#it's just that I really admire some of the club's musicians and it's cool that they just spontaneously said “hey you wanna play too?”

[jadegr8]

oh my god I'm so happy right now because I am playing in a local concert today & tomorrow with the amateur orchestra I'm in and we do it in collaboration with a local orchestra club and they asked me and a few others to participate as 1st violin in one of their pieces and it's one of my favorites!!!

[pomefioredove]

Can I pretty please have The housewardens (Plus Ruggie and Rook) with a kawaii metal singer? Like soft feminine voice and cutesy outfits and then on stage is just death screaming and gets embarrassed because apparently "Guys find it embarrassing when fem people metal scream."

interesting... I'll see what I can do!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ kawaii metal singer

type of post: headcanons characters: riddle, leona, ruggie, azul, kalim, vil, rook, idia, malleus additional info: romantic or platonic, reader is gender neutral but implied feminine in the way they dress, reader is not specified to be yuu

imagine having a conversation about music with Riddle

he's pleasantly surprised!

he thought he had nothing in common with you

but you're a musician!

to him, mastering an instrument is akin to mastering a subject or acing an exam

and he'll talk your ear off about his favorite composers and concertos

of course, he's curious about what you play

so, you show him a song

and he's...

...well...

it's... music, he supposes

it takes the same skill to play (perhaps even more?) so he's still impressed. just... surprised!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Leona's reaction? yawn

a musician is just like a theater kid with a weapon

based on the way you dress, he can already guess

piano? pop? wannabe indie?

undoubtedly something upbeat and fast

that he has no interest in

it's not until he starts hearing the whispers that he gives it a second thought

funny enough, it's the other boy's dislike that draws him in

and, oh, was he wrong

the first time Leona hears you screaming, he's smitten

you've got some voice on you, that's for sure

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Ruggie already associates femininity with strength

(whether you're girl or not, mind you)

so, he's not really taken aback or 'nothin

you show him a clip of one of your performances, and his reaction is more like:

"Cool. Nice chords. What's for dinner?"

he knows that not everyone is gonna see it that way

but to him, it's nothing to write home about

...unless he thinks you're gonna be a good provider for him

then he might tell his grandma he's bringing you home for break

"How much do you singers make, anyway?"

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

now, Azul was captivated from the start

when Jade came back to him with intel on you, he wasn't expecting you to be a singer

how intriguing...

Azul is a musical person himself, so, of course he was curious

but it's not until he tries to strike a deal with you that he realizes he was very, very wrong

your voice in exchange for anything you desire...

...and you start laughing at him

"my voice? do you know what I sing?"

Azul is a little taken aback by your reaction

now, what's so funny?

eventually, you share a little of your work, and he...

...well, he's impressed, that's for sure

it takes a lot of vocal training to be able to do that

but unless Floyd takes up a new hobby, he has no use for a metal singer's voice

so, for now, he'll simply admire your talent from afar

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

People tend to see Kalim as this witless little flower who can't be exposed to anything "scary"

and, sure, he can be naive at times

but it actually takes a lot to freak him out

he's also been hanging out with Lilia Vanrouge for two years, so, you know

he'd just be impressed, if anything

"Wow, that's so cool! I wish I could do that, but my voice can't go that high, and Jamil doesn't want me to hurt my throat..."

I mean, really impressed

he'll beg you to show him all of your songs

and he might try to get you to one of his club meetings, too

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Vil is more like,

"Well, I hope you're taking adequate care of your throat. You'll overexert yourself if not,"

...so, no

he's not even phased by it

Vil is a performer himself, after all

he's more concerned with your physical and mental wellbeing than you being "embarrassing"

the next day, he'll show up at your door with an armful

this is for your throat, this will keep your skin from drying out under the lights, this foundation is designed for stage...

he's always been generous, after all

and he certainly won't accept no for an answer

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

similarly, Rook doesn't think anything of it

he's simply taken by you

...your devotion, your energy, your heart!

sometimes he, too, feels like screaming for his passions!

you can expect him to be your number one fan

and be at each of your performances, whether small or big, on stage or just in your room

(whether you know he's there or not)

he always seems to know just what to get you, though. tea with honey? salt water for your throat?

he's thought of it before you even have to ask

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Idia is fangirling over it before he even meets you

listen, in his defense-

one of his favorite animes is about a kawaii metal singer!

and he was already familiar with the genre, anyway

so... no, it's not weird to him

if anything, he feels weird for never being able to talk to you about it

it's basically like talking to one of his idols IRL

whether you're a well-known performer or just make videos online is irrelevant to him

you'll be receiving a lot of anonymous donations from someone named gloomurai

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

when Lilia makes an offhand comment about your music, Malleus is intrigued

you'd never mentioned being a musician, after all

the next time you see each other, he asks

but, much to his confusion, you seem... embarrassed?

he quickly explains he only heard it from Lilia, and didn't mean to offend you, and-

ah...

that's why you're embarrassed?

you think he won't like you because others have said it's unbecoming?

humans are so strange, he thinks

it's only music, after all. it'd take much more to make him dislike you

besides, this is Lilia's foster son we're talking about. he's been exposed to every genre at least once

[agentc0rn]

Another Pretty Long Character Analysis: Kieran and Nemona - Strength

disclaimer: not claiming this to be objective, just another writing piece full of thoughts done for fun because Kieran is such an interesting, in depth character ever

Okay so I mentioned this in my older post about kieran being the foil of nemona and their shared struggles with being at the top, socially excluded, and how strength as social arbiter displaced them in social settings. Like Kieran, Nemona became overly strong that no one wanted to compete and keep up with. Her passion is misread because of that plus the top statuses she holds as a wealthy multi-talented, high-achieving student. She is a good person and true to herself (her naivety to social cues perhaps is because of her lack of social connections with others). She means well and just want someone to battle with their efforts no matter the outcome and enjoy to the fullest. Battling is her expression of self, her way of enjoyment and connecting with others. Kieran is alike to an extent, with his strength already at a high level (stated by Carmen in the beginning), and his joyous expression seen during our first fight. This is supported by the fact as stated by Drayton how Kieran had fun battling pre-Teal Mask. These two rivals' love for battles run parallel with each other!

However, Kieran's transition reflects a common mindset that artists, athletes, musicians, etc. all resonate with: competitiveness + measure of worth in the things you like the most - you have to be good at them. I feel this strongly as well with art being my major source of passion - I pressured myself into thinking I had to be really good at it and not enjoy for the sake of doing it regardless of skills.

Battling was not only something Kieran liked doing, it was his main source of confidence and self-esteem.

We see that clear in Blueberry Academy, in dialogues and student culture, competitiveness is high, demanding, and brutal. Kieran may have internalized the idea, provided with his insecurity of weakness and his goal to become independent and reliant. Seeing that we were able to defeat him and sister with ease, he grew to admire but also envious of our esteemed strength, how our power seems to be favored by luck (having speical mons like Koraidon), inducing him to believe that if he worked hard, he could get to our level too. To add further, his lifelong admiration of Ogerpon supports his motivation and his aforementioned desire to be stronger. He wanted to be strong and cool as the ogre, not caring what others thought.

What I find interesting is how Kieran and Nemona handles their way of battling with us. Nemona guides you through the journey while challenging herself to learn in new ways - she restarts her journey essentially. For Kieran, even though he has experience, he struggles with the losses against us (confidence issues and again, aside our MC Role, there is some skill difference given that we fought the titans, area zero mons, team star, and gym leaders). He does change up his tactics, but ultimately does not see victory. He ends up restarting in a way back at BB academy. As a result, Kieran becomes more isolated throughout his training arc and his domination in the league. Him strictly calling out others for slacking inadvertently turns him into the fearsome "oni" figure that he idolized and thus earns him an unfavorable reputation as the president (similar status with Nemona) of the League, for instance, a dialogue between two students mentions how how ever since he became champ, the League club became less fun....Despite the contrast of tensity in these circumstances, Nemona is misunderstood in similiar manner with Kieran.

If memory serves correct, Nemona really gets into the battling mood and sometimes forgets about hers and others' limits, but does acknowledge them given a few instances when she does not battle you. Whereas for Kieran, once he entered the extreme zone, he fully devotes himself to strength at the cost of his mental, social and physical well-being. He discards his limits, giving everything he has got that ultimately eats him from the inside. The final scene when he reacts to losing may also show not just his struggle to grasp reality but a literal side effect on his health (no sleep = poor mood, poor thinking)

He desperately clings to the idea that endless training would grant him the guaranteed chance to beat you ("I know I am making the right choice") and no longer enjoys battling. Battling became a constant test of worth, the last and only means of proving himself. Even though he did become stronger, it drained his health, energy, sanity and reputation. Again, in an ironic way, he really became the oni (self filling prophecy).

at the end however, when we reach out to him to be confident in himself, that we needed his help, it gave him that confidence boost. We all believed in him - he really needed that support. Maybe seeing terapagos going berserk had him gain self awareness that he was like that too and how that caused harm to not only himself but to others.

One small thing to point out that he is like Terapagos in a way. Both are small, secluded and strong lads who end up going wayhire with their mass power.

Not to sound corny but I really felt Kieran’s frustration about losing. I was competitive too but soon let go of that. It’s fine to improve yourself but doing that to be better than others as your main reason can really cause burnout. Anyways this is a disorganized list of thoughts I wanted to share but if you read it the entire thing I really do got to say thank you for taking the time to do so.

EDIT: fixed some grammar and stuff because this was just a run-on draft lol

[enstarriedownbad]

Koga Oogami x F!reader

Minors DNI

Genre: smut

Tags: switch!Koga, alone in a room, music, band, crush, unprotected

Plot: After your senior Rei graduated high school, Koga is now in charge of the music club room. However, music is not the only stuff he is doing when locking the door.

Words: 2,012

By clicking on "show more," you acknowledge that you are 18+ and consent to read this fiction.

"Today is just the two of us, huh?" you ask.

"Yep. The twins had to go to their job or somethin' and Dekosuke is too busy with his actual club. Hmpf," he pouts. "Now that this damn vampire isn't there anymore, the room feels empty..." he sadly says.

"Let's practice our instruments!" you tell him, cheering him up.

"Yea, let's do that," he replies, pulling out his guitar from its case. "I can't wait to practice this song".

"Same", you say as you get your instrument ready.

"Especially with you..." he whispers

"What was that?" you ask, a bit red, after all, you and him are in some sort of 'talking stage'.

"N-nothin'!"

You turn on the mixing table. All the cables are connected.

Koga starts the countdown.

"1 and 2. And 1 2 3 4!"

The song starts.

🎵🎶

It is common for musicians to take a liking to one another. But while playing, it is not a myth that we feel euphoric about each other. Especially when it's a duet.

Sure, it was not supposed to be one, but right now, it's just the two of you.

The music is so groovy.

The sound of his guitar mixing so well with your own instrument is captivating both of you.

The song ends. You both smile at each other.

This small moment of just you two smiling after rehearsal is so sweet.

"That was so cool!" you shout. "I think we're one step away from the final version!"

"For sure..." he softly replies.

"Mhh, maybe it could sound even better if you did the rhythm on the pre-chorus instead of doing the lead," you say as you approach him.

"Or maybe like that?" he asks while playing a mix of both lead and rhythm, perfectly.

His fingers strum the strings with ease. He moves his left hand with such flexibility. Koga looks so concentrated. You look at him with admiration.

The guitarist continues playing perfectly, but now he's not looking at his instrument anymore. As the melody keeps going, your eyes meet. You feel an arrow hit your heart.

You become momentarily speechless, lost in thoughts, only thinking about Koga. His musical skills, his golden eyes, his fluffy grey hair, his gentle persona he keeps hidden... You want him.

And it looks like he wants you too. He's been staring at your lips and eyes for a while now.

"Is anyone here?" someone asks while knocking on the door.

Without stopping eye contact, Koga slowly stops playing. He walks up to the door.

"We're busy," he says as he locks the door with no hesitation.

He goes back to his chair and puts his guitar down.

You only stare at each other for a few seconds before you sit on his lap, facing him.

Your two lips meet each other for the first time. You begin making out. No words were necessary. Koga's tongue finds its way to the inside of your mouth, licking your own.

He who is rather shy when it comes to romance is actually pretty dominant when it comes to 'that'. Koga kisses you over and over again, each time twisting your two tongues together, with the string of saliva getting thicker and thicker every time you kiss.

You can tell you're getting all wet. You're really into it, pushing back and forth between your two mouths.

You're not the only one who's all excited. Koga puts one hand on your thigh, and the other one on your back, pulling you closer to him.

As he closes the gap between you two, you feel something poking against your crotch. You think you know what's happening. But you can't even look down, too busy making out. While keeping his hand on your thigh, Koga begins thrusting a bit. You guessed correctly. He's bricked.

The friction is so good. Every time he moves his waist, his covered cock rubs against your clit. You get wetter and wetter. You're about to reach your climax.

You keep on sucking on his tongue as he's thrusting all nice and clean. His hand grabs your thigh, he tilts his head and moans.

"Mnhh..." he lets out while thrusting.

You move your waist as well, adding more tension. Your two crotches are begging to get some release now. You let out some moans as well.

Your tongues are wrestling even faster, following the intensity of the kiss session.

"Mh! Mhh!" you shout even though the sound barely leaves your mouth, blocked by the guitarist's.

Your mouths are fighting to take the lead, with yours pushing onto his for one second, and his pushing into yours for the other.

"Mmh!" Koga moans.

"Mmnh!" you follow.

As the pace gets quicker, Koga seems to win the lead. His lips and tongue push onto yours, making your head lean back, and drawing Koga get even closer to you.

You can't tell what feels better between your tongue being aggressively sucked, or your clit being so well rubbed.

Tears start forming in your eyes, amusing Koga.

You really enjoy Koga taking the lead. Now, all you can think about is him. Your climax is arriving.

"Mnh!!" you moan over and over as wet noises leave your mouth.

Your vagina's juices are even warmer now.

"mmh..." he moans.

Koga's soft sounds, the aggressiveness...

You are so leaned backward that your weight is now entirely relying on Koga's arm. Your two tongues are fighting like there is no tomorrow. You feel your orgasm hitting you like a truck.

"Mmnh!!" you moan out loud as Koga doesn't slow down the thrusts or tongue wrestling.

Your juices are finally being released. Koga holds keeps holding on to you. His hard dick is still pushing onto your cumming slit. It feels so good your roll your eyes while still seeing blurry from your tears.

Koga's lips finally leave yours to get some new air.

You two stare at each other, all sweaty.

The look he's sending you is anything but innocent.

"I'm not done with you," he whispers into your ear before standing up.

He suddenly carries you in his arms and puts you on top of a table.

You rapidly remove your tops. Following you, the man gets rid of his blazer and shirt. Your bra, bottom, and panties all end up on the floor.

As he's removing his belt, you hear the sound of metal tickling. Koga hastily removes his pants and boxers and spreads your legs open.

He takes a good at your body, in awe, but also in lust, judging from his heavy boner.

"Shouldn't I wear a condom?" he asks, worrying about you.

No matter which emotion it is, his cheeks are painted with red.

"Today is a safe day," you reply.

"Then, are you ready...?" he asks you, all shy yet so horny.

"Mm!" you nod.

Without wasting a second, Koga puts your legs over his shoulders and presses his erect cock against your wet slit.

"Here I come," he says as he penetrates you.

His thing slides into your insides, opening your walls.

"You're so tight," he tells you. "And so wet... Mhh," he already moans while only just entering.

The sensation is so good. He's slowly exploring your body, not going straight into destroying you. He seems to keep his gentle side in bed.

You are officially doing that at school.

You feel the nerves of his cock going farther inside you. It feels so good that you already have tears back in your eyes.

"Koga..." you moan.

You look up, only to be met with a pair of eyes looking at you like you're his most important desire. He seems to be madly in love with you.

"Y/N..."

"Mh?"

"I'm gonna start moving," he softly says.

With that being said, the man slowly starts thrusting into your heat.

"It feels nice," you say while smiling at him.

Although his tip is not violently hitting your cervix, you feel it rubbing against your end.

You have such a nice view of Koga. Abs, muscular, tan, and his dick is definitely on the larger side.

His thrusts are gentle and passionate.

"hahh..." he moans.

His hands are going over your boobs and thigh with care. You caress his face.

You feel his dick going in and out of you. Wet noises leave your bodies with each thrust.

Koga is getting quite serious at this. His pace is slowly getting more intense.

You can't help but lubricate even more. His thick cock feels so good. Your man's cock keeps penetrating you, covered in your love juices. Now, the wet sounds are way too naughty.

"Koga~ I'm about to..." you say as your pussy feels warmer and warmer along with his cock.

"Mnh... Me too... Come here," he moans as he grabs you by the waist and pulls your entire body closer to him by making you slide over the table.

His dick is now reaching your deepest end. The room temperature probably got up by a few degrees.

Your female instincts hit you. With your legs still above his shoulders, you cross your legs around him.

As for your male, he firmly grabs your two wrists with his strong hands. His lips find their way back to yours. You're now in a completely submissive position. It couldn't be more erotic.

Koga showers you with kisses while his dick is on the rough side. The thrusts are making such a loud noise.

"Y/N... Y/N! mhh~" he moans.

"hAh~" you let out.

Koga licks on the outside and inside parts of your mouth. It feels so nice to make love with him.

"Koga..."

"Y/N... T-together... Let's... hah~"

The speed of his kisses and thrusts is at its peak.

You can feel your climax approaching.

"I-I'm cumming!" you mumble against your breath.

"Y/N..!"

His penis finds its way to your very end, firmly stays in place against your cervix, and finally unloads his cum.

You feel his semen pouring inside of your womb as he grasps on your wrists even firmlier. He's shooting loads and loads into you, like he and his cock have been waiting forever to finally cum inside you.

"B-be my girl. That way, I can do that to you... every day," he asks you out while still in the middle of his climax.

"I'll be your girl," you reply while being filled with his cum. "I love you, Koga."

"I love you too," he confesses while cooling down.

After the two of you take a few breaths, you continue kissing and kissing over and over again, after which he finally pulls out.

"I'll take even more care of you, from now on," he happily tells you with a grin, "now that you're my..." he gets shy.

"Girlfriend!" you reply with a smile.

"Duh!" He says while his face is all red.

Your boyfriend helps you put on your bra and shirt. This moment feels so intimate. You pat his head.

"Let's make more 'music' together when it's just the two of us in this room," you tease him while stroking his hair.

"Hah... Don't mess me with like that or who knows what I'll do to you!" he replies like the true tsundere he is. "I mean look at what you're wearing right now, nothin's stopping me from going for a secon--" he looks at you.

Your eyes are showing that you are not against the idea of a second round.

"Who says I'm not down?" you mess with him.

Koga gets bright red and covers his eyes with his hands, to stop being tempted by your body.

"But, don't we have a repetition soon? And aren't the twins gonna pull up any second now?"

"What if they do? Remember, you locked the door so we couldn't be disturbed."

You take his hand into yours and kiss his cheek.

"Come here," you invite him for a hug as you spread your arms.

"Hmpf!"

He falls into your arms.

Looks like you two aren't done with your rehearsal.

I left Y/N's instrument up to interpretation to leave more room for immersion.

Also,

.

.

.

LOOK WHO IS BACK BABYYY 👤‼️❗️❗️❗️

HOLY MOTHERF- AKSHEUGUAAAHHH

I missed writing fr fr fr fr 👤🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👤💔

I started writing this one like 3 days ago out of nowhere. My 2 drafts (Mama, Leo) have been eating dust for months now helppp 👤🧹💨

Sorry I couldn't feed yall starving fellow enstarries down bad, here is your food. 👤🥪🌮🌯🌭

I hope you missed me cause I missed yall 👤👥️

Signing off, enstarriedownbad 👤❤️‍🔥

[b-sai-des]

A New Frontier: South Asian Fusion

In terms of any actual formal music knowledge, I come from the side of Carnatic music, the Indian classical music style, having been learning the mridangam for around ten years under my guru, Sri T.S Nandakumar. I am always eternally grateful for all that he has done for all of us students, and one of the many things I admire about sir is his willingness to explore unconventional avenues with the mridangam. The mridangam is a two-sided barrel drum usually played as an accompanying instrument in a Carnatic piece that may feature vocals or violin, and veena as well. Nandakumar sir is a renowned accompanying artist, but he’s also given his students many opportunities to perform like chamber concerts and arangetrams. One really unique thing he’s done is a large orchestra of mridangams and other Carnatic percussion instruments at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, which he’s done for multiple years and encouraged even younger students to practice and perform there. It’s unusual for the mridangam to take such a center stage like that, where you have around 100 players playing together in an epic display alongside veena and violin. It was also cool to see Nandakumar sir bringing in western drums into those performances as well, along with drum pads there and in other performances. Having that exposure from a young age really opened my eyes to the potential of Carnatic music elements in contexts that you don’t normally see, and I got curious about what else is capable. Carnatic music for example utilizes many, many different talams (time signatures) apart from just 4:4 (Adi in Carnatic music), and it would be really interesting to see how that could be utilized more generally.

South Asian fusion is a huge, diverse space that’s hard to really pigeon-hole because of how many types of South Asian music there are (Carnatic is just one, there’s also Hindustani, Sufi music, folk music, Bhangra, etc.), along with different genres that they are mixed with like jazz, rock, pop, etc. You had mingling in the past, like Ravi Shankar and The Beatles. Later on it grew, definitely a more recent phenomenon and likely accelerated due to immigration and assimilation in the west. Younger generations are really at the forefront on it  – you see a ton of high school and college clubs doing Indian music or dance fusion. Rutgers has many, including RU Dhol for example. Some of these student clubs lean more on the side of Bollywood-oriented stuff, and there are times that can overshadow other ways to explore the genres – my sister sometimes talks about how the South Asian fusion club she’s part of really neglects classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam or Kathak. In that club it’s seen as the less hip thing, and people will say “it’s cool that you’re so confident to perform that” rather than actually having an interest in it and the people who want to share it. Then again, I'm talking about high-school pettiness here – it's not like this everywhere. RU Dhol combines South Asian instruments and styles of playing with western equivalents. This performance places electric guitars next to the Indian classical violin style in a really fun way.

One of my biggest experiences with South Asian fusion is with Brooklyn Raga Massive. My aunt is a Bharatanatyam teacher, and in 2018 or so she had collaborated with a theater director for a production of Jungle Book, where her students performed Bharatanatyam in a song. After the show, we had met some of the other musicians involved in the show, since my cousin learns Carnatic singing, my sister Bharatanatyam, and I mridangam, and we talked to a percussionist who was part of Brooklyn Raga Massive. He had told us about them – they do daily events at a Prospect Heights venue along with bigger events and performances, and he encouraged us to come on a Thursday where they hold an open mic jam session. We definitely got excited about this, and we went one evening.

The venue was a real hole in the wall type bar with a small stage and seating area in the back, and there was a decent and rather diverse crowd of people. Dim lights and creaky wooden floors, very aesthetic. It’s interesting because now they’ve grown immensely as an organization, and I don’t believe they still have events at this place. It was really cool to see the really different talents displayed there – one woman performed a really interesting singing performance which now I can’t pinpoint what style it was. You also had more traditional classical instruments like tabla and sitar. What’s really cool is that even though I was only in eight grade and my cousin was only in ninth grade, they gave both of us the opportunity to play with them, and they were super friendly and inviting, even despite any mistakes or hesitation I had. There were no judgments, just the spirit of experimenting and playing. I still look at that night with a lot of fondness. 

What I played that day, it was really incredible to get that opportunity and for it to be so low-key and welcoming. My cousin is also there on the stage (dressed in white), he’s an incredibly skilled Carnatic vocalist.

Recently I was inspired by all this and for my midterm assignment for the class I’m writing this for, I made a music track with mridangam and electronic effects in Ableton (free trial came clutch). I initially spent a lot of time worrying about doing it right and perfectly planning everything, but it only came together when I just let go of that and just messed around, re-arranging recordings of me playing and layering effects. Just doing it was fun, and I learned a lot from it.

shameless plug to my video

There’s a free-ness with something like this that’s a really different experience from traditional Carnatic music. At the same time, there’s a level of playfulness with Carnatic music too, as when you’re playing on stage you don’t practice with the other artist beforehand, and what happens there is often unexpected and exciting, and I’m reminded of that when I see jazz music too. To me says a lot about the inherent commonalities in what makes music so rewarding to make and experience.

[maraudereestauderelb]

Touched

A Duff McKagan smut One Shot

Prompt: You go to a concert with one of your friends and band mates, who's having a thing with no other than the band's guitarist Slash. After the show you get to meet Duff McKagen and somehow end up having your first time with him.

MASTERLIST

Warning: sex (duh)

"They're good aren't they?", Y/F/N shouted over the loud music. "Amazing!" "Told ya!"

We were dancing along to the loud music and enjoying ourselves. It had taken her quite some time to convince me to come with her instead of heading for the Troubadour with our other two band mates. Apparently coming with my bassist had been the right choice though.

After a world tour, a successful album and quite a bit more money in my bank account than before we had left LA, I still felt more at home right here. In a rundown club on the strip with a still upcoming rock band on stage.

Y/F/N and I had fit in perfectly. Nobody would recognize just the two of us having a great time and getting drunk. Except maybe the group of aspiring musicians and rising rock bands of the strip. In this circle everyone knew everyone, knew in which bands they had played, who they were associated with, had partied together before and so on and so forth.

That was exactly the reason why we had ended up here. The lead guitarist used to play in a band called Road Crew and had surely attended one of the parties at our trailer before. Y/F/N knew him and she had told me he was in a new band that was very close on getting a record deal. "You gotta check them out! Heard they're fuckin good", had been the argument that had won me over in the end. Not so much her initial reason to come here. That being the fact that apparently the guy had been an awesome fuck and she wanted to get laid by him again.

Now being here, I didn't regret it. I was having fun! And I was back in my usual habitat and in a situation that was familiar. If after the concert she wanted to leave with her black haired curly-head she was free to do so. Either I'd bump into someone I knew or would simply head home and call it a night.

The singer seemed familiar as well and if I remembered correctly Nikki had left his ass outside at one of their parties.

"Yo, what's the lead singer's name again?", I asked Y/F/N. "Oh that's Axl. Hollywood Rose, remember?" "Oh yea, right!"

I got why those boys were apparently very close to making it. Shit, was Guns n' Rosesgood!

Y/F/N had successfully gotten us all the way through the crowd to the stage, where we danced and sang along some more until the band was finished.

A few moments after the last song had ended the club put on some generic rock music and blasted them through the speakers.

"You gonna head backstage or wait here?" This wasn't the type of club in which the band would go off stage and head backstage never to be seen again. They had a small room for all of them to change and would then most likely come out to party. I knew, because we had played here before.

"He saw me, so trust me, he's gonna come to me", she grinned, and I once again admired her confidence.

It didn't take too long before Slash really showed up. He greeted me as well and congratulated on our album, so I told him what a sick guitar player he is. I give credit where it's due.

But I also understood that it was probably best for me to piss off now. So that's what I did. I figured I'd get one last drink and keep my eyes open in case of seeing anybody I knew. And for real I spotted a few people I knew from college who quickly waved me over.

After telling them the generic shit everybody wanted to know coming back from tour, it actually turned into a lot of fun to party with them. No coke but sure as hell a lot of alcohol.

It was hours later when they decided to leave and I had actually planned to leave with them

when I spotted a barkeeper, I knew. He had also attended a bunch of our parties and was a cool guy. So I sat down at the bar and joked around with him some more as the club kept getting emptier.

The club surely was anything but empty at one point, neither was it packed. It wasn't so crowded anymore, and I had completely lost track of time when someone sat down on the barstool next to me.

I didn't pay much attention and simply took another sip from my vodka lemon until he said: "You know, your friend's already gone, right?"

I turned to face him and recognized him as one of Slash's band members, right after I had been speechless for a moment because of how handsome he was.

"Yea, I know", I nodded and added grinning: "So is your guitarist, right?" "Obviously", he answered laughing: "Should've seen him backstage after the concert, couldn't get to her fast enough!" I joined his laughter, finished my drink and looked around. "Your remaining band member's left with a groupie as well, huh?" "No, fuckin idea where they are", he smiled and waved over to Jimmy, the barkeeper: "Another one of these for the little Rockstar here and I take whatever she has."

"Thank you", I told him with a soft smile. He waved it off: "I'm Duff McKagan by the way." "Y/N Y/L/N", I replied. "I know, was at one of your trailer parties before ya guys became famous." "Oh were you?", I asked surprised. I would've bet I'd recognize such a pretty face. Blond, tall, bassist. I was in fuckin heaven.

"You then ones with the trailer with the IV in the living room, right?" "Yupp, that's us", I nodded with a smirk: "Then I'm sorry for not recognizing you..."

"Don't worry bout it", he smiled: "Doubt we got the chance to talk...not that I wouldn't have wanted to..."

"We should have! Then I probably would've listened to you guys sooner! And Oh. My. God. You're amazing!", I gushed excitedly. "Thanks! Hoping it'll get us where you are now." "You'd have to be a complete idiot not to fuckin sign you!"

"I fucking hope so", he sighed and took a big gulp from his vodka: "You the song writer, right?" He suddenly changed the topic.

"Yes, why?" "I dunno", he shrugged: "When I first saw your music video on TV I couldn't help but fuckin wonder what complete asshole hurt this beautiful girl..."

His words hit me like a fucking train, because they reminded me of my former best friend Nikki Sixx, whom I had been stupid enough to fall for, but soon my drunken brain focused on something else: He thought I was beautiful...

"An asshole that's no longer a problem", I laughed. "Well cheers to that", the blond guy smirked and clicked our glasses: "Lucky me."

I returned his smirk and soon felt his hand on my thigh.

"How come you didn't leave with a groupie?", I tease him and sip on my glass. "Not my thing..." "What an utter liar", I thought. "And also", he went on: "I saw you in the crowd dancing next to your friend and knew exactly who to go for."

The way he looked into my eyes send chills through my body and I quickly took another sip from my drink.

"You alright?", Jimmy asked from further away to make sure I was fine, and I quickly nodded.

"You're pretty confident, huh?", I asked Duff. "Why?" "Well, what if that one girl you decided to go for wasn't interested?", I teased him.

Was I interested? I mean...damn he was hot and watching him on stage had been hot! His touch on my thigh made me feel hot! But for fuck's sake I didn't knowhim!

"That would be pretty sad for both of us", he shrugged and winked at me before looking at his glass and away from me.

Was he right? God, I could already feel the heat inside of me rising and a quiet voice in the back of my head reminded me that I had seen him shirtless on stage and wondered what it would feel like to touch him.

But damn it, I was drunk!

He lit a cigarette and I gave my everything not to stare at his lips for longer.

"I liked you better when you were funny and not seductive", I shrugged as well with a smirk and made him laugh. "Ouch, thanks!", he replied smiling: "In that case you'd have loved to see me lookin like an idiot when I got to Slash and your friend hours ago just to realize your gone."

"Maybe you should've hurried more, you know, the way your friend Slash did", I teased him more and calmed my nerves.

"He's just a funny guy", I told myself: "Joke around with him some more and then get your ass back home."

"Well, in the end you waited here for me anyway." "Rockstars don't wait for anyone", I joked and took the cigarette from him to take a drag as well. I could tell he was staring at my lips this time but was ripped out of his thoughts when I handed it back.

He cleared his throat and said: "Always wanted to fuck a rockstar."

I almost choked on my drink. That was my sign. The cards were on the table. I should tell him that this certainly wouldn't be the night he'd get what he wants and leave! But I was curious... so damn curious...

I couldn't deny that I was attracted to him! Maybe I could at least make out with him...find out what his lips felt like...there was nothing wrong about that.

"That's what the girls always tell you?", I tried to mock him but was too nervous to sound convincing. "You're quite a joker, huh?" "At least tryin to..."

"It's cute", he admitted. "Good, because I never run out of stupid jokes..."

"Trust me, I'd know a way or two to shut you up", he grinned to himself and took a last drag before he stubbed the cigarette out.

God, his words went straight to my core and put pictures in my head I hated but at the same time desperately wanted to happen. I wanted to find out what he wanted to do!

"Ya know what I always wanted to find out?", I asked without thinking about it twice. "What is it, gorgeous?" "If it's true that bass players don't just have skilled fingers when it comes to playin instruments."

I cracked the joke before I had thought about it. Why? Because I always had to listen to idiots tell me that and because I somehow really wanted to find out.

His smirk grew winder than I had seen it all night and it made me knees weak. "I can definitely show ya that."

"How about you first make me shut up?"

I had barely finished my sentence before I felt his free hand in my neck and soon enough his lips on mine.

I felt like melting right then and there! His lips moving against mine felt so good! But what started as a rather innocent kiss quickly became more heated. I grabbed the hem of his leather jacket, not to pull him closer but because I needed to hold on to something, anything."

His lips were moving against mine before he gently captured my lower lip with his. It was hard not too moan on the spot! And even harder when I tasted his tongue.

I damned those stupid barstools! I wanted him closer, needed him closer.

When we finally separated again my entire body was totally antsy!

"Speechless?", he asked teasingly. God, he was so damn hot!

I tried to think of something witty and fun, but I couldn't summon a single proper thought.

"You know...to prove the other thing we should probably move this somewhere more private...", he whispered into my ear and hadn't goose pumps already covered my entire body they definitely would have after he seductively kissed my neck.

I should tell him no. I should move my fucking ass back home.

But when he leaned back again and all I could think about was how I buried my fingers in his blond hair, I just nodded...

He had his arm around my waist when he let me out of the club and down strip. It was still dark and it wasn't hard to tell that there were still a bunch of parties going on in other places as well. Like I said, I had long lost my sense for time.

"My place ain't far from here", he told me and I nodded. Excitement was bubbling inside of me and gosh, I couldn't wait to kiss him again!

All worries and negative thoughts had been long gone as we walked through the cold night. I kept looking at him from the side and tried to hide the excited smirk on my lips. But

damn, he was even taller than I had guessed and looked so handsome in the dim glow of the streetlights.

I didn't know what to say. Where words needed?

I realized how he eyed me as well and a smug smile appeared on his lips. Shit, I wanted him. I had never felt this need for someone before, but I had also never allowed myself to get this carried away.

I bit my lower lip and tried to clear my thoughts but that attempt was quickly thrown completely over board when he suddenly pressed my back against the closest wall and kissed me. The kiss almost took my breath away.

Here I was standing on the strip with my back against the wall of some club and making out with a complete stranger. And it felt so right.

"Duff", I whimpered against his lips in a needy tone. "We should probably keep going, huh?", he smirked a little out of breath himself. "Except you consider this somewhere more private", I said with a grin on my lips but felt how he led me on with his arm around my hips once again.

"Wouldn't mind", he shrugged and lit another cigarette: "But I wanna take my time with you."

I swallowed hard and accepted the cigarette he wanted to share with me.

The next five minutes of us walking passed mainly without much talking but then I found myself in his one-bedroom apartment.

Alone with him now I felt the nervousness set back in.

So this was how it's gonna be?

"You want somethin to drink or anything?", he asked from behind me and I shook my head. Soon I felt him against my back with his arms around my body and his lips on my neck and shoulder.

I suppressed the low moan that had wanted to escape my lips and simply leaned back against him.

He had soon gripped the hem of my dress and pulled it over my head. A shiver ran through me but his warm hands that travelled my body soothed me and quickly found the clasp of my bra and opened it.

He was still kissing my neck when he whispered: "Turn around to me." I obeyed immediately.

The sight of my bare breasts exposed before him made him fight to contain his arousal as he hardened in his boxers. He lowered his head and wrapped his lips around my nipple. He sucked gently and I failed to find something to hold onto.

It was weird to be almost naked in front of him while he was still fully dressed, at the same time it made me feel excited.

"Get on the bed, I got something to prove", the blond haired told me smirking and I nodded. I tried not to run to the bed and could barely believe how caught up in the moment I was. My entire mind was foggy!

I watched him take off his leather jacket before he walked over to me and moved my thighs apart so he could lay down between them.

I could feel him hard against my center through our clothes but before the nervousness consumed me he had his lips on mine again and consumed my senses instead.

His body was pressed against mine and he traced his fingers down my body. He stroked over my thighs and spread them even more before moving to my panties.

Through the fabric he pressed his hand against me and gently rubbed me. A soft moan left my lips and I stirred underneath him and spread my legs further. Duff smirked against my breats and took my nipple in his mouth again as he began to rub me through my panties. His fingers ran over my slit as heat began to pool and I whimpered.

"Duff", I moaned softly.

He pulled away from my titts and brought his lips to mine while his fingers rubbed at my clit.

My eyes were closed, and I was lost in the moment, but I managed to bring my hand to his head and tangled my fingers in his blond, long hair. My lips parted as another soft moan left them and Duff pushed his tongue inside my mouth, massaging my tongue with his own.

His fingers were moving in circles over my clit and I whimpered against his lips as my panties became more soaked with each move he made.

I moaned and writhed on the bed as his hand travelled beneath my panties. Both of us moaned as he ran his middle finger between my folds, feeling how wet I was.

I whined his name again and lifted my hips to meet his hand.

He pushed his erection against my thigh and instinctively I reached down and stroked him through his pants.

"God you’re so wet for me", he growled in in my ear.

I bit my lip and raised my hips when suddenly he pulled away from me.

He knelt on the bed and smirked at me before ripping my panties down my thighs and tossing them to the floor.

My heart felt like it was about to pump out of my fucking chest.

He moved between my legs and crashed his lips against mine.

His fingers made their way back to my core and he pushed his middle finger inside me with ease, making me gasp.

"You want me to fuck you?", he pulled his finger out teasingly slow.

I bit your lip and without thinking I nodded as he pushed his finger back in.

He added a second finger, stretching me slowly: "But not yet."

He pulled his fingers away and I whined at the emptiness. But before I could protest Duff spread my legs apart and laid between them.

He ran the flat of his tongue along my slit, making me gasp and clutch at the sheets.

His tongue ran over my clit in two slow strokes.

I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and let out a moan.

His tongue ran over my clit in slow circles and he reached his hands up to squeeze my breasts. When he sucked at my clit I let out another moan into my hand and Duff pulled away.

"Oh No, baby", he told me and moved my hand from my mouth: "I wanna hear you."

I bit my lip and watched as he went back to his slow licks and his eyes never left mine as he ran his tongue over me. I felt like I was burning.

I squeezed my eyes shut and reached down, wrapping my fingers in his blond hair and raised my hips to meet him. He pulled back, only slightly and ran his fingers over my slit. He let out a growl as he watched, pushing two fingers into your throbbing pussy.

"Duff", I gasped and already felt extremely full. "Don't panic", I told myself and threw all worries away when he began to pump his fingers in and out of me, slowly at first before he increased his speed.

"You like that, baby girl?"

I moaned in response and he stopped his movements. He sucked at my clit and the change in pleasure made me squirm.

I whined and lifted my hips to meet the strokes of his tongue.

He moaned against me and the vibrations sent pleasure soaring through my veins. He began pumping his fingers once more, curling them against my wall and rubbing against my gspot.

I writhed on the bed, clutching at the sheets because of the amount of pleasure.

"Fuck..."

"You gonna cum for me doll?", he growled against me.

I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip as my orgasm coursed through me. MY walls clenched around his skilled fingers and his tongue didn’t stop running over your clit, making my legs tremble.

When my orgasm started to slow down he got up and took his clothes off, throwing them anywhere. Before he sat back down between my thighs, I watched him put on a condom through barely open eyelids.

Without a warning and therefor without giving me the time to over think this he plunged his cock into me. I gasped at his size and raked my nails down his back.

The pain was sharp and unknown.

"God you feel so good baby."

He crashed his lips against mine, stifling my moan as he pulled out of me slowly.

"So tight." He pushed into me again. I was frowning and pushed my eyes closed as I was trying to adjust to him. Fuck, he felt so good at the same time this hurt so bad but in the best way possible.

I moaned and ran my hands over his back as he set a pace with deep and slow thrusts. He wanted me to feel every inch of him entering me and he lost himself in the little whimpers I made as he pushed into me. After a few more thrusts when the pain was starting to die down, he pulled out of me and knelt on the bed.

"Rollover", he ordered.

I bit my lip and obeyed, kneeling in front of him on all fours. Duff let out a breath as he looked at my ass.

I felt him run his cock over my center before he pushed into me once more.

"Duff...", I hissed.

His change of angle set a whole new sense of pleasure and he set a faster pace. It hurt but felt so good... His cock slammed into me and I collapsed against the mattress, falling onto my elbows, arching my back more in doing so.

He brought his hand down swiftly, slapping my ass and making me gasp.

Duff gripped my hips and I moaned between breaths as he picked up a fast and hard pace, slamming into me hard and fast. He leaned forward and pulled my hair into a ponytail, his thrusts never slowing down. With a gentle tug at my hair he pulled me back onto all fours and with his spare hand he reached under me.

His fingers found my clit and he rubbed clumsy circles. I bit my lip, trying to contain my moans and arched my back. He leant over me, his breath on my shoulder and hearing his staggered breathing sent me into overdrive. He released his grip in my hair only to wrap his hand around your throat gently and pull me back enough so he could turn my head around to kiss him. Just what I needed.

"You gonna cum for me?"

I attempted to nod, which proved difficult with his grip on my throat. He didn't wait for an answer though and rubbed his fingers over my clit faster.

"Cum for me, babygirl."

I lost all control, my eyes rolling back as the waves of pleasure rolled through me, sending shivers all over my skin. His pace was sloppy now and I knew he was almost ready as well. He slowly pulled away and turned on his back so I knelt down on wobbly legs. I removed the condom and licked along his throbbing cock and he let out a low moan. I took him as deep as I could and began to suck him off until he grasped his cock and pumped it a few times before coming in my mouth.

I swallowed his load and his deep moans send a few last chills through me.

Both of us collapsed against the sheets, a sheer layer of sweat covering my skin as I tried to catch my breath.

"Shit that was good", he exhaled and placed a lazy kiss on my shoulder. "Yes, it was", I thought and grinned to myself, trying to process what had happened.

[noirandchocolate]

And now because my bi ass couldn’t NOT--

Why I Wouldn’t Romance the Stardew Bachelorettes

Maru--Too young for me.  Electrocuted me (I know it was an accident but still).  She and her dad would fight me for all strawberries everywhere.  Loves radioactive bars as a gift and this worries me.  Hates honey, and uh my farm is Honeybee Farm.

Abigail--Too young for me.  Implied she was going to eat a quartz I gave her.  Later told me her dad served a pepper I sold at the store and that it ‘tasted like crap.’  Girl, what is your diet?  Sucks at video games even more than I do.

Haley--Too young for me.  Gave off some mean girl vibes when we first met, like I couldn’t tell if she was complimenting my face or not when she asked if I was ‘even wearing any makeup.’  Says Emily is weird.  Did not like to do chores ever, and was kind of childish about it.  

Penny--Would almost certainly make me stop drinking alcohol (understandable, but like, sometimes I want to do that?).  Made it kind of weird by asking if I wanted kids then saying she was ‘glad to hear it’ when I said yes (video game kids not IRL ones obv); this is weird because we’re like...friends?  Penny?  What stakes do you have in this decision?  May want to leave Pelican Town if she can, so is it okay for me to keep her there?

Leah--Has an ex who showed up to her art show and just stood in the distance and fumed; I do not want to be stalked and/or stabbed by some jealous weirdo please.  HATES PIZZA.

Emily--If I was having sufficiently bad Brain Bullshit and she recommended meditation or a crystal I might snap and then feel horrible afterward because I know she means well.  I think parrots are cool but I don’t know if I’d be a good parrot parent.

Why I Love the Stardew Bachelorettes

Maru--Space!  She showed me her telescope and has no problem talking about her science interests.  Very passionate about this stuff and is even inventing new things!  Loves her family.  Manages to hold down a part-time job as a nurse/receptionist and study and do personal projects.  I respect this hardworking young lady and I would like to be her non-creepy grownup friend!

Abigail--Purple.  Likes nature and exploring for all kinds of things from creatures to treasures.  Wants to be Strong and Brave but also has sympathy for monsters.  A musician.  I enjoy her aesthetic.  Said, ‘The birds were happily chirping today. They're too simple to understand the future,’ to me, which sent me into orbit.  Would probably do cosplay with me.  Named her guinea pig ‘David’ which again, I am dead.  Next best thing to being able to romance Wizard.  We should have a séance or something!

Haley--Makes a Connecticut Malfina ^o^ face when I give her sunflowers.  Like Alex, gets friendlier as time goes on and tries to expand her world and not be so superficial.  Talks about her great-grandma a lot which is sweet.  Has a photography hobby which is fun and could lead to opportunities!  Is actually pretty generous and donates her extra clothes to charity.  Loves flowers, and stops getting upset about getting dirty, so maybe she’d like to garden together!

Penny--Was happy if I gave her dandelions early on when I had no money for real gifts.  Really loves the kids in the village; the fact she wants to teach them until they get old enough for whatever formal schooling is available is so admirable.  Has this wistful energy where I just want to make her smile. Would be great to have a book club or read out loud with.  

Leah--Art girl (I have an art girlfriend IRL so)!  Actually likes mushrooms!  Is another one who lets me give her foraged stuff from the ground.  Healthy outdoorsy person so could help me with stuff around the farm and with foraging too.  Bought a pepper of mine from Pierre and told me she liked it!  Actually wants to be in Stardew Valley appreciating nature, so I feel like she’d be happy on my farm.  Decorates her house really pretty each season.  Seems fairly level-headed and like she’d have practical solutions and good advice if I had a shitty day; she even says to come see her if I need someone to talk to.  I wanna have a wine and cheese plate with her and talk about our lives.

Emily--Honestly just like a really genuinely sweet and kind person.  Has good words to say about practically everyone in town and seems to be on friendly terms with all.  Loves animals and also talks about being friends with them (she says bees are her special friends and I’m like <3 <3).  Lets me use her sewing machine and dyes for free.  Is such a good dancer it opened my third eye.  Was friendly to me from the start and encouraged my farming and even said she’d like to help!  Has a creative hobby and would probably make me really nice clothes if I asked. ��Just like.  I love her she’s my best friend.

I’ve had this in drafts for like a week but now I have said what needs to be said about all these marriage candidates, haha.

[alicemitch09writes]

first love

pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x reader

summary: You never forget your first love.

author’s notes: This is what prompted the many angst fics to come in my repertoire. I’ll just to slowly transfer some of my one-shots that are reader inserts here on tumblr.

twenty one pilot’s cover of ‘can’t help falling in love’ really helped me in the writing of this fic. It’s a favorite of mine I keep going back to when writing fics. Reader is a musician, who plays the ukulele and violin and at the time when I wrote this (back in 2017), I was learning to play the uke, mostly for fun.

also available on ao3.

disclaimer: i own NOTHING but the plot.

Wise men say, only fools rush in

But I can't help, falling in love with you

 They moved to Tokyo when she was 8.

And at a young age, she was pretty much a timid and shy girl, always hiding behind her parents whenever in the presence of new people, especially when she was being introduced. She wasn't very good with socializing, always wary and scared that she'd make a horrible impression.  And of people, in general. People were generally scary, especially those she was unfamiliar with. She found solace in music, due to her father's influence, who was a music instructor at a university. "When words fail, music speaks." He'd tell her as they played 'Heart and Soul' together on the piano, her mother taking a video of them from the side. And a little while later, by some miracle, she made friends with the local kids – Tetsurou and Kenma. The two were an odd pair, given Tetsurou's loud and mischievous demeanor being a total contrast to Kenma's quiet and well-behaved and aloofness. Still, they were the best friends she could ever have.

 Years passed, and the three were inseparable.

Over time, the two proved to be more trouble than they were worth – Tetsurou, with his never-ending schemes and provocation abilities, and Kenma, with his indifference to the world so long as he was playing his games.

Nothing's changed much of her, other than her ability to keep the dynamic duo grounded. Also, she had her flair for music. Still, she was terribly shy. Though she has a voice, she chose to stick to the background, wanting to be out of the limelight.

Tetsurou would scold her, saying that it was a waste because she had a good singing voice. In which, would make her blush. Kenma would say the same thing even without looking up from his game console. But Tetsurou's words resounded, her heart beating like a drum.

    Shall I stay, would it be a sin?

If I can't help, falling in love with you

   It was the clichest thing to happen – she fell in love with her childhood friend.

She fell for Tetsurou.

For all his cockiness, his mischievousness, his peculiar affinity with cats (ironic that they attended Nekoma), and his atrocious bed hair – she loved it all.

Of course, she'd never tell him.

She doesn't have the heart to.

Neither will she tell Kenma, being the perceptive boy he was.

Plus, she'd have to go against a throng of his admirers (who made up of about half of the female population, by the way). There was no way she had a chance. And besides, who was she to him but his ever dependable, timid and adorable best friend?

When he bought her a ukulele on her 16th birthday – he knew she had wanted to try to play it for the longest time, she knew that it was simply out of friendship.

For a while, she became the volleyball team's manager. And for a while, she was able to play it cool with her feelings. This was okay, she thought, its better like this.

"This is my best friend, (Last Name) (Name)." he says, wrapping his arms around her neck as he hugged her from behind, introducing her to two players from Fukurodani.

The shorter of the two – Akaashi Keiji, smiles. "Nice to meet you, (Last name)-san."

"Oh! She's so cute!" says the loud boy – Bokuto Koutarou. "Are you sure she's not your girlfriend?"

Tetsurou laughed, chin digging into her head. "I've known her forever, that'll be weird."

"Kuroo, you're hugging her too tight." Kenma says with a frown.

Best friend.

That's all she'll ever be to him.

    Like a river flows, surely to the sea

Darling, so it goes, this love was meant to be

   It was rare to find Tetsurou at his lowest since he was usually contented with whatever happened. But they lost, unable to secure a spot at nationals.

So when she found him all by himself at the gym, she knew he needed to be cheered up.

Taking her ukulele from her bag, she started playing. Tetsurou looked up just as she started singing. "You with the sad eyes don't be discouraged, oh I realize" she kneeled in front of him, watching him with careful eyes. "It's hard to take courage, in a world full of people; you can lose sight of it all, the darkness inside you, can make you feel so small."

She continued singing to him, feeling her heart beat faster with every line. It was so hard seeing this down, it was so unlike him. He rested his head on his folded arms, eyes closed as she sang. He always loved hearing her sing.

"And I see your true colors shining through," she wished her words reached him. "I see your true colors, and that's why I love you."

For a moment, she choked up. Not intending to say those words out loud, but they were part of the song, and the way she sang it with so much emotion that the look Tetsurou was giving her made her nervous. His golden eyes stared deep into her (eye color) – filled with so much emotion, but she focused on confusion, probably at why she had stopped.

Regaining her composure, she continued. "So don't be afraid to let them show, your true colors are beautiful like a rainbow."

Tetsurou cracked a smile, reaching out to ruffle her hair playfully. "When did you get so cheesy?"

"And when did you become this uncool?" she teased back, slapping his hand away. "Are you feeling better now?"

Sighing, he leaned his back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. "A little, but thanks for coming after me."

"It's not the end of the world," she tells him kindly. "and after all, there's next year. Right, captain?"

The look on his face was priceless – clearly not expecting that. But their senpai had already decided, Kai and Morisuke were on it too, as was Coach Nekomata – before it broke into a grin.

His grin was the biggest she's ever seen.

     Take my hand; take my whole life, too

'Cause I can't help, falling in love with you

  Tetsurou got mad at her, saying painful words to her face.

Furiously, he turned to face her. She took a step back in surprise, clutching her ukulele to her chest. Then her instrument slipped from her hand, landing on the ground with a loud crack. The words coming out from his mouth were hard to bear, and she could just stand there taking it all in.

He didn't mean it really, but the stress and frustrations were just getting to him. She knew that.

"You know nothing. I never want to see your face again." He seethed.

When all was said and done, he up and left.

It felt as though the life was sucked out of her. She couldn't feel anything, she felt too numb to move. It only came as a surprise that she was still there when she found herself sitting on the ground, rocks digging into her skin.

Picking up her ukulele from the ground, she was surprised to find that it was still in one piece. Except for the scratches on the surface, and crack on the rim of the saddle boards. Funny, they seemed like an allegory.

Despite it all, the pain in her heart and Tetsurou's harsh treatment towards her, she found herself smiling. Hot tears streamed down her face, teeth digging unto her lower lip as if to keep her sobs in.

But the pain of it all was too much, she was only human.

Hugging her instrument to her chest, she allowed herself to cry, sobbing loudly, body shaking violently as her heart broke into smithereens.

    She heard that they had made it to the semi-finals, being one of the top four schools, which shouldn't be a surprise. Actually, it was secondhand information from Kenma. Right after what happened with Tetsurou, she decided to cut ties with anything associated with him, which was basically everything – the volleyball club, Kenma.

It was something she had to – no, something she wanted to do.

No matter how much it killed her.

           "Hey, let's make a little bet. If I win, you go out on a date with me."

"And if I win?"

"You won't ever see me again."

          Gentle strums silenced out the lull machines, the dripping of liquids. Faint scents of flowers and fruits hid the overly sanitized room, with walls too white and dull.

"But I can't help," her voice was quiet, low, eyes transfixed to her fingers on each string on her ukulele. "falling in love," a lone tear slips down her face, though a smile graced her lips. "with you."

In front of her, the television displayed the live coverage of the nationals - Nekoma won against Fukorodani, and then lost to Karasuno.

She smiled, hugging her ukulele as tears slipped freely.

The memory of the bet they made when they were younger came to mind, making her smile. That was such a long time ago, Tetsurou probably forgot all about that just as he forgot all about her.

"Don't worry, you won."

Now you won't ever see me again.

          He was surprised when they came back to school, she wasn't there. She was the first person he looked for since she was absent during the whole finals match. But she wasn't anywhere to be found – not in the library, the music room, the club room.

He had a promise to keep, and an apology to make up.

So it came as a surprise to him when his classmates' expressions turned grim at the mention of her name. Some had begun to cry, some looked away, nothing was making sense.

But one word was clear to him – cancer.

He turned to his best friend, who met his gaze. For the first time in his life, he saw anger in those usually stoic eyes. He knew then that he knew, he always knew. There was also pain, pain for his best friend's condition. And for (Name)'s sake, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Without a word, he ran, as fast as he can, ignoring the calls from his classmates, teachers, teammates. He had to get to her. He had to apologize; he didn't mean what he said. He wanted to see her, hold her, tell her he was stupid and an idiot-

           But he was already too late.

[multifandomthoughts]

Still of the Night

Requested by: @dynamesvirtue​, 

AFAB reader

Word Count: 2.4k words.

Synopsis: It’s been weeks since Magnus had been home, and you’re ready to give him a warm welcome when he returns! Warm, and oh so naughty.

Wandering the halls of Mordhaus once again, you sighed and looked up at the dark and foreboding walls of your residency, only lit by the blazing torches. Magnus had been away for it seems like an eternity, and you felt like you had been without him for years rather than months. Sleeping in your shared bed was incredibly tough; you’d often lay there and inhale his scent, and once morning came you’d be disheartened when he wasn’t right beside you.

He would call you, sure, but it wasn’t as often as you would like. You didn’t know what was going on every night that you were away from him, and you don’t know what kind of mischief he was getting up to with his bandmates. That was pretty much how you had met him; you had decided to go out with your friends for a night at the sleaziest club in the city. You hadn’t been doing so well lately and your friends had decided to cheer you up by taking you out for the night. You would rather have stayed inside on the couch eating ice cream and watching mediocre TV. But you weren’t going to get what you wanted this time; oh no. It will be fun, they said. Maybe you’ll find someone you like, they said. That part ended up being true. You ended up leaving the house and going with your friends to the bar, whereupon entering, you were met with an interesting sight.

Three men, clearly inebriated were arguing and growling at each other “growling at each other. You couldn’t make out most of the conversation, but a few scattered bits reached you. Mostly “douchebaeg”, and “yous ams a stupid mans”, and a rather loud “drums ain’t fuckin cool!!”. You wanted to avoid weirdos like that, but then he caught your eye. Unfortunately, before you could approach the strangely alluring man a brawl erupted between the other dudes. It started with a bottle getting smashed on someone’s head, then people were throwing whole plates at each other and picking up stools to use as weapons. Your first thought had been “fuck this!” and you found a table away from the action to try and hide under. Sneaking away from the epicenter of the fight, you seem to have finally gotten close to the man.

Furtively moving to the barstool next to him, he gave you a side-eye, before giving a small accent hello. You introduced yourself, giving your name, and then began small talk with him as the while banging, crashing, and screaming was going on in the background. “I can’t believe they’re doing it again...they always do this when we go out.” He sighed and took a long sip of his drink, covering his face with his hands.

“You know them?” You replied, surprised that such a calm and collected man could know some people so rowdy and crazy. Sighing and pausing before he spoke, he says “Yeah…they happen to be my bandmates. We happen to be on tour at the moment and whenever we go to some restaurant or bar I have to be the responsible one and reign them in. It’s quite insulting.” A screech erupted from one of them; startled, you looked back at them. One of them, a man with ginger dreadlocks, piercings, and a wristband covering each arm had picked up another man by the shirt. The man he was picking up had dark brown hair shaped like a mushroom, a gap in between his teeth, and was a little chubbier than the others. The man next to you, who’s name you found out was Magnus, went wide-eyed. “I think I have to go…this looks bad.” Before getting up to go deal with his bandmates, he writes his name and number on a napkin in front of him and dashes off.

You headed towards your bedroom for the night, once again expecting to be greeted with the same old thing as every night that he was on tour. Unbeknownst to you, Magnus had arrived home quite early from his tour and had decided to surprise you by sitting on his side of your shared bed. Walking inside of your shared quarters, a smirk crept onto his face when he had discovered you were right where he expected you to be.

“Magnus…” you gasped, so happy to see your significant other after time away. “Hello my dear…” he responded, his thick accent piercing the air, sending a shiver down your spine. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be back for a few more days…I expected to sleep alone tonight…”

Your voice went from normal to a whisper, as you realized the rest of the band may be in your vicinity. “Where is everyone else?” You questioned, hoping that if this became intimate, it wouldn’t attract their gazes. “Oh, worry not my dove. I sent them on a little bit of an adventure to make sure that they wouldn’t interrupt our precious time. I sent them on a nearly impossible quest to find a guitar that can play a riff by itself. They won’t be back for quite a while.” You smirked, knowing that they will never find it and that maybe tonight will be a good night to get some alone time. Scooting over onto his lap, looking innocent, you begin to ask about the tour, all the things that he’s gotten up to, and the hijinks that ensued. “Oh…it seems that you’re giving me two contrasting ideas…two can play that game.” He stated in a deadpan voice, as you could feel two fingertips begin to graze your shoulder. Perfect, your plan was beginning to fall into place. You turn around and straddle his hips, running your fingers through his brown curls.

Cutting off his words with a kiss, you hoped that you had gotten your point across about what you wanted. Pulling back, he growled and cooed. Getting closer to him, you can smell more of his natural scent, and it only excites you further. Leaning forward to rest your forehead on his, your breath becomes uneven as your cheeks grow flush and you can’t stop smiling.

“What shall I do to you first?” You muse teasingly, gently tugging on the hair near the nape of his neck. In response, he lets out a primal sort of growl from the back of his throat and moves to kiss your face and neck as if wanting to get the advantage of the first move. This only prompts you to hold his head tighter and closer so he can’t pull away. Breathy sighs and light moans pass your lips before you even realize it’s happening. Your lips on his, soft and wet, the subtle taste of alcohol on them. You pause and pull his jacket off of him, genuine leather, before placing your mouth back on his. Instead of putting your hands on his cheeks like a normal person, you stroke his now bare chest, admiring the dips and indents his body had.

“You look just as good as you did when I last saw you....” you cooed to him. Kissing him again, you lick his lips, asking for permission for entrance. He gave it, and your tongue swirled around his. Gripping his bareback until it left marks, you scooted closer into his lap, getting much more into it. Magnus bit your lip in anticipation, not drawing any blood, but sending chills down your spine when you realized what had happened. As you were clenching your fingers into his back, he was running his long skilled fingers up your shirt, causing you to flinch.

“You look every bit as good too, and I wanna see if that’s true under all these layers.”

The more skin he exposed the more places he started planting kisses. His breathing became erratic and his eyes were lidded. “You can’t imagine how much I need ya, after all that time apart.” He muttered, hands going down to squeeze the flesh of your ass. You nodded your head softly, taking his hands and attaching them to your shirt. He seemed to get the idea and grasped, pulling your shirt over your head and onto the floor. “I never get tired of this...” he coos, and with your consent, he runs his hands over your chest and squeezes it. You squeak, as his hands were cold and you were not expecting him to squeeze them.

“Y-You like it? You stuttered, feeling a little shy about your body. “Of course my dear, why would I not?” As he was squeezing your chest, you decided to do something of your own. Sliding your hands down his body, and into the back end of his pants, you began to squeeze and knead. The tender flesh fit right into the palm of your hand as if you were squeezing a peach.

“Ahhh!” He let out a long moan as you held the flesh in your hand. Leaving one hand to play with his rear, the other slid around front to undo the button and then the zipper, as you start tugging his pants off entirely. You wondered how he could go every night wearing these pants; they were long leather pants that seemed to stick to every piece of skin.

Magnus starts wiggling his hips to help you yank his pants down, and you can immediately notice the burden he’s been hiding under the next layer.

“Oh, look what we have here…someone has been a needy little boy, haven’t you? You have been a good boy while I was away, haven’t you? If you have, you get the joy of me wracking you with pleasure so intense that you can’t even speak.” Magnus gulped, finding it hard to speak already. You run your hand over the fabric of his underwear, ready to absolutely wreck him.

“Maybe I’ve been a good boy, maybe I’ve been a bad boy, who knows? You know how rowdy I and the boys can get when we’re away. I’ve been waiting so long for this, every lonely night, every waking day. You drive me absolutely wild…” Magnus sneered at you, in the way a certain eighties musician would have done while attempting to rub your legs for payback. Being teased was not something he liked. his knee brushed up your inner thigh to your core, and you couldn’t help but coo with delight.

“And you’re making it really hard for me to not just tear these clothes off you. So are we gonna keep torturing each other or are you gonna give me what we both want?” As you say, you lean forward to fill his hands with your chest, licking your lips. You brush your hand dangerously close to his covered cock, desperately wanting to pull it out. But you know that it wouldn’t be fair to have him completely nude while you were just missing a shirt. All the same, you were the one to take his pants off. So he should do the same, and to that end you stand up and wink at him. “Help me get out of these?” You ask, wiggling your hips in a seductive manner, hopefully enticing him to do what you want.

Magnus’s brown eyes widen and he scrambles to take your pants off, almost tripping over himself. He hooks into your pants and panties, yanking them down with such force that he could have ripped them if he wasn’t careful. Now he could get to the goods he wanted. You were still as beautiful as he remembered, no bumps bruises or marks to be seen on your body.

The fresh air hits your body startling you. You squeal and giggle with the combination of that and Magnus’s hands roaming your body. The pads of his fingertips were calloused and worn and made for an interesting texture against your skin. As his hands neared your groin, with your approval he spread your legs just a tad wider to get a better look at you.

“Such a dirty boy, aren’t you? Looking directly at the place a man shouldn’t be. The only way you’re going to make up for this is to beg; now go on and do it!” What had gotten into you, Magnus thinks, how much has changed since he last saw you? No matter, it was interesting and exciting.

“Please, may I fuck you?” He mumbled, the words falling out of his mouth. “Louder!” You proclaim. “I want to fuck you, please!” One more time, you said. “Let me fuck you!” “Now that’s more like it.” Pulling down his undergarments, his erection now sprung free as he shuddered from the cold air connecting with his cock. Holding it in one hand, the other went to your hip to hold the two points of union steady. “Ready for the big show?” He pants excitedly

Nodding your head vigorously, you were excited to say the least. “What’s that? I need verbal confirmation that you’re ready.” “Yes, I’m ready. Please fuck me, Magnus!” You whined, just looking at his cock inches away from you. Slowly slipping into you, he let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding.

Meanwhile you let out more than just a breath, a high moan bursting from you as you started rocking your hips back against him. “Fuck yes…I missed this feeling so damn much…” Pumping in and out at a steady pace, Magnus could already begin to feel himself enjoy this. Taking his time at first he then starts to speed up a bit, losing his mind at the pleasure he’s feeling. You’re feeling a similar way, however, you decide to play with his hair gently. Alerted back by his senses, he realizes that he could do so much more for you in terms of pleasure. Upon this revelation, he places his mouth upon your nipple and sucks.

Muffled sound pours out of Magnus’s mouth, something along the lines of: “Now the tables have turned and you’re the one lost in pleasure.” And at that moment, you yanked on one of his dark brown curls, eliciting a yelp and a shiver of pleasure to go through Magnus. After what felt like hours, you could feel your climax creep up on you, sweat dripping from both of your bodies. “I’m so close...” you said in a voice hoarse from screams and moans. “Yeah I can’t hold back any longer...” he replied, muscles twitching in anticipation of the coming release. “So where do you want it?”

You didn’t expect to get that question, and your pleasure addled brain can hardly think about a response, but the answer does find its way out. “M-my stomach please…” you manage to stutter out through pants. “You got it…ah! Pulling out, his seed explodes onto your stomach as you find your way to your climax, pulsing and sweating all the way through it. Magnus puts a hand on your thigh to help you stabilize as you come down, breathing heavily himself.

As your combined shuddering began to dissipate, and your breathing slowed back to normal, Magnus smirked at you. “Damn fine way to welcome me back, don’t you think?” You leaned in to kiss him again. “Only the best for you.” The two of you soon retreated under the bedsheets and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

[zosociologist]

“Dating Johnny Thunders would be like...” Headcannon

(a/n: I will either be loved for finally making this, or hated because it took this long; this is also kinda longer than my usual dating headcannons because I was really feeling the first meeting idea; "MWABRIM" you know da vibes😌🍷)

Warnings: Implied smut, but nothing severe.

(a/n: ALSO, I MADE THE FOLLOWING GIF MYSELF BECAUSE APPARENTLY THE CITIZENS OF TUMBLROPOLIS DON'T KNOW WHAT A MATTRESS IS DUE TO THEM SLEEPING ON JOHNNY FOR ALL THESE YEARS)

You and Johnny met each other under funny circumstances

You own a nice little unisex boutique that all the lovers of ✨G L A M✨ and daring fashion are OBSESSED with

Rockers, groupies, and even big artists and musicians alike are in and out of your store daily for eye-catching and jaw dropping pieces

It only made sense to see him come in one evening with a friend of his that didn't look too bad himself

You were ringing up a customer, but not really paying attention to their advances as they were trying their hardest to flirt and fucking FAILING.

You were too busy checking out the dark haired guy staring down a pair of cheetah print platform boots that you'd love nothing more than to see him rock the hell out of😩

Everything was good until you were caught slipping and he saw you eyeing him returning a cute smirk in your direction...

In which you panicked and finally went back to minding the customer who finally gave up with the flirting

By the time you looked back over to the table stand with the platforms, he and his friend were gone, and so were the cheetah print boots (you celebrated in your head over that little detail) they had moved onto looking at blouses

About two customers later, you turned around to place a black sheer glitter and feathered robe that a customer decided they weren't getting in a basket to return to it's aisle, when you hear someone on the other side of the counter clear their throat and greet you-

Slightly startled yet hopeful you turn around a little faster than you would have liked to see the dark haired mystery man and his friend ready to check out-

"I didn't mean to scare you", "No! It's fine I was just putting away some things, you didn't scare me at all. Did you both find what you were looking for?", "Yeah everything turned out fine, this is a nice place you've got here. You don't have to worry, we weren't gonna steal anything, in case that's why you were peaking a little."

You wanted to sink into the floor-

"Oh god no, I didn't think that at all- *immediately thinks of lie to cover up that you were staring because he's hot* -I just saw that you were looking at the cheetah platforms, I'm glad you're getting them. They'll look good on you(:" *you had to take a chance bc you'd never forgive yourself if you didn't*

It payed off and THEN some. He introduced himself as Johnny and his friend's name was David. He told you about their group and invited you to see them the following night

Of fucking course you were gonna go see them, how could you say no?!

The following day you closed the shop early and rounded up some close friends for pregame and then you all headed to the club where "The New York Dolls🍸" would be playing, and to your surprise the person at the door said that you were on "the list" and guided you and your friends to one of those rounded booths close enough and with perfect view of the stage.

When the show started the boys came out and you saw Johnny. With a Gibson Les Paul Special in hand. And wearing the fucking platform boots. The match you lit to light your cigarette almost fell on you while you watched in awe. The whole show was nothing less than an out of body experience that you'd replay in your head for weeks to come.

After the show when the crowd died out, you and your friends stayed back as ordered by the same doorman.

When the Dolls came out from the dressing rooms you all got acquainted and they invited you and your friends to this cool afterparty and you and Johnny were together the entire way to the kickback just vibing off of the concert high✨

The afterparty was a blessing in disguise because in the house where it took place there where so many spots where you two could be away from the crowd and just talk and actually get to know each other

So there you both were, lounging in a poolside conversation pit just watching the stars and getting wrapped up in deep and meaningful conversation (all elevated by some trees you scored from one of your friends to smoke😌)

Okay so maaaybe you both got really into the moment. AND MAAAYBE you ended up having fucking COSMIC high sex when you both ditched the party and headed back to your place. BUT WHAT MATTERED MOST is that you really love this guy and he loves everything about you😩

He admires you and loves your bold persona and lifestyle and you love his drive and will to just exist and perform unapologetically

Johnny is a man that loves to give affirmations, he absolutely loves to praise you and give compliments whenever he can. He was over at your apartment once helping you rearrange your living room, and you were hanging up a painting that you got recently and hung it up crooked on accident....this man said that the crookedness adds 💫character💫 to the room....😗.......chile.......anyways........

You love the fact that he is actually a hopeless romantic so you don't feel cheesy when asking him out on a stroll in the park or to go stargazing, most of the time he beats you to it actually!

You are convinced Johnny is obsesssssed with your apartment. He always jumps at the opportunity of you inviting him over because you make it such a safe space. He writes a lot of his music over in this one corner of your bedroom where you managed to fit a green velvet corner sofa, next to this big window that overlooks other apartments and the city skyline.

You also have a collection of memoirs and other books that you hold dear to you and he very much enjoys laying his head in your lap while you read to him and then discuss thoughts and interpretations about each chapter. You usually follow up these literature hours by blazing some herbs while you play a few choice records. That's a typical Sunday evening for you guys.

The support you two have for each other is OFF THE CHARTS. You show up and show out for EVERY one of his shows and you'd always tell your friends, and then they'd tell their friends and the chain continues.

Johnny is in your boutique Every Other DAY. Either by himself or with one of the boys and it's worse than before now that you've given him a pass to inventory. He buys the good shit before you can even get them onto the shelves and hangers😖

He also finds it hot that you can flip the sign on the dressing room doors to occupied (he likes to see how quiet you can stay when he-....you know😉)

Did I already say that he loves everything about you? BECAUSE HE DOES. You're like a- in his words, "fucking ANGEL that was sent down as a pardon in this cruel world💞"

He absolutely adores your skin and loves to watch you take care of it, and he loves when you wash and take care of your hair as well and even asks to help you out sometimes. His favorite thing ever is helping you put curlers in and massaging your scalp with oil or grease, it feels like you're getting a spa treatment to him and honestly, it kinda makes him feel like he doesn't do anywhere NEAR enough to keep his hair healthy like he should.

He loves your smile and how you laugh at some of the shittiest jokes and even things that people wouldn't understand. Your occasional jists of sarcasm always get him too.

He also likes to hold you. There will sometimes be random points in the day where he won't say a word, just walk up behind you and rest his head on your back. You never question it, you find it wholesome and endearing. And sometimes you do the same thing. He could be in the middle of practicing on his guitar and you'll just lay your head on his shoulder and he'll put everything aside just to give you his attention because he feels you deserve that much, and then some.

You both have a passion for many interests and a passion for each other and that's why you work so well together

Call it cliche if you WANT but you were literally MADE for one another💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞

[it-begins-with-rain]

Animal Crossing Tips & Tricks! (Part 4)

Part 4: Resident Services Gets Sexy, Kicking Out Villagers, and The Able Sisters

Resident Services Upgrade:

Once your 5th villager moves in, Tom Nook will let you know that the tent is closing down. For the entire next day you will be unable to access the ATM and the plaza will feature construction scaffolding.

The day AFTER that though, you’ll finally reach the end of what I call the “Tutorial Phase” of the game.

You’ll have a large brick plaza, and morning announcements will now be the domain of the perky and fun-loving poodle Isabelle!

You also get a host of new things you can do!

Tom Nook:

Tom handles all things housing.

For 5,000 bells, you can customize your home. There are multiple house expansions you buy from Tom Nook as you pay off the previous loan. Each expansion adds something you can customize or adds onto the existing catalogue of options. Mailboxes, doors, roof, and siding are customizable at different stages of expansion.

For 10,000 bells, he will give you a plot marker so you can invite new villagers to your island. They will move in with their SPECIAL CUSTOM HOME, no more defaults.

For 50,000 bells, you can move any villagers home, Nooks Cranny, or the Museum. The next morning they will appear where you place the marker.

For 50,000 bells you can move YOUR home anywhere you want. It’s alright if your current loan isn’t paid off, you can move it all the same.

You can also order the construction of one incline or bridge at a time. You choose from a small catalogue of styles (they will NOT match most of the permanent paths you can later build, just FYI), and place the bridge or incline marker kit where you’d like it to go.

A small orange creature appears with the scaffolding. The bridge or incline will be built the DAY AFTER you pay off the entire project.

You can go to Tom Nook to erase a bridge or incline- EVEN IF IT HASN’T BEEN BUILT YET.

Isabelle

Isabelle handles all things non-construction.

You can now submit one of the designs in your Designer App to replace the current flag (look online for patterns to recreate or wait until you unlock the clothing store and can download other user-created patterns).

You can create a custom tune for the town song. This is the little whistle pattern you hear every time you enter a building or initiate a conversation.

Isabelle also mediates disputes you have with other villagers. What this means is if you talk to her about a villager and say you’re having problems, she will say she will “speak with them”.

All this does is re-sets their personality marker. Nothing more.

Isabelle CANNOT help you get rid of villagers (more on that later).

Island Rating

Tom Nook informs you that he needs to speak with you about the next phase of the plan! He wants you to make the island nicer.

Once your island reaches a 3-star rating (Talk to Isabelle for your current rating and hints on how to improve it), musician KK Slider will visit. Consider this somewhat “Winning the game”. But not really.

Your island rating will probably be around 1-2 stars at this point.

Raise the rating by building fences, planting multiple species of fruit and flower, placing objects around your island (such as making little cafe areas), picking up weeds, not leaving dropped items (such as crafting materials or items in the little leaf icon form), crafting DIY recipes and placing them around the island, and building bridges and inclines.

You also need at least 7 villagers to reach 3 stars.

Up to now vacant plots have been “if you build it, he will come”, meaning they are sold by the next morning.

Now, however, your island rating matters. Plots might sit vacant for multiple days if your island rating is low.

The Campsite for Passive Aggressive Magicians

At this point, Tom Nook will give you a kit to build a campsite.

Once it is built, Isabelle will tell you in the daily announcement if there is a visitor at the campsite.

You can chat with visitors to the campsite and hopefully convince them to move to your island.

They will reject staying, then give you a challenge. You have to guess either the color of a playing card or the suite (heart, diamond, spade, club). 

They’ll also give you this challenge in exchange for clothes or other items.

If they reject moving to your island, just keep asking them. They’ll say they admire how you don’t listen to them or respect their opinion, then give you another attempt to guess the card right.

If you don’t have a plot of land available, just go set one up and they’ll offer to check with Tom again.

The first campsite visitor is special though. Your first villager is one you *have* to invite to live on the island.

They will move in with their special custom house design.

If you’re lucky it’s a cool villager and not a douche (fucking Julian).

Villagers (and how to get rid of the old ones)!

The rule from before holds- if you have an available plot of land (no matter your star rating), you will find random villagers on Mystery Islands. If you have enough miles to buy a bunch of Nook Miles Tickets (or *cough* buy a pack of nook miles on Amazon), you can be picky and shop around as much as you’d like.

Getting rid of the old ones is a game of luck. 

Each day you talk to a villager they get a point, giving them gifts that align with their style or favorite colors also gives points (you can find online guides to help you in this or download the ACNH.Guide phone app).

NOT talking to a villager removes a point.

Ignore a villager- sometimes it takes a couple weeks- until you see them pacing the island deep in thought with a little thought bubble above their head.

Talk to them and they will say they were thinking about exploring other islands. Encourage them to leave.

The next day Isabelle will announce they are leaving. Their house will be “in boxes”, so everything in moving boxes.

There is an opportunity at this point:: If someone else wants that villager, they can visit your island and chat with them while their house is in boxes. They will be able to invite the villager to move to THEIR island instead.

Likewise, if you have a free plot you can visit a villager on a friend’s island who is “in boxes” and invite them to live with you.

There are online forums devoted to letting people grab in-boxes villagers from one another.

The day after a villager is in-boxes their house will return to the scaffolding form and you can hunt down new villagers on Mystery Islands.

The Able Sisters

Each day you will have a different visitor to the island, and some of them will appear in your plaza.

The most important visitor at this point in the game is Mable- a blue hedgehog.

Every time you see her, buy as much of her wares as you can afford, even if you don’t like it.

Once you’ve bought 5,000 bells worth of items, she’ll say she and her sister were thinking of moving to the island and setting up a shop.

She will give you the  building kit for the Able Sisters shop.

When the shop opens, every single day there will be new clothing items available. Don’t rely on the mannequins and displays in the shop- go into the fitting room to try on things in many different colors!

At the back of the shop is a kiosk. Players who design their own clothes upload them to the Nintendo servers. Using the kiosk and typing in those codes (or now there is a keyword search) will give you outfits that others have designed! Save the outfits to your DesignPro phone app (on your in-game phone).

Open your phone app (in game phone) to select the outfit to wear!

At the back of the store is Sable- a red hedgehog.

She is unfriendly when you first visit.

Talk to her every single day and she will slowly- over a week or two- become friendlier.

Once Able is fully unlocked as a friend, she will give you patterns to customize the fabrics of your DIY projects.

Visit her daily still to get more patterns at random.

[killherfreakout]

I'm on your blog most days and I've always wanted to ask but am too shy and you've probably answered this at some point but I was wondering if you didn't mind sharing your top 5 fav films and why? Or maybe some of the best directors and why you love them? You can ignore this if you want. Obviously NO pressure

hiiii ! oh my goodness, first of all: this is so sweet of you to come by and that you look at my blog aw 🥺💓 and of course i can share some of my fav movies! please, don’t hesitate to ask me, i could go on and onnnn about them!!! :D

i post (rb) way more movies on my film blog: @screenwrite​ if you aren’t following already too :)) + i don’t think i’ve ever posted my letterboxd on here but you can follow me if you’d like to see my reviews !

as for my favorites: they always change but i have a tag for some that i especially love that i’ll link here ! i made a different top 5 in this ask a while ago, but i have a full new answer under the cut hehe ✨ (it’s...long ajfakdks)

fav films:

so some of my all-time fav classics are Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Dead Poets Society — i just love and relate to the characters of Cameron Frye and Neil Perry (respectively) so much. and they really feel like teen movies that just make sense, you know? i just could watch these two films over and over and never get sick of them 💓

Miss Stevens — this movie.....wow. yes, it has Timothée Chalamet so ofc i love it, but honestly the entire movie is just subtly brilliant. the writing, the performances, the moments of magic and the raw, real characters and stories they tell. absolutely touching and incredible, if you are to watch anything from this list i would say this one 🥺

these two probably come as no surprise: Lady Bird and Frances Ha — they were both written by Greta Gerwig and in my opinion are some of the greatest screenplays ahhh i’ve read the one for LB and some of her adaption of Little Women, and as a(n aspiring) screenwriter myself, her way with words in the medium is just sublime. and the two films are about not really knowing how you fit into the world, but knowing exactly who you are and not changing that for anything. i can quote both of these from start to finish too ajcjfksk

also not surprising are prob Rise of The Guardians and Coraline. my fav animated films, they are just so much fun and make me Feel something i can’t describe, are beautifully made, and keep me in a dreamy state after watching ✨

one of my recent favs!!! is Teen Spirit (2018) dir. Max Minghella — it is just one of those movies that could have been a basic and boring take on the story of an upcoming musician, but it felt so fresh and new, and the music and cinematography was AMAZING i absolutely love it, it’s just my perfect kind of movie!! haha

fav directors:

some badass wonderful talented amazing female directors: Augustine Frizzell, Crystal Moselle, Ava DuVernay, Julia Hart, Lulu Wang, Desiree Akhavan !!!! i know i’m missing so many more ahh but!

Olivier Assayas has just this...calming but haunting vibe to his films? it’s hard to describe, but it just pulls you in so easily (Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper)

Yorgos Lanthimos. his films are just...mind blowing. eerie and out there, but something so familiar and close at the center. absolutely must see The Lobster and The Favourite !

David Fincher does a lot of dramas/mysteries and has a unique touch to all his films that are probably too dark too see anything in them anvjdks (The Social Network, Gone Girl, Fight Club, etc.)

Drake Doremus is (i think i’ve said this before lol) the king of heartbreak films. he’s not afraid to show the ugly side of relationships and how love always prevails in the end. i would recommend Like Crazy and Equals !

Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Blade Runner 2049) + Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive, The Neon Demon) have similar styles that i really dig. they are both quite visually striking and have lots of suspense with great pay off. Refn has more of a colorful eye and it’s refreshing and super cool !!

i feel like a bit of a fake cinephile when i say i haven’t seen many Agnès Varda, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Claire Denis films, but i think they are amazing filmmakers and really admire their craft and can’t wait to dive in to more of their films !

(if you read this far: hi thank you for indulging me, if you ever want to talk about these or want to share your favorites pls feel free i would LOVE that!!! 🥺💕)

[kittykatrattie]

Random Headcanon Dump

George

He goes thru an apocalypse story phase when he's a teenager

Also ends up getting into some poetry and script writing

Joins the drama club in high school

Baby George goes as a clown for Halloween one year bc of his afro. His mom definitely got hair spray paint

George's family has taco Tuesdays, which means Harold also has taco tuesdays

He never knew Harold developed separation anxiety until they were in middle school and it had chilled a lot. He just knew his best friend was a little clingy and got really scared if he was missing, so he did everything in his power to make sure Harold felt safe and knew that he was safe too

ADHD inattentive and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder)

Harold

He has a big fascination with everything about the ocean. One of those kids who went thru a mermaid phase

Both him and George love rats and end up getting/sharing some as pets

Harold loves trying out different art mediums, but he always goes back to pencil and paper for the comics

Still has general anxiety and a little bit of separation anxiety. He gets scared if he doesn't know where George is

ADHD hyperactive. His RSD is also a lot worse than George's

Loves physical contact and tends to hold onto George when he gets nervous/anxious. It reminds him that he's ok and everything's gonna be fine because George is here

Harold sometimes has the most abysmal fashion sense. Glitter pants, holographic skirt and rainbow t shirt, lots of sequins and sparkles

George's dad pretty much instantly accepted the role of Harold's father figure. Everyone says Cap is Harold's dad but Moses is right there?? As if this man DOESN'T see Harold as his second son???

Melvin

A combination of being trans and autistic leads to Melvin often copying George and Harold to try and look more masculine

He's cross-eyed

Yes, even as a kid he's secretly a country music fan. He likes John Denver

His MSG allergy effects him 3 different ways: he either gets a rash (Dav's word) he gets a stomachache (season 1 finale cupcake shop) or he throws up (Hack-o-Ween). Throwing up is a lot less common/often than a rash or stomachache

His parents are divorced and that's why they were fighting so much during the parent day episode and why his mom was flirting w a fart

Actually becomes really good friends with Erica once she comes out to him, he likes to build and theorize with her. She really is smart and, crush or not, he admires that about her

He acts really confident but he's actually very anxious about talking to people. He doesn't know what to do and when he really wants to make friends he's terrified he'll mess up

Gooch

He's got dyscalculia babey!!

They become a therapist when they grow up. Very good at emotions

When he dressed like a bee in the Halloween special? That was his first Halloween in America! That's why he didn't know not to bother Krupp for candy

As an adult, they get a lot of people who think they're like 11. They're 4'9

His favorite color is pink

They don't really like when Meaner does boys vs girls games in gym class

He's the middle child. He has an older brother and a younger sister

They're non-dysphoric trans masc

Him and Erica are best friends and often have sleepovers together

Billy and Lisa

Billy tends to be the one who cooks between him and Harold. His grandfather sends him traditional Japanese recipes and he likes to try them out

They both have been friends since childhood and used to perform musicals together

Lisa has her dad and a twin brother named Frank, and Billy is an only child with two moms

Lisa writes songs for George sometimes :)

Harold totally watched the soap opera Billy was on, low-key crushed on his character, and only barely recognized Billy as "You look like this character I used to have a crush on"

Billy and Lisa work together. Lisa is part of the musicians that do the music for the theater Billy does plays at

Billy is very quiet and shy off-stage, but on-stage he's loud and confident and the first time Harold sees this he's in shock

Billy has anxiety and autism and that's part of why he joined an improv comedy class

Extra

Jessica would own a rose gold iPhone

Bo has a hard time understanding how hard he's doing something. He always slams the door a little too hard or stomps without meaning to. It's a combination of autism and being Lorge

This one is sad but Bo is an orphan :(

Erica actually has undiagnosed anxiety and feels pressured to be perfect and cool

Jessica also feels pressured to be perfect and better than everyone else. Think "pagent parents"

Other Sophie is nonverbal and knows ASL. Sophie One can talk (but isn't allowed) and knows Spanish and English

Erica is the lesbian mom of the cast

[today-only-happens-once]

the only exception

Title: the only exception

Word Count: 4,549

Summary: College!AU, Musician!AU. Patton shows up to a music festival that Virgil—along with his twin brother, Roman—is headlining, hoping to surprise him. Turns out, it’s Virgil that surprises him first. Romantic Moxiety, brief background Logince. Song-fic.

Warnings: lots of fluff and softness and sappiness, mutual pining elements, declarations of love, description of crowds, cursing, discussion of anxiety, mention of anxiety attacks, kissing, Virgil “writes” a song that’s actually written irl by Paramore but ssshhh Paramore doesn’t exist in this AU, please let me know if I forgot anything.

A/N: Someone on tumblr once made a textpost that said “The Only Exception” was a Moxiety song, and weeks later I listened to it and realized they were right. And then I had this image in my head that wouldn’t go away for like. Months. And then eventually I decided to write this. It’s basically a song-fic. Crazy self-indulgent, heh. Also, I’ve never written Romantic Moxiety before, nor have I written a Patton-POV focused fic. So writing this was a whole boatload of new. I hope it turned out okay! Edited by yours truly, so all mistakes are mine.

You can listen to the song Virgil sings at the end here! 

Tags: @creativenostalgiastuff, @helloisthisusernametaken, @ren-allen, @quoth-the-sparrow, @princelogical, @random-pianist, @ravenclawicecream, @erlenmeyertrash, @milomeepit, @at-least-seven-pretty-potatoes, @rileyfirstname, @pinkeasteregg, @sassy-in-glasses, @vigilantvirgil, @generalfandomfabulousness, @lacrimosathedark, @thepoolofthedead, @monikastec, @heir-of-the-founders, @yourworstnightmare999, @artistictaurean, @kanejandkruge, @cdragontogacotar, @damienswifeolicitydallysgirl, @angst-patton, @savingshae, @noneed4thistbh, @awesomelissawho, @unikornavenger, @bopthesnoz, @spiralofsilencetheory, @finger-gunsss, @crownswriter123, @swlotakulady34, @gaylotusthatexists, @analogical-mess, @dolphidragon, @flix-net, @narniasfinestavengingsociopath, @friedlieb-ferdinand-runge, @bibbidy-bobbity-booyah, @procrastinations-my-middle-name, and also @randomslasher because moxiety! ^u^

…

Present. March. Junior Year.

Patton shoulders his way through the crowd as rock music blares loudly over the speakers. The late March air is cool, and the breeze tugs at the COLLEGE-PALOOZA MUSIC FEST banner hanging from the amphitheater’s stage. A few people he recognizes from his classes wave to him as they nod their head to the music. Patton slows as he finds a small gap in the crowd, not particularly keen on getting into the tightly packed mosh pit that had formed right in front of the stage.

The sun is beginning to set, casting the sky in a light purple hue. Perhaps ironically, it reminds Patton of the guy he’s actually here to see perform. Patton glances at the stage, but there’s no sign of him. He checks his phone for the time. The group was supposed to be on now, but perhaps he’d missed them already.

He looks at the guy beside him—leather jacket and sunglasses, holding a Starbucks cup—and asks over the music, “Which group is this?”

The guy takes a long swallow and then jerks his head towards the stage. “Planets Align. They had trouble getting the sound system working, so they’re running behind.”

Patton nods his understanding, smiles, and thanks him. Planets Align was scheduled to go on right before them, if the pamphlet he’d found on Virgil’s desk was anything to go by. He’d felt terrible at the time when he realized that the band Virgil had formed with his twin brother, Roman, would be headlining a music festival the same day Patton had already promised to help with a group project.

But the other members of his group canceled the meeting earlier today and rescheduled it for next week. So Patton really didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t come support Virgil. And if he maybe didn’t tell Virge in the hopes of being able to surprise him… well.

Besides, he had a feeling Virgil could use a nice surprise. He’d seemed really nervous about the festival when Patton was talking to him about it when he found the pamphlet. Virgil often seemed nervous, but… more nervous than even Virgil’s normal.

Patton smiles a bit to himself when he remembers when they first met.

…

September. Sophomore year.

“For the purposes of this research presentation, I will allow you to choose partners. We will need one group of three, but that certainly seems manageable.”

Patton glances around the stuffy lecture hall. It was only the third time the class had met, so Patton hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to many of his classmates yet. On top of that, it was a pretty big class. Patton had a feeling that he wouldn’t know everybody even by the end of the year. The professor waves her hand to indicate that they should select a partner and begin discussing the project.

Chatter rose up—most people leaning over towards people they were sitting next to, a few calling to friends across the room—and there was shuffling movement and the scraping of chairs as students milled about to find a research partner. Then Patton caught sight of a black and purple hoodie in the back row.

What was his name? Patton couldn’t remember, despite the ice breaker during their first class. He does remember the snort the guy had released when Patton had made a pun about his name when introducing himself. He also remembers the way he’d immediately ducked his head a second later when Patton grinned at him.

Patton gathers his things and squeezes through his classmates. “Hey,” he says. The guy in the hoodie looks up, seeming startled. “Wanna be partners?”

The guy blinks at him, then shifts in his seat and motions to the empty chair on the other side of his desk. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

“I’m Patton, by the way.”

“Virgil. What, uh, what are you studying?”

Patton pulls his laptop out of his bag. “Oh! I’m an early education major. What about you?” As he asks, Patton casts a quick glance at the laptop in front of Virgil and notices the stickers on it: SANDERS in messy black scrawl, a thundercloud with a bolt of lightning, a small circle with a paint-smear style gay pride flag, and a few music notes.

“Graphic design with a minor in music,” he replies. Patton notices him glancing at the buttons on Patton’s backpack that he threw in the empty chair beside him—some about cats, some about dogs, a heart with glasses that he thought was cute, and a pride pin from last year’s Pride week.

“That’s pretty cool. You play music?”

Virgil lifts a shoulder. “With my brother, mostly.”

“Wow. That’s… really awesome,” Patton says, sincerely impressed. He’d always loved music, but really only dabbled in the ukulele. He’d always thought musicians were cool: having skills like that took a lot of work, and a lot of dedication. That seemed pretty admirable to Patton.

Virgil smirks. “If you say so.”

“I do. I mean it.” For a fleeting moment, Virgil looks taken aback by the insistence in Patton’s voice. “What do you play?”

…

Present.

“Roman is totally the hot one,” Patton hears a girl behind him say to her friends.

“Elliot thinks he has a crush on Logan Berry, you know.”

“He’s gay?” The girl sounds surprised, but not hostile.

“Ace, I think. Panromantic, if the stickers on his laptop are anything to go by.” Patton recognizes that voice as one of the girls in the LGBTQ+ club that Patton was secretary for.

“You have class with him?”

“We had English 100 together freshman year. Elliot’s in class with him and Logan, though, and says they want to gag literally any time the two so much as talk to each other.”

Patton grins to himself. Subtlety when he had a crush had never really been Roman’s strong suit. That was another place where Virgil was markedly different from his twin brother. Both Roman and Virgil had ways of keeping their distance from others, but where Roman put up a front of fearlessness and confidence and friendliness… Virgil seemed more likely to withdraw into himself.

Patton had learned that, and many other things about Virgil, slowly as meetings for the research project gradually developed into hanging out regularly and casually. Patton picked up on things about Virgil relatively quickly. He gets quiet and irritable when he’s actually anxious about something. He tends to catastrophize, especially when it comes to academics. He hasn’t yet learned how to accept compliments—something Patton didn’t let deter him from giving them. He hopes that the more he’s able to expose Virgil to them, the easier it will eventually get for him to accept them.

Patton learned that Virgil is fiercely protective, too. The fastest way for Virgil to overcome his anxiety about a situation is usually when it’s related to someone he cares about. He still remembers the fire that had alighted in his eyes when someone had started harassing Roman when he, Patton, Roman, and Logan had been heading back from a party on a Friday night a couple of months ago. Logan had been the one to diffuse that particular situation, but Patton hadn’t missed the way Virgil hovered closer to his brother and looked ready to fight when he’d seen the shaken look in Roman’s eyes.

But then there were the softer moments from Virgil, too. The fleeting moments when Patton saw something gentle and relaxed from him that a secret part of Patton liked to believe were just for him. They were a sign of trust from Virgil, and Patton had always cherished that trust precisely because it was so rare.

   …

April. Sophomore year.

“What time is it?” Virgil asks with a yawn. He’s sitting on the floor of his dorm, his guitar in his hands. His back is leaned up against the drawers of his desk. Patton sits on the floor across from him with his back against the cinderblock wall and his legs stretched out in front of him.

Patton digs his phone out of his pocket and checks. “Almost 1 in the morning.”

Virgil nods and strums a few chords softly. “You’re welcome to stick around, Patton, but… y’know. It’s chill if you’d rather go home.”

Patton shakes his head “I like it here,” he says. For reasons he is still figuring out, there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

Patton watches him; he watches the way Virgil’s bangs fall in a soft sweep across his face, the dark eyeshadow smudged under his eyes, the slight parting of his lips as he mouths unheard lyrics. He always loves watching Virgil play guitar. There’s something about watching him hold the light brown acoustic instrument—like it steadies him, like it’s a shield that protects him—that Patton can’t help but love. Virgil seems to… breathe easier when he has a guitar in his hands.

“Virgil? Can I ask you something?” Patton says suddenly.

Virgil glances quickly at him, then back down at the guitar in his hands. Avoiding his eyes. “Yeah. Sure.” His voice sounds oddly tight to Patton.

“Why do you play music?”

The question seems to catch him off guard. Virgil stops short for a moment, glancing back up at Patton. His hands still against the instrument, his eyes flit away in thought.

Then—to Patton’s surprise—he sets the guitar aside.

“It… gives me a space where I can… connect, I guess?” He rubs the back of his head, glancing at Patton as if unsure whether or not his own words made sense.

“Connect?”

“Well,” Virgil pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his chin on top of them, “Yeah. I’ve never been good at… at the whole…” He waves a hand and sighs. “At the whole ‘words’ thing that’s required for making friends or helping someone or… whatever. I’m always afraid I’m gonna say the wrong thing, or make them feel awkward, or… shit, I don’t know. But music is different. It…” He huffs a frustrated sigh as the words escape him. Then he tosses Patton a wry smile. “See what I mean? Words aren’t really my thing. Music is different, though.”

Patton nods. He glances around at the MCR and Dear Evan Hansen poster on walls of Virgil’s side of the room. “I think I get it. Music lets you speak from where you are emotionally at a given moment, and people can come to you—or your music—to find that connection and community. It… lets you express yourself, and by doing that, lets you connect to other people.”

When Patton looks back at Virgil, he’s looking at him with something like disbelief. But there’s a softness and light in his eyes that makes Patton’s stomach flutter. “Yeah,” Virgil says eventually. “Exactly.” Patton meets his gaze with a small smile, even as he feels suddenly like Virgil can see all the parts of himself that he wants to hide.

The corner of Virgil’s mouth quirks slightly and he digs a small purple leather notepad out of his back pocket. He grabs a pen from the top of his desk and scribbles something down.

“Whatcha writing?” Patton asks curiously.

Virgil folds it and slips it back into his pocket. “Nothing, Pat.” He still has that soft kind of smile and look in his eyes even as he grabs his guitar and pulls it back into his lap.

…

Present.

“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Planets Align!” The emcee shouts into the mic as he runs on stage and the band waves as they exit to the cheers of the crowd. Patton applauds them and briefly considers moving closer to the stage before deciding against it. He’d never done well with tight crowds.

The sun has dipped below the horizon now, the sky darkening quickly. The lights from the stage bleed out onto the grass clearing, providing some lighting of the crowd itself as well. The air is a bit colder now, but Patton doesn’t mind. Besides, all the people around him moving and dancing have helped keep it from getting too cold anyway.

“Next up, the ones you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s hear it for… SANDERS!”

Patton lets out a cheer as the crowd screams. He sees Virgil’s twin brother—though you’d never know it from how differently they do make up and their hair—run on stage with his arms up to encourage the crowd’s response. The cheers get louder, and Roman grins and strikes a hero pose. He’s energized. Patton smiles at his evident excitement.

Virgil follows behind him, an electric guitar strapped to his back. Even from his distance from the stage, Patton can see him shaking his head at his brother’s antics. He gives a small, appreciative wave to the crowd. His eyes scan it, and a part of Patton can’t help but wonder if he’s looking for him someone.

Reasoning, though, reminds him that Virgil said he always tries to get a feel for the size of a crowd when he goes out on stage at a venue for the first time. It had started as a nervous thing—how many people might see me fail?—but as Virgil’s confidence in performing grew, it had mostly just become a habit.

“What is UP, everybody?” Roman says into the mic. He’s wearing a bright red leather jacket with a white shirt underneath, shiny gold skinny jeans, and red high top converse. “We’re so glad you could come out tonight. How about this awesome weather, yeah?”

More cheers. Patton watches as Virgil pulls the guitar from around his back with a smile. He’s in his familiar hoodie, purple shirt, black ripped skinny jeans, and his black sneakers with purple laces. At first glance, he doesn’t seem too nervous—Patton had long ago gotten in the habit of glancing at him to check if he’s okay when he knows Virgil might be getting anxious—but it’s hard to tell from this distance.

“My brother, Virgil, and I thought we’d kick things off with an original song. How’s that sound, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals?”  There’s louder cheering, and the two of them waste no time starting a song that Patton remembers from previous concerts of theirs he’d attended.

…

November. Junior Year.

Patton’s phone dings while he’s eating lunch in the student union and flipping through an education textbook to study for his quiz tomorrow on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Exams are quickly approaching, and Patton had always struggled to remember theorists’ names for some reason.

It’s a text from Roman. Is V with you?

Patton frowns and types back quickly. No. It’s Tuesday. Then he sends a second text. Why?

The student union is bustling with students breezing through to grab lunch before rushing off to the library or their class. Groups are clustered around tables to hash out the details of final projects as their deadlines approach in the next week or two. Exhausted English majors slump over their stale coffee cups and computers as they edit their final paper for the eighth time. Engineering students running on caffeine and spite chug another energy drink before hurrying off to the lab building. A couple others that Patton can see are watching Netflix in a desperate attempt to give themselves a break before plunging back into the grind of end-of-the-semester assignments.

Roman’s reply comes almost immediately. He sent me a single letter text which usually means he’s freaking out but idek where he is

Patton stands up and forgets his half-eaten sandwich, dropping it in the compost bin as he slings his backpack over his shoulder and hurries out of the building. Have you tried calling him?  He texts quickly.

R: Yeah. No response… just lemme know if you see him or if he texts you or something ok

Patton rolls his eyes. As if he’s just going to go about his day and not try to help. Especially if V might be freaking out. We’ll find him, Roman. You check the science center and I’ll check the music floor of Stokes Hall.

R: ok.

R: Thanks

Patton turns his ringer on at full volume and braces against the cold air as he hurries to the building beside the Student Union. The November air is biting. Students bustle with their noses tucked into their scarves and red fingers curled around coffee cups. There was no snow on the ground, but the grass still crunches under Patton’s shoes as he hurries across the quad towards Stokes Hall. His light blue beanie is pulled low over his light brown hair.

He’s wishing he had a scarf to hide his nose in—instead opting to try to tuck it into the sleeves of the sweatshirt tied around his shoulders—when he walks straight into someone.

“Shit! I’m so sorry—”

“Virgil?” Patton asks, immediately recognizing the voice. He looks up, and Virgil seems frozen for a moment. It only takes Patton a second to realize that his eyes are red and sunken slightly. His usual sweep of hair is a disheveled mess under the hood of his sweatshirt that engulfs his frame.

If Patton’s being honest, he looks… rough. Concern twists in Patton’s chest.

“I’m so sorry, Patton. I’m an idiot, I just wasn’t watching where—”

“Hey, it’s all good, Virge,” Patton says, quickly but sincerely. He places his hands on Virgil’s shoulder to anchor him. “Breathe.”

Virgil laughs but it’s humorless and shrugs out from under his grip. Patton frowns. “I’m fine. I know I look like a mess, but really. It’s fine now. I was just. Um. Coming outside for some air.”

Patton considers the deflection and decides to meet Virgil half-way. “I could use some too.”

“You don’t have to do that—”

“Honest, V. The cold air is kind of nice.” Patton slips his phone out of his pocket and sends a quick text to Roman. Got him. He offers a small, reassuring smile to Virgil.“ You wanna take a seat?”

Virgil meets his gaze, then glances away. He seems to think about it for a moment, then relents with a slight sag to his shoulders. “Sure. Fine.”

Patton wanders over to a bench across the pathway and takes a seat. He looks around as students rush quickly towards their classes, smiling brightly as a service dog trots dutifully beside his owner and pushes the button to open the door as the student hurries inside. He intentionally keeps his gaze from lingering on Virgil, even as he hesitates before sitting beside him.

Virgil waits until most of the students have rushed off before breaking the silence between them. “You aren’t going to ask?”

Patton glances over at him. “I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, and you seemed reluctant to talk about it…. Should I ask?”

“No. Yes?” Virgil groans, zipping up his hoodie against the chilly air. “It wasn’t anything like. That bad. Y’know? I just get… anxiety attacks sometimes, and sometimes they get…” He trails off. Patton senses more than sees the way Virgil glances quickly at him. “Anyway. I’m fine now.”

Patton isn’t sure what to say. He’d known for a long time now that Virgil struggled with anxiety. That Virgil had anxiety attacks doesn’t exactly surprise him, and it definitely isn’t off-putting or anything of the sort. But Patton hates the way Virgil keeps trying to deflect… something. Judgement. Concern. Patton suddenly and fiercely wishes Virgil would just let someone care about him. Let someone love him.

Patton thinks maybe he already does.

“Virgil….” Patton says softly, looking at his hands folded between his knees, “It’s okay. You know that, right? You can talk to me about it. And I’m not gonna judge you or think you’re weird or that there’s anything wrong with you.”

“I… I’m fine.”

Patton lifts a shoulder. “Okay. But… it’s okay if you aren’t, too. And either way… you’re definitely not alone. You know? You know Roman’s there for you, but… but I am too. I care about you.”

In his peripheral, he sees Virgil look at him. “Patton—”

“There you guys are!” Roman exclaims as he jogs up to the two of them. Patton smiles at Virgil—who looks, for all the world, like the ground has shifted underneath him.

Patton wants to ask him why. He never does.

…

Present.

SANDERS has played through five songs, which means they’re nearing the end of their set. Patton is beaming. Virgil and Roman play off each other so well, and their music seems to be a blend of both of them in a way. They balance each other on stage. They’re fun to watch. Patton can’t help but think, though he may be biased, that if they really wanted to… they could make a career out of it.

But then they do something that surprises Patton, and apparently everyone else too from the way the crowd starts to murmur.

Virgil trades out his electric guitar for his light brown acoustic one. Roman grabs a wooden stool from one of the wings and sets it in the middle of the stage. Virgil adjusts the strap of the guitar around his shoulders, nodding his thanks to Roman.

“So I hope you all don’t mind if we close out with something a little different than our usual pace,” Virgil is saying into the wireless mic attached to him. “But I lost a bet against Roman, and that means I gotta do this.”

“If I lost I was gonna have to wear jorts for this concert. You all should be thanking me,” Roman quips back through his own mic. There’s a chuckle from Virgil as well as the crowd.

“Yeah, well. This is a song I wrote over the course of… probably about a year. It’s about someone very… important to me. He couldn’t be here tonight, but… he’s pretty great. Anyway, it’s a little different, so uh.” Even under the stage lights, Patton thinks he can see Virgil flushing slightly. “I hope you all like it.”

Virgil starts strumming and all Patton can do is watch him, transfixed by the sound of an acoustic guitar and the sight of Virgil under a spotlight on stage. It’s a much softer song already than any other song in their entire set. Virgil ducks his head slightly, his black sneaker tapping out the ¾ meter. And then Virgil starts to sing.

“When I was younger I saw my daddy cry, and curse at the wind.

He broke his own heart and I watched as he tried to reassemble it.

And my momma swore that she would never let herself forget.

And that was the day that I promised I’d never sing of love if it does not exist.

But darlin’ you are the only exception. You are the only exception…”

As Virgil sings, Patton can’t help but feel rooted to the spot. Virgil sitting and playing his acoustic guitar reminds Patton suddenly of that moment again back in Virgil’s dorm room. That moment of honesty and openness from him that always felt so rare. Patton feels like he’s experiencing that again, despite the crowd and the spotlights. Because this is not performance-Virgil, this is just…. Virgil. At his most honest. At his mot exposed. And it’s breathtaking.

Patton doesn’t even fully realize that he’s moving closer to the stage until he almost trips over a girl that’s swaying and holding her phone with a flashlight up in the air.

Virgil breaks into the second verse, and Patton feels his stomach fluttering all over again at the sound of his voice.

“Well maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul that love never lasts.

And we’ve got to find other ways to make it alone or keep a straight face.

And I’ve always lived like this. Keeping a comfortable distance.

And up until now I had sworn to myself that I’m content with loneliness,

‘Cuz none of it was ever worth the risk.

Well you are the only exception. You are the only exception…”

And a part of Patton—a part he’s afraid to admit to—suddenly starts to grow insistent with the realization that he might be really, truly, unequivocally in love with the person singing on the stage in this moment. The one with his bangs falling into eyes that had always looked to Patton to be a little bit afraid and a lot brave.

This song, this moment, is no exception to that. Music, for Virgil, had always started from some place deeply personal. It is what allows him to connect to others, after all. And Patton doesn’t know if the song is about him, but he wants it to be. Because that deeply personal space that Virgil is singing from resonates with Patton in a way that leaves only one thought repeating in his head. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Almost as if he hears the thought itself, Virgil looks up and starts scanning the crowd again as he reaches the bridge.

“I’ve got a tight grip on reality  

But I can’t let go of what’s in front of me here.” He’s scanning, scanning, scanning…

“I know you’re leaving in the morning. When you wake up,

Leave me with some kind of proof it’s not a dream. Oh…”

And then his eyes settle squarely on Patton, and Patton swears he hears the very faint catch of Virgil’s breath through the mic.

Patton gives him a small, faint smile. There’s a brief moment where uncertainty flickers through Virgil’s dark eyes, and then something sets firmly in them. As if he’s made some kind of split-second decision. Virgil stands up from the stool and starts making his way towards the stage stairs, continuing to play and sing as he does so.

“You are the only exception. You are the only exception….”

Patton loses sight of him as he steps down to ground level, the crowd blocking his view. But Virgil keeps singing that line over and over, you are the only exception, as if imploring Patton to hear it and understand it and know it is meant for him. As if perhaps Virgil has to repeat it himself to fully believe in its truth, but each time he sings it, Patton can hear the conviction growing. Far ahead of him, Patton can see people shifting around in the mosh pit in front of him.

Patton doesn’t move. He doesn’t think he knows how to.

And then through the crowd of people in front of him steps Virgil, still playing. Still singing. And Patton can’t help but notice his eyes look wide and scared and vulnerable—but unwavering—as he sings the final line.

“But I’m on my way to believing…”

He plays the final chord and stands there, looking up at Patton. He’s so close. The guitar and a few inches is all that separates them. Patton swallows past the lump in his throat and brings a hand up to cup Virgil’s jaw before leaning his forehead against Virgil’s and whispering.

“Can I kiss you?”

His eyes are closed, so he doesn’t see Virgil’s relieved, crooked grin. But he feels it when Virgil presses his lips to his own.

[flyinghetfield]

Chapter 11/Part 2 Violin Girl If you haven’t read the first part of violin girl. Here is the start [x] Enjoy x. *This is based 6 Months later after the San Fran story.* also the name of this might change as its a second part now, haven’t made my mind up about that yet.

---------------------------------------------- The applause seemed thunderous as you and the orchestra bowed, the concert finally coming to an end. The past few months had seemed like a blessed whirlwind as you had been touring around Europe playing with some of the most best classical musicians in the world. Tonight? Amsterdam. The orchestra waits until the maestro walks off the stage, the house lights finally coming up as everyone starts to file out of the room. Walking off the stage you nod politely to some of the patrons standing around, their formal suits and evening dresses making you slightly jealous as they seemed to mold in with all the beauty around them. Finding your way back to the dressing rooms, you walk over to your bag and start to strip off the now sweaty black clothes you had worn on stage. “Charlotte, seriously has to get her shit together on sheet 20. She keeps coming in a second late and if stuffs John up every time.” You duck down to your little compartment, grabbing out your jeans and a nice shirt while tucking away your violin in your bag “Y/N what do you think?” “Hmm?” Glancing up, you shake your head as you pull your fresh shirt over your head. “Charlotte? She’s got her heart in the right place, just needs a little practice is all.” Dawn was always very strict on how everyone performed each night having been in this symphony for over 8 years. Don’t know why she want’s my opinion though.  “The only thing she’s practicing on every night is the maestros blowpipe.” Snickers erupt in the room and you resist the temptation to roll your eyes at dawn, settling on a tight smile as you sit down to put your shoes on.  as a fierce red head walks in the room, her hands on her hips, clearly peeved at over hearing what was just said. “Dawn, seriously, you were young once.. Charlotte is just having fun.”  Dawn makes a tch sound, before turning back to her clothes as Ruby smiles over in your direction. Ruby, was also a violinist and had been a world of help to you while traveling, taking you to all the cool little places in each town, as well as helping your drunk ass get back to the hotel each night. “Y/N, are you ready? Let’s go and enjoy the night while we’re still young.” Smiling, you grab your bag and follow Ruby out of the room. Ruby claimed that she had been touring since she was 16 and had been enjoying the spotlight for almost 10 years, the perks of being a wonder child. As the two of you walk in the corridors, people stop to congratulate the two of you on a wonderful performance. Well.. mostly Ruby. The two of you head out of the building and you breath a deep breath of relief at the cool night and take in the scenery around you as Ruby lights up a cigarette. “So my little protégé” Ruby blows a gust of smoke in your direction and you cough. “Where shall we go tonight?” “Do I actually have an opinion on where to go or have you already made plans like last time?” “I like to make you think you have some sort of opinion.” Laughing, she grins as she reaches down and grabs your hand, tugging you into the streets of Amsterdam. You still have to mentally slap yourself as you take where you currently are. It had been a fluke that you had been invited on the tour, since the Violinist who was meant to be in your spot had come down with some sort of illness and Kamen of all people had thrown your name in the hat, when people had asked about a replacement. A few weeks after, one soppy cry fest from Eric. “Bring home an exotic boyfriend!” and you were in business class, flying off to Italy of all places. It had been there on that flight that you so happen to sit next to the fiery red head who was now inseparable from you. “Here Y/N, wait here. I’m going to go grab us a drink. Don’t wander off.” You watch as Ruby walks off and you lean against the railing by the canal, admiring the couples as they lounge casually in their boats. Sighing as one of them kisses their lover, your mind drifts off back to San Francisco and you feel a pang on home sickness settle over you. Eric would love ruby, he would love being here, especially the red light district.. Looking over you notice a bridge and see two buskers standing there, playing acoustic guitars, serenading people as they walked past. I wonder... what’s he up to? You shake your head violently at the thought. It had been months since you thought of him, so why did he have to appear now? “I always have that reaction when looking over the canal.” Startled slightly, you glance over to your left to see a guy leaning against the railing as well. Well hello...This one is cute. Blonde hair.. tied back in a bun, Blue eyes, Boyish smile... I swear if he’s name starts with a J... “You stare at canals often?” “Only when I have to talk to a stunning girl.” You can’t help the sudden snort that comes out of the back of your throat and shake your head. “Ok.. ok yes that was corny but I had to try.” He extends his hand out. “I’m Kris.” Oh thank god. You look down at his hand and back up at his face. “Come on, don’t leave me hanging here.” Rolling your eyes, you shake his hand. “Y/N.” “Ah what a beautiful name to add to the cute face.” Sighing you stand up straight and pull a really? face at him. He throws his hands up and smiles. “I can’t stop, i apologize.” Oh why do you have to be cute? “Clearly this isn’t your first time here, if you have a habit of picking up girls along the canal” His eyebrows shoot up at the sentence and he smiles slightly. “How do you know i’m Foreign? Maybe I live here.” That makes you laugh out loud and you shake your head. “I can spot a danish accent a mile away.” As you nod in the direction of some of the natives walking around, talking. “You? I’m going to say good old U-S of A.” He stands there for a moment, staring at you before smiling. “New York.” You grin back, as he finally gives in. “What about you?” “San Fran.” “Ah, I've never been to San Francisco. Is it really as hilly as the pictures show?” “If you want a good cardio work out, it would be the place for it.” “I keep telling her to move from there.” Ruby finally reappears, scaring you slightly and you smile as she hands you a smoothie, which you happily start to suck away on. “Ruby we have only known each other for a few months, I’m not going anywhere and also you live in London, so you have no input in this.” She laughs and casually wraps a arm around your waist. A protective thing to ward of any unexpected attention when traveling around. This wasn’t the first time the two of you had received attention from some of the locals and had both agreed on some rules to help get each other out of trouble when needed. Girl code so to speak. “I’m Kris.” He extends his hand out to ruby, who shakes it firmly. “I know.” You almost choke on your drink as you whip your head towards her. “You guys have met?” “No but I have seen him before. This guy is quite a shark in the music industry.” Your eyebrows fly up as you look back over at Kris, who now has a smug smirk on his lips. “I just know how to do business, that’s all.” He looks back over towards you and winks, making you divert your eyes back over to the canal as your face starts to heat up. “So is it business or pleasure?” Now you look over at Kris, who is smiling at Ruby’s question. “Business.. I’m here closing out a deal before flying back home. Knowing.. I’m always down for a little bit of pleasure.” You swear you could see his eyes dart over to you and you lean against ruby at bit more, which doesn’t go unnoticed by her. “Well.. I was just about to take my protégé here down to the red light district, since she’s never seen it before..” Ruby pulling away from you, grabs your hand once more as you look at her Are you crazy!? “..You can tag along if you wish.” Kris smiles and you blush once again as he stands up fully, showing his full height. Jesus he would have to be over 6ft. “I would love to.” ~~~~ The three of you walk through the Red light district and you can’t help but be enticed by the neon lights bouncing off each shop, their red lights dazzling and flashing. There are people everywhere, and you grip on Ruby’s hand slightly tighter as you weave through a lump of people standing in front of a club with Exotic females dancing in each window. Oh Dorthy, your not in Kansas anymore. You giggle slightly as you walk past a fountain with an interesting sculpture piece sitting boldly on top. “I don’t think that would fit.” Jumping at Kris’s sudden voice in your ear, you turn your head and give him a smug smile. “Not if you don’t try.” He laughs and shakes his head. Ruby suddenly stops in front of one of the many bars open and turns back around to you, a grin on her lips. “Want to go for a drink?” She points up to the neon sign. “Do you remember the last time that happened!? You were dancing on top of the bar and almost cracked your head open when you slipped!” “Exactly! I need to keep practicing my dance moves, so I don’t slip again” You have no chance to rebut as Ruby walks down the stairs. You turn to look at Kris and shrug before following into a underground bar. The music is loud and pumping as you walk down the steps, which you know either yourself or ruby will be falling up or down at some point through out the night. Stopping on the bottom step you look around the full room and try to glance over the tops of people, looking for that particular shade of red hair. “Lets go to the bar” Kris yells into your ear and you blush as he grabs your hand, you give him a questioning look and he grins “Ruby would kill me if you were left alone” Yeah your probably right. The two of you weave through the dance floor, towards the bar and you can feel Kris squeeze your hand for a sense of comfort. Finally emerging from the pool of sweat and god knows what else bodily fluids, the two of you stand against the edge of the bar. Glancing down the bar itself you see Ruby up the other end shouting and pointing towards some particular bottles on the wall. “Anything in particular catch your fancy?” Kris voice is in your ear once more and you shake your head laughing. “Ruby usually orders for me, she knows all the hidden gems” You look up at his face and see him pondering what to order. “Well are you wanting something sweet like yourself?” Eye roll “Or hard and heavy like myself?” You can see the challenge rolling off of him. You were never one to resist a challenge. “Hard and heavy” “Excellent” He grins as he tries to get the bartenders attention. A cute danish guy finally notices and comes walking over. Kris throws his hand up “Two Genever’s please”  “Young or old?” The bartender questions and you throw your eyebrows up. “Old” He nods, before walking off to grab a bottle off the shelf. “Genever?” You lean against the bar looking up at Kris. “Pretty much the Quintessential dutch drink to try.” You shake your head smiling. “How many times have you been here?” “Let’s just say this isn’t my first rodeo.” You laugh as the bartender puts down the drinks and after a quick argument of who was going to pay, Kris hands over the money. “Come lets find somewhere quieter to talk.” Grabbing your hand he pulls you towards a sitting area, towards the back. Looking around you notice that most of the booths are filled with lovers, lustfully kissing or whispering temptations to each other as the two of you find a booth for yourself. Kris sitting down first before pulling you in next to him. You take a drink of the glass in your hand, and cough as it hits you. “I told you it was strong.” Laughing you wave your hand. “So Mr. Hard and Heavy” You put the glass down and smile at him “Ruby said you are in the music business, what do you do?” He runs his hand along his jawline. “I manage musicians, bands etc. and help with the booking and making sure those musicians make it to the next concert, interview, photo shoot etc.” “Ah a tough life indeed.” He laughs as he takes a sip of his drink. “Oh you don’t know the half of it, how many times I've pulled half naked rock stars out of motel rooms at 6 in the morning because we have to make a 8 am flight to a 10am photo shoot for, let’s say Rolling Stones.. well let’s just say I could probably buy myself one hell of an expensive yacht.” The both of you laugh and you notice Kris moving in closer to you. “But enough about me, a pretty girl like yourself, in Amsterdam of all places, you must have a story to tell?” “Not really, I mean it’s not always like this -” You wave your hand around “-I’m usually living my life in San Francisco or playing with a symphony less.. exotic.” “Symphony? What do you play?” “Violin.” “Ah” Kris raises his hand and traces along your neck, making you shiver “No wonder you have such a pretty neck, the violin has made it all the much sweeter.” You feel his lips kiss the edge of your jawline, your eyes fluttering to a close. Ok. Cute guy, kissing my neck, not exotic like Eric wanted but better than nothing. You feel his hand on your thigh, his thumb doing slight circles on the inner part. “Kris..” “Shh” His lips softly kiss on yours and you kiss him back, wrapping your arms around his neck as he deepens it, you feel his hands move to your hips and you instantly pull back. “What’s the matter?” Staring into his blue eyes you take a deep breath, The last time I was in this situation.. I was with him. You can recall the way his hands gripped into your hips leaving marks, the way his eyes shone as he kissed you, his moan, his scent. “I need to get out of here.” Standing up suddenly, you wobble and lean against the chair, holding yourself up. How much alcohol is in that drink?? “Are you sur-”  “She said she needs to get out of here, let her go.” You feel an arm wrap around your waist, and comfort his you as you lean into Ruby. “Let’s get out of here, I’m bored of this place already.” Once Ruby knows you are able to walk, she grips your hand once more as she pulls you back through the crowd of people. Looking behind you, you try to see if Kris is following but don’t spot him anywhere. Climbing back up the stairs - slowly so neither of you would fall - you find yourself once again leaning over the railing of the canal, taking deep breaths as Ruby lights up another cigarette. “How.. how did you find us?” “Not that hard.. I saw you two at the bar talking and saw him drag you off the back. Told myself I’d give you at least 15 minutes before coming and checking up on you.” She blows out a puff. “Good thing I did cause he was all over you.” You chuckle before going quiet again, a shiver vibrating through you as the night air really hit you. “Look stay here, Let me go see if i can find a taxi rink so we can get your drunk, ass home.” “Ruby I can function by myself” “Ah my protégé, that’s not how this works.” She grins and kisses you on the cheek. “Stay, hold my cigarettes so I have an incentive to come back and get you.” You laugh as she walks off towards the street. Looking down at her cigarettes, you smile and shake your head. Eric was going to kick my ass for making out with a random guy in a night club, who wasn’t even danish. You run your hand along your jawline where Kris was and hope no bruising will show. Dawn will have a field day. “You just can’t stay away from me can you Violin Girl.” The flood of ice that runs through your body hits all at once as you take in a gasp of air. That voice.. I’m hearing things.. this can’t be real. Slowly you turn around to meet a pair of, now amused, green eyes and let out a shaky breath. “...Lars.” ----------------------- < Previous                                                                    Next>

[chiseler]

3000 Beatniks Riot

Half a century before Occupy Wall Street, young protesters occupied Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. Like OWS, they ended up clashing with the police. Unlike OWS so far, their protest produced a small but practical and lasting change.

In the spring of 1961, the Washington Square Association, a community group of homeowners around the square, appealed to New York City's Department of Parks and Recreation to do something about the hundreds of "roving troubadours and their followers" playing music around the square's turned-off fountain on Sunday afternoons. They were mostly college kids, playing guitars and banjos and singing folk songs. The practice had started in the post-war years, when Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger planted the seeds of the folk musical revival in the Village. By 1961 it had grown enough that both the police and the neighbors found the "troubadours" and the tourists they attracted a nuisance. In his posthumously-published memoir, Dave Van Ronk recalls that there were various cliques in the park: a Zionist group singing and dancing "Hava Nagila," Stalinists, bluegrass fans, folk traditionalists. Black journalist John A. Williams reported that the locals' complaints were not really musical but social: "In the ensuing meetings with city officials, it became apparent that what was opposed was not so much folk singing as the increasing presence of mixed couples in the area, mostly Negro men and white women." In the late 1950s the parks commission began issuing permits to limit the number of musicians, allowing them to "sing and play from two until five as long as they had no drums," Van Ronk writes. This "kept out the bongo players. The Village had bongo players up the wazoo... and we hated them. So that was some consolation." He doesn't mention that those bongo-players were very often black. This racial aspect had an old historical precedent in Greenwich Village. In 1819, white residents of the area complained "of being much annoyed by certain persons of color practising as Musician with Drums and other instruments through the Village."

In 1961 the parks commissioner responded to the complaints by refusing to issue any permits at all. Izzy Young of the Folklore Center and others organized a peaceful protest demonstration. On Sunday, April 9, 1961, a few hundred young people gathered, attracting a few hundred more spectators. Among the latter was eighteen-year-old Dan Drasin, a mild-mannered kid who liked to hang out in the park. He brought one of the big, boxy film cameras of the era and documented the afternoon in a short black-and-white film, Sunday. The film shows clean-cut college and high school kids, many of the girls in Jackie O hairdos and heels, many of the boys looking like the young Allen Ginsbergs with serious, sensitive, owlish faces behind heavy black-framed glasses. They carry hand-written placards and cardboard guitars and argue with the dozens of beefy, florid-faced cops who've shown up. Izzy Young, also bespectacled and in jacket and tie, lectures the cops about the constitutional right to make music as the kids sit in a circle in the dry fountain and sing "This Land Is Your Land" and "The Star-Spangled Banner." As protests go it all looks low-key and polite. Then paddy wagons arrive and the cops haul off one nebbishy young man cradling an autoharp, pushing him into a prowl car. According to Drasin, most of the singers and musicians had left the park, leaving the few hundred spectators loitering around the fountain, when the cops' tempers finally boiled over. They wade into the crowd, shoving boys and girls to the ground, mauling them, dragging a handful into the paddy wagons. Reportedly they knocked some heads with their clubs, although it's not shown in the film. The whole event, Drasin says, lasted maybe two hours.

The next day, the New York Daily Mirror, the conservative Hearst tabloid, ran a giant war-is-over front page headline, "3000 BEATNIKS RIOT IN VILLAGE." Other local papers followed suit. That week's Voice scoffed at the Mirror's "hysterical" coverage, wondering if there were three thousand beatniks in the entire country that Sunday, let alone in Washington Square Park. By May, the outrage caused by the cops' overreaction forced the city to back down and issue permits, a practice that continues to this day.

Among the protesters hauled off that day was the Village character H. L. "Doc" Humes, identified in the Mirror as a "scofflaw" and the "mob leader." Humes was a gregarious polymath, a novelist and raconteur, co-founder of The Paris Review, designer of cheap housing made from old newspapers, director of a lost film updating the Don Quixote story as Don Peyote, LSD pioneer with Timothy Leary, later helper to Norman Mailer when he ran for mayor in 1969, later still a paranoid drug casualty who believed UFOs, CIA and the Pope in Rome were out to get him. He would not have been a stranger to the cops in the park that day. Just a few months earlier, he'd had a very public spat with Police Commissioner Stephen Kennedy.

It started in October 1960, when cops shut down a performance by Lord Buckley at the Jazz Gallery in the East Village. Lord Buckley was a stately man with sleek gray hair and a pointy Daliesque mustache, who often performed in a tux and orated in a plummy, faux-British voice, seeming every bit the vaudeville and burlesque master of ceremonies he once was. But what came out of his mouth was pure hepcat jive he'd learned from the jazz musicians and pot-smokers with whom he'd associated since the 1930s. In the 1950s he started to recast biblical stories, historical texts like the Gettysburg Address, and Shakespeare in White Negro proto-rap: "Hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies, knock me your lobes. I came here to lay Caesar out, not to hip you to him." It sounds like novelty schtick today, but in Eisenhower's America there was something inherently subversive about a man who looked like the maitre d' at a fancy restaurant jiving like a viper. "His Royal Hipness" had a lot of fans and friends downtown, where he performed and hung out whenever he was in New York.

The cops halted Buckley's gig because of a problem with his cabaret card. Since 1941, anyone who worked in a New York City nightclub, from performers to the hat check girl and the busboys, had to get fingerprinted and carry a picture ID card. If you had any police record, you couldn't have a card, which meant you couldn't work. It was intended to weed the Mob out of the nightclub business, but it could be disastrous for performers. Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker all had their cards yanked for drug violations; Lenny Bruce lost his because of an obscenity conviction; exotic dancer Sally Rand, refused a card in 1947 because the cops thought her fan dance too risqué, took the NYPD to court over it and won. Buckley lost his because he'd failed to report a pot bust that went back to the 1940s. Without the card, he couldn't perform in New York City, including a scheduled appearance on his old friend Ed Sullivan's tv show (they'd toured together with the USO during the war).

Despondent, Buckley called his pal Humes. Humes talked his Paris Review friend George Plimpton into letting Buckley give a little performance at a party in his Upper East Side apartment, with the idea that Plimpton's influential crowd might help him get Buckley's card reinstated. With Village jazzman David Amram at the piano, Buckley went into his schtick. The response was cool. Plimpton's literary swells had come to sip cocktails and talk about themselves, not listen to Village-y jazzbo jive. Buckley the old vaudevillian worked hard to win them over, pulling out bit after bit, overstaying his unwelcome. As the crowd grew increasingly bored and angry, Norman Mailer started heckling. Amram remembers that Buckley finally gave up, then "came over to the piano and whispered in my ear, 'Let's split and get out of here, man.'"

It turned out to be Lord Buckley's farewell performance. He died of a stroke shortly afterwards, at the age of fifty-four. Art D'Lugoff offered the use of the Village Gate for a memorial service, at which Ornette Coleman and Dizzy Gillespie played for a large crowd of Buckley's friends and admirers. He was laid to out at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side, New York's funeral home to the stars. (Rudolph Valentino, John Lennon, Jackie Onassis, Nikola Tesla, James Cagney, Igor Stravinsky, Norman Mailer, Heath Ledger, Judy Garland and Candy Darling were all laid out there.)

Humes, Mailer, Amram and others then started a public campaign to end the cabaret card system. Humes charged that police harassment had killed Buckley, and claimed that if Buckley had only slipped the right cop a hundred bucks the whole thing would have been settled under the table. That enraged Commissioner Kennedy, who retaliated by tossing Humes in jail for unpaid parking tickets and ordering up the biggest crackdown on cabarets and nightclubs in years, sending cops to more than 1200 venues looking for non-card-carrying workers. But this protest worked as well. Kennedy was sacked for his overreaction, and though it took another seven years, the cabaret card system was eventually abolished.

by John Strausbaugh