to living on the wild side.” You give him a pat on the back.

"Don't you think what we just did in there gets me some points? At least enough to drop the nickname?"

"The nickname stays, that's with you for life but I guess you can claim some cool points. Only a few though!" You clarify. "That was pretty tame to be quite honest."

By now you two have reached the main room of the gala and he can see the crowd has died down now that the night is coming to an end.

He catches your elbow before you can move any further into the room. “Careful there, lying to me never fares well for those involved.” He mutters lowly into your ear.

“Sure, whatever,” comes your dismissive response but in spite of it he can see you shiver at his words. A hint of a smile graces his lips in triumph.

Taehyung spots Hoseok and comes bounding over, the ‘where were you?’ dying on his lips when you come into view.

Instead a small ‘o’ graces his features when he realizes what Hoseok must have been up to. And who he was up to it with.

“Well,” you say, putting distance between yourself and Hoseok (and he’s only slightly sad about it), “It was nice meeting you Hoseok.” You extend your hand out formally, as if he didn’t just finger you to orgasm just a few minutes ago.

He takes it, playing along. Your gazes must linger a little to long because a sudden cough from Taehyung is startling you back to reality.

“And, Taehyung right? I heard a lot about you from other artists. Loved your collection by the way. You took some really great shots.”

“Ahh, thank you.” Tae accepts the compliment humbly, his hand coming up to brush you off.

“It was nothing. Just a last minute entry.” He tells you how he wished he had more time to go around the whole gala to see what you came up with this time. You share a knowing smile with Hoseok, no doubt Taehyung would be shocked as well to see the drastic difference between your first piece and this one.

“Anyways, I better go but it was nice meeting you both.” You say politely, stare lingering on Hoseok before you turn to leave.

Taehyung bumps his shoulder which jars him out of whatever trance he was just in.

“So is it right to assume that what I’m thinking right now is correct or...” He questions and suddenly Hoseok is reminded that he’s supposed to be mad at Taehyung. “If you’re thinking that you are an immense cockblocker then yeah, definitely.”

Taehyung’s eyes bug out of his head at that comment. “Wait. So you mean…”

Hoseok sighs, “Yeah and I was this close. But someone just had to call me right in the middle of it.”

Tae has the audacity to look apologetic as he claps a sympathetic hand on Hoseok’s shoulder. “Sorry man, but this is great. To be honest I didn’t peg you as the type to be into public sex but good for you.”

It’s only when Hoseok arrives back at his apartment that night, replaying the memories of tonight that he hopes are permanently etched into his brain that he realizes he forgot to get your number yet again.

He got lucky today, but what are the chances he’s going to find you again?

He calls up Taehyung in a panic, explaining his predicament but all Taehyung can offer is an unhelpful decree of ‘wow, you are an idiot’ so he hangs up.

Although, before he ended the call, Tae did suggest that the universe might be on his side on this one, if he found her once he could do it again. But Hoseok is not one to push his luck so he highly doubts it.

He goes to bed that night, and this time bittersweet memories of a one-night stand (could what you did together even be considered a one-night stand? Calling it a half-a-night stand seemed more fitting) interspersed with thoughts that this would be the last time he sees the peculiar painter again fill his brain.

[bangdreaming]

The results of the November monthly poll are in!

Most Popular Idol Anime/Manga

Love Live! with 122 anime votes and 6 manga votes! (Who didn’t see that coming, though?)

IDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls was second with 26 votes!

IDOLM@STER (OG) was third, with 22 votes!

Most Popular Anime

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was first with 13 votes!

K-On! came in second with 11 votes!

Danganronpa, Haikyuu!!, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure tied for third at 9 votes each!

Most Popular Manga

Boku no Hero Academia was first with 10 votes!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure comes in second with 7 votes.

And Shokugeki no Soma came in third at 5 votes!

Since the questions were more abstract this time and there’s a lot of parts, all the rest of the numbers and answers are below the cut (along with some of my random ramblings)!

We’d like to thank you all for participating, and the December poll will be up shortly!

What Bandori media do you consume?

Game - 144 people

Anime - 92 people

Lives - 43 people

Livestreams - 40 people

Purchasing Merch - 26 people

Manga - 25 people

Radio Shows - 16 people

Cons - 7 people

Music - 3 people

Helping the Community - 1 person

Mod Rin, is that you? /shot (Mod Rin Note: Yes, this was 100% me, I’m sorry)

None - 1 person

If you watch the Bandori anime, do you watch other idol anime?

Yes - 85% (125 votes)

No - 15% (22 votes)

If you watch the Bandori anime, do you watch other non-idol anime?

Yes - 88.4% (130 votes)

No - 11.6% (17 votes)

Idol Anime List!

Aikatsu! - 8

AKB0048 - 3

B-Project - 3

Dream Festival - 1

IDOLM@STER - 22

IDOLM@STER CG - 26

IDOLM@STER SideM - 6

iDOLiSH7 - 4

Love Live series - 122

Locodol - 1

Macross F - 2

Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live - 1

PriPara - 2

Show By Rock!! - 1

Tsukiuta. The Animation - 3

Uta no Prince Sama - 6

Wake Up Girls! - 10

Non-Idol Anime List!

Mod Hina: To start off, I’m disappointed no one answered Cory in the House, which is undoubtedly the best anime of all time.

3-gatsu no Lion - 4

Acchi Kocchi - 1

Akuma no Riddle - 1

Another - 1

Mod Hina: I watched this! I watched it for the death scenes alone...

Aldnoah Zero - 1

Ancient Magus Bride - 3

Angel Beats - 1

Anohana - 1

Mod Hina: I have a friend who refuses to watch this.. I’ve watched both the anime and the movie, however!

Ao Haru Ride - 1

Arakawa Under the Bridge - 1

Assassination Classroom - 2

Attack on Titan - 2

Binbougami - 1

Blood Blockade Battlefront - 1

Barakamon - 2

Bleach - 2

Blend S - 1

Boku no Hero Academia - 6

Bungou Stray Dogs - 5

Charlotte - 2

Chihayafuru - 1

Code Geass - 3

Cowboy Bebop - 2

Mod Hina: This has been on my to watch list for like eight years.

D.Gray-Man - 5

Mod Rin: Best anime or best anime

Danganronpa - 9

Death Note - 2

Digimon series - 5

Durarara!! - 1

Eureka Seven - 1

Fafner in the Azure - 1

Fairy Tail - 2

Fate series - 2

Flip Flappers - 2

Fullmetal Alchemist series - 8

Mod Hina: I love FMA so much? Thanks.

Free! - 1

FSN UBW - 1

Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu - 1

Gatchaman Crowds - 1

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - 4

Ghost Hunt - 1

Haikyuu!! - 9

Hetalia - 1

Hibike Euphonium - 5

Higurashi - 1

Hikaru no Go - 1

Himouto! Umaru-chan - 1

Hunter x Hunter - 4

Hyouka - 3

Inazuma Eleven - 1

Initial D - 1

Inu x Boku SS - 1

Izetta: the Last Witch - 1

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure - 9

Just Because! - 1

K-ON! - 11

Mod Hina: This is under here because I don’t think it classifies as idol anime. All your votes for it as idol anime went here, instead.

Kagerou Project - 2

Kakegurui - 1

Kamichu - 1

Katekyo Hitman Reborn - 2

Mod Hina: So, I was a huge KHR fangirl during the manga’s original run.. And a couple years back, I went back to China to visit family.. My (male) cousin was watching it and I literally was like “WHY KHR IT’S FANGIRL BAIT”.

Kemono Friends - 1

Kill La Kill - 2

King’s Game - 1

Kiznaiver - 2

Koi to Uso - 2

Kokoro Connect - 1

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! - 2

Kyoukai no Kanata - 5

Little Busters - 1

Little Witch Academia - 1

Mod Hina: I love LWA!

Magi - 1

Magical Girl Raising Project - 2

Mahoujin Guruguru - 1

Mahoutsukai no Yome - 1

Mawaru Penguindrum - 2

Mod Hina: Actually, literally two days ago I was looking at an artist and saw they drew a cute person. Looked them up and bam, the main antagonist of Mawaru Penguindrum. The rest of the conversation to a friend went as follows:

Me: Why do I only like trash.

Friend: Uhhh...

Me: I LITERALLY WAS LIKE “Oh this character looks cute” BAM HE’S GARBAGE A LITERAL VILLAIN

Me: WHY AM I LIKE THIS

Mekakucity Actors - 2

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - 1

Mod Hina: Never forget this dance, and all the failed attempts to cover it.

Mirai Nikki - 1

Mod Hina: Yuki Yuki Yuki~ 

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid - 2

Mob Psycho 100 - 2

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - 1

Monogatari Series - 3

Mod Hina: The toothbrush scene traumatized me for a while.

Monster - 1

Mod Hina: I have a friend who absolutely adores this anime/manga and highly recommended it to me. I’m lazy so I haven’t gotten around to reading it. It’s been 3 years.

Mouretsu Pirates - 1

Nagi no Asukara - 1

Nanbaka - 2

Naruto - 2

Natsume Yuujinchou - 3

Neon Genesis Evangelion - 4

Mod Hina: I watched 3 episodes of the original anime and then I never finished it but congratulations.

New Game! - 2

Nichijou - 2

No Game No Life - 1

One Piece - 2

Oregairu - 1

Osomatsu-san - 2

Ouran High School Host Club - 1

Mod Hina: CLASSIC. KISS KISS FALL IN LOVE.

Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt - 1

Mod Hina: PSG had such? Good? Songs? I used to play L4D/L4D2 a lot and replaced the Tank theme song with Fly Away, lmao.

I loved the art style too. I really loved this anime, and I’d recommend it (although it’s definitely really raunchy so I wouldn’t recommend minors watch it as much).

One of my dreams is still to own the PSG Galaxxxy figures haha.

Parasyte -  1

Pingu in the City - 1

Pokemon - 1

Princess Tutu - 3

Mod Hina: Good Taste™

Prison School - 1

Mod Hina: PZ IS THIS YOU STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME READ/WATCH THIS

PMMM - 13

Mod Hina: The winner by far!

Personal opinion: A bit overrated. Background character animation was the funniest thing ever.

Psycho Pass - 1

RahXephon - 1

Ranma 1/2 - 1

Re:Zero - 3

Revolutionary Girl Utena - 4

RWBY - 1

Sailor Moon - 4

Mod Hina: Classic. Remake art style disappointed me and slightly creeped me out at the same time.

Saki - 1

Sakamichi no Apollo - 1

Selector Infected Wixoss - 1

Seraph of the End - 1

Serial Experiments Lain - 1

Shinsekai Yori - 1

Shirobako - 3

Shokugeki no Soma - 3

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu - 1

Soul Eater - 1

Steins;Gate - 3

Mod Hina: A similar story to Monster. A friend in high school recommended me this... It’s been 7 years.. Still never watched it.

Sword Art Online - 4

Symphogear - 3

Tiger & Bunny - 1

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun - 3

Toaru Majustu no Index - 2

Tokyo Ghoul - 3

Tokyo Ravens - 1

Toradora - 1

Touhou - 1

Mod Hina: I was not aware that Touhou had anime until this point in my life.

Working - 1

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - 1

Your Lie in April - 1

Yu-Gi-Oh Series - 1

Yuri!!! On Ice - 3

Yuri Kuma Arashi - 1

Yuru Yuri - 2

Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru - 3

Zatch Bell - 1

Mod Hina: I.. really liked Zatch Bell when I was younger.. I should finish it. (I’ll never finish it.)

Zetsuen no Tempest - 1

Do you read other idol manga?

No - 83% (122 votes)

Yes - 17% (25 votes)

Do you read other non-idol manga?

Yes - 70.1% (103 votes)

No - 29.9% (44 votes)

Idol Manga List

AKB49: Renai Kinshi Jourei - 2

Ensemble Stars! - 2

IM@S Mana - 1

Love Live - 6

Yumeiro Cast - 1

Uta no Prince Sama - 1

Non-Idol Manga List

Mod Hina: I’m a heavy manga reader, so I’ve at least pursued probably 75% of this list... /sweats

Mushishi’s not on this list at all which makes me a little sad but if you’re into really well drawn manga about supernatural fantasy I’d give it a read! It’s mostly episodic and slowly reveals more info about the enigmatic protagonist over the length of the series. It’s really really good.

07 Ghost - 1

Aizawa-san Multiplies - 1

Ajin - 1

Aku no Hana - 2

Akuma No Riddle - 1

Ancient Magus' Bride - 1

Anohana - 1

Ao Haru Ride - 2

Are You Alice? - 1

Mod Hina: I’m surprised to find someone else who’s even heard of this manga! I was close to finishing it but I never got around to it..

Assassination Classroom - 1

Attack on Titan - 1

Azumanga Daioh - 1

Beloved - 1

Berserk - 2

Bleach - 2

Mod Hina: I’ll admit, I didn’t read much of the manga.. But I did skim the last 40 or so chapters after I heard it was ending.

Bloom into You - 1

Boku no Hero Academia - 10

Mod Hina: I’m really into BNHA right now! One of the manga I keep up with on a weekly basis.

Overhaul is.. my favorite.. So is Dabi.. It’s me, Trash Lover Supreme.

Bokurano - 1

Bright and Cheery Amnesia - 2

Bungou Stray Dogs - 4

Mod Hina: I also love BSD?

Canis - 1

Citrus - 3

D.Gray-Man - 2

Death Note - 3

Mod Hina: CLASSIC. This is like one of the first manga that I finished completely. I read it all in middle school too.. My weeb phase...

Don’t talk to me about the Netflix movie.

Doraemon - 1

Dorohedoro - 1

Doukyuusei - 1

Dragonhead - 1

Fairy Tail - 3

Fate series - 1

Franken Fran - 1

Fruits Basket - 1

Mod Hina: Ah. Like Death Note, I also read Fruits Basket in middle school. This is such a nostalgia bomb for me because Fruits Basket was my first manga, iirc.

Fruits Basket actually introduced me to the idea of online scanlation groups too. I couldn’t find the last few volumes in any libraries around me, nor in any bookstores. So I resorted to downloading them online after finding out about the translations.

Fullmetal Alchemist - 1

Mod Hina: Fullmetal Alchemist is one of my all-time favorite manga and I’m very sad that it only got 1 nomination out of all of the nominations.

FMA is very poignant and deals a lot with the consequences and reality of war. It’s very good and it’s very amazing. Please read it if you can.

It’s a longer series and while I did start reading this one in middle school, unlike the others, I took longer to finish reading this. I think I finished sometime in high school.

I think this manga still holds up to the test of time, as well.

If you’re more of an anime person, the anime is really good too! I’d recommend watching the original FMA first, and then FMA:B because of the fact that FMA:B’s beginning is rushed, because it assumes that you’ve either read the manga or watched the original FMA.

The original FMA deviates from the manga canon, which is where FMA:B was made to fix that.

Please appreciate Greedling he is my favorite character of all time.

Fuuka - 2

Gakuen Babysitters - 1

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - 4

Mod Hina: A good, wholesome manga! I love GSNK too and it’s hilarious.

GIRLS und PANZER - Ribbon no Musha - 1

Golden Kamui - 1

Haikyuu!! - 4

Mod Hina: Another weekly read for me! I love everyone in Haikyuu so much? What a good cast, and what good character development. Even the less significant characters get a chapter or two dedicated to their character arc.

Heart on Kuni no Alice - 1

Helck - 1

Hetalia - 1

HIKARU NO GO - 1

Hinamatsuri - 1

Hirunaka no Ryuusei - 2

Horimiya - 4

Houseki no Kuni - 1

Hunter x Hunter - 2

Iris Zero - 1

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - 7

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen - 1

Kakegurui - 2

Mod Hina: I picked this up recently, but I’ve fallen behind. I really like the idea of mind games and gambling.

Kasane - 1

Katekyo Hitman Reborn - 1

Mod Hina: As mentioned before... I was a huge KHR fangirl back in the day... My heart still beats for Gokudera... tsundere-ass bomber boy.

Kimi no Na Wa - 1

Kimi to Boku - 1

King Bowling! - 1

Kingdom - 1

Kitchen Princess - 1

Koe no Katachi - 1

Mod Hina: I highly recommend this manga.

Another moment where I’m sad that this didn’t get that many recommendations.

It’s very realistic. Like, you’ll end up hating some characters, but that’s because they’re written to be realistic. There are people who did something wrong, who have character flaws, who know that they’re flawed, and some of them will try to change themselves, while others will disregard it because their life is fine, like in real life.

Overall the story is extremely poignant and touching. The ending is open-ended, which some people might not like, but I really enjoyed this because it’s so well written. It reflects real life, in my opinion.

Kuroshitsuji - 2

Kuzumi-kun, Kuuki Yometemasu ka? - 1

Liar Game - 1

Mod Hina: I started reading this manga years ago. At some point, the group translating it dropped the manga so there was a one year gap before anyone picked it back up, I think.

I need to finish this because I stopped at the gap, but I haven’t read it in years so I’ve forgotten what happened. My plan is to reread the whole thing, but it’s quite long so I don’t know when I’ll get around to that.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - 1

Nanbaka - 1

Naruto - 4

Mod Hina: I.. actually own a few volumes of Naruto. Like the Rock Lee vs Gaara fight is in one of the volumes I own.

Nichijou - 2

Nijiiro Days - 1

Nogi Wakaba wa Yuusha de Aru - 1

Noragami - 2

One Punch Man - 4

Mod Hina: I tried reading the original web comic for this a while ago and the art style made me laugh, I’m sorry. I started reading the manga instead.

Orange - 1

Ore Monogatari - 1

Otome Youkai Zakuro - 1

Oyasumi Punpun - 1

Pandora Hearts - 1

Mod Hina: I stopped reading this literally five chapters before it finished. I should read those chapters.

Peach Boy Riverside - 1

Pokemon - 1

Prison School - 1

Mod Hina: Whoever you are, you remind me of my friend who reads this...

The Promised Neverland - 1

Mod Hina: Also on my weekly read list! I really enjoy all the plot twists.

PMMM series - 1

Mod Hina: I was big into PMMM a few years back and I binge read all the related manga.

Railgun - 1

ReLife - 3

Rosario + Vampire II - 1

Rouroni Kenshin - 1

Sailor Moon - 1

Sakamichi no Apollo - 1

Shokugeki no Soma - 5

Mod Hina: Another weekly read for me. I mostly just like the art of food. The plot is kind of weak to me, and I legitimately got mad at the plot armor for one of the main protagonists once, haha.

Shuuen no Shiori - 2

Mod Hina: I’ve read a bit of this! I don’t think a lot of it is translated so I haven’t read beyond that.

Slam Dunk - 1

Soul Eater - 1

Sword Art Online - 1

Taiyou no Ie - 1

Tamen de Gushi - 1

Tenkuu Shinpan - 1

The World God Only Knows - 1

To Love Ru - 1

Tokyo Babylon - 1

Tokyo Ghoul - 4

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko - 1

Tsubasa Chronicles - 1

Tsurezure Children - 2

Uzumaki - 1

Mod Hina: WHO ARE YOU? WE ARE BEST FRIENDS NOW. SORRY ELLIE.

I love Junji Ito a lot? He’s amazing and I’ve read all the works I can find from him that are translated..

Except Gyo. I have this abject rejection of Gyo for some reason.

I absolutely love the beginning of Uzumaki, although the end gets kind of weird for me.

Vanitas no Carte - 2

We Can't Study - 1

Yagate Kimi ni Naru - 1

Yotsuba - 1

Mod Hina: Yotsuba is also really big nostaglia for me. I never “finished” it (aka caught up since it’s still publishing) but I did start reading it in middle school. It’s one of the first manga I read and it really throws me back to my tweenage days.

Yu Yu Hakusho - 1

Do you read Bandori translations?

Yes - 92.5% (136 votes)

No - 7.5% (11 votes)

If you read translations, which ones do you read?

1koma/4koma - 124 people

Event Stories - 104 people

Conversations - 103 people

Band Stories - 97 people

Character Lines - 78 people

Card Stories - 73 people

Song Lyrics - 70 people

Main Story - 69 people

Manga - 39 people

None - 8 people

How much do you read translations?

38.8% - I read only ones that I'm interested in.

29.9% - I read most of them.

18.4% - I read the occasional translation.

8.8% - I read all of them!

4.1% - I don’t read them.

Do you follow the official Bandori accounts?

YouTube - 96 people

Game Twitter - 94 people

Info Twitter - 79 people

Facebook - 11 people

Websites - 19 people

None - 23 people

If you follow the official accounts, how often do you check them?

Every few days. - 29.3% (43 people)

Daily. - 20.4% (30 people)

I don’t follow them. - 16.3% (24 people)

I rarely check them. - 13.6% (20 people)

Once a week. - 12.9% (19 people)

Multiple times per day. - 4.8% (7 people)

Once a month. - 2% (3 people)

Do you follow unofficial Bandori social media?

Tumblr (@bangdreaming) - 132 people

Bandori.party - 92 people

Twitter (@bandori_updates) - 88 people

Reddit (/r/bangdream) - 71 people

Instagram (@hanasakigawa) - 30 people

Facebook - 14 people

I don’t follow any. - 4 people

If you follow the unofficial accounts, how often do you check them?

Daily. - 35.4% (52 people)

Every few days. - 30.6% (45 people)

Multiple times per day. - 16.3% (24 people)

Once a week. - 8.8% (13 people)

I rarely check them. - 6.1% (9 people)

I don't follow them. - 1.4% (2 people)

I never check them. - 0.7% (1 person)

Once a month. - 0.7% (1 person)

As always, thanks again for voting!

[pupa-cinema]

Happy Go Lucky Heads -ピ (Pi) - English Translation

Lyrics：Sekihan and Ponikingdom Music：324

事実は小説より奇なり Truth is stranger than fiction モノクロな毎日の中の My life was monochrome until 誰かさんが急に色付いて A kind soul suddenly splashed color into it 大切な人に変わってく Then started to become someone special to me

'バランスとタイミングが大事' ‘Balance and timing are important’ 恋愛の歴史の言い伝え The history of love has been passed down through speech 偶然と必然の交差点 The convergence of coincidence and destiny 手を繋いだ恋人たち Lovers locked hand in hand

運命の鐘が恥ずかしそうに The bell of fate chimes a rose-colored hue 真っ赤に鳴り響く　胸の奥　深く As if embarrassed, from the bottom of the heart

今日気付いた　今日気付いた I just figured this out today, I just figured this out today 僕は君が好きだ I like you みんなの　こいのうた What seems like a love song to everyone else, 僕にとっては　君だけのうた Instead, for me, is a song just for you

今日はじめよう　今日はじめよう Let today be the beginning, let today be the beginning 君に送る　舞 love A special delivery of, oh my love いつもの帰り道　照らす灯りが The same old road home as always, the same old streetlights illuminating it 煌めいて見えた They actually look bright to me now

無理して笑って強がって I push myself to act strong and smile 泣き出しちゃったら天気雨 Bursting into tears turns the weather to rain 自分の気持ち　誤魔化さずに No hiding our feelings then 雨降りな君のままでいい I’m fine with even a rainy you

コンビニの安いビニール傘 The cheap plastic umbrellas from the convenience store ギリギリ2人入れるからさ Just about fit 2 people under 太陽が'いいよ'って言うまで So until the sun says “Enough” ただ君の側に居させて Allow me to merely stay by your side

悔し過ぎて　悲し過ぎて I’m so frustrated, I’m so upset, 泣き腫らした星屑を The stardust, swollen from crying 夜空(そら)に抱く　僕らなら Is embraced by the sky, As long as we’re together きっとうまくいく　だから We can do anything, so

さぁ　伝えよう　さぁ　伝えよう Come, confess, come, confess 僕は君が好きだ I like you みんなの　こいのうた What seems like a love song to everyone else 僕にとっては　いま 2人のうた Instead, for me, is now our song

今日　はじめよう　今日　はじめよう Let today be the beginning, let today be the beginning 2人踊る　舞 love A couple dancing together, oh my love ありがとう　と　ごめんね “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” 繰り返しながら　はしゃぎ続けよう They keep saying as they carouse on and on

事実は小説より奇なり Truth is stranger than fiction カラフルな毎日の中で My life is colorful because 誰かさんは側で笑っていて A kind soul is next to me laughing 僕を　未来を 照らしてる Brightening up me and my future

Gekirock Interview Pi points

Talking about becoming more straight spoken.. Interview: What happened exatcly? Sekihan: I’m not sure myself. But in the middle of the album writing, the ideas hit me right in my sweet spot, like ‘pi! pinpoint!’. In regards, the 7th track on Omedetai 1 is one called ‘Pi’. The concept was based on the fact that “Weddings = celebratory, happy go lucky”, we had the idea to put a ‘♪Cha chaa cha, BOOM’ sort of ‘Ceremonial breakdown’ jingle at the beginning, thus went to work making it a reality.

The result was a wedding song, but... to actually play this at a reception hall was another story. So we halted it there.

Interviewer: You originally intended to play it at a hall, I see. Sekihan: We wanted to make something actually relatable and that people could connect to their day to day life. Thus lickety-split did 324 whip up a super pretty and adorable wedding song demo. To figure out what lyrics to put with this demo, Poniki and I spent 3 different 7 hour long brainstorming sessions trying... alas we couldn’t conjure up anything good.  Interviewer: Writing a song that’s “good” and worthy of the wedding hall is a difficult feat.  Sekihan: Yes. Like “What da hell do we write?” After countless tries we decided to sleep on it for a while. But whilst we were sleeping on it, the deadline was fast approaching. Until one day I had a eureka moment, like ‘Ping!’, and everything unraveled. Among other ideas, I had a stash of old unused lyrics which I found appropriate, I jumbled them all together… and I was able to shape it into something absolutely amazing.  Interviewer: Yes. I was amazed to hear an unadulterated wholesome love song. Sekihan: Look what we’ve done (laughing). 324: The title of the song is ‘Pi’ because, if we don’t have some sort of joke in.. the title at the very least... then something feels off. Mitojuu: Without one, there’s virtually no reason for Omedetai Atama de Nani Yori to do it, after all. Sekihan: It had your basic love song title at first. But we realized that if we released this song out into the world, it would spell our doom (laugh). 324: Listeners might start saying ‘They got big then just changed’ ‘Have they gone on the defensive?’ y’know. Sekihan: Thus we decided to get a bit cynical with the title. Do you know what this ‘Pi’ is referring to? 324: To the hip lingo ‘Kare-pippi [Boyfriend-pippi]’ or ‘Suki-pi [I like you-pi]’. So when young people hear this song… Sekihan: That’s it, that’s ‘Pi’.

[smitheeblog]

A few thoughts on improving pedagogy

1.     We should spend more time creating eureka moments

Learning information doesn’t seem to be linear.

Instead, it seems to come in bursts of “Aha” moments, where lots of information comes together under some grand schema. I remember when I was studying music theory, there was a point where it kind of “clicked,” and all the seemingly unrelated stuff puzzle pieced together.

This seems to be true of most fields. Most of the long-term gains from learning a subject don’t come from being able to regurgitate that information later. Instead, the main gain is the ability to form a mental picture of the concept, that you can slot more information into or draw connections from later.

In that vein, it seems like more education should be focused on cultivating and inspiring these sorts of eureka moments.

E.g I spent a lot of time one semester learning linear algebra, and at the time was pretty competent in doing the very base level problems. But I struggled immensely with the more conceptual stuff, because I didn’t really get it. And I didn’t end up getting ituntil I was able to finally mentally map the relationships between all the component things I had learned. Had the teacher spent 20% less time teaching equations at the beginning and 20% more time trying to get me to understand the big picture, I probably would’ve picked up on the details a lot quicker later

2.    

People who are very good at things often make very bad teachers

There are a few reasons for this, I think.

First, people who are very good at things are very removed from the actual experience of learning the thing, so they tend to have forgotten what parts of the thing are difficult to learn and which are easy.

Second, experts also have a very large intuition base, whereas amateurs have very little intuition on the subject, and are usually learning everything from first principles. So, it can be hard for experts to know which things average people have an intuition for, and which things you can only intuit after years of study.

Third, experts usually get to be experts by being very good at their thing at a subconscious level, which often means they can’t explain why they’re making the decisions they’re making.

If you wanted to learn how to write great pop songs, and you went and asked Paul McCartney how to write great pop songs, he would tell you (and this is true) that most of his best melodies came to him in dreams, and being the piano virtuoso he was, he simply woke up in the morning and played what he remembered. Similarly, Steph Curry could give you pointers on shooting three pointers, but he can’t tell really tellyou the secret,because he doesn’t really know the secret. He just shot enough basketballs and they just started going in.

That’s why the best resource for doing your math homework usually isn’t the math teacher, it’s the kid who just did the homework. He knows exactly which problems are hard, exactly what you don’t know how to do, and exactly how to go from “not knowing what to do” to “knowing what to do”

I’m not sure how to implement this idea or make any fundamental change with it, but save for a few subjects that are extraordinarily procedural and memorizable (like cooking), you probably shouldn’t buy a Masterclass subscription.

3.    We should think more about what people take away from formal learning

I don’t know about you, but once I learn some sort of subject formally, I usually forget most of the technical nuances unless I’m constantly practicing. But even if I forget it, I think there’s two major benefits to having learned it.

First, it’s really easy to relearn things you once knew. I haven’t taken a physics class in 4 years, but if you gave me the lecture notes from my 11thgrade physics class, I could probably learn a weeks worth of material in about an hour. Muscle memory seems to work in a similar way. Even if they don’t recall it in the moment, it’s remarkably easy for dancers and drummers to recall pieces they once learned

     (Most people who’ve taken calculus probably couldn’t solve this right now, but could relearn how to in about 30 seconds)

Second, learning something once improves your ability to gain new information quicker. 

This is huge.

I’m going to use computer science as my guiding example for this one, but you can substitute any academic or creative subject you like.

In the times before I knew any computer science, if somebody had given me a bunch of data and told me to dos something to it, the only thing I’d really be able to do is google “how do the function.” Now, even if I’ve never explicitly learned how to do this function, I’ve seen things like it, and I can categorize the type of problem I’m dealing with. Right off the bat, I’ve gained a vocabulary for googling that I didn’t have before.

Now, say I take a crack at it. I expend all of my known tools, only to find that I don’t know how to use one tool in a specific way. But my previous teaching has given me the knowledge to isolate what I don’t know. This skill is massive. In the age of google, it’s foolish to try to teach someone the sum of human knowledge, rather, you get a framework that allows you to learn new information piecemeal as it becomes necessary to know them.

The sum of this is that teachers and instructors should be more aware that this is the primary value they are offering to students. Obviously you have to learn something well once to be able to relearn it later, so rote instruction still has its merits. But more instructors should be focusing on teaching students not only how to master the exact concepts they’re teaching them, but how to go about figuring out which neighboring concepts you need, and how to learn them.

One way to implement this is to make it its own class. For example, to graduate with a computer science degree, you’re required to take this class at the end called “Learning Computer Science on your own” that lays out a map of all of the things that you probably don’t yet know how to do, but that are within grasp of your knowledge, generally what problems those concepts solve, and how to google around for them.

Summed up:

1.    It’s more important to have a mental map of concepts than to memorize the concepts. Eureka moments tend to get you there

2.    Amateurs are often better teachers

3.    Learn to google, teach people to google.

[rip-riffs-blog]

Rip on  MST3K 1101: Reptilicus

Plot: A partially excavated monster’s tail defies the odds by regenerating into an acid spewing, paper eating, city destroyer.

Thoughts: Well, here we are, new MST3K on the internet and in your head. I’ve watched every episode 3-5 times at least now, and I’ve formed cohesive opinions of them and the seasons, so It’s back to reviewing. I’m even experimenting with a few changes in my format. And so...

(The Movie) Reptilicus is actually a really good choice to start off this new version of MST3K (while I’m respecting the season continuity, I’m not willing to call this traditional MST3K for reasons I’ll explain in a bit). The fact is that Reptilicus isn’t actually all that bad as far as “me too” monster movies go. Hell, its actually kind of charming. It’s more sincere than half of the extended Godzilla universe movies, and accepts the things it can’t do technologically, and instead offers up a bit more than normal when it comes to human cast and crowd scenes. Sure, the farmer being eaten by Reptilicus is especially awful, but I’m pretty sure that at least one person was very badly hurt during the drawbridge sequence, and I’ll respect that.

(The Riffing-you might want to skip two paragraphs if you can’t handle critical opinions) This is where we run in to trouble, something that enough serious fans have complained about for Joel to acknowledge on Twitter, though his current attitude seems to be “I don’t care”. The riffing really does come in too fast. I don’t care if its better by 1114, that’s not important in 1101. We’re specifically talking this episode right now, and the fact of the matter is that, for someone like me, who has watched and reviewed every episode, the riff barrage is disconcerting. It takes away the idea that they’re watching the movie and reacting to it, and makes it into a speed joke competition. I’m imagining a less cringey, but still obvious version of Chevy Chase trying to deliver his written riffs in Community. 

Further compounding the problem is the change in how the riffs were recorded: in a booth as opposed to in a soundstage, watching. Riffs are occasionally off, happening a second or two before the event they’re riffing, and have a recitation style flatness that further enforces that idea that they’re not watching and reacting. Of course, they haven’t been doing that since KTMA, maybe season one, but aside from occasional jokes that were built around foreknowledge of the movie, they used to try to maintain that image. Here, they’re just not interested in it, and for me that represents a major change in the series. I don’t care about cast changes, or animations, or anything like that, but I believe that the riffing lacks a fundamental charm. It’s jarring enough to me that, until I see whether Joel intends to work on it, I can’t quite look at this MST3K as a mere 11th season, as opposed to a full rejiggering.

It’s a pity, especially when you consider that there is some good riffing going on here, though it’s buried in a high concentration of duds. The first 15 minutes or so is very rough, but the riffs start to settle down with a dynamite exchange of speed cut riffing that, unlike many other riff barrages, feels well timed and has a great justaposition between frantic screaming of the temperature and a repeated placid comment about an old man’s appearance. Jonah delivers pretty well in this particular episode, especially with his comments about the final scenes of devastation and the eel tank segments, and Gypsy makes the most of her new duties with a good pair of quick snipes that show a potential that I think is pretty well fulfilled. In short, there are good riffs here, but there’s a ton of fluff too.

(The Extras) There’s a ton of other important stuff in this episode, obviously, and I don’t want to keep going forever, so I’m going to use this for the area where I try to cut corners. The reintroduction of a test subject to the SoL may be short on the explanations we want, but it’s efficient and up tempo enough to keep us going until we get to the movie. Every Country Has a Monster is a great ear worm, but I think of it more as a treat than a classic MST3K song on account of it being just entirely too good. Obviously Paul and Storm are going to be better than whatever Mike or Kevin could compose, I don’t fault them that, but it feels wrong to discount the homebrewed songs for a pro job. 

The only new cast member I have an issue with for now is Tom, for his vocal similarity to Jonah and lack of his own distinct personality. Crow drops back into scamp mode, but Tom is kind of left to do the same, which doesn’t add to anything. I don’t have the internet’s prebuilt hatred for Patton Oswalt, nor can I think of anything I’ve seen him in for more than a minute or two, so no problems there. I will admit that I’ve never liked anything I’ve seen Felicia Day in, but that only counts New Vegas, where she played a follower that I never used, and Eureka, well after the worst jump the shark moment in the history of modern television, and I can’t hold that colossal failure in show making against her. I do think we need more time to evaluate them than we get in one episode, though. 

In the end, though, the big star for me amongst the new content is the Bonehead band, and their instrumental covers of a few classic MST3K songs. It’s nice to hear these regular reminders of Kevin and Mike’s influence, even if the whole commercial break construct is pretty wonky. The new theme is fun, too, but I really think the first episode needed the full thing, without interruptions, to maximize its impact. And the new dynamic bots, while novel, aren’t really either a plus or a minus here, though there is a great moment where, after Crow gets up to catch Reptilicus’ acid in a trash can, the can briefly tries to follow him. That’s a nice little beat that’s probably the result of the extra puppeteers.

(Verdict) Memorable. Around here, every episode starts at a 5, meaning that it is watchable. It then received pluses or minuses based on its components in order to assess its true watchability. Here, Reptilicus gets a +2 for being an endearingly cheesy movie on its own, but a -1 for oversaturation of riffs that dilute the laughs, which is negated by a +1 for a stand out song. I’m giving Reptilicus a 7, making it a memorable episode.

[honeyntae]

Playing with Ice (2)

Jungkook x Reader

Chapter: 1, 2, 3

Genre: fluff/angst/smut later?? Word Count: 1.9k Description: You strike a deal that hockey player Jungkook can’t say no to. Insp by this tbh.

A/N: Hi! Thank you for reading the first chapter and I finally got the next one. I hope you enjoy it! Take a look at this performance that kinda inspired it all (maybe at the end so it won’t spoil anything ^u^) tbh I’m having my week of hell at work coming up so the next part won’t be out anytime soon ;o; 

     Jungkook had been figure skating ever since he was a small child. His mom would take him to the exact rink he practiced hockey in now. The only person so far to know that he figure skated was the skating rink manager, him, and now you. So when it came to pulling some strings and being let in before anyone else, he didn’t have any troubles. “So umm, how exactly did you get us in early?” “Did I say you can ask questions?” he retorted to which you frowned at. He wasn’t out right rude like the other boys on his team but he wasn’t exactly personable either. “You know, you could at least talk a little more to your partner…” “Yes, the partner that is blackmailing me to be her partner. Yes, I will totally be kind and cordial to you from now on.” His voice was smeared with sarcasm and the smirk plastered on his face didn’t make it any better.

     Jungkook fiddled with the ring of keys he pulled out of his backpack and unlocked the doors to the skating rink. “Are you sure we should be doing this?” you questioned him. There was no one there except for you and him, the halls dead silent and still veiled by the early morning darkness. Jungkook didn’t answer you and just flipped on the main power switch, filling the whole rink with light. He sat down on one of the benches and pulled out an old pair of black skates that were more streamlined than his usual hockey skates. So he does actually figure skate, you thought silently to yourself. Even while lacing his skates he noticed you staring. “So I assume you are blackmailing me more than to just ogle at my good looks?” he teased. “Psh. In your dreams Jeon.” “Ok that what is your plan?” he finished the last knot, turning his eyes back to you questioningly.

     This was a first. You would normally come up with your own routine if it was a solo performance, but your ideas fell to the side the last time you had a partner. “Uhhh…” you stood there like a dope who hadn’t a clue what ice skating was. Jungkook gave you a pitiful shake of his head and sighed. He was a person for detailed plans that were meticulously thought out to the very last move all thanks to years of hockey. There was always a plan A, B, C, and D. So realizing that he was stuck doing something he didn’t want anyone to know with someone without a single clue bugged him to no end. “Ok do you want quads? What move set up do you want? Is there a specific theme you’re going for?” He started listing a million things off his head that only confused you more. You, the exact opposite of Jungkook, did things rather haphazardly and on the spur of the moment. If it looked good, you would fit it into the routine without a thought.

     “Oh. My. God. Let’s just skate first and see how it goes, can we?” but you jerked him up off the bench before he could answer, pulling him onto the ice. All he could do was mumble a small ‘fine’ under his breath. You didn’t really know what to do with an extra body skating along with you and opted to hold his hand sheepishly while skating around the rink. It was rather silly going around in circles and Jungkook’s impatience got the better of him after doing way too many pointless rounds that he finally pulled you into the center of the ice. “Look, I’m only doing this for the sake of my dignity” he placed his hand on your waist and you automatically grabbed onto his shoulder. With his other hand holding yours, he guided both of you “but we gotta start somewhere.”  

     Skating as two people was a foreign experience and one you still weren’t comfortable with yet. It called for you to not only be confident in yourself but also put trust into the person you’re skating with, neither of which you felt. Jungkook sensed this from the way you tensed up with a single touch. His movements never faltered though, continuing to spin you around and skating with you from different angles. He guided you from behind, hands gently perched on your hips while your own arms were outstretched. He pulled you in too close for comfort, your nose touching his broad chest for a second before spinning you away from him. Jungkook bent you back in his arms, swung you in circles from your hands, carefully playing with how your body worked to familiarize himself with it. All the while whispering encouragements whenever you kept in sync or did a move particularly well. His stone hard expression that was practically carved into his face earlier had smoothed out. His eyes were serene yet still full of attention that was all on you. There was a moment you swore he smiled, just a little turn of the corners of his lips.

     His attentiveness to your own sensitivity brought a comfort that made you forget time existed. The only things that existed was the grating sounds of the ice beneath your feet and the heavy breaths between you and Jungkook. You guys had skated an hour without any breaks before stopping to catch a breath. You chuckled at how exhausted Jungkook was himself from just skating. He would play hockey looking like he hadn’t broken a drop of sweat but here he was hunched over in front of you, sweat dripping down his neck and gasping ruggedly for air. It was a sight you had to take your eyes away from to quell the dangerous fluttering in your heart.

“What are you laughing at?” He smiled tiredly

“Nothing, just thought we earned this break.”

     His wide eyes caught onto the end of your sentence like he had a eureka moment. “____! That’s it!” His enthusiasm startled you and you quirked your brow. Jungkook mustered up the rest of his strength to skate towards you and place his hands heavily on your shoulders, almost knocking you off balance. “What the hell Jungkook.” “Our song. Let’s skate to Earned It!”

     If it weren’t for the rare excitement in his eyes you would’ve dropped everything and left, face flushed from not just skating. You’ve seen one of these rare moments before where his eyes were wild with fire while his hands whirled around in crazy motions. He was making a meme face at his other team members to make them laugh and you had to blink twice to make sure that was actually the serious Jungkook everyone knew.

     You shook your head and playfully pushed him off of you. Doing such an intimate song and by The Weekend nonetheless was a feat you couldn’t imagine, but Jungkook had other ideas. “Come on, the routine doesn’t have to be hard. We don’t have to do a lot of flips or jumps, I can handle all the extravagant moves. I can lift you a couple times and add in the moves we did earlier. It’ll be a great piece!” The more he talked about it the more you were starting to fall into his delirious plan. He was right about not doing challenging moves, but the part where he wanted to use your body as juggling balls didn’t sit too well. “I’ve pushed the whole hockey team off my ass before, I think I can balance you with one hand.” His cockiness came out as endearing and a light giggle fell from your lips. “Think I’m kidding?”

     Jungkook took you into his arms and stared at you for the greenlight. You teasingly rolled your eyes and nodded but his strength was still abrupt, making you squeak as he lifted you up with both hands above his head. He spun around gently, letting the air of the momentum swirl your hair. An accomplished look was plastered on his face as soon as he let you down, with great care.

“Okay we can skate to Earned It.”

     It was hard not to give into every one of Jungkook’s ideas. He’d always ask for your opinion and reiterate that you could always add your own ideas when they came up, but he ended up choreographing most of the routine anyways. Time was flashing by, slipping between your fingers with every minute you spent with Jungkook in the early November mornings. Your body, ironically, never favored the cold even after spending a huge amount of your life on ice. But cold was never a problem when you were with Jungkook. His jokes and silly antics warmed the blood under your skin and the times where you were both close enough to breathe each other’s breath got your capillaries bursting. However, each time his harsh words from the first day this started echoed in your head. Once this performance is over, we never speak of this again. We go back to not knowing each other. You’d end up pushing your frivolous thoughts away to focus on the routine instead.

     Jungkook on the other hand, grew more at ease to the point that he found he was enjoying himself for once on the ice. Everything had been about winning and it had been a while that he skated just for the heck of it. Just to make art. He started to wake up, eager for the next practice with you and by the end of the first week the routine was pretty much set. There were a couple more technicalities to work on, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

     It was one morning after a rather near perfect practice that Jungkook decided to announce something that had been gnawing in his chest. “Hey, can we talk?” For some reason you dreaded those words that meant something different for you than it did for him. “We have a huge match coming up, it’s the day before your…our performance.  I have to focus with the team two days before that so I can’t really meet up with you those days.”

     You let out a sigh of relief that was quickly hidden by a pretend cough. “Yeah, Kook, that’s fine.” He smiled fondly at your nickname for him. “There’s…There’s something else. I was hoping you could come see the game. I mean, if you had free time.” This shy part of Jungkook was probably the most adorable side you’ve seen of him and it took all your will power not to scream Y-E-S in his face. The way his gaze shifted to the floor and even the nervous twiddling of his fingers. Practice was over but your heart was still racing a mile a minute after having rested.

     After wrapping everything up, Jungkook led the two of you out and locked the doors to the building. It became habit for him to walk you to the bus stop every morning, though you reassured him that it wasn’t necessary, he still waited to see you get on the bus. It was a sweet gesture that made the very tips of your toes tingle. It was in a moment of silence, unforgiving wind nipping the tip of your nose, that you had a thought. A simple question, really.

“Jungkook? What got you into figure skating?”

[ecotone99]

[MF] Mind Whirled

Celestial Focus

Lost somewhere within thoughts of might, a familiar shimmering light seemed much brighter one night.

It grabbed the attention of the eyes, just doing its thing hanging in the skies.

On this particular night, however, it had the aid of a lyrical lever.

The first phrase of the song was happening and true from within, with the rest of the words piecing themselves in.

The light was now presented as a house set on fire, as undesired as it was desired.

With one sentience now seeing another around, so many questions came abound.

With so much potential in one of the heads, the other had appeared to have studied ahead.

Whistled Echoes

With the brain catching a train, it wondered if the other had any rain.

Searching around for some answers, the lesser had stumbled upon some hopping whistlers.

Chirping and tweeting emitted from one sphere, between the two they knew no fear.

Entire planetary bodies sending a transmission, the questioner had to find out their mission.

Nothing came up that was entirely immediate, so all that could be done then was just to wait.

Sometime later in the week, the day came, the two bodies could communicate one and the same.

Foggy at first but soon became clear, there was not just a house but a consciousness here.

Particulate Entities

Now with a greater mind in the lesser's focus, it wondered what precisely was the locus.

Like a single charged particle with a surrounding field, there was a lot to be found within that yield.

An overarching force to bind, and a backdrop for the thoughts to unwind.

Not just limited to a minor point, but extending indefinitely as a part of the whole joint.

With forces acting up in it, the senses of the dual minds had a way to both be lit.

Starting as a wish to be in the clouds, these ideations were heard out aloud.

Particles and planets akin, there were now minds found at all levels within.

Corporeal Jove

Further down into the core, the properties he wondered what they for.

The heart of mind and the mind of its heart, it now revealed to play a major part.

The storms were now organs of this beast, with the red spot partaking in a sensory feast.

The eye of the storm was a literal eye, gathering light borrowed from the sky.

All other senses were still mysteries, something to be found out from observing it's atmospheric seas.

But with a being starting to form, it provided insights that out of seeing were born.

Picking up phenomenon just as us, but with this one from its hefty gusts.

The Way Beheld

This being now observed had so much to say, in its words it actually showed the way.

Held within the line of sight, nothing to be seen except for the mind set alight.

To the eye, it was all invisible, but to the mind to was entirely possible.

It was there and it couldn't be refuted, but cognitively it was quite disputed.

Was it something of a resonance, revealing to him it's overly grand presence?

Nothing can be said of how it really look, yet somewhere in the cortex was an odd nook.

What it provided was a way forward, leaving not but a trace soon afterward.

His Cosmos

Directed yet nowhere to go, something had lingered from after the show.

It sat and festered waiting to bloom, stuck in his head it started to loom.

There was truth to be had still undiscovered, the answer was soon to be recovered

Resoundingly he uttered "My Cosmos!", again he proudly said, "It's my Cosmos!".

There was no truth to it said at that time, it had to be digested and made into a crime.

There some guilt that it was all his, but after all, it was part of his wish.

Into dreams others that eureka moment went, but now his self started to fragment.

Parallel Lives

Perceptions of one were now quite lucid, previously attached identity become more fluid.

With past and future as coalesced, a splitting of time and mind was then professed.

Things of static nature seemingly upset, taking on dynamics not as of yet met.

A swift rift developed somewhere from deep, so much that there was nothing to keep.

Who he once was now long gone, but many new selves soon came along.

Within these alien skins, there was nothing of which to be considered akin.

The ripples had calmed and some had formed, becoming grand he was finally warmed.

Cybernetic Angel

Wading out to the outer limits, there were things only a god of technological future could permit.

There must have been some kind of ascent, as up from earth this new being was sent.

An amalgamated higher being, from future and past this synthesis was fleeing.

With a mechanized eye and three wings on its back, there was nothing it did lack.

Powers of a higher intensity, to do good for others became its propensity.

Coming above from the stars, to mitigate the pain the of the scars.

With this of self now depleted, it's goals and strivings were all but completed.

Red-Green-Blue Triad

Seeing is to be more than a belief, the next perception coming not quite with relief.

Split into a spectral red green and blue, nothing about this could be fully seen as true.

With the colors all under the hood, they did what they did what was what they should.

Not present but out of time they have been, they complimented what was yet to be seen.

As prophetic as that all may sound, nowhere in life were they to be found.

But the vision of which they provided, in their wake left two minded planets divided.

A potential within the trinity of hues, they were all the perceiver sharing their cues.

The warmest one out of the bunch, give some clues towards the next hunch.

Terran Counterpart

With one planet in its gaseous glory, and the other telling a biological story.

The eye of the storm had some insight, as the ideas of what could be started to take flight.

The lensed spot greatly red had no brother, not a green one nor blue one nor someone other.

The perceiver of the rockier land created some gusts at the whim of his hand.

Like a butterfly in its fullest effect, a gale soon formed imperceptible to detect.

Now in cohort with the great mind's endeavor, something to play out forever and ever.

To be seen is to be received, and with new sight was this was being achieved.

Royal Eyes of Sol

With more to be noticed with a new set of eyes, came a question not yet realized.

Wonder what had started its course, it had to find out the initial source.

The little perceiver with eyes of own, had seen who it was from which it was sown.

It was the sun above which they were under, the intention of this star was to visually plunder.

All one day to be subsumed, if not for the perceiver's blue irises it was assumed.

With this came high prestige, all for things to be seen and just to appease.

Adding on novel responsibilities, the perceiver had a job to do with the best of abilities.

Planetary Duties

It looks to us as though a work of art, was actually it's purpose and was an integral part.

The warm-hued swirls blown about, to resemble the giant the perceiver did shout.

The barren red one was the blue and green's directive, it's unpainted canvas was Jove's protective.

Other bodies were already colored in but damaged by time, were their surfaces skins.

Earth as well being just a project done, and from its completion, it had almost won.

To carry on the torch of the mission, next in line is Mars was Jove's admission.

With all of this now in the perceiver's eyes, to make this whole and come to realize.

Becoming All

Returning back to his own cavity of self, these concepts imagined were for the moment put on the shelf.

After the being became the god-head and one with the all, it occurred in a second just looking down the hall.

Unexplainable in any terms known, but having a deeply true nature the perceiver was shown.

The previous perceptions to this all led, as a god he had seen it was within and wholly his head.

From Jove to Sol and further above, all that was brought down was agape love.

Everything at once and at once at everything, he could rightfully claim "My Cosmos!" in which he was king.

Seeing above and fully further yonder, the universe was still empty of sonder.

Now Intergalactic

A received message from Jove was accepted, light into his stormy eye wasn't just recepted.

It was a victory of finding life, an end to the long run of solitude and strife.

With the artful mission in their hands, there were much more creations to be found in the far-off lands.

From Sol's soul to those of other suns, they all had they very own daughters and sons.

Neither interstellar nor interplanetary, but on the grandest of scales their communion was merry.

A deep longing on a subconscious level, the perceiver's new friends shared joy and revel.

To the stars and heavens that hang, making celebratory noise they started to bang.

Mountain Contact

Now time to leave home and hearth, taking off and soon waving goodbye to earth.

Before feet left the ground below, the perceiver was included to be in the know.

To be held atop a local mountain, there was supposed to be an extravagant celebration.

A feast for the senses and what was received, later to be found out to be just deceived.

It all took place with the perceiver left out, pacing back forth expressing a facial pout.

Sadly to space was not in his cards, everything was a hoax which he had to discard.

But there were unseen rewards he could sweep, into the smallest scale did minds now seep.

Raw Qualia

Senses appearing seeming unadulterated, their features usually staunchly now cooperated.

Meaning imbued with each and every bit, their purpose revealed and largely writ.

Was this instead of the perceiver's gift, or did he wonder was it all a grift?

The colorful triad now in space anew, the reason they appeared from pieces only he knew.

Color and form and sound abound, there they again meaning found all around.

It happened all in a flash, with the articulations of them gone with a quick dash.

Left with something to be understood now, the mental qualities took their bow.

The Great Queen

Concealing what was revealing, the cracks were patched up after their peeling.

As mediation from yet the greatest source, this presence had an immense force.

To sustain reality and it's fabric, the great queen had done her trick.

Too much to be seen was not something for this smallest of perceiving beings.

Back into the shadows for the bits of mind, after the magic, the perceiver could no longer find.

Still lost some or nowhere in the lack of confines, unsure if he will ever be fine.

Reassured by her highest majesty, finally some normalcy the perceiver could finally see.

Return Home

On the couch this all outplayed, everything perceived was in the mind and displayed.

Nowhere but one spot to it all transpire, yet to greater heights did he now aspire.

They will say it was all in his head, but so does everything while we're sleeping in beds.

Just hallucinations and delusions, but more in nature to be perceptual illusions.

Taking place in a place of residents, met beings far greater than mere presidents

Taking something back but what exactly, nothing that could be certain and factly.

Back to home and life ordinary, but having something in mind most extraordinary.

(https://cosmeffect.com/meditations/mind-whirled)

submitted by /u/CoKu [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/3aVCvli

[signor-fumitake-blog]

Songwriting 101 with the “French Guitar Cook Book”

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been on a bit of a songwriting kick lately. Things got started somewhat at the start of the year; I was a fan of Glenn Fricker’s YouTube channel approximately this time last year, and at the start of the year, I decided to experiment around with hooking up my then-recently-acquired Hotone Nano Legacy amplifier heads (”Purple Wind” and “Thunder Bass”) with my Avid Fast Track Solo recording interface, which had been lying around gathering dust for nearly two years.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the recording software that came bundled with the interface as it required an older operating system - as it turned out, my computer’s OS had been upgraded beyond the software’s maximum requirements. I briefly flirted with the idea of testing out some of the free recording softwares out on the web, and even got around to trying one out; it didn’t turn out too well as getting everything set up was just too tricky.

Glenn had been saying good things about the REAPER Digital Audio Workstation on his channel, so I decided to download the free 90-day fully-functional trial programme and give it a shot. If I liked it, I would pay the US$60 for the lifetime private licence. If I didn’t, well, at least I could always delete it.

My initial impressions were pretty positive. The software is easier to set up regarding connectivity, and the couple of problems I did encounter were dealt with pretty quickly. The software also came bundled with freeware effects, and was capable of hosting a freeware drumming software I found on the internet. So far, so good. With my basic set-up completed, I proceeded to throw together a few rough demos to give the software a proper shakedown. Alas, I had to stop for a few months due to university and my final compulsory five-week teaching placement.

Towards the end of the placement, I was watching some of Glenn’s older videos, one of which turned out to be sponsored by the author of the “French Guitar Cook Book” (referred to henceforth as the FGCB). I remembered being somewhat intrigued, and decided to buy the iBooks version. I was also introduced to Shady Cicada’s Youtube channel at around the same time, and was immediately hooked by his “How-to” videos. So, I decided to sit down and try to write a proper song, or at least a short two-minute preview.

In hindsight, my first real attempt was on the basic side, even for someone with limited lead guitar abilities such as myself. It was somewhat catchy, but that was it. The point, however, was that it was still coherent as a song, and when I was helping out the music classes during my internship, some of the students were pretty impressed with it. So, I decided to give my songwriting another shot after my internship was completed. This meant paying even more attention to the FGCB, leading to more “EUREKA!” moments.

So, how do we use the FCGB to write songs using pentatonic scales? Let’s start with the basic items:

1. A copy of the French Guitar Cook Book (FGCB). 2. A guitar. 3. Writing materials. 4. A random number generator.

Other items that are not necessary, but are really useful:

* A recording interface (I’m using the AVID Fast Track Solo). * A functional recording software (I’m using REAPER). * A drum machine / drumming software / an actual drummer / a metronome I’ll be using “Still Not the Sharpest Tool” (https://soundcloud.com/zach-tan-600018631/still-not-the-sharpest-tool) as an example for this guide. Some steps will be changed accordingly, but the end results will still be the same as what I did come up with. Step 1: Use the number generator to generate a tempo. This will determine the pace of the song. Tempo: 131 BPM

Step 2: Generate a number between 1 and 12. This will determine the key of the song, with 1 being “A”, and 12 being “G#”. Number: 6. Key: D#.

Step 3: Generate a number between 1 and 8. This will determine the scale you’ll use based on page 30 of the FGCB. Number: 8. Scale: Scriabin.

Step 4: Generate a number between 1 and 5. This will determine the mode of the scale. Number: 1. Mode: Regular Scriabin.

Step 5: Put together the key, the scale, and the mode (D# regular Scriabin). The notes in the scale are colour coded, so look for the key note under the relevant scale and mode, and pay attention to its colour. Going from left to right, note down the other notes in the same mode. (D#, E, G, A#, C). These will be the core chords and notes you will use. Write them down.

Step 5.5: Write the chords in tablature form if necessary.

Step 6: Start playing around with the chords, using a metronome or a drum machine. If it sounds good, write/tab out the chord progression. Slowly work your way throughout the song, remembering to write down everything as you go.

Step 6.5: If you need to include one or two more chords that are not part of the mode, write them down as well.

The following step will be listed under the assumption that you have been recording your own work.

Step 7: When you’ve recorded the entire rhythm guitar track, it’s time to focus on the lead guitar parts. Use the same notes to construct your melodies. Of course, Step 6.5 still applies, and if you’re having difficulties, try looking for the notes on different parts of the fretboard. For example, you might want to use the C Scriabin-V mode instead if your root note is a C. As with Step 6, write everything down.

Relevant screenshots will be uploaded separately.

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: 2017: First Quarter Favorites

Three months in, and we haven’t destroyed ourselves! To celebrate this achievement, we’re once again sharing our favorite releases from the last few months. A lot of it is pretty heavy, focusing on grief (Mount Eerie), cruelty (Lawrence English), and self-loathing (Xiu Xiu), with other fun stuff like ritual guitar abuse (Skullflower) and the glowing horror of reanimation (Rashad Becker). But we also loved everything from urban gallery funk (Cybervision Simulcast) and philosophic horse opera (Sun Araw) to playful Afromutations (Riddlore) and pop so sugary sweet it’ll rot your teeth (Charli XCX). Something for everyone. ;) Since these quarter lists are more informal than our year-end features, the shortlist before the list proper is equally important (especially Dasychira’s Immolated EP, which got a lot of love since assembling this list). Check ‘em all out below, and maybe see you in another three? Shortlist: Moon B’s Lifeworld 2: Udaya, nekomimi + luvfexxx, LUVISCOLD, Sophiaaaahjkl;8901’s Toilet Abstraction Tapes, Gabor Lazar’s Crisis of Representation, Darren Keen, It’s Never Too Late To Say You’re Welcome, Mega Bog’s Happy Together, Tonstartssbandht’s Sorcerer, Dasychira’s Immolated, Drake’s More Life, William Basinski’s A Shadow in Time, Roc Marciano’s Rosebudd’s Revenge, Future’s HNDRXX, Blanck Mass’ World Eater, and PAN’s mono no aware compilation. --- Mount Eerie A Crow Looked At Me [P.W. Elverum & Sun] I can barely listen to A Crow Looked At Me, an album with little room for novelty, one I’m sure Phil Elverum never wanted to make. Death is the least novel thing in life, but it makes a novelty out of what never was before. Phil (who I feel maybe too close to now) makes white noise of branches, canyons of grocery store aisles, a sunset of what is not dust. He doesn’t have to make meaning of Death, because words become futile when confronted with something so simple and absolute. His grief seems just to be here, contained by the same microphone as guitar, the way someone who dies just can’t be. I don’t think music had ever made me cry only for someone else, but none of this sounds like it was made for anyone but Geneviève and himself. He says he doesn’t want to learn anything from his wife’s death, but by the time you’ve shut your eyes for 40 minutes, alone with the creaking floor and counted days and Pacific birds and spoken dreams, I can’t imagine not coming away with (something) more. It’s springtime. –Pat Beane --- Riddlore Afromutation [Nyege Nyege Tapes] The modest genius of Riddlore’s Afromutations, the January offering from Ugandan cassette label Nyege Nyege Tapes, stems from a certain perspectival grace. A longstanding figure of the Los Angeles hip-hop underground, Riddlore is known first as an emcee and second as a beatmaker. Afromutations sees the artist sketching a playful, iterative bass style drawn from samples of African field recordings, a hauntological gesture that in less subtle hands might fall into a self-serious wormhole. The tape’s beauty is in how the timbral mood of the samples gesture at and usher into place the recombinant scaffolding of the relatively untreated percussion, like how the choral tension that opens “Bakka Pygmies Riddim” blossoms into an eerie kuduro strut. Elsewhere, on “Afroed” and “The Crush,” drums and overlapping harmonies flange into natural psychedelias. Riddlore’s agenda-absent play allows the samples to mutate freely, and Nyege Nyege serves an adept platform for the project. –Nick Henderson Afromutations by RiddloreAfromutations by Riddlore --- The Necks Unfold [Ideologic Organ] To unfold, usually, is to grow, to expand; to sprawl. On their 19th release, The Necks have instead tightened their improvisational nous to four standalone pieces, invoking the mysticism of Cusanus: “unfolding is enfolding.” These anti-compositions unfold insofar as they protrude into space-time and become of-the-world, cosmological chaos and all; they enfold into the broader scheme of the album, all unified through the articulate chops of Messrs Abrahams, Swanton, and Buck. Between balance and imbalance, serenity and turbulence, the respective instrumental forces of the players here circumnavigate these side-long miniatures with microscopic focus and reticence, in characteristically Necks-ian fashion. And, even when compared with classics past, there’s no compromise on ambition, not a single wasted moment. Such is the dynamism of Unfold; what initially struck as blissful stasis, best suited for gazing into the pale blue yonder, gently opens up — and, yeah, unfolds — to yield four of the most self-contained, wholly busy musics that 2017 has had to offer thus far. –Soe Jherwood Cybervision Simulcast Sewer City [H.V.R.F. CENTRAL COMMAND] Sewer City kicks up all the residual funk of an urban galley. Where oil encrusted kebab meat sweats on rotation, busted street lights stutter into the night, and ripple-rich puddles highlight the only natural quality to animate the scene, as thick droplets of rain are spat down from the stubborn grey heavens above. Cybervision Simulcast drape this grizzly vision through the innards of a pitch-black bypass drenched in alarms, sirens, and ricochet. Everything points to a breakdown or dysfunction, as this bleak snapshot of municipal decay melts to nothingness through our slime-smeared fingers. But those signals of distress are incorporated within the process, and they are not to be heeded for what they might otherwise signify; they orchestrate the bass-inverted crank that punctuates the residue of samples, synths, and storyline. To suggest that this grizzled and failing image results in a perfect album would be distasteful — obscene, even. And yet, that’s precisely what’s happened every time I’ve taken the plunge so far. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. Let’s keep it that way. –Birkut SewerCity by Cybervision SimulcastSewerCity by Cybervision Simulcast --- Charli XCX Number 1 Angel [Asylum] Out of the cold dark dust, the Number 1 Angel spreads her wings for Utopia, so emotional and so sugary sweet it’ll rot your teeth. After one of the strangest ascensions (“I! Don’t! Care!”) in the pop industry, Charli XCX is thriving. VROOM VROOM’s EUREKA! production was Charli at a 100% synchronization rate, and now she’s spun a 40-minute pop slipstream, an outside World of babygirls and babyboys. The PC Music crew sheds some of the hyperreal, sourcing Charli’s charisma and songwriting prowess to shoot for real stars: color-coded bangers, sweatsoaked and tearstained, a clarity of vision that at once opens avataric and musical possibilities in the channel of Rihanna and Kesha. The party’s enfolding. Number 1 Angel is Charli’s every intuition refined in hi-fi, the best-yet gateway for anyone not already along for the ride. Ten songs for one night. Glitter in your underwear, left on red. Let’s ride! The closing trilogy of features (Uffie, ABRA, cupcakKe) is fucked-up perfect. Each outrunning the last, headfirst till the 90s bubblegum pops. The synths kick up cinnamon for a minute-long Secret Mix outro. Inextinguishable, enlightening. It’s Charli, baby. –Pat Beane [pagebreak] --- Various Artists Club Chai Vol. 1 [Club Chai] When you’re in the right club, with the right music, with the right crowd, you can feel your body. You’re present in it, in its creases and protrusions, in its decorations and accoutrements, in its movements and vibrations in space, in its careful caressings and navigations around and through other bodies. You can feel it as something fluid, the cells and lipstick and lungs and heels and bass and drugs and genders and hi-hats and drifting and splitting melodies and languages morphing the movement of your limbs into a movement of potentials. You think, “I am in this body and I am feeling these other bodies and I know that this body can be something else, it can be what it wants to be, it can be what it doesn’t want to be, this shell is the end and the beginning and I am going to be fucking gorgeous.” Club Chai is a loose collective of queer and trans club DJs and producers out of Oakland pushing that continuum into the right-now-right-now-right-now of sonic uncertainty, gender uncertainty, national uncertainty. And it feels right. –Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli Club Chai Vol. 1 by Club ChaiClub Chai Vol. 1 by Club Chai --- Lawrence English Cruel Optimism [Room40] I consider myself an optimist, but I haven’t always been positive. My sense of trust in goodness has grown as I’ve unpacked how cynicism has poisoned many of my relationships (with partners, with friends, with art). Then again, being an optimist, as Louis CK once asserted, means being stupid. There’s a delicate balance between being confident in humanity’s potential for good and accepting humanity’s cruelty as simply the cost of business. Lawrence English’s latest release is music for contemplating what’s writhing around deep in humanity’s psyche. Its requiem is solemn, because nobody’s sense of “goodness” has won yet, its negative drones promising because they still have matter to vibrate through. Cruel Optimism is nominally a meditation on how human desire often breeds cruelty at humanity’s own expense, but as a sound work, it is also a reminder that optimism, shed of its colonizing skin, can overcome cruelty. –Jackson Scott Cruel Optimism by Lawrence EnglishCruel Optimism by Lawrence English --- Quelle Chris Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often [Mello Music Group] In college, a friend of mine had a line that went something like, “Your shit is wacker than the ‘you’ that every rapper writes about.” Although I can’t remember exactly how it went, or if it was ever even put to record, I always thought that was so dope: taking aim at the proverbial second person by acknowledging its ubiquitous metanarrative; uplifting recorded battle rap by breaking its third wall. Doper still, the idea that an omnipresent, sucker MC named “You” might actually exist. Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often complicates the above concept by incorporating hip-hop’s superego, the proverbial I, and framing that id character as both a role model for personal success and a self-destructive nemesis. Like “Who Am I” as a slapstick comedy about the creative process. –Samuel Diamond Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often by Quelle ChrisBeing You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often by Quelle Chris --- Sun Araw The Saddle of the Increate [Sun Ark/Drag City] The Saddle of the Increate shuffles the few short steps across from Belomancie’s chambers of internal refraction to twitch and twinge its way through into the shining territory of the lonesome whippoorwill — outdoors, that is. Well, at least there’s a pedal steel or two, a cactus, and a 10-gallon hat — it’s a [“psychedelic”] philosophic horse opera, tough as an actor, distracted but gruffly tender, especially in its latter sections. There’s a space and a half between every point; we can give names to/for every constellation, a classical reference or two even, but it’s still… complex — and how is the soul (your soul) distinct from its powers anyway? Spatially disorienting, temporally atomistic, concrete in image, plastic in execution: seven lampstands have become seven horses (and four hats, a head of cattle, one bowl, etc. etc.). Like pulling a wishbone with yourself, be 100% ready to spit in the skillet. –Michael J --- Graham Lambkin Community [ErstSolo/Kye] As Jackson Scott so rightly put, Graham Lambkin’s Community is “a document of what a community can create without dictating what a community should entail; it is evidence without the arrogance of conclusion.” Not community, but the evidence of community. In fact, the trace audible evidences of sound becoming located in new environments is exactly what establishes Lambkin’s practice and medium — a medium that so mysteriously auditions sonic evidence into richly communicative listening spaces. In Community, we are bathed by this evidence, in communion with it; it is threaded inside of the spaces we inhabit, our daily lives and interactions — those already in articulation. Voiced as such, the album is a masterclass in Lambkin’s quotidian character, flattened into a natural, weathered state close to the void — close to how impossible and brilliant our communities are. It reminds us that our communities exist often without us, within and without our human attempts to locate them. –scvscv --- Camedor En Ut / Alba [Debacle] The scoff that is heard ‘round the world at any mention of “world” music may not be the constructive criticism the catch-all term deserves, but it is the noise necessary to make a greater point. But may we suggest replacing that negativity with a positive denotation? Enter Camedor’s debut 12-inch, which is the sound of the world sucked into a wormhole wherein time, space, and location matter little. In a nutshell, it represents the “new” idea of world music, where we no longer place such a limiting genre marker on what is music now easily accessible to all. Both songs borrow from mid-century composers (including a “cover” of Terry Riley’s “In C”), but also pull everything out of the grab bag of motorik, drone, and pop. José Orozco Mora has layered it all into a wondrous noise that may heavily borrow from Western tropes and styles, but is music from parts (un)known. You may not catch much Berber or Aboriginal influence, but what matters is how Mora’s Camedor speaks to building bridges between cultures through music. It’s a shared form of expression, and the joyous, raucous nature of En Ut / Alba is a celebration of worlds colliding into symphonic harmony. –Jspicer En Ut / Alba by CamedorEn Ut / Alba by Camedor [pagebreak] --- Skullflower The Spirals of Great Harm [Cold Spring] The Spirals of Great Harm has a clear lineage in the Skullflower discography. It’s a step beyond Strange Keys to Untune Gods Firmament (also a double album) and Taste the Blood of the Deceiver, though it follows a similar trek down the left-hand path. Played at a low volume, its minor key melodies and themes are apparent enough, but turn it up and its lacerating feedback has a much harsher effect. Bower and collaborator Samantha Davies (the only other constant in the modern Skullflower lineup) unleash hell through ritual guitar abuse. Outsiders may not readily understand how much different this album is from 2014’s dragon-themed Draconis, but to longtime admirers, it’s a step away from that album’s meandering psych, the style of which Bower used to reserve for his Sunroof! project. Kneeling in worship at the altar of the underworld, stacks of amplifiers in tow, Bower and Davies have crafted another indispensable addition to their canon. –Joe Davenport --- Xiu Xiu FORGET [Polyvinyl] Pray for Xiu Xiu. As many of their contemporaries have either faded from the record and/or embraced a life as background material for iPod commercials [ed: NO SHADE ON IPODS], Jamie Stewart’s long-running project has — like unchecked tooth decay — only deepened with age. Delivering maybe their most “accessible” album since formative hit Fabulous Muscles (a record whose key lyric was still “Cremate me after you cum on my lips”), FORGET brings all the self-loathing, harsh sarcasm, wonky instrumentation, and harrowing Dennis Cooperisms we have come to depend on from the Xiuverse. Whether you love it or not, Stewart and his gang have sustained a distinct interpretation of the world through what can feel like a lifetime’s worth of trend-shifting; for this alone, the band’s persistence should be cherished. That FORGET is one of their best albums to date is a surprise and a delight, the sign of a legacy act finding new life (the light, New Order-echoing “Get Up” is an album highlight) and handing us a deceptively poppy, booby-trapped gift to both longtime fans and newcomers. –Dylan Pasture FORGET by Xiu XiuFORGET by Xiu Xiu --- Rashad Becker Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. II [PAN] Rashad Becker is a musician who is known for mastering other musicians’ work. His operation at Dubplates & Mastering is prolific and now famous in the world of experimental and electronic music, its most recent accomplishments including masters of The Necks’ Unfold, Visible Cloaks’ Reassemblage, and the great new PAN compilation Mono No Aware, but probably the most adventurous and distinctive of the records Becker has engineered of late is his own. He makes music with the freedom of a person who spends a lot of time thinking about the relationship between music and media of expression. PAN officially describes Becker’s Notions as “synthesized sounds that appear to exist hauntingly physical,” alluding to the tension between creativity and materials that enters always into the musical imagination, the tension that Becker gets paid to negotiate on artists’ behalf. The physical “haunts” music, not as an antagonist as if all music were not physical at least in origin, but because of what is risked, what is lost, and what is made when music passes from one physical medium to another, as in the representation of the rapid movements of a trombone’s bell as bumps on a slab of vinyl. Where his first volume of Traditional Music was a bit more self-similar, built from the whirring of buglike tensions and releases, Becker’s second effort explores the glowing horror and breath of reanimation. With species even more personable and diverse than those of its far-out predecessor, Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. II is nothing short of an event in electronic music. –Will Neibergall Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. II (PAN 74) by Rashad BeckerTraditional Music of Notional Species Vol. II (PAN 74) by Rashad Becker --- We’ll See x Treece (Prod Hyro) Constructions Tape [SWMS/Self-Released] Drizzy Aubrey may be hip-hop’s new international playboy, assembling identities like a collector on safari, but the UK hip-hop and grime scene has been strong for a while now. We’ll See and Treece, along with lo-fi necromancer Hyro, present an alternative to the rude glitz of Skepta, a drowsy, dour romp through England’s South West and Manchester, tagging walls, popping pills, and trading deft, witty wordplay. There’s something theatrical, entrancing about the scenes on Constructions Tape, and they fade in and out of view like fragments from a VHS tape in a Buckfast bottle. Hyro is as much a character as the MCs — the beats on “SNES-CD” and “Krylon” are loose and minimal. “Rizla” is a stunning example of his sizzling, ambient lo-fi technique. The drugs are the same, the liquor is the same (the slang a little different). For those who find it hard to relate to life on the other side of the Atlantic, you can dig the lads’ antics in a tape-length music video, which explores the highways, fallow fields, and windy beaches of Britain. We’ll See and Treece are practically alone in the entire piece, ghosts in a glittering, unforgiving city. –Ross Devlin Constructions Tape by We'll See x Treece (Prod Hyro)Constructions Tape by We'll See x Treece (Prod Hyro) --- Jon Mueller dHrAaNwDn [Rhythmplex] Jon Mueller’s dHrAaNwDn is deep and resonant, each quadrant of the 2xLP package filling a distinct void. Mueller is adept at bending innovative recording techniques to fit his drum-offs, and this might be one of his most elaborate schemes. The excerpts found on the wax were captured by a full mobile studio at the historically cogent meeting house of the Shaker Historical Society in Albany, NY. And if you’ve ever been to Albany (as I have, a ton), you know there’s an odd artistic energy enveloping the overlooked city. Using the cavernous environment to its aural advantage, dHrAaNwDn sprawls its percussive attacks out evenly, the dank toms thumping, jumping, and bumping. It’s akin to those loooong rows of files I used to sleep amid when I worked at a complex housing warehouses full of legal files: orderly, sequential, and all-encompassing in its grandeur. dHrAaNwDn hits harder than a drone-out and more comprehensively than the huge push of air that accompanies an explosion, the sound waves bouncing rustically off the “wood and white walls” of the house. So much more to say, so little space; white vinyl, only 200 copies, no digital version, gorgeous artwork, Mueller exploring yet another avant avenue that no one thought to truss. –Grant ‘Gumshoe’ Purdum --- Amnesia Scanner AS Truth [Self-Released] AS Truth provides a severely ungrounded experience. Leitmotifs abound (water, club, shifter, voice, trepan), Amnesia Scanner build a dizzying piece that is colossally unfathomable yet pragmatically short — done before its working becomes cruel. Living in the tiny turns and rarely caring for much larger than that, AS Truth is the pregame and the function (the buzz and the twitch [the trepanation across the nation (the boogie and the drop) that burrs the hole] that feeds the demon) that wakes you up. I love this album, and OK, in case you’re wondering, I found this for you: this. I guess the surgeon is “actually a quack” but look at him, funny guy. Oh, and apparently this guy trepanned himself. Only later do we find out that ~no~ he didn’t. –Ben Levinson AS TRUTH (MIXTAPE) by Amnesia ScannerAS TRUTH (MIXTAPE) by Amnesia Scanner [pagebreak] --- LAMPGOD GOD SHIT EP [Self-Released] “Hey: what’s happening?” is the sound, and it’s me looking for the voice source. “How y’all doing?” (really though how am I doing?) and I can’t put my finger on it (can’t touch a sound, Frank, duh.) What’s means? Someone put some solid white lines between lanes (as if you could keep things separate, as if we all moved in one direction at a time), someone ripped up all the pavement (“‘cause I’m negative”), killed all the streetlamps (“and I’m dark”) some LAMPGOD blows up the means and throws up me. Cause when you wrap all the pavement ‘round your waste, you get GOD SHIT, the influence of ecstasy of ecstasy. Can’t touch a sound, and in this dark, I don’t want to not resolve: “We gotta help each other out, man, renourish the soil.” It’s soil or soul, this driving both ways. It’s GOD SHIT, the garbage divine, the that that’s happening. –Frank Falisi LAMPGOD - GOD SHIT EP by LAMPGODLAMPGOD - GOD SHIT EP by LAMPGOD --- Dale Cornish Cut Sleeve [Halcyon Veil] Room to think is never enough space as you’ve imagined. And Cut Sleeve is just extra for “t-shirt.” So breathe. So much area to cover. So here we have Dale Cornish satirizing modern house music. Beyond that, the Winnipeggian is using Cut Sleeve to comment on a variety of “scene” motifs that continue with the club-politics of Halcyon Veil (i.e., queer culture, auteur vanity, architectural ouroboros, etc.). Only this time, Dale Cornish provides a brooding outsider mentality, blending dark alley grime and abstract dancefloor narration, settling Cut Sleeve in light of summer nights partying in the park, in a ditch or pond, and never quite coming back into reality as before. Ever. –C Monster Cut Sleeve by Dale CornishCut Sleeve by Dale Cornish --- HIRS YØU CAN’T KILL US [Get Better] The pink and purple hue line-blocking the resistant and persisting declaration in bold white-as-day fuck-you lettering YØU CAN’T KILL US. Through the five-track, five-minute EP and 100+ shows through LGBTQIA spaces and hundreds of tracks, HIRS have made further ground down the chaff of their enemies and turned the opposition into dust under their boot. And though they’ve already released a split with LIFES in dedication to all their lost friends, TRANS GIRL TAKE OVER 2K17, and an underheard release called MAGICal/WANDerful (from which all money made goes directly to Morris Home), we keep dedicating our five minute breaks at work to it. It’s raw and fervent, tearing the stitches out from the seams of their oppressor and dividing it among the trans community, leaving a powerful, anxious, angry, passionate residue that we will never wash off. –Monet Maker YØU CAN'T KILL US by HIRSYØU CAN'T KILL US by HIRS --- Dedekind Cut The Expanding Domain [Self-Released] $uccessor’s scion in every way, The Expanding Domain is simply the planar enlargement of Dedekind Cut’s starkly heterogeneous sound. Chimerizing practically every experimental electronic form one can imagine, each track blooms from chill aestivation into confounding calyces of spiraling noise and hyaline synths. Likewise in ontogeny, The Expanding Domain maintains a perennial coiling and uncoiling, as the final cut, “Das Expanded, Untitled Riff,” gives way to the EP’s opening in “Cold Bloom.” His strength is in grafting his raging and rimose rhythms to the divaricate New Age and ambient sounds his newest project has embraced. Simultaneously serrate and undulate, his sonic palette (complemented by the likes of Elysia Crampton, Dominick Fernow, and Mica Levi) unnerves and calms. The static-wreathed stabs of “LiL Puffy Coat” float atop a ponderous plod and the crushing-crushed breaks of the title cut find balance from a languishing wash and a hint of melody. It feels complete and self-sustaining yet always groping outward toward more. A sonic inflorescence, The Expanding Domain is the further coil of the tendril, the greater spread of the rhizome, the deeper growth of the genet. –Cynocephalus "The Expanding Domain (ded005)" EP by Dedekind Cut,"The Expanding Domain (ded005)" EP by Dedekind Cut, --- Pinkcourtesyphone Talk The Pleasure Out of It [Champion Version] Minimalist and ambient music are the aural equivalent of abstract art. Maligned by the uninitiated for their perceived simplicity (read: boring, easy to cobble together) when in actual fact anyone who has ever tried to paint an abstract on canvas finds quite quickly how difficult it is to decide what to put where — or more specifically, what not to put almost everywhere. And therein lies the art. Pinkcourtesyphone is fast establishing a reputation as the Mondrian of music minimalism. With so few concepts and sounds throughout Talk the Pleasure Out of It, it’s breathtaking how much emotion and mood is packed into this all-too-brief EP from the opening bars. –Marty Slattery talk the pleasure out of it by PINKCOURTESYPHONEtalk the pleasure out of it by PINKCOURTESYPHONE --- Demdike Stare Wonderland [Modern Love] Demdike Stare’s first album since 2012, Wonderland produces prismatic color from a grayscale jungle, crosshatching inert beat blocks and blunt chords into tight, combative spaces in order to glimpse a few seconds of beautiful moiré. Between stark silences and loud silver smacks, loose atoms offer subtle signs of life, suggesting endless, complex revisions — small but seminal shifts into new structures, trickled off from the eroding monolith of “industrial” and fully escaped from the aesthetic trappings of “hauntology.” Fans of past records will recognize the esoteric sampling and tough breaks (especially if they’re fans of the Testpressing series), but the level of abstraction on display is newly inspired, with new rhythms and juxtapositions hinting at new modes of expression at every turn. At its core is a pure love of creation, boundless energy picking up inertia amid extreme restraint, transforming all the techno it touches. The humanity is there, but it’s hidden, in corners and in shadows, as still as can be, confident someone will eventually find it anyway. Stay active. –Adam Devlin http://j.mp/2o8xWPc

[edamame-reviews-blog]

Our interview with the Groo Gadgets Team, The creators of Spiraloid

Are you – just like us – captivated by Spiraloid? A dizzyingly beautiful 3D adventure… If so today we’ve got an interview you simply can’t miss!

If you’d like to check out our review of Spiraloid, you can also do that here.

Today we’d like to share with you our interview with the Groo Gadgets Team, the developer of Spiraloid!

Before we start, we’d like to thank the Groo Gadgets Team for participating in our interview, and for spending some of his valuable time answering our questions. Thanks!

Now without any further ado, our interview begins.

  The Interview

Ok first up, why did you decide to make Spiraloid?

I’ve been learning the art of game development for over 10 years and have started (and stopped) development on around 10 games. Since I’ve always been a “team of one” I had to whittle down the grandiose ideas into something that I knew I could complete on my own.

In early 2016 I put my foot down and said to myself “I have to FINALLY finish a game!” so I started researching and playing casual games from the likes of Boombit and Ketchapp. I found a game called Spike Dash which was quite fun but ultimately a bit boring.

It’s a 2D game where the player is a cube that rotates around a circle. Spikes start popping up so the player taps the screen to perform a single jump. I started thinking how I could take such a simple concept and put my own “twist” on it.

The eureka moment came when I had the idea to extrude that gameplay idea into 3D and when I thought of a spiral (or more accurately a helix) everything just came together quite quickly. A prototype was playable within 2 days, from then I knew this would be the first game I would finally finish!

Here comes the obvious next question, how on earth did you manage to create such immersive 3D graphics? (To be completely honest, Spiraloid looks so good, it almost looks wrong on a mobile device!)

Thank you so much for your praise! My professional background has been in 3D animation and motion graphics for film and TV so my strength has always been my design skills.

I really admire games like Monument Valley and Chameleon Run for their simple yet beautiful low poly style. The best thing about low poly graphics is that not only do they look amazing if done well but they are also much quicker to produce than more textured 3D games.

My tool of choice is a free 3D software package called Blender. I have used other commercial software packages before but none of them struck a chord with me like Blender has, especially since most other packages cost around $3,000 or more! Almost all of the 3D elements in Spiraloid have no textures at all, the colours are embedded into the 3D models by a technique called “Vertex Colouring”.

To be honest creating the graphics was the easiest aspect of creating Spiraloid. It would take me an average of one and a half days to create a new level from scratch which I did find surprising myself. You will be happy to know I have many more levels planned including an underwater level with giant whales that swim by the spiral and an outer space level where you travel through space stations and asteroids. The best is yet to come! 😃

The next question is a little less obvious.

At first, Spiraloid seems like it is going to turn out to be an impossible game, but as you progress throughout the game, you’ll soon realize that Spiraloid is hard, but still very achievable.

How did you manage difficult levels when developing Spiraloid?

It’s great that you’ve raised this point since balancing the difficulty has been a real challenge. When I watch people play I can see them struggle with the difficulty, they don’t jump quick enough to avoid spikes or they don’t time their double jumps properly. Soon after I got the prototype working I had the idea that the player should jump to the beat of the soundtrack so I designed the game around that mechanic.

You can still play the game without audio but if you can tap your foot to the beat of a song you should be able to tap your screen to the beat of the game! Each music track in Spiraloid has exactly the same tempo: 120 BPM so the speed of the gameplay never changes, even when the whole world starts to spin. I have designed the game so that most spikes and obstacles need to be jumped on the second beat (typically when you hear a snare hit in the music). To help the player I have also made the hitbox of the spikes much smaller than the spikes themselves so there is a slight margin for error when you jump a spike and when you land on the other side.

Even with all the tweaks I made to help the player, I find that most people struggle to get a score of 10 (for the record my wife has an average score of around 500 on each level). As you have pointed out with a little practice and some trial and error you can master the game and play for many minutes if you follow the beat and observe the spike patterns. Once you have mastered the first two levels (Amethyst and Silicon) you will find the challenge ramps up significantly when you first play the Obsidian level (fun fact: Obsidian is my tribute to the brilliant TV show Stranger Things!). Instead of spikes that pop up, you encounter mines that float up and down to the beat. Where spikes are always below you mines can be above or below you and explode on contact. This is where upgrading the shield power-up is vital so you can learn how to navigate mines without exploding!

Now for some extra geeky questions. What programming language and or software did you use when making Spiraloid?

Since I have a background in design I had very little experience with programming. I started making games in the early 2000’s with a program called Blitz Basic. While I never completed any games it did give me a good grounding in the basics of programming.

When the first iPhone was released I knew I had to get on board and start developing mobile games. That’s when I discovered Unity 3D and have been using it ever since. At first, it was daunting since I had never used the C# scripting language before and I was determined to create games on my own. I then found a tool which would be the best asset I have ever downloaded for Unity; PlayMaker. PlayMaker is a visual scripting tool that lets you program visually with nodes.

Instead of writing your own code it uses code snippets called “actions”. The actions are simple functions like moving 3D objects, detecting button presses, etc. Since I already had an intermediate understanding of programming the learning curve was very shallow and I had prototypes up and running within days.

If anyone reading this has been dreaming of getting into game development but doesn’t know where to start I would highly recommend a combination of Unity and PlayMaker. I should mention that I wouldn’t have been able to complete the game without the help of assets from the Unity’s Asset Store. When I had the idea to sync the game to the music the first thing I did was search the Asset Store and I found a brilliant tool called Koreographer by Sonic Bloom. Not only did it do exactly what I wanted but it also included PlayMaker actions so I had it running in my game within a couple of hours.

Ok, here is a difficult question. What was the hardest problem you needed to overcome when developing Spiraloid?

Well, I can start by telling you that the easiest part was creating the gameplay itself, once I knew what I needed to do I just did it with next to no real issues. The hardest part was integrating all the systems that needed to be in there to form a fully functional game.

Implementing things like language localization, in-app purchases, leaderboards, etc was a real challenge and completely broke the game a few times. The lesson I have learned is to start implementing those systems soon after a good prototype is working.

There isn’t all that much text in the game but since I added localization after I had all the menus in the game it was very time consuming to set everything up to work with multiple languages. Other than those issues it has been a reasonably smooth experience. I started prototyping around May 2016 in my spare time then I went full time from October to the start of January this year so for just one person it has been a reasonably quick process.

Last question. Where do you get your inspiration or ideas from?

I play a lot of games! I have all the current consoles and I download and play around 3 games every week from the App Store. I do tend to gravitate to obscure indie titles since they usually are in line with the kind of games I like to make.

I am mainly inspired by games that bring new ideas or fresh takes on tried and tested gameplay mechanics; this inspires me to come up with my own ideas that push the boundaries. I knew from the first prototype that Spiraloid would be a visual feast so I started doing research on visuals made for electronic dance music.

One of my inspirations has been the work of Beeple (Mike Winkelmann), the visuals he creates in sync with EDM are amazing. I also have a Pinterest board that contains loads of images I have found on the web that have inspired me to create the visuals in Spiraloid.

A few words to Spiraloid fans on Edamame Reviews.

I have a couple of projects in the works but haven’t locked anything in yet. One thing that I can tell you is that I plan to team up with another developer for my next game, solo game development is REALLY time-consuming since I have to do every single aspect of the game myself.

Before I start anything new I have to prepare the Android version for release which should be out soon. Another thing I have considered with Spiraloid is creating a version for VR. I actually spent a lot of time in the early stages of development creating a version of Spiraloid for Google Daydream and Gear VR. Can you imagine what Spiraloid feels like in VR when the world starts to spin? I can tell you a strong stomach is highly recommended😃

Lastly a few words on how you feel about Edamame Reviews and our service.

I’ve been following Edamame via Twitter for a while now and more often than not click through to read the reviews. I really enjoy the articles and interviews as I always like getting an insight into the minds of fellow developers, I hope your readers find this interview insightful as well!

There are a lot of gaming sites out there but not so many mobile-only gaming sites, this site fills the void very nicely indeed!

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Thanks for the incredibly detailed interview! Want to give Spiraloid a try? The download link is just below😉

Let us know what you thought in the comments section below and as always thanks for following edamame.club

Interview with the Groo Gadgets Team, The creators of Spiraloid Our interview with the Groo Gadgets Team, The creators of Spiraloid