#it's from about 30 they start getting mean

[hauntedfawnn]

۶♡ৎ Riding Rafe’s Chest Hair ۶♡ৎ

✰ Degradation, daddy kink, spitting, spanking, overstimulation, choking, age gap(Rafe is late 30s reader is in her 20s), possessiveness, hair pulling 18+MDNI! ✰

Based on a convo with my love @cameronsprincess

“Daddy, please, I don’t think I can come again.” You whine and babble as you straddle Rafe’s upper half, your dripping cunt gliding with ease across his toned chest. The patch of hair on his chest brushes against your pulsing clit and sensitive folds.

“Maybe you should’a thought of that before you decided to slut yourself out right in front of me.” Rafe tongues his cheek before smirking up at you, his hands gripping your ass so tight you can feel his nails indenting your skin.

“You fuck other people all the time, you’re such a hypocrite-“ Rafe grabs your jaw roughly and pulls your face down so it’s inches from his, the smirk on his lips turning into a condescending snarl. He shakes your head from side to side as he chuckles darkly.

“You’re walking around, handing out what’s fuckin’ mine and now you have the audacity to give me an attitude? Shut the fuck up and make yourself come again or I’m not fucking you for a week.” Your pussy clenches around nothing at his words, you fucking love how mean he is when he’s jealous. “You knew what the fuck you were doing.”

He wasn’t wrong, you knew exactly what you were doing. Rafe had been ignoring you all week and you were feeling neglected, so you decided to do something to get his attention. You and Rafe weren’t exactly together, not publicly at least. He’s ten years older than you, and your boss. You work as a cocktail waitress at the high end bar he owns and he says it's “not fair to the other employees”. Plus he’s a fucking man whore who doesn’t want to settle down.

But the minute you decide to come into the bar on your night off with a guy who's been asking you out for weeks, he loses his mind. So maybe it was a test, to see how he reacted. And you always get what you want from him in the end. You know just how to work him.

“You did this on fuckin’ purpose. You think you’re sneaky with your little games but you’re not, baby doll.” Rafe squeezes your cheeks between his fingers as he swirls spit on his tongue before spitting directly in your face. He uses his free hand to smear it in, smudging your lipstick across your mouth. “Now be a good girl and come again for daddy.”

Rafe smacks your ass roughly with his free hand as he drops his grip on your face to your neck. He pushes you up by your throat so you’re sitting up straight in his chest again.

“Wanna see my chest hair glistening with that fuckin’ pussy juice, baby. Get it nice and wet for me.” Rafe squeezes your throat so hard it makes your vision go blurry, he lets go and reveals in the way you gasp for air. He smacks your tit and tweaks your nipple before splaying his large hand across your belly and pressing down. It makes your puffy clit rub even harder against the coarse hairs on his chest and has your eyes rolling back.

“Uh-uh, fuckin’ look at me.” Rafe digs his nails deeper into your ass, the sting bringing your eyes back to him. “Eyes on me, baby. Tell me who owns you.”

“You, daddy! Just wish you’d show it.” You whine as you look down at him through your lashes and your lips pushed into a pout. Your hands are planted firmly on his muscular chest as you continue to fuck yourself against his skin.

“That’s what this is about, huh? You want everyone to know you’re a little slut for this dick??” Rafe chuckles.

“Yes, need everyone to know who I belong to. Not just you.” Your legs are starting to get tired so your movements slow down but Rafe isn’t having that, he uses his grip on your ass and hand on your stomach to roughly pull you back and forth on his chest. Rafe laughs at you condescendingly, mocking your need for him.

“You’re pathetic, ya know that? Running around chasing me like a lost kitten or some shit.” That shouldn’t be what sends you over the edge. But that combined with the way Rafe is manhalding you and the way his chest hair snags on your clit just right has white hot pleasure wracking through you. Your legs quake around him as your cunt pulses and clenches around nothing, begging to be filled despite how sensitive you are. “Yeah that’s right, slut, fuckin’ come for me. Now turn around and gimme another one, let daddy see that perfect ass.”

You turn around and arch your back as you start to fuck yourself reverse cowgirl on Rafe’s chest. He aggressively paws at and spanks your ass. All while he deals out degradation with a dash of praise and you’re so fucking obsessed with him you almost can’t stand it. He doesn’t let up until you can’t sit up on your own anymore and you collapse in a panting heap on top of him.

“You’re so fuckin’ wet.” Rafe’s hand slides his finger across his slick chest, gathering some of your juices. Then locks his arm around your neck as he sits up, pulling your back to his front. He holds his glistening digits up to your lips, rubbing your wetness on them like its lipgloss. “Taste yourself.”

You take his fingers into your mouth eagerly, swirling your tongue around them and savoring the taste of yourself mixed with a hint or Rafe’s sweat. He pulls them from your mouth, gliding them down your chin to your neck and down your abdomen, making sigh contentedly.

“You’re fuckin’ mine and I never wanna see another man’s hands on you again.” Rafe grits into your ear as he grips onto the hair at the nape of your neck and pulls your head back so you’re looking at him. “You want everyone to know about us so bad? Quit your job at the bar and let me take care of you.”

“Are you serious?” Your eyes light up and an excited smile stretches across your lips.

“Don’t make me say it again, brat.” Rafe pulls your lips to his in a bruising kiss, sucking your tongue into his mouth before pulling off with a pop. “If you keep it up, I’ll have to tie you to my bed with a vibrator on your pussy and leave you there for a few hours. I’m not spanking you as a punishment anymore, you like that shit too much.”

Tagging mooties: @rafescorpsebride @rafesheaven @rafescvntyclubgf @eerielamb @that-sarcastic-writer @moonlightseranade @loserboysandlithium @songbirdmunson ✨

Dividers by @anitalenia

My first Rafe fic on my new account !! One of many, I’m cooking up a long fic rn. Stay tuned.🩵

[genderqueerdykes]

hello! Question! so from this post:

https://www.tumblr.com/genderqueerdykes/772796354687909888/on-the-topic-of-mobility-aids-i-just-want-to-throw?source=share

this section kinda threw me off

if you struggle to walk for extended periods of time (30+ minutes uninterrupted) you probably need some type of aid.

because I? can barely walk around my house for even a minute without my legs hurting and becoming out of breath/dizzy? I mean, it varies day-to-day and it seems to be worse in the winter but generally speaking I always struggle a lot with walking. I figured I was just, unfit or smth. it's what has been suggested to me by family at least? I mean, I have some other physical conditions but nothing leg-pain/walking related. and I was under the assumption this was relatively normal? for more info I'm a young teenager, so there's also been "you're just young/growing/going through puberty" and such. and I was just curious if

A) this is normal

and

B) if not, should I? look into canes/some other form of mobility aid?? how would I even go about this really I guess

thanks sm for all you do by the way! :]

this is not normal, or rather, healthy/abled, i suppose

most able bodied people are able to stand on their feet easily for an hour or more, especially if the standing does not require much extra exertion. a lot of able bodied people are capable of taking multihour hikes, or taking long walks through their neighborhood or city. many abled people are capable of going on long walks with their dogs, or jogs. 30 minutes is a very short amount of time. if one starts getting dizzy and has difficulty breathing during this time, that's especially alarming. there may be an issue with your blood volume when transitioning from sitting to standing

have you ever been tested for POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) or looked into it?

i really don't like it when people dismiss these things due to someone's age. it doesn't matter how young or old you are, that's highly concerning. that is not normal for adults to experience let alone children. I'm so sorry you're being brushed off like this. that can potentially be very dangerous for you to live with unchecked

preventative care really should be what's prioritized here. I'm so sorry your issues are being dismissed like that. that's no small thing to deal with. that's a huge problem. nobody should brush that off as growing pains

you can definitely look into getting a cane if you'd like, though something like a rollator walker may be more ideal for you if you're dealing with lightheadedness after standing for short periods of time. those aren't easy to get though so i understand wanting to start with a cane. keep in mind that if you are dealing with POTS, you're going to experience that dizziness when you transition into standing regardless of whether or not you have an aid to improve your balance

you're more than welcome to research canes, walkers, and whatever other mobility aids you think could help! i would honestly start by reading about different aids and learning about what conditions they benefit and what cons they might have. you can either search things like "mobility aids" on here or google things like "benefits of using a walker" or something to that effect. with you being young it'll be hard to buy any kind of aid other than a cane, as canes are cheap and sold at almost any place that has a pharmacy including Walmart, Target, Kroger, and so on

[corvus-frugilegus]

Illario's grab for power is so emotionally complicated I can't stop thinking about it.

Like there's the favouritism and the loneliness and the need for love and connection that I think the title has come to represent. Because favour is maybe as close as the Dellamortes come to talking about love.

(Love is still there, it's fucked up and twisted in a lot of ways but it's there. It's hard for any of the Dellamortes to acknowledge this. But they're family and that means something to all three of them. Family is important to them).

But also for so much of his life Illario hasn't had very much power or agency either. He doesn't get to make big decisions for himself much like Lucanis, he doesn't have a lot of influence on the trajectory of his life because of Caterina's influence. Lucanis is the favourite. In that family dynamic Illario probably has the least power of the three of them.

So taking the reins of his own life and cutting that deal with Zara? The cost of losing Lucanis breaks his heart, but for the first time he's the one deciding the terms in which he lives his life in a big and meaningful way. It's not just small rebellions. It's reaching for what he wants and for once in his life feeling like he's the one in control. He's the one with the power.

And honestly? I can't fault him for wanting that. For not wanting to feel like he's at the bottom of the Dellamorte barrel anymore. For wanting his life to mean something, if only to himself. He isn't wrong to reach for power. There's nothing wrong with wanting to change the imbalance he's lived in.

It's the hubris of it that sets him up to fall into Elgar'nan's hands. Lucanis is back. But Illario can't go back. Illario can't give up what he's sacrificed so much for. Can't go back to being Dellamorte the lesser with no say in his own future. So, of course he doubles down, kidnaps Caterina, and makes a deal with Elgar'nan- the way he sees it he's backed into a corner and has no one but himself. And at this point in the story he's not wrong. He has no idea what Lucanis has become (Other than not dead! Which was the plan!)

It's interesting to me how what I think is Illario's own desire to live on his own terms is... In a very horrible way the thing that ultimately leads to Lucanis also beginning to ask what it means to live on his own terms too.

Having Lucanis killed was heartbreaking and terrible. But it's also the very thing that breaks the cycle the three Dellamortes are living in. Illario is the one who, in a way, decides that what the three of them are doing is unacceptable and starts them on a new path for the first time in roughly 30 years.

Illario having the ambition to reach for what he wants, is what sets both cousins free from a long-standing cycle of abuse. It's just also a profoundly twisted and cruel process.

[berritart]

thinking about shotgunning with abby for the first time #needthat

cw - oral (r!recieving), petnames (baby, angel, sweetheart), drug usage, afab reader, overstimulation ?? nawt proofread

you asked abby about smoking around a week and a half ago. she was shocked that her girlfriend would ever be interested weed. if she could recall you absolutely hated when she smoked around you. everytime you went to her place you begged her not to because of the smell. so what's the change of heart now.

"been rly stressed abs. isn't this shit supposed to help?" you point at her stash on her desk. "yeah why? don't tell me little miss i-hate-weed wants to start smoking."

"i mean it wouldn't hurt to try. finals and work been kicking my ass." you plop down onto her bed next to abby, turning to face her.

she already starts messaging her plug. "well i'm gonna be honest i dont want you buying from anyone. so ill buy it for you and test it out, see if its right for you. so maybe next week?" abby suggests.

"aw thank you baby." you whisper against her skin, nuzzling your head in the crook of her neck.

so that was a week ago.

you already requested off the next day, scared shitless you wouldn't even sober up by then.

you watch her intensively as she rolls and lights the blunt with ease. she has you in her lap, laughing at how you're so intrigued over the simple action. "what... stop laughing at me abs." you push her shoulder lightly, shuffling a little bit closer on her lap. abby reaches over for the lighter bringing it up to the blunt. "m not angel, just think it's cute how you're acting over this. here."

she hands you the blunt, placing it between your thumb and pointer fingertips. "just inhale it baby, not that hard." you place the blunt between your lips, taking a drag out of it slowly.

it's seconds after you break out in a coughing fit, gripping onto abby's shirt. you feel like you're about to die, your eyes watering and you start wheezing and coughing. "what the fuck. what am i doing wrong" you question, handing it back to abby. she takes a drag out of her wonky ass perfectly rolled blunt. no coughing, no wheezing, nothing.

"how about we try this. open your mouth." she takes another drag, watching your pretty little lips open wide for her. you close your eyes and abby blows smoke into you mouth. you inhale as she exhales, taking all of what she gives you.

when she finished shotgunning you, you definitely feel it a bit already but nothing crazy. "again abs." you whine loudly. "i like this more than doing it myself." abby takes another drag to blow in your mouth. how could she ever say no to you.

the blunt was completely finished. you being high revealed some things abby didn't even know. you're definitely not a lightweight shockingly and you get extremely horny when under the influence. so much she had to help her poor baby out.

"abs...slow d..down." you whine against one of the pillows on your girlfriend's bed. she's been lapping at your folds for about 30 minutes, not having the nerve to stop after orgasms. her strong arms were wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer everytime you tried to pull away. "mmm just one more please baby" she muffled against your glistening folds, the vibrations making you go utterly crazy.

it was too much. you probably have had three orgasms so far. abby still wanted more. she forgot all about the blunt you two shared almost an hour ago. she was high off your sweet cunt, intoxicated with how your body would squirm within her grasp. one after the other she did not give you a break. she just needed her gorgeous girl to give her one more.

"fuck fuck fuck i'm g-gonna-" you whimpered loudly, wandering hands finding its way to tug at her blonde roots.

"cum? c'mon angel give it to me." she borderline whined just now, her lips perfectly wrapped around your swollen cunt, sucking non stop. her thick fingers found its way inside you, making a slow scissoring motion. "baby- feels s-so good..." you weren't going to last any longer by the looks of it.

after a few more seconds of the constant sucking and fingering, your juices released all over your girlfriend's face and fingers. your back was arched off the bed, hands almost pulling abby's hair out. after catching your breath you looked down at her between your legs, scoffing at the grin on abby's face. "fuck baby, squirted all over my face too?" she chuckled, leaning her head against your thigh.

"when is gonna be our next session sweetheart?"

a/n - BOOMSHAKALAKA YES GAWD. been watching berleezys tlou 2 gameplays i genuinely need her #bad

[k1mbe3rly]

Hii! Idk if u do angst so I'm so sorry if it's a lot it's been on my mind all dayy! (This is a se-mi fic btw)

So what if reader was in love with se-mi, but se-mi tends to hook up with others, and reader walks into one of her hook ups, gets into an argument and confesses mid argument, and se-mi rejects her and tells her to get out her face, and so reader does just that but reader can never fully move on from se-mi and she has to sit back and watch as se-mi flirts with other girls (so so sorry if it's too long!)

ofc! i do angst as welll, ⚠️but lowkey kinda bad 😢 sorry if it is, it’s my first time writing angst 💔⚠️

I love you, i’m sorry

warnings: none, fem reader

You and Se-mi has been friends ever since middle school, you started developing a small on her, you never told her but you did try making it obvious to her, by flirting with her, she would flirt back as well.

Yall were at her house just talking, there was a party going on later so yall were just waiting for that time to come, you had gotten ready, wearing a cute outfit/ dress, once you came out the bathroom you heard a low whistle, “Woww sexy huh?” she said

You blushed a bit and chuckled a bit, “For you of course..” you said half playful and half truth. She just laughed a bit, you knew she was into girls so that’s why you had a good chance with her but the only problem was she was kinda a player..

You’ve seen her with many diffrent girls but never you. Some she referred as one nightstands and some just flings. Once she was done with them she would block them like always, she never really care for there feelings or anything.

Later on yall arrived at the party, loud music fillings your ears, people drinking and walking around filled the house, she grabbed your hand and helped you thru the crowd, once yall reached a group of friends she kept her hand on yours.

“Hey i’ll be back okay?” You heard se-mi whispered to you, you looked at her as she smiled at you, you smiled back and nodded as she begins walking past the crowd. “When are you gonna tell her?” Your friend spoke.

“What? what do you mean..” you said quickly, “Your little crush on her” Friend 1 mentioned, “I don’t have a crush on her? where did you get that.” you said defensively, “Well i was just saying..jee, no need to be so quick about it” friend 1 spoke again, “oh.. sorry.” you said. The party went on as you waited for Se-mi

10 minutes flew by and she hasn’t came, 20 than 30 passed as you decided to go looking for her, you looked and walked around for a moment until you saw her one of her other friends, you went up to her “Hey have you seen Se-mi?” you asked “Uhhh i think she went upstairs to take care of something or to use the bathroom” She said, “Oh okay thanks” you spoke

You than made your way thru the crowd again finding the stairs, you walked up seeing many doors, “oof..” you muttered as you decided to go with your gut and opening a door, you looked in and nothing, you closed it and going towards another one, again you opened it and nothing, you went to the last door that was at the end of the hallway

You put your hand on the door knob, a small knot growing in your stomach, like your nervous or something.

You opened it and looked over to see Se-mi, she was making out with another girl, She was taking off her jacket while making out with her as you widen your eyes a bit, the creak of the floorboard caught there attention as they looked over.

“Oh- jesus you scared me y/n..” se-mi spoke as you stared for a moment “Yea. Your friend told me you were using the restroom” you spoke a bit sternly “Right..sorry i took so long” she spoke again, “Uh yea, not suprised this isn’t really the first time.” You spoke still stern, She noticed your tone and raised an eyebrow “Yea? are you oka-.” she started speaking but you cut her off “Se-mi i’m getting tired of this. I’m done with you doing this so many times!” you quickly spoke

“What? I’m sorry i didn’t realized it concerned you so much?” she said back with a bit of annoyance “It’s not that it concerns me! it’s just the fact you keep doing this over and over again, when will it stop!?” you yelled slightly as she got up, “It’s my life y/n, i can do whatever the hell i want without your permission.” she said with a bit harsher tone, “Why are you trying to control her so bad?” the girl that sat on the bed watching us said “Shut the hell up! stay out of this!” you yelled at the girl as she was stunned, “Hey. don’t fucking talk to her like that.” Se-mi said raising her voice at you a bit, you stared at her stunned, “Seriously? why are you defending her? i thought she was just one of your hook ups?” you said back

“Yea well maybe i want something more with her” Se-mi said back more serious than ever. “But what about what i want?! you always get your way Se-mi.” you responded back, “Well what do you want y/n?! huh? what is it so i can do it for you since apparently i get what i want!” “I WANT YOU SE-MI!”

you quickly went silent realizing what you said, your eyes widen as your hands went into a fist, She stared at you intensely as you wanted to look away but couldn’t, you waited for a response but nothing.

“Get out.” were the only words that fell from her mouth, “What?” you said in a bit of hurt and confusion, “I said, GET OUT!” she yelled “What don’t you understand about that?! I’m sorry but i don’t fucking like you! i never did!” she yelled once again.

Your eyes stinged a bit feeling your tears behind your eyes starting to come to the front “You have to understand se-mi! please don’t do this!” you begin explaining, she scoffed and pushed you a bit, “Just get out y/n” she said rubbing her forehead a bit, “Se-mi..” you said as you stumbled and took a step closer “I love you.” you spoke. Her eyes flared up, “Get the FUCK OUT OF MY FACE! I DONT FUCKING LOVE OR LIKE YOU! GET THAT THRU YOUR SKULL.” she said yelling at you and point at her head a bit, tears formed in your eyes as you stayed quiet, you than walked away slamming the door, tears already falling down your face as you left the party.

There was nothing you could do to make someone love you. You could only watch and hope.

[elisnarcho]

˚𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝 — 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙣/𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧 001˚

◜ 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙮…

◜ 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙭 𝙁𝙚𝙢𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

◜ 𝙏𝙒: 𝙉𝙤𝙣𝙎𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙂𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝘼.𝙐

As you skate through the neighborhood carelessly with your heart shaped sunglasses.♫˚ * ՞

𝙃𝙊𝙉𝙆

You hear the sudden noise through your headphones, looking up you in shock and confusion only to see an older man.. and jeez was he not too bad for his age.. You continue your journey back to your house.

* ՞ As you get closer and closer you notice a truck.. and a bunch of people talking to your mom and dad, wondering what's happening you only speed up. With a hint of confusion in your mother greets you "You came back just in time y/n, we've finally found someone to rent that little cabin to in the back!" * ՞

* ՞ As hours go by you finally hear "Dinners ready!", this means you get to eat and meet this new person! As you sprint out you see a your mother, father, the feast and..! Your smile slightly fades when you see the man, the same man that almost hit you.. "Hello sweets!" your parents say with gleaming smiles. Your mom continues on saying "This is the renter Hwang In-ho we were talking about earlier, he'll be staying here for sometime until he's settled well into the area." After the introduction, you all let the dinner festivities begin with your new (hot) guest...* ՞

* ՞ As the night goes on and everyone has ate your parents decide they'll clean up leaving you and In-ho basically alone in the dinning room. As you start to get up he gets up to offer his hand out asking "What's your name?", and with a smile you accept the handshake reply "My name is Y/n, and of course I know yours". With an awkward cackle from the older man he goes to say goodnight to your parents leaving you to your usual night routine. * ՞

* ՞ With the moon only getting brighter you still wonder about In-ho, why did he come here? where does he work? Does he have a partner? As the thoughts race through your head you notice the time.. 10:30.. And with that you go to sleep with in-ho on your mind * ՞

..ok yall this is like my first time writing for realzies so uh... should I continue this or?? (p.s watch the movie "The Crush" to really get the vibes)

[asphodelles]

Hi, I found your work on Twitter last year and I really love and look up to your art. If you have the time, I wanted to as if there are there any study topics, artists or techniques that have significantly influenced you :')

I'm at a bit of a complete loss on what to study presently so I thought I'd ask my favorite artists, thank you for reading and I completely understand if this is too open ended a question

Thank you!

This isn't the first time I have been asked this question and I suspect this won't be the last so I'll just lay everything out here. Go to a cafe or get a blanket or something because this will not be a short read:

Foundational:

Anatomy: A lot of my foundational anatomy and clothing illustration knowledge was gained from taking classes and doing observational drawing. Because of this, I'm not going to have the best recommendations because of this but top 2 books I can recommend for getting Started started are Andrew Loomis or RockHe Kim's books on anatomy (huge asterisk here: they're good at teaching you Basics basics like muscle groups and turning forms and extremely general proportions but will not help that much with making your figure drawings less stiff or how to draw fat or especially in the latter's case how to draw women not built like stick bug anime girls but uh I heard the Morpho books are pretty good. genuinely everything I know about drawing fat is from observational drawing/studies because at some point I got sick of my school for only hiring skinny models in their 20s-30s). I have some diagrams drawn by my friend who studied the hell out of these guys below:

Clothing: I don't know any books that can really help on this front I apologize if I find any I'll update this post but pretty much all of my knowledge on drawing clothes boils down to the following rules: Where are the tension points, how stiff or soft is the textile, how is the form underneath the section of clothing behaving, and don't make even spaces between fold groups

All of this is kind of moot though if it isn't applied through study or observational drawing though

Design:

I have to be really careful here because I don't want to deal in absolutes, the only absolute I'm confident espousing is that anyone who tells you there is only a small selection of methods you should follow to execute a specific type of design are objectively incorrect and just haven't figured out alternative if not more effective design solutions to a common problem. The only real Worst Thing I think you could do as a designer is create a pinterest mannequin devoid of a story, disconnected from its context in the world, and lacks clear purpose/personality but this too could be easily be disputed if maximising a character’s aesthetic appeal serves a purpose in its context, and my opposition to this design approach is my personal bias as a character designer for entertainment where emphasizing a character’s function and their relationship to said function is usually the goal

I think the 5 best pieces of advice I've ever received when it comes to designing characters are the following:

Try and follow the rule of thirds/general gestalt design principles of contrast

Always consider what it is you're trying to communicate with the character

Create believable transitions and reinforcements between points of interest

(Entertainment related) KISS principle/Keep It Simple, Stupid is your friend, the way a character wears or wields what they wear or wield will communicate their role in the world (who are they?), their relationship to their role (do they like their job? are they good at it? are they a part of an organization with the means to provide them things to perform their role more effectively?) effectively enough. Excessive information that bloats and conflicts with the communication objective weakens design (example: My favourite childhood toy for years was a pokemon plushie. Would I as a stay at home digital artist be wearing it as a keychain on my crusty paint stained polyester pajama pants when I'm at my desk working my job? is wearing it relevant to my character as a person who both no longer is invested in pokemon and is in this context focused entirely on comfort and doing my job? (no)). I think Elden Ring is an excellent example of a game that has visually complex designs but pretty expedient storytelling with its characters for worldbuilding

Study things that aren't just character design, to borrow from Lynn Yaeger borrowing from Sally Singer "If you're interested in fashion learn everything except fashion... Politics, art, painting- anything except fashion". Because people in different disciplines who work with different mediums or fields of study approach problems in different angles you may not have considered which can help give new ideas + often times the stuff you like was inspired by stuff that isn't at all what you would expect or enjoy yourself (To pull from a very popular example, Arcane is a League of Legends joint which was highly influenced by Warcraft which was highly influenced by Warhammer which was basically a giant response to western pop culture of the 1960s and the history of European warfare something something coconut tree).

Character design is kind of a hard thing to Get Good at considering how much of the actual process is super psychological/not bound by a *ton* of absolutes and has to account for medium and function (you kind of just have to have The Sauce) so I don't recommend Just studying independently only (possible, just very difficult). If you can and are interested in learning more about the specifics take some classes taught by people whose styles you fw who both know what they're doing and are good at explaining their process. For design for entertainment you can always check out Concept Design Academy or The Workshop Academy and see who's teaching there

As far as artist inspirations are concerned I think looking up the artists who worked on projects you like are a good starting point to figure out how you want to stylize. Going off of that at least currently my favourite designers/illustrators for entertainment with The Sauce are probably Evening Monteiro, Sergey Kolesov, Mindy Lee, Tonci Zonjic, Sasha Tudvaseva, Claire Hummel, and Yoshitaka Amano

My favourite book currently for tackling character design at least from a narrative consideration is probably Talking Threads: Costume Design for Entertainment Art (one of the authors is my friend and an excellent teacher!) and a lot of the stuff they espouse really helps to take into consideration individual and external factors when designing a character/how they can be used as vehicles for both individual storytelling and worldbuilding, gigantic reference point for my most recent casual project

Besides that the only other way I can really recommend studying character design is to just look at art, history, architecture, nature (pretty much Everything) and think about how ideas and concepts from those things can be applied to or communicated through a design or figure out what it was about a design or designs you like made it appealing

uhh tldr this is just how i as one among millions of artists got to where i am today as of January 16th 2025 my word is not gospel the advice I espoused here may very well spell my downfall tomorrow

[sizhens]

hannah and I have had this recurring discussion / game where we try to determine when the US empire was really at the "peak" of its dominion (i.e., not actively and clearly in decline) and how long it was at it's "peak," a la US Americans always Nostalgia'ing about When Things Were Better, the Golden Age that America Needs To Retvrn To

I think many people will feel pretty comfortable saying that the height of American Hegemony started in 1945 (ofc subjective but i digress) so we can pin one end of the "US American Golden Age" there

So when did Decline Start?

I think a lot of liberals think that Trump Depicts A Descent Into Fascism, which would put like, what, 1945-2016 as the US American Golden Age

but wait, ok, well, I feel like a lot of people, even liberals, will concede that The Great Recession marked a significant crash in US power. So ok, let's pin the other end at 2008.

but wait, I mean, how about all of the wars that the US kept losing or meaningfully fumbling?

so wind back the clock past Afghanistan, Iraq... and, well, obviously, then, the Vietnam War has to be when the decline started. The Americans straight up LOST. So, OK, 1945-1975. 30 years.

Wait but, what about the Korean war? Despite the vicious and incomprehensible bloodshed and genocide of the United States campaign in Korea, they did not actually succeed in eradicating Communism in the Korean Peninsula. so. 1953? Eep, we're getting to a less of a "golden age" and more of a "golden blip..."

ok, well, so let's say that. 8 years. 1945-1953

Except, I mean, on some level you have to acknowledge that a significant reason the US didn't succeed in Korea was because of the existence of the PRC, and, meaningfully, I feel like it's pretty solidly arguable that, from the perspective of maintaining a stranglehold on a unipolar world order, China presents the greatest inevitable threat to US hegemony. Ok, so, what, when could the US have stopped China? On some level I feel like we could pin that on "before when China got the Atom Bomb" which would be '64, inasmuch as it marks when the US reached a point that they couldn't really obliterate the PRC out of existence, but really, the real start of the US decline was marked when the US failed at curtailing the eventual resultant conditions leading to China becoming a meaningful contestant. Which I feel like we can argue would be the beginning of the PRC, and the end of the civil war. So. 1949?

Oh, jesus. Four years? Four years of truly hegemonic US American Golden Age. Well, that's just fucking pathetic. That's miserable.

Obviously, it goes without saying that the US Imperial Order is still alive and strong, that the Imperial Order has a massive human cost that continues to rise, and we should not make errors in realistically understanding this and grappling with the power of the US Capitalist Hegemony. That said, I feel like it can and is valuable to also understand the inevitable contradictions within the US capitalist order, the long-articulated descent into increasing levels of Decay. And, frankly, this is a mental exercise that my wife and I do to keep our spirits up and keep ourselves sharp, but at the end of the day it's not serious political analysis nor should it be treated like rigorous theory. But I think there is certainly something to be said about remembering that the Enemy is not infallible, that the Enemy is not immortal, and that the Enemy is not without the capacity for defeat.

Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger. [...] When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end. Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.

Comrade Mao Zedong, US IMPERIALISM IS A PAPER TIGER

[poetlus]

THE BET — kuroo t. x fem!reader

SYNOPSIS: when theres a tied game between nekoma and fukurodani, bokuto decides he wants to prove the winner in a different way. so, he makes a bet: whoever gets a girlfriend first wins. kuroo, not one to hurt his ego, accepts; however, theres only one problem. kuroo doesnt know how to talk to girls.

WORD COUNT: 2.2k

A/N: loser!kuroo is a big part in this fic… sorta mean reader… i love him u guys. not proofread!!

It was a month before the Spring tournament, and Kuroo decided his team needed to practice with professionals, the “Big Shots” as he called them. He went up to you after practice and asked if you could try and schedule a practice game with a neighboring school, Fukurodani. You, being the official volleyball team manager, said you would try and set up a day for the team to come by. In all honesty, you enjoyed watching games between Nekoma and Fukurodani. They were always so intense and both teams were incredible and extremely thrilling to watch. Plus, the team’s managers, Kaori and Yukie, were hilarious. The three of you enjoyed making fun of your boys.

The next day, you contacted the managers and coach of Fukurodani and scheduled a date and time for them to come by: Saturday evening, 3:30 to 6:30. You ran these plans by with the team and the boys were ecstatic. They all thanked you for your hard work and went home for the night.

Saturday rolled around rather quickly, and soon enough, Fukurodani had arrived. They were earlier than expected, making an appearance at 2:45. The two teams began chattering and bickering amongst themselves as you thanked the coach for accepting your invite, and he thanked you back for the invitation. The practice matches started at 3 o'clock and ended at 7. As the sun set, so did the boys’ stamina. Nekoma and Fukurodani played a total of four matches, and twelve sets in total. 2 matches were won by Nekoma and 2 were won by Fukurodani. Both teams were far too exhausted to go on, and decided to call it quits after the fourth game. Although both captains were drained from playing their hardest, their mock rivalry was far too powerful to leave the competition at a tie.

��I’ll beat you next time, I promise.” said Bokuto with a toothy grin on his face.

“Yeah right, how about you get some girls on your arm first.” Kuroo rolled his eyes and laughed at his own remark, something he did very often. Bokuto’s smile grew wider.

“Fine!’’ The man exclaimed, “That’s how I’ll beat you. I’ll get a girlfriend before you do!” Kuroo looked at Bokuto with a puzzled expression, making him elaborate. “We can make it a competition; whoever gets a girlfriend first wins!”

Tetsuro smirked somewhat mischievously. “Well, who am I to turn down a bet?” He said as he puffed out his chest.

“Let’s shake on it, then.” Bokuto held out his hand and Kuroo took it with a tight grip. “Alright, ladies man, it’s on.”

While Kuroo was on his bus ride home, he was thinking about the bet. There was only one thing that could prevent him from winning and that was: his lack of experience when it came to being in relationships. Kuroo Tetsuro had never actually dated anyone. There was one time in middle school when he asked a girl to a dance, but that didn’t count because she never talked to him after that. He eventually came to the realization that he hadn’t even thought about dating anyone. His mind and schedule were too consumed by volleyball to have relationships. And now, suddenly, he was thrusted into the dating world because of a bet, out of all things. What was he going to do?

On Monday, he racked his brain of every girl he knew the name of and decided to go down the list. At least one of them could see him in a romantic light, right? There was no way every girl he knew didn’t find him attractive enough to date, right?

Turns out, he was wrong. So very wrong. After shooting his shot and getting rejected every single time, he was losing hope. Should he start asking random girls out? No, that was creepy. He didn’t want to be known as the school creep. But he couldn’t let Bokuto have this win– he wouldn’t let him have this win. He had one last hope: His own volleyball manager.

He was sure you’d reject him too. You had interacted with him too many times to even consider dating him, but he had no other choice. He had to ask his mean and scary sports manager out in order to preserve his ego.

After practice, Kuroo walked up to you with a sly smile on his face. You were already concerned about his behavior when you saw his off-putting expression.

“Hey,” He deepened his voice and attempted to make it smoother, more sultry. Your eyes widened as he leaned against the gym wall.

“Kuroo, what on Earth are you doing right now?” You asked him.

He continued to try and play it smooth, stroking his chin. “Oh, nothing, just… admiring your beauty…” The black haired man looked into your eyes with an odd guise on his face. You rolled your eyes at him, thinking he was playing some weird prank on you.

“I’m leaving now–’’

“Wait!” He exclaimed, his demeanor changing. He sighed and tensed up, confusing you even more. “Bokuto and I made a bet to see who could get a girlfriend first and I was wondering if you could be my girlfriend for a bit.”

You stared at Kuroo in shock, wondering if this was all some sick and twisted dream.

“Are you serious?” You asked, to which he nodded. There was a moment of silence before you burst out laughing. Kuroo’s eyebrows furrowed and he tried to get your attention again, but you couldn’t contain your laughter.

“Y/n, please I need this. You know how Bokuto gets when he wins a bet.” You adamantly shook your head after you calmed down, shooting him down immediately. After pleading some more, you finally give in after he guaranteed a week’s worth of pork buns. It’s not like he was going to stop asking anyway.

“Fine.” You rolled your eyes. Kuroo’s face lit up at your response, although he wished it would have been delivered in a nicer manner. Beggars can't be choosers, he thought to himself.

“Thank you so much, Y/n!” He grabbed your hands and squeezed them, something he did to prove his appreciation. “So, in order for me to win this bet, Bokuto has to actually take the bait. If we just walk up to him and say we’re dating, he won’t believe us.”

“And how exactly are we gonna make him believe us?” You asked skeptically.

“Everyone has to believe us. We need people to back us up.” Kuroo responded quickly. You raised an eyebrow at him. “We have to tell the team.”

“No way. Nope. Not happening.”

“What?! Why not?!”

“It’s one thing to have an airhead think we’re dating, but the team that I have to see every day? No way.”

“You’re overthinking it, Y/n! Please? For me?” You looked at him with a straight face. “For the pork buns?’’

Was it really worth it at this point?

“As soon as the bet is off, you’re telling them it was a prank. I doubt they’ll believe it anyway.” Kuroo smiled widely and brought you into a hug, which you did not reciprocate.

The day after, during the team meeting, Kuroo stood up and propped his hands on his hips proudly. “I’d like to make an announcement.” He smirked. You scoffed to yourself. How could he be so proud of a fake relationship? He really was full of himself. Everyone looked at him with curiosity.

“I am officially dating Y/n L/n! Yep! We’re together, so she’s off limits!” The boys looked at you suspiciously and you were about to call it a joke to save yourself the embarrassment, but you decided not to. You nodded your head and smiled as convincingly as possible. Yaku’s jaw dropped and Lev smiled at you, standing up to pat you on the back. Kenma raised an eyebrow and looked down, fidgeting with his shoestring.

Practice continued with a few confused murmurs and some congratulations from other team members. When practice ended, Kenma walked up to you with a certain look on his face, one you couldn’t make out.

“Hey Kenma, whats up?” You asked him, putting your pen in your pocket.

“You and Kuroo… aren’t actually dating, are you?” Your face lost it’s color when the words fell from the boys mouth. Was it that obvious that you were faking it? Could the other members tell too?

“What? Of course we are.. I mean, it’s new, but—“ You were cut off by Kenma’s semi-intimidating look. “Why are you asking?”

“Because you two… don’t seem like you’d be together.” There was an awkward silence before Kenma continued. “He doesn’t really seem like you’re type. You’re kinda…y’know, uptight? And he’s lame and goofy. It seems like the two of you would clash in a relationship. I dunno.” You thought for a moment.

“Well, you know what they say about opposites attracting. I think it was that sort of thing. Plus, he’s pretty funny when he’s not being dumb.” You tried to convince Kenma.

“Oh, okay.” He said as he walked away. You liked that about Kenma, he was simple, dismissive. If it were Yaku asking this question, it’d take a lot more convincing. Thankfully though, it wasn’t.

As the days went on, you and Kuroo got closer for the sake of convincing everyone.

On Wednesday, he bought you yakisoba for lunch. It was really good, and you were actually surprised that he did something nice for you, whether it was for a bet or not.

On Thursday, he had you come to his house for a “study date.” You studied, he ended up on his phone the whole time.

On Friday, you hung out after practice. You went to a local cafe and ate dinner together. Afterwards, he ended up falling asleep on your shoulder on the bus ride home.

This was starting to be the norm of your life, you and Kuroo would hang out, get comfortable, and end up doing “sorta couple-y” things, as he called it. There were no feelings involved, yet this ritual of taking Kuroo home was oddly comforting. It gave you something to do. Not to mention, it was a nice way to end your day. The rest of the weekend was filled with just you and Kuroo, as he had become your go-to person to hang out with.

You were sitting in your homeroom class catching up on your homework when you heard a familiar voice.

“Hey my girl,” Kuroo spoke.

“My girl?” You repeated, to which he nodded with a sly grin. You smiled lightly and rolled your eyes. “Yes, boyfriend? Did you need something?” The man scoffed.

“I was wondering if you could schedule another practice game with Bokuto and his guys?” You nodded and went back to your homework.

“Thanks babe, love ya.” He called as he left your class. Love you? Wow, he was really going all out, wasn’t he? You thought to yourself. Although you didn’t seem very affected by it, you couldn’t deny the warmth in your cheeks and the tips of your ears.

That evening, you got into contact with Fukurodani’s coach. You always loved how easy it was for them to accept and schedule a match. It was way more convenient since both schools were in Tokyo.

The day came for Bokuto and Kuroo to meet again, and their rivalry had rekindled, and possibly gotten even stronger, since the last time they saw each other.

“Hey man,” Kuroo greeted him with a firm handshake. “Remember our bet?”

“How could I forget?” Bokuto smiled broadly. “What about it? Do you forfeit?”

“In your dreams.” Kuroo uttered, having that all-too-familiar mischievous look on his face. “Y/n! Come here for a sec!” As you walked over, you saw the color drain from Bokuto’s face. You waved to him with a faux innocent smile plastered on your face.

Kuroo pulled you closer to him by your waist, leaving his hand there for longer than he should have.

“Are you kidding me?!” Bokuto shouted in disbelief.

“Nope. This is the wife. Don’t be rude, say hi.” You sneered at Kuroo’s choice of words. Bokuto looked at you, then back to Kuroo, then back to you.

“Y/n, is this real?! Are you actually dating this loser?!” You laughed and nodded your head, being used to this question at this point.

“Yeah.. he told me about your bet and decided that this was his chance to ask me out. Apparently he had liked me for a while and was too scared to tell me– his words, not mine.” Kuroo glared at you and then looked away, blush dusting his face.

After a few more minutes of talking, lying, and being backed up by your ignorant team mates, Bokuto finally believed the two of you. He stomped off with a pout when he realized he had lost his own bet.

When you and Kuroo were out of his line of sight, he brought his hand back to your waist, giving you a side-hug.

“Good job being my fake girlfriend… and thanks.” You laughed, hugging him back.

“Couldn’t have your precious ego be torn down, now could we?” Kuroo rolled his eyes and smirked. “And, for the record, you’re not very hard to date, so it was an easy win.”

“Yeah? Are you saying you wanna keep this bet going?”

“In your dreams, Kuroo Tetsuro. This was all for the pork buns.”

“Yeah yeah, in my dreams, I know.”

[thehereticdiaries]

I Make You (You Make Me): Chapter Three

Summary: You fill the boys in about the phone call. You learn the meaning behind one of your soulmark's colors. A cute moment with Heeseung.

Warnings: I don't think there's anything? Lmk if I should add any. Super not proofread.

A/N: I did swap Jungwon and Heeseung's colors, so no you're not crazy. Jungwon is now pink and Heeseung is now red.

Series Masterlist

“Hey, Y/N, you should wake up.” A gentle hand shook your shoulder. “You’re not gonna be tired tonight otherwise.” With a groan, you cracked open one eye. Jay hovered over you, tracing patterns on your skin just to see the trails of green left behind.

“What time is it?” You sat up, rubbing the remnants of sleep from your eyes. 

“Almost 4:30,” Jake said as he passed through the living room. You groaned again, pissed at yourself for taking a four-hour nap. Sunoo plopped down next to you while the rest of the boys went to change. He relaxed into the cushions and turned to you.

“So are you gonna tell us why Jungwon started freaking out in the middle of the shoot?” He arched an eyebrow, playfully pinching your knee. You considered that progress in terms of skinship with the fox-eyed idol.

“I’ll tell you once everyone is out here.” He hummed and both of you pulled out your phones to catch up on notifications. You grumpily deleted three job rejection emails. Hopefully Minjun could get an answer about the backup dancer position soon. Jungwon was the first to return to the living room, stealing the spot on your other side. He immediately grabbed your hand, threading your fingers together. One by one, the others filed into the room.

“What happened?” Jungwon’s forehead creased in concern, squeezing your hand. Whether he was trying to calm you or himself, you couldn’t really tell. 

“I got a really concerning phone call. Long story short, the woman that called knows about me and the soulmates of Xikers and TXT.”

“What?!” Jay snapped, jolting upright from where he was laying on the floor. “How is that possible? We've all been so careful.”

“I don’t know. But it sounds like she wants to expose me and the other girls for, uhh…” you trailed off, unsure if you should tell them about the mystery woman’s insults.

“Expose you for what?” Sunghoon urged you to continue, but you hesitated, pressing your lips into a thin line. 

“Y/N.” Oh, fuck, Jungwon used his leader voice. “Expose you for what?”

“She wants to show everyone that we’re,” your voice dropped down to a mumble. “Whoring ourselves out to you.”

“Y/N,” Jungwon sighed, rubbing his temple with his free hand. “Please don’t make this difficult.”

“She called us whores, okay?” 

“No fucking way,” Jake scoffed. “That’s bullshit.”

“I know. Minjun is going to contact the managers for the other groups. He said I should stay in the dorms while they coordinate with the police,” you explained. 

“Is the phone number still in your call history?” Riki tilted his head back to rest on your crossed legs. He sat on the floor in front of the couch, legs sprawled out across the carpet. You nodded, prompting him to continue. “Do you think we should try calling them?”

“No, definitely not.” 

“Why not? We might be able to figure out who it is or what they want,” Jake continued. All eyes fell to you as you huffed in irritation.

“Think about it. First, we don’t even know if this is a real phone number. Second, what would even say to her if she did answer?” You raised a brow, looking between Jake and Riki. The younger shrugged and closed his eyes, pulling your hand down to his hair. Jake coughed and picked at his nails when he couldn’t find an answer.

“Let Minjun and the other managers handle it. She’s safe here and at the company,” Jungwon firmly stated, ending any lingering arguments.

“Well, in better news, I think I know what your colors mean,” Jay switched the topic with a point to your fingers.

“Really? How?” You perked up a bit, eager to learn more about your soulmark.

“Sunoo and I were three pages deep on google during our lunch break.”

“It was the first time I’ve ever gone past the first page of results. I thought I was on the dark web,” Sunoo dropped his voice to a raspy whisper toward the end, wiggling his fingers at you. 

“And what did you find on the dark web?” You wiggled your fingers back at him.

“Sunghoon was right for once-”

“Hey!” Sunghoon complained and threw a pillow at Jay. They started bickering, so you turned to Sunoo.

“The different colors do represent different bond types,” he said while pulling out his phone. “Uhh, hang on, I screenshotted it.”

“What are the types of bonds?” Riki asked, cracking open one eye.

“That’s what I’m looking for, doofus. Oh, here it is! We found this on a sketchy blog, but everyone seems to agree. For one of the colors, at least.”

“Sunoo, please just tell me,” you whined. 

“Oh, my god, you’re all so impatient. The only color people can agree on right now is red. It represents soul bonds that are both romantic and sexual in nature,” he read from the post. Your eyes widened and you deliberately ignored the stares from Jay, Sunghoon, and Heeseung.

“Oh! That’s…” You trailed off, feeling awkward for the first time around the boys.

“Hot.”

“Heeseung!” You squeaked and hid your face behind your hands. He cackled at your reaction, only making you sink further into the couch.

“Chill,” Jake smacked the eldest on the shoulder half-heartedly. “You’re embarrassing our soulmate.”

“I’m sorry, baby, but you’re way too cute when you blush.” You glared at his poor excuse of an apology, your bright red cheeks took the sting out of it. “I’m right, though.”

“Oh definitely.” “I’m sayin’.” Sunghoon and Jay agreed at the same time. The three of them high-fived, making you groan dramatically.

“You’re so mean! I’m staying with Jake tonight,” you stated and crossed your arms. The Aussie cheered while the laughter from the other three turned to loud protests. 

“I have a question.” Heeseung’s head popped into the doorway of Jake’s room. You looked up from your phone, moving from laying on your stomach to sit criss-cross on the bed. 

“Should I be worried?” You tilted your head, raising an eyebrow.

“No, of course not.” You gestured for him to continue. “I know you haven’t had sex–”

“Heeseung.”

“It’s not about that, I promise!” He suppressed a laugh, covering it by clearing his throat. “Can I continue, your majesty?” You rolled your eyes.

“I suppose.”

“Have you had your first kiss yet?” He leaned on the doorway, arms crossed loosely over his chest.

“Nope. I didn’t see a point in dating or anything since I knew I’d meet my soulmate eventually,” you shrugged, now mildly concerned by Heeseung’s growing smirk.

“Can I be your first?” His enthusiasm reminded you of an excited puppy. You already knew your answer, but decided to mess with him a little bit first.

“Awe, are you still pouting about me sleeping in Jake’s bed tonight?” You ran a finger down your cheek, imitating a tear falling.

“I was not pouting.”

“Mhmm, sure,” you giggled as he glared half-heartedly. “Yes, Heeseung. You can be my first kiss.” He rushed into the room before you even finished your sentence. He propped one knee on the bed in front of you, cupping your jaw in one hand and immediately pressing his lips to yours. You squeaked at the lack of build-up, fully expecting Heeseung to be a massive tease. It was barely more than a peck and you hoped that your slight disappointment wasn’t visible on your face.

“What?” Heeseung grinned at your dazed expression, still close enough to feel his breath fan over your lips. “Did you want more?” There was the teasing you had braced yourself for. 

“Heeseung,” you whined, definitely wanting more. It was your turn to pout as he dodged your attempt to steal another kiss. 

“Ask nicely.”

“What??”

“If you want a better kiss, ask me for it.” He was smiling but his tone was completely serious. His thumb brushed over your cheek as you stared incredulously at him. You hoped he would cave and just give you what you wanted, but it would seem the other members did wonders at keeping him in check. 

“U-um, can I have a kiss?” You asked once you realized he wasn’t giving up that easily. 

“Come on, baby, you can do better than that,” he purred with his lips just barely brushing against yours. Based on how red your ears currently were, Heeseung knew he was going to have fun messing with you. Maybe a little too much fun.

“Fine,” you huffed. After another moment of hesitation, you swallowed your pride and pulled out your best puppy eyes. “Heeseung, can I please have a real kiss?”

“We’ll work on that.” Before you could process what he meant, he pulled you back in, sliding his hand from your jaw to the nape of your neck. You sighed into the kiss, much more satisfied now that you could properly feel the way he molded his mouth to yours. He sank down onto the bed so you were more level, allowing you to drape your arms over his shoulders. Your heart skipped a beat when his tongue skimmed over your bottom lip. 

“Y/N have you seen my- oh my god!” You jumped at Jake’s sudden appearance. Heeseung smothered his giggles in your shoulder, unbothered by the interruption. You stared at Jake, both of your faces turning bright red. 

“Well,” Heeseung started once he composed himself. “You should get ready for bed. Goodnight!” He kissed your temple then slid past Jake, disappearing down the hall. You cleared your throat.

“S-so, you were looking for something?” 

“Yes! Yes, have you seen my braided leather bracelet?” He asked, shaking his head and sitting on the edge of the bed- his bed. You furrowed your brows.

“Yeah,” you said while holding up your wrist. His bracelet sat snugly between your crystal and metal bracelets. 

“Oh right, I forgot I gave it to you.”

“Jake, you physically put it on my wrist. How did you forget?” You chuckled, dropping your hands into your lap. He shrugged, standing and moving back toward the door. “You can have it back, if you want.”

“Nah. Heeseung is right, though. Get some sleep, I’ll be back in a bit.” Jake hesitated in the entrance to the hallway. He glanced back at you, seeming to mull something over in his mind. “You okay?” You asked gently. He hummed, returning to your side so he could give you a very, very quick kiss before practically sprinting out of the room. You grinned and tucked yourself under the comforter. Despite your extended nap, it didn’t take long to succumb to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would bring good news.

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[disastergay]

Mug Brownie: Autism Edition☕

When you try to make a microwave brownie, does the image below look like your result?

Are you tired of ~trying to make a brownie in the microwave~ by following some recipe you found online, only for it to taste like shit because the ratio of oil/sugar/flour to brownie mix is an overpowering assault on your senses?

Or maybe you don't even bother trying because the instructions are unclear and you'd rather not risk fucking it up "just in case" using a wooden spoon instead of a plastic one might make your kitchen explode?

Maybe it's even worse - maybe you did everything right and followed the instructions perfectly, but you can't for the life of you tell if the final product came out right and don't feel like setting yourself up for an unpleasant surprise.

Well, I'm here to share with you the one tried and true microwave/mug brownie recipe that works for me.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need:

A mug of some kind (doesn't HAVE to be a mug but needs to be mug shaped + microwave safe)

2 and 1/2 tablespoons (TBSP) of brownie mix or cocoa powder

1 and 1/2 TBSP of all purpose flour -> 1 TBSP only if you don't want to be able to taste the flour slightly (this is what people mean when they say brownies taste "cakey")

1 TBSP granulated white sugar -> add another if you want to make it more sweet than tart OR only use 1/2 TBSP if you don't want to be able to taste more sweetness than tartness

ALWAYS* mix your dry ingredients together in the mug before you add in the liquids. (*The only exception being any chocolate chips you add, those can go in at the end or the start, it has no bearing on the recipe.)

Once you've done that, add the following:

1 TBSP of canola, vegetable OR olive oil -> the more you add, the smoother and richer it will get, but the harder it will be to cook and physically eat

2 TBSP water (to be added at the very end because it needs to be mixed in quickly)

Final Prep

Stir your ingredients together for at least 15-30 seconds or long enough to completely mix the dry and wet stuff together. If you've made normal brownies before, this should look like brownie mix right before it goes in the oven.

Check the wattage of your microwave. Most of the recipes I saw accounted for a 1000 watt or less microwave and recommended microwaving for about 30 seconds at full power. However, mine is around 1200w and I get the best results from microwaving for 45 seconds at full power. If you can't figure out what wattage your microwave has, just start with 30 seconds at full blast and add on 15 second intervals from there. It might take some experimentation on your part to get the recipe perfect.

When it's fully cooked, your mug brownie should look kind of puffed up like a mini lava cake. It probably won't fill up much of your mug at all, but trust me, it'll be dense. The texture might surprise you because it's a little more mousse-like than your average crispy-topped oven brownie, but the overall taste should be pretty similar.

It will also be HOT when it first comes out, so wait at least a minute and a half for it to cool down a bit and blow on your fork/spoon before putting any of it in your mouth.

TW: Trypophobia - Every single time I successfully make this recipe, the imprint of popped air bubbles looks like a bunch of little holes clustered close together. If that's something that would bother you, don't look directly into the mug when you finish microwaving it - stick a toothpick inside to gage how goopy the brownie is instead.

Additional Tips

Drink a glass of milk milk/eat a scoop of ice cream with your brownie. This will help balance the heat of the brownie and its overpowering chocolatey taste, if that's something that's been a sensory issue for you in the past.

Chocolate chips, being heavier, tend to migrate towards the bottom of the mug, so don't be afraid to get in there and swipe around with your utensil to more evenly distribute them around the brownie.

Add whatever extra toppings you want! I'd recommend sweet things like bits of candy/chocolate though.

As someone who recently had major oral surgery and hasn't been allowed to bite down or chew any of my food for weeks, this recipe is very easy to swallow and digest. If you've just had wisdom tooth surgery or something similar, as long as you use plastic utensils and make your tongue do most of the work, you should be able to eat this with ease.

Eat slowly. Trust me when I tell you that you're underestimating just how filling this brownie will be. These have easily lasted me 2-3 meals because my sensory-specific satiety keeps burning out halfway through eating them.

Store your leftovers in the fridge. You can just leave what's left of the brownie in the mug for this part. They keep well and you can always heat them up again!

When you're 100% done with it, drizzle liquid soap in the mug and fill it up with water to let it soak before washing it. This will make it easier to get all the extra gunk out whether you wash your dishes by hand or use a dishwasher.

🦴🍎🦷

[seaofreverie]

They Might Be Giants at the Roundhouse, London, 17th November 2024

Happy 35th to Flood, hooray!!!! So here's this thing that I've put together just in time for this occasion, my written record... I mean, my very lengthy and detailed review of the first and so far only TMBG show I’ve attended, on November 17th 2024 in London, so, the last show of the so-called “30th anniversary” Flood tour.

And yeah, I mean it that this thing is lengthy and mostly my personal insights on stuff but still, I wanted to share it since this was an event that I’d been anticipating for many many months, and I tried my best here to capture all the feelings this day brough and the whole magic and all the amazement surrounding it.

I’m also going to put here all of the 7 videos I took during the show, ranging in length from 7 seconds to 7 minutes. And they were taken from the front row, so the view is pretty great and something worth sharing I think!

So yep. Hope you enjoy!!

Every once in a while a day comes along in your life that feels like it’s been taken straight out of a movie. It’s hard to tell how often that happens, but probably not too often, since I can’t remember the last time it did before this. And what I mean here is that the day of my first TMBG show was pretty much nothing but moments that somehow felt just RIGHT, like everything was coming together just PERFECTLY, so that I could have the best possible experience and the best imaginable time!! Starting with my biggest wishes and hopes, down to all the extra details that I didn’t even think about previously. But anyway…

Before the show…

You’d think that I would start officially #freakingout about one of my biggest dreams in life coming true (seeing my favourite band, who are also one of my biggest special interests, in REAL LIFE, and enjoying one of their amazing live shows IN PERSON) earlier than this, but that only actually started on the evening of the day before the show. And because of that the entire next morning and afternoon felt really weird and tense in a way that I can’t really describe. But I hope you get what I mean. It’s like wow, it’s finally happening, but noooo wait hold on, I’m not ready yet…

And so my travel companions and I spent most of the day walking around Camden Town where the show was taking place, but for me that whole time was this really weird mix of feeling like I’m walking on clouds and like I’m just entirely somewhere else and also awaiting the scariest most important exam of my whole life.

We arrived by the venue sometime around 1 PM and when I saw the poster plastered on the wall that listed “An Evening With They Might Be Giants” among other acts, that was the moment when it maybe finally hit me that THIS THING WAS REAL. And maybe this is a good time to mention that the only thing left on the long list of all the things that could possibly still go wrong at this point, was managing to get a spot as close to the stage as possible, so, in the first row. And there were already two people just standing there by the venue when we got there and I actually couldn’t tell if they were already queuing up because, well, it was still so early. But I’m about 100% sure now that, in fact, they were.

Another important thing to note is that I was hoping to meet my friend at the show, who also attended the previous night’s show in Bristol, and me impatiently awaiting any sort of updates on how all of that went definitely added to all the nervousness I was feeling that whole day. And also, when I decide on something, well, I’m stubborn as hell so it HAS to go the way I planned it or I will be pretty much devastated.

But it was still super early and we had to get dinner and all that stuff so we left for now. And after some time I eventually got a message from my friend saying that NO, 5:30 will be too late for the first row, probably, and I was uhhhh, very on edge at this point. But ok. Better wait too long in the queue than regret not getting there earlier forever.

It was probably a pretty unusual sight to my brother (who I dragged along with me to the show) when I practically RAN to the venue when we were close to arriving there sometime past 4 PM. I swear I remember imagining that I’m already seeing a huge queue of people in front of me somewhere in the distance until I get closer and am relieved that no, no such thing happening, thank god. I mean, well yes, I was REALLY not even remotely chill about this whole thing guys. And yeah, it’s important to mention that I did travel over 1500 kilometers or so just for this show and nothing else. The whole trip and all the sightseeing I did in London in the days leading up to this day and afterwards was just an added bonus.

But alright, we got there. And what we were met with instead were maybe 15 or so people who were mostly scattered in small groups around the entrance. And a guy playing an accordion. Just in case I needed that extra confirmation that, yes, the gig I’m going to will be HERE and not in some other place. Yet I still had this worry as I started talking to one group of fans that waitttt, maybe they’re actually talking about some other band and I’m making a fool of myself…

But well yeah anyway, we were there, it was time to just wait for the big event now, time to be brave and use this opportunity to chat with other fans even a bit… And so I did, and despite not really having any opportunities to actually TALK in English to other people most of the time, I think I did pretty well. One thing that stuck with me the most for some reason was how these two guys were talking about how one of them doesn’t like BOOK and how that’s scandalous according to the other guy pretty much, and the other guy's statement on Synopsis For Latecomers was that whatever your opinion might be on the song, it’s still definitely a THEY song (I love that and I think about that all the time now, like man, it really is just They in a nutshell in a way).

And then my friend and their bestie arrived!! Just after we (all the people who were waiting already) decided to form some sort of actual queue. We found ourselves at the end of it, at least for now… And the remaining 2 hours of waiting for the doors to open were before us. It dragged on a bit of course but not TOO terribly, since I could catch up on all sorts of stuff with my friend, because we haven’t actually seen each other in oh, well over a year!

We talked about the Bristol show too among many other things, and I learned some important things, such as how Lie Still, Little Bottle got played already the day before, soooo… probably not much of a chance of it returning this evening (this might be like the only real thing I wish was different about this day because, AAAAHHH, THE STIIIIIIIIICK!!!!!! how I’d have loved to see that… But never say never, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be just YET!). And also how today the queue was luckily much smaller so, no being stuck in the third row this time!

Also, it started raining eventually, as it does in the UK, right, (it actually wasn’t rainy at all for most of the week I stayed there, just that day pretty much… another one of very few somewhat unfortunate things about this day) and it rained for probably close to an hour, and by god, did it get freaking FREEZING very fast. I inevitably had a huge cold for several days afterwards because of this, but well, what even is this sort of sacrifice, when in exchange you get the best possible concert experience. Because yeah, it definitely paid off to get there early, the queue never got SUPER long but still, wouldn’t have ended up where we did if it weren’t for that long wait.

And maybe now I should say some more general things about the wait, which is that this whole time, when I wasn’t feeling impatient, I was really just, truly soaking it all in (and not just the rain, lol). And a crucial part of that whole wait was that the accordion guy was still playing his songs, many songs of TMBG and at least a couple of John Linnell’s State Songs. I realize now that I should have written them down right after the show, because now all I remember him playing are Erase, South Carolina and West Virginia.

One funny thing that happened was when some guy walked by our (by then) pretty long queue and seemed surprised that there were so many people waiting for something. So my friend told him that we were waiting for a show and that it was a They Might Be Giants show, but what did he actually hear??

The guy: …Michael Jackson? But he’s dead!

So I guess that English speakers will also get the band's name terribly wrong sometimes, not just every vinyl vendor I’ve ever talked to back at home, lol. But yeah, he eventually got the name right but still, it’s really funny to think about… There May Be Giants, Michael Jackson… it’s all the same thing.

But alright, the last few minutes were drawing near… And then, at long last, we were in! And I guess I was so caught up in the moment (and also the fact that the security guy had a bit of an issue with my metal pins that I put on my jacket without really thinking about this possibly being a problem, oops) that I almost screwed up big time in a way because hey, we’re in, you’re free to go now, get your spot by the stage as fast as possible!! And so I got myself together, followed the example of my friend, and did that.

And ok, all in all, this was absolutely surreal to me. Only the very first of the many biggest this CANNOT be real moments of the night. Realizing that wow, we’re actually here… Nothing went terribly wrong in the end, we travelled all this way just to get here and here we are. And we’re in the first row!! OH MY GOD!! The folks who were ahead of us in the queue lined up by the left side and the middle of the stage, so we ended up to the right of Linnell’s keyboard and right in front of Marty’s drumkit. So we still had a very good viewing point if you ask me!

And I could NOT believe how close we were, the stage and all the instruments were SO CLOSE!!! This was actually my first time being in the pit at a concert, I’ve only ever known the balcony view… Meanwhile here they were, the legendary Main Squeeze in the REAL WORLD, the jackalope thingy on the drum kit that says They Might Be Giants… The pre-show music was blaring, everyone else was getting excited and I was suddenly HIT by all of it and how unbelievable and amazing and perfect it was and I was so so close to just crying right there because of it all…

But well, I collected myself and faced the fact that there was still at least an hour of waiting ahead of us (turned out to be an hour and a half, because the doors opened earlier than originally scheduled, but the show didn’t start until the original 8 PM anyway). But at least we were inside now, so no more freezing! And we could actually even sit down for a while finally (not that anyone besides me or my two friends did that from what I could tell, for once I managed to not care about how I appear to others and do what’s considered “normal” and it’s so great and important and such a big part of why this was such a wonderful evening in the end).

I also need to say that wow, Flansburgh’s intermission playlist really is so good. Not gonna lie that I was really excited for this part of the show as well, and I even had some very satisfying moments of recognizing a song or two and telling my friends about it (Funkadelic’s Can You Get To That will have a very special association for me now because that’s what was playing when we first got there). Some other memorable moments include when crew members were milling around the stage, and I’m pretty sure that none other than Stan Harrison walked in for a moment too?? Because those moments also served as constant reminders that THE GUYS will be here too, so soon…

Show time!!!

Set 1

Alright, time for what we all actually came here for. Time for the show. The lights went down for a moment, there were moderate amounts of screaming that made me feel like I’m back on a school trip visiting a theatre with other kids, who start screaming the moment it gets dark right before the play starts. But this time I was (even if just mentally) screaming along.

The recording of the song They Might Be Giants started playing, we watched a short animation on that huge screen at the back of the stage, and then, the scariest and most unexpected thing happened. The whole band walked in and after a couple seconds launched right into Synopsis For Latecomers. And I’m saying this kind of as a joke but actually though, can we agree that the emotion that comes with the first time you see *your band* in the real world is just something else completely and kind of impossible to describe. Because in a way it’s also just so funny: you arrived here specifically with the intention of seeing these guys and then, when that actually happens, it feels like the most shocking event of your entire life. A little MIND ERROR moment, wait hold up kind of moment, or even… a Brain Problem Situation, if you will.

But ok, I also need to admit that it didn’t help when I got distracted over the fact that less than half a minute into the song, someone from the crew walked onto the stage to fix something about Danny’s guitar. And with all that stuff put together I was only half aware of what was even happening and being played most of the time, and like a second passed before we got to the horns part of the song, and the horns entered the stage (accompanied by cheering from everyone). And it was all just. Happening. Right in front of me. Like it’s nothing and no big deal at all.

But anyway. While I’m still on the topic of this song I need to say that out of all songs played this one still stuck with me probably the most in a sense. Because days after the show I could still hear it still playing in my mind aaaaaaaall. the. damn. time. So all in all, this was definitely a total BLAST of a first impression. This is an amazing live song, and a 10/10 show opener, which I think is also fully supported by my reaction to it, as documented here. And the horns!!! The horns, ladies and gentlemen!!!

After the first song we got greetings and an introduction from Flansburgh, who said that this was the last show of the run of Flood shows… and that they had to figure out a way to include all songs from Flood in the show. So what got played next was the obligatory Particle Man, something that I found myself being all sort of like “alright, of course…” about at first... I mean… it is funny and don’t get me wrong, this song is great live, and I loved the whole “Triangle Man, take off for the planet, for the planet VENUS!” bit of course (oh it was really really great and GRAND and loud), but I guess this also shows how very quickly I got into this whole spirit of a regular TMBG show goer of sorts, who already sort of resents one of the most played songs… even before actually hearing it.

Next up was Meet James Ensor and here’s another really funny thing: how surprisingly hard it can be to identify the song that’s being played during a show. You know them all and know all the lyrics, and yet you aren’t aware of what you’re actually singing??? *HOW* does that work!! Because the whole time I thought it was actually James K. Polk, later I couldn’t remember which of the two it was actually… And I only realized which song this actually was on the next day, when a random bit of conversation reminded me that yes, those were the lyrics of Ensor that I was singing yesterday.

However, you must forgive me for these follies, because it’s hard to think clearly when you have to catch up with the fact that without pause, the next thing played is The Famous Polka. It’s like oh my god it’s actually THE Famous Polka. The infamous Famous Polka stage collapse incident (so, the first thing that comes to mind concerning this song, to me) aside, another notable thing about this song is that it’s SUCH a blast of energy live. I want to say that around this point of the show I started really getting into it and singing along and stuff (well, not singing yet on THIS song) and I’ll add some more general thoughts of this nature at the end of the post but by god, is the pure energy and excitement of a TMBG show impossible to convey in any recording. I think you just really have to be there to really understand what it’s all about. And a song like this one might be one of the finest examples of that.

And now, for something completely different… Moonbeam Rays! Lovely song that mostly helped me get into the mood of how beautiful this whole moment was, you know… I might be wrong about when exactly that was, but I got seriously close to crying once more during the show, and it’d be probably a fair guess to say that it was sometime during this song. And afterwards, we got some more insights from Flansburgh.

JF: This is the last show of the Flood show thing. (audience makes a sad “oooooh” sound) Yeah, it’s a little bit sad… it’s a little bit *excellent!* (audience laughs)

And then the Johns started talking about how they “started doing this pre-pandemic…” And it delighted me SO MUCH that they pointed this out because I could never get over how the Flood anniversary tour started when the album turned 30, and at the time of the last show of the tour it was two months away from turning 35!!

JF: It’s taken more years to celebrate the anniversary of Flood than it took to *make* Flood.

But as Flansburgh said, it was time to move on to some other, less popular things… And also he shared with us that he walked through a beautiful part of London today, wondering how it would feel to have enough money to “belong there”. Linnell said that he was resting up for the big flight, and that he was actually resting up for it RIGHT NOW.

JF: There’s nothing John Linnell likes more than a *paid rehearsal*.

JL: It’s a sweet ride… When you get to be *this* age…

JF: Nothing matters at all.

JL: Every day above ground is beautiful.

If you ask me, that last sentence deserves to be immortalized as one of the most iconic stage banter moments, and in a way it already has, because it inspired this wonderful piece of art, and who knows what else.

The following songs were Letterbox (and a short break from singing from me, because that song is already impossible to follow with, and then you add all the excitement of the moment and it’s impossible impossible) and Twisting!!! This started a long series of songs where the moment it starts I get super excited because I KNOW this song is a huge deal and a favourite but it takes me at least a couple of seconds to get to WHY this is a huge moment… through remembering and recognizing the song. And AAHHHH this song was so amazing, the bridgeeee, and then also the extra outro with the guitar solo and all, the energy!!! God, it truly is incomparable. And I totally didn’t expect that outro so that made it all an even better time.

And so we were well into the Flood songs segment, because next up was another of my top favourites from the album, Someone Keeps Moving My Chair! And another wonderful sing-along moment, but honestly, which of all these songs was not… (other than Letterbox, but that was just because of my lack of practice with that one). Chanting the title of this song, especially that one penultimate, elongated CHAAAAAAIIIIIIIR, kind of healed something in me I think.

After that was done, the Johns gave us some more insights into the performer’s life and all the things that they’ll never get used to, such as crowds that continue beyond your line of sight.

JF: …So you sort of think like: “I gotta get these people going, I gotta rock these people…” And then it’s like: (said in a silly, high-pitched voice) “But there’s no end!...”

Flansburgh remarked on the special challenge that they had come across this time, which was that we were all in a circular room, which is exciting, but means that people continue past where the stage is…

JF: I hope you guys got your tickets on Stubhub or something. I mean, can you even see us? I can barely see *you*. In a hockey match this would be unacceptable.

Another thing that Linnell would never get used to was when there’s a huge crowd of people, all of them happy and singing along, but then there’s one guy “who’s got this sort of Charles Manson expression”. This one really made ALL the people laugh. The Charles Manson guy included I hope.

JL: Never got used to that! For some reason.

JF: Tomorrow: Get. Linnell.

(JL pretends to be writing something down)

JL (addressing the audience): Not to put any ideas in your mind…

But moving on, as I said it was more Flood time indeed, with Whistling In The Dark. Me calling each single song amazing and a blast and so much fun is probably already getting a bit repetitive by now, so one special point of interest with this one and its live version is when near the end we get this little vocals only moment and then the horns come in again, then joined by everything else with such fanfare… simply triumphant.

Also, maybe this is a good moment to say that man, on one hand thinking about this show and how I’m going to hear THE ACCORDION was always a huge deal, but even then, I wasn’t prepared for how cool the accordion really is in person. It sounds kind of different from what I’m used to from recordings, and definitely makes a heck of a great impression all in all. One could wonder why it’s not more popular in rock music, because really, just how amazing is it?? And it can create all sorts of moods.. which is something I’m just about to get into properly too. Also, speaking of horns, Flansburgh gave a special shout out to the horns at this point, and began to introduce the next song.

JF: This next song is called The D-... uh, I forgot what it’s called, but… (JL laughs)

Even if it weren’t for this slip-up with the name, I already could tell from how Flansburgh went back to talk about how this was a song put together by Stan Harrison and introduced all the guys individually… That *IT* was in fact happening, one of my biggest hopes when it comes to songs I wanted to hear in person the most. The Darlings Of Lumberland - THE horns song to beat them all. And at this point I had to get my camera ready and start recording because well, this would definitely be one of the most preservation-worthy and outstanding moments of the show.

I was not mistaken of course, the way all the instruments complement each other here, most importantly the horns and the accordion, is something beautiful. This is one of the best examples of how the studio version just sounds so WEIRD to me now, even though it’s been my big favorite for a long time in that form as well. All in all a hypnotising moment, and coming back to my earlier question, maybe THIS was the only other song that you don’t really sing along to, because you have to just. Take it all in. Soooo much going on. And yes, no less important, THE CHOREOGRAPHY - *EVERYONE* did the hand thing!!! So you know, another good reason to have this one specifically caught on film.

Anyway, I was going to put my phone down for the time being but THEN... could it be, another of my top wished-for songs?? Cause yeah, without a pause we got the one and only screaming introduction to Let Me Tell You About My Operation from Flansburgh and oh boy, is this yet another song I could talk for many minutes about. First of all, I had very very high hopes for one of, what I think is often referred to as, Flansburgh showman moments. So, songs such as this one, Lie Still, Little Bottle, She’s Actual Size, and a couple others.

This song is a whole new story live, alright. Again, you have to be there to really get what it’s all about I think. JF’s energy is very infectious and awesome here to put it just mildly, and the horns add a whole lot, the whole song is just one big moment of old-timey big band-style musical bliss. And then there is also time to shine for all the other guys in the band, with awesome solos from Dan and Marty (ok, it appears that there was no special Danny time though?? Sad), AND the horns on the horns. Also Linnell doing this sort of thing on the keyboard where he plays all the notes quickly, sort of sliding down or up all the keys… Ok, I looked it up, I think that’s called glissando? So yeah, that also stuck in my head especially, because it was so fun. One of the top 5 moments of the show, without a doubt.

And now, alright, When Will You Die? is not a song that ever struck me as much of a favourite, besides being a very outstandingly hilarious and real song when it comes to lyrics of course, but I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t very happy to hear this one too. Singing these lyrics in a room full of hundreds of people who did the same was an incredibly grand moment, ok.

And then… then we were met with the haunting sounds of the intro of Road Movie To Berlin. A song that’s still, even after dozens of relistens, a whole experience each time I hear it when listening to Flood, and, as you might expect, it’s even more of an experience live. And I’m of course mostly talking about this whole sort of breakdown section near the end, but just the whole entire thing really hits anyway.

So when it started I definitely had a little moment of “oh shit, here we go, THE moment is here…”. Something akin to this happened over and over during the whole show obviously, but still, I feel like it was especially big here. Another thing is how later my friend laughed that they once again felt like they were the only person singing the secret third verse. Well, at least one more person did (me). Anyway, all in all it was just, magical, truly.

So, uh. Now, enjoy some top-notch banter that followed.

JL: So, uh, what’s going on here.

JF: We’re in London, John.

JL: We’re in London, we’re doing songs from Flood.

JF: We’re in yet another circular building.

JL: Right.

(a moment of silence)

JF: We’re doing songs from Flood. This is one of them.

(some people in the audience make clearly audible “wooo” noises)

JL: We get to woo.

(people laugh and woo even louder)

JL: There’s this thing in Britain where people get creative with the interactive thing. And it’s kind of good and it’s kind of, like… it worries us. The drunken part of it. It’s a problem.

(someone in the audience laughs in a very pronounced drunken manner)

Ok, Women And Men, that was the next song. Not much to say about this one to be honest, or like, anything at all really. And then more Flood, in the form of Your Racist Friend, which totally rocked, and we, I mean WE specifically, had the pleasure of standing where we could enjoy how Jordan Katz played his trumpet solo right in front of us. Honestly, this was kind of the only major downside of standing where we stood, that the horns were kind of hidden from our view for the most part… So this was a GRAND moment.

I have found that no matter how many times I watch recordings of it, the way Stellub gets introduced at these shows is always extremely funny to me, so here’s, like, almost all of how that went this time.

JF: Folks, we’ve got a very special treat for you right now. When we first embarked on doing these Flood shows, we thought: what can we do to make the show a little more challenging, a little more of… an endurance test. So we thought, we’ll take the time out to learn a song *sonically in reverse*...

(a long pause prompting audience laughter)

JF: …present it to the crowd… who might not enjoy that. (audience laughs) But then, we’re going to record it, on our very special fancy video recording machine, and we’re going to reverse the tape, and present it to you at the top of the second set, which will be… *pure entertainment*.

(audience laughs and woos. claps, also)

JF: …so think of the next two and a half minutes as a *musical investment in your future* (audience, well, laughs). If you brought friends here, we understand; they might be looking at you, going: “WHY?” (audience laughs some more) “Why this, why now? Life is complicated enough, why do bands *insist* on performing songs in reverse?”. But I can assure you, it’s a huge payoff. Especially if the machine works.

At this point I should give a shoutout to my uninitiated brother, who is not a fan of TMBG and whom I sort of dragged along with me here, although well, he did agree to this whole thing (besides the standing in the rain for two hours. He says that’s the part that he didn’t need to experience but well, what could *I* possibly do about that). Because he told me later that yes, the song in reverse thing was pretty cool. Well, I guess I could say as much anyway from how he definitely seemed very amused by Flansburgh’s introduction. But he also told me that if they didn’t say anything about this song being played in reverse, he wouldn’t even be able to tell, because it didn’t sound all that different from all the other songs. So I guess that answers my question of how newcomers may perceive TMBG’s lyrics, in a way. At least in the live show environment. It must be a lot to take in at once.

But anyway, the Johns joked about this whole thing some more (and how the screen was unusually huge for them and had this whole sort of 70s delay effect) and Linnell informed us that he would kick one of his shoes off at the end of the song and that we would also see THAT backwards.

JL: It’s just gonna be CRAZY! It’s gonna look… can’t even describe it.

JF (in silly gruff voice): Tonight! On video tape!

So, Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love. You know, it’s just yet another of those things where I’ve been awaiting THIS MOMENT, IN REAL LIFE for so long. Very fun and at this point I sometimes even feel like I might be more familiar with the reversed sound of this song than the original… Like, it comes to mind more often. “stiiiiillub rah-fahs”, “stosh-nog, stosh-lut-sip” and similar phrases followed me around for days after the show. And I love how expressive the Johns are during this song, it’s just this whole theatricality of it that makes it very funny and awesome.

My favourite moment was when, in spirit of, well, all of this being performed in reverse, Marty also did the counting down to the start of the song with his drumsticks, but at the end. I read later that Linnell also used to sometimes instruct the audience to applaud before they start playing the song and damn, I wish he still did that because that's just hilarious.

And could this really be… the last song of the first set already - Brontosaurus. One thing about this song is that I used to not care about it much, until I saw a recording of their first live performance of it all the way back sometime around the end of 2022 / beginning of 2023, when I just about cried from the wonder of it all. This song is just a whole new thing live, in huge part thanks to the horns of course. Cathartic maybe is the right word for it. One of those songs that I could be pretty much 100% sure I would hear on this day but even despite that, when it actually came to it… Very very beautiful moment. Maybe this is when I almost cried again actually? Well, there were many contenders.

Set 2

So as you just read here, there was an abundance of stuff in the first set already that had me all like “this is the BEST!!!”, yet… We had this little moment of doubt with my friend, because: a) they were hoping to still hear at least a couple of songs that they didn’t already hear the previous night, b) I, having “analyzed” the setlists from this leg of the tour so far, in order to assess how likely I’d be to hear some of my favs, and if there’s any logic to how they change from night to night, decided that there’s two main setlist that the band alternates between. But based on the first half of the show so far it seemed to me like this was going to be a very similar set of songs to last night’s, and out of those two variants, the one I was hoping for less than the other… It was mostly them playing Darlings today once again that made me think this.

And all in all in my head it was like, well, I’ll probably get either the show with Darlings & Lie Still, Little Bottle (+the STICK!!!) OR the show with lots of miscellaneous songs that were very high on my wishlist. So, in either case I’d be happy, but maybe a bit more happy if we got the second option here…

Anyway. What I’m saying is that, keeping all of the above in mind, and how my expectations for the second set were shaped by that… I really can’t overstate how much of an UNREAL NO WAY YOU GOTTA BE JOKING THIS IS NOT ACTUALLY HAPPENING RIGHT??? time it turned out to be.

So let’s get right into why. And boy, there’s a lot. In a way this is when this show REALLY started for me, not that what was earlier wasn’t incredibly fun and amazing already but. This was just a whole different league. It’s like, I could say that earlier I felt at moments like I’m sometimes transported into some alternate dimension, and from here on it was all just, being transported into that joyous alternate dimension for the whole duration of the show. The TMBG dimension. I’ll get back to this, but being here was really just something like, a different type of existence, so different from the often bleak daily life that I’ve been way too familiar with until then.

One thing that sort of added once again to this whole “it’s all perfectly falling into place” feeling, even before the show started up again, was how I tried to pay attention to the intermission music again, and remembered from my days of watching many live show recordings in late 2022 how someone pointed out that when this one specific song plays, you can tell that the show will start in just a moment. And yeah, they were right. Girl Don’t Come started playing so I knew…

And so the second set started with the reversed recording of the Stellub performance of course (how many times have they performed it by that point? Over a hundred? But yeah, it was scarily accurate, as always), and the alternate version of Hearing Aid with this whole little animation thing, which was also a lot of fun to watch actually.

And so the band was back for the second round… with Memo To Human Resources! So I’d known for a while that this song has been a pretty oft played one recently, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any recordings of it live? And to be honest my memory of this song is really blurry, so it’s still kind of an enigmatic moment to me now, all in all I’m sure though that it must have hit the same way Moonbeam Rays or Brontosaurus did, and that might explain this whole effect it presumably had on me, heh.

And now, ok. Man, It’s So Loud In Here will never ever feel the same way to me again. Because actually nothing could have prepared me for how amazing it was live. And I didn’t even particularly anticipate this one, but when we got to it… I knew already that it was going to be a blast.

I remember thinking that this is one of those moments that you simply can’t capture in any way, you’re just fully here in the moment and you live it there and remember it forever. I was also thinking about the meaning of the song, about this classic TMBG fashion of singing this song in this huge room full of people, a song about how it’s so loud in here. And I was wondering if that’d be another of those little confusing moments for people unfamiliar with TMBG because yes, I suppose it’s pretty silly… On top of being an incredible and actually moving experience. I’m shedding a tear just thinking about it all now.

So now, more Flood time! Minimum Wage, a song that, per Linnell’s words, they’ve been playing “for 40 years”...

JL: …And we just got to the point where we all end at exactly the same time. We had so much integrity for so long… And now we’re just sleek… robots up here.

JF: Yeah, that AI showbusiness stuff. Nobody likes it - you gotta do it, you know. It’s the way people DO IT!

JL: I’ve got six fingers…. (JL demonstrates how he has six fingers, apparently)

JF: Yeah, yeah… (with emphasis) *AI*.

(long pause prompting audience laughter)

JF: It makes its own punchline!

But um, what was next on the agenda (John)? More songs from the Flood album, oh yes! Let’s give the people some more of what they want!

JL: That feisty… that album by that bunch of maverick… young… rulebreakin’... (pause) But those days are gone.

JF: Well, the one thing that remains is the barricade putting eight feet between us and the front row. That’s the important thing. The distance.

JL: And you know, it’s not for *our* protection, it’s for *yours*.

Alright, so here’s another song. Here’s another song from Flood. And that song is We Want A Rock. What I remember the most about this one is, once again, the beauty of being able to sing these “ridiculous lyrics” when everyone else is doing the same thing, when we’re all singing about how everyone wants a rock to wind a string around and about how everyone wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads but someone in this town is trying to burn the foreheads down. At some point I just couldn't help having a little laugh over the joy of it all. And also, *boom boom boom* “ooooOOOOOOH!!” *boom boom boom* “oooooOOOOOOH!!”

Then it was Marty time, starting with the drum intro and the BUZZER, for it’s time for Hot Cha! Which becomes even more of a blast with the HORNS of course, and at the very end, can you believe it, I forgot that they change the last line of the song to “please come home” live, so I was slightly taken aback by that. Yes, that’s important to mention here, somehow.

Flansburgh introduced the next song as a song from the Lincoln album and for some goddamned reason the only song I could think of at the moment that fit that criteria was Shoehorn With Teeth.

It was not Shoehorn With Teeth. It was the song that came back to live rotation earlier in 2024 during the spring US tour, but seemed to fall from it afterwards once again, which was a shame, because it’s like, probably my favourite TMBG song to be honest and its newest live rendition was absolutely breathtakingly amazing from what I’ve seen from recordings online. I’m not sure if I was aware by that point of how it miraculously returned as an encore at the show of the night before…

But still, this was like the biggest “this can’t be real actual and happening right now” moment of the night, and maybe. of my. entire life?? And it of course took me a couple of seconds to recognise the song STILL, besides the instant punch of that *feeling* that happened the second the song started. Yeah, Where Your Eyes Don’t Go, played live at my show just like I dreamed about, no big deal, everyday stuff, haha.

The song really IS freaking amazing live though. Where would we be without THE HORNS!!! And honestly I could say a bit more about this “fav song” situation, because not only is it of course among my most beloved ever songs at this moment and has been for over two years, I also remember distinctly that it was the FIRST TMBG song that I loved and couldn’t get enough of and replayed over and over, and it’s a big reason behind why I became a fan in the first place. So, the extra beauty of the significance of it all, it just blows my mind completely.

So, Lucky Ball And Chain was a short little break for collecting myself again, because obviously we were far from done with all the biggest wonders of the night still. And I’m not saying that the song wasn’t a good time, it of course was just like everything else here, so it’s safe to just assume that without me specifying each time. Lol.

But, as I said, the break was short. I would have put seeing Spy live somewhere at the top of my general life goals / bucket list thing, if I had one, that is. I had been very vocal about wanting to see THAT song in particular in discussions with my friend, so the excited glance we exchanged the moment this song started was absolutely priceless and a thing of pure wonder.

Anyway, we all know Spy. We all know that it’s one of the most often played live songs of theirs, and that the reason behind its live durability is the several minutes long improvised jam band section at the end. And I might be one of those maybe rare kinds of people who wouldn’t mind hearing it a hundred times more. It IS improvised after all, so… different each time, ha! It was also very vital to me that I get to take part in the audience participation segment of it… and this is also what was granted to me on this magical evening by whatever godlike forces exist above.

So yeah, this was yet another among the top 5 show moments of course… The biggest highlights here were when Linnell did this sort of old-timey speech (“THIS! Is the *sound* of the thirties. The sound of the SWING ERA!”) that’s probably a reference to something that I’m completely unfamiliar with so that only makes it funnier, and the whole audience conducting part from Flansburgh at the end, because man, he was having a total BLAST with this, it was such a joy to see. And we were all also having a great time, by doing our part and screaming as if we’re in hell. All I’m trying to say here is. I love hellish noise, I love cacophony. This is my perfect kind of show experience, I won’t be hearing any arguments about this.

Ok, so what was the next thing that the Johns prepared with the intent of dealing the biggest emotional damage imaginable to us? Well, remember how Last Wave had never been played live until earlier this year and then they never played it again. Guess what happened now. Well, that’s yet another of the huge and one of the earliest personal favourites of mine returning onto the setlist on the previous evening actually.

This song is. Augh. I just love how it has this sort of elegant, but emotional sound that kind of sets it apart. It’s a completely singular song to me in every sense and I always wondered why they never played it live, but now I’m just glad they finally started playing it. Gotta love yet another AMAZING trumpet solo from Jordan Katz and the Johns’ overdramatized delivery of the lyrics, it’s so much fun. And this song also provided us with some more epic Marty moments, especially the solo and the ending, both just like on the studio recording technically… So maybe that’s why they were so great to see recreated in real time too?

JF: I think we were all a little stunned by the majesty of the ending of that song.

Two days before the show I went to the Natural History Museum here in London, and that's actually very relevant here because when I saw the exhibit that was entitled “Mammals” in that museum, that was when the SONG Mammal started following me around in my mind, for like, most of the remaining time of that day. And I had the amazing realization that oh, it’s not impossible that I could hear this song this next Sunday, played live, so awesome!!

So yeah of course, they played Mammal next. And honestly I’m not even that attached to this song, I do still love it though and it’s one of those situations where I see myself become excited over songs that I feel like are big fan favourites and something that other people are probably very happy about hearing, heh. But maybe even more important yet is that this meant APOLLO 18 representation!! So special to me.

Now I’ll just say that it’s worth it avoiding spoilers sometimes. Like, show spoilers, because I guess I didn’t actually watch that much recent footage and so I had no idea about what other awesome fun stuff was just about to happen.

JF: Folks, folks… we’ve been informed by the people who work here that every single person in the audience tonight is carrying a silly little phone with them. And we'd like to take full advantage of that right now…

We were instructed by Flansburgh to get our phones and open our camera and set it to selfie mode! And then Turn Around, Turn Around, (there’s a thing there that can be found)…

JF: We can see you now and I can tell that nobody is doing what I’m talking about.

You know, so this is when you get to live that wonder of actually BEING THERE once more. And enjoy the way that specifically TMBG shows are, because I’ll be real, I can’t think of any other concert where I could see something like this happening.

JF: Everybody, spin around for just a little bit, get a selfie and we’re gonna photobomb your selfie.

JL: Which we tried to do last night and nobody was getting it!

JF (interrupting): That’s not true! On social media you’re gonna see some very good evidence that some people got together over the course of the twenty minutes we dedicated to this portion of the show.

So yeah, now I can even keep on living my life knowing that I technically have a photo with my favourite musicians in the world. Definitely not something I expected to gain after this day.

JF: We’re gonna take a lot of time doing this. This is possibly the least important thing we’ll be working on…

So that was awesome!!! BUT WAIT THERE WAS MORE!!!!!!

JF: Ok folks, this the second part of the test: see if you can find the flashlight portion of your phone - the more traditional rock portion.

That “more traditional rock portion” part must have been lost on me then, because this was still a singular moment to me (I haven’t been to many live shows before this anyway), and I could only really think of one other thing that this immediately reminded me of. I like yearning for all sorts of things, including those that are in the past now and that I never even could have had a real chance of participating in. Such as the Hollywood Bowl show in 2023, where TMBG opened for Sparks, and during the Sparks show and the song All That everyone in the audience took out their phones and there was this whole sea of lights, people swaying with their phone torches to that song. So, yes, I was NOT expecting either that I’d get to experience THIS as well. After all.

At first I wasn’t even aware that all the stage lights had been turned off for the next song, because with all those torches facing the stage it was so bright in here!! And the song that got this special treatment was Dead - very fitting I must say. The large procession waved their torches AND sang, and I can hear it on the recording of this song especially that the audience was really into the singing part. Loud and beautiful and touching to be there.

And then it was time to thank the band, since the end of the show was actually drawing closer and closer, as absurd as it may have seemed to think about… (not that there was really time to stop and think about that anyway). And I think the Johns did some sort of jab at Elektra Entertainment here, but I unfortunately couldn’t catch what they were saying, rip. Anyway, it must have been very funny I’m sure.

So what songs could possibly still be left and ahead of us now? Two more songs from Flood, here we go.

Why is the world in love again? Because it's time to be marching hand in hand and singing Theme From Flood! And once again being reminded of how WE'RE ALL HERE TOGETHER. All in all, the moment of this song, and it going right into Birdhouse In Your Soul, yes, that was just as ethereal and unreal as I imagined it would be. Even now, as I'm thinking back to it, I start to feel overwhelmed with the excitement, how I was just sort of going “YES YES YES!!!” in my head, after the “I'm your only friend” bit, when it gets kind of quiet for a second and it starts up again we're all jumping and cheering. I could only try to picture an approximation of this scene in my mind months earlier, so thinking about how this actually happened is still absolutely surreal to me. There's just nothing else like Birdhouse.

…

Damn it, I still have a bit more of the show to write about, it’s not the time for tears, brother.

I didn’t want the song to end and it almost seemed like the band didn’t either, because Linnell kept singing the “soul” at the end for several more seconds and also making it goofier still.

Encores time

End of show? No, two encores now. The encore waiting and clapping time until the band comes back on stage felt much much shorter than it always did when I watched recordings of shows. Shouldn't be surprising but everything here felt like it took 10% of the time it actually lasted.

So it was time for the most wondrous thing, a John and John only performance as a duo! This wasn't a total surprise to me, because I knew they switched up the way they play this particular song once again, on some nights at least, but I couldn't be sure that I'd be blessed enough to witness it myself too… And here it was, about to happen!!!

People were screaming Istanbul a lot. I could’ve been easily more annoyed by that, but you know what, I think this is necessary too. How could this be a REAL concert experience without a bunch of presumably drunk people shouting out the titles of songs and being annoying. Maybe if one of those people was standing close to us I'd be talking differently, but… It's part of the charm, sorry.

It was in fact Istanbul (Not Constantinople) time. I’ll be honest, if it weren’t for the duo format I would have not cared for this song any more than I did for Particle Man. But it turned out to be one of my favourite things on this show, yeah, this evening subverted so many expectations in every sense, alright.

You could argue about the significance of the duo format here because OMG, it’s just like in the old days!!!! The good old days or whatever. But no, it’s also just… I don’t know. Even to me, who obviously hasn’t known TMBG for that long, it was another of those kind of touching moments. And what made it all even better was when soon after this show, I happened to watch a video of a Flood show… from 1990. Like wow, this really is kind of just like the 1990 duo days. EXCEPT it’s much cooler now actually.

I didn’t record this song but definitely would have if our view for it was better. Well, thankfully someone else took care of that anyway. And I think that instead of me trying to describe it here, everyone should just do themselves a favour and watch it. I can't get over how beautifully unserious and funny this performance was, watching that must have been the most fun I've had in a looooong time. Again, top 5 moments of the night, maybe top 3 even.

Now, what were the funniest bits. “Peoplejustpeoplejustpeoplejust…” and the Get In The Car bit. And the “yeeeeeees”. And the “noooooo”. And the “istanbuuuuuuul…. ouuuuu…. oouuuuuu…”. You get it, right.

Can’t Keep Johnny Down was the second song of the encore and this performance is the only reason why this song suddenly became like, a literal favorite. The power of live shows! Now whenever I hear it I'm just like. OOOOOH Johnny. Save me Johnny, save me.

Linnell told us “thanks so much, you guys are great!” before they all left the stage :) And of course there was still one more song that I had to hear today. So after more clapping and cheering they were back on stage again.

JL: Yes! Thanks a million. No! Two million! (in a bit of a jokey voice) …I’ve never thanked that much before.

And you know what, I choose to believe that he meant it.

The last song of the night was Doctor Worm. I don’t know what else I can say about this song now, just that upon relistening to this whole show again I’m realizing that I could just. call this song kind of a perfect live song. Maybe I associate it with live shows more than anything else since it's not featured on any studio album and I've definitely heard it wayyyy more times in the form of live recordings than the studio version. And also maybe I lied that Synopsis haunted me the most after the show, Doctor Worm must have been even more insistent in that sense, and I had no issue with that honestly.

And so, with the last one “They call me Dooctooor WOOOOOORM!!” and a finishing BWAAAAA from the horns, the show was over.

After the show

Don’t worry, there’s much less to talk about now in terms of the after show stuff compared to before the show. Just this one important thing that, yet again, as if this wasn’t ENOUGH ALREADY…!!! We had to hang out by the stage for a bit longer still, because there’s a chance of ending up with a SETLIST. Or a drumstick. But I guess the setlist was more important.

And Marty walked over to us. And handed us the setlist. I mean, it was my friend who grabbed the setlist, but to me that was just like we all were chosen, it really didn't matter to me who actually had it. So it was a win! I really couldn’t ask for anything else by that point. I got it all.

Then we had to wait for a bit by the merch stand because lots of folks gathered there and thankfully, there was still lots of stuff to choose from! I would have loved to go a bit more crazy with this maybe, but since I still had to keep in mind having to travel back with all this stuff, flying, customs and all that… I settled for a tour shirt, because yeah, a shirt with the dates of the tour I ATTENDED printed on it? I needed that, that would do as the only physical souvenir even, no need for anything more (well, I actually did get a bit more, because the very next day I went by a random record store here in Camden Town in hopes of finding THE album somewhere in London still. and guess what I found….., but that’s a whole different story so let me just limit myself to only the day of the show in this post). The shirt is a total slay by the way, I love the burgundy color.

After we left the venue we still managed to bump into more folks going back from the concert. And like 3 different people in total who asked us about the setlist and where we arrived from, said that woooow, you deserve to have it then. Thank you people for also appreciating all the hard work that went into this.

My brother & I had a very short way back to our hotel now, so in the end it really felt like we just returned from a quick little fun event just down the street. Even though we travelled pretty far to get here, you know. So it didn't even feel like some huge endeavour or anything all that unusual, and I mean that in the best way possible.

So my day ended with my head full of thoughts and images and fragments of songs looped ad nauseam. And also with an aching back and no energy left in me to stand for even one more minute. The tiredness was very real but I must say that tired-happy might be one of the best emotions / states one could have to deal with. I hope I can do all of this again someday, because I’m actually so serious that I wouldn’t mind going to a TMBG show every other evening if I could. That’s the dream actually.

Miscellaneous T(houghts) time

Ok, I swear I’m almost done. Just a couple general / finishing observations about the show as a whole now.

● First of all, I want to come back for a bit to that TMBG dimension thing. Because this whole thing really was sort of like entering some sort of different mode of existing. The Johns are very funny guys and the whole band’s energy is extremely infectious, but I also think it’s a very special thing how their stage presence creates this whole atmosphere that’s just completely laid-back and fun in the purest form of fun. Even when there’s a big crowd and we’re in an “important” venue. Because you sort of really feel at home, like you’re exactly where you belong. And earlier I could imagine it being more like, oh the stakes are so high, because this is THE EVENT, finally. And in reality this was the most relaxed I’ve felt in a very long time. And I was almost painfully aware of how I was watching it all with sparkly eyes, hoping that it’s maybe not too obvious because waaaah, embarrassing, it’s not like I’m having the best time ever right now or anything, please.

● However, all of the above definitely had a lot to do with how the audience was at the show, and I was just really surprised by how very awesome the audience's energy was. Like I could imagine it being maybe less enthusiastic after all because uh well, maybe a lot of people actually could be here more for Flood and Birdhouse and all that rather than the actual band… Shouldn’t have underestimated this fanbase, because the audience was so responsive to everything and just made it feel even more like the explosion of joy it really was. And I really felt like I was with *my* people, and, especially when it’s a huge group like this.. that’s very rare and special to me.

● I’ve discovered that in TMBG dimension time isn’t real because I swear, when the first set was coming to a close, I felt like maybe only 20 minutes passed and we’ve only heard maybe 6 songs so far, instead of the actual. 17 songs. 17?? damn, that's a lot of songs. I actually haven’t counted them until now. And it was 33 songs in total, 36 if you add the intros and reversed Stellub, huh!

● You people weren’t lying about the Linnell stare. Actually, related to this, another worry I sort of had before this was that should I end up close to the stage, I might feel too awkward about being possibly perceived by the band in any way to truly enjoy myself. But that actually wasn’t the case at all, not counting like a couple of moments only where I’d make maybe-imaginary, maybe-real eye contact with someone from the band and have to look way fast because noooo, don’t perceive me actually, lol.

● And again, you people weren’t lying either that these guys have unbelievable amounts of energy that make you feel like an old man who can barely stand for a couple hours in comparison. This is coming from a 23-year-old, maybe not the most athletic person in the world, but still. Also, Marty really is the guy of all time, loved watching his antics. And one more special shoutout to the Tricerachops Horns, because yes, these songs I’ve loved for a while already CAN get even better and simply epic and beautiful.

All in all, best show ever! Honestly, I don’t know if any other show could possibly top this. I would be very happy to be proven wrong of course, especially if that were to happen because of another TMBG show. Thank you Johns and everyone else for this evening, it was a dream come true and I’ll never forget how out of this world and amazing it was!!

[luminiera-merge]

mean-spirited birthday cards are the most depressing thing. like i’m aware making playful jabs at each other is usually a part of friendship but why is “haha you’re old and unattractive and past it and your life is worse than it used to be” an acceptable sentiment just bc it’s a card

[sulky-cabbage]

The sukugo fight can't get animated any sooner I'm craving sukugo tiktok edits

[thedrotter]

not-yet-dead-person

silly comic of a conversation in-game i thought was too funny not to make something proper for instead of a doodle ww

(timelapse + wip images (thus silly process commentary in read more if you like artist commentary :3)

i think the sketch looks silly and goofy and funny so i find it important to share with you the mere presence of the faces i drew on it. i drew it on top of the boxes without staying inside its borders because i find my proportions can get wonky if i draw them cropped in a restricted space. and I feel trapped otherwise and i will draw BAD!!! give me spaceeeee to go wild!!!!

the head circles are there for emotional support

very low res speedpaint because truth is the canvas was much bigger than the space where my comic was placed. i didnt account when exporting my timelapse in 720px that that tiny space would look so pixelated ... but it's able to be percieved, so its okay.

(i will now comment on my process and it is not brief sorry)

usually i would try to clean up my sketches and figure out what goes on top before jumping into linework, but since there are multiple panels and drawings i chose to jump into inking right away for the sake of brevity. i just went in with a brush that uses pen pressure and drew what was needed. i added extra line thickness and contrast in areas around the face because it helps direct your eyes there more easily that way.

according to her equipment rei has a chain belt but i only remembered it existed once I was going to color, and i did not like that discovery... I chose to ignore it to maintain my peace. i already have the color palettes for these characters figured out, and i didnt really want to think about a new element at the moment www I tend to overthink those things a lot so i skipped it

the rest is rather straightforward! not that anything else wasn't, but in here i could turn my brain off and sing. linework and sketching require mumbling so i cannot turn my brain off. just block in the characters with a solid color so i can have a mask (something along those lines,) where the color can stay inside. then just color in !!!

Base colors just had slight cell shading on the skin, and for the hair i airbrush a bit of the skincolor in low opacity near the forehead... I'm not sure what it means, but i can look at the faces easier with it somehow. i like the gentle subtlety it adds even if you cant really tell. it makes things look nice.

background was just me blocking in the color of the wall and floor, shade the wall a bit, then slap a noise and free use wood texture on top. work smarter not harder ! yet it took a bit to make it look stylistically fitting with the characters, and even now i think bottom middle panel looks odd. whatever!!!

for the middle panel i thought itd be funny if the background was a solid silly and colorful one to contrast the next panel's sketchy black one. a contrast to how the word widow is seen. on that note my handwritting is not pointy. i gaslighted my hand into thinking that it was indeed pointy in that moment so i could write "not-yet dead person" in letters that didn't seem cute. my hand did not fall for it but it complied anyway

that's basically it! I'm not sure what else i could say that doesn't feel barebones because it really is that straightforward. if you're curious I used clip studio paint for this. only special brush used was for linework (a brush named Lemon Brush), the rest used were just the default. my computer gets the least credit. it was trying to convince me a 20mb file was going to nuke it all the time and hardly let me save multiple times so i do not appreciate it

[phagodyke]

the masculine urge to take a saucepan off thr draining board and bash myself repeatedly over the head with it until I pass out and no longer have to experience feeling Bad 😍