#look at how my tears ricochet; solo

[the-lil-exorcist]

Letters to the Wind; Solo

Timing: Recent Location: Ballard Home Summary: Jamie suggest that Lil write a letter to her sister to get out some angst. For once, Lil does what Jamie suggests. Warnings: Sibling Death tw, vague/illusions domestic violence tw (thanks Jacob)

“Just write it and then burn it,” Jamie said pushing the notepad to Lil,“It’ll help trust me.” His hand was firm handing the pen to her and she sighed knowing that he was about as stubborn as she was. She wanted to protest it, after all it didn’t feel like it would help. 

She’d much rather find her sister then write letters to burn, but well it wasn’t as if she was doing well on that front either, so taking the pad and slipping outside she started to write the words first coming out shaky - more stream of consciousness than anything else. 

Jane, 

Fuck I don’t know how to start this. I’ve never known how to talk to you after everything that happened. I thought when we were older we’d figure it out. That we’d have one of those stupid hallmark movie moments where you admitted you were wrong and I’d admit that I was a little wobbly. 

But I don’t think we’re going to have that moment are we, Sis? I don’t think we’re going to have that. Part of me is sad, and regrets standing my ground even now but most of me is still mad at you. 

I was a kid. I was a kid and you tried to make me a soldier, and you should have stepped in and helped. For a long time I honestly held that in my heart you know. I kinda resented you and Jude for not stepping in with dad. You were always so strong and I looked up to you. I really thought you were going to come back, and help. You just didn’t. It hurt. It hurt you didn’t choose to side with me. It hurt that you went along with him instead of me. You knew I was scared, you knew I didn't want to be a demonologist. You knew and you didn't step in.

Then it struck me yesterday that you were a kid. It struck me that no one was there for you when the training first started, and that maybe you were as scared as me.  Maybe there was something I didn’t know, and maybe you were keeping Jonas and I out of it.  Now I’m sitting here writing a stupid letter you’re never going to read because I can’t talk to Jonas about this. He misses you so badly too. I can see it on how he looks around corners. I think he’s looking for you and Jude and Mom and I don’t know how we’re gonna get past this. 

Your haunting me and your shoes are to fucking big to fill. Jonas and I shouldn’t have ever been put in this position. 

Damn it. 

I want to talk to you. I want that stupid talk we should have had years ago trying to figure out what happened. I want to feel like I know you again. 

I want my sister back, and I don’t think I’ll ever get you back. I want to tell you that I want to understand you, I want to know why you’ve done what you’ve done. I want to sit in front of you again and have you braid my hair and giggle about those stupid tv shows we watched. 

I want to feel safe again, and I don’t think I ever will. 

I love you. I’m so sorry. Please, please forgive me. Please come back. Haunt me please. I can’t do this alone, It hurts I’m sorry come back -  

Lil paused for a moment her hands shaking with a rage and held fear she didn’t know how to deal with. She was pleading for a sister that couldn’t come back to her. If she could have, she would have. Even now Lil knew that. Jane Ballard would have crawled home if she had too. 

It meant Lil and Jonas were alone, and she was going to have to deal with it. 

After she calmed down, Lil couldn’t sign her name instead ripping the page out and burning it unsigned, not taking ownership of it.

[riptideripley]

Chapter four of: Addicted.

word count: 1,151

Roman arrived at the arena and spotted Andrade, deciding to speak to him since they haven’t in a while. “Yo Andrade!” he spoke as he walked over, making Andrade turn his head. They dapped each other up and made small talk, nothing too major.

Timeskip

Cameras were rolling and Dominik had to just act like everything was fine. He had a match tonight against Ricochet and chose to focus on that more than anything else, not even his “girlfriend” on his shoulder. Andrade walked in and Rhea’s eyes trailed all over.

She once again knew it was wrong especially with Dom standing next to her but Andrade looked absolutely delicious tonight, smelt amazing too. She chewed on her necklace while looking at him, turning her attention to Dom. Ideas racing all over her mind, she’ll definitely be talking to him alone tonight.

Timeskip.

Dom had a match and Rhea saw this as a wide open opportunity. “Andrade!” she whisper yelled from her dressing room, hiding behind the door. He turned around to see who it was and smiled, walking to her direction.

“Hey mami what’s u-“ he was cut off as he shoved into the room from someone behind. “Cmon pretty boy get in the room” it was Roman. Rhea just smiled as she locked the door, her plan working.

Little did the three of them know, Liv was watching everything and boy did she have news to tell Dom.

After Dom’s match.

Dominik was pacing around looking high and low for Rhea. It wasn’t until Liv had stopped him to realize something was..off.

“Liv, where's Rhea?”

“About that Dom..here come to my dressing room alright? I have an appearance but it’ll be quick.”

With that he followed her to her dressing room, sitting down and grabbing the bottle of water that she handed him from her mini fridge. She walked out of the room to go pace around before telling him because god knows how he’ll react.

A few minutes go by and Dom just sat there, he had a staff member go fetch his phone from his dressing room so he just played games while waiting for her to return. She finally returned and seemed..worried about something.

“Dom look..I know you and Rhea have been going through some things with Roman these past couple of days. I’m just gonna cut to it alright?” he nodded at her words. “I saw your friend Andrade and Roman go in her dressing room during your match. Heard some things as well and just walked away” she told him as she watched his entire face drop.

Roman was one thing..but his own friend Andrade?. His heart completely sunk and he felt tears form in his eyes, letting the tears fall as he sat there silently. After everything and especially yesterday, you would’ve thought she would put an end to all of this for him. But she went out and fucked his own friend while he was having a match that she didn’t even bother to watch. He silently stood up and walked out of Liv’s dressing room,not saying a word.

Liv felt entirely bad for Dom knowing all the shit he went through.

Dominik stormed into the judgement day’s shared room, throwing his phone at the wall. “Woah woah easy there fella, what’s going on?” Finn spoke in complete shock, he’s never seen Dom like this before.

“Where is Rhea?” he asked not giving two shits to explain anything.

“She just left..¿Te engañó otra vez?(Did she cheat again?)” Damian asked not wanting to cut anything short. Finn was the only one who understood what he meant and his heart broke as Dom slowly nodded, completely breaking down on the floor.

“No solo con Roman pero con Andrade, también-“(Not only with Roman but with Andrade, too-)

Rhea,who was unaware of literally everything, walked in the room a few minutes later. Everyone just stared at her, confusing her until she looked at Dom. Her heart dropped realizing this could mean one thing.

“..Andrade and Roman huh?” Damian spoke, leaving Rhea completely stunned.

She tried to back out of the room but Finn caught her, pulling her back inside and closing the door. “Sis this is the third time now. You told all of us you’d do better after the first time and now look at Dom.” he gestured over to Dom which made her feel even more guilty than she already was.

“..Dom, can we talk about this? alone please?” she glanced around the room, making the other boys nod at each other before walking out. Rhea sat her title down and sat next to him, gently wiping a tear that fell from his eyes.

“Rhea you lied to me. Three fucking times you lied. I believed in you, the whole group did when you made that stupid group meeting about the first time you cheated. But yesterday you went out to a bar and cheated again so I took some space from you to collect my thoughts. And just..just when I was about to try to work things out with you, you pull this shit.” he spoke and not one time did Rhea make even a small noise. She just said there in her own guilt and silence, realizing the weight of the whole situation.

“Dom..I’m sorry ok? Can we just p-“

“No. I want a break from you, Roman has a flight that leaves out Wednesday. I’ll talk with him and Andrade but you? I don’t even want to see your face.” he spat out quickly, standing up and grabbing his belongings. Rhea sat there hurt and weighed down with guilt, watching him walk out the door leaving her alone with her own thoughts. All she could do was break down and sob.

Timeskip.

About an hour and a half later, Roman was sitting in his hotel room about to get some rest when he got a group call from..Dom and Andrade. Shit.

“Hey what’s up?”

“I’m setting up a meeting with the both of you for tomorrow. 9:00 sharp, and don’t be fucking late either got it?” Dom spat out through the phone, chills going down both Roman and Andrade’s spine.

“Alright alright..I’ll see both of you in the morning then.” Andrade spoke after a 2 minute silence went by, being the first to hang up.

“Yeah,I’ll be there.” Roman finally spoke before hanging up.

“So..what was that about hm?” Seth sat up from his spot next to Roman, noticing his uneasy expression.

“N..Nothing. I just have somewhere to be at 9am if that’s fine with you” he glanced over at Seth, who nodded and smiled. Roman just sighed to himself as Seth turned to the opposite side and drifted off to sleep, how the fuck is he suppose to figure this shit out.

[msbigredmachine]

Watched Royal Rumble 2023. My highlights (will be brief because I need to rant about that main event):

1. Not sure if it was smart play by WWE putting the men’s match first, because we forgot ALL about the winner by the end of the night.

2. Kofi botches his Rumble save for the second straight year. Yeah, it’s done. Time to end that ish for good now.

3. The minute Lesnar came out I said Lashley is coming for his ass. Glad I was proven right.

4. Rey not making it to the ring but Ex Con Dom comes out right after and has his mask. Does this make Rey Mysterio the rightful winner?

5. A Rumble spot wasted on Booker T when Mustafa Ali was right there, smh

6. Not Montez being thrown out in front of his in-laws 😭

7. I kinda wish Cody’s return had been a surprise.

8. Yoooo that spot with Logan Paul and Ricochet was something out of Dragonball Z! And I don't even watch Dragonball Z.

9. GUNTHER and Cody had a whole match within a match and it was great. Gunther is that guy. The IC champ looked like the fucking boss. So so good.

10. Very good men’s match. Wasn’t too extravagant and it worked.

11. The Pitch Black match looked like a rave I once attended when I was in England, lol.

12. Bray Wyatt is for the aesthetics and theatrical more than the actual wrestling, always has been. I don’t understand how fans were expecting a 5-star match.

13. Didn’t bother watching the Raw women’s title match. Bianca deserves better and I don’t care for Alexa Bliss being thrown back into that lame witchy storyline.

14. The women’s match wasn’t as good as the men’s, for me. It only picked up when it was down to the final three.

15. Damage CTRL looked kind of strong for once, knocking everybody out.

16. Michelle McCool with THAT body and wrestling in Uggs? 🔥

17. Yes yes yes to AsuKana, her dark outfit and the murder clown face paint. Triple H needs to run back her days of destruction at NXT.

18. Thank you WWE for changing that STUPID dew drop name back to Piper Niven.

19. Nia Jax?!?! 🙄🙄🙄 Errr, no. On top of that, her music started playing before the countdown even came on. Hot tears.

20. I don’t think Naomi will ever come back either and that makes me sad. 😢

21. The right woman won. Bianca vs Rhea at Mania will be epic, and Rhea will win.

22. The woman at No. 1 won and the man at No. 30 won. Very interesting.

23. Samantha Irvin was on her A-game with the main event intros. 🤌🏾

24. Standard good match, Roman the king of 2.9999 kick outs as usual.

25. I wondered why the match went so short. I regretted it soon enough 😭

26. Roman throwing KO by the back of his head on the jagged part of the steps TWICE! 😬😬😬😬

27. Sami cringing the whole time, and things would only get worse for him after the match ended. 🥺

28. The Bloodline brutalized KO. Steel chair and super kicks and handcuffs. Sami couldn’t take anymore and tried to beg off and ended up getting pie-faced over and over. It was then that I realized what was coming…

29. And yet, my jaw still DROPPED when Sami hit Roman with that chair! 😱 Unbelievable!

30. LOL at Roman actually looking back, wondering whether it’s 2014 all over again.

31. Jimmy though. Jimmy. Attacked Sami first. Didn’t hesitate for a second. After all the handshakes. “My dawg”. The Honorary Uce name. Smiling at Sami the whole time. He was the one who brought Sami into the group in the first place, back when Jey wanted him out.

32. And the look on his face as he attacked. Manic. Rabid. Unhinged. His viciousness stunned me initially, but then I remember what he told Roman all those weeks ago:

“Sami’s my dawg. I like Sami. But I love my family. I love the Bloodline. I love you.”

33. Solo. The hired gun, sent by the elders to do Roman’s bidding. Forgetting that he also used Sami to gaslight Jey numerous times before Roman brainwashed him.

34. Roman crying as he and the rest of the Bloodline decimated Sami pissed me off, lol. “I gave you the world! You broke my family!” What?!The audacity!

35. Jey walking away in tears legitimately made me cry. You could see 2020 flashing before his eyes; the way Roman treated Sami was the exact same way he did Jey and he has never forgotten it.

36. And now on his IG, Jey has declared war! 😳

37. LISTEN TO THIS FROM THE FANS! And watch Roman’s reaction. Dropping the petals one by one over Sami and Kevin’s grave! 😭

38. All this time, we’ve had cool heel Roman. Now we have evil heel Roman. Finally.

I have no idea where this storyline is going, but I am on their edge of my seat and will gobble it all up.

MVP - The entire Bloodline and Kevin. No debate. These boys need to go to Hollywood asap.

Line of the night:

Everything from commentary. Pat, Michael Cole and Corey Graves were on 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[galacticwildfire]

Damn Olivia Cooke does look so much like Natalie Portman, it's unreal. Just popping in to say I hope your day is good and also I was struck with some curiosity and was wondering what songs you associate with Hope (or/and Hope & Poe)? ← endlessly curious bc putting music to my ocs and pairings is maybe my favorite part of the process

Hi, thank you for the ask and I hope you're day's good as well! And yesss, I absolutely love putting music to my oc's. It's literally the first thing I do when I start writing a story. I have a whole second spotify account with my playlists for them here. I'm the type who puts like 80 songs in a playlist and I need to cut them down but I've got a couple I listen to on repeat. I have three separate playlists for the story, one for hope, one for her and Poe, and then one for the solo family.

With Hope I've got a lot of Halsey/Marina on there. A couple songs for Hope that I'd play the most would be;

Nightmare - Halsey

Devil in me - Halsey

Seventeen - Marina & the Diamonds

You asked for this - Halsey (heavy on this one)

Who am I living for - Katy Perry

This is me trying - Taylor Swift

The Family Jewels - Marina & the Diamonds

Crossfire - Stephen

Which Witch - Florence and the Machine

Burned - Grace Vanderwaal

Animal - MISSIO

The Tradition - Halsey

Then I've got quite a few for her and Poe as well. With their relationship I'm going to put it through a bit of hell. With the Oddy arc there'll be some mistrust and major fights there when Poe worries that she might be being blackmailed into spying, and then there'll be a tough period between them realising their feelings and actually getting together before she'll be taken captive and brainwashed by the First Order. So there's a mix of really upbeat songs and then downright tragic ones.

The entirety of Taylor Swifts Reputation album but in particular

Call it what you want (heavy on this one)

Getaway Car

Gorgeous

Fransesca - Hozier (this one is definitely their relationship after she's imprisoned and the lengths Poe goes to to get her back)

Drive - Halsey

Maroon - Taylor Swift

Look after you - The Fray

The Reflection - The Neighbourhood

Renegades - X Ambassadors

Starman - David Bowie (I'm making David Bowie exist within SW specifically so they can drunkenly sing this)

Dangerous - David Guetta

Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift

Powerful - Major Lazer

Mirrors - Justin Timberlake

My Tears Ricochet - Taylor Swift

Friends - Chase Atlantic

Fire Meet Gasoline - Sia

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac

Young Gods - Halsey

Out of the woods - Taylor Swift

Flawless - The Neighbourhood

False God - Taylor Swift

Lovers on the sun - David Guetta

Leaving tonight - The Neighbourhod

Train Wreck - James Arthur

Hold on - Chord Overstreet

Just give me a reason - Pink

I'm finishing up the final chapter of the prequel atm before I really get back into the main story, I have a lot written for it but it's editing and getting from point a to b. They're relationship for the next few chapters will be going pretty strong, then there'll be the oddy arc and it's going to be pretty messy for a while but with the two of them the constant thing is that no matter how mad they are with each other they just can't hate each other because they really do accidentally become best friends (who keep accidentally flirting with each other in front of everyone.) It's essentially going to end up a very dramatic slowburn situationship until they blurt out that they're in love mid fight.

I have one scene coming up where her and Poe have a major major blow up after she disobeys orders to save his life in a dogfight since she still feels pretty safe in the assumption that the first order won't kill her whilst everyone else just thinks she's genuinely delusional. Poe's convinced she's actually insane which she kind of is but she wasn't wrong. It's going to be during that spy arc and they both genuinely go a little insane during that fight, so she takes off and goes to lay low with Lando for a while and he gets the whole earful, only for Poe to show up at his door the next day to bring her back and Lando is just in stitches over it. "Hope, there's a handsome resistance commander here to see you" and she's just dumbfounded that he had the guts to come after her (and falls a little in love).

But in the next chapter I'm writing atm they're going to be pretty cute. Poe being her willing assistant as she compiles their intel into a motion for the senate, bringing her caf and gossiping when she catches Snap leaving Karé's room at like six in the morning and Poe being offended he wasn't the first to know, running to wish her luck as she goes to leave and then bailing her out of jail the next day. When they're a mess they're a mess but when they're cute they're insufferable to everyone around them.

I'd love to see what playlists you have as well <3 because honestly making playlists for oc's is one of my favourite parts of writing!

[buttterknifeee]

How long is forever? - Teen Titans x Aquagirl!Reader

Masterlist

Request: "Hello, May I request an episode insert in the Teen Titans episode 'How Long Is Forever?'"

Summary: Starfire takes a trip to the future... only to find out that you and the other Titans have disbanded. Will she find a way back to the present, or will you live an unfulfilling life forever?? (from S2 EP1)

Pairings: None

Word Count: 3919

A/N: Hey!!! sorry this took a while, it was super hard to write it due to most of it being in Starfire's POV. Most of the episodes in the series are centered around specific titans, so if you have an idea for an Aquagirl centered episode, feel free to send it in!!! (theres also a grand total of one cuss word in there)

Aquagirl’s Room - 2004

“Where is it? Where is it?” you mumble, tearing your room apart. You were looking for one of your CDs that you were in the mood for listening to. You threw your clothes into the air, looked under your bed, and even checked inside of your fish tank, holding the water containing a few tropical fish above you until you gave up. You sighed, finally checking the clock. You realized that you’ve been in your room for an hour and you haven’t even said hello to the other titans. You quickly change into your suit and head to the living room.

You stretched as you walked in. “Hey guys-” you stop in confusion at the scene in front of you. Starfire was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, holding a bunch of necklaces and boxes and babbling something about “Blorthorg”, Beast Boy and Cyborg were brawling for a video game remote, Raven was reading silently and holding up a pair of nail clippers (?) telepathically, and Robin….

Anger bubbles up inside of you as you realize that he was in front of the stereo, blasting music. From your CD. You cross your arms as you march up to the Boy Wonder.

“Hey Rob, whatcha doing with my CD?” You say. “What, was Kelly Clarkson too quiet for you?”

Raven adds, “Yeah Robin, could the music be a little louder? I can still hear myself think.”

He glares at the two of you “I don’t listen- I only turned the music up to DROWN OUT ALL THE YELLING!!” He refers to the two boys. Cyborg now had Beast Boy in a headlock, holding the controller triumphantly.

“Whose turn is it now, tough guy? Whose turn is it now?” Cyborg taunts the green teen.

“Knock it off! I can't work with you two acting like idiots!” Robin yells.

“Work?? The only “work” I see you doing is stealing my stuff!” You snap.

“Great. More yelling will definitely stop the yelling.” Raven says, a sarcastic smirk on her face.

The three of you glared at each other, Cyborg and Beast Boy were still fighting, and one of Starfire’s necklaces broke, its beads tumbling onto the ground.

“STTTOOOOPPPPP!” the alien princess screamed. You stared at her in surprise. She took a deep breath and recomposed herself.

“ Friends must never behave this way, and especially not on Blorthog! Do you wish to invite the Rekmas?” she said.

“Gesundheit?” Beast Boy said, confused by her vocabulary.

“On my world, ‘Rekmas’ means ‘the Drifting.’” she explains. “The point at which close friends begin to drift apart, and their friendship begins to die.” She frowned. You immediately felt bad for all the yelling you did.

“Aw, come on, Starfire.” Cyborg comes to her side.

“We are so not Rek-whatever-ing.” Beast Boy reassures her.

“We're getting on each other's nerves a little. Big deal.” Raven says.

“Fighting’s just a part of life. As long as we resolve it, we’ll be fine.” You say.

“Yeah. This is just typical roommate stuff. We're not going to drift apart, Star. I promise. We'll all be friends forever.” Robin declares

“Forever?” Starfire asks. Before you could answer, Robin’s T-communicator beeped. The communicator was flashing red, and he turned to you and the others.

“Titans! Trouble!” he says. You all rush out of the Tower and into the city.

You find the “trouble” in the Jump City museum. It was a man wearing black and gold armor and a goatee: Warp. He was monologuing to a bunch of guards that he had frozen.

“I didn't journey back in time one hundred years to squabble, I came to steal.” You see him reaching for one of the clocks. “The Clock of Eternity. Valuable in the past, priceless in the future.” Robin steppeds forward, throwing his birdirang to knock Warp’s hand back.

“But for the present...you'll keep your filthy hands off it.” He says, announcing the Titans’ entrance. The man turns to the six of you.

"The Teen Titans. This is a treat. I read all about you in the historical archives. And now, you're all history!” He fires his laser at you all.

“Titans! Go!” Robin yells as you scramble to dodge his rays. He blocks Warp’s rays with his staff, but at the last shot the staff breaks, and he backed up. Starfire blasts her starbolts at him, but the bolts ricochet off of him and hits her, sending her to the ground. You and Beast Boy attack him now, a stream of water lifting you into the air by your feet. You put your hands in front of you and a jet of water blasts out of your hands, heading straight for Warp. He held his hand us as the water made contact with him, and froze the water. The ice traveled up the jet of water and onto your hands, encasing them in the long shard of ice. You fell, the weight of the ice dragging you down. You winced as you saw Beast Boy meet a similar fate, his animal form frozen in ice next to you. You struggled to free your hands as Cyborg and Raven both went down. Robin gives one last attempt to take Warp down, running towards him.

“You cannot defeat Warp. I am from the future.” He says, throwing disks towards Robin. He dove to the side as the projectiles exploded. “And your relics are one hundred years out of date." He grabs the clock and presses a blue lens from his armor. Suddenly, a blinding white portal forms in front of him. Your hands were still stuck so you had to squint.

“Ta-ta, Titans. I have enjoyed our time together, but I've got a very bright future ahead of me.” He sneers, stepping through the portal. You finally pull your hands out of the chunk of ice just in time to see Starfire slam into Warp, sending the two of them into the portal.

“Starfire!” Robin yells, trying to dive in after her, only for the portal to close and him to fall on the floor. You pull him up from the ground and look around. Starfire was gone.

Titan’s Tower-2024

Starfire couldn’t believe what was going on. After tackling Warp, she ripped off the lens on his suit and ended up in Jump City, 20 years into the future. She found Cyborg alone in the rotting Titans Tower, hooked up to a large battery. He explained that the day she left, the Titans fell apart, and disbanded soon after. He told her that the others can help her get back to the present, telling her where to find you, Beast Boy, and Raven.

She found herself at a circus whilst looking for Beast Boy. There in a cage, sat Beast Boy, changing into various animals. She approached the cage as he turned back into his human form. He was now a pudgy old man, with a great deal of hair loss. He looked at her with wide eyes through the bars.

“No way! It's you. But how?” he asked, peering at her with his wrinkled eyes.

“I require your help.” Starfire said.

“What kinda help?” Beast Boy asked.

“The future is not as it should be. We must find Warp. I will free you from this--” Beast Boy stopped Starfire from continuing her sentence.

“This cage isn't to keep me in! It's to keep those maniacs out!” he explained in a panicked tone, referring to a group of kids. “Look. After the Titans broke up, I tried the whole solo-hero thing. Got my butt kicked, a lot. So now, well…”

He turned into a chicken briefly to illustrate his point. “ Besides, I'm in the showbiz now.” Starfire could tell he wasn’t happy with where he was, but there was nothing she could do. She left Beast Boy and went to find Raven.

She found Raven in a room in a broken down building. She was standing in a pure white room, wearing a white cloak to match. Her back was facing Starfire when she arrived.

“Raven?” she squeaked, inching into the room. “Raven, it is Starfire, your friend”

“No such thing.” she groaned, her back still facing Starfire. Starfire’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Please, Raven I-”

“Just another figment. Don’t even look.”

“You must listen! I am here because-” she pleads, but Raven stops her.

“I’m never coming back! Go away!” she yells, Starfire backing up in fear. “It has to go away. Just like before. Just like all the others.” Starfire frowns in realization. She must not think I’m real; she thinks it's all in her head.

“Your mind.” she says softly, approaching the cloaked woman. “Without friends, you must have--” Starfire was about to touch Raven, but her familiar dark shield formed around her. She gasps, then eventually leaves the room in defeat. There was one last person she could try talking to. You.

She walked by the Jump City beach, the same place where you got your powers all those years ago. Suddenly, you rose out of the ocean, the water around you carrying you onto shore. Your face was stuck in a permanent glare, different to your constant smiles as a teen. You were taller, definitely had a few wrinkles, and you were wearing Atlantean clothing. Starfire flinched at your sudden arrival.

“Aquagirl! how-”

“I don’t go by Aquagirl anymore. I am Queen (y/n), ruler of Atlantis. And word gets around when one of your old teammates who had disappeared 20 years ago is roaming Jump City again, even at the bottom of the ocean.” You say coldly, eyeing her as she shrunk at the sight of you.

“What had happened to you, my friend?” she asked.

You sigh, recalling your memories. “After you disappeared and the team disbanded, I vowed to never be as soft and vulnerable as I was then. I moved to Atlantis, and was eventually appointed ruler.”

“Oh my, that sounds terrible!” Starfire exclaimed. “I need your help my friend-”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. It’s not terrible, I am quite fine just the way I am. And we were friends 20 years ago; things have changed.” You turn your back to her. “I must get going; there’s much I need to do.” Starfire stares at you in sadness as you walk back into the ocean, the water swallowing you up and the waves lapping like normal.

Starfire trudges through the snow-covered city, when a laser blast knocks her back. Her eyes raise to meet with Warp’s, his weapon aimed at her.

“What’s the matter, dear? Have I come at a bad time?” he snarls, opening fire once more. She dodges his shots and fires back, but the starbolts simply bounce off his modern armor. She tried to hit him close up but he held up his hand and ice formed around her midair. The large chunk of ice containing Starfire drops and shatters, leaving Starfire on the ground, shivering. She glares at Warp, who now has deeper wrinkles on his face.

“You have become so old,” she notes, still on the ground.

“That's what happens when someone steals my vortex regulator.” he says, holding out his hand. “The regulator, if you please. I really must get back to my future.” She stands up and takes the lens out from her belt. She couldn’t let him leave, especially when she’s stuck in a future like this. She held the disk next to her and warmed up a starbolt, as if to hold it hostage.

“If you ever wish to see your future you will repair the damage you have done to my past!” she yelled, anger bubbling up inside her. The villain laughed.

“Damage? Silly girl. There's nothing wrong with your past. One cannot damage history, because history cannot be changed.” He held up the clock and continued. “I went back in time to steal this because history says it disappeared. And history says it disappeared because I went back to steal it. Past, present, future. It's all written in stone, my dear.”

Starfire stood in disbelief dropping her glowing hand. No… this can't be the future we’re destined to live. Such terrible lives… she thought. Warp walked up to her shocked state and took the lens out of her hand.

“And nothing you do can ever change it.” he scoffed. Warp prepared to blast her when he was knocked into the alleyway by an unknown figure. Starfire snapped back into reality and looked around for you had knocked the villain back. A dark silhouette lept forward and threw Warp against the end wall of the alley. They threw disks at the villain, the area around him exploding. When the smoke cleared, Starfire could see that Warp had used a force field. He released his shield only to be met with the mysterious figure dropping down towards him. He stared straight at Starfire.

“Another time, perhaps.” he said. Before the shadowed person could reached him, he dropped into the ground. The person who had tried to fight him landed right where Warp had been, and as they straightened up, Starfire inched forward to see who it was.

“It’s good to see you again.” the person said. Starfire could recognize that voice from anywhere, and apparently, anytime.

“Robin?” she asked.

“I haven’t used that name in a long time.” he said, finally stepping out of the shadows. He looked nothing like the Boy Wonder she knew. His traffic-light esque uniform was replaced by a black suit with a blue bird on the front. He still wore a mask and he now had long, black hair.

“Call me… Nightwing.”

Starfire found herself in Robin’s (or Nightwing’s) base. She looked at a glass case of his old uniform, a feeling of melancholy washing over her. She was glad that he was ok, but the Robin she once knew was now nothing more than a mannequin display. Nightwing wrapped a blanket around her with a small smile.

Nightwing finally spoke. “So I’ve heard you’ve been looking for help.”

Starfire sighed. “There is nothing you can do. There is nothing anyone can do. The past cannot be repaired, the future cannot be altered, no matter how wrong it seems.”

“So it’s impossible.” Nightwing determined from her rant, walking towards a bunch of computers. “Good. If memory serves, we've done the impossible before.”

Nightwing’s words had surprised Starfire. None of the others had said anything as hopeful since she’d arrived here. A small fire of hope blossomed inside of her.

“I held on to this,” Nightwing says, pressing a button from a device. “...just in case.” Starfire’s eyes widened, realizing that it was a T-communicator. The communicator began to flash red, and to Starfire’s delight, so did her neck piece and wrist guard.

At the bottom of the ocean, you sat on a throne, talking to your advisers. As they left, your seashell necklace began to flash red. You looked at it in surprise, recognizing what it meant: it was an emergency signal that Robin had put in your necklace while you were still in a team. Even after 20 years, he had never used it until now. You began to get up from your throne when a group of your advisors came back, swarming you with scrolls and questions. You sat back down, a bitter feeling in your throat.

Beast Boy’s belt had flashed red whilst he was performing a trick in his animal form. He quickly jumped back into human form. He observed his belt for a moment before stepping back, hanging his head.

Cyborg's robotic eye flashed red as he sat alone in the Titans Tower. He immediately got up and started towards the door, only to be stopped by the wires keeping him alive and stuck inside the tower. He looks back at the power source.

Raven still stands alone in the room, her back facing the door. The brooch of her cloak flashes red, and without looking at it, she covers it with her hand.

Starfire and Nightwing venture to Jump City museum, where they find Warp, fixing his time travel suit. He wields the lens that he took from Starfire to his suit, whilst talking to himself.

“Tick-tock.” he laughs. “Just a few more seconds, and I shall finally--” his sentence was cut off by Nightwing knocking the tool out of his hand, revealing him and Starfire’s position.

“The future will have to wait.” Nightwing says, extending his staff. “You just ran out of time.”

Warp growls and fires laser beams at them, causing them to split up to avoid getting hit. Starfire shoots her starbolts at Warp again, despite them getting deflected by his force field. Nightwing however, jumped down on him again, using his staff to crush one of his lasers. He turns to face Nightwing, but Starfire lands a hit on his back with her starbolt. He tries to laser Starfire but has to dodge Nightwing’s staff attacks that barely strike him. He fights quickly and with fury, eventually knocking Warp flat on his back. The two heroes step close to him to inspect him. But Warp grins, and uses his second laser to blow a hole through the roof, snow and rubble falling onto Starfire.

“Star!” Nightwing yells, but Warp blasts him back with his laser. Warp runs over to the tool he dropped and started repairing his suit again as Nightwing helped Starfire up. Suddenly, he was blasted back by a familiar blue ray. Starfire and Nightwing turn to see Cyborg, his arm cannon smoking, but being able to function without any wires.

“Boo-yah” he says with a grimace.

“Cyborg!” Starfire exclaims, flying over to the half robot. “You are repaired!”

“Glad you could make it,” Nightwing says, joining them.

“Wouldn't have missed it. Now who said y'all could start without me?” Cyborg said as Warp stood back up.

“So sorry,” Warp said, holding up another device. “Perhaps I should finish you first!” Before he could use the device, he was attacked by a green lion, Beast Boy. Warp looked at the lens he was repairing, now crackling with electricity. In anger, he pointed a laser at him, but a jet of water shot up from the floor. You ran into view, a trident now in your hand.

“Heard you guys needed help!” you yell, a hint of a smile peeking out from your stoic face.

Before Warp could fall to the ground again, he is overtaken by magic, and thrown into the side of the wall. Raven materializes, still wearing a white cloak.

“Nobody hurts my friends,” she said, reminiscent of the first time you met her.

“Dude, that is so unfair,” Beast Boy whines, comparing his bald head to Nightwing’s flowing hair. The six Titans turn to see Warp, who has managed to create a wormhole, despite his suit being damaged.

“It seems my time has come,” Warp said, preparing to walk through the wormhole. Nightwing threw a birdarang at Warp, Warp throwing his own disk to intercept it. Starfire watched in awe as the birdirang sliced through Warp’s disk and hit him in the chest, right where the lens sat.

“Uh?! No! NOOOOO!” the six of you watched in horror as Warp regressed in age until he was nothing more than a screaming infant.

“Ok, I am not changing any diapers.” Beast Boy said, staring at the baby.

Cyborg looked at Starfire. “We gotta get you home. Come on!” he pointed at the wormhole, which was shrinking. He took the lens from the suit and put it in his arm cannon. He fired at the wormhole, making it bigger.

“Im redirecting the wormhole.” Cyborg said, turning to Starfire. “Starfire! Go!” She steps towards the portal and looks back at her friends. Their lives seemed so lonely and.. dissatisfying. Is this life they were destined to live?

“Please, must this really be our future?” She asked. The rest of you looked at her silently, sadness in your eyes. “Is there nothing I can do to change it?” Nightwing stepped up and looked directly into her eyes.

“I'm sorry, Star. There isn't time.” Nightwing said. He placed the clock that Warp had stolen in her hand and his other hand on her shoulder. He gives her one last smile before stepping back towards the other Titans, beckoning her to enter the portal. Starfire took a deep breath, and walked into the portal.

Jump City Museum - 2004

“Ta-ta, Titans. I have enjoyed our time together, but I've got a very bright future ahead of me.” He sneers, stepping through the portal. You finally pull your hands out of the chunk of ice just in time to see Starfire slam into Warp, sending the two of them into the portal.

“Starfire!” Robin yells, trying to dive in after her, only for the portal to close and him to fall on the floor. You pull him up from the ground and look around. Starfire was gone.

“Oh my god,” you whispered.

Beast Boy stared at the place the portal was. “Um, where did she-?”

Another portal opens with a brilliant flash between Beast Boy and Cyborg. Starfire falls out, curled around an item. You all rushed towards her.

“Dude!”

“Whoa!”

“Star! What happened?” Robin asked as the portal behind her closed.

“History said it disappeared.” Starfire said, straightening and revealing the clock warp had just stolen. “But history was wrong!”

The boys stared at her dumbstruck but you laughed, diving in for a hug.

You stood with the other titans as Starfire recounted her story. You covered your mouth in awe to find out what happened to you and the others in the future.

“Then Nightwing handed me the clock and I entered the vortex.” she finished.

“Woah,” Raven said, shocked by the recount of Starfire’s story.

“Bald?!” Beast Boy yells, grabbing at his hair. “You're telling me I'm going to be bald?!”

“Gosh, Star, all of our lives seem so terrible,” you say, thinking about what Starfire had said about you. You were a queen (which was cool), but you were also a cold hearted bitch (super uncool). You didn’t want that to happen, and more importantly for you to no longer be friends with the other Titans.

“Guess you were right about all that Rekmas stuff,” Cyborg said, slightly concerned.

“I don't want us to drift apart. Does it all have to happen? Isn't there anything we can-” Robin worries out loud, but Starfire stops him.

“Our friendship has already changed Warp's past. I believe it can also change our future.” Starfire says with a smile.

“Yeah I mean, the original reason we “broke up” was because of Starfire disappearing, and since she’s here now, we aren’t breaking up!” You chimed in, grinning at the other Titans.

Raven picks up the broken necklace with her telekinesis, stringing them back together.

“So… is it too late to do this festival-of-friendship thing?” she asks.

Starfire’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, it’s never too late!”

You all put on the bulbous necklaces Starfire brought in the morning.

“HAPPY BORTHOG!!!” Cyborg cheers.

“I thought it was Blort-Hog,” Beast Boy wondered.

“Okay, I feel like a wind-chime.” Raven groans.

“A very cool wind-chime,” you winked.

Starfire put the last necklace on Robin. He raises an eyebrow at her.

“So… Nightwing, huh?” he asked.

“Don’t even think about it bird brain,” you yelled from across the room, causing him to blush. You all burst out into laughter. The tower stayed cheerful the rest of the night.

[cupsofteandcoffeespoons]

assigning glee characters to folklore songs

the 1: i think tina would sing this about mike at the end of season 6, after she proposed to him but before the five year time skip. (maybe she performs at a coffeeshop gig to make money during college?) it would be a reflection on their relationship, and how even though she’s happy with how her life is working out, she still would have loved to be with mike forever. 

cardigan: i don’t know about timelines, but i want to hear marley singing this. she has such a lovely voice, strong but not overpowering in the way that some of the other female singers on the show could be, and i think she’d do a beautiful job with this song - especially the bridge!

the last great american dynasty: for some reason i can really see marley taking this one?? idk why but it just feels very fun and light, while also telling a really neat story at the same time, and i think marley would nail that balance. also, something about marley’s general vibe and vocals really reminds me of taylor - i think they both have a similar tone, sweet and simple and lovely - so i can definitely see her doing a rendition very similar to the original song. 

exile: this is perfect for finchel around the breakup. they’d sing it as a duet, ofc, keeping the male/female parts the same as they are in the original song. i don’t have much to say about this, honestly - i feel like it’s a pretty obvious fit, and i think their voices would suit the song better than any other couple on the show.

my tears ricochet: this would be such a beautiful klaine duet set just after the breakup - maybe around thanksgiving? i think their voices go really well together (most of the time lolol) and i think kurt’s voice in particular would lend a super cool vibe to the songs. 

mirrorball: i’ve seen people give santana this one, but this song just SCREAMS quinn to me. i envision her singing this either while she’s getting ready for prom (shot in the style of i feel pretty/unpretty) or while walking home after finn breaks up with her at jean’s funeral. to me, this song is about constantly putting on masks and doing things solely because it’ll help her keep finn, and thus her status and image. i think the lines “i’m still a believer, but i don’t know why/i’ve never been a natural, all i do is try, try, try/i’m still on that trapeze/i’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me” really fit quinn during late season 2 - she’s desperately trying to present herself as the perfect girlfriend, because she’s watching finn fall back in love with rachel and thinks that if she just tries hard enough, maybe she can keep him this time around.

seven: brittana duet alert! i’ve always headcanoned them as childhood best friends, and i can see them performing it in season one or very early season 2, reflecting on their early relationship and how it’s changed. it’d be a really sweet duet that would give their characters some backstory and grounding.

august: i think rachel would sing this after finn and quinn get back together during season 2. it’d be a classic rachel solo, the kind with super exaggerated emotions that make the rest of the glee club slightly uncomfortable.

this is me trying: this gives me such santana vibes. i think she’d knock this song out of the park, with a lovely mix of emotion and control, and i think it would have absolutely been one of the best solos on the show. it’s heartbreaking and she would really make it mean something, you know? i think it’d be gorgeous.

illicit affairs: while i didn’t like finn or fuinn, i think their one duet was really lovely, and i think this could have been a good song for them to pair up on around silly love songs - after they start their relationship, but before people start to find out about it. it’d be kind of like roots before branches in the sense that finn wouldn’t spit equal vocals with quinn, but would instead be more of backup for her. it’d play during a montage of them meeting up in empty classrooms and sending each other emotionally charged looks during glee club meetings, very classic secret relationship stuff. 

invisible string: i think this could be a really lovely klaine duet!! again, a season 6 song, maybe during the wedding - it’s the story of how they feel like their romance was meant to be, and that “invisible string” of destiny is how they ended up overcoming all the obstacles to come back together.

mad woman: honestly give this to all the og glee girls towards the end of season 3 as one last hurrah before they head to nationals. i can see them doing it in the style of shake it out - all sitting on stools, with dramatic lighting, fierce outfits/makeup, and lots of complicated harmonies. 

epiphany: i want to hear quinn and santana sing this song together. their one duet on the show (take my breath away) was absolutely gorgeous, with fantastic harmonies and a light, breathy quality that would suit this song incredibly well.  

betty: another quinn song!! she’d sing this in season 3, after successfully talking rachel out of marrying finn (the car accident/baby stealing shit didn’t happen in this world, because those plots were stupid). she’d perform in front of the club, with backup from brittana, and she’d use it both to come out and to admit she has feelings for rachel - changing “james” to “quinn” ofc ;)

peace: this is a weird one, but stay with me on this - let puck sing this song. i feel like this song really sums up the crux of the problem that i have with quick - other than beth, they didn’t have much in common, and they were never able to give each other what they needed for a healthy, lasting relationship. however, i feel like puck would nail the emotional execution of this song. “would it be enough, if i could never give you peace?” is THE question that defines quick, and so i think puck would be the best fit for this song.

hoax: why am i getting brittany vibes from this? i mean, it’s a little profound for her, but i think she could sing this in early season 2, when she’s trying to convince santana to come out and be with her, before she and artie start dating. santana doesn't want to be with her openly, and brittany is hurt by that, but is still in love with and incredibly fond of her, so the song is about her clinging to santana even though she knows the relationship isn’t going to last unless santana is willing to go public.

the lakes: this was the trickiest song on the list for me, but i’m going to have to give it to quinn. quinn was very much set up as one of the smartest kids in glee club from an academic standpoint; she mentions being on honor roll in season 1, gets into yale, and tells rachel she had a straight A average while pregnant (which is literally SO impressive y’all), so it seems fitting to me that she would be the one to perform this song, which has very complicated, intellectual lyrics. she’d sing this in season 6 - and dedicate it to rachel of course.

[obsessingmuch]

You've had a makeover! I like the contrast of the black and white dots to the rainbow ones. Did you find out if your person is okay?! I also did not realise I had ignored your questions. Please forgive my oversight :-(( I don't play fortnite anymore! My macbook Does Not Like it and I did download it onto the playstation but couldn't be bothered getting to grips with the controls so I gave up </3 But I did win a game once! Do you always do the classic 'gotta be the last one left out of 100' or do

you ever do that one where there's like two teams? Do you play solo or do you have fortnite friends? Other things I am into atm: sudoko, origami, and Taylor Swift. What are some subreddits you enjoy? i will say that I do spend a couple of hours a day on tiktok :/ but usually only when I go to bed and when I'm on my lunch break at work for some mindless entertainment. I don't feel good about it. But I get some chuckles every now and then. And there are always cute dog videos so who could say no?!

I'm glad it's not just me that's nostalgic for lockdown! Feels a bit weird to say that but I genuinely miss the one way systems at supermarkets and the like. I haven't seen any films on your two most recent lists (except for Mrs Doubtfire) but I have watched some youtube commentaries on the Vanessa Hudgens ones and got the impression that they weren't that great :/ Who are you watching on youtube these days? I did like Folklore and Evermore! I didn't love Folklore too much at first (as it came out when I wasn't listening to her all that much, and I don't really like soft-acoustic-y music so much) but it's really grown on me over the last couple of years and these days, she's all I listen to <3 From Folklore my faves are My Tears Ricochet and The Lakes, and from Evermore my faves are Champagne Problems, Gold Rush and Cowboy Like Me. Which album re-record are you most looking forward to? My other fave songs are Long Live, All Too Well, Out of the Woods, and Forever and Always.

I'm also very sorry for the amount of notifications you're about to get from me. BUT do you still follow Jedward and what they're up to?!

anon you are back!! I was wondering how long it would be until you replied again, if it would be weeks or months or years lol. I wasn’t expecting days! (I also didn’t know how long ago you sent the previous messages cos I had no timestamps in my inbox when I replied to them - when was it??)

I did have a makeover. the garrett watts sidebar image didn’t seem appropriate anymore so I just pulled my most random/non-fandom-related gif of mine out lol.

my person hasn’t posted since about 2019. I’m hoping they’re ok and just taking another tumblr break cos they’ve done that before.

and I forgive your oversight :D I understand the vibe of your macbook Not Liking It. mine didn’t either, so I installed Windows a couple of years ago and play from there (and also have the game graphics set incredibly low and my fans on an increased speed. it does ok tbh). amazing congrats on your win!!! I do have a couple of friends so usually play duos/trios - it’s very, very rare for me to play solos. I think I would get lonely and frustrated dying alone lol. on occasion I play squads with random fill friends (but sometimes those people are not so nice). maybe you need to install windows tbh and resume your fn career :D

subreddits, mostly I read AITA and relationships ones. so basically just people complaining about their life problems lol. how about you? which good ones am I missing?

youtube has been showing me tiktoks as youtube shorts so I have been spending lots of time on these for the past few weeks. currently the algorithm thinks I want to see a mixture of: engagement rings being handcrafted, a comedian lady who pretends to be an annoying mother/teacher character, a man cooking lunch for his wife, horses getting new horseshoes put on, golden retrievers, cakes being frosted, and tiktok fashion girls trying on clothes. what all things does tiktok show you??

the Knight Before Christmas was not good. BUT I did kinda like the Princess Switch ones lol. they were fun and easy to watch if you just want a happy albeit cheesy and I’m-definitely-older-than-the-target-audience-for-this movie and not a Serious Cinematic Marvel. 

youtubeeeeee I’m watching mostly hmmm. (edit: this was originally going to be a short list but it turned out longer than I expected): simply nailogical (esp. her podcasts), jammidodger and shaaba (highly recommend), molly burke, tom scott, ryland adams, hannah witton, jessica kellgren-fozard, carrie hope fletcher, louise pentland, vlogbrothers, a few fortnite youtubers, and the Cut and Jubilee channels. do you watch any of those? who are you watching?

I am a Bad Fan maybe cos I’m not getting the Taylor’s Version songs. I have all my music in iTunes so it’s not like I’m streaming and giving revenue for the old versions, but I like how the old ones sound for nostalgia and don’t want 2 of everything. but I have listened to some of the new ones to compare. and I have been getting any new ones that were previously-unrelated / From The Vault etc. sooooo I guess I’m not excited for any re-records specifically, but I will be interested to see how they sound. do you have the old or new versions?

jedward no lol. are they up to anything? occasionally I stumble across a tweet of theirs and I’ve noticed they now swear openly in tweets which I found amusing and not unexpected. and generally call out people for bad human rights / sexism / other isms. which I guess matches with 2011/12 jedward except now it comes with less sneakiness and more swears lol. 

this is such a long post. I hope my multitude of decimated followers have had a most enjoyable read :D

[bluecarelesswhisper]

TOP 100 FEMALE SOLO SINGERS OF THE '50S AND '60S

Patti Page - All My Love, The Tennessee Waltz, Mockin' Bird Hill, I Went to Your Wedding, The Doggie in the Window, Cross Over the Bridge, Allegheny Moon, Old Cape Cod; Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Connie Francis - Who's Sorry Now, My Happiness, Lipstick on Your Collar, Everybody's Somebody's Fool, My Heart Has a Mind of its Own, Where the Boys Are, Don't Break the Heart That Loves You

Brenda Lee - Sweet Nothin's, I'm Sorry, I Want to Be Wanted, Fool #1, Break it to Me Gently, All Alone Am I

Kay Starr - Wheel of Fortune, Side By Side, Changing Partners, If You Love Me (Really Love Me), Rock and Roll Waltz

Doris Day - A Guy is a Guy, Secret Love, If I Give My Heart to You; Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera); Everybody Loves a Lover

Dionne Warwick - Anyone Who Had a Heart, Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer, (Theme from) Valley of the Dolls, I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Respect, Baby I Love You, Chain of Fools, The House That Jack Built

Teresa Brewer - Music! Music! Music!, Till I Waltz Again With You, Ricochet, A Tear Fell, A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl

Jo Stafford - Shrimp Boats, You Belong to Me, Jambalaya, Keep it a Secret, Make Love to Me!

Rosemary Clooney - Come On-a My House, Half as Much, Botch-A-Me, Hey There, This Ole House

Joni James - Why Don't You Believe Me, Have You Heard, Your Cheatin' Heart; My Love, My Love; How Important Can it Be?

Petula Clark - Downtown, I Know a Place, My Love, This is My Song, Don't Sleep in the Subway

Dinah Washington - I Don't Hurt Anymore, What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, Unforgettable, This Bitter Earth

Mary Wells - The One Who Really Loves You, You Beat Me to the Punch, Two Lovers, My Guy

Georgia Gibbs - Kiss of Fire, Seven Lonely Days, Tweedle Dee, Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower)

Lesley Gore - It's My Party, Judy's Turn to Cry, She's a Fool, You Don't Own Me

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin'; How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?; Sugar Town, Love Eyes

Sarah Vaughan - Make Yourself Comfortable, How Important Can it Be?, Whatever Lola Wants, Broken-Hearted Melody

Dusty Springfield - I Only Want to Be With You, Wishin' and Hopin', You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Son-Of-A Preacher Man

Ruth Brown - Teardrops From My Eyes, 5-10-15 Hours, (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean, Oh What a Dream

Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Makin' Believe, Searching (For Someone Like You), Heartbreak U.S.A.

Etta James - The Wallflower, All I Could Do Was Cry, At Last, Tell Mama

LaVern Baker - Tweedlee Dee, Play it Fair, Jim Dandy, I Cried a Tear

Gale Storm - I Hear You Knocking, Teen Age Prayer, Dark Moon

Dinah Shore - My Heart Cries For You, Sweet Violets, Chantz-Chantez

Jaye P. Morgan - That's All I Want From You, Danger! Heartbreak Ahead, The Longest Walk

Eydie Gorme - Mama, Teach Me to Dance; You Need Hands, Blame it on the Bossa Nova

Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes), B-A-B-Y, I Like What You're Doing (To Me)

Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight, I Fall to Pieces, Crazy

Peggy Lee - Lover, Fever, Is That All There Is

Dee Dee Sharp - Mashed Potato Time, Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes), Ride!

Kitty Kallen - Little Things Mean a Lot, In the Chapel in the Moonlight, My Coloring Book

Annette - Tall Paul, O Dio Mio, Pineapple Princess

Cher - All I Really Want to Do, Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), You Better Sit Down Kids

Barbra Streisand - People, He Touched Me, Second Hand Rose

Linda Scott - I've Told Every Little Star, Don't Bet Money Honey, I Don't Know Why

Connie Smith - Once a Day, Ain't Had No Lovin', The Hurtin's All Over

Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger, Baby I'm Yours, Make Me Your Baby

Anita Bryant - Till There Was You, Paper Roses, In My Little Corner of the World

Skeeter Davis - My Last Date (With You), The End of the World, I Can't Stay Mad at You

Sue Thompson - Sad Movies (Make Me Cry), Norman, Paper Tiger

Della Reese - And That Reminds Me, Don't You Know, Not One Minute More

Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind), Fist City, Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)

Betty Everett - You're No Good, The Shoop Shoop Song, There Comes a Time

Jackie DeShannon - What the World Needs Now is Love, Put a Little Love in Your Heart, Love Will Find a Way

Timi Yuro - Hurt, What's a Matter Baby, Make the World Go Away

Debbie Reynolds - Tammy, A Very Special Love, Am I That Easy to Forget

Gogi Grant - Suddenly There's a Valley, Who Are We, The Wayward Wind

Maxine Brown - All in My Mind, Funny, Oh No Not My Baby

Betty Johnson - I Dreamed, Little White Lies, The Little Blue Man

Jean Shepard - A Satisfied Mind, Beautiful Lies, Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)

Shirley Ellis - The Nitty Gitty, The Name Game, The Clapping Song

Little Eva - The Loco-Motion, Keep Your Hands Off My Baby, Let's Turkey Trot

Vera Lynn - Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart, Yours, If You Love Me (Really Love Me)

Eartha Kitt - C'est Si Bon, Santa Baby, Somebody Bad Stole De Wedding Bell

Lulu - To Sir With Love, Best of Both Worlds, Morning Dew

June Valli - Crying in the Chapel, I Understand, Apple Green

Connie Stevens - Sixteen Reasons, Why'd You Wanna Make Me Cry, Mr. Songwriter

Jane Morgan - Fascination, The Day the Rains Came, With Open Arms

Nancy Wilson - (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am, I Wanna Be With You; Face it Girl, it's Over

Esther Phillips - Release Me, And I Love Him, When a Woman Loves a Man

Vikki Carr - It Must Be Him, The Lesson, With Pen in Hand

Little Peggy March - I Will Follow Him, I Wish I Were a Princess; Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love

Mindy Carson - Candy and Cake, My Foolish Heart, Wake the Town and Tell the People

Sandy Posey - Born a Woman, Single Girl, I Take it Back

Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe, Fancy

Brenda Holloway - Every Little Bit Hurts, When I'm Gone

Eileen Rodgers - Miracle of Love, Treasure of Your Love

Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose a Good Thing, Second Fiddle Girl

Dottie West - Here Comes My Baby, Would You Hold it Against Me

Baby Washington - That's How Heartaches Are Made, Only Those in Love

Kathy Linden - Billy; Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye

Cathy Carr - Ivory Tower, First Anniversary

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me, Recovery

Barbara Mason - Yes, I'm Ready; Sad, Sad Girl

Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By, Summer Nights

Shelley Fabares - Johnny Angel, Johnny Loves Me

Wanda Jackson - Let's Have a Party, In the Middle of a Heartache

Tammy Wynette - D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Stand By Your Man

Mama Cass - Dream a Little Dream of Me, It's Getting Better

Faye Adams - Shake a Hand, Hurts Me to My Heart

Jill Corey - I Love My Baby, Love Me to Pieces

Dodie Stevens - Pink Shoe Laces, No

Bettye Swann - Make Me Yours, Don't Touch Me

Jan Howard - Evil on Your Mind, Bad Seed

Nina Simone - I Loves You, Porgy; Ain't Got No; I Got Life

Norma Jean - Go Cat Go, I Wouldn't Buy a Used Car From Him

Miss Toni Fisher - The Big Hurt, West of the Wall

Damita Jo - I'll Be There, If You Go Away

Patty Duke - Don't Just Stand There, Say Something Funny

Bonnie Guitar - Dark Moon, Mister Fire Eyes

Gloria Lynne - I Wish You Love, Watermelon Man

Jody Miller - Queen of the House, Home of the Brave

Gisele MacKenzie - Hard to Get, The Star You Wished Upon Last Night

Betty Madigan - Joey, Dance Everyone Dance

Ketty Lester - Love Letters, But Not For Me

Barbara George - I Know (You Don't Love Me No More), You Talk About Love

Joanie Sommers - One Boy, Johnny Get Angry

Irma Thomas - Don't Mess With My Man, Wish Someone Would Care

Diane Renay - Navy Blue, Kiss Me Sailor

[tillidontneedfantasy]

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 8th Studio Album: ‘folklore’

Taylor Swift’s 8th studio album, folklore, starts off with the lie, “I’m on some new shit.” Perhaps to someone who hasn’t been paying attention this would seem to be true. But to those listening, folklore is the essence of her skill and success throughout her entire career stripped down for all to see, but more refined, enhanced, and impressive than ever.

Even prior to her pop-world domination with 1989 (2014), Taylor’s storytelling ability has always been her most compelling strength as a writer. In 2010, she released her third album, Speak Now, penned fully solo to prove to the cynics that she does, in fact, write her own music. And it’s damn good. Widely considered her best song, “All Too Well” from Red (2012) is a five and a half minute epic about love had and lost, all in walks through autumn trees, almost running red lights, dancing round the kitchen, and a scarf reminiscent of innocence, unreturned.  

Yet her pop prowess over the last six years perhaps leads to her storytelling being overlooked to those more focused on the music. There is a particular genius in writing a successful pop song, let alone three successful pop albums, that still has hard-hitting lyrics underneath the synth. Take the excellent “Cruel Summer” from Lover (2019) for example. The song is just under 3 minutes, and the production is so enthralling and infectious that it can take such a hold on you, you might miss the tale being told along with it about a fraught summer relationship that was actually just the beginning of her own love story.

But without the pop production, her stories on folklore demand attention. Swept up by a strong wave of creativity and inspiration, Swift secretly wrote and produced this album in around three months with Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Swift’s favorite bands, and long-time collaborator and friend Jack Antonoff. A surprise album is a new endeavor for Swift, as she generally spends months meticulously planning an album rollout. It is refreshing, and as a dedicated, long-time fan of Taylor, it is thrilling. Due to the album cover where she is standing in the woods, and the genre of the album itself, there have been think pieces regarding the “man in the woods” trope and what it means that Taylor seems to be embodying it. As a result of over-exposure, people are unable to stop focusing on her image and the way she presents herself. It’s understandable, as she is a very smart and deliberate businesswoman, and clearly cares about how she is perceived. But with this album, it is clear that none of that was at play. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Her mother has been battling cancer for years. Isolate a creative person in a dangerous world and they will dream up an escape. She understands more than ever how precious each moment is, and does not want to waste another one. The woods being the landscape for the photo-shoot is most likely attributed to the fact that it is the safest place to have one under these circumstances. She’s not pretending she removed herself from society and became enlightened, she didn’t dabble into a more alternative sound to prove anything; she is just sharing stories she wants to tell that she is proud of, and nothing more.

Of course the music of the album is important, but the lyrics are the heart of it all, and I wanted to focus on them. Upon its release, Taylor explained in a foreword that the album was a mixture of personal and fictional accounts. The beauty of stories is that once they are shared, they never live one single life; each person who consumes a story interprets it uniquely, and the story becomes a multiverse, with different meanings and outcomes than what initially drove the pen to the paper. As explained by Swift in a YouTube comment prior to the album’s release, three songs on the album are all one story, which she has dubbed “the teenage love triangle.” The three points of the triangle are “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” But if someone had not seen her say that, they might not have figured it out. Maybe they’d interpret each song as their own story, and connect it to their own. Taylor knows this. It is why she loves storytelling and is why she is so good at it. The album itself is a mirror ball, shimmering with every version of the stories being told, reflecting a bit of each person who listens. These are my interpretations, but they can mean whatever you make of them. 

1. the 1 The melody of this song helps set the scene; picture yourself skipping rocks on a lake, reminiscing on the one that got away. “the 1” is about learning to assimilate into a life without them, resentfully accepting that they might be moving on, too. She ruminates on what went wrong and what could have been. In a very Swift fashion, she puts the blame on herself when she sings, “in my defense, I have none / for digging up the grave another time.” Perhaps this song is fictional, perhaps it’s a revisit of a past feeling or relationship, but its relatability makes it feel real and present. She searches for explanations, restraining herself from asking, “if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?” But it’s good she didn’t ask, because she’d never find the answer, anyway. Best lyric: “We never painted by the numbers, baby, but we were making it count / You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.”

2. cardigan (teenage love triangle, part 1: betty’s perspective) “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” Swift sings in her smooth low-register on this Lana del Rey-esque single. “But I knew everything when I was young,” she asserts. They say wisdom comes with age, but there is wisdom lost, too, of what it felt like to be young; but she has held onto it. In this track, the narrator (Betty) is looking back on her relationship with someone she once loved (James, as name-dropped in “betty” later on in the album). Her insight on his character was always spot on; she knew he’d try to kiss it better, change the ending, miss her once the thrill expired and come back, begging for her forgiveness in her front porch light. As soon as she was feeling forgotten, he made her feel wanted, his favorite. The ending in question is unclear, whether she granted him her forgiveness or not. But what is clear is Taylor’s understanding of the pull of young love, the intensity, the immortalization of all the smallest of details, the longing to be someone’s favorite. It’s why we look back on it so often, read stories and watch films about it, even as we grow old. It’s the cardigan we put back on when we want to be Peter Pan and remember what it was like to fly with Wendy. Best lyric: “You drew stars around my scars / but now I’m bleeding.”

3. the last great american dynasty The story of Rebekah Harkness and her destruction of the last great American dynasty, Standard Oil, is documented in this track, as each verse covers a different part of Rebekah’s life, going from a middle class divorcee to one of the wealthiest women in America by marrying into an empire. Swift paints Rebekah as an outcast, the Rhode Island town blaming her for her husband’s heart giving out. Rebekah used her inherited fortune on her ballet company, throwing lavish parties with her friends who went by the “Bitch Pack,” playing cards with Dali (Yes, as in Salvador Dali. It’s not clear if they actually played cards together, but her ashes were placed in an urn designed by him), and feuding with her neighbors. Then, fifty years later, Taylor Swift bought that very house and ruined the neighborhood all over again, bringing with her the triumphant return of champagne pool parties and women with madness, their men and bad habits. It’s a note on how women will be blamed for tarnishing what is sacred to men rather than celebrated, specifically when its related to wealth and power. They will call them mad, shameless, loud. But just like Rebekah, Taylor learned to pay them no mind, and just have a marvelous time. It is also interesting to note that Rebekah went by Betty. Perhaps Taylor felt inspired by and connected to her and gave her a whole backstory, and thus the birth of “the teenage love triangle,” or maybe it’s just a coincidence; but that’s the fun of it all. Either way, this track is a standout showcase of how Swift has truly mastered her craft as a songwriter. Best lyric: “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / and then it was bought by me.”

4. exile ft. Bon Iver You know that feeling when your parents are fighting and it’s upsetting you but you can’t help but listen? That’s kind of what listening to this song feels like. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon co-wrote the track, and he lends his gorgeous vocals to play a man who has been exiled by his ex who has moved on with someone else while he desperately tries to understand where it all went wrong. The bridge is particularly poignant, both proclaiming, “you didn’t even hear me out,” while talking over each other. He thinks he was expected to read her mind, but she is adamant that she gave him plenty of warning signs. Miscommunication is one of the most common downfalls of a relationship, and the emotion in Swift’s and Vernon’s voices really draws you into the argument with them, transporting you back into your own exile from people you once called home. Best lyric: “I couldn’t turn things around / (You never turned things around) / ‘cause you never gave a warning sign / (I gave so many signs.)”

5. my tears ricochet Taylor describes this song in the foreword as “an embittered tormentor showing up to the funeral of his fallen object of obsession.” If you know enough, you can put the pieces together that the tormentor is Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine Records, and the funeral is of their professional and personal relationship. Taylor was the first artist ever signed to Big Machine. Borchetta and Swift had to trust each other in their partnership for it to be a success, and oh, how it was. But prior to Lover’s release, Taylor announced that she would be signing to Republic Records as her contract with Big Machine had ended and Republic offered her the opportunity to own all of her masters moving forward and negotiate on Spotify shares for all their artists. It all could have ended amicably there, but then Scott Borchetta sold all of Big Machine, along with Taylor’s masters from every album prior, to Scooter Braun. Braun manages some of the biggest stars out there, and had previously managed Kanye West. Taylor publicly spoke out about this purchase, stating that she was not made aware of this before the announcement, and how much of a betrayal it was considering she had cried to Scott before about Scooter’s mistreatment of her. Taylor has continued to be vocal about this, and so she sings, “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.” There is a lot to unpack in this song, but the main takeaway is that this betrayal hurts him just as much if not more than it hurts her, because his career was built on her achievements. He buried her while decorated in her success, becoming what he swore he wouldn’t, erasing the good times for greed, all just to be haunted with regret for pushing her out and stealing her lullabies. The pain is palpable, and it is notable that this is song is placed at track 5, the spot generally reserved for the most vulnerable on the album; it shows that there are different types of heartbreak that can shatter you just as much as those from romance. Best lyric: “If I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake? / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed.”

6. mirrorball On Lover’s “The Archer,” Taylor expresses her anxiety over people seeing through her act, her own grief at seeing through it herself, wondering if her lover does and whether he would stay with her regardless. “mirrorball” is about the act, one of the more obviously confessional songs on the album. She talks about how a mirror ball can illuminate all the different versions of a person, while also reflecting the light to fit in with the scene. Taylor’s critical self-awareness is heart wrenching, and it’s clear that the anxiety that surrounds the public perception of her is still prevalent. She describes herself as a member of a circus, still on the tightrope and the trapeze even after everyone else has packed up and left, doing anything she can to keep the public’s attention. It hurts to hear the desperation in her voice, but there’s hope in the song, too. She is speaking to someone (we can assume her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn) and thanking them for not being like “the regulars, the masquerade revelers drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten.” In 2016, the height of Taylor’s fame and subsequently her farthest fall from grace, all the people who pretended to be her friends and attended all her parties celebrated her (temporary) demise, continuing to dance over her broken pieces on the floor. But he stayed by her side as she put herself back together. And so now, when no one is around, she’ll shine just for him, standing even taller than she does for the circus. Best lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still trying everything / to keep you looking at me.”

7. seven Her voice gentle and haunting, Taylor recalls the freedom and innocence of her childhood in Pennsylvania. She asks to be remembered for how she was, swinging over the creek, before she learned civility when she would scream anytime she wanted, then letting out a very pretty one. She sings to her old friend soothingly about taking them away from their haunted house that their father is always shouting in, where they feel the need to hide in a closet, perhaps literally, or figuratively, or both. They can move into Taylor’s house instead, or maybe just to India, just be sure to pack their dolls and a sweater and then they’ll hit the road. She can no longer recall her friend’s face, but the love she had for them still lives in her heart, and she wants it to live forever through story. Just in the way that folklore itself blends reality and fiction, but the truth within it passes on, so will the purity of that love and friendship. Best lyric: “Please picture me in the weeds / before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously / any time I wanted.”

8. august (teenage love triangle, part 2: the other girl’s perspective) If you had to assign the feeling of longing to a song, it’d be “august.” It’s when you’re teetering at the edge with someone, unsure of where you stand with them, clinging to anything they give you and doing anything just to raise your chances, “living for the hope of it all.” August, the last month of summer, its heat causing it to slip away the fastest in a haze before reality hits. This track is a display of how sometimes losing something you never had causes an even deeper ache than losing something that was yours, and Jack Antonoff’s signature production intensifies the emotion even more. It’s the story of shattered hope, and the longing for the days where it could still fuel you. Best lyric: “To live for the hope of it all / cancel plans just in case you’d call.”

9. this is me trying “this is me trying” is like a drive through a tunnel at night, hearing your loudest anxieties and insecurities echo all around you, caving in. The track is another apt insight into Swift’s struggles with her self-image, with the pressure she puts on herself, so much so that she sometimes pushes herself too close to the edge, her fears luring her out of the tunnel and down, down, down into her own cage, stunting her own growth and keeping those who care out of reach. She tells us how she was “so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” Every action has an equal, opposite reaction, meaning that she was pushing herself so hard, she rolled back to where she started, and now has to reset. This could be referring to the period between the end of the 1989 era and the release of reputation (2017), or a different time in her life, or just a general sentiment. It doesn’t really matter, though, because no one’s growth is a neat, straight line; growth is jagged. Just like any of us, Taylor will always have to face new obstacles, new pitfalls, new reasons to get back up. She sounds most vulnerable as she cries, “at least I’m trying,” and you feel comforted knowing someone so beautiful and successful has to push herself to try, too, and yet that motivates you more to try yourself. Best lyric: “They told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted, like all my potential.”

10. illicit affairs A quiet, slow-build testament of the passion, the tragedy, the secrecy, the inimitability of a romance that shouldn’t exist, “illicit affairs” demonstrates how you can ruin yourself for someone from just one moment of possibility or truth, quite like the narrator of “august” does for the hope of it all. An illicit affair can be many different things: infidelity, forbidden love, a love that can never be fully realized, a relationship that is inherently wrong but electrifying all the same. It’s a reminder of what so many of us would do just to see new colors, to learn a new language, even if the one moment of enlightenment destroys us forever. We might lose the iridescent glow but we don’t forget it; we carry it with us, but must be careful to remember its blinding effect, to remember how fatal the fall is from the dwindling, mercurial high. Best lyric: “Tell your friends you’re out for a run / you’ll be flushed when you return.”

11. invisible string Clearly the most outright autobiographical track, “invisible string” is the plucky pick-me-up needed. The song is like sunshine, as Swift endearingly links all the little connections between her and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, since before they even met. She compares the green grass at the Nashville park she’d sit at in hopes of a meet-cute to the teal of his yogurt shop uniform shirt, and gives a nod to her smash hit “Bad Blood” from 1989 with the delightful line “bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA.” She reasons these coincidences as a fateful, invisible, golden string tying them together since the beginning, always destined to meet at the knot in the middle. She thanks time for healing her, (a callback to “Fifteen” from Fearless [2008]), fighting through hell to make it to heaven, transforming her from an axe grinder to a gift giver for her ex’s baby (the ex in question, Joe Jonas, and his wife Sophie Turner, happened to have their first daughter two days before this album’s release). As she has on her previous two albums, she uses the color gold to illustrate how prized their love is to one another. It’s sweet to know in all the gloom that the string has not been severed, and the trees are still golden somewhere. Best lyric: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart / now I send their babies presents.”

12. mad woman Throughout her entire career, Taylor Swift has defiantly defended female rage, all the way back from throwing a chair off a platform on her Fearless Tour during the impassioned “Forever & Always,” to her patient, vengeful reliance on karma in reputation’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” to her most recent tackling of the matter on Lover’s last and final single, “The Man,” where she explores society’s acceptance and encouragement of angry men yet disdain for angry women. “The Man” is catchy and upbeat, and a fun thought experiment into how Swift’s career would be perceived if she was a man, something that is even more interesting to think about now as she releases an album in a genre heavily dominated and lauded by males. But on “mad woman,” she further explores the creation and perception of female rage, though masked under a smooth, haunting piano melody, her vocals subdued, taunting. In the album foreword, she describes the inspiration behind this song as “a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out.” This could be the continuation of Rebekah “Betty” Harkness’s story at her Holiday House in Watch Hill, RI, and how she further alienated herself from the rest of the neighborhood as they cast stones at her for the collapse of the last great American dynasty. (Or perhaps Daenerys Targaryen’s descent as the Mad Queen played a part in the song’s inspiration, as Swift has spoken of her love for Game of Thrones and her character specifically.) Taylor herself could also represent the widow, her music and masters as her love lost, and the men behind the crime as the “town that cast her out.” In the first verse she sings, “What do you sing on your drive home? / Do you see my face in the neighbor’s lawn? / Does she smile, or does she mouth ‘fuck you forever’?” It’s the first f-bomb of Taylor’s career (though a much more playful one will come two tracks later in “betty”) and it speaks volume. Taylor has received a lot of condemnation for expressing her anger at their transaction, for calling out their greed for what it is. Some view Swift’s stance on the ordeal as petty and trivial; they see the men as orchestrating a good business deal, and Swift as the girl throwing a tantrum. Ask any woman, and they can tell you about a time a man told them they were crazy for being justifiably angry; it only makes us angrier. “No one likes a mad woman,” Taylor states, “You made her like that.” Swift underscores that here, how they will poke and poke the bear but then blame it for attacking, as if they had never provoked it at all, and how dare it defend itself. Just as they blamed Rebekah for her husband’s heart giving out, they somehow manage to blame Swift for not being allowed to purchase the rights to her own work. And yes, she’s mad, but the song is measured and controlled; she’s used to her anger now, and knows just how to wield it. Best lyric: “Women like hunting witches, too / doing your dirtiest work for you / It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together.”

13. epiphany This is another track Swift provided some background on, stating it was inspired by her “grandfather, Dean, landing at Guadalcanal in 1942” during WWII. The first verse paints this image, while the second verse depicts a different kind of war, happening right now, fought by doctors and nurses. She speaks of holding hands through plastic, and the escape folklore has granted you suddenly lifts. Watching someone’s daughter, or mother, or anyone suffer at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as watching a soldier bleed out, helpless, is too much to speak about. As she points out, they don’t teach you about that vicarious trauma in med school. We are living in a tireless world with barely any time time to rest our eyes, but too much going on while we’re awake to make sense of any of it. “epiphany” is a cinematic prayer, pleading for some quiet in order to find an answer in all the noise. We’re still waiting for that glimpse of relief. Best lyric: “Only twenty minutes to sleep / but you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / to make some sense of what you’ve seen.”

14. betty (teenage love triangle, part 3: james’s perspective) It makes sense that a song reminiscent of Fearless would exemplify some of the best story-telling on folklore. The final puzzle piece of the teen love triangle, “betty” is a song sung by Swift from the perspective of the character of her own creation, James, attempting to win back his true love, Betty, who he slighted in some way. He proclaims that the worst thing he ever did is what he did to her, without explicitly stating it. Though the infamous deed is unclear, here’s the information we collect from this song: James saw Betty dancing with another boy at a school dance, one day when he was walking home another girl (from “august”) picked him up and he ended up spending his summer with her yet still loved Betty, and though he ended things with his fling and wanted to reconcile with Betty, he had returned to school to see she switched her homeroom (James assumes, after saying he won’t make assumptions. Classic men). So in order to make it up to her, he shows up at her party with the risk of being told to go fuck himself (the second and charming “fuck” on the album! Which is repeated!). Upon his arrival, there is a glorious key change (ala “Love Story”) and all the pieces fall into place for the listener; we realize Betty is the girl singing in “cardigan” as he lists the things he misses about her since the thrill expired, like the way she looks standing in her cardigan, and kissing in his car. He’s 17 and doesn’t know anything, but she knew everything when she was young, and she knew he’d come back. The way I see their story conclude is that she led him to the garden and trusted him, but as they grew older they grew apart, but the love she had for him never faded completely. Listening to this song is like being back in high school, whether you were the person who did someone wrong or the person so willing to forgive in the name of young love, or Inez, the school gossip, you’re right there with them. The other great thing about this song is that it is sung to a girl, and though it is set up so we understand it is most likely from a boy’s perspective, it doesn’t have to be. It’s really great that girls in the LGBTQ community can have a song in Taylor’s voice to fully connect to without changing the pronouns or names (even James, which is unisex and is one of the names of the daughters of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Taylor’s close friends, mentioned in this song). That is the beauty of folklore: the infinite ways a story can be told, perceived, retold from a different perspective, and told again. Maybe you’ll hear it from Inez. Best lyric: “But if I just showed up at your party / would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden?”

15. peace One of the most beautifully solemn songs of her career, “peace” echoes the same fears explored in “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” from reputation; will the person she loves be able to weather the ever-present storm that comes with the life of a superstar, but also dwells within herself? Will holding him as the water rushes in be enough? Will giving him her wild, a child, her sunshine, her best, be a fair consolation? Presumably another confessional track and about Alwyn, Swift puts him up on a pedestal, praising his integrity and his dare to dream. She proclaims that she would die for him in secret, just as she told him she’d be on her tallest tip toes, spinning in her highest heels, shining just for him in “mirrorball.” She highlights some of the greatest gifts of love, such as comfortable silence and chosen family. She knows what they have is special, but she also knows the value of peace, the ultimate nirvana, and does not want to deprive him of that. It is so deeply relatable- to me, at least- to feel like you can give someone so much of yourself but know it still may never be enough, and to fear either losing them or robbing them of something better. But looking at what they have together, maybe peace is overrated. Or maybe, she’s looking for peace in the wrong places. The calm is in the eye of the storm, and sometimes, there’s nothing more freeing than throwing away the umbrella and soaking in the rain. Best lyric: “I never had the courage of my convictions / as long as danger is near / and it’s just around the corner, darling / ‘cause it lives in me / no, I could never give you peace.”

16. hoax The truest enigma of the album, the closer, “hoax” is a devastatingly dark ballad about the uncertainty, or perhaps incredulity, of someone’s love for you, a love that is your lifeline. The lyrics are ambiguous, which gives way to a plethora of interpretations. Perhaps she is speaking about a hypothetical situation that has yet to happen (and hopefully doesn’t) in which someone she loves and trusts betrays her. Maybe she is talking about a relationship, real (hopefully not) or fictional, in which despite the torment it brings her she holds onto it for dear life. I’m most inclined to believe that the song represents her difficulty in accepting that someone is willing to love her through such dark periods, that their love must actually be a hoax, but she chooses to believe in it anyway and uses it as the motivation to rebuild her kingdom, to rise from the ashes on her barren land. And even through the downs that come at some point in every relationship, she can still see the beauty in it all. Yes, their love is golden, but waves of blue will crash down around any partnership, because life does not exist without them. So even when things are as blue as can be, she’s at least grateful it’s with him. Best lyric: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you / no other sadness in the world would do.”

Although we still have yet to hear the deluxe track, “the lakes,” as a fan of Taylor for almost 12 years, it feels so obvious that this is her strongest work yet. The storytelling I fell in love with on Fearless as a teenager (which, much like folklore, was highly inspired by imaginary situations and real emotions) is even sharper now as we have both grown into adults. The music on this album might not be everyone’s speed, and that’s okay. But it allowed Taylor to dip back into what made Fearless such a success: using pieces of her own truth and the whims of her imagination to develop a multi-faceted narrative that becomes universal. During her Tiny Desk concert, before performing “Death By A Thousand Cuts” from Lover, Swift explained the anxiety she felt around the possibility of stunted creativity when people would ask her what she would write about once she was happy. Taylor has released an abundance of beautiful, fun, complex love songs since the start of her relationship almost four years ago now. But “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” which is a fan favorite, helped her prove to herself that she can still write a killer breakup song while being in a happy, fulfilling relationship; the song was the last track written for Lover and was inspired by the film Something Great on Netflix. And so it makes perfect sense that Taylor used folklore to continue exploring this new avenue for songwriting. All of her discography and all of her life experiences have culminated to the folklore moment: as all the best artists do, she will never stop finding inspiration in hidden corners of this dark, mystical, wondrous universe, and falling in love with new ways to share those wonders. And that love will be passed on.

DISCLAIMER - REVIEWER’S BIAS: I love Taylor Swift more than any person in my life, yes including my parents, they are aware and have accepted this fact long ago ❤️

[honey-makki]

Ghost

Characters: Yaku Morisuke X GN!Reader

Summary: Sometimes just feeling love for someone isn’t enough. 

Warnings: brief mention of sex

Song: my tears ricochet- taylor swift

 Genre: angst

Word Count: 1.1k +

A/N: I reformatted this like 7 times. The days don’t really matter other than to show a passage to time, and this was the assert way to show that. Anyways this is heartbreaking bc sometimes things just don’t work even if you do love someone. I’m loving going through this folklore series

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May 24, 2020

He didn’t want this. Yaku didn’t want you to leave him and while he understood your reasoning, he didn’t understand why. Why can’t we try? Why can’t you let him learn? Why can’t you stay together?

Yaku walks around your-- no his apartment, in a rhythm. Like he’s the ghost, here not you. Passing the fridge, remembering how you always made sure he had his favorite blue gatorade stocked. The trace of your lavender scented candle you always had lit in the hallway. He stops in his tracks, thinking the shadow in the bathroom was you, doing your detailed skin routine. 

You always used to tell him that he needs to take better care of his skin. Thinking about your recommendations he absentmindedly runs his fingers over his cheek, just like you used to do. Yaku stops his gentle pattern when he feels a warm tear splash into his thumb. It doesn't matter what he wants, it matters what he did, what happened between you two.

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March 2, 2020

In the spring, the two of you were cleaning up dinner around this time, having a cup of tea to relax from the long day. Well, that's what should have been happening. Instead you were giving him the cold shoulder, and he wasn’t pressing it. You weren’t even sure if he noticed, as you were the one who had been initiating all the conversations recently. 

Yaku asks from the living room if you wanted to watch a movie with him. “Of course love! I’ll be there in a second.” Yes, you sat together and laid in the same bed, but you don’t remember the last time he complimented you, or the last time he told you he loved you. Well, the last time he said I love you that wasn’t when he was cumming. You took a moment to gather yourself, wiping the stray tears out of your eyes, and head out to your boyfriend sitting on the couch

He gives you what should have been a heartwarming smile, but it does nothing for you. He shifts so you can sit closer to him if you chose, but you opt for the armchair, tucking your legs under you. A brief conversation regarding movie choice ensues, and y’all decide on Disney’s Hercules, one of your childhood favorites.

By the time Megara gets to her solo, you are almost at the brink of tears.  Turning to him, you ask “Morisuke, do you love me?” The silence following your question as he stares you at you dumbfounded is broken by the sound of the movie. 

Yaku, takes a second to answer, not because he doesn’t love you and is unsure how to break it, but rather, just due to confusion on how you didn’t know how deep his love is for you. Did he not do enough to show you? Did he not spend enough time with you? He knows volleyball takes a lot of his time, but almost all of the rest is spent with you? Was he neglecting your needs?

As you got up to head to the bedroom, silent tears streaming down your face, he called out to you, “Do you really not know that I love you?” His question is genuine, but you hear it as condescending. How could you not know I love you when I never say it? When we just sit in silence together?

You turn around, no longer heartbroken but angry. Angry that you waited this long to ask the question, angry that he never saw what you needed, just angry at him for being him. Yaku still doesn’t seem to know what's going on, but he knows that the look on your face wasn’t a good one. 

He moves over to you slowly, in an effort to not startle you, and takes your hands in his. Before he could bring them up to his trembling lips for a kiss you pull away. “No, Morisuke. This can’t be fixed by kissing my hands. This,” gesturing around both of you, your shared apartment, what should have been your shared life, “can’t be fixed.” 

“Y/N! Stop, let's talk at least! Don’t just go to the bedroom and shut me out. I don’t know why this is happening, can you please tell me how you are feeling? I--”

“Morisuke, I’m not the one with a problem professing their love.” 

The beginning of blows dealt back and forth on your last night together. Each one hitting harder than the last, leaving you both gasping for air, tears washing way the relationship you two had built. The hardest part, the strike that ended it all, was both of you knew that neither of you were really in the wrong, it was, his love, your love, just wasn’t enough. 

-----

May 24, 2020

You must finally have published your first post-grad paper, Yaku muses as he thumbs through the mail, stopping on a piece addressed to you from Geological Journal. It would make sense you are done about now. I couldn’t be prouder that you actually got something into this journal. 

A quick google search brings up a panel where you are discussing the findings of your paper. With that, Yaku grabs his keys and heads out the door.

------------

“-- debris from the Sudbury Impact can be found over 800km away from Ontario. We expect that the debris was actually scatter globally but has eroded away over the 1.8 billion years post impact,” you give a light chuckle, but it's caught in your throat as you see Yaku standing in the back of the room, with a look that you could only classify as affection and pride. 

You can’t forget the hurt on Yaku’s face when you told him you were leaving, but you will never forget the shooting pain from the knife in your back as he told you that you were dead to him. You know he didn’t want the relationship to end, but, if I’m dead to you why are you here now? If you loved me, why would you say things that would drive me away?

A singular tear runs down your cheek as you see him, you killed me but it killed you just the same. An oblivious observer would think your tear is from happiness regarding your achievement, but you know and Yaku knows that's not the case.

As he sees the light catch off the drop running down your cheek, he knows that it’s done. You haven’t broken eye contact so you see him nod and mouth what you think was “I’m proud of you, love,” and head out the door for the last time.

Tags: @lydzisanerd @roandtheroses @sugawara-sweetheart @laughingismorefun @iguessimastannow​ @scorpiosanssexy

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[the-lil-exorcist]

Trust in Fury|| Solo

TIMING: Current 

FEATURING: Lil and a Ovinnik LOCATION: Near the border of Gatlin Fields and Worm Row on an unfortunate goo'ed farm

CONTENT WARNINGS: A little bit of an abandoned pet warning. It's okay though, Lil says mine.

SUMMARY: Lil, checking in on the goo, finds an Ovinnik who seems to have lost her home. Feeling a kinship she lets the creature come with her and Lil finds her tag that named her Luna.

There was a black cat sitting where a farm once stood, watching the goo filling the fields it once roamed freely. Fire occasionally came out of her mouth as she tried to get the goo to go back to no avail. It climbed on everything creating statues out of the things she had treasured. 

She had been doing this for days now. Having to inch back from her house going through the fields that were now rotting where they stood. She had been forced to move back and back as she tried to find her humans. 

She had been sure they weren’t in the house, she hadn’t seen the lights on and the cars weren’t in the driveway. Surely though they hadn’t left her. She was theirs as much as they were hers. Growing anxious and angry the flames came out again as she wanted to know where they were. Surely they had to be safe. 

It was looking bleak though. She hadn’t seen a human in days let alone hers, until she saw an unfamiliar car going down the road she had been forced to get closer too. The Ovinnik glowered, trying to get away from the contraption only to be stuck between it and the goo. Cornered as a raven haired lady got out of the car and gestured to her. Something familiar to the creature's eyes that made her pause looking at the young woman. 

Lil hadn’t meant to stop - just going through to see if there had been anyone who needed help she had quickly realized that the goo was getting too bad for even herself to help. She’d have to come back later with others if she wanted to do anything about it. If it wasn't’ for the fire she wouldn’t have caught the black cat now staring at her. Still,  looking into the creature's fiery eyes Lil saw something familiar, and without thinking stuck her hand out to call it. “Hey sweetheart. Come here away from the goo. You’ll get stuck if you go near there.” It wasn’t until after she had gotten out that she realized what it was. 

The creature was angry. Looking at the human who had dared to watch its suffering to stop and come out, calling for her. What had made Lil stop was the fact it looked angry and scared. Still, now that she had she wasn’t going to let her die here. So she stepped forward saying softly, “Hey, Honey you can’t stay there.” The eyes of the cat  narrowed suspicious of the exorcist immediately she looked like death, and she knew better than that.The back of her fur sticking up with a growl as she moved between the strange human and the field that she used to protect - now under a goo that she couldn’t burn. She would protect it, and wait patiently for her humans to come back. She wouldn’t let a moment of weakness distract her from her lands.

Still it did, didn't it? The creature remembered how they  hadn’t been back in days now. She would have to burn something in retaliation. She would have to howl at them for leaving her here with nothing to eat. She would have to set fire to perhaps the barn. 

“I get it. Your family must have gone, right? You don't know where they are?” Lil asked the creature like it could talk back to her. She had noticed the collar that wrapped around her neck, and the fact that she hadn’t approached Lil to come fight her. She looked instead like she was protecting whatever had been in that field. 

It seemed that she was right as the cat looked back at the field briefly, with a flash of distress Lil had seen on Auggie’s little face the day she’d scooped him up. It wasn’t something she could quite express in words, but she sighed slightly sitting down on the edge of the road now abandoned by the great people of Wicked’s Rest. “Sweetheart, I’m not going to hurt you or them. Come here, please. I won’t force you, but that goo’s gonna get out of control if you stay here and you’ll die without them. You don’t want that do you?” 

If the creature knew what Lil was saying, she didn’t know but it stopped looking at her with a flame of - something like recognition. Something told her that the black cat knew what was happening and was trying to accept that it was gone. Stubbornness - that was what Lil saw. Stubbornness and hurt. Whoever the cat had protected this place for had obviously left without her, and it upset Lil. Still, she tried to keep it off of her face instead being softer and more gentle then she could be with most people.

“Come on, Sweetheart. At least let me pet you? Yeah? You must have been out here all day and night. My name's Lil, and I see you’ve got a collar. Can I know your name, pretty girl?” Lil said in a soft soothing voice as she saw an anger that she knew too well. Hell, she would be as stubborn as the cat - wait until the goo took her too. But she couldn’t let nature be that cruel. 

Finally - slowly - the black cat inched towards her fear and anger turning closer to curiosity than hesitant trust as Lil's demeanor didn't change. Holding her hand out palm up Lil let her come closer not moving it until she felt the fur tickling her fingers. “There you go, Beautiful. See I’m not so scary. I just wanna help a pretty girl,” Lil said softly as she gently petted the big cat hearing her purr and her eyes closed. Looking at the worn collar Lil found the creature’s name in unitarian print. 

Luna. Like the moon. She could get that, her eyes seemed as bright as a star, but more like a campfire flame than anything else. Especially now, leaning against her she seemed warm. Still, her name was obviously important. Lil bet she was attached to it. With a little smile she said, “Okay Luna. If you want you can come home with me. I won’t let anything happen to you okay.” As if Luna knew what she said she looked up at Lil for a moment before putting her head back into the exorcist’s lap bumping at her hand for more pets. Chuckling a little, Lil started petting her again leaning her head down to put her forehead to the strange creature and softly said, “I know, Sweetheart I know. You want your family back. I do to - but until then we can be one to each other okay? You can come live with me and Jonas. We’ve already got two others too - and that’s a family right? You’ll Like Blue and Auggie.”  

She didn’t get another response other than the tension still in the big cat’s body slowly releasing and her attempt to climb into Lilian’s lap to rest scrambling to fit. Sitting there for a few moments Lil hummed a song as she let the creature in her lap mourn the death of something as she made sure the goo didn’t get too close. “Okay, Sweet girl. We gotta get out of here before we’re statues. We should also get you some food.” Leaning back to open the door, Lil let Luna leave her lap and with one final look towards the ruin of her home leapt into the car.

And so Luna who now remembered her name again, watched the farm she had grown up on slowly disappear as the goo finally shattered the rafters of her barn. With this new woman Lil, she would have to wait for someone to stop the goo and let her go back there. To go back to her former life or maybe just to burn the place down. 

She hadn’t decided yet. It would be a treat either way. Until then, she supposed the human looked like she needed someone to watch her land as well. Perhaps Luna could expand.

[doubleattitude]

NUVO Dance Convention, Detroit, MI: RESULTS

High Scores by Age:

NUbie Solo

1st: Stella Brinkerhoff-’Fly’

2nd: Penelope LeMieux-’These Boots’

3rd: Sylvie Win Szyndlar-’Rainbow Connection’

4th: Naomi Harper-’Speechless’

5th: Hadlee Young-’Mr. Sandman

6th: Kora Jacobs-’Papa’

7th: Ariceli Huembes-’Queen Bee’

Mini Solo

1st: Ellary Day Szyndlar-’Light Gathers’

2nd: Zoe Swope-’That Face’

3rd: Annabelle DeWitt-’Tears of an Angel’

4th: Annabel Schoolmeesters-’Broken’

5th: Mya Lanigan-’Halo’

6th: Brooklyn Ward-’Here I Am’

6th: Addison Prichard-’Swing It Like Roger’

7th: Kinley Barnes-’Like That’

8th: Madeleine Shen-’The Bridge’

9th: Azarrah Fair-’B.E.A.T’

9th: Madelyn Nicholson-’Clay’

10th: Ella Palmer-’Somewhere Only We Know’

Junior Solo

1st: Mya Tuaileva-’Can’t Unhear’

2nd: Daniela SanGiacomo-’Infinite’

2nd: Maura Matuska-’LJ’

3rd: Lacie Mollahan-’All Cried Out’

3rd: Victoria Johnson-’Genius’

3rd: Eliza Mercer-’Goetia’

3rd: Vivienne Mitchell-’Metamorphosis’

4th: Ariel Cai-’Clear Water’

4th: Blakely Bell-’Shifting’

5th: Nily Samara-’Dot 2 Dot’

5th: Campbell Clark-’I’ll Be Seeing You’

5th: Bree Curtis-’One Grain’

6th: Campbell Bas-’Alice’

6th: Joli DuQuenne-’Found’

6th: Preslie Lopez-’Freezing Point’

6th: Londyn LeMieux-’Human Touch’

7th: Haydyn Jackson-’Dex’

7th: Claire Wise-’Listen’

7th: Piper Leddell-’Sunrise Sunset’

7th: Julianna Harris-’The Mask’

7th: Marlow Makarewicz-’Tomorrow’s Song’

8th: Gabby Donaldson-’It’s About That Walk’

8th: Morgan Schwarze-’Runaway’

8th: Madison Music-’Two Thousand & Two’

9th: Dani Sherman-’Broken Prayers’

10th: Raeka Martonez-’I Have Never Loved Someone’

10th: Paige Lenard-’Like You Used To’

Teen Solo

1st: Peyton Price-’All We Know’

1st: Cydney Heard-’I’m Going In’

1st: Hailey Bills-’You’

2nd: Macy Orvis-’Look At Me’

2nd: Isabella Pinkston-’Speaking Of The End’

2nd: Benjamin Graham-’Straighten Up and Fly Right’

2nd: Chance Phelps-’The Garden’

3rd: Zoe Ridge-’A Thousand Eyes’

3rd: L.A Gee-’Botn’

3rd: Brianna Hicks-’Epilouge’

3rd: Kendall Best-’For Loving You’

3rd: Cambry Bethke-’How Insensitive’

3rd: Brielle McCoy-’Twist’

4th: Camryn Lanigan-’False Confidence’

4th: Caris Beurkens-’Human Nature’

4th: Mikaela Zarsky-’Lullaby’

4th: Lainey Bliss-’Orange’

4th: Lynlie Ferrin-’Visnaga’

4th: Mya Imbrock-’You’re Mine’

5th: Carlee Alicea-’Crazy’

5th: Samantha Grana-’Fragment Me’

5th: Kieran Holmes-’Hear The Bells’

5th: Addison Gutow-’Without You’

6th: Evelyn Shymanski-’33 God’

6th: Emersyn Dickson-’Plans We Made’

6th: Alexis Schueller-’Somebody’

6th: Macy Such-’What Dreams Are Made Of’

6th: Kimberly Sigloch-’Years of Suffering’

7th: Olivia McIntyre-’Thinking About You’

8th: Marissa Brunner-’On Then and Now’

8th: Shanyce Washington-’Sunday Kind of Love’

9th: Violet Lopiccola-’#88′

9th: Lily Poynter-’Cellophane’

9th: Jiya Janwani-’Nemesis’

9th: Marin Akkashian-’Shotgun’

10th: Emily Ferguson-’Cellophane’

10th: Dilyn Bray-’Faced’

10th: Alexia Munger-’Miss Kiss’

Senior Solo

1st: Kamryn Funk-’5,6,7,8′

2nd: Anna Miller-’Godspeed’

2nd: Zoe Carpenter-’Opus 22′

3rd: Peyton Winsett-’Distortion’

3rd: Jonah Tran-’Involution’

3rd: Madison McDonald-’Shining’

4th: Chase Phelps-’All I Have Left’

4th: Christian Whan-’It’s Still Rock & Roll’

4th: Alyssa Griffith-’Voyage’

4th: Kaityln Babich-’You’re My Thrill’

5th: Seanna DeWitt-’Consequence of Sound’

5th: Trinity Malgay-’Somthing Short and Sweet’

5th: Isabella Nixon-’Stand Alive’

5th: Kendall Schmidt-’Take Me To The River’

5th: Ashley Smith-’The First Time’

5th: Jessica Babich-’Ubiquitous’

5th: Jessica Welch-’Whoever You Are’

6th: Bria Mayes-’Angel By The Wings’

6th: Lily Freebery-’A Wish’

6th: Madison Harvell-’Getting Older’

6th: Quinn Davis-’Like’

7th: Brianna Haith-’Alarm’

7th: Zoey Cappatocio-’Another Lifetime’

7th: Isabelle Ranger-’Leave A Light On’

7th: Kate McCollum-’Now That I’m Older’

7th: Anjali Petrucci-’Satellite’

7th: Cade Person-’Skalbrekka’

7th: Emily Popa-’Vienna’

8th: Kendra Fereshetian-’I Don’t Know Anything Yet’

8th: Camryn Humpert-’Supermarket in California’

9th: Jadyn Terry-’Must Change’

9th: Olivia Papa-’The Lakes’

10th: Kacey Howley-’Doomed’

10th: Leah Rieger-’Memories’

NUbie Duo/Trio

1st: Haja Dance Company-’You Better Work’

2nd: Nye Dance Productions-’Diamonds’

Mini Duo/Trio

1st: Just Off Broadway-’I Will Carry You’

1st: Poirier Productions Dance Studio-’The Forest Queen’

2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’A Shine On Your Shoes’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’Fall On Me’

Junior Duo/Trio

1st: Haja Dance Company-’I’ll Stay’

2nd: Studio 4-’Slights and Trespasses’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’When I Grow Up’

Teen Duo/Trio

1st: Center Stage Performing Arts Studio-’Not That News’

2nd: The Dance Kollective-’Sax’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Together Again’

3rd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’The Show’

Senior Duo/Trio

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Get Happy’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Back, Baby’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Static’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’The Turning Page’

3rd: Academy of Dance Arts-’Words Are Not Enough’

NUbie Group

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Bon Appetit’

2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Friend Like Me’

3rd: Nye Dance Productions-’Dancing Fool’

Mini Group

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’HSKT’

3rd: Body Language Dance Company-’Bei Mir Bist Du Schon’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Let The River Run’

Junior Group

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Solace’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Marathon (In Roses)’

Teen Group

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Laura’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’These Women’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’I’m Rising’

Senior Group

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Minus 60′

2nd: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Herd of Defense’

3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

NUbie Line

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Reflection’

Mini Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’First Class’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Above The Clouds of Pompeii’

Junior Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Forget You’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Danke Schoen’

3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Shine’

Teen Line

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Beacon’

3rd: Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Senior Line

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Night’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Hallucinations’

NUbie Extended Line

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’

2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

Junior Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Haven’t You Heard’

2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’

Teen Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Start Walkin’

3rd: Haja Dance Company-’Don’t Cry’

Senior Extended Line

1st: Haja Dance Company-’That Stuff’

Mini Production

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Steam Heat’

Teen Production

1st: The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’

High Scores by Performance Division:

NUbie Jazz

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’ 2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Friend Like Me’

NUbie Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Bon Appetit’ 2nd: Nye Dance Productions-’Dancing Fool’

NUbie Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

NUbie Lyrical

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Reflection’

Mini Jazz

1st: Haja Dance Company-’First Class’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

Mini Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Big Band Sound’ 1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’HSKT’ 2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’Bei Mir Bist Du Schon’

Mini Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Above The Clouds of Pompeii’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’You’ve Got A Friend’

Mini Lyrical

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Let The River Run’

Mini Musical Theatre

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Steam Heat’

Junior Jazz

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Haven’t You Heard’ 1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Danke Schoen’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’ 3rd: Haja Dance Company-’The Glow’

Junior Hip-Hop

1st: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Throwin It’

Junior Tap

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Forget You’ 2nd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’My Blue Heaven’

Junior Contemporary

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Solace’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Marathon (In Roses)’

Junior Lyrical

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Unbroken’

Junior Musical Theatre

1st: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Forget About The Boy’

Teen Jazz

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Spell’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Start Walkin’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’One Night Only’ 3rd: The Turning Pointe-’Babylon’

Teen Ballet

1st: Body Language Dance Company-’Scheharazade’ 2nd: Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’Le Chance’

Teen Hip-Hop

1st: The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ransom’ 3rd: Artflux Dance Lab-’Screenagers’

Teen Tap

1st: Spotlight Dance Works-’Try A Little Tenderness’ 2nd: Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’ 3rd: Body Language Dance Company-’Another Sad Love Song’

Teen Contemporary

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’ 2nd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’ 3rd: Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

Teen Lyrical

1st: Haja Dance Company-’Don’t Cry’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’Change Will Come’

Teen Musical Theatre

1st: Nye Dance Productions-’Wizard of Oz’

Teen Specialty

1st: Powerdance Company-’Freedom’ 2nd: Powerdance Company-’If I’ 2nd: Powerdance Company-’Run’ 3rd: Powerdance Company-’The Chain’

Senior Jazz

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’ 2nd: Haja Dance Company-’That Stuff’ 3rd: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’That’s Life’

Senior Tap

1st: Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Superstitious’

Senior Contemporary

1st: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Minus 60′ 2nd: Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Herd of Defense’ 3rd: Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Best NU Groups:

NUbie

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ordinary Miracle’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Can You Feel It’

Mini

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Quake’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Gonna Catch You’

Haja Dance Company-’First Class’

Junior

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Trust’

Haja Dance Company-’For A Second’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Distant Sures’

Teen

The Turning Pointe-’Earth Girls’

Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’I’m Rising’

Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Pa’lante’

Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Can You Hear That’

Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’

Senior

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Haja Dance Company-’Come Back to Me’

Artflux Dance Lab-’Akvaryum’

Kim Massay Dance Productions-’Minus 60′

Studio Pick:

Dean/Black School of Performing Arts-’An Evening I Won’t Forget’

Body Language Dance Company-’For All We Know’

Powerdance Company-’Freedom’

Spotlight Dance Works-’Ricochet’

Noretta Dunworth School of Dance-’Fancy’

Haja Dance Company-’We Are Nothing’

[themessyaofmind]

2020 Albums that I listened on repeat

This is just me trying to prove myself that there are good things that happened in my 2020. I listened to a lot of new music more than last year, I watched a lot of movies and tv series more than last year, I read a lot of books and fanfictions more than last year (also now have more OTPs than last year), and more importantly I stayed on my bed more times than last year. So yeah, 2020 is not that bad :)

Blood Harmony (Deluxe) by FINNEAS

Just listening the first song and I already cried. But don't worry the rest of the songs are not that sad. It even has some.. playful lyrics? I don't know how to call it but they make me smile at some point. All of the songs also use gender-neutral pronouns, which I much appreciated.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

I know I'll be alright.

But I'm not tonight

I'll be lying awake counting all the mistakes I've made (I Lost a Friend)

Favorite song: I Lost a Friend, Let's Fall in Love for the Night

Listen on repeat: I Don't Miss You at All

Manic by Halsey

Listening to this album is a beautiful long journey. It has 27 songs with total time 1 hr 23 min and I don't have one that I skipped. I can relate with a lot of the lyrics that she put in this album. She is one of the artist that I admired the way lyrics are written. Pick one favorite song from this album is almost impossible.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

I'm the worst of my enemy

And I didn't really know what to do with me (3am)

Favorite songs: I Hate Everybody, Finally // beautiful stranger, Ashley, 3am - Stripped, Graveyard - Stripped, Be Kind

Listen on repeat: Be Kind

RAZZMATAZZ by I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

I surprised myself when I found that I like this kind of genre A LOT. Thanks to tumblr that helps me found this artist. I don't know how to explain how much I love the lyrics in each songs. They have words that feels like a slap on my face but they do it with a bright smile and the weird thing is I like it a lot.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

Oh, I can't say no

I'm losing control

I'm having bad dreams

And nothing you can do will keep the bad things away from me until I fall asleep (New Invention)

Favorite songs: Leave Me Alone, Nobody Likes The Opening Band, Clusterhug, Kiss Goodnight, Razzmatazz

Listen on repeat: Clusterhug, Razzmatazz

Julie and the Phantoms: Season 1 (From the Netflix Original Series)

This is the jackpot that I got in 2020. I'm not a fan of any musical series before but this one really got me so good. The series is GREAT. The songs is EVEN MORE GREAT. I keep both re-watching the series and repeating some of the songs from the album. It feels like I got an invisible push of energy whenever I listening them. The only bad thing from this album is it gives me a hard time to pick up favorite songs.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

Better wake those demons

Just look them in the eyes

No reason not to try

Life can be a mess (Wake Up)

Favourite songs: Bright, Wake Up, Flying Solo, Finally Free, Stand Tall

Listen on repeat: Stand Tall

One Day at a Time (Deluxe) by Kodaline

This album is like a gentle wind that soothing me down. The lyrics are gender-neutral. Again, it impossible for me to only choose one favorite song. This is the perfect friend for me during those painful days of 2020. Well yeah I cried too during one of the songs (The Evening) because it made me remember a friend that I lost.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

In the end when all is said and done

In the end we learn to overcome

In the end we'll sing our final song

We forgive, we forget and move on (In the End)

Favourite songs: Sometimes, The Evening, Care, Heart Open

Listen on repeat: In the End

An honorary mention to below albums that save my 2020

Folklore & Evermore by Taylor Swift

Do I still have the words for these two? Nah, y'all know in what way the two save us. Listening to all the songs in these two albums is just like reading a lot of books and feeling the different trait of each protagonist in the story. Some songs make me put myself as the protagonist itself and some other songs make me enjoy the ride and waiting what will happen at the end. It such a new feeling for me because I haven't listened a lot of Taylor's songs before (only 3 until 5 songs, I think) and now she amazed me with the way the lyrics are written in these two albums. Then here comes the hardest part which is to pick some favorite from these two.

Lyrics quote for my 2020:

I think I've seen this film before

And I didn't like the ending

You're not my homeland anymore

So who am I defending now? (exile)

Favorite songs: the last great american dynasty, exile, my tears ricochet, this is me trying, betty, champagne problems, gold rush, coney island, long story short, marjorie, evermore

Listen on repeat: the 1, exile, betty, champagne problems, long story short, coney island

[galindathrop]

I saw @ben--solos​ do this and I wanted to as well. 

first creation and most recent creation of 2020:

Ok so I didn’t really start making star wars content until April of this year. My first creation of the year would be my graphic for the first day of Reylo Week 2020.

My most recent creation is my Reylo x Willow gifset.

one of your favorite creations from 2020: I really love my Rey’s training outfit from TLJ gifset.

a creation you’re really proud of: My porg gifset for SWSAW2020. It’s not much but I was proud of it because I was going through it and that really cheered me up. 

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: Other than actually learning how to make gifs, that would probably be me putting gradients over gifs with some fun text. (I’m still learning be nice) Here is the first time I did it in my Rey The Archer gifset

a creation that took you forever: This isn’t much but maybe my Reylo My Tears Ricochet edit.

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: I was on a Hamilton kick this summer so I made this Reylo x Hamilton graphic. I’m still proud of this. 

a creation you think deserved more notes: I posted a gifset of Kaydel Connix and Leia in TROS gifset because I was sad and missing Carrie. Granted it was literally my first gifset but I was so excited to start making gifs and that was kinda discouraging. 

a creation with a favorite scene/quote: This Rey gifset I made. I always liked that scene with her saying Ben’s name. 

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: Taylor Swift. I wanted new music to listen too and Taylor released ‘folklore’ at just the right time. This lead me to listening to everything she had ever done. But out of everything, the Look What You Made Me Do mv will always be my favorite so I made this Halloween themed LWYMMD gifset. 

a creation you made that breaks your heart: This one. The scene in TROS will just always break me. Actually making the gif made it worse because I noticed the little details and made me even sadder. 

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: My Tico sisters graphic. I did it on a whim and I love it so much. 

a creation that was inspired by another one (add both your creation and the one that inspired it!): This was inspired by this by @/anakinskywalker. 

a favorite creation created by someone else (in no particular order):

Saving what we love by @bencsolos

Reylo as the songs from folklore by @millenniumsfalcon

This Rey edit by @bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb-8

some of your favorite content creators from the year: (in no particular order):

@bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb-8 @millenniumsfalcon @kylos @kyloren @bencsolos @ben--solos @perfectopposite @melodramas @newrcmantlcs @supremeprince-bensolo

and for good measure, another a couple more creations of yours that you love: just anyone who wants to do this.

[daenerys-targaryen]

30 questions tag game!

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better.

I was tagged by both of these icons, @kamalaskhans and @anakin-skywalker, thanks you both I truly adore you guys so much 🥺💕😭

Name/Nickname: Leah. Hot girl. Gender: Female babey Star sign: Capricorn. The most forgotten sign :/ Height: 5′5 Time: Almost 9:40 PM Birthday: December 30th (soon!) Favorite Bands: Looking through my Spotify I’m realizing I don’t listen to bands that often but Queen, Green Day, The Piano Guys, The Fray, Coldplay, Paramore... That’s all I can think of atm asdf Favorite Solo artists: Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lorde, Halsey, Beyonce, Rihanna, Enya, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore.... Many more klasf Song stuck in my head: My Tears Ricochet by Taylor Swift Last movie: How to Train Your Dragon Last Show: Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural When did I create this blog: I originally made this blog so I could spam taylor swift content and people on my old blog wouldn’t unfollow laskdjf What do I post: Hot girl shit Last thing googled: crying emoji (I’m on the computer so I had to copy and paste it for this post SLAKDFJ) Other blogs: @adreamofspring, @asoiafdaenerysdaily, @asongoficeandfiresource, @cinematv, @dailyflicks, @dailyshowbiz, @iheartgot and @targaryensource! Do I get asks: A fair amount! Why I chose my url: A QUEEN!!! Following: 970 (I know smh) Followers: 13.5k Average hours of sleep: 7-8 Lucky number: 7 Instruments: None... I’m lame What am I wearing: My Captain America shirt, snowflake pajamas and my reputation hoodie Dream job: Helping people or helping the planet (aka animals or the actual earth) but also where I get paid decently enough Dream trip: Italy Favorite food: Is it too American to say cheese burgers, fries and a milkshake? It never lets me down Nationality: American Favorite song: I can’t possibly chose one asdkflj but my most played song when spotify wrapped came out was ilomilo by billie eilish Last book read: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Top three fictional universes I’d like to live in: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, others but I can’t think of them atm

Tagging @visenyatargaryen, @frodo-baggins, @villainelle, @userjen, @false-god, @thelasttime, @thenighttrain, @tobesolonely, @jackmans, @anya-chalotra, @anyataylorjoy, and @jaylor! (you don’t have to do this if you don’t wanna, but it was fun ヽ(•‿•)ノ)

[traincat]

opinions on the new taylor swift album (in terms of spider-man ships) ? 👀👀

YES okay yes I have lots of thoughts. One of my favorite things is when a new Taylor Swift album comes out and I get to decide which songs are what Spider-Man ships. I did a twitter thread about this when the album first came out, which has my initial reactions, but I’ve had time to sit with it now, so let’s dive back in:

the 1: first reading is this is a Peter/Felicia post-breakup. But we were something, don't you think so?/Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool/And if my wishes came true/It would've been you.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #112)

However, I think Taylor Swift’s oeuvre is one especially good for applying to One More Day from Mary Jane’s point of view (New Year’s Day, anyone?) and the 1 doesn’t let us down here.  

I have this dream you're doing cool shit/Having adventures on your own/You meet some woman on the Internet and take her home/We never painted by the numbers, baby/But we were making it count/You know the greatest loves of all time are over now. (ASM #561)

cardigan: My first impression was that this is like the ultimate college years Peter/MJ/Gwen song -- leaning slightly more towards the GwenMJ leg of the love triangle/threesome -- and I have not changed on that front. Sequin smile, black lipstick/Sensual politics/When you are young, they assume you know nothing? A friend to all is a friend to none/Chase two girls, lose the one?? 'Cause I knew you/Stepping on the last train/Marked me like a bloodstain???  Tried to change the ending/Peter losing (G)Wendy?????????????

You drew stars around my scars, but now I’m bleeding/”She saw through the party girl mask I always wore. Saw the frightened, abused kid inside.” (Marvel 1000)

the last great american dynasty: this one’s a little too biographical to work for a Spider-Man ship but I think it could be a good women of Spider-Man song. The maddest woman this town has ever seen etc etc. Alternatively it’s for the version of canon where Doc Ock marries May for her nuclear power plant inheritance and then she turns the tables and poisons him for his criminal empire. good for her.

exile: look, this is a love triangle tragic breakup song, and Spider-Man is the king of both of these things. I’m going to make a call and say that exile, while I think it’s both an excellent PeterFelicia and PeterMJ, leans towards PeterMJ after MJ rejects his first proposal, when they’re seeing other people but everyone keeps trying to get them back together. I can see you starin', honey/Like he's just your understudy/Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me/Second, third, and hundredth chances/Balancin' on breaking branches/Those eyes add insult to injury.

The dueling narration of 'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs) and I never learned to read your mind (Never learned to read my mind) is a pretty perfect early PeterMJ summary.

my tears ricochet: okay okay okay so my tears ricochet + mad woman are my ideal “Gwen Stacy gets a resurrection revenge narrative ala Bucky Barnes and Jason Todd” song duo. And if I'm on fire/You'll be made of ashes, too.

mirrorball: Taylor Swift released THE definitive Mary Jane Watson song in 2020. We are talking about the feminine art of performance, we are talking about masks, we are talking about trauma baby!!! I want you to know/I'm a mirrorball/I can change everything about me to fit in/You are not like the regulars/The masquerade revelers/Drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten.

I've never been a natural/All I do is try, try, try (ASM #143)

We are ALSO thinking about Mary Jane’s iconic mirrored mini dress from ASM #59. An entire Mary Jane anthem.

seven: this song CRIES OUT for childhood friends, which Spider-Man is a bit lacking in, what with the entire friend group coming together in college, but in my head it belongs to a version of canon where Gwen and Mary Jane were friends as children and lost touch with each other. alternatively, it’s the Peter/Flash childhood friends song, since they’re as close as we get to childhood friends in canon, and also because these lyrics in conjunction with that make me want to cry: And I've been meaning to tell you/I think your house is haunted/Your dad is always mad and that must be why/And I think you should come live with/Me and we can be pirates/Then you won't have to cry.

Also, “just like a folk song, our love will be passed on” makes me cry thinking about longform storytelling like superhero comics so like that’s fun. A real Spidey fivesome sort of feeling.

august: I’ve been thinking about it, and I think this is a Peter/Betty set during their initial romantic relationship. Your back/Beneath the sun/Wishing I could write my name on it/Will you call when you're back at school?/I remember thinking I had you.

this is me trying: A FLASH THOMPSON SONG. Like, I think “I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that” is a big PeterMJ sentiment during several key points of their relationship, but overall the vibe of this song is a Flash. Probably a Peter/Flash, while we’re at it. 

illicit affairs: okay, in my heart, I want this to be another Peter/Betty, because the point in canon where they’re sleeping together behind Ned’s back is just so sexy of them, and it’s a favorite fictional extramarital affair. However, I also don’t feel like this song is straight enough as its core to be about them. I also feel like “and you want to scream don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby” is a BIG Gwen Stacy mood. So I’m kind of leaning towards an MJ/Gwen affair while PeterGwen is happening. Which would also be very fun of them all. I think at a push we could also make this a Peter/Flash while Flash is seeing Sha Shan, if we wanted to warp canon around to have a good time. What I’m saying is Spider-Man should have a few more affairs in its body of canon. For the song.

mad woman: I mentioned this up with my tears ricochet but we’re going to say AGAIN for the people in the BACK: this is a Gwen Stacy jam. If they were ever to make an extremely good movie about resurrected Gwen on a murderous revenge spree, this song should be playing in it. What do you sing on your drive home?/Do you see my face in the neighbor's lawn?/Does she smile?/Or does she mouth "fuck you forever"?

(Spider-Island: Deadly Foes) Also, not that the Gwen clones get like, full narratives or are allowed to be their own individual characters like the Peter clones (it’s the misogyny) but if they were, mad woman would be such a good Gwen clone song. No one likes a mad woman/You made her like that.

epiphany: this is very rare for me in Taylor Swift’s discography, but I think this is really a Peter solo song. 

Crawling up the beaches now/Sir I think he’s bleeding out (Peter Parker #89)

betty: You have no idea how badly I wanted this to be a Peter/Betty, but it is just not. I think there’s a version of Spider-Man high school canon though where this is a Betty/Liz. 

peace: This album is light on Taylor Swift Spideytorch hits -- previous examples including Love Story and Call It What You Want To, among many others -- but peace is such a Spideytorch. But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm/If your cascade ocean wave blues come/All these people think love's for show/But I would die for you in secret/The devil's in the details/But you got a friend in me/Would it be enough/If I could never give you peace?

(ASM #790) @bipeteparker said that Johnny COULD give Peter peace but they’re dramatic, so it works, and I stand by that, but I also like it with the juxtaposition of their lives -- Johnny being so famous and such a public figure and Peter having eschewed that life by keeping the mask on. 

hoax: and we’re closing the album the same way we started! I think there are various Spider-Man readings you could do, but my big two are PeterFelicia and PeterMJ -- both with the lens of the post-One More Day deal and how that altered both of their relationships with him. 

Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in (ASM #16HU)

My only one/My kingdom come undone (ASM #545)