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weixuldo · 1 year ago

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Allow me// ch 10

Vader x Reader

a/n: so in this Vader is just a lil delulu… he still thinks Padme didn’t love him fully, but its only cause he’s been under the manipulation of the emperor for so many years. also ngl this ch is a lil disorganized at the beginning oops: just lots of vader overthinking

Slight NSFW

warnings: cursing, kissing, grinding, premature ejaculation lol

_____________________

Vader found that the longer he held his position- the more trivial certain matters became.

For years he had been hearing the same complaints and issues circulate through the ranks in different forms. It was old.

He often let his mind wander during the frequent “highly classified” meetings; nowadays the main thing he would think about was you. He just couldn’t get you off of his mind, ever since that night when he showed you his face.

He hadn’t removed his helmet since then but he still saw you as much as he could. Of course he already had an inclination towards you even before the reveal, but your reaction to him just kept looping in his head.

You weren’t scared or disgusted, you didn’t ogle him as if he were some horrible specimen from another system.

No. you continued to look upon him with the very same expression that you always had- you accepted all of his flaws… you accepted him.

Never in his time as Vader had he yearned for the attention of another being, but you were special.

He knew the interest was obviously reciprocated but he couldn't tell to what extent. No matter how much you said you cared- how much of that was true?

It pained him to dig up memories of the past, but they were still a part of him- of Anakin…

He believed wholeheartedly that Padme loved him unconditionally and yet she still denied him. In the end her promise of everlasting love was just an empty one.

But you seemed to care for him regardless of what he did- there was no hiding what he had done as Darth Vader, everyone in the galaxy knew his infamous name.

But even with all his controversial history, your eyes still lit up when he would walk by, your force signature still felt refreshing and flowery, you still found time to ask him how he was doing, you still invited him into your room…

He wouldn’t be able to bring himself to ask you the extent of your feelings until he was more certain of the answer, but of what he could see; it seemed that you were offering him unconditional admiration- something he had chased after all his life.

Of course a while back you told him that you were his, but he couldn’t help but over analyze that phrase; did you mean you were his in the sense of his personal mechanic; professionally (and sometimes flirtatious sense)? Or in the way that you were really his?

And were you just saying that because you feared denial? No. You were more authentic than that.

So why could he not shake the feeling of worry that washed over him when he would imagine asking you how you saw the dynamic?

_______________________________

You entered his private sector with a warm signature; even inside of his chamber he could feel your electrifying presence.

As soon as he finished his thought he motioned for the capsule to open so he could meet you halfway. He stepped over the mechanical barrier and straightened his cape before strutting towards the door that you were behind.

You reached for the button to open the only obstacle between you and the man you so desperately wanted to see.

He slid the door open before you could, making you jump.

“V!” you smiled, walking past him into the room he occupied.

His watchful eyes trailed all the way down your body before responding.

“Y/N, how are you today, my dear?”

“I’m good, I got all of the work done so now I'm here to bug my favorite man in the galaxy”.

You and Vader had been exchanging more playful banter (flirtatious, even) and Vader felt like his awkward 19 year old self trying not to blush when you would say things like that.

“Ahh, I see, you just want to distract me from my duties- like running the empire…You must be a rebel spy, my darling” he quipped back.

Your cheeks warmed at his playfulness; it was a rare thing to have Darth Vader sharing jokes with you.

“Oh no, my dear” you taunted back using the name he often called you.

“I wouldn’t dream of attempting to infiltrate the almighty Darth Vader’s fortress of a mind…” you said with doe eyes and a stupid half smile.

He stepped closer and tilted your chin to look into his lenses, “what if I told you that you already have”.

In a moment of pure need, you stepped closer to him and pulled his helmet down to face you and kissed him over the grated mouthpiece.

You heard the familiar sound of his respirator work a little harder to keep up with his quickened breathing.

A few weeks ago or even days, you would have completely freaked out and done damage control immediately.

You would’ve tossed out every apology in the book and asked if that was alright; but now you didn’t need to – you could feel his desire lurking in the force around you.

He stood stunned for a moment before picking you up and carrying you towards his meditation chamber.

“V, what are you-”

“If you want to kiss me, I should at-least give you a proper one” his deep voice boomed as the top of the chamber descended.

Soon the air tight seal was in action and a claw-like mechanism from the ceiling came down to remove the helmet. It was only the second time you were seeing his naked face and you were even more excited than the last time.

When his face was finally revealed he blinked a few times, trying to get accustomed to the brightness, before his cerulean blue eyes honed in on you; your hair, your brows, your eyes, your nose, your lips…

“May I?” he asked, waiting for the signal to capture you in a deep kiss.

You nodded furiously and draped your arms around his armored shoulders, before his lips met yours.

Sparks flew.

Sure, the first kiss was a lil too soft and a lil odd, but after you figured out a groove with each other, the kisses became ravenous.

When was the last time he had felt the sensation of another’s lips on his own?

He couldnt help but rake his gloved hands up and down your back, pulling you closer to him. He was in heaven, nothing could beat this feeling.

His insatiable need for you made your core ache for him. Maker, how you wanted to fuck him so badly. Your thoughts raced through your mind and you let a small moan slip against his mouth.

Fuck.

Vader felt his pants grow tighter and his dick throb. You were so enticing. It had been so long… so long. He felt like he would combust at any moment.

He broke away from the kiss to keep himself at bay as he let the building sensation of an orgasm subside. Of course he was embarrassed that he almost got to that point by simply kissing; but to be fair, he had gone from no skin to skin contact in years, to…this.

You, on the other hand, had more experience with this thing than he did.

You placed a gentle hand on the side of his face and breathlessly asked, “Why’d ya stop?”.

His eyes faded into the beautiful blue you had seen the other day before he attempted to answer; he was cut off by you starting to grind your hips into his, as you dragged your core against his codpiece.

Vader’s eyes momentarily rolled back and an exquisite noise escaped him before he gripped your thighs tightly and began to kiss your neck.

“Oh, Vader- that feels so-”

Before you could finish your sentence he clawed his hands down your back (not hard enough to hurt) and plunged his face into the crook of your neck as his body jerked forward. Much to his chagrin, he couldn’t hold out any longer, not with you in his lap.

He came. Hard.

He didn’t even know he still could; it felt weird… the burns of Mustafar made the familiar sensation feel a twinge different. It wasn’t bad by any means, just…new.

After the overwhelming feeling passed he exhaled sharply before tapping your thigh twice.

You had no idea what just happened and if he was ok or not, so when he tapped your thigh you took that as a sign to get up.

“Are you alright? Did I do something wrong?” you asked, genuinely worried.

“No, I-I mean yes! Well no, you didn’t do anything wrong and yes I'm alright. I just remembered I was supposed to discuss a new tactical plan with one of the Moffs. My apologies my dear.”

and without another word, he left as quickly as he could.

Only you remained in the meditation chamber, feeling confused and a little sad.

You worried you had been too forward and upset him- but he assured you nothing was wrong… So you ended up chalking it up to a loss and going back to your quarters with a walk of overthinking.

Did he not like you being like that with him? He didn’t stop it before though…

When you got back you decided just to go to bed- it was pretty late anyways.

_____________

Vader forcefully slid the heavy door to his private room closed and marched up to the platform where he dressed and undressed.

He called upon the droids to begin undressing him and stood in shame as they disassembled him.

When they removed the codpiece there was a damp spot on his pants. Great.

He was glad the droids couldn’t talk (to him at least, they probably exchanged quips about him all the time).

Since it was late and his duties were fulfilled for the day he opted for a bacta soak- he needed to get clean and to think (as if he weren’t already torturing himself with his thoughts).

The droids strapped him into his harness and soon his body was submerged in the soothing bacta; the most relieving feeling.

He took a deep breath through the large oxygen mask covering most of his face; what the fuck just happened?

Obviously he knew he came- that was pretty damn evident. But why? (also evident).

He cringed again at the image of him cumming from kissing… was he really that pathetically desperate?

You probably went back to your room laughing at him. Fuck. What if you thought it was gross?

He groaned and thrashed in his tank at the embarrassing scenes.

Should he address it to you? Or just act like it didn't happen? Would you bring it up?

He attempted to enjoy the rest of his soak; it wasn’t successful.

_____________________

You woke up to your details for today; it was an uncharacteristically complex task.

Of course you didn’t mind the difficulty, but what bothered you was that it wasn’t even one of Vader’s machines. In fact it was a totally different department deep down in the belly of the ship… probably the furthest from him.

You thanked the messenger droid and got ready to go. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stop the intrusive thoughts from barging in; he must really be mad at you to not want you near him.

Did he think you were gross or shameless for what you did?

All you did was kiss… and he was the one who brought you into his chamber.

He promised you that he wouldn’t let any harm come your way, so you weren't worried for your life; you were worried for your position.

Would he send you back to your own system or transfer you to another unit far, far away from him?

Maker, what was going on.

***

a/n: ahhh yes, the ever loved miscommunication trope- both y/n and vader need to stop overthinking (also the way they’re both thinking the other thinks they’re gross lmfaoo). i was gonna make this ch longer but then i thought it was alr a little long 😳 ty for ur support and the patience for my shitty upload schedule!

taglist: @vadersassistant @sxoulohvn @khaleesihavilliard @kashasenpai @darling-murdock @beautifulbearpolice @salvatoresister1 @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @blueninjablade3 @jujuba096 @missmannequin @jellydodger @mirastark @wyvernthekriger @duckyhowls @monada43 @lauriidoesstuff @vienettacream @ray-rook @itswhatever06 @ilovenielperry

#darth vader #darth vader x reader #anakin x reader #vader #sw darth vader #anakin #darth vader fic #star wars #star wars x reader #anakin x you #allow me #anakin is so hot #vader is hot #darth vader smut #crispy vader #burnt vader #sw x reader

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insertdisc5 · 2 years ago

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Devlog #12: Localization Milestone and Key Art

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has some localization news, as well as a breakdown on key art! What’s key art? Where do you use it? Can you eat it? Read and find out.

The first pass of the Japanese localization is done and implemented!!! You can play the whole game in Japanese from beginning to end now!!!

The next step now is the localization QA, where the localization team plays the game and makes sure the Japanese script works in context. The team got the script in an excel sheet and I tried my best to give context for scenes where I could, but playing through the game themselves allows them to get The Most Context. All Of The Context. So they can make changes to their localization so it can be the best!!!

That’s it for news. Other things are chugga-chugga-chuggin’ behind the scenes as well, and I can’t wait to share it all with you all!!!

Today’s topic-since-I-don’t-have-much-to-talk-about is: key art!

“Adrienne what on Earth is a ‘key art’” This above is the key art.

More generally (and keep in mind this is my layman self talking, I’m sure you could get a better answer elsewhere, but also you’re here, so you might as well learn something huh???), key art is The Big Art that games (and, I assume, other mediums???) use to show off their style and visuals in things such as store fronts, articles, and other such things. It’s Mario jumping in a cool way with his lil star buddy while the planets are behind him. It’s Kratos and Atreus on a boat. It’s sad Siffrin in the foreground, surrounded by stars, while his friends are having fun in the background. It’s The Art!!! It’s the first thing people see about your game!!! It needs to be cool and represent your game!!!

Here’s some examples of the key art being used for Steam store assets. Itch.io is very kind and asks for like 2 assets, but Steam asks for a whoopin’ 30 assets, all with different sizes and orientations, so it means one of the biggest things your key art should be is MODULAR AS HELL. From a massive 1440x3160 vertical banner to an itty-bitty 231x87 horizontal button (called a capsule, it’s the small banner above, and since it’s usually the first thing you see about a game it is THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSET), your key art needs to be ready for anything!!!

For the prologue, I did not plan for this very well. I learned pretty late in development that store assets for itch.io (and later, Steam) were gonna be a thing I should worry about, so I ended up deciding to use the title card art. Which, like, it worked out.

BUT! I had to redraw Siffrin to make sure their hat and body weren’t weirdly cut out, and had to remake the pixelly gradient like a thousand times for each asset to make sure it wouldn’t hide Siffrin’s face. And that’s without mentioning the hell I went through to make sure the massive title logo would fit. Why did I think “START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue” was a good title. It was so hard to make it fit in its entirety every time (because, of course, Steam asks you to show the logo in its entirety in every single asset). Why did I choose this title (I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan and my heart is rotten and thinks long titles are funny)

So since I went through hell with START AGAIN’s store assets, for ISAT I made sure to think about the key art way ahead of time teehee.

Every so often I become an absolute genius so I only had to sketch the key art once, as you can see above. You don’t need to understand it because I do and it’s all that matters. Teehee!

Here's the rough illustration! I made it to block out the shapes, and figure out where that dang logo would go. Once again, reminder: if you have text of any kind, figure out where it goes in the rough stage. Future you will thank you. I also had Siffrin look directly at the camera in this rough stage, and then figured. That it would look sadder. If Siffrin looked emo-ly to the side. I do like the look at the camera though. He Is Looking

To talk about The Meaning very quickly, I wanted to show Siffrin front and center, since the whole story is about them. And I wanted to show the whole party, but clearly separated from Siffrin- Siffrin is stuck in a time loop, feels completely apart from them, and I wanted to show that in the key art! With the expressions too- everyone else is happy or engaged in something, interacting with each other, while Siffrin is in his emo phase. And also stars everywhere. Because of course.

Here are all the layers I used- I made sure to draw them on a vector layer in Clip Studio Paint, which means the lines never become pixelated even if you zoom in a lot! As a side note, the full file for this is 4000x3000, which I thought would be too big, but is actually just the right size for all those dang assets.

I also made sure that Siffrin would look the most detailed, since I knew that while everyone could fit for the bigger pictures, for the itty-bitty small ones (or the extremely horizontal ones), I would only show off Siffrin’s face. MODULAR!!!!!

In the end this key art worked pretty well to make the store assets, but if I could talk to past me I would tell them. Make the circle bg taller so it’d fit the more vertical assets. And find a way to leave more space for the characters in the background. I had to remove them/rotate them/zoom them out very often because Siffrin hides them too much because Siffrin is just too dang big. But that’s still manageable, past me. You did a good job past me

So, TLDR, from my experience, what you need to keep in mind when making your key art is:

-make sure it has enough layers to be able to move things around as needed, but not so many layers that you become lost

-fun art that represents your game and its vibe well

-cool everywhere, but able to get by if you zoom in on one thing (which usually for ISAT’s assets is Siffrin’s face)

-able to work in a vertical and horizontal format and at many different sizes

I hope my key art made people interested enough in the game to try to find out more!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

#devlog #indie dev #in stars and time #start again start again start again #indie game #reference #video games #sorry if the post breaks i had to format this whole post on my phone. pelease clap

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pumpkinsy0 · 5 months ago

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Can we get more hc's of curly helping pony with his seasonal depression? I love these two so much and your headcanons give me LIFE

WOOOOO HURT/COMFORT YEAAAAA RAHHHHHH

•ponys seasonal depression is like, whatever time was where his parents died, and i say that time and not where johnny and dally died bc generally speaking, ponys healing from their deaths, however id say when it comes to his parents deaths, he never rlly talks about it that much and kinda sweeps it under these other things???idk how to explain it

•BUT id say that pony never actually took the time to heal from his parents dying bc sm happened and at some point it kinda just hit him hard

NOW ONTO CURLY HELPING WOOO

•he did notice some differences in pony around the time but he thought that it would pass, and it did, but it always came back, he noticed that pattern

•as much as curly would love to go outside and fuck around to make pony happy, idk i think he’d respect that he just doesnt wanna go outside constantly, sometimes pony just wants to lay down and who is he to hate on that

•even when they go outside its nothing too crazy, its to just take a walk or sit in the porch or somethin, gotta get pony some air, cant stay in that stuffy room forever

•curly WILL be taking pony to visit his parents grave, its the least he can do for the grieving guy

•took pony to get some flowers and whatever else he wanted to get to decorate their grave, no jokes or nothin, he really didnt even know what to say to pony to cheer him up

•curly didnt go to the curtis parents’ funeral and therefore didnt rlly get to say his final words to em, so to like to imagine that to help pony in whatever way it does that he talks to em and get what he has to say out, maybe it was to encourage pony to do the same

•he brings pony lil gifts like a cool postcard he stole or a lil trinket

•he lets pony talk about the small things his parents used to do w him, he wasnt that close to them like darry and soda was, but he did have his moments

•ponys mom had a recipe book on top of the cupboard and curly would try to make some of the foods, key word try, he somehow burnt em a lil but its the thought that counts

•pony would mention to curly how he was kind of starting to forget small things about his parents, like how they laughed, how they smelled, that sorta thing, and so curly would VENTURE out to find small things that could remind pony about his parents

•he also got pony to draw his parents for the first time in a while, so he wouldnt forget more what they looked like and he can look back on it

•ALSO YES, he is making sure pony eats something, but its not rlly like a full dinner, maybe something like mac and cheese, something small and simple

UNRELATED, but hc that darrys room is actually just his parents room, darrys barely redecorated it himself bc hes actually so distraught over them still and that room is like a time capsule, thats kinda why nobody ever rlly goes into darrys room, especially pony, they dont wanna be reminded of who used to be there

#curly shepard #ponyboy curtis #purly #PaperCut ship

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izakiisdead · 1 year ago

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Oo! I'll request!

Could I get a denki x ghost male reader? Like readers quirk is he turns into a ghost or something like that?

Just like how would denki be like with a cute little ghost pal

OH MY GOOODDDDDD YES !!! I LOVE THIS SMMM

I lowk wanna make mreader a lil bit on the mischievous side LOL

Im not sure whether ya want it platonic or romantic sooo imma make it platonic !! If you expected a romantic one,, feel free to lmk !!

ou and also may I make it a hc ? instead of a long fic ? since i feel like it'll suit better ! also lmk if u want a fic of it ! i may or may not work on it !

Denki Kaminari x Ghost!Male Reader

A little bit about you !

-This quirk has different transparency percentage !

10% : you're still visible but a little transparent

50% : you're transparent but is also still visible

100% : no longer visible to the human eye

- Other than that you can also float with this quirk ! and penetrate through stuff, even yourself

Finally the headcanons :

First time meeting !! :

You both met when you two were in kindergarten, specifically in the time out corner of the classroom..

Denki got into time out because he keeps.on accidentally shock other kids because he isnt able to control his quirk yet and you won't stop using your quirk to scare the other children.

'It's funny' you said as your reasoning on scaring the other kids

Getting to know each other !! :

Since the both of you always see eachother in the timeout corner the both of you decided to be eachother's friends

'The name's (Y/n)..'you held out your hand to the other guy.

'Denki...' he shyly responded before shaking your hand.

You could feel Denki's electric about to shock you so you went transparent before it could shock you.

This was Denki's first time receiving a handshake without hurting someone due to being unable to control his quirk.

Time skip !! :

As years go by, the bond between you two only gets closer and closer. Everytime theres hero training the both of you will always pair with eachother.

Since you two always paired with eachother,, the both of you have found a way to utilized and make both of your quirk work with eachother.

'Oh our quirk isn't really compatible with eachother ?' Denki asked. 'We'll make it work' you said followed by a giggle

you two would also set up silly pranks for your friends and everytime your friends fall for it you two would laugh together while giving eachother a high five.

You two like music ? the chances are the both of you have definitely made some songs with eachother, good and extremely horrible songs ? you guys have probably made it.

Halloween is your two's FAVOURITE day, you two would do matching Halloween costumes and scare children on the streets for funsies, it is Halloween afterall and your quirk is ghost so its fitting.

Extra !! :

Whenever you two were about to hug you would sometimes go in transparent mode just for funsies which almost made Denki fall multiple times, but of course you gave him an actual hug after laughing.

The both of you are eachother's ride or die, even if someone accused something the both of you 100% did, it'll always be a 'false accusation'. EVEN if you or him saw it with your guy's own eyes.

You guys definitely had planted a time capsule before but will dig it when the two of you became pro heros !

Since you two are extremely close, the both of you knows when eachother needs emotional support or is not in the mood to receive pranks, I mean everyone isn't in the mood to receive pranks but if either one of you noticed how the other one is acting, you two would take a break from it and chill the whole day.

The chances are, you two probably schedule sleepovers in eachother's dorm !! Oh only one bed ? thats fine, the two of you are bros even without socks its 100% not gay.... maybe 50% not gay....

🫧 A/N's note :

really sorry for the lack of post and sorry anon for taking a while on this request ! i havent been active in a while because I've been extremely busy !! <\3

also sorry if its too short !! i am writing this at around 4 am~5am afterall LMAOOO

#male reader #x male reader #x reader #fluff #mha denki #denki kaminari x male reader #denki kaminari #denki headcanons #my hero acedamia #boku no hero academia #僕のヒーローアカデミア #denki kaminari x reader #gay

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twsthc · 1 year ago

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twst character playlists 🎧☆

⚠️ warnings: i have bad music taste. also a lot of nightcore. sorry.

last updated: october 10, 2023

🌹 🎼

Riddle: Bôa - Twilight , Laufey - Let You Break My Heart Again , Nakaniwano Shoujyotachi - SHISHAMO

i was thinking about putting in regal classical music or something, but its like, the whole point of riddle is hes a KID and that was taken from him

this is what he sounds like on the inside; a sad teenager lmao

Ace: Estelle - American Boy , Pharrell williams - Hug me , Bruno Mars & Cardi B - Finesse

teenage boy pilled

HUG ME! BRING IT IN! WOOO!!

Deuce: Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right , Childish Gambino - Girls Look Better , ROAR - Christmas Kids , Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

2 people simultaneously agreed hed listen to the Beastie Boys in my discord so here we are!!

Cater: Azelia Banks - ANNA WINTOUR , Magdalena Bay - How to Get Physical , Katy Perry - California Gurls , Mitski - Washing Machine Heart

Azelia and Beyonce are in there cuz pop culture and cater and blah blah blah

i personally think hes a nightcore avril lavigne kid

Trey: BTS - 134340 , Sion - lies , Hyeln Joo - Hair Cut (미장원)

i would give you some super deep and understandable reason for these but.

idk!!! it just sounds like trey. this is what he sounds like.

🥩🎶

Leona: A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation , MF DOOM - Hoe Cakes , Sade - Smooth Operator , Kendrick Lamar - We Cry Together

i had to consult the african council (my dad) for this one

ATCQ of course, and Sade because my dad asked politely

Ruggie: GROOVY - Jersey Luv , Tay-K I <3 My Choppa , Lil Gnar - Sticky Rice , Odetari x 9lives - I LOVE YOU HOE

i dont have to explain myself to you

(hes african american boy coded)

Jack: Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day , Micheal Jackson - Rock With You , Bell Biv Devoe - Poison , De La Soul - Me Myself and I

i think he would be into oldies and ruggie would tease him for it

micheal jackson stan

🫧🎵

Azul: ABBA - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! , Dalida - Love In Portofino , Caravan Palace - Lone Digger , Caro Emerald - Tangled Up (Lokee Remix)

old sounding music for the "nostalgia" (he wasn't even born during these eras)

the songs that play at the lounge and it kinda got stuck in his head

he fantasizes about preforming these songs in drag btw

Jade: Antonia Carlos Jobim - Girl From Ipanema , Laufey - From the Start , CAPSULE - TICTAC

songs he listens to on long hikes while thinking about violence

Floyd: 41 minutes of Roblox music , Megurine Luka - Tako Luka Maguro Fever , Euday L. Bowman - Twelfth Street Rag , ₳С₴łĐ₳ - PRIVET PRIVET 2009 ST

haha get it spongebob music because hes a fish

(gets booed off stage)

🌞🎼

Kalim: Serani Poji -Pipo Pipo , 레드벨벳 - Day 1 , takeshi abo - LEASE , MAXIMUM THE HORMONE - ChuChu Lovely...

cutie patootie happy-go-lucky songs

i feel like Takeshi Abo - LEASE is what goes through his head on loop 24/7

Jamil: Paramore - Renegade , Bôa - Duvet , beabadoobee - the perfect pair , LeTigreWorld - Deceptacon , Mitski - Washing Machine Heart

Paramore - Renegade was actually a recommendation! thank you yorick :3

otherwise i think rock/soft heartbroken songs go well with him

👑🎶

Vil: Lana Del Rey - Doin' Time , Magdalena Bay - Killshot , Kitty Kallen - It's Been a Long, Long Time , Mitski - Liquid Smooth

queen. flawless. stilettos. category: bad bitch.

too classy for this world, forever that girl

Epel: KYLE - Don't Wanna Fall In Love , Ram Jam - Black Betty , WHAM! - Everything She Wants , Hot Freaks - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

a mix of older and newer songs i guess

i hc he works on a family farm (for fun and allowance). hed be blasting Black Betty in his left airpod while wrestling a sheep in the mud

music taste slightly influenced by deuce and jack methinks

Rook: Vendredi sur Mer - Écoute chérie , Camille - Le Festin , ラムのラブソング , Shelly Duvall - He Needs Me

you know i had to do it to em

okay but these songs unironically fit rook to me idk

☠🎵

Idia: 【らき☆すた】スーパーアハアハデラックス , 初音PV新作くるみ☆ぽんちお.flv , Caramella Girls - Caramelldansen , 6arelyhuman - Hands up!

the first one represents how i hc he listens to those 16 year old anime tohou remixes on a daily. he injects them into his veins.

nico nico douga war veteran. u u uma uma...

Ortho: Nanoray - DesktopBuddy , METAROOM - S.N.U.F.F.Y

cute and electronic sounding songs!!

🐉🎼

Malleus: Malice Mizer - Ma Chérie , this entire playlist , Yoko Kanno - Green Bird , NASTYONA - My September ,

being honest idk much about malleus

all i know is he would listen to malice mizer and he is gay

Silver: The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable now , Burn The Ballroom - Kiss Me You Animal , Wienners - GOD SAVE THE MUSIC

lilia influenced his music taste a lot

Sebek: deaf, doesn't listen to music

Lilia: Mothy - ヴェノマニア公の狂気 , MASA WORKS DESIGN - 狐の嫁入り , Kenshi Yonezu - KICK BACK

trying to stay true to his war general roots while also remembering hes a gamer otaku thing now...

also hes in the "light" music club so

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst headcanons #music #playlist #riddle rosehearts #leona kingscholar #kalim al asim #vil schoenheit #idia shroud #malleus draconia #making this hurt me physically #for some reason the octatrio were the hardest to assign???#despite them being my favorite dorm #hmmm #character playlist #twsthc

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todayisafridaynight · 2 years ago

Note

Same same same I was literally thinking of what RGG characters' zOMG! loadouts might look like earlier today help😭But I too was playing zOMG! on a horrid PC with a horrid connection... had to zoom out so far to get some slightly better performance from Flash that chat was nearly unusable...

I'm not totally sure I ever got to play the endgame areas like SS and DMS (definitely didn't get to finish DMS, it was just me and the besties + it's a reeeally long run), but those were some wonderful memories! My blorbo apparently lives in Deadman's Pass and it was a lot of fun crawling every inch of the map and coming up with headcanons and stuff. Sawmill was unusually un-performant though for sure, for how small the area is.

My friend group and I dropped it on account of the NFT investments and general downward trend, but sometimes... sometimes it calls to me...

my whole in-and-out bit with gaia is that sometimes i'd just feel too awkward to try and actually talk to anyone in the towns, so i'd just leave the site alone for a while until i felt brave enough to open it back up or i just really wanted to play zOMG (legit it had no business being as fun as it was)

i checked the creation date of my account and my sis actually made it when i was 8 ☠️☠️ but on that note i remember she wanted me to make an account so we could play zOMG together specifically but honestly i can only remember us playing a handful of times before we just played on our own

#snap chats #MEANT TO REPLY SOONER BUT I WAS FUCKIN AROUND WITH MY AVI LMAO #i had so much stuff i didnt even realize i had... also the capsule rewards are a lot Better ???#i remember you used to get like. bland clothes or like a spool of thread but now you get actual neat shit #but oh my god no i remember in deadmans pass (the base game was DMP the new one was DMS OOPSIE)#i would just hang out in that little cemetary bit and be emo as shit 😭😭☠️☠️#AND I REMEMBER I WAS SUPER OBSESSED WITH THE 'I Am' ITEMS #SO I WAS JUST SITTING THERE AS THIS LITTLE CAT WITH THE SCARF LIKE BRO WHY WERE YOU SO MOODY YOU WERE 8 #god bring zOMG back let me be moody there now that i have actual things to be moody about #the shallow sea was such a good map but it was also long as fuck- it was undoubtedly the longest one #i dont think i ever even actually beat it ? like THATS how long and hard it was #i mightve come close with a group once but man that was so long ago idk #ok but help rgg charas + gaia like #like PLEASE i joke bout daigo making haruka a gaia account solely because of MY childhood 😭😭☠️☠️☠️#UGH...nostalgia you asshole... im lying gaia was fun back then and if flash was still around it'd still be fun to me now #like thats the real kick in the dick if 90% of the playerbase was gone but the worlds were still there #then i could at least hit up friends and we could just muck about there but naw... its ALL gone.....#i remember walking around the towns at least one more time back innnn 2020?? right before flash shut down??#it was all barren as hell but it was a fun lil trip while it lasted #GOD. yeah i love gaia... biggest surprise to find you also played it but i wont complain ty for chattin bout it with me..#i always feel insane when i remember gaia cause it feels like no one ever knows what im talking about LMAO

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mothmothm0th · 1 year ago

Text

Consider: You’re at a space port.

The bustling kind, of course. Folks buzzing about, people chattering interminably. You hear languages you’ll never be able to comprehend. You just lack the organs. In the distance, the rumble of short range engines coming online. Some cocksure pilot brings their craft real close to the terminal’s glass pane wall. You know the ship would lose in a fight against the station architecture but you’re not really eager to have that knowledge put to the test. Oh, but it’s a long ship.

You glance down at your fob watch. It’s just under a thousand units till boarding, which means time to muck about. Grab hold of your suitcase. Walk down the corridors. On either wall, covering the faux-oxidised faux-copper adornments, advertisements in faux-neon buzz-hummed away. You can’t even read the text on any of them. The borgyloid seems happy, though. Might be a borgiakin, come to think of it. Are those teeth? Maybe they’re mouth claws. Oh, oh! That font’s actually kind of interesting! It’s made up of human arms! How quirky! And that must mean the red accents on the letters are... yes! You look closely and realise that really is blood! Oh, rather makes sense now, does it not? The borgyloids are humanity’s closest extrasolar trading partners. Figuratively closest, of course. But no one wants to linger on those centaurite nerds when there’s borgyloid culture to admire! How exquisite! You will admit, it’s a little unnerving at first how their primary expression of joyful communion translates to something like “let us eat your arms in a non-metaphorical way, may we have your arms to eat.” It’s just something you have to get used to, like the slight lag of a robot arm. Ah, but it’s time to move on.

Your trilby expresses relief. You’re at your platform. When did your hat learn to express emotion? It’s been such a long day, such a long day indeed. You dream of laying down in bed planetside. Here on the station, there’s too many different kinds of humming. The life support systems, your room AI, the handheld generator for your robot arm charger... It’s too much! You want to go back home! Back home, where the only humming you hear are the AC, your PC, and your hand-holding robot arm charger. Besides, it’s much nicer to be kept up by roadworks or your neighbours than sub-audible pressure cavitations. It really is!

Oh. Your ship’s been delayed. Kessler cloud in low orbit over Europe. How silly of them, those pre-commercial space travel humans. People used to be so silly. They shot too many sharp bits and bobs in space. Entirely too much. How silly. Still, it’s generally considered the smarter option to avoid making contact with sharp bits and bobs, especially when they’re travelling at orbital speeds. So, you entirely understand. But your arm charger waits for you at home. It so beckons, waving at you. Oh, if only it could... oh, but that would be naughty. It might not be best practice to have thoughts like that. Not just because you’ll have to go buy a ticket for a capsule bed this evening, it seems, but because people generally do not have thoughts like that about their home appliances. Well, except for the ones that call you husband and or wife, hoh hoh!

There, the capsule kiosk. Its yellow extravagance is a poor match with its plastic construction. Still, what can you do? Well, the bored teenaged girl on the pixellated screen tells you you can pay up or shut up in between her two-frame chewing animation cycles. You do, but you promise to give the girl a bad review. She does not respond. You pick up your suitcase, which the lil kid with the Dickensian accent promises should weigh exactly the same as before you left it out of sight for thirty units of time. What a lovely lad. Lass. One of the two. Or maybe a third thing. Kids these days with their organs.

No one’s called the capsule corrals “hotels” in thirty cycles. The brochures might, but not even the big sign at the entrance does. Some clever clog had gotten to the “t” and the “l”, it seems. Or perhaps it was just the slow decay, the passage of time. Regardless, you clamber to your capsule. Into the compartment your suitcase goes and with a press of a button, your capsule enters bath mode. The pod fills to the brim with water before you can say “claustrophobia” (which is only a good thing since you wouldn’t want to be caught with your mouth open) and flushes itself before you can think the words “fear of drowning”. You swap your now sopping wet clothes with your suitcase. If you cannot have your hand-holder, you would at least be able to enjoy your handheld.

You open your suitcase. A large stone approximately the size of a small handheld robot arm charger falls in your lap. Attached is a note: “Fanks, guv’na!” At least they said fanks.

#flash fiction #not empty spaces #sci fi #why did i write this #i mean it was mostly stream of consciousness #help

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minato-division01 · 4 months ago

Note

The sun had long set allowing night to settle over the division of Minato and Maeri Miracle was lounging around in her room when suddenly to her annoyance she was brought out of her thoughts by a knock at the door. Grumbling at the interruption Meari walked over to see who it was. Opening the door, she found no one there. Meari was about to close the door when she spotted two boxes addressed to her. Picking them both up, she brought them inside and began to open the larger box.

Inside the first gift was a huge multi-layer black cake with blood dripping from the sides. The real kicker was the severed head on top of the cake that looked back at Maeri with its red eyes. Seeing there was also a card the heavy metal vocalist picked it up and began to read.

Meari-san,

Happy Birthday! Hope you’re having a good time today! I made you a cake fit for someone known as “Bloody Mary”! Anyway, keep rocking on Maeri-san! I can’t wait to see what music you put out next!

– Kanra A.

Turning his attention to the other gift Maeri reached over to open it curious as to what was inside and who sent it to her.

Inside the gift was a black pill bottle? Opening it revealed a good amount of red pills. Maeri was confused as fuck what exactly were these for? Seeing a note alongside the gift, Maeri picked it up and began to read.

Bloody Mary,

Happy Birthday to one of my fucking favorite vocalists. Your songs are always playing in the background when I’m in the garage doing…shit. Anyway, the pills are for you to get fucked up with…if you dare they're a hell of a lot stronger than what you'll find on any damn street corner.

– Rintaro “High-Rise” H.

"Holy shit," Meari said, staring at the cake Kanra had prepared for her. Scooping up some of the "blood" with her finger, the heavy metal vocalist put some in her mouth. Not surprisingly, it turned out to just be red cake frosting, but that didn't diminish how good it tasted or looked, which was no surprise since almost everybody who ever received a cake from Edogawa's Red Devil knew that besides fighting, she was also an expert at baking cakes.

"Damn, and here I thought nothing could possibly trump the cake she made for me last year." Meari thought, still staring at the head on the cake, really liking the design on it, as it reminded her of the face paint she applied to herself before her shows.

"I almost feel bad for having to eat this thing. ...Maybe I can get Lil to paint a picture of it before I eat it. But that's for later. Right now..."

Turning her attention to the drugs that the infamous "High-Rise Bomber", himself, had sent her, Meari 'hmmed' as she looked at the bottle filled with strange, blood-red capsules.

"Something tells me it's probably a real bad idea to take fucking drugs from a convicted felon." She stated. Despite that, she opened up the bottle and took one of the pills out. "But that's never stopped me before."

Flicking the pill up into the air, the heavy metal vocalist caught it in her mouth and instantly swallowed it. Immediately, she felt things twist and turn, making her eyes grow wide, but she was not at all upset. With a smirk on her face, she sat down on her living room sofa, ready for what may perhaps be the weirdest and most insane trip of her life.

"Okay, let's see what we've fucking got."

#hypmic #hypmic oc #hypnosis mic #hypnosis mic oc #hypnosis microphone #meari miracle #oculus #minato division #kanra akemi #rintaro himura #happy birthday meari 2024

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rotomblr-item-bank · 1 year ago

Text

Item list post + Templates!

for random withdrawals, ask: "🎲 [blog @ if youre on anon]" and add more dice emojis for the more random items! u can also request not to get certain things, like pokemon or eggs!

with withdrawing, ask: "withdraw [x amount] [y item] [z blog @ if youre on anon]" u can also add a comment if u want

when depositing, ask: "deposit [x amount] [y item]" with the option to add ur name, blog url, and/or a lil message at the end

also important note: for withdrawing u need a blog @ to send it to if youre on anon. we cant send things to anons. if you arent on anon, its fine. also u can still deposit stuffs when anon its just sending thats an issue..

🍒 - - Food, Berries + Medicine - - 💊

Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst, Aspear berries, X22 each from Barry F. Arem - “Someone sent these to me as a prank please take them off my hands.”

Herba Mystica, X2 of each type from Director Clavell (minus sour!) - “We still have a surplus of these after the Naranja-Uva Summer Sandwich Scramble, and I would like to avoid any more Maushold getting their hands on them! Please, take them if you wish!”

Oran Berry X16 from Anonymous - “you hunger”

Pecha and Mago Berries X2, Nanab Berries X5 from Ryu Anthizo - (no message provided)

Instant Coffee Palette X3 from koffing-time - “please lock this away. I trust your vault can hold this?”

Pecha-Pinap Berry Jam X8 from Anonymous - “Good harvest outta the greenhouse. One pint at a time.”

DX Gummy X8 from ifbench - “A sweet treat, and guaranteed to give you a rare quality!”

Chorizo X85 from Anonymous - “Keep stored cold. I overestimated how many i’d need for shiny hunting.”

Packing Peanut X49 from Anonymous - (no message provided)

Purple mug of mint tea, (hopefully) steaming, 3 sugars! X3 from theo! - “i need to share tea with the world!!! also i have some mugs i never use!!! i don’t know how the item bank works but i’m pretty sure there’s some magic involved and maaaaybe that magic will keep this tea warm!”

Three days worth of rations X46 from Anonymous - “Do the rations taste good? Not really. But it’s three days you don’t have to worry about, if you’re in a pinch.”

PP up from Anonymous - “( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”

Potions with Encouraging Messages wrapped around them X2 from theo!!! - “the messages don’t make the potions heal any more damage, but they’re nice, at least!”

Half Empty Booster Energy Capsule from Trace Sawyer - “don’t drink it it’s Bad”

Nomel Berries from Fuuka Yamagishi x7 - “Lemons!?”

5 of each nature mint (unsure if this is meant to be given out individually?) from Kohaku - “feels like i’ve been taking a lot, so figured i’d give some stuff in exchange :)”

A box full of 11 fruit juice boxes x1 from Anonymous - “no war, only peace.”

Perfect Apple X8 from ifbench - “They really are delicious.”

Basket of lemons x 15 “hands you a basket of”

2 (two) pokepuffs from bandidodododo

x5 baskets of Poképuffs (A dozen in each basket) from Auberi Bellerose - “I’ve been… stress baking and ended up with way more of these than I know what to do with. Two are all strawberry, two are all chocolate, and one is all matcha.“

Box of Great Value Blueberries X100 from @alamos-garden-lover - “I have no idea where these came from, all I know is that I cannot possibly eat all of them before they go bad.”

Ojama Berry X50 from Anonymous - “a berry from my region that slows pokémon down. Apparently they aren’t found outside here so thought I’d share!”

5 foot long lemons from anonymous -when life gives you... lemons? make lemonade!

Drums full of honey 5X from a beekeeper of the flowroma combee and bug type association (not the apiary robot) - "Recently the honey storage here in flowroma's apiaries gotten a bit too full so we are donating some for free."

Jar of honey x20 from Apiary - "enjoy everyone!"

1x box of candy from blackthorn-legion-irl - "this is common for me but maybe it's rare for you?"

30 random pokéblocks, stored improperly, causing them to stick together into one big pokécasserole x1 from caprassecrethideout

A basket of assorted berries (Figy, Wiki, Iapapa, Aguav, and Mago) from Anonymous - “Hopefully still fresh by the time it's claimed~“

one spice jar with "DRUGZ" painted on it from Anonymous - “I thought it was funny but my mom didnt :(“

One pound ziptop bags of hot peppers x10 from Ellisa @adventures-on-foster-island -"I grew way too many. A healthy assortment of Jalapeños, Serranos, Cayenne, and Poblanos. Use at your own risk."

25 and a half assorted poke puffs because I really need to stop snacking on them.

can of Irn-Bru (Scottish version) 10x from blackthorn-legion-irl - Message: hey anyone in galar do you got an equivalent to this? crown tundra especially. i'll do you a trade

9x bowls of mushroom soup with bowtie noodles and meatballs from painfully-average-landa - My mushroom soup giveaway never happened. Now I have too much soup - They won't go bad for a while thanks to an invention of my dad's that he's attached.

Petlil leaves x2 from anonymous - "My Petlil shed them and I heard somewhere they have medicinal properties, so have these, if you’d like."

Casteliacones 408x From thisusernameisridiculous - my life savings:)

Gem Apple x25 from Magolor (@magolor-pkmnirl) - I would appreciate it if you only distribute the Gem Apples in bundles of 5! Additionally, each bundle should include a note with the current location of my shop - that'd be on Melemele Island's Route 2.

a really fucking long lemon. like we're talking 20 feet long. x1 from anonymous - go ahead. make lemonade.

Carton of Chansey eggs. x20 from @prettyskitty973 - for an extra bit of tlc.

💡 - - Items + Tools - - 🛠️

Slightly used pair of kids tennis shoes x 1 “Kids and their growth spurts, right? They’re used ofc but now they’re free. The “thrift” store got sniffy with me about the scuffs.“

11 Leaf Stones

7 Fire Stones

Various graphic T-shirts, all women’s size medium. (x13)

Hairbrush x 19 “She bought more. I know it’s spite, but I think I’m just gonna sic our mom on her about “What were you even hoping to achieve with that? How did you win something out of this?“bc I sure as hell don’t know!”

Several unused embroidery kits (x5)

Gun X29 + Safety manual X29 from Hatsune Miku and Anonymous - “people don’t seem to buy gun held items so I’m giving them out!” “I support mikus efforts. git gud.”

Beginner’s Gardening Kit X1 from Lavender - “Seeds, plants, fertilizer and other gardening supplies available at @pokegarden-center-owner! Inquire about our selection”

Mega Stones (1X of each, minus Altaria, Banette, Garchomp, Gallade and Sableye) and a Key Stone for each from Millen - “I had some extras! Please give 1 mega stone and 1 key stone at a time :)”

Self-Care Kits X27 [consisting of Pokémon coloring books with colored pencils, some Tapu Cocoa mix, journals with daily writing prompts, some shelf-stable Poképuff mix, and a few Poké Toys] from Vanilla Cress - “I make some of these for clients, but I’ve come across an excess of them, so hopefully some people can make use of these!”

Feather X61 from Steve - (no message provided)

Sturdy Outdoor Camping Set (includes small tent, sleeping bag, pot, cord, water bottle and filter, and firestarter) X13 from Anonymous - “For whoever needs it”

Ribbons/Bows (Amaranth red, Apricot colored, Auburn red, Blood red, Candy Apple red, Cinbar colored, Coral colored, Crimson red, Fuschia, Salmon colored, Mahogony colored, Rose red, Ruby colored, Scarlett red, Sunset colored, Safety cone colored, Marigold yellow, Mint green, Chartruse, Neon green, Cyan, Sea green, Aqua, Azure, Navy blue, Cobalt blue, Cornflower blue, Turquoise, Ice blue, Periwinkle, Sky blue, Ultramarine, Lavender, Plum, Violet, Royal purple, Hot pink) X6, (Holographic foil, Copper, Silver, Rose gold) X60, (Gold) X6000 from Anonymous - “More bows than anyone could possibly need (to be given in bundles of 6 (except the gold. all at once. I wanna see someone get it))”

Ten inch cast iron skilets and Twelve inch cast iron skillets, X1 of each from Anonymous - “One of each in a set.”

Type-Themed Crystal Necklace X10 (X1 per type, minus Dragon, Ground, Normal, ghost, fairy, water, dark, fire and steel) from Anonymous - “Put it on, and you’ll transform into a Pokémon of the associated type. I no longer need all of them.”

Another full set of type-transformation crystals. x 15 (every type except normal, electric, ghost and dragon) “ I don’t even- just take them. They’re not needed”

Tera Shards (Ghost X98, Rock X99) from grace - “please take them”

25x Pokémon TCG Booster Packs - TCG Island Anon

Stardust X4989, Star Shard X38, from ifsobblewereafairytype - (no message provided)

Poison Barb X94 from Kenneth - “I’m running out of room to put these and Marty said I can’t keep leaving them at their lab U⁠^⁠ｪ⁠^⁠U feel free to keep one if you want!”

Blank Wonder Orb Template X50 from ifbench - “For all your orb-crafting needs!”

Emera Powder Canister X48 from ifbench - “This rainbow powder is brimming with energy.”

Wands (Switcher, Slow, Guiding, Surround, Health-Swap, Confuse, Two-Edged, Petrify, Stayaway, Slumber, Pounce, Tunnel, and Warp) X5 of each from ifbench - (no message provided)

Connection Orb X5 from ifbench - “Talk to the people you know without being together in person!”

Rescue Team badges (Rookie, Standard, Gold, X1 of each), Exploration Team badges (Standard, Gold, Guildmaster, X1 of each), HAPPI Team badge X3, Expedition Team badge X3 from ifbench - (no message provided)

Delta Pokemon Creator (Bug X6, Fairy X11, Fire X12) from Professor Sequoia Tree - “Apply to egg and it will be the desired type when it hatches. If a Pokemon is multi-typed it will replace the secondary typing. If Mono-typed it will replace the primary typing.”

Scatterbang X9 from trace - “never ended up using these lol”

White, Unisex T-shirts with a sparkly pink Barbie logo in a variety of sizes X48 from championbarbie-swimmerken - (no message provided)

Winter Coat X6 from Anonymous - “warm.”

particularly Stealthy Rocks X7 from intern - “doing arceus’s work”

Safety Pin X995 from Anonymous - “This is like, a thing people never realize they need until they need one, right?”

Hairbrush X3 from Anonymous - “I don’t even know why my sister bought so many… It’s not like she’s constantly breaking them (Note: They’ve been in the back of the closet for a month and this isn’t all of them. She will not notice. And if she does, I’m declaring that she has a problem)”

Small Pikachu Plushies, each wearing a blue jacket and shades X42 from Anonymous - “uhhh don’t tell my boss I rescued them lol. some promotion?? thing?? happened locally?? semi locally at least. and they didn’t sell for shit, so it was this or to the bins with them.”

Ragon / [Unidentifiable pokemon plush] (shows up in system as teru-sama) / “Trading an item back, it’s a Kōnya shaped one!” x 1

Time Gears X4 from ifbench - “They can only be taken out one at a time. They only stabilize time, not destabilize it, so it should be ok!”

Piles of Stealth Rocks x9 from Intern - “get fucked lmao”

Cake Lure Base. Each contain: 5x of each: Cake Lure, Springy Mushroom, Dazzling Honey, Plump Bean, Hearty Grain 5x from Anonymous - “go ham. only give out one at a time”

Heavy-duty boots x7 from Anonymous - “Prepare for trouble! And make it double! to protect the world from hazard-setting!”

Ball capsule each with a coresponding set of seals (make sure to give a seal set and a ball capsule together!) x23 from Anonymous - “I’ve heard that ball capsules and seals are hardly used at all outside of Sinnoh, which I think is an absolute shame! As such, I decided it would be a great idea to share some! I hope everyone has fun with them! <3”

Dynamax band X16 from Anonymous - “go raise hell:)”

Ex-Champion Blake’s Rare League Card X23 from Klara! 💖☠️ - “Teehee~! It’s been a minute since I’ve messed with my “favorite” little rival <3 I know just how embarrassed they get over this dorky old photo! Sorry (not really) in advance Blake-y! Enjoy, league card collectors! P.S I still pull off the pink hair better”

Pikachu Face Guitar Pick X0 from Guitarist Helena - “Rock on”

A Stack of Wood Planks X3 from Anonymous - “The site had gotten more than what was ordered”

3 (three) magician sets! (basically just your typical magician stuff like a deck of cards, one of ose tophats. you can hide stuff in, fake handcuffs, usual magician stuff. can only be obtained randomly because ✨magic✨) from bandidodododo

3 photos of Intern's eevee, Ruth, laying on his back. to be distributed one at a time.

Not Very Stealth Rocks (pointed rocks painted in neon green): 5 sets from Anonymous - “colon three”

Piece of paper, reminiscent of a permit X2 from Anonymous. it says: "please do not sword"

Bow X1 from Anonymous

Arrow X30 from Anonymous

Lopunny suit (NOT AN ACTUAL LOPUNNY) X1 from Anonymous - “heheh ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°”

Scale models of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Alola, Galar, Paldea, and Orre. Fully modeled, down to the tiniest details. X1 from anonymous -(no message provided)

Everstones X1 from anonymous -(no message provided

Golden dabloons X99 from swordsman -Im trying to reduce my hoard

Books about corviknight x4 from Ben(@me-and-my-6-corviknights) - Nearly everyone I know bought me the same book for my birthday and I already had a copy so here you go! Hope I can ignite someone else's interest in corviknight!

Pool noodles ×35 from anonymous - Wife said to pick up noodles from the store... didn't say which kind.

Blog revival token ×1 from anonymous -simply eat it to revive your blog.

3ft rubber ducks X1 from anonymous -"Never let me binge buy ever again !!"

Antidote (Weezing, Gengar, Revavroom),Antidote (Bug Types [Beedrill, Venomoth, Scolipede and the likes]),Antidote (Grass Types[Vileplume, Victreebel, Amoongus, Roesrade]), X10 Antidote (Toxicroak, Toxtricity),Antidote (Tentacruel, Quilfish, Toxapex),Antidote (Dragalge, Clodsire),Antidote (Arbok, Seviper),Antidote (Garbodor, Muk) X20 of each type of anodite (except for the bug type anodites) from Tix- "Be careful around poison types :)"

A set of type transformation bracelets except for ghost from anonymous

9 boxes of nevermelt ice (each box has 50 Nevermelt ice) from Safrina Shards

Lesbian-flag, Gay-flag, Bi-flag, Pan-flag Trans-flag, (Ace-flag X9) Aro-flag, and (Genderfluid-flag X9) patterned bandannas X10 each from Local Queer Kobold - “Bandannas are cute, queer and LGBT+ folks all deserve to be cute, here you go!”

x49 bags of sand and x49 bricks from @skrub-dubs - "I'm sorry but Justy keeps throwing these at me. I can't keep ALL of this sand logically."

Bugium Z X10 from Anonymous - "I, uh, "borrowed" some from Guzma and now I have to hide what I "borrowed"

6 sided dice x9 from Anonymous

Squirtle keychain x2 from Anonymous

37 packs of double a batterys from @iheartnimbassacity - “i dont really need these anymore, and they are taking up space. they are all brand new, 50 batterys to a pack.”

Box of Dice x0 from Anonymous - "Hello! Gotta give these away accordin' to me mum so I won't play Dungeons and Druddigons with my friends an'more :(. Please take care of them." NOTE : "Rayquaza set was drenched in Max Ooze last time it was played with. Please wash before use."

Totally not stolen bracelet X1 from Shadow-but-pokemon

Crumpled piece of paper X1 from Shadow-but-pokemon

Various Horse Pokémon tack and food (x3 bridles, x3 saddles, x3 saddle pads, x3 breastplates, x3 sets of leg wraps, x5 bags of nutritional hay pellets, x5 boxes of green heart-shaped cookies) from Paisley (@pokehorsegirl) -"For any other riders out there cause I know equestrian stuff can be expensive! 💚 Sorry I only have Galarian tack :( The cookies are for horse ‘mons by the way, not people! I mean, you can eat them if you want, but they probably don’t taste very good! 😅"

Drake stone x35 from @axisiaprofessorgum - "They don't seem to have these in other regions. I wonder if any pokemon outside of Axisia evolve with these?"

19x copies of Honedge-Line Care Guide with poorly drawn Aegislash on it. From: Riv ( @aegislash-logs ) -" I trust like half of this site with these sword pokemon."

Gay flag x4; trans flag X0; nonbinary flag X4; genderfluid flag X5; genderqueer flag X5; agender flag X5; intersex flag X5 from anonymous -"woe, gender be upon ye!"

148 life-size Steelix plushies. From anonymous

L XL Jigglypuff plush! 0X from anonymous "They accidentally delivered one too many. It's very huggable!"

3 coupons for 3 free Gem Apples each*, to be distributed separately.(Each coupon is handwritten and drawn, with the following extra message on them: "Come visit my market stand! Route 1, Melemele Island, Alola -"I also sell my wares online! magolor-pkmnirl on Rotomblr *approximate value of 300 pokedollars - 100 per apple")"

1x keychain of kirby with a life ring from blackthorn-legion-irl - "got this boi twice before getting waddle dee, sharing the love"

198x USB drives, each containing 1x .mp3 file of Banana Man by Tally Hall and 1x .mp4 file of the Banana Man official video by Tally Hall from adventerousclownery - "figured since this world doesn't call 'em bananas y'all wouldn't have this song, so I wanted to share it around :3"

Porygon Halloween skins X3 from @i-can-haz-catmons -"Note: just install them on your Porygon and bam instant Halloween costume"

Pack Of Socks (7 pairs) 2x from galactic-grubbin - no (applicable) message

pair of heelies (size S) 1x from anonymous - "have a wheely good time!"

pair of heelies size L. 9x from anonymous - "don't worry i needed to ah. offload some of these anyway :) the item bank can't be traced by the IRS, right?"

Luigi Body Pillow 1x from anonymous

HF Blade Replica 1x from anonymous - "it's definitely not real, I promise"

347 life sized Wailord plushies. from that steelix plush anon

5 life-size shiny Wailord plushies from The same person who submitted the life size Steelix and normal Wailord plushies. - “I made all these myself :3”

A single box of steel wool from Store Manager - “It seems we over-stocked on these”

x16 rotom motors from Anonymous - Hope y'all like making a few RCs with these!

Five Dimensional Tickets. To use, think of the person you most wish to see, and you will be transported to their location. Dimensional Tickets are only intended to be utilized to teleport to beings that are alive in your dimension at your point in the timeline.

9998x life size joltik plushs from Anonymous

Pictures of Articuno 34× from anonymous "why do I have these"

galarian fire badge x28 from badge thief (aka gym-badge-collector) - "uwu"

400x Reshiram feathers from Blake - "he sheds like crazy 😭😭😭"

Rose Incense 420x from anonymous "blaze it"

Flaffy Wool Coats x5 from @prettyskitty973 - great for thunderstorms.

5000 Glimmet Crystals from Anonymous

🔴 - - Pokéballs - - ⚪️

Friend, Lure, Dusk, Heal, Heavy Balls, X10 each from friendball-irl - (no message provided)

Heal Ball X97 from plasmaapologist - “just… dont ask.”

Love Ball X17 from Anonymous - “Love is in the air? WRONG. Get in the ball.”

Poké, Great, Ultra balls, X1987 each from Anonymous - “catchin time”

Premier balls X20 from witheld - (no message provided)

Luxury balls X9 from Kohaku - “feels like i’ve been taking a lot, so figured i’d give some stuff in exchange :)”

Hisuian* Pokéballs X970 from Anonymous - “Oops. Give them out in batches of 10.”

Plasma Ball X1 from Anonymous

Pokéball X10 from Witness - <[Bzzt! I believe these will now be better suited to someone else. Thank you in advance!]>

🐶 - - Pokémon - - 🐱

Growlithe (Shiny, Newly Hatched) x0 from Anonymous - “i dont know if i can deposit pokemon here, but i cant take care of this guy.

Frakenstuffel X20 from Laplace’s Demon - “:)”

Spinarak (Premier Ball) X137 from Gorge Henry - “I finally got my shiny you can have the extras”

Heracross (Friend Ball) X1 from Toby - “For my fellow bug type trainers out there!”

Nacli from a guy who had a few of these Lil dudes - "Depositing a nacil in the bank hopefully someone will take the little salty guy out here."

Delta/δ Psychic Treecko from Anonymous - "how did this happen"

Pidove (Normal X3, Shiny X2) from @shadow-but-pokemon - “My Litten keeps bringing these home and then frees them in my room”

Scatterbug X3 from Anonymous

shiny starly (normal pokeball) x10 from @skittyentropy - "Please for love of arceus just take them"

Joltik x1 from @roguerunawaytrainer - Had the little guy snacking on my electricity for a bit, thought maybe someone else may want him more than I

roaring moon x1 from Anonymous - going in area zero was the worst decision of my life

🥚 - - Eggs - - 🐣

Skarmory Egg X14 from Fulgora - “give these to those trustworthy or good with steel types”

Phione Egg X2 from A - “I AM RUNNING FOR MY LIFE TAKE THESE OFF OF ME PLEASE.”

Goomy Egg X13 from Amy Goop and Anonymous - “since ur making that surprise item withdrawl, I just thought it’d be fun to send some of the goomy eggs I have :D” “I’m depositing the goomy egg because I’m stuck in a hailstorm and I don’t want the egg to crack from the hail”

Zorua (Hisui* Breed) Egg X6 from Devi - “I am trying to get rid of the 27 zorua eggs and this is a good start, probably”

Jirachi, and Diancie eggs (1X each, All identical) from cc - “uh… could you have it so people cant purposefully withdraw them? it has to be by chance. also only give them out one at a time or something..?”

Regular Egg X100 from Anonymous - “regular eggs to give to people :D (each one is actually a separate ditto)”

Vulpix Egg X110 from Anonymous - “So, apparently getting startled and thusly falling off the fucking cliff, away from your very active picnic, leaving you to crawl your way back over several days…. I am not greatly impressed with 2/6 of my pokemon right now. I’d say mad, but… this is not the first time I’ve fallen off a cliff. Wasn’t even the first this week. Rights to be worried over were revoked well before this.”

Tatsugiri Eggs X10 from Anonymous - “tatsugiri be upon ye” “woe, even more Tatsugiri for the world”

Buizel, and Pawmi egg x3 (each) from Florence - “Still have some eggs left over that I need to find good homes for. Please make sure these end up in safe hands.”

Greavard Egg x2 from Florence - “Still have some eggs left over that I need to find good homes for. Please make sure these end up in safe hands.”

Smeargle Egg X3 from Kohaku - “feels like i’ve been taking a lot, so figured i’d give some stuff in exchange :)”

Void Shadow egg X5 from ifbench - “Like a Ditto, but much, much more terrifying!”

Dreepy egg X5 from historianofgalar - "because I keep finding them"

Eevee Egg X1 - (parents are a female Leafeon and either a male Jolteon, a male off colored Cyndaquil, or a male Sprigatito) from alex-and-pokemams “I don't know what to do with this... someone can have it and give it a good home!”

Hatenna eggs X1 from based-trainer-ace "my hatterene turned out to be a HARLOT /lh"

Growlithe eggs X7 from @dragoneyejewellery -you know that arcanine and Inteleon share an egg group? because I sure fucking didn’t

Scatterbug Egg X12 from Anonymous - “those damm Vivillon got at my berry trees again”

Sinistea egg, x1 from Truce - It's a long story, but I don't need this.

💿 - - TMs + HMs - - 📀

A stack of unlabeled TMs (x50)

TM92 Trick Room x39 from pastmyprimeape - “Stocked up because they were on sale, and now I have stacks of discs, thank you for your help.”

X12 of various bug type tms from Item Maker Alpha - “too many resources and now we got too many bug TMs to hold or make use of”

- - Other - -

treasure chests x 48. “A surprise in a surprise!”

N/A from Anonymous x-1 - “there is an item here i swear! the item is n/a :3 no idea what effects it has but hey! maybe someone wants an item that doesn’t technically exist!”

Exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! X525495 from Rosie!!! @oh-shinx - “I have plenty more!!!!!!!!!!! So here are some of my spares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A very detailed painting of a Mankey and Incredible muscle pain 1x from Anonymous - “Because my life is hell.”

Odd Keystone + one (1) malevolent spirit + master ball from Anonymous - “to be given out together”

A 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house from N/A - “does anyone want a house. lol”

Sadnesses and worries (x96) from anonymous -"I'm finally free!"

Closet filled of Pokemon costumes (costume amount is not specified)

george X1 from george

Pokèdollar X5,000,000 from N/A - “haiii :3 I’m laundering this can you hold it for me for a few months ^^”

x49 Sand attacks. Just sprays the withdrawer with sand as soon as they withdraw it from Anonymous - "FUCK YOU FOR NO REASON IN PARTICULAR"

x49 moves recover. It'll heal the person as soon as they withdraw it from Anonymous - "i love you for no reason in particular! :3"

Glunch X01 from anonymous -"It's the glunch man it's pretty self explanatory."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ x1

200 stealth rock piles from _Intern from @poke-irs-real - note: Been working on this for a while.

ERROR, ITEM NOT FOUND. X1

(*another name for Ancient Sinnoh)

#last edited by mod pikl june 11

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therecordconnection · 1 year ago

Text

Ranting and Raving: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang

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Recently, I started reading The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, a really great book by Jonathan Abrams that came out back in October last year. It’s a thorough work, taking its time to really cover the genre, from all its major landmarks (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, the Midwest, etc.) and most of its major players are interviewed and represented in it. I really recommend it if you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot of the deep lore surrounding hip-hop’s history (like me) and you’re looking to learn more.

2023 marked the year of hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary and it’s done a lot of well-earned celebrating throughout. There were tons of retrospectives done, the Grammys held a live concert to honor the occasion, and many Spotify playlists were made to help a new generation of hip-hop lovers go back and become immersed in the full history. It’s a good thing that the fiftieth anniversary had so much dedicated to it and people could enjoy looking back, because this year has been very strange for the genre in terms of mainstream Billboard chart success.

From August 2022 to August 2023, no rap song topped the Hot 100 chart, which hasn’t happened for twenty-three years. Rappers were still very much successful and there were still albums that hit the top of the album charts (Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia, Drake’s For All the Dogs topped it twice) but there was no single song that topped the Hot 100. That dry spell finally ended when Doja Cat managed to break the slump with “Paint the Town Red,” which became a number one hit back in September. In a year where Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift reigned supreme with no end in sight (especially if you’re Taylor Swift), it was almost a good thing that hip-hop was able to focus on looking back and enjoying how far it's come and celebrate all that the genre has achieved in such a short time.

Anyway, as I was reading the first chapters of The Come Up, which focus on hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and how it grew out of New York and out of the block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in 1973, I was captivated. As I kept going though, there was one thing I kept wondering about.

When do the Sugarhill Gang enter into the story?

When I was young, I had always been under the impression that the Sugarhill Gang were among the first rap pioneers, more or less believing they were the first MCs to spit into the mic and bring hip-hop into the world. They... kinda did, but also not really. They were responsible for playing a major part in the genre becoming the cultural juggernaut we recognize it as today, but as for pioneers? Your mileage will vary on that and I hope that’ll become clear soon as we start discussing them.

Now, I want it to be known that being a white guy from Bumfuck Nowhere, Pennsylvania, my hip-hop history knowledge has always had giant gaps in it that I’ve only been starting to fill up in recent years. I imagine for many others like myself, they’re only just now really learning the history of hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and what the first MCs unleashed. If you’re not much of a reader, Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution is a really great series that covers a ton of that early history. Charlie Ahern’s 1982 film Wild Style also serves as a historical time capsule of that history as it was being written. The Sugarhill Gang get discussed in Hip-Hop Evolution’s second episode, but they’re nowhere to be found in Wild Style.

So, as I was learning about hip-hop and rap’s origins in New York, eventually the Sugarhill Gang did make an appearance. What I ended up learning gave me an entirely new fascination with a song that up until recently I had just found enjoyable and didn’t think too much of. “Rapper’s Delight” is such a fascinating song. Let me count the ways. Why don’t we start with who the Sugarhill Gang are?

The story of the Sugarhill Gang begins with a woman named Sylvia Robinson, often dubbed the “Mother of Hip-Hop.” A shrewd businesswoman, she was the head of All Platinum Records, a label that started in and ran through the seventies (Sugarhill Records, where “Rapper’s Delight” was released, was a subsidiary of All Platinum and formed in order to focus on the emerging rap scene). Robinson was also a musician herself, being one half of the guitar duo Mickey and Sylvia, scoring a hit in 1956 with “Love is Strange” (a song you definitely know if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing). Sylvia herself also had a hit in 1973 with the song “Pillow Talk.” Robinson has lived a life that goes beyond the scope of our subject today, so we’ll stick with knowing her as a businesswoman. If you want to learn more about Robinson’s story, this Billboard piece on her from 2019 is a good place to start.

In 1979, All Platinum was facing bankruptcy and was in desperate need of a smash hit in order to save it. Robinson had agreed to attend a party at Harlem World, a popular disco club in the late seventies and early eighties at 116th & Lenox Ave, in Harlem. Abrams tells the story of how Robinson first discovered the music that could save her label in The Come Up:

“Robinson witnessed Lovebug Starski work the turntables and the crowd into a frenzy with his call-and-responses. Robinson wanted to capture the music and release it commercially. When Lovebug Starski declined the arrangement, Robinson went on a hunt for other artists.”

Robinson’s search for talent, led by her son Joey Robinson, Jr., took them to a pizza parlor in New Jersey. It still exists today. It’s Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood, NJ (the surviving members of the Gang are interviewed there in Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution). The story goes like this:

The Sugarhill Gang are made up of three guys: Michael Wright (“Wonder Mike”), Henry Jackson (*Big Bank Hank”), and Guy O’ Brien (“Master Gee”). Robinson only came to hear Big Bank spit, but Wonder Mike and Master Gee also auditioned for her. Unable to make a decision on which one to go with, she ultimately decided to say “fuck it!” and made them a trio.

It’s the best decision she could’ve made.

They auditioned on a Friday night and by Monday they were in the studio cutting the track. The three guys just kept passing the mic to one another and eventually the full song wound up being fifteen minutes long.

We’ll get into the rhymes a bit later, but now that we’re familiar with the gang, we should cover what “Rapper’s Delight” ended up being the first of. Hip-hop may have already existed in the Bronx and New York scene for about six years before the gang came along and scored a bonafide hit, but the song does have legitimate cred. It’s the first rap song that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and the first rap song to break into the Top 40. It paved the way for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to get onto Billboard with 1982’s “The Message” (peaked at #62) and led to eventual chart dominators like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, which would start sprouting up a few years after the Gang made their mark. The Sugarhill Gang are also some of the first rappers to film an official music video (which is linked above at the top) and be seen performing on pre-MTV television (there are so many videos out there of them performing this on TV shows. It’s nuts).

Listening to it, it’s not hard to understand why this song still gets written into the history books. First, this shit holds the fuck up. Second, it’s probably the easiest example to use if the aliens ever visit and Captain Cleevmorp asks, “W h a t i s t h i s t h i n g y o u c a l l . . . ‘r a p m u s i c’?” It’s ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time (“Good Times” was released June 4th, 1979, “Rapper’s Delight” appeared September 16th, 1979) but at its core, it’s a rap song and nobody could mistake it for anything else. Did I mention this is ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time? I feel like that’s an important part of the story.

Do you like “Good Times” by Chic? If you do, then hoo boy, do I have the song for you! I don’t think I’m blowing any minds here when I say that musically, “Rapper’s Delight” is quite literally just three guys rapping over an instrumental version of “Good Times” by Chic. I feel the need to stress that it is NOT a sample of “Good Times,” though you would be forgiven for thinking it is. “Rapper’s Delight” came out during a time when the technology for rap sampling and looping didn’t exist yet, so the production team behind “Rapper’s Delight” had to bring in session guys to recreate the song from scratch. They did such a good job recreating it, Nile Rodgers (guitarist) and Bernard Edwards (bassist) from Chic threatened to sue them. They eventually settled out of court, getting co-writing credits on the song and, according to the Library of Congress, “a substantial undisclosed amount of money made off of album sales and performances.”

Chic won, but Curtis Brown, better known as New York rapper Grandmaster Caz, didn’t. Now might be a good time to start talking about the lyrics to the song.

For brevity’s sake, we will not be going over all fifteen minutes of this thing (I’ve never made it through the entire song. It just goes on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on). Rather, we’re going to focus on most single/video versions of the song and just cover the most important parts.

Wonder Mike is the first one up. Equipped with a friendly voice and a smooth delivery, he spits some of the most important opening lines in rap history.

I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie The hip hip hop and you don't stop the rockin' To the bang-bang, boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

According to Mike in Hip Hop Evolution, these are the lines he used when auditioning with Sylvia Robinson. Those four lines alone tell you everything you need to know about rap flow and delivery. It’s obviously very primitive compared to what MCs are doing now (and even what MCs were doing when this song got big) but to an unsuspecting audience outside of New York that had no idea what the hell rap was at all, those lines are an immediate attention grabber. I’ve always adored the line that comes after those initial four: “Now, what you hear is not a test I'm rappin' to the beat.” It’s a great way to present something strange and new to an audience without alienating them or scaring them away. People in 1979 had long known about disco and would’ve recognized the music immediately, but the rapping part was a new ballgame and Mike’s delivery in the opening verse lays down the framework for the rest of the song. At its core, “Rapper’s Delight” is a laid back and fun party anthem and he immediately sets that tone with his opening verse. He’s a good straight man compared to the goofy braggadocio that starts immediately once he passes it to Big Bank Hank.

If “Rapper’s Delight” is beloved, it’s because Big Bank comes in and just kills it from the moment he steps up to the mic. The man just sells it and then some. He’s got great flow, a fun loving attitude, tons of style, and a goofy but confident swagger completely on lock. Depending on the version you’re listening to, he’s going for almost two minutes straight with barely any breaks. For one of the first rap songs ever put to vinyl, it’s an impressive feat. He’s got a lot of really great rhymes too.

It’s just a shame he didn’t write a lot of them...

Remember when I said Chic won their lawsuit threat but Grandmaster Caz didn’t end up being so lucky? That’s because a good chunk of the rhymes Big Bank is using are actually Caz’s and it wasn’t a secret to the New York rappers hearing it at the time.

One dead giveaway is in this line: “The women fight for my delight / But I'm the grandmaster with the three MCs.” Three MCs, huh? But there’s only three of you. There would have to be four of you in order for that line to work. It worked when Caz said that as part of the group Cold Crush Brothers, because there were four of them. Another Caz line is near the beginning of Big Bank’s first verse: “Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A-N, the O-V-A / And the rest is F-L-Y.” “Casanova” was a nickname of Caz’s. Caz reveals more stolen rhymes and where Big Bank got them from when interviewed for The Come Up:

“Sometimes I’ve been misquoted, and then sometimes I’ve made the mistake of saying I wrote all of Big Bank Hank’s lines for ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ What I meant is his verses. I meant his rhymes. But the little bridges, the hook, that’s DJ Hollywood. That, ‘Imp the Dimp, the ladies’ pimp. The women fight for my . . ., that’s Rahiem from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Those two things, I didn’t write, but the full rhymes he says, ‘I’m the C-A-S-AN, the O-V-A from the time I was only six years old’ and then the Superman and Lois Lane, I wrote all of that.”

Whether Big Bank got to see a book of Caz’s rhymes and learn them from reading that is up for debate. Caz claims in both The Come Up and Hip-Hop Evolution that Hank didn’t have to study. He knew them all just from knowing Caz and being around him. If you want to hear Caz get bitter about it (which he has every right to be) he addressed this issue of plagiarism in 2000 with the song “MC Delight” (“the cat who bit this rhyme was my manager, pure treason I'll tell you why...”).

It does take the wind out of the sails a bit when you learn Big Bank cribbed from other rappers for “Rapper’s Delight,” because he’s a very fun and energetic performer with a great voice and great flow, but once you learn the rhymes were stolen from guys who would never get any of the glory of “the first rap hit,” you start to feel bad and look at Big Bank as nothing more than a thief. It blows. New York DJ Grandmixer DXT voices the backlash and problematic nature of getting caught ripping somebody else off in Hip-Hop Evolution:

"Hank was saying a rhyme that we was hearing at the parties already, and he's saying somebody else's rhyme. And for us, that's a catastrophic no-no. There were people who would get beat up for saying somebody's rhyme. And here's a record where this guy bites and actually records it. Like, that was just the worst thing ever."

It goes without saying that the biggest problem with Hank ripping off rap’s founding fathers in the Bronx is that the Sugarhill Gang gets credit for being the first rap stars when one of them is pretty shamelessly ripping off lines from every rapper he heard in New York. There’s no evidence that everything in Hank’s verses are ripped off from somewhere, but there’s evidence of plagiarism all the same. Luckily, Master Gee and Wonder Mike’s parts are both authentic as well as fully written by them. Which is good because once Gee takes over from Big Bank, he takes a little time to get going, but eventually starts feeling himself and really starts delivering some Grade-A stuff. Most of his lines are either about bragging about his status as a ladies man, observations about the listener dancing to the music, and how he’s the youngest member of the three, but can still keep up with the best of them. I do like that his first brag is how he goes by the “unforgettable name” of Master Gee. Personally, I actually think all three of their names are pretty dumb and lame as far as rap names go, but they’re among some of the first rappers so it’s not like they had any way to avoid that.

Master Gee’s most impressive moment is this verse right here, written out in full:

I got a little face and a pair of brown eyes All I'm here to do, ladies, is hypnotize Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on The beat don't stop until the break of dawn Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on Like a hot buttered pop-da-pop-da-pop, dibbie dibbie Pop-da-pop-pop, you don't dare stop Come alive, y'all, gimme whatcha got

It’s stuff that’s downright corny by today’s standards, but Gee’s ability to spit all that without getting tongue-tied is more than I can say for myself. He’s got really great control; all three of them do. Mike, Big Bank, and Gee each deliver their parts like a never-ending party and when you listen to the full version of the song (that fifteen minute monster!) it has the feel of a party where you and your friends are just shooting the shit and passing around a blunt or something to each other. The three of them all seem like friends that are collectively goofballs just having a good time, which is one reason why I think the song has enjoyed the long life it’s had.

I also think the reason this song has lived so long is because white people LOVE this song. Of course they do! It’s a pretty sanitized version of the kind of music that was being made in New York at the time. There’s no message to it, no commentary about social issues, or even using old records in a creative way like the DJs of the day had been doing. Everything about this song was specifically engineered to be commercially viable, right down to completely ripping off a song that had already been a hit less than four months beforehand.

A mainstream audience (read: white) was absolutely slammed with pretty much nothing but disco for most of 1977, all of 1978, and most of 1979 before a bunch of people finally snapped and held a massive bonfire in Chicago about it. “Good Times” was something they already knew and something disco lovers still enjoyed, so you could ease them into this strange new thing called “rappin’ to the beat” and they would understand it without being confused. To most, it was probably just a different style of disco song at the time. It wouldn’t be until the mid-eighties when people would start to begin to understand a better definition for what rap is.

Obviously, the song has a wide appeal and white people really enjoying it isn’t the only reason, but that definitely plays a major factor. You’re looking at the song that inadvertently launched a thousand novelty rap songs in the eighties, all featuring white guys who should’ve never been allowed to be anywhere near a rap song. Rodney Dangerfield with “Rappin’ Rodney,” the Beach Boys with the Fat Boys on “Wipeout,” Joe Piscopo doing “Honeymooners Rap” with Eddie Murphy, and, lest we forget "The Super Bowl Shuffle" by The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew. What I’m trying to get at is this: The Sugarhill Gang made it so that if they, three dorks from New Jersey working in a pizza parlor, can rap, you probably can figure it out too. Adding to the “White People Have Propped This Song Up as a Monument” theory is how many things have referenced this song over the years. Here’s a Homer Simpson toy that raps the song and dances to it. The grandmother from The Wedding Singer famously does it (also adding to the “elderly women rapping” trope). Jimmy Fallon once had somebody cut and splice NBC anchors Brian Williams and Lester Holt rapping the song. Kid Rock’s breakout 1999 hit “Bawitdaba” references the song in its chorus (“Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy / Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie”). And there’s of course the famous 2002 Las Ketchup song “Asereje,” though you probably know it better as “The Ketchup Song,” which is about someone who goes to the club and asks the DJ to play "Rapper's Delight" and sings along in gibberish because he doesn't know the English lyrics. The point is that this song has been propped up by a lot of people who should NOT be considered rappers (yes, that includes Kid Rock).

I think the first time I ever started to have suspicions that the song wasn’t universally adored was when I watched In Living Color for the first time. There’s a sketch in the first season where Keenan Ivory Wayans plays Jesse Jackson and goes for the joke that everyone used to make about him: That he speaks in rhymes, almost like he’s a real life version of Gruntilda the witch from Banjo-Kazooie. Anyway, there’s a sketch where Jackson is giving his final State of the Union address (in the world of this sketch, he beat George H. W. Bush in ‘92 and has been president for eight years) and gives his address in the most basic AA BB CC rhyme scheme that wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s book. After a few of them, Wayans-as-Jackson breaks and quickly says: “Hip hop, you don't stop the rockin' / To the bang-bang, boogie, the beat,” which I took to be an insult that the rhymes in that song were just as basic as anything Jackson had ever said. The idea that “Rapper’s Delight” was wack was something I think I had already known in the back of my head but didn’t want to say because I thought that would just make me sound like a guy who hates fun. But, upon reading and hearing testimonies from the founding fathers of rap in New York, I realized that the big sin of “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t that it was wack...

Its biggest sin was that it was made by a bunch of posers.

Sylvia Robinson didn’t know anything about the hip-hop and rap scene developing in New York, but she knew it was something that could be monetized if it was done and presented in the right way. Wonder Mike and Master Gee weren’t real rappers with any credibility, they were just guys working in a pizza parlor in New Jersey who were given the opportunity of a lifetime. Big Bank was the only one who could lay claim to having connections in the Bronx. He grew up there, worked the doors at famous Bronx nightclub The Sparkle, and also served as a manager for Grandmaster Caz (whom he would later rip off). “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t made by starving artists who were pivotal to creating a new scene, it was made by a bunch of posers who had everything to gain from it. New York rappers interviewed in The Come Up knew this and were justifiably pissed about the song. The only testimony that was kind to them came from Kool Moe Dee, who understood the backlash as well as the song being embraced by white America.

“I understood why there was a lot of MCs at the time that didn’t like it, because I just think the social construct of oppression puts us against each other in many ways. In my opinion, many African Americans have a hard time giving other African Americans credit for achieving because so much of white America accepted that record and they started to define it from their perspective. And we’re saying we’ve already been here; it’s not new. So a backlash was on Sugar Hill that wasn’t deserved because they didn’t ask for it. ... So it was never not really hip-hop. We just had gotten more lyrically sophisticated at that time and the record was a great record. And looking back, if it wasn’t for Sugar Hill, we might not have an industry as prominent as we have because of the success of ‘Rapper’s Delight.’”

Kool Moe is right. It wasn’t their fault that “Rapper’s Delight” took off the way it did. Robinson was cashing in on what she saw as “the new thing” and wanted in. The song taking off the way it did happened the way a lot of hits happen: it was the right song with the right artists at the right place at the right time. “Rapper’s Delight” has stuck around the way it has because it captures a beautiful moment where music history is at a crossroads. The golden age of disco is going to be gone when the ball drops on January 1st, 1980, but rap music is only just getting started and by the end of the eighties it will begin its big mainstream explosion and keep going from there.

“Rapper’s Delight” captures rap in its beautiful infancy. What it lacks in authenticity, it makes up for by being representative of what was going on at the time. It’s a time capsule. No matter which version of this song you choose, it sounds like a never ending party that everyone is invited to and a party where everyone is your friend. It’s fun, it’s infectious, and the three hosts are entertaining as hell as they pass the mic back and forth and keep the party going. Mike, Hank, and Gee created a fun rap song for beginners: it’s a very easy song to understand sonically and it’s an easy song to learn how to rap along to. The rhymes aren’t super complicated and the most you’d have to learn and work out is how to get the flow right and how to not trip over the words. If you can master Wonder Mike’s opening lines (if a Homer Simpson toy can do it, so can you!) the rest comes easy. Learning Big Bank and Master Gee’s parts aren’t complicated either and it becomes fun to recite along with them once you start getting it down. The beat of “Good Times” is very easy to keep up with and follow so that helps it as an excellent beginner song. Despite the criticisms against it, “Rapper’s Delight” still stands as a fantastic party song and it’s not hard to see why people still enjoy getting down to it even now. If you play it at the right party, you’ll hear a whole room recite the lyrics and just have fun with it. Hip-hop and Rap started life as block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in ‘73 and the Sugarhill Gang continued that tradition by capturing that party on vinyl. The rap world has changed in many ways since the Gang started rappin’ to the beat, but it keeps its status as a legendary rap song because it’s the party rap song that all party rap songs aspire to. Forget authenticity and leave your notions about “what rap really is about” at the door and just let loose. With the Sugarhill Gang, the party goes on-and-and-on-and-on-and-on

And the beat don't stop until the break of dawn.

#original post #ranting and raving #sugarhill gang #music criticism #Youtube

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