#like it's obviously such a common thing that a song you associated with a relationship can hurt too much after a breakup

[justagirlluckyme]

My thoughts on the Melanie Martinez and Timothy Heller situation as a fan since 2016/2017

When I first become a fan of Melanie Martinez I was around 8-9 years old and incredibly impressionable. I was too young to understand the gravity of the situation and when I saw people like Crow (formally known as Piper Sweeney) defending Melanie I immediately believed it. Looking back, his arguments were incredibly flawed and his main point was “I’m a victim as well and I didn’t react that way to my trauma so Timothy must be lying.” As well as a fake instagram story where Timothy allegedly admitted to lying due to her mental health issues. There’s so much more to the Crow, Melanie, and Timothy situation but that’s for another discussion.

Another common argument I’ve seen is that Timothy must be lying since she doesn’t fit the perfect victim role. She lacks vulnerability, believability, and respectability. The reason many people believe this is because of many racist and fascist posts she’s made below 👇

Got screenshot from TikTok

Naturally, people find it hard to respect or believe someone like this. But, you can be an awful person and a victim of abuse. Obviously, I will never defend Timothy for these posts as they go against every belief I hold as a human being (hopefully everyone’s beliefs), but someone being flawed and not fitting your perfect blameless victim mentality doesn’t mean you can’t be abused. Again, I don’t like or would ever associate with her but she’s still able to be a victim.

When the allegations were first introduced in 2017 I believe, this was Melanie’s response:

The biggest portion people take out of this is “she never said no to what we chose to do together.” The phrasing of this was very very icky to me. It almost felt like a confession because “not saying no” is clearly not consent. Then again, the part where she says “what we chose to do together” part made it seem as if it was a mutual agreement. But, the phrasing was poor so it’s hard to say. Later, Melanie released the song Piggyback on SoundCloud and to me it was in poor taste. She only released it on SoundCloud because “she didn’t want to profit off of 🍇 allegations.” But it felt very unnecessary. Essentially, it felt like a diss track.

Many people say, “why are we brining this to TikTok and not settling this in a court case?” According to the Washington post, “Just 5.7 percent of incidents end in arrest, 0.7 percent result in a felony conviction and 0.6 percent result in incarceration” Now, imagine those odds against a millionaire celebrity with seemingly no proof other than each others words. There’s not much incentive to want to settle things legally. Though I agree, it may have been better to settle things privately but I understand her wanting to be believed.

Another thing I’ve seen against Timothy is she got the dates of the sleepover wrong when asked about it. Regardless of the dates, both Melanie and Timothy agreed the encounter occurred so it really doesn’t seem important when it happened.

“Why would Timothy stay friends with Melanie after it happened and dress up as her?” Everyone responds to trauma differently. It’s not uncommon to stay in relationships with abusers and if you’ve ever listened to other victims stories, it’s actually quite common. Of course, not everyone is going to react the same way and it feels unfair to say “well if I was in that situation I would never do that!” But the truth is, you don’t know. I’ve never been abused in that way so I have no idea how I would react. Everyone responds differently.

I’ve seen many people say “I hope these allegations aren’t true because I’m seeing her live soon!” Or “I’ve spent so much money on merch this better not be true!” And to that I say, this isn’t about you. This isn’t about you or me or anyone else other than Melanie and Timothy. Yes, I’ve bought Mel merch in the past but I feel the money I’ve potentially wasted is not relevant right now. Yes, this is very disappointing as Melanie’s music and art has essentially raised me, but there’s a much bigger problem than things like that.

There’s so much misinformation being spread by both parties defenders it’s hard to say which proof is true or not. At this point, I’m just waiting for Melanie’s response to all this. As of right now, only Melanie and Timothy truly know what happened that night. Unless some new proof comes out, it’s likely we’ll never know the truth. Everything I stated above is just my thoughts on it all. I feel the need to reiterate this, in no way do I endorse or support timothy for all the horrid things she’s said and done! This is a very sticky situation. She has a poor character and if the 🍇 allegations are true, Melanie does as well. All I know is I’d rather believe a potential victim rather than a potential 🍇ist.

If you are an active Melanie supporter and defender I want you to ask yourself this: if Melanie wasn’t famous, you never listened to her music, never bought her merch, never attended a concert of hers, would you be defending her? Don’t let your belief bias cloud your judgement. If she was an average person with these allegations EVERYONE would be on Timothy’s side. “But I know Mel and her music shows her morals, she would never!” You don’t know her at all. You have no relationship with her and if you truly believe you do it’s parasocial.

This is just my 2 cents on the situation. I tried to be as mature and respectful as possible.

I apologize if there’s any typos. I’m writing this at 2 am as I had many opinions I wanted to share as a long time Mel fan. As of right now, I probably won’t stream her music. People say “seperate the art from the artist” but I find that difficult when my streams directly go to her pockets.

If you read this, thank you! If you have any thoughts to share or points I missed feel free to comment. I will be heading to bed now, goodnight :)

[beecreeper]

Yippie new ask list! 13, 21, 26, 30

13.) Does your OC have a rival? How did it start?

Hm. I guess for Briar I would have to say Orin but like. Briar did NOT give Orin the time of day. That rivalry was ENTIRELY all on Orin’s side while Briar ignored Orin completely (which, of course, just infuriated Orin even more).

And I dunno. Neither Molli, Ferox, or Poppy are ambitious enough to have rivals. Molli’s has such nothing self-esteem that her grandest aspiration is “semi-regular tavern performer”, Ferox is like “please i do NOT want attention or praise for anything please but ESPECIALLY not for the things that I am good at (namely reducing people to piles of wet meat). I want to disappear entirely please and thank you”, and Poppy is just chillin’.

I think I might kinda describe Myrala and Nine Fingers as rivals? Kinda? In Myrala’s tav timeline, when she’s living in Baldur’s Gate and trying to do Eilistraee missionary work, Nine Fingers/the Guild keeps popping up in her life and making things difficult by like, recruiting Myrala’s refugees into guild crews or running projection rackets on people that Myrala is trying to help. Nine Fingers also learns that Myrala used to be a very competent thief in her day and keeps trying to recruit her. And Myrala, who is getting REAL disillusioned with failing to substantially help anyone and constantly struggling to make ends meet, is getting REAL close to taking her up on it.

21.)What song best describes their relationship with their enemy?

Answered here!

26.) What flower do you associate your OC with?

Briar:

Ghost pipe! It’s all white because it doesn’t photosynthesize. Instead, it’s a parasite that feeds on fungi!

Molli:

Daisies. Cute and simple and also my personal favorites

Ferox and Myrala:

They both get Forget me nots. Myrala particularly loved any sort of small, weedy common flowers because they were very emblematic to her of the difference between the surface and the underdark and an example of a small, common piece of beauty that you can find literally everywhere as long as your look for it and appreciate it. But forget me nots were her favorite and, accordingly, they were Ferox’s favorite also.

Poppy:

Well duh

30.) My OC and your OC are friends. This isn’t a question. I’m not asking. (How do they respond?)

Okay I know we’ve already established that Briar and Sunflower are somehow inexplicably best friends. Sunflower manages to strike exactly the right balance of being a good influence on Briar without getting on her nerves and (through what I can only imagine as incredibly clutch persuasion rolls) says exactly the right thing to make Briar doubt herself long enough to not kill Isobel, which in turn starts the chain of events leading to “redeemed” Briar. I like how subdued and not obvious their friendship is. Briar is absolutely not acknowledging that they are friends and not acting necessarily acting like it either, but like it or not Sunflower is somehow the closest person in her life. Really extreme black cat / golden retriever energy.

Also obviously Molli and Sunflower would get along really well, jamming as bards together especially and just being chatterboxes.

For Valora I think, out of my OCs, Poppy would get along with her the best. They both got that yolo zest for life, wanderlust, and curiosity. I can imagine Poppy telling stories about all the places she’s traveled and all the people she’s met and Valora just hanging on her every word. Conversely, Poppy would think Valora is just super cool, ESPECIALLY if/when she learns about the whole Bhaalblob thing.

I gotta ruminate more on the all specific dynamics between my ocs and yours but I’m gonna stop here for now lest I keep typing forever.

[27emailsicantsend]

Here is Ashlyn’s! :)

Favorite thing about them: So this might sound a little like Kourtney’s, but I promise I see them as two very distinct characters. I really love Ashlyn’s ability to unapologetically be herself. She knows herself inside and out and is so willing to go the extra mile if it is for the sake of authenticity. Integrity seems to be a common theme for her throughout the seasons. Kourtney is more about self-discovery whereas Ashlyn is more about knowing who she is already and not letting outside sources shock that system.

Least favorite thing about them: I know a lot of people were “bugged” by her season 3 but honestly she didn’t really bother me. The only time I remember getting frustrated with her was in s2 when Gina was obviously going through something and she had that line “it’s not that serious”. I have heard other people say this before and it is so invalidating. Nothing irks me more than someone thinking because they’re fine, everyone else should be too. Even writing about it now gets me heated 😂

Favorite line(s):

“I sort of forgot the documentary was even coming out *cue smile*”

When she mouths “milking?”

“I got the part! I got Belle! I’m Belle!”

“I suppose you could say that my dating pool got a little bigger… and so did my heart”

“Oh. That’s why.”

“But I think it could be yours, Anna. And you deserve it.”

“But, you know, I’ve always been interested in psychology ever since losing my unborn twin. In prison. DURING A RECESSION”.

Miss Jenn: You’re giving me uncommon depth. Miss Darbus? Ashlyn: “I’m dying. I’m deceased. Yes.” (And then her parallel to this in 3x5)

OTP: equally Redlyn and Madlyn

nOTP: Ashlyn and Val

brOTP: Ashlyn and EJ

Something I expect from them season 4 (if applicable): I talked about this before, but I very much could see the show going in a “Ashlyn accepting herself/queerness” s4 type of vibe. I think she and Red could break up so she discovers herself, but Maddox takes that as Ashlyn wanting to get with her. So Ashlyn is like “I meant time for myself… play the field ya know” but the whole season ends up being Ashlyn not being good at playing the field and Maddox pining/always being there for her. So then the last episode we either get Madlyn endgame or Ashlyn accepting herself/pursuing single life and hinting towards a future of them as endgame.

Random Headcanon: When Ashlyn comes back from CSL, she tells Red that she’s queer and then they spend the majority of their time checking out boys and girls together (with Red’s uncanny lip reading)

Unpopular Opinion: I love Redlyn and Madlyn equally. I think they both could be good endgames and I would have been happy with the show going either way.

Song I associate with them: “Home” from Beauty and the Beast. I know it’s technically in the show, but I was listening to a Broadway version of it and all I could think of was Ashlyn Caswell. That performance could have won Emmy’s it was so well done. I sob in that scene every time (especially her just hugging Gina without any words, but those unspoken words were enough to redeem their relationship… TEARS)

Favorite picture of them: she’s literally so pretty how could I choose just one 🥹

[faith--in-the-future]

your tags here…yk this is something i’ve been thinking about as well, how louis’ songs often seem to be like they’re written from female perspective and i’ve always found it really interesting also louis talked about something similar as well…it’s probably down to him being around women all his life but also it truly does seem like some of his songs at least are written about a guy and add to it the fact some his songs having queer themes as well…makes you think huh ✍🏻

also i found it really interesting as well when this reactor said that she never was able to connect to male artist before louis because she’s “female identifying person” (9:47-10:10) and i was like…whoa

I'm too much of a girl 😭😭 oh baby louis u were so sweet and innocent shsh

but yeah totally! and I care to make the distinction here that when I say sometimes his lyrics feel like they're written by a woman I mean that bc generally and stereotypically we're used to hearing this kind of feelings/perspective from women, in particular women writing about men, not bc there's an inherent "womanly" or "mainly" way to write, obviously there aren't and probably in the future the 2 will mix more thanks to more musicians like louis but yeah if u look at the popular songs we've always listened to its much more common to find the themes of not being loved enough, begging for someone's love, saying that for long everything u did was for the other person, losing yourself in a toxic relationship, only becoming who you are now after that person left you (ex: "the day you left me was just my beginning" etc) have usually been brought on by women more than by men. also the way he talks about the flaws of the other person (they don't want to share their feelings with him, they try to act like they never feel any pain, they get lost in their pride and become ugly and unkind) are usually things we associate more with men + he differs from most straight male musicians bc he never sexualizes women in any part of his art

obviously nothing is for certain and I'm not trying to prove anything, the only thing that this proves is that louis is a very interesting and innovative songwriter that doesn't follow the usual stereotypes assigned to his gender and I'm sure that's also why he's able to connect with so many women (also could be one of the reasons why he's not taken very seriously in the indie Boys scenes ?? too soft? idk)

also from the post u linked I saw this

baby louis predicted the soft boy era... he was always ahead of his time 😌

[rookflower]

For the opinion ask challenge How Do you feel about Swiftpaw?

sexuality/gender headcanon: never thought about it before. first thing to pop into my head is transmasc and aro/ace and i like that for him, so uh, that I guess?

rating out of 10: 7/10, there's not that much there but i gotta give it to him the guy makes for some great animations so that definitely factors in

fav thing about them: concise but incredibly impactful character arc for what is basically a background character to whom things happen offscreen. congrats of having one of the coolest deaths in the series, pal

least fav thing about them: i don't think there is anything to Actively Dislike about swiftpaw if i'm being honest, so again probably the fact that he's inherently not a very deep character. not necessarily a fault mind you, just limits my attachment a bit.

when i first started liking them: when he died LOL

favourite moment: i feel like this is self-explanatory

fav ship: n/a, don't think he ever really interacts with any unrelated cats in his age group. besides cloudtail i suppose, but uh, i don't ship them.

fav platonic relationship: brightheart! his apprentice/mentor relationship with longtail is also great, at least fanon-wise.

ship i hate: swiftbright.... they are cousins, sorry. i normally wouldn't feel to mention obviously gross non-canon stuff here but feel like this is a weirdly understated fact considering it's probably the most common instance i see of people accidentally shipping closely related cats.

prefer canon or fanon?: fanon! people have gotten some really cool things out of swiftpaw.

random headcanon: i like to think he grew up very close with his cousins cinderpelt/brackenfur/brightheart/thornclaw, due to being a similar age and not having any littermates of his own besides the deceased and dubiously-canon lynxkit. i also like to think he is named after the bird rather than the adjective, but doesn't tell people that because your prefix being a compliment is cool.

unpopular opinion: he shouldn't "have lived". listen, it feels mean to say that about any character who dies prematurely (just as a young adult in swift's case actually, since his ceremony was overdue), and i've seen swiftpaw lives aus that are really cool, but speaking canon-wise? swiftpaw's death IS swiftpaw's character, and if he'd survived happily he'd most likely be a boring background character who dies between books, or something. swiftpaw died for conflict and tragedy thank u swiftpaw

song i associate with them: neighbourhood ii (laika) by arcade fire

favourite map/amv/pmv: these feel like wildly easy picks and i know everyone's seen them already so im sorry. but come onnnn

my cat walked on my keyboard and added this: ff6666666666666666 , so that's her input

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Tattercoats

Favorite Thing About Them: I like that she's a Cinderella character who has a real relationship with her "fairy godfather" figure, the Gooseherd. People always ask "Why doesn't Cinderella's fairy godmother come to her sooner?" Well, in this variant, her helper is there from the beginning, and is her best friend. Presumably he waited to use his magic until it could help her in the best possible way, but in the meantime, she has his emotional support all along.

I also love the idea of a magic flute's music being used to transform her rags into a ballgown. Maybe it's my attachment to the opera The Magic Flute that makes me particularly enjoy it, but I think that's a very charming and creative form of magic for a Cinderella type of story to use.

Least Favorite Thing About Them: That she has to be bullied by the household servants as well as neglected in rags by her grandfather, poor thing. Most Cinderella retellings that have actual servants in the house portray them as being good friends to Cinderella, just powerless to stop her abuse (e.g. in Three Wishes for Cinderella or Ever After). It's horrible that these servants are so cruel instead.

Three Things I Have In Common With Them:

I like music.

I like elegant parties.

I think geese are nice birds.

Three Things I Don't Have In Common With Them:

I'm not blonde.

I'm not an orphan.

My grandparents all adored me when they were alive.

Favorite Line:

When the Prince first declares his love for her:

"You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife! Go and ask one of the great ladies you will see tonight at the king's ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats."

brOTP: The Gooseherd and the Nurse. In crossover-land, she might obviously be good friends with Cinderella, Donkeyskin, or any other rags-to-riches heroine.

OTP: The Prince.

nOTP: Her grandfather.

Random Headcanon: After her mother died in childbirth, her distraught grandfather blamed her father as well as her, and he either killed him in an insane fit of rage, or else her father left because he was afraid that would happen. This is why he isn't around.

Unpopular Opinion: Her story deserves to be adapted more often. I understand why it's not, because it's so similar to Cinderella, but it has great potential. In the first place, because the magical helper isn't just a deus ex machina, but Tattercoats's best friend whom she has a close relationship with from the start. Secondly, because a grandfather's scorn could be even more painful and poignant than a stepmother's. Third, because the Prince meets and falls in love with Tattercoats in her rags before the ball – so many Cinderella retellings change the story to make this happen, but here it already does.

Song I Associate With Them: None at the moment.

Favorite Picture of Them:

This illustration by Arthur Rackham:

This illustration by John D. Batten:

This book cover illustration by Margaret Chamberlain (my fifth grade teacher had this book in her collection of Cinderella variations rom around the world):

This illustration by Margaret Tomes:

This illustration by Shirley Hughes:

This illustration by an unknown artist:

[usuallyrated2stars]

Raph and Mikey's relationship as "Happiness" by Hobo Johnson.

Hear me out.

Before anyone misinterprets this at all, I will say that I got this idea 5% from my own personal projection, 30% from popular fanfiction, and 65% actual canon. If something seems to be a stretch, it's probably because of that small 35%.

Okay, the song describes the guy realizing that he hurt someone who is naturally talented and is going to live a great life and do things that will greatly surpass him. The twist is that the guy is happy that they will because he still very much cares for and loves this person, and this causes him to reflect on how desolate his own existence is.

In comes Mikey. Mikey is shown to, while not having obvious shows of brilliance like Donnie or the around-the-clock leadership capabilities like Leo, still be incredibly talented. He is the most natural potential according to Splinter, he is quite agile, can adapt well in stressful situations like Dimension X, can calm down or bring up the people around him, creative, DOES have moments of great intelligence, has likely saved his family when all hope was lost more times than I count, the list goes on. However, these things are hard to see if you aren't constantly forced to look past the inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and "stupidity".

In comes Raph. Alongside Mikey, there is a common theme of the negative traits overshadowing the good, but with Raph it is so much worse. His negative traits almost completely define who he is and what he's known as, the angry one. He has explosive anger, is more impulsive, prone to violence, is less than soft with emotions, is usually in the wrong in situations, doesn't possess moments of intelligence like Donnie, not to mention he's always second place to 'almighty Leo', and don't get him started on 'cute, perfect Mikey'. While his teasing and roughhousing with his brothers should NOT be associated with his feelings of anger, jealousy, and inadequacy since they are NOT the reason he does that (obviously it's just a sibling thing), they can still be associated. (Look at the "angry planet makes angry people" episode)

Either way, this is not an analysis on that so I'm moving on. Mikey is seen to be the most teased by Raph. There is roughhousing and mocking (ONCE AGAIN IT IS OF SIBLING VARIETY I AIN'T NO RAPH BASHER) between them the most, a guy who likely only sees the bad in himself and a guy who is so jam packed with potential to do amazing things. Imagine Raph playing around with Mikey and quickly having a quiet realization that the little brother he is messing with has that much talent. That he has so many more positive traits that Raph just can't find in himself. That he's made fun of so many of Mikey's ideas/warnings that ended up being great/true.

He reflects on how Mikey is compared to himself, and sees nothing really good. Raph is really, truly happy and loves Mikey to death, he believes that Mikey deserves the absolute world. He knows that he can do it. But what about himself?

Raph just hurts others and himself. He's loyal, sure, but it's shown to be to a fault on multiple occasions. He's a good fighter, sure, but Leo will probably always be better. He's a protector, sure, but when he succeeds he is labeled as impulsive and unthinking, and when he fails his brothers get extremely hurt and thrown into comas. There's always gotta be something wrong with him and it's a pit that he thinks he's not getting out of, since he's already tried so many times before. I'm never gonna change, I'll probably get way worse, at best stay the same.

He continues to tease Mikey anyway, maybe even more, with this revelation. Anything to distract himself from the impending dread of this thoughts, but all it ends up doing is providing his brain with more ammunition on how he's such a bad brother and that when Mikey finally leaves his 'abusive' grasp then he'll go on to be happier without them, or him. Raph really hopes that he'll find happiness.

((Bonus for comfort: Mikey finds out about this and reassures Raph that he wouldn't be here today without him, that there is so much good and talent that Raph has as well, and that Mikey's not hogging it all. They both tell each other that they'd rather die than live without the other.))

(Listen to the song!! Very tasty (: There are some things I didn't talk about in the post because I went :P halfway, please listen to it!! Adds context!!)

(Also if you hate me now because of my very crappy analysis/comparison post, please tell me in case I completely missed a mark/srs)

[witchthewriter]

hey again!! i hope you’ve been doing good, it’s always a joy seeing your writing on my dashboard. i was wondering if i could participate in the ship event?

fandoms : mcu, grishaverse, stranger things

a little about me! : i define myself as queer (attracted to whoever basically, regardless of gender or whatever) and asexual, and i use any pronouns. 

my mbti type is enfp, and i’m a libra if that helps any <3

i’m pretty outgoing! i like talking to people, i just suck at small talk lmao. apparently i come off like i’m flirting with people a lot of the time whoops-

shitty jokes are my jam. i have a mix of 13 year old boy and grandpa humour.

i’m creative but work in sporadic bursts, i’ll do nothing all day but then bust out a painted jacket because i get a surge of energy at one in the morning

big fan of organized chaos, my room is kind of cluttered but i know where everything is. i’ve got a personal vendetta against minimalism

i love making stuff for people and giving them gifts! it’s my love language lmao

i kickbox and do mma, i like the contrast of me having bright pink hair but being able to kick ass ahsgdgg

i also play bass and guitar! can’t sing for shit though

dream job is either as a freelance illustrator or museum curator. something that i’ll enjoy but will still give me time to myself. my idea of hell is having an office job

Want one? Here be the rules 🦋

I actually literally want to be your best friend. You are CHAOS PERSONIFIED and I love it. I really hope you enjoy your ships <3 message me whenever!!!

What the ships have in common:

⋆ They’re lively/outgoing  ⋆ Fun-loving ⋆ Chaotic ⋆ Interesting ⋆ They literally ARE the party / scene/show stealing

𝐌𝐂𝐔/𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐥

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐����𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Valkyrie! (Pls keep in mind I haven’t seen the recent Thor movie so if things don’t make sense ... idk man, I guess they’ll just not make sense ;) ) 

I think you would be absolutely brilliant together. Valkyrie would not shy away from you at all; you would make her life even more exciting (which is hard to do btw). I think people would be incredibly intimidated by the both of you too. 

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Pick each other’s outfits. I think you two would be ICONS. Like seriously. 

・You know she has responsibilities and duties, but she juggles them really well. 

・She likes to call you really over the top names, like ‘sugar bun,’ ‘sweet cheeks,’ ‘bunny boo.’ She likes embarrassing you

・You two love sparring with each other. Both very competitive and are always trying to one up each other. 

・She likes slow dancing with you thought - look up the song, ‘I’m Kissing You’ by Des’ree. It’s literally your guys’ song.

𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 

I ship you with Jesper Fahey! (And don’t worry, I looked up his sexuality and he’s bisexual.) 

 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・When he first laid eyes on you, his breath hitched. Even in the Grishaverse you found a way to go against the crowd. 

・Relationship tropes: ‘chaotic duo,’ ‘something usually breaks wherever you too go,’ ‘aggressively supportive.’

・I do feel as if there is angst in this relationship - especially at the beginning. You would see Jesper as this playboy who wouldn’t even notice you. But he thought you hated him. Obviously that wasn’t the case. Not unti lnej was like ‘pull your head out of your asses guys c’mon.’ 

・Wants you to feel as included in the gang as possible. You were probably hired as Kaz’s bodyguard due to your training. That’s how you’re associated. 

・You become a part of the inner circle; it’s Kaz, Inek, Jesper & you. 

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 

I ship you with THE Eddie Munson <3 absolute king. Okay, so just like with Jesper, you two would be absolute chaos. Just shenanigans outright wherever you go. I definitely think you and Eddie would be a more traditional couple. In the sense that ... it makes sense you’re together. You’re very similar personality wise. 

 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Met at your job; you worked in a record shop and Eddie was a regular there. Obviously you knew the rumours about him; his ‘devil worshipping’ and one day you decided to ask him about it... 

   “Summoned any demons lately, Eddie?” You asked casually. 

“Ugh - what was that sweetheart?” He looked at you with his eyebrows raised, one arm on the counter, the other reaching for his tapes. 

   “You know, with your satanic worship and such...” You trailed off, and gave him a cheeky smile. 

“Oh definitely. I was going to ask him about my homework question.” 

・You guys are really cheeky with each other; constantly flirting, until one day one of your friends was in the store as well and asked if you guys were together. 

“What...” you looked at Eddie, and suddenly an idea came into mind. 

“Yeah, how’d you find out?” You looked at your friend with a comical expression; eyebrows raised, eyes wide. 

  Eddie played along, after all he did have a secret crush on you ... 

“I think she might be my soulmate,” Eddie said breathlessly, taking you into his arms and pressing your head to his chest (forcefully it was all very very dramatic.) 

・And when your friend had to go, you said: “why don’t we hang out ... you know ... a date ...” 

    He was shocked. 

And immediately said yes, but tried to play it cool. “I mean ... I guess ... I’ll check my schedule.” 

・I could literally talk about you two all day. You’re so easy to write about - I think the gang would know you previously because you work in such a popular store. 

・You would be great friends with literally everyone. You’re so outgoing and they all love you so much. You teach Max how to defend herself, you talk to Lucas about basketball, Dustin literally has a crush on you etc. 

[one-blaze-of--glory]

Character ask game luz toh

favorite thing about them: she's such good neurodivergent representation, I love the way her brain works it reminds me of myself. Also her love for cats.

least favorite thing about them: she's way too hard on herself, like girl this entire oppressive system belos built up is NOT the result of you stumbling into him in the past one day I promise 😭

favorite line: "I'm not a witch, but I'm training hard to be one" from back in season 1 still lives in my mind rent free

brOTP: with Hunter. I love that Luz was the one who kickstarted his redemption and basically just adopted him in Thanks to them. Adorable.

OTP: i mean is it really a question? It's pretty obvious. They have perfect chemistry, their relationship was built up beautifully, they're such a good portrayal of a genuinely healthy relationship, they bonded over common interests... I'm talking about the hot guy from season 1 episode 2 of course (it's lumity obviously)

nOTP: like. Anything that's not lumity.

random headcanon: she definitely had a cat at one point. Had a phase when she was just obsessed with the moon for no reason (not because I'm in that phase rn). Also binge watched all of She-ra 2018 in a week max once

unpopular opinion: idk what to say here can't think of any

song associate with them: Ordinary is probably cheating so I'll say lately I listened to Words fail from Dear Evan Hansen because shuffle said so and it made me think of Luz

favorite picture of them:

This outfit gives me gender envy that's all

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

it’s kind of bizarre to see people tweeting free jungkook as if he’s not a grown man that makes his own decisions about who he associates with. What are you gonna free him from? Himself? 💀 Jay Park is extremely problematic caption was odd but jungkook didn’t seem to have a problem with it when he reposted it to his story so I’m not sure why army is up in arms on Twitter acting like jungkook was held hostage against his will. I know a lot of people are joking around about it but there are some people that are genuinely serious

We cant know if his friendships are meaningful to him or not though can we? It all can be for his standard of connection. And yugyeom has been a common factor linking jk with all these problematic friendships and they’ve been friends since forever too so obviously they are close (they have a huge ass matching tattoo even) Maybe people should just come to terms that jk does align with these kinda ppl in the way he thinks. Most of what he has been doing is somewhat questionable for awhile now and this is him being restricted a lot by the company. (with extra protection against any rumours to come out too yet there are still some tea from ppl with common info on the companies he likes to hang with etc.) I hope you’ll post this as i’m not throwing hate around or anything, ppl need to be open to real critical thinking. I keep seeing armies or jk fans making excuses or jokes about jk’s own obvious decision to hang out with that racist trash in the man’s studio when the kinda ppl he links with mostly have been these kinda problematic folks which is a pattern and not a coincidence anymore. He’s a grown ass man i wish fans would just stop making excuses for every distasteful thing they see. And it’s beyond me that despite being uncomfortable most are saying omg no jk doesnt know lol as if, he just don’t care is all. I don’t understand all this selective blindness anymore.

---

First of all, this morning when I woke up I remembered last year after muster I said a lot of times that JK was channeling Jay Park with the way he acts and looks and I laughed a bit. Those comments are probably still out there on the blogs I said it. Maybe it was foreshadowing.

Army is so ridiculous, honestly. While reading the quote retweets of an update account about Jay Park's instagram post, one person said something like "we're here fighting and cursing these people while they're over there actually being friends with them" and it's so real. It's what I always thought, too. Not only about fanwars but also shipwars. You're "fighting" for and trying to prove jikook's relationship only for JK to ignore Jimin and the next second go and hug Taehyung. FOR YEARS armys have been cursing and hating on Blackpink, forgetting that Jungkook used to dance all their choreos and sing his lungs out to their songs at award shows; then Taehyung literally goes and follows Jennie lmao. Twitter is not real life. I think fighting is sometimes funny lolllll but people should learn that it doesn't have any effect on BTS themselves. They're still gonna be friends with people you hate, they're still gonna do things you don't like, say things you don't agree with, etc. They were sending death threats to James Corden for -rightfully- calling them 15 year olds and then BTS were hugging him and going to his show and laughing with him. Billboard has shaded BTS lots of time, even to the point of being racist and they're still working with them. They do not care T_T and armys should stop thinking that they care as much as they do.

Jay Park used the hashtag and laughed about it, it's what he does . He does controversial shit that people gets angry about and discuss on social media and then he laughs about it, he's done it lots of time. I don't know if Jungkook knows that, he probably does tbh but I don't think he cares.

As for the other ask, it's a more delicate topic and I might say some things that maybe some people won't like but the truth is that not everyone has polarizing positions about politics. This doesn't make someone a bad person, it just makes them neutral and other stuff that I'm not sure how to say in English. Jungkook himself is not a polarizing person at all, he's not someone who goes 100% this way or the other, he's always been so neutral about a lof of things. Jungkook is not a racist, but him being friends with, working with, liking people who have done racist things or said racist stuff is just because it doesn't actually damage him. He's not black, he's not muslim. If he knows, he obviously doesn't feel hurt by Jay Park's comments about BTS, which is something that touches him and is personal to him, why would he -or any BTS member- feel hurt about JP doing cultural appropiation. This is not only about JK tho, it's about so many other idols too and BTS as a whole and just about people in general. It's also cultural. Like for example, Koreans are extremely colorist; even BTS are scared of getting tanned and have made unnecessary comments about their skin getting darker during Bon Voyage. Idols say colorists comments all the time, and they don't see anything wrong about it, it's normal for them, it's what they're used to. It doesn't mean they actually hate black/brown people, it's just that they don't have the same polarizing stances about being politically wrong or right. In our everyday life I'm sure all of us have family members, friends, acquaintances that make distateful almost hateful comments and we don't completely cut them off of our lives. Seeing it from the outside, it's easier to say "this is wrong, this is right" but when you're actually in real life, inserted in a particular cultural context, in a particular socialeconomic class, things are not as black and white. I saw korean armys asking why does the international side hate Jay Park... I saw JK solos saying that Jay Park is extremely popular and loved in Korea, and they are right; the man recently collabd with IU. They have no idea, and even if they've seen or heard about him and his racist, misogynistic tendencies, they don't care because it's not that big of a deal to them. The things that are bad for westerners, are not as bad for them. The same as maybe xenophobia or racism against asians would never feel as bad for black people as it feels for asian people. And the same with a lot of other things; transphobia would never feel as bad for a cis person even if they're queer too, etc. You might understand it, empathize with the problematic, stand up against it, but it's hard to have deep, polarizing feelings or emotions about something that you don't actually experience firsthand.

As much as army likes thinking that BTS are sooo into politics and activism, they are not. BTS are not activists. They are respectful and mindful of other cultures, they are not hateful or bigoted but they're also not the SJW that people have convinced themselves they are.

Also it's true that we don't know if they are actually close friends or just acquaintances, working together, or what. But Jay Park is literally the kind of guy that Jungkook has been hanging out with since 2019, it's the kind of guy that Jungkook looks like, too. They are so similar in an ~aesthetic sense, Jay Park does music that Jungkook loves. I am really not surprised that JK seeked him out to hang out with him. That's the vibe of the people he likes. That's pretty much Jungkook's own vibes right now. I don't think he cares a lot about Jay Park being kind of a dick as long as he's nice to him, honestly. I don't buy also that JK "doesn't know". That's why I'm inclined to believe that he doesn't really have deep important relationships with a lot of the people he hangs out with. I feel like I'm repeating myself but yeah, again, JK doesn't seem like the type to see things in black or white, to stand up for or against something completely.

I'm not making excuses for Jay Park, I really don't like him, but personally it doesn't change what I think of JK or at least it doesn't make me dislike him. Yeah I think he doesn't care and that's, uncomfortable at best but it is what it is. I never thought BTS were neck deep into activism or political rightfulness. What I'm trying to say is that idols, BTS, Jungkook, are not as "woke" as a lot of armys think they are, and I personally don't think that makes them bad people.

[shihalyfie]

Takeru’s character song “Focus”

I alluded to this in a prior post (and, to be a bit honest about it, was a little concerned about how it would be received), but I had some friends ask about what I meant about this, so I decided to go more into detail with it! This is also partially in light of the occasion of the Best Partner albums also becoming a topic of interest again, so it feels like a good time as ever!

02 was a pretty prolific time for merchandising and side material as far as the franchise goes, and one of the many things that came out of it was the “Best Partner” series of character song albums (a whole 36 songs for all 12 Adventure and 02 kids plus their partners!). Of these, Takeru’s song “Focus” has been a particular topic of interest for many in the fanbase to its suspiciously loaded language and the fact that, well...it comes off as a romantic song, which is very unusual in a series that infamously didn’t touch on the topic of romance very much in terms of the actual series. Speculation has constantly abounded on what it’s supposed to imply, why it’s written this way, and what it could possibly mean...

But if you look at it closely? It’s probably not meant to be romantic, and it most likely refers to Patamon.

One thing that I do need to point out is context. Many who have been cynical about the song’s alleged romantic implications have generally put forth the idea that the music department was technically separate from the anime staff, so it’s possible that the music staff wanted to bait or provoke fanservice without much connection from the anime production. It is, undoubtedly, true that the music department isn’t necessarily fully tied in with the anime department, and has been fully willing to indulge in questionably-canon silliness (while 02′s Christmas Fantasy is certainly in-character, its placement in actual canon timeline has to be finagled with because of what we know about 02′s actual Christmas, and Tamers’s Christmas Illusion is far more comedic than the series itself actually permits), and, exacerbating this further is the fact that Hikari has her own extremely romantically loaded song, Reflection, which is often submitted as evidence that Focus must be made in the same vein, but tends to omit the fact that the album it comes from (Girls Festival) needs to be taken with a very heavy grain of salt given that it’s a notorious fanservice album that deliberately plays up the “maiden-like” characteristics of all of the girls involved for the sake of, ah, a certain subsection of the audience. (It was also made in 2002, long after 02′s production had ended.)

The notable thing about the Best Partner albums is that all of the material on it is extremely in-character, and this is especially notable because the song lyrics are significantly more obviously relevant to each character in 02 and their relationship with their partner than even the original Adventure character songs were (with said Adventure character songs often toeing into rather vague glosses that are only tangentially relevant to each character, and Mimi’s song on there pretty blatantly being an AiM single shoved onto the album for the sake of being called a Mimi song). Moreover, Focus isn’t just written by some random lyricist they grabbed for it, but regular Digimon lyricist Yamada Hiroshi himself, who was very involved in the anime production in terms of writing 02′s inserts Break up! and Beat Hit!, and, considering everything this series is about, you’d imagine he’d probably have been given some kind of details about what to do with Takeru’s representative song. It would be quite strange if, for some reason, Takeru’s song were the only one to go really off the rails about shipping bait instead of being, well, actually about his character arc. 

I should emphasize that the fact that this song is so commonly read as romantic persists in Japan as well, so whether it was via mishap or not, undeniably, the way the lyrics are phrased definitely make the romantic reading a very reasonable one to pull. The language in the song is extremely “loaded”, and, if it weren’t for the unique circumstances I’m about to describe, most reasonable people can’t really be blamed for taking it this way. However, I will say that all of the most common English translations of various parts of the songs have tended to assume the romantic interpretation as well, and have thus followed up with it by definitively translating it in ways that make it near impossible to read otherwise. So what I’m saying here is that I don’t think it was unreasonable for people to have taken the romantic interpretation, and I don’t particularly intend to blame or criticize the translators who handled this song for also taking it this way, but I also want to make clear that this is not the only way to read the song, and that there’s a very high possibility that this wasn’t the case to begin with.

(Also, since I mentioned Yamada Hiroshi earlier: it’s actually not all that uncommon for him to use heavily-loaded language like this in songs he’s written for the series -- refer to Beat Hit! -- it’s just that people haven’t traditionally taken them as shipping because the context and identity of the songs’ topic matters were so obvious that there wasn’t much need to do speculation about it.)

Let’s take a look into all of the parts of the song that have been traditionally taken as romantic:

"We were together since we were little”

One thing that’s interesting about how this line is phrased in Japanese is that it doesn’t actually specify who was little. And, obviously, if you’re talking about a relationship between humans, you’d think that childhood friends would grow up together, so you’d default to “we”...but, actually, the Japanese text doesn’t rule out the possibility of reading this as “since I was little”. Which means that, yes, Patamon isn’t out of the ruling here -- because, indeed, they met when Takeru was young.

In fact, this actually is a line that arguably should rule out anyone else, especially including the most common speculated topic for this song, Hikari -- because he and Hikari weren’t actually that close during Adventure, and their time “together” was relatively short compared to the rest of the adventure. Remember that the Adventure kids weren’t very close to each other after the events of the series, and Hikari and Takeru didn’t keep close contact between Adventure and 02 -- contrast Patamon being close to Takeru during the entirety of the series, and, bar their periods of disconnect between Adventure and 02, you could say that he’s been the closest to Takeru since this time, especially since Yamato hadn’t been able to be as present for him as he’d wanted.

"Running, rolling around, and always laughing"

Again, this is a line that practically excludes nearly anyone else from consideration. Nobody ever did this with Takeru in Adventure but Patamon, especially since Takeru was trying to present himself as a well-behaved kid in the presence of his elders, and it’s entirely possible he wouldn’t have been willing to do this with anyone else but the outwardly childish Patamon. It definitely would not have been Hikari, who was arguably even more reserved than him during this time.

“It would have been better if I hadn’t realized”/“I have a lot of things I want to tell you, but I can’t really say it”/“I can’t ask that”

Sentiments like “I can’t admit it”, or difficulty with accepting one’s own feelings, is usually associated with developing romantic feelings for another person and being touchy about admitting them, but the thing is that this is intended to be a representative character song, and Takeru is actually abysmally bad at admitting anything in general. And yes, that includes not being able to be straightforward with Patamon himself about parsing his trauma over his death.

Takeru was never able to have a straightforward conversation with even Patamon about the whole issue, because of his nasty habit of never opening up about his problems and never being honest about them. That’s why Iori had to be the one to take matters into his own hands and go out of his way to understand Takeru, because Takeru sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to work through this on his own, or even with Patamon.

“I can’t get you off my mind”

This one’s actually a stock phrase in Japanese that can refer to “being interested” in someone (romantically), but can also refer to something just not really being able to leave your head in general (from being bothered by it, or being very worried). So yes, this could mean anything from a romantic fixation...to simply being constantly worried and concerned about one’s welfare.

“You were always crying”

As far as people around Takeru’s periphery who apparently cried a lot goes, there aren’t a lot! The description doesn’t seem to fit Hikari much, either (she had her moments, but it’s not the kind of thing you’d imagine this kind of extreme descriptor for). Hm, but there is someone who might fit that description...

Certainly, enough that Takeru would remember.

(By the way, Patamon gets sent on the verge of tears in the middle of his own solo song...)

"The door that I couldn't reach that day, no matter how far I stretched out"

Very important part here: that day. There was a very important “day” that seems to be on Takeru’s mind here. What’s repeatedly referred to in 02 as one of the most traumatic and impactful days of Takeru’s life?

Incidentally, Takeru and Patamon’s duet song for this album also just so happens to use “opening door” imagery...

“You’re now standing in the light”

That use of “light” is usually submitted as evidence that it’s referring to Hikari via a pun on her name, but, well, “light” does happen to just mean “light”, after all (and it’s used in many contexts that don’t necessarily have to refer to Hikari in 02 itself). And, well...

Pretty apt description there, no?

"We were always being protected"

It could refer to Hikari, or anyone else Takeru was with during Adventure, but remember that Patamon was always the slowest to evolve (especially given the many circumstances that happened with him in Adventure that kept him unable to actively join the fight effectively for a very, very long time), and Takeru himself also had a pretty nasty complex about holding everyone back.

So, in conclusion...

Despite how loaded the language is, in the end, it’s probably meant to be a song about Takeru handling his trauma regarding Patamon very poorly at the time of 02. Which is, well, what his character arc in 02 was about, so it tracks, doesn’t it?

Bear in mind that, again, this is basically “one readable interpretation of it”, which I also personally happen to back very strongly because I think the evidence simply tracks too much given context -- the details described in the song rule out almost every other candidate that would be relevant to Takeru’s character arc, also happen to describe the events of Adventure too well, and certainly would track much better with everything else in this particular album series mostly being relevant to everyone’s character as reflected in 02. Song lyrics are song lyrics, and interpretation might be in the eyes of the beholder...but, you know, food for thought.

[lesbiansforboromir]

Are there cultural expressions of homophobia in Gondor?

Yes! I have a few posts related to this in various ways here, here, here and here but to be brief;

Gondorian homophobia manifests in the concept of ‘ill-fate’ or ‘doom’. Fates and dooms are very prominent and serious parts of Gondorian social fabric and there are a lot of sayings and wisdoms that include their mention or caution. It’s also important to understand that Gondorian society (in general, as a rule, differing in intensity for both time, class and place but remaining a running thread in the gondorian consciousness) is very sex-suppressed. In polite public society one really shouldn’t admit that sex exists at all, let alone comment on their own relationship with it. 

Romantic love however is VERY important. It is the reached for ideal without reservation or self-consciousness. Men and women are expected to be excited and desirous of falling in love and marrying their soulmate. Romantic poetry is thoroughly encouraged. There is nothing ‘effeminate’ about it. Love songs are victorious and rousing in general! And ‘soulmates’ are considered a part of your FATE, love is an aspect of doom for you, you are either destined to meet the love of your life or you aren’t. And that is regretful but unavoidable. 

And that would not be considered an ‘ill-fate’, it would just be unfortunate. Nothing wrong about it. However, people can have actually HARMFUL ‘fates’, which can be called doomed, ill-fated, cursed etc. To steal a quote, ‘fate awaits you with fell purpose’. And if that is the case, the common wisdom is that you can negatively effect people around you, you can ‘taint’ them with association. You are to be pitied! It is understood to be not your fault, but it is tragic and you would do best to manage it as you can. The concept can apply to many different aspects of life, ill-fated in misery, ill-fated in life-length, ill-fated in purpose etc etc, all usually metaphysical and ominous concepts. You aren’t, say, ill-fated if you’re clumsy. 

BUT to get to the point, to be in love with someone of your same-sex would be considered ‘ill-fated’. Love is considered to be included amongst the forces of the world and for it to be ‘altered from it’s natural state’ (i.e the state that LaCE sets out and that is pushed as the Valar’s and, by association, Eru’s ideal) something must have gone terribly wrong. You are ill-fated!

So gay people are pitied! Medicalisation has been one of the very concrete actions that have come out of this view. And pity and concern has naturally become a thoroughly unbearable response for much of the queer gondorian community, often triggering trauma responses in many. They are also viewed as, (unfortunately, against their will, what a tragic thing it is), dangerous to those around them. The ill-fated could bring all kinds of dooms down upon their associates, projects and families after all! And the ‘acceptable’ behaviour and occupation for those known to be gay is to find a quiet, scholarly passion and to essentially become a monk, tucked away from the world but still contributing to it and keeping yourself occupied. And, of course, you must not marry, nor indulge in your ‘ill-fate’. Be strong! Etc etc. And indeed there are queer scholars who have taken this message to heart and are accepted as experts in various fields. 

I... can’t believe I said ‘to be brief’ ajsdjsd BUT SO, obviously this is not the majority of queer gondorians, there are communities and differing opinions and intra-community debates. Some go fully anti-establishment, not only rejecting the ill-fated mantra but also the sex repression too, also calling it a classist attitude anyway (which it is to a certain extent) and they encourage a wildly sex-positive atmosphere. Some are on the other end of the spectrum and want to be ‘normal but gay’, most are somewhere in the middle with varying opinions that shift here and there. 

And time obviously changes things too! There have been various points in Gondor’s history where the dialogue on queer politics has reached current say british levels of prominent debate and acceptance, with actual queer activists being heard and agreed with in the public eye. A lot of the rest of the time queerness is used as a tool in kind of... fun academic thought exercises that only the high-minded can responsibly engage in. In general the academic community and the queer community have a great deal of bad blood, which is something that Boromir very much internalises (hence his general un-academic reputation and preference for other types of literature). 

OK I’ll stop here but I’ve got quite the historical map in my mind of the up and down nature of Gondor’s very specific brand of homophobia, including a more specific look at current gondorian politics so feel free to ask more questions if you’d like! :D As ever I read this through once and is definitely a stream of consciousness so apologies if it’s incomprehensible.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

For me a theme of Harry's work is often Man Angst and I find it doesn't resonate with me. Louis' work also speaks of pain, but somehow it feels more human and less dude-centric? I'm struggling to articulate why one feels more accessible and the other more colored with shades of the patriarchy. Anyways, hope your day is swell.

This is a really interesting question (and my most common response to the best anons is not to respond to them for six months).

I have a similar reaction to you and I'm interested in why? How much of my reaciton is textual and how much of it is extra textual?

I think textually there are a number of both explicit and implicit ways that Harry's songs are gendered - they are as you say about men's pain and not pain in general.

The most explicit is the use of 'boy' in TBSL. It's not just the use of a gendered term, but using it with a declaration of irresponsibility. The basic idea of TBSL is that the narrator is sad and his feelings are important and he's not responsible for any of it - he's expecting others to be responsible for his feelings. And in our society men are culturally the ones who are allowed to claim that importance for their feelings and make them other people's problems. (I think many women may want that feeling - and may identify with TBSL on those terms - but I don't think it's written in a way that invites interpretation, and instead emphasises that this is an experience that is supposed to be for men).

Then we have phrases like 'wandering hands' and 'playing with myself', which aren't quite as explicitly gendered, but are tied to masculinity on several levels. Wandering hands is a phrase that is used almost exclusively about men (even if we assume the implication of non consent was unintentional). Certainly there's a lot more leeway in our culture for men who cheat in some way - and the act of saying (assuming that is what the narrator is saying) 'I cheated, but I also need a lot of attention on my feelings and how important they are' is reserved for men. Meanwhile women might talk about playing with themselves - but because it's so much rarer to talk about female sexual pleasure - the association of talking about masturbating and being pathetic is very associated with men. Kind of by definition women who talk about wanking aren't being pathetic because it takes a kind of defiance to talk about sexual pleasure openly.

I do think textually the songs are quite gendered - and gendered in ways that are very much about the way men's feelings are treated seriously in art and women's are not.

To me the context also matters - in HS1 you had these songs where Harry talked about women in ways that showed no interest in their interiority at all (Kiwi, Only Angel, Carolina and Woman). I've said this before, but that really amplified the man angst tone of From the Dining Table. The effect on me of that combination, was one of alienation. I'd be really interested to hear from people who experience them differently. But the impression I get very much is that Harry's saddest songs are songs don't reach out and invite identification - and instead invite you to feel for the narrator.

I think what makes something man angst, rather than just angst, is an expectation that the feelings that someone is sharing are very important and should be taken seriously, alongside a lack of interest in the feelings of other people. And obviously women can feel and want both those things. But culturally there is very little space for women to demand that their feelings are important and women have heaps of expectations to take care of the feelings of others. Because of this, I think if a song about the importance of the narrator's feelings is going to invite women to identify with it (rather than just be part of hte audience for the narrator's important feelings) then that's something that has to be deliberately crafted into the song. That casual gendering of the narrator has a bigger impact making the song about men rather than about people, when the song is talking about an experience that women are not supposed to have.

********

I do think Louis' saddest songs take a very different approach to that angst. Rather than expecting the audience to feel for the narrator, they're set up much more for the audience to identify with the narrator. And I can think of a few features of the songs that make me think that Louis' songs are more about identification, but I'm not sure if I'm quite capturing all that's going on.

I'm thinking primarily about his songs about romantic love - Habit, Too Young, Walls, DLIBYH, Defenceless. Although I think the context of TOU does make a difference, because it sets an expectation that the listener will identify with the narrator in the songs.

The two biggest features of those songs are connection and vulnerability. Even the most self-pitying of those songs, still is interested in and seeks connection with whoever it's talking about. (I think it's really interesting is that the impact of that desire to connect is to make the song more accessible for identification, because you'd think the fact that the narrator wants to connect with the object of the song would make the idea of being someone who listened to the song more appealing, but I don't think that's how it works. But that's somewhat of a side point). Then there's vulnerability, without the protective shield of claiming that the narrators feelings are important.

So is the explanation just that Louis' songs invite identification, and don't explore approaches to emotions that our society only legitimises for men? Or is there something more going on? Is there a connection between that vulnerability and connection and gender. Or is it just that Louis' songs are aiming for identification? What's the relationship between those two things.

**********

I have a lot of other thoughts about this (Harry uses the imperative voice a lot in his feeling sad songs - I suspect that's relevant). But I just want to briefly emphasise that this is not about the quality of their songs, but different ways of operating.

I don't think that identification is the goal in a lot of the songs Harry' writes. I think that feeling of seperation - where

And I also wonder how connected these various things are - and if they're less connected than I think, when just talking about these two examples. Because the most arrow to the heart song about unrequited love I know is also unmistakeably from the point of view of a misogynist teenage boy (The Saturday Boy by Billy Bragg). There have been times of my life when: 'I never understood my failings then/And I hide my humble hopes now' spoke to me like no other words in the English language. And the lyrics that came before and after that didn't stop me from knowing that I had experienced that feeling too.

And my point isn't to compare Louis and Harry as lyricists to Billy Bragg, but just thinking how many different ways a song can speak to you or not.

I'm really interested in hearing other people's thoughts about this, and the way people relate to the songs. Are there women who listen to Falling and feel like they're Harry? (I feel like reviews have implied that some men do). What makes a man's angst Man Angst? What about a song invites identificaiton, and what makes it suggest that the narrator wants people to feel for him, not feel the things he says? Is there any connection.

[snowy-equinox]

My Take on Modern Ornithomancy / Augury

Given we have very little information to go off of, it’s not surprising many modern practitioners of augury often resort to the same 2-4 characteristics: Bird species, number of birds, flight pattern, behavior.

How they interpret each of these is different depending on the person, though there is some consistency when it comes to flight patterns (we know the Romans regarded birds on the left of the augur as favorable).

All in all however, I’ve always found these aspects limiting, especially since interpreting flight patterns and the number of birds involved never appealed to me, which really left me with behavior and type of bird.

I created my own system of Ornithomancy, which expands on the different characteristics of a bird you can use to divine a message.

My Personal Ornithomancy Methods

First, my template:

Picture of the bird, and picture of the eggs

Name: The common name of the bird, generally the one I am most familiar with

Scientific name & translation

Aliases: Other common names the bird might be called by

Call notes: I’ll take a listen to the call or song, and write here what it sounds like to me for help identifying if I hear it but can’t see it

Look-alikes: A place for advice on telling this bird apart from other, similar birds; again, moreso for ID than for divination

M/F: Differences between the male and female of the species

Range Map: This can help in ID, actually! Some birds look very similar, but don’t live in the same area (chickadees are a good example). Also, you might decide to assign certain divination properties to migratory birds.

Nest: Notes on where the nest might be and what it looks like, again for ID

Mythology: This is where any mythos involving the bird goes

Cultural / Folklore: Here’s for any folklore stuff; not quite mythos, which is a full story, more “If you see this bird, it’s said you’ll experience x”

Spiritual: I look at a few pagan or spiritual blogs, and see what the general consensus is within the community; if I resonate with any of these, I’ll add them here

Behavior: Unique behaviors in the bird, especially in regards to foraging (when you’re usually most likely to see it). It helps cut down on “Wow that bird was doing something weird, must be a sign!” and also provides possible divinitory properties for the bird.

Personal: Putting it all together! Here, I look over what I’ve previously written and decide if any of it speaks to me, or seems to suggest a possible property of the bird.

Okay that was a lot! But I think walking through an entry might help.

Okay, so first some pictures to help ID it, plus what the eggs look like. Then, we have the name and scientific name, which translates directly to Cooper’s Hawk (though usually they aren’t as literal; for example, I have a warbler entry whose scientific name means moss-plucker).

So, one might already decide they want to associate the CH with speed, given how they have multiple common names associated with their swiftness.

We then get into call notes, and some ID information. I couldn’t find a lot on these birds specifically (you’ll find a lot of general hawk info, but usually species-specific mythology & spiritual meanings are sadly lacking). I do plan on adding family information later, so I can have those general hawk associations to add on to any CH sightings I might have.

Lastly, notice how the behavior plays into the personal associations. Because of their hunting strategy, I associate them with planning and forethought. Hummingbirds nesting under them makes them seem protective.

I also want to add, you might need to make a decision between science and spirituality. Cardinals are associated with love very commonly in spiritual blogs, but they actually don’t mate for life, and they often have extra-pair matings (meaning either the male or female continues to mate with other birds while raising babies with their “main” partner). That doesn’t exactly scream love to me, so I dropped that association (though some might choose to alter it to cheating, lust, or a relationship that isn’t as perfect as it seems).

You may not have reached the conclusions I did, and that’s okay! Ornithomancy is like every other divination method: It’s personal, and up to you how you want to do it. I have nothing against those who only use the same metrics the Romans did, it just never fit for me personally. I’m writing this for people like me, who have always been interested in ornithomancy, but weren’t sure where to go with it.

Plus, there’s so many other things you can do! You can also bring feather colors into it, or associate the birds with different elements, plants, etc! Hell, you can drop some of the stuff I did! I’m an ornithologist, so obviously I went more in-depth than I probably needed to, because I love birds!

Footnote: This is a recent Amino post I made, I did not steal content from someone on Amino.

[weaverofthreads]

On the process of writing a novel...

Ok, so this began as a DM to a very dear friend who had said they were super excited to work on a novel of theirs that they'd abandoned for years, but they felt a bit lost when looking at the project again. They had "too many characters, too many intrigues" and they didn't "know how to create order" for all their ideas. They didn't know "what to keep, what to remove, what to change" and wanted to know if I had any tips.  

I began to reply in messages and then realised I needed to make a whole post out of it, so here it is! All 3k words of it. This is for you, darling! I hope it helps.

Things I found extremely helpful when planning my novel for NaNoWriMo this year, after also taking some time off from it.  

Most of this comes from Alicia Lidwina’s Four-Part article on her NaNoWriMo prep process, and setting up a writer’s notebook, for 2018. You can find the link to the first part here and I highly recommend you check out the whole series of articles for a more in-depth read. 

Content of this ‘essay’: 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials

Project 'Stats' & Overview  

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

Things to Consider, and Important Bullet Points

Get to Know Your Characters  

Chronological Order

Tangential and Preceding Events

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, Sub Plot Ideas  

List of Locations

Scenes

Chapter Outline

NaNo Plan

Additional Notes and Tips for Writing

Ok. Let's begin.  

First of all, I'm not saying that this is the only way to write or organise a novel. It can be tackled in as many ways as there are writers in the universe. This is just the method I used to get my ideas crystallised and organised. 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials.  

Take your preparation seriously. I bought a cheap but still nice A4 sketchbook with blank paper for maybe £2 at the local hobby store, and used it solely for the purposes of being my Novel Notebook. It doesn’t have to be a pretty, perfect, Aesthetic(TM) journal at all. Its function is to act as a route-guide through the process.  

I bought a cute sticker from Etsy and used it as the front cover design so that I liked the book and that it felt a little bit special, without being too intimidating to put a mark in. Then I left the very first page blank, and opened it to the first double page. On the left, I wrote ‘Contents’ and then moved on to the right and wrote ‘Project Stats and Overview’.  

I used a pen that was comfortable to write with, which for me was important. I’m a very tactile person, and having nice paper and pens (not necessarily fancy), made the process feel good.

Project Stats and Overview

This is the bare bones of the book, and includes details such as:

Project Working Title: (in my case it’s Weaver of Threads)

Targeted Wordcount: (to give yourself an idea of the scope, but it’s not necessary. For me it’s 50-100k)

Genre: (for me, fantasy)

Series: (will it be one book or more? For me, probably more than one, and at least two).  

Inspiration: (here you can jot down all sorts of things which inspire your world and your writing, and it can be anything. In my case, I began with “density and lore, and feeling of being grounded in a real world from LOTR and Tolkien.” And I went on to include other writers and novels in the fantasy genre, as well as elements from our own world, such as Mongolian herding communities and way of life, the history of the Persian Empire, and Renaissance Florence!).  

Project Timeline: Give yourself a structure, and be realistic. If you know you’re a slow writer who’s prone to distractions, be generous, but if you’re someone who responds well to short deadlines, tighten the time frame up a bit. I said “November 2020 - November 2021 for the whole manuscript” because I know I’m a procrastinator who gets dejected if they shoot past intense deadlines….

Editing Deadline: December 2021-January 2022. I know I can edit fairly quickly, so I made this one much shorter.  

Main Requirements Prior to Starting: What do you need to get sorted before you can get going? It could be purchasing a laptop or figuring out a magic system. In my case, it was the latter.  

What Happens in your novel?: This is not ‘what do your characters do?’, but what, in one sentence, actually happens in the book. For Fellowship of the Ring, you could say ‘a diverse group of people assemble and set off together with the goal of destroying the Ring’. LOADS more stuff actually takes place, obviously, but that’s probably the key thing that happens in that book. So, write the same thing for yours. I’m not going to tell you what happens in mine, because that would spoil it :).  

That took up the first A4 page of my writer’s notebook, and after that, I moved on to Mood and Key Imagery. 

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

On the left hand side of the page, I wrote down the words and concepts that sprang to mind when I thought of the novel itself. These were in no particular order or placement — just a random cloud of ideas in a rough column on the left hand side of the page — and they included: history, mystery, love, friendship, betrayal, nostalgic, homesick, sense of belonging, sense of place, searching, closeness, secrets… etc. etc.

Then on the right hand side, I wrote down five key words that I wanted to associate with the novel. These would form the ‘visual aesthetic’ in the background of my mind, and could be very easily expressed with a moodboard.

This same process (writing down words and creating a moodboard) could be achieved on a website like Pinterest. Take your time with it, find the right visual clues that really match the essence of your story, and create a final mood board with a limited number of panels that will be your novel’s ‘true north’ when it comes to feelings. If you're artistically inclined too, you could draw sketches of things relevant to your world too.  

While this stage is really important for solidifying the feeling and mood of the novel, don’t get stuck here and spend forever procrastinating on Pinterest or whatever. Once you’ve crystallised that ambiance, it’s time to move on. It’s also perfectly fine to come back to this at a later stage if you find yourself running out of inspiration or drifting a bit. Daydreaming, drawing, mood-board-ing are all great ways to work on your novel on days when you don’t feel like writing.

Things to Consider:

Alicia Lidwina asked herself some questions which helped me get past the ‘block’ that I’d created when thinking about the novel, and those were:

What scares me about this story? (in my case it was the scope of it - it was easy for me to get lost in over-thinking tiny details and get too overwhelmed to handle the big picture)

What will readers take away from it? (in my case, I hoped that it was a sense of friendship, people from desperate cultures finding common ground, and a sense of being grounded in a real, tangible world.

What is its selling point? (essentially, why would an agent/publisher choose yours over the next one in the pile?). Don’t be bashful about this. This is your notebook, so if you’re proud of a feature or aspect of the story, write it down. In my case, there is no ‘Big Bad come to destroy the world’, no Chosen One who is the only one who can stop it. There is an antagonist, but it’s on a personal scale, and that’s the selling point. It’s about two people going on a personal journey to uncover a lost piece of knowledge that’s arguably not all that world-changing on its own, but which means the world to them.  

What will be the three biggest issues in writing the first draft? Identify the three biggest roadblocks, and then take a bulldozer to them. For me, it was time management, getting mentally stuck, and the sheer darned effort of it becoming overwhelming!

Important Bullet Points  

These are five key facts about your novel, distilled from the sections above. They include: What’s at the heart of the story? How long is the story? What’s the narrative focus of the story? What are the maximum number of main characters? And the maximum number of supporting characters (this obviously doesn’t mean you can’t have other, less important characters too!)?  

Relationship between the two main characters is forefront

50-100k words

The novel’s focus is on the characters’ main goal (had to be more vague here so I didn't give it away)

2 main characters

3 supporting characters  

If you find you’ve got too many main characters (not necessarily a bad thing to have a lot of characters - look at A Song of Ice and Fire after all!), then figure out whose story you want to tell here. You can always write another story with other characters in a connected novel, or a sequel. You don’t have to tell everything all at the same time.  

Speaking of characters… 

…Get to Know Your Main Characters:  

Here you can write character sheets for each of your main characters and cast. There are hundreds of these templates available on the internet, asking questions like ‘how would your character react to [insert event]?’ etc. to get to know your character. If this isn’t your thing (it isn’t mine) then at least write down some useful information about them. Rough height and weight, hair, eye and skin colour, general temperament, and any other defining physical or mental traits. 

Next came the Chronological Order

This does not have to represent the final order of the novel’s structure, nor the order in which you write the manuscript, but you need to know what happened within the timeline, and when, in order to be really clear when you’re telling the story. You can write the manuscript out of order, and you can tell the story with flashbacks or in a different order, but you need to have the underlying chronology securely in place so that your writing makes sense and so that you don’t confuse yourself or the readers in the process.  

Preceding and Tangential Events

These don’t need to be in the novel itself, but it may be important to define the sequence of events that also led up to the moment where we pick up your story, and what is happening elsewhere so that you can be sure of these too. In my case, I defined the events that concerned one of the supporting characters’ lives so that I knew how and why they were at the point they are in the story. It relates directly to - and heavily influences - the events of the novel, so I needed to have this person’s history nailed down as well, even though I don't tell it all explicitly in the book (because that would be unnecessary and a bit dull).  

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, and Sub-Plot Ideas (plus writing a synopsis)

Alicia Lidwina defined the story premise helpfully with the following formula:

Story Premise = Main Character + Desire + Obstacle

Pick a different colour for each of these components, and write a short paragraph to explain them in the context of the novel. Alicia Lidwina used the following:

[Main Character] “Harry, an orphan who didn’t know that he’s a wizard, [Desire] got invited into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and wanted to live his school life to its fullest, [Obstacle] but a certain Dark Lord who killed his parents is trying to rise into powers again and kill him in revenge.

Do this for your novel, and keep it really short.  

Plot Definition: This is even shorter than that! It’s a single sentence!! It’s most closely tied to the desire of the character, and lies at the heart of the story. It’s most likely a distilled version of the ‘what happens in the story’ from the Project Stats page, so check that to see what you wrote there.  

Sub Plot Ideas  

Five bullet points (no more) for things that are happening concurrently and which are related in some way to the main story. For me, Kae and Tomas are doing their research, so that’s the main theme, but beneath that there are a few other related incidents.

Writing a Synopsis - developed out of the points in this section, and includes:

Who the main character is

What the stakes are (the story premise is your guideline)

What the main plot line is

How the MC resolves the problem in the main plot line

How the book ends.

List of Locations  

Start with the main ones and add to it as you go on. Write a little bit of information about them so that you have something to refer back to. I also drew a big old map which I found very helpful and also really fun to do.

List of Scenes

It’s very important to map out every single scene that happens in the novel. Use your timeline to help with this, but remember a scene is not necessarily a chapter. You can have more than one scene within a chapter, but try not to have too many.  

I used small post-it notes (sticky notes) and wrote down things like “M joins K’s clan at the fire and K learns about magic” and “K studies at Citadel, intro to Citadel, magic, and characters” as separate scenes. Once you’ve written down everything that is going to happen (this will take some time! Get a drink and some snacks ready, and go slow), you can stick them into your notebook in the order you’d like to tell the story. Some chapters may have just one scene, while others may have two or three. I didn’t have more than two in any of my chapters, and actually ended up splitting some scenes that I’d made too vague in this section into more chapters. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, but it will form a road map.  

Additions and Notes:  

I left a section of the Scene Outline bit of the notebook blank for things to add in as I went along. I haven’t used it yet, but I might.  

Chapter Outline

I arranged the scenes into the chapters already by sticking them in order, but you could do a chapter outline separately after this. It’s up to you. 

NaNoWriMo plan:  

I did this back in October, and wrote down the main goal for nanoprep, which was to finish the background info. Breaking that down further, I listed - magic (how does it work exactly), geography, and politics. 

After that, it was just a case of writing the 1667 words a day. *spoilers, I got distracted and didn’t do NaNo this year* . What I should have done, was break it up into chunks and write down my goals so that I had something tangible to use as a road map, and I will be doing that now for the novel as I take it up again outside of NaNo. Having check boxes and manageable goals really works for me. Find what will work for you, and if it turns out not to, adapt!

Some final pointers and tips:

Set regular goals for yourself. Whether you work by saying ‘I’ll write 1000 words a day’ or ‘I’ll write something every day’, make a structure for yourself. If you slip and miss a day, week, or month (I didn’t meet NaNo this year because I chose to work on another project instead *slaps forehead*), don’t beat yourself up. Writing is a craft and it takes a long time and a lot of discipline to master a craft.  

Your first draft does not have to be good. At all. Your first draft is just words on paper. A first draft is the block of marble taken from the quarry, and subsequent edits and reworking is the process of carving the sculpture itself. The editing that is done by the publisher or the professional you employ to edit it for you later, is the final polishing. Don’t be demoralised if the block of marble seems very rough when it first lands in your studio. That’s ok!  

Take regular breaks. Writing is hard work, and most people can’t concentrate on something successfully for longer than 55 min's, and if you’re doing that, you’re already doing really well. Personally, I’m at 15-20 on a good day. Write in little sprints of ten minutes or so, and then get up and stretch, look out the window, maybe leave the room, come back in with a fresh approach.  

Stretch your hands, and wear wrist braces when you work. Seriously. I gave myself tendinitis on my first major project, and couldn’t use either hand properly for weeks. The ones I have are these, and they allow me to work safely for much longer.  

Keep hydrated. Have a bottle of water on the desk in front of you between your arms as you type and sip it, otherwise you’ll forget. 2 litres a day is usually recommended, but know your body and drink accordingly.  

Treat yourself. Whether that’s something as simple as a decadent hot chocolate after your first chapter/chunk/sprint is done, or a new notebook or a pen or that sticker set you wanted on Etsy or literally anything nice, reward yourself for the hard work you’ve put in, with tangible things you can look at or experience and say ‘I have that because I did the work’. It’ll help with your sense of achievement, especially if the project is a long one.  

Join a local writer’s group for feedback. With the current Covid-19 chaos, this is probably not possible right now, but getting constructive feedback on your work from someone who hasn’t been cocooned in the project in the way you are, but who respects you as a writer and wants to help you grow, will be invaluable. It’s too easy to exist in a little isolated bubble and think you’re doing ok, when in reality you could be creating bad habits which will be difficult to break later. By these, I mean things like ‘filler words’ you don’t realise you use, or other pit-falls it’s easy to tumble into when you can’t see the wood for the trees…It’s intimidating, and it might take some courage to work up and do, but I promise it’ll help you grow. You don’t have to do what the people suggest, but it’s great to get outside opinions all the same.

Submit work to writing competitions. This will help with showing agents and publishers later down the line that you’re not only committed, but hopefully talented, and will help you to push yourself. Use the world of your novel for the setting, and get to know it by writing short stories on the competition’s theme set there.  

Read. Read the writers you admire, and read them ‘actively’ - figure out exactly what it is about ‘that’ sentence that made you shiver, and use the same techniques in your own work (don’t plagiarise, obviously, but if it was alliteration that made the sentence work so well, use it yourself! Perhaps it was the metre of the line? Great, now you know a rhythm that will drive a sentence forward or slow it down etc.)

Enjoy it. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’ll show in the work. Take a step back if you start floundering, and ‘interview’ yourself about why it’s not fun any more. Refer back to the sections in the notebook that helped to clarify the plot/process, and see if you’ve wandered away from them. Make yourself answer questions like: ‘What is the main reason I don’t want to do this?’ ‘What is the character’s motivation?’ ‘Should I scrap this section?’ (don’t delete it, but cut and paste it into another ‘scraps’ document, and then start afresh from the last place you were happy with. Nothing is wasted - it all goes into building the world and getting to know the characters, even if it doesn’t get explicitly told in the finished product, so don’t be afraid to do that last bit).  

Good luck!

I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any questions or things you’d like to add to this, please feel free to send me an ask here on Tumblr.

If you’re a new writer hoping to get an agent or publisher, you might also find this post on ‘talking to a published author’ helpful or interesting.

If you would like to keep up to date with my own novel’s progress, you can follow me here on Tumblr, as well as on my writing Instagram @rnpeacock

[rivetgoth]

My most prominent & beloved OC ship/couple are EC and Eris. I talk about them occasionally but I wish I talked about them more cuz they are very dear to my heart. They are members of my fictional goth band KV7 who I have spoken of a bit in the past.

In short E.C., full name Eric Christian, is a synth player who was born and raised in a small town in Georgia. He was a punky troublemaker growing up. He is very very very quiet and likes to mostly keep to himself and be left alone. He has a tendency to kinda look at things in little pieces instead of ever considering the bigger picture, which makes him very good at experimental music and very bad at social interaction. He likes collecting lost trinkets and making weird artsy collages with them. He loves psychedelics and he can be a dick to people who try to talk to him if he’s just not in the mood. People often mistake him for being shy because of how quiet he is but he is genuinely just sort of an ass and a mega introvert and he just does not like to be bothered or like people that much lol.

Eris’ real name is Eric Sinclair. He’s a singer and bass player and is very outspoken and loud and friendly. He was born in Los Angeles but his family moved to Georgia when he was a still a kid. He never stopped missing the city. He was a choir boy in the local church and people always told him he had such a beautiful voice. His parents put him through hell as ultra conservative Christians due to his being very obviously effeminate even as a kid and as he got older he eventually ran away from home to get away from his family. He took on odd jobs and couch surfed in strangers’ homes while honing a drag persona called Eros and performing bad 80s pop music in clubs. Eventually he kinda moved on from Eros and changed his name to Eris as he became more invested in goth and industrial music. He is very warm and extroverted, although he is generally masking a lot of trauma.

Eris and EC met in high school. EC partly picked up his nickname to avoid confusion because of the fact that they were both named Eric. Back then the two really never interacted, Eris was still a little Christian choir boy and EC was getting suspended for smoking beneath the bleachers during PE so they had very little in common. Plus Eris was a year older than EC so they were in different grades. It wasn’t until they were both older that they met for a second time — EC was in college and working a part time job at a record store in the city, Eris had already run away and came in to shop — and recognized each other and began talking. They grew close really fast.

EC really likes Eris. He finds him really charismatic and intriguing but he’s not very good at voicing that. He admires how extroverted he is and feels more keen on trying to interact and talk when he’s around Eris (he is one of the few people who can convince EC to smile or talk for more than a few sentences at most lol). Eris likewise finds EC charming and kind of projects this romantic allure onto him due to his quiet/mysterious nature. Plus Eris is very talkative in nature and likes to be generally dominant in most situations so he’s happy to just talk at EC, who often enjoys just listening to him. They really really enjoy doing drugs and listening to music together.

Still, since they are both passionate artsy people with very different personalities they fight a LOT too. Their relationship is very turbulent and during their time in KV7 together they aren’t ever “officially” in a relationship, they both just like each other a lot and hook up really often, but at other times they’re not even on speaking terms. Still, that says a lot about how intense their relationship is, because again, EC is not even keen on speaking to most people, let alone yelling at the top of his lungs.

When KV7 disbands it’s due to EC finally making the call. Things go really sour after the band relocates to Chicago so that Ramses, the third (and founding) member, can work with his new partner Sugar. I have posted about him before. Things get more and more tense, Eris starts doing more and more drugs and becomes increasingly unstable. Sugar drives a really bad wedge between Ramses and his bandmates and kinda fucks with both Eris and EC’s insecurities as well. In the end EC is the one who ups and leaves and announces from a hotel room phone that he’s quitting the band and things really spiral for Eris.

That is NOT the end of their story… but it’s all I want to share here right now. One of my future writing projects is going to tell a lot of their story in-depth. EC and Eris both are very special important OCs to me and I adore them very much.

Here are the moodboards I made for the two of them. EC on the left, Eris on the right.

Some songs I associate with them as a couple are Chemlab’s Pyromance (Eris POV) and Queen of Despair (EC POV), Depeche Mode’s Shake the Disease (EC POV) and Strangelove (Eris POV), Lana Del Rey’s Fuck It I Love You and Mariner’s Apartment Complex (both Eris POV), and Duran Duran’s Last Chance on the Stairway (EC POV). There are others but that seems like a good collection to give some ideas.

They also have tags on my OC blog. Here is EC, and here is Eris. 🖤