#man u were like my first sonic mutual….!!

[d0d0-b0i]

did a little something for @studioboner! happy bday man :D

[sunwritten]

hi guys  😁  i am ur girl mimi  ( she/her, mst, 22 )  and all u have to know about me is that i do nothing but keysmash , cry , listen to redvelvet and arianagrande, talk spanglish since spanish is my first language AND that i love sonic the hedgehog . now let me introduce to u to my boy  😁

̗̀   ✰   ― 〔  cha  eunwoo,  cis  male,  he/him  ）―  ❝  have  you  seen  mason  choi  walking  around  the  town  square  in  the  afternoon  ?  if  you’re  close  enough  you  might  even  be  able  to  hear  in  your  eyes  by  the  weeknd  blasting  through  their  headphones.  they’re  twenty-four  and  are  currently  working  as  a  piano instructor  /  songwriter.  once  you  get  to  know  them,  you’ll  be  able  to  find  out  that  they’re  very  candid  and  reserved,  but  also  can  be  very  lackadaisical  and  blunt.

statistics .

name: mun-hee “mason” choi .

age: 24 .

dob: january 1st , 1996 .

gender + pronouns: cis male , he/him .

zodiac: capricorn sun , libra moon , pisces raising .

orientation: bisexual , biromantic . 

religion: heavily raised under catholic influences . he doesn’t care , though .

hometown: olympia , washington .

residence: novan , south carolina .

occupation: piano instructor, but he can be a tutor for anything if he does some investigation the night prior. singer and songwriter in hopes to make it big one day. streamer and influencer on twitch, youtube and instagram. 

about .

THE JACK OF ALL TRADES: a person who is not content learning about just one thing only , developing a sense to learn something efficiently so they can be good enough at whatever they choose . raised under a strict household , mason craved to learn and experience more than what was taught under the roof of his house and church . spent most of his life reaching out ( sometimes suceeding , sometimes not ) to everything to have some kind of experience under his belt: some of these being both noticed by his parents and some others not ( and for the better ) . a quick learner and adaptable , and when he knows how to approach new skills properly , no mountain is too high for him .

the only child to a priest and a lawyer . mun-hee , eventually introducing himself as mason because he was tired of repeating his name over and over , was brought up in a wealthy and strictly catholic household in olympia , washington . he was forbidden from doing anything out of the ordinary since he could remember ; from dirtying up his sunday clothes to not attending his best friend's birthday party because his parents had the suspicion that substances were going to be involved at the party , and they didn't want him to fall into that hole . if only they knew .

was pushed into the church's choir against his own will when he turned eight , weeks later he was not only praised by his voice , but he fell in love with music . he learned how to play the piano and guitar by himself , and he was later taught by his parent's friends on how to play the violin , the flute , the drums and even the saxophone . he is currently learning how to play the cello and the harp . he specializes on piano , guitar and drums only while the others are one of his multiple , but not so developed , skills .

wrote his very first song when he was eleven ( something that got him the first place at his school's talent show ) , since then he has been writing and creating his own music . he’s currently working on trying to produce something good enough to put out one day . his passion on music caused some tension between him and his parents because , although they didn't disown him or anything , they didn't approve of it---- mostly because they had plans of having him replace his father's position at their church . this caused mason to simply not talk about music with them . it was when he graduated high school when he decided to move out to new york to attend columbia as a mathematics major with a minor on creative writing . after graduation , he moved to novan at the age of 21 because he wanted a new change of scenery .

jason has his own youtube channel , filled with vlogs about literally everything: archives of his past gaming streams on twitch , guitar/piano/bass/song covers that have gone viral on twitter and instagram time to time so he has somewhat of a following fanbase .

tidbits .

despite that i know nothing about mason so im going full force on development with him LKSJKLSJSLKJSLKJS

a himbo . he’s a really nice guy ... kinda dense .. kinda slutty ....... but at the same time he’s v reserved and doesn’t speak until someone is speaking to him bc that’s juss how he was raised U know

he’s not as religious as his parents think he is . he doesn’t... really care but that’s the religion he was raised with so . but that won’t stop him from wearing this sexc necklace with a golden cross bc he thinks he looks hot with it Mwah .

mason has a good relationship with his parents actually !!!! something that is sexc despite of the lil music tension because not only he adores them and they adore him , but he’s lowkey living off their money but at the same time he has gotten a bunch of MONIESSSS because rich people keep giving him money so he can teach their kids to play ( insert musical instrument here ) hehe .

u kno on parasite how the kim family started to do the things the park family wanted or whatever..... kinda like that . sometimes uses his skill of being a quick learner to come up with something quick and make it believable and get the monies KJKLSJSJS

a piano , guitar and drums prodigy . sings like an angel and has the voice of my man’s baekhyun with some lil justin bieber undertones u kno.....  probably v popular at karaoke bars . and he’s a songwriter too and produces and mixes his own music and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

he wants to put out music sometime but for now....... he just makes random covers on his youtube channel , a channel that became popular bc oooooooooooooo cute boy who can sing and play the piano and is funny on his videogame streams . lets subscribe and tip him ten dollars so he can sing a song to me on his next stream <3 !

has gone viral time to time bc of his covers and bc hes really funny on twitter ngl . but if someone recognizes him he gets rather shy LSKJSLKSJKSLJ 

fucks around with alcohol and some drugs but it’s nothing too wild . he has been toying w these habits since high school and he still thanks god that they never found out about this ldjldkjdkldjd 

idk what else to say

he knows how to do card and skateboard tricks but please dont ask him to do wild things on the skateboard please he just can do the basics and doesn’t fancy the idea of getting his nose broken again LKJLSKJSLKSJLKSJ

a whole ass gamer when he’s not scratching his head trying to come up with the perfect sound for a new song . will ignore phone calls and messages until he’s done . he is also one of those bitches who will make u cum and then will get up to continue his game SLKJKLSJSKLJSKLSJ

he has a white cat and a cocker spaniel: phat and kiwi! aka the loves of his life 

a hopeless romantic who has like 289739873 failed relationships . he was a puppy heartbreaker when he was in college ngl

wanted connections.

best friend or someone he’s super close with ever since he moved in

unlikely friendship

partying buddies

PARTNERS IN CRIME

maybe he can be a cornerstone to someone just kno he’s not good with advice LKSJLKSJSLKJSKLSJ

maybe someone he teaches piano??? or maybe he taught them something else IDK

maybe a muse... someone who gives him so much inspo for his music/poems mmmmm this could be multiple because he finds inspo on everyone basically

exes ( good / bad terms ) kinda want three exes so he could say ONE TAUGHT ME LOVE , ONE TAUGHT ME PATIENCE AND ONE TAUGHT ME PAIN !!!!!

one sided crush ( them @ him or him @ them )

MUTUAL CRUSH ???????????????????

someone he spoils just bc ( this should be talked abt i guess )

frenemies

mutual annoyance

maybe someone who joins him on his vlogs u kno..... like when they r together his followers (or theirs if there’s someone out there who was a youtube channel too) are like o shit hell yeah

fwb(s) because he’s a slut  -________-

bad / good influences are also good

one night stands 

idk

fuck

pokemon go buddies 

neighbors? he lives in an apartment complex and his apartment is sexc ngl 

i like to brainstorm tho

please plot with me thanks

[meiizumi]

Castle of Shikigami: An informal rant nobody asked for about my most obscure obsession to date

STOP i spent like 2 days writing this post and im only posting it on tumblr because it’s the one website i’m a member of that can hold the most text. i wanted to infodump somewhere...... read this to learn something i guess (´･ω･`)

Bad voice acting is the Peak of comedy to me, and while I was looking for something to laugh at one day, I found this game called Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. The US version of the game's dialogue is rife with machine translated text that makes no sense, and awkward voice acting to boot. They even have voice actors saying the wrong lines, voice actors speaking implied commands, and a few voice lines are left in Japanese. Apparently, Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog's current voice actor) was in this game but I don't think he's even credited?! I think I know which character he voiced but I’m not exactly sure.

The history behind this game’s localization is REALLY weird. Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro was originally an arcade bullet hell shoot em up game. The series was created by Alfa System and it was one of Alfa System’s main IPs. There are three main shmup installments and a text adventure game for the PS2, Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku. Nanayozuki was practically fanservice for whatever number of CoS fans there were back then. Each main game in the series was originally an arcade cabinet, but they were all ported to PC and home consoles. In CoS 2′s case, it came out on the PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, but only the PS2 version got localized. The western publisher, XS Games specializes in publishing quality budget titles such as “Bass Pro Shops: The Strike” for the Wii. I theorize they didn’t care too much about the actual content of CoS 2 and were more focused on selling a game quickly for a low price, so they just machine translated it and adjusted a few things. If you’re wondering if Castle of Shikigami 1 was also translated this badly, the answer is No. XS Games instead removed all the dialogue from the western release of CoS 1, and released it with the title “Mobile Light Force 2″.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘Mobile Light Force TWO’ if Castle of Shikigami 1 is the first game in the series?” If you want to know what Mobile Light Force 1 was, it’s GUNBIRD; another shmup game, but by a completely different developer than Castle of Shikigami. I don’t know why they did that. What really kills me though is that both MLF 1 and 2 use the same boxart, which is COMPLETELY unrelated to the actual contents of either game. AFJQHJFOKLJFDS look at this

There’s more hilarity behind Mobile Light Force that isn’t hard to find so you can search that up if you’re interested. But thankfully, Castle of Shikigami 3's Wii edition got more of a proper localization by Aksys Games.

Now I would bluntly say something like “stan castle of shikigami” but:

1. This series’ lore is insanely convoluted. It’s an essential part of this expansive fictional universe referred to as “Mumei Sekaikan” (I don’t know what this translates to in English) where there’s like, 7 different parallel worlds. There’s more obscure ass games and manga that are tied to this universe, and I think there’s even a tabletop RPG made based off it. Have you heard of “Gunparade March”? Most likely you haven’t; it’s an obscure video game made by Alfa System that also got adapted into an anime, and I feel it can be described as Mechas x Persona. One of the characters in CoS 2 is just one of the GPM characters going undercover to find her senpai who traveled to the CoS world. Or something like that. The 7-world universe isn’t explicitly talked about in the game but they make so many references to it without defining anything that it’s like you Must know about it. There is NO documentation in English about the Mumei Sekaikan I could find on the internet, although there is a wiki in Japanese where I got a ton of knowledge from (GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS MY TRUSTED FRIEND) I feel like I might be THE person in the United States who has the most knowledge on the Mumei Sekaikan, and I could go on another tangent talking about what I know so far (and who this one specific dude Shibamura Yuuri is) but I won’t.

2. The writing isn’t excellent and can be pretty Unwoke ™; the first game came out in 2001 and the third game came out in 2005 if that gives you a sense on what era these writers were in. As far as the games dialogue goes, the characters appear kind of flat. CoS 1 and 2 Kotaro (i refuse to use the official “Kohtaro”) is stupid and driven by JUSTICE to a point where it’s annoying. I can’t tell if Hyuga is trying to be a Ladies Man in CoS 2 and 3. Kim, a religious tae kwon do instructor, spends CoS 2 thinking about how he should atone for his sins, then he turns himself into jail at the end. Sayo’s backstory is that she was a shrine maiden raised as a “human weapon” to have no emotions and her only goal in life was to kill god and then die, something like that. However, after CoS 1, she gets a crush on Kotaro because he actually treats her like a human and Of course that’s what you’d expect from the main teen girl and boy in the series. In CoS 3, Sayo's character is mostly played out to be a major tsundere for Kotaro even though surprisingly HIS character in this game changed a ton compared to 1 and 2 (he had to kill an illusion of his older brother, who he learned actually died earlier, and now he has to kill an illusion of his childhood sweetheart... damb that shit sucks :/). He’s still stupid though

There’s a gag in CoS 2 that I can’t clearly remember where it’s like, Niigi makes Sayo and Fumiko, who are both romantically interested in Kotaro, think that he’s only into little girls? Meanwhile, Fumiko’s magic goes wrong and her appearance turns to that of a child though in response she’s like “hee hee maybe Kotaro will like this”. basically more On-Brand early 2000′s anime unwokeness than average. Speaking of Fumiko, she’s a 400+ year old militaristic witch who constantly teases Kotaro (who’s like 16 or 17) and she wants to marry him for his magical potential since he’s like one of the candidates for becoming God??? From the official CoS 3 character descriptions, “Her hobby is to steal the men from other women. Her second hobby is trampling upon people.” She canonically stole her stepmother’s husband from her stepmother (the 3rd boss of CoS 3). I don’t get how that shit would have worked

3. The game itself is HARD af but to be fair I’m a scrub gamer. I can’t get past stage 3 on easy difficulty without continuing. Yes i bought CoS 1 on Steam, Yes it has a port on steam i feel like i should have mentioned this earlier

4. Besides CoS 1 having a port on Steam, CoS 2 and 3 might be hard to obtain legally. The poorly translated CoS 2 was apparently super cheap back then, but since it’s an old game, its value might’ve increased. When I tried looking up prices for English CoS 3, all the listings were like at least $40 and being broke I wouldn’t want to spend more than $29 for a Wii game in 2019... honestly I just emulated CoS 2. shout out to PCSX2

Last month I was desperate, bored enough, and deep enough in the Shikigami rabbit hole that I tried to find the manga based off of it online. The CoS manga only tells the events of the first two games so I still don’t really get anything about CoS 3, like who Mihee, Batu, and Emilio are supposed to be. However, the plot events also differ. For example, Roger Sasuke exists as a character in CoS 3 but in the manga he literally Dies. There’s 11 total volumes of this; 3 volumes dedicated to CoS 1 and the latter 8 (the “Twisted Castle arc”) dedicated to CoS 2. Only the very first 3 chapters were scanlated to English all the way in 2011. Fortunately, I did find the entire manga uploaded though............... in CHINESE. So you know what I did? I “read” the entire thing using my phone’s Google Translate OCR app to take pictures of each page and comprehend the translations. Of course I still don’t understand CRAP because of the Mumei Sekaikan jargon + machine translation but I understood enough to get emotionally attached to some of the characters. I wish I hadn’t. At least through the manga I learned that the characters DO have some depth and pre-established relationships. For instance, the reason why Roger Sasuke became a ninja is because when he first landed in Japan as a kid, he was getting bullied or something and he didn’t know Japanese then Kotaro saw this and told the bullies to stop. Then after Roy /sorry i mean Roger learned that he was set to home-stay with the Kugas in the first place, he decided to dedicate his life to Japan in order to protect Kotaro back. I think. DO U SEE HOW ABSURD THIS SHIT IS Anyway Nanayozuki takes place between the second and third games and sets things up for CoS 3. There’s a full playthrough of it uploaded to YouTube and I think it contains a lot of juicy lore, but it’s just too much to go over with Shitty Google Translate OCR. There’s also Shikigami no Shiro novels which apparently contain the most backstory, but I have a 0% chance of finding these online for free. Not to mention that these would ALSO be too much effort to Google Translate.

in conclusion: You don’t HAVE to play Castle of Shikigami. Like, I’m not gonna recommend it for the content, but if you love shmups and are looking for a shmup game you haven’t heard of then I will recommend it for the gameplay (old touhou mutuals assemble theres a POWER-UP-BY-GRAZE MECHANIC). I’ve counted like 4 total fans outside of Japan that like this series for the story, and I don’t think that number is going to increase because I doubt CoS 2 will ever get retranslated and ported. I just want you to know that this series exists and that there’s a ton of wacky shit behind it besides the bad Castle Shikigami 2 dub. also if someone knows enough japanese or chinese and has an INKLING of interest in this series umm talk to me and help me decipher stuff

I‘m kinda sad that the series is pretty much Dead though. This is the most recent piece of official Castle of Shikigami art I could find, and this was for the 2018 New Year. The next most recent piece of official CoS art I found was also drawn by the character designer Sonoda Miku all the way in January 2008, commemorating the end of the CoS manga serialization. Alfa System released a spiritual sequel to Castle of Shikigami on the Japanese Switch eShop called Sisters Royale, with character designs I think are still by Sonoda. By “spiritual sequel” I mean that it has some of the EXACT same shot types as CoS and the same mechanic where grazing bullets increases your power and score. This is the closest we’ll get to a Shikigami no Shiro 4. I wonder what the business decision behind that game was but it actually looks like fun and I want to play it so OK Go off i guess

[zonerz]

All of the questions for the shipping thing 😈

AAAAAAAAA Im gonna d i e I hope ur happy abt this long post u dork

Talk about the first ship you ever had.Dang dude,,,,,,, makin me think,,,,,, I suppose it was Jay and Nya from Ninjago?? I thought they were cute but wasnt like SUPER into it, the other one that I was into was me shipping an “OC” with Lloyd L m a oTalk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.Three most important? Uhhhh idk abt important exactly, like idk what the whole requirements for one being more important than another would be. Though, the main one that always makes me happy, no matter the circumstance, is McHanzo. Idk what it is about it but it always makes me smile and helped cheer me up plenty of times throughout the year hahaWhat’s your current OTP?McHanzo or Sonadow tbhWhat’s your current NOTP?shi//ma//da//cestDo you have any poly ships?Yes with some of my OCs!!How do you feel about love triangles?They CAN be done right but most of the time im just over here like, ‘UGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH No one c a r e s’How do you feel about RPF?Idk what that stands for 3Have you ever shipped yourself with a character?Not myself, but my OCs. Tho I suppose my first ever OC was very similar in looks so I suppose partiallyDo you have many ships that never got together at all?Lmao yeah man, most people seem to forget that McHanzo started out as a crack ship hahaDo you ship any characters that have never met?See the previous statementTalk about your favorite first kiss.Wonderbat in the Starcrossed episode. It was gr8 man. Kissing to blend in with the crowd.Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together?The Nya-Jay-Cole love triangle was forced and stupid. LETTHEMBEHAPPY–Has a ship ever broken your heart?HAVE YOU EVER READ UNDER THE WISTERIA TREE? IVE NEVER BEEN SO EMOTIONAL OVER A FIC. I SOBBED FOR A GOOD HOUR AFTERWARDS MANHow do you feel about will they/won’t they?I think it depends on the material, like Wonderbat in JL was a good one cause we still got content for it here and there but it was never ‘official’ but it wasnt relentlessly teased at teither, it wasnt a main focus nor dragged down the show. It was acceptable cuz they were also, yknow superheroes and Bruce isnt the type of character to just suddenly settle down

But otherwise I think it can get really annoying and unnecessary if done wrongHave you ever “shipped at first sight”?Yeah lolTalk about a ship you initially disliked.Im p sure I used to be p decently opposed to Sonadow at first, because at the time I was super into Sonamy (which I’ll talk abt laterrr) though I learned more of the reasoning behind it and was like ‘oh! This is p decent’ and since Ive re-entered the Snoc fandom, Ive sorta reanalyzed my ships and looked into what real chemistry co9uld be there and frankly I just think that Sonadow has a lot of working potential, it reminds me of how I felt about McHanzo at first; They have a lot of working potential and thats what I love building off of. They have the potential to work really well together because the balance each other’s personalities and senses out (Shads bringing a sense of realism and Sonic bringing a lightheartedness) and neither has to worry about the other getting into trouble/hurt/being used against them because they’re both extremely capable of handling themselves. The difference between them and a ship like Mchanzo though is that they’ve already previously worked together and interacted on multiple occasions.

Im sorry I just have a LOT to say abt the ships I love ha h a–Also Ive noticed I have a tendacy to like ships where the partners balance each other?? God im predictableTalk about a pairing you’ve stopped shipping romantically.Sonamy has sort’ve dropped off the radar for me (except in Boom and maybe in X) at least in a more serious regard. Idk how to quite get how I feel into words r i pTalk about a moment which made you question an entire ship.I was actually watching a DHT (I think thats his name idk im tired lol) Top ten abt his personal opinions on ships? Cuz I like hearing other people’s opinions and point of views!! And I mean idk his points with Sonamy were really true and while I still think Sonamy is really cute and has gotten a bit less violent in recent years, the negatives at this point are sortve outweighing the positives atm imo? So it was just kinda like ‘huh. Thats tru’Have you ever shipped something despite yourself?No..? Idk if Im exactly understanding the question but if its asking if I still shipped smth even if it was against my morals? Then a definite no, if its nasty, its nasty imoTalk about a ship you feel alone in shipping.Wonderbat fandom where r u??Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against?The only ones I can really think of are Shadilver and Sonouge?? :00 Im just curious as to like the origin or reasoning behind the ships! I love hearing people’s reasons beyond “They look nice together” yknow? HahaWhich of your ships have the best chemistry?WONDERBATWONDERBATWONDERBATWONDERBAT–Which of your ships deserve better writing?Sonamy,,,, Jaya,,, //criesDo you mostly ship canon pairings?It depends! But a lot of times I end up soHave you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar?I probably have LMAOHave you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to?yEAHI like the dark broody one and the lighthearted cheery one where theyre opposite but not so much that they never get along. I like ones where its like sun and moon, where they balance each other out and both bring something to the table. Where its mutual.Is there a ship you’ve shipped for most of your life?Idk man, I didnt really have ships before I was 10 so like–Does shipping come easily to you?Somewhat, I need some good and moral reasons to ship two ppl before I turn into shipping puddy–Do you need to ship something to really enjoy a movie/book/tv show/comic?No, but if there’s a rlly good ship that I enjoy in the content then it definitely boosts how much enjoyment I get out of it hahaName a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships.I can only rlly say that for rlly obscure fandoms, like Ranger’s Apprentice. There’s also the FNAF book-verseTalk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.For Sonic and Shads I read this one thing ages ago abt Sonic teaching Shadow all the meanings each flower type and color portrays so them giving each other meaningful bouquets n shit is RLLY CUTE AND I LOVE THAT KIND OF STUFF OKAY,,,,,,Share five must-read fics.UNDER THE WISTERIA TREE IS EQUAL TO FIVE MUST READS! gO READ IT! (BUT BE PREPARED FOR TEARS AND LOTS OF THEM)Name your favorite fanartist(s).uHHHH @ludwigplayingthetrombone (Their expression are so soft,,,, n sweet,,, its so fluffy n good,,,) Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP.I dont have a favorite so just go look up some Everytime we touch PMVRecommend 1-5 shipper blogs.¯\_(ツ)_/¯Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for you ships?I draw,,,, every once in a blue moon,,,,Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?Mutual pining and dorky fluffDo you like and use ship names?Yes!!!Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?Nah boi Im ace lolIf you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?More interactions,,,, pl z ,,,,(diduknow that the “Pretty handy with that bow!” vl came out on my birthday last year?? Best gift man, thanks Blizzard, love ya)

[two-in-one-skele]

Every Star Needs a Night

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We are now almost three weeks past the first day since G and Yumi have been basically roommates. Times are getting cooler and the streets are betting snowier as we approach Christmas. But, even with all this freezing cold weather, it was busy outside, filled with people either preparing to go on trips or shopping for presents for the holidays. 

Through this particularly snowy day, a man walked through the streets to do neither of these things. With his hair matching the times he heads in... wait, that’s Yumi’s house! Oh, no.

- “I’m hooooooooooome!” says the unknown stranger.

His yelling woke G up and he sat up to see who could that be. It definitely wasn’t Yumi, the voice was much more boyish and lower pitched, almost nasally. As he sat up, he was face to face to a human with white hair with black highlights, green eyes and a bit paler than Yumi. Actually, wasn’t that the exact description of her-

- “WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?” he yells very aggressively.

Meanwhile, Yumi was at her job in the StarDust Planetarium. She usually doesn’t work on the weekends, but someone took in sick. She was mildly annoyed by this, but since her friend was also working today and she only had to be in the ticket booth for a few hours it wasn’t too much of a hassle. Speaking of said friend, she poked Yumi’s shoulder out of nowhere to get her intention. Considering Yumi was lost in her thoughts it made her jolt.

“Reeen! Don’t scare me like that!” she scolds turning towards her friend. //”Ahahaha! Sorry, Yumi. Didn’t mean to scare ye. I got some new fer ye.” “...? What is it?” she tilted her head curiously.

Ren Deary was a mixed breed of a deer, bunny and cat boss monster. Her fur war beige, she had small horns on her head with bunny-like ears, most of her facial features and paws were closer to a cat, although her tail was like a deer’s. She wasn’t part of Yumi’s brother’s band, but her boyfriend and her friend, who shared a polyamorous relationship with her boyfriend, were members of it. Hence she sometimes worked as a sort of messenger between Yumi and her brother, Yoru. This was one of those cases.

//”It’s about yer brother and the others.” Ren says with a worrying smile. “Did something bad happen?” Yumi asks, worried. //”Well... kinda. They’re sorta in a pickle. The police almost caught them the other day...” she scratches her head. “What!? Was it because of--?” //“Aye... Nami’s parents.” she crosses her arms. “... Are they okay?” she asks, even more worried. //“Aye. They just need ta lay low fer a while. Soooo... they decided to come back in town! In fact, yer brother is here today! Ain’t that great?” she quickly changes to an excited smile. “Shit...” she mumbles //”Wha--?” “I-I gotta go! I-I’ll be back soon!” she says, panicked.

Yumi quickly runs outside and heads towards her house. If he arrives with G there he’ll-- oh god, it’ll be bad. The worrying thig is, she was not too far off what she thought would happen. They are already in a tense situation as we speak.

Yoru grabs a large knife in the kitchen as he thought G was a criminal who barged in Yumi’s house. He is ready to attack the “intruder” but still keeps his distance. G, on the other hand, was still sort of half asleep and trying to assess the situation. He thought for a second that it was a dream but... the human’s eyes was slowly turning redder. Dream or not he was in danger.

-”Did you do something to Yumi!? WHERE IS SHE?” Yoru yells aggressively. *Wait, what?? G replies, worried and confused. -”Oh, so you don’t know who’s house you just barged into!? Okay then... where the fuck is the woman who lives here? Tell me before I fucking make some more cracks in your skull!” he points the knife threateningly. *Jesus fucking Christ I-... she’s at work, dude! he says a little panicked. -”... Heh... Hehehehahaha. At work? ... you fucking liar.”

Before G could even respond, Yoru dashed towards him with the knife, attempting to attack him. With barely enough time for his reflexes, G barely manages to stop him from hitting anything too damaging by both turning Yoru’s soul blue and blocking the knife in between his hand hole. However, even with his pretty good reflexes, they manage to fall on the ground but, thankfully, in the same position.

-”So are you going to me the truth now...? Or are you going to continue lying!? I’ll ask you one last time... WHERE. IS. MY. SISTER? he demanded. *Fuck, man. I already fucking told you! he started to shout. -”You’re a liar... YOU’RE A LIAR AND YOU KNOW IT!

Yoru tries to push the knife further into his hand. G manages to stop him, even though it didn’t really budge much, it still hurt like shit. He grabbed Yoru’s wrist to stop him from moving too much, squeezing it as tightly as he could. Even with that, it did cut pretty deep, his hand was bleeding out DT a little. It was too painful for him to concentrate enough on his Blue Magic. Yoru’s eyes were glowing redder by the second, he needed to say something and quick before he loses control.

*Listen, guy, your sister got called in because someone announced sick at the last minute. She’s just replacing them, dammit! he said, starting to get a little pissed-off as well. -”SO WHAT? Why should I even BELIEVE you!?” *BECAUSE, you fucking idiot, I DON’T want to HURT you! I could’ve thrown you across the damn wall, but I DIDN’T! I’m not your fuckin’ enemy, as much as your name sounds really fucking stupid. he admitted, fairly aggressively.

“He’s not wrong...” Yoru thought. He knows very well the abilities of Blue Magic and their effects. He’s never seen them in person before, but he should have been easily beaten by this man who’s “aura” was much more powerful than him. Maybe even more than it’s user even knows. He lessened his strength on G’s hand hole, however, he just realized something. Did he just say his name was stupid?

-”Wait... e x u s e   m e ?” he asks passive-aggressively. *I’m sorry, but... your name is really dumb. It sounds like a cheesy superhero name a kid would create as a character. he said, flatly. -”W h a t ? What the fuck is wrong with the name ‘Yoru’!?” 

He was confused, but also kind of angry. I mean, who wouldn’t be? However, it seems this confusion is mutual. What?

*Wait what? Your name is ‘Yoru’? I thought it was-... -”What the fuck did you think it was!?” he asks angrily. *Uhh... Hyper... So-... Something...? I don’t remember it was so fuckin- -”HYPER SO-!? Pfff-heheeHAHAHEEHAHA H-HYPER FUCKING SONIC!?” he burst laughing. *Y-yes, thats what- -”HHHEHEEHEEHAHAHAHAHA!”

G was even more confused. Yoru, on the other hand, was laughing hysterically. He couldn’t believe his name was- what the fuck did his sister tell him!? It was so fucking funny though, it was like he completely forgotten about his previous anger and aggressively towards G in an instant. His laugh was much more tolerable, in a sense, than his sister’s though. It resembled more like an actual laugh or, in this case, a loud and quick giggle. Okay, yeah, he believed him now. Only his sister would’ve done a stupid reference like that.

He removed himself from G, sitting on the sofa and was about to ask him the question, but he was cut off by him, as he also wanted to ask seemingly even more important questions. He was more confused than Yoru.

*I mean... that’s what she told me. I probably should’ve known it was too stupid to be your actual name... Sorry about that. -”H-no, it’s okay. I guess you didn’t get her Sonic reference.” he giggled. *Yeah, well... what the fuck is a ‘Sonic’? he asked.

He wheezed and started laughing again. Holy fucking shit. He couldn’t breathe anymore he could barely even stand. G was even more confused. I mean, what did he say that was so funny? Well, unfortunately, he didn’t even understand the accidental “meme” he just referenced by pure coincidence. However, that’s what made it funnier to Yoru. 

However, G was weirdly glad that he was laughing, he can’t really help it, he loved seeing people genuinely laugh. Even if said person tried to kill him earlier with more or less of a good reason. Speaking of which, his hand suddenly started to burn again as it was bleeding a bit more from the cut Yoru made earlier.

-”Ah, shit I totally forgot. I’m really sorry about that!” said Yoru, nervously. *N-no it’s fine. I-I’ll live. G painfully replied. -”Give me your hand, I can heal you.” he insisted. *No, I- -”Give me your hand!”he shouted in a commanding tone.

G hesitated of obeying him. I mean, he didn’t exactly trust humans, it doesn’t help that this one in particular tried to kill him earlier. Besides, as much as he may be a wizard, compared to his sister, he’s probably not that good in magic either. He gave in, in the end and, to his surprise, it seemed like he probably judged this man too quickly. The large cut in his hand hole was slowly closing up as healing magic surrounded their hands.

-”Are you surprised? I’m much better in magic than my sister.” he giggles. *Y-yeah.. I could te- OW! -”Yeah, sorry, it might hurt sometimes. I mean, I did cut deep in your bones. It’s harder to heal.” he chuckles nervously. *Well, you could’ve told me that. he replies a bit passive-aggressively. -”Haha! My bad.” he laughs even more nervously. *...

This man was strange. Despite being seemingly as kind as his sister, G just couldn’t shake the feeling of being creeped out by him. He just couldn’t really put a finger on it. But maybe he might be a little bias, partially for a good reason. Either way, it didn’t take long before his hand was healed. It, unfortunately, left a scar, though, but he didn’t really mind it was barely visible and anyways he had worse scars, for one, the ones on his face.

-”Here you go! You’re all-”

There was a sudden thud, a multitude of them, they were quick and seemingly getting closer. Then the door was unlocking itself, nervously and violently opening. Yoru quickly held a grip on the knife he previously had, just in case. However, it was not needed as finally a familiar face had almost violently and quickly opened the door. It was Yumi, who had an extremely panicked and distressed look on her face.

“YORU, PLEASE DON’T KILL G!” she yelled. -”It’s too late, he’s already dead.” he giggles. *I-I’m right here! he says, immediately getting up from the floor. “Aaah, thank fucking God...!” she sighed, relieved.

It was a little worrisome that Yoru could just laugh off a joke like that, but what was even more worrisome is that it seemed like it was a recurring theme. What the hell did he get himself into? Suddenly he was mildly afraid about staying here. However, Yoru joyful expression quickly turned into nervousness.

-”Aaah... but... I did attack him, though. Sorry.” he scratches the back of his head. “Yoru!” she scolds him. -“Sorry! I just thought he was a burglar or something.” “A-are you hurt?” she asks, turning towards G. *I mean... I’m fine, now. “What did you do?” she turns back to her brother with a stern glare. -”I-I cut his hand hole a bit... b-but I healed it! Everything’s fine now, I swear!” he replies nervously.

She still glared at him a bit more, but let out a sigh of relief afterward. She was glad no one was hurt, really. She probably should’ve told her brother about him. I mean, its almost been a month, now.

“Um... I kinda need to tell you something.” she finally said. -”Oh! I need to tell you something too! But... you should probably go back to work, don’t you think?” he reminded. “OH SHIT!”

She just realized that she’s been away for a long time. Sure, it wasn’t that far but running there would take a good 10 minutes and, excluding the time she’s spent here, that’s 20 minutes wasted. She immediately ran out of the house cursing to herself. It was pretty funny for G and Yoru to see her as frantic.

-”Anyway, you name was G, right?” asks Yoru. *Yeah? -”What’s it stands for? ... George, maybe?”  *Heh, no. It’s not short for anythin’, it’s just... ‘G’. he chuckles. -”Oh! I thought it was a nickname or something... Well, ‘G’, how long has it been?” he asks, grinning. *3 weeks... I think? -”That long? I can’t believe she didn’t call to tell me you two were in a relationship all this time!” he pouts. *W-wait what? We’re not- we’ve MET 3 weeks ago!  -”Oooh! H-ho my god, I’m so sorry! I really thought you were- oh my god, this is awkward.” he laughs. *Geez... -”Okay, okay, so- how did you guys meet? And-... what are you doing at her place if you’ve basically just met? I mean, technically it’s been a while but... she usually doesn’t let people in her house this early! Uh-... no offence.” he explains, apologetically. *None taken... actually, it’s probably because we didn’t meet under “usual” circumstances. he admits. -”Oooo! So what happened?”

G sits down on the sofa next to him, basically preparing to explain everything. Yoru turned himself towards him, crossing his legs and laying his arm over the sofa’s back, laying his head on his hand. It was odd to see a human man act sort of “girl-ish”, not that it was a bad thing or anything, but G knows very well how humans treat this sort of thing, which he always thought was stupid, all monsters did. 

Anyways, G started to explain how he and Yumi met. He briefly mentioned how he was recently kicked out of his previous apartment before meeting her, Yoru didn’t exactly know where the story was going, but it was clear that he wasn’t exactly pleased. After G had mentioned that they were living together that’s when the protective brother side of Yoru came back out full force. His eyes were slowly turning reddish over his normal green, crossing his arms and legs, but trying his best t not get mad again. Despite seeing that the other was still trying his best to keep calm, G didn't know if it was safe to continue the story. Which is understandable, considering what happened previously. This man had a shorter fuse than he has.

*Uh... trust me, I’ve never done or thought of doing anythin’ inappropriate to your sister. I’m not that kinda guy. he tried to reassure Yoru. -”... Yeah, okay... I’ll believe you. I’m sorry it’s just that-... she’s all I have, y’know? You can’t really blame me for being really protective of her. Right...?” he tried his best to give a friendly smile. *No, I understand. Besides... I’m kinda a random stranger, after all. I mean... I guess we’re kinda friends but... y’know? Besides... this is only temporary. he smiled back a little awkwardly.

Yoru’s smile saddened a little, slightly twisting his lips sideways. Sure, he didn’t the idea but, G saying something like that was sad. It was almost like ending a friendship before it even started. He remembered that Yumi doesn’t really have many friends, maybe this could be a good opportunity. He shouldn’t be mad about this, anyway, she was an adult and she probably knows what she’s doing. Plus, G didn’t seem like a bad guy, they could be great friends, maybe even...

-”... Be good to my sister... alright?” he said softly yet almost like an order. *U-uh wha--? Oh. Y-yeah... sure. he replies, nervously and awkwardly.

G wasn’t sure where that came from or what he meant by that. It was kind of out of nowhere and caught him off guard, he didn’t want to assume anything so he tried not to think about it or question it. There was a short awkward silence until the doorbell suddenly rang again.

-”Oh! They’re here!” Yoru shouts, enthusiastically. *Who? he asks, confused. -”You know, my band!” he says heading towards the door. *Oh... wait, WHAT?

Suddenly, as Yoru opens the door, four different monsters come in the house. Oh, fuck, this is bad.

>WHAT UP, FUCKERS!< yells the short dark frog-like monster. ~Frederick, do not sshout like that. There are people downsstairs.~ says the gray taller female monster. -”Heeey guys! What took you so long?” [Sorry, we had a little problem. You know... humans and such.] signed the tallest lion-like male monster. °°... Hello.°° said quietly the shorter pale fish-like female monster. -”Come in! Come in!” he insisted cheerfully.

As they go further into the living room and spot G, they all simultaneously look confused. He nervously looks at all of them, he’s not exactly used to being overwhelmed with company, especially strangers. They all look at him in awe like he was some kind of creature in the zoo that was near extinction. It was strange, they were strange, everything about this was strange.

*U-uh... hey. -”Alright guys, stop staring so much, I think you’re intimidating him. You should probably introduce yourselves.” he chuckles. >I’ll start first! I’m Frederick, but y’can call me Fred, Freddy, Rick, Ricky or ANYTHIN’ YOU WANT, really! Oh! And I’m the drummer!< says the frog monster, ecstatic.  °°... I am... Nami, the guitarist.°° says the pale fish monster, shy and reserved with a quiet voice. ~My name is Ssyl Monobuss. I am Frederick’ss adoptive mother and Nami’ss Aunt, as well as the keyboardist of this band.~ said the taller gray female monster with a kind smile, revealing her sharp teeth. [And I am Roland Barry. Syl’s boyfriend and the bassist of this group. Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to ask if he understood me.] signed the tall lion-like monster, completely indifferent. *Oh, no, that’s fine, I can read ASL. And uh... well... it's nice to meet you all. I’m G. he presented himself a bit awkwardly. >Oh shiet, just one letter? That’s so fuckin’ cool! Or... y’have a really bad name and y’don’t wanna tell us!< she giggles mischievously. ~Frederick...~ *No, no it's okay. I actually, uh... well... it’s complicated but, I basically chose the name myself. he admitted. >Ooooh! Nice choice, m’dude!< she snickers. *Thanks...? °°... Where’s Yumi...?°° asks Nami, a little sad. -”Oh, she’s working... you know, filling someone in.” Yoru explains. ~Sshe won't come back too late will sshe?~ asks Syl, a little worried. *Oh. No. I think she might be back soon actually. [Good, we wont have to wait for too-] >Hey, G-man! Mind if I ask ya a question?< suddenly asks Frederick, cutting Roland. *U-uh, no...? What is it? -”Hey, Freddy, just don’t ask any-” >Did you and Yumi fuck...? she whispers. -”... weird questions...” ~FREDERICK. AMPH.~ yells Syl. °°... g-gross...°° says Nami, extremely embarrassed. [*Internal screaming*] signs Roland, despite his deadpan expression. >Come on! I was just joking!< she laughs hysterically.

Holy fucking shit, this was probably the weirdest and most embarrassing experience G has ever been through. He tried his best not to die on the inside, flushing uncontrollably and hiding his face with his hands that are extremely horrible at hiding your face behind, considering the giant hole in his palms. He groaned out of embarrassment, screaming internally. 

Everyone was going nuts, arguing with each other, but mostly with the notorious Frederick, who was still very proud of her act, leaving the poor increasingly blue skeleton to his internal demise. After a few moments, the door suddenly opened. It was Yumi. 

“Hey, who left the-? U-uuuumm...”

She cuts herself from her attempt to scold Yoru for leaving the door open, noticing the rest of the gang suddenly stopped yelling with G in the middle completely blue. Seeing him like that made her a little embarrassed too, despite not knowing why. What the fuck happened?

°°Yumi...!°° Nami ran towards her, hugging her. “O-oh, um, hey Nami. A-anyway, w-what did you guys do to him??” -”W-we didn’t do anything!” reassured Yoru a little panicked. °°Freddy was being gross...°° “W-what!? F-Frederick, w-what did you do!?” she asks, nervously. >Heeey, come on! I said I was joking!< [You don’t want to know.] signed Roland. ”W-well, whatever it is, w-we’re just friends.”  ~You sshould apologize, Frederick. It wass unbelievably rude.~ scolded Syl. >Okaaay... Sorry dude, I probably should've not gone that far. *I-it’s fine... I-I guess? I-I’ll get over it. he shyly reassured.

There was a short awkward silence before Yumi suddenly remembered to ask something. 

“A-anyway, why are you guys all here? Does it have something to do with the thing you wanted to tell me earlier?” she asks, still a little embarrassed. -”Yes, actually!” responded Yoru, enthusiastically. ~Gyftmass is coming in a few dayss, we wanted to go on a trip all of uss together.~ continued Syl. “Really!? Where?”

There was a short moment of silence, everyone seemed happy that she asked this question. It made her even more curious.

“Where???” >We’re goin’ to MOUNT EVERGREEN!< shouted Frederick, energetically. ~Not sso loud, Frederick!~ scolded Syl. [We rented a chalet for us to stay in, it is quite fancy.] signed Roland. “Seriously!? Where did you get all of that money!?” asks Yumi, a bit worried. -”It’s fine, Yumi! I’ve been saving up ever since you told me about it. When I told them, they started saving too! So you don’t need to worry about the cash. Consider it your Christmas Gift from all of us!” Yoru smiled warmly. “Are you sure...?” she asked again, starting to get a little emotional. >Sure we’re sure!< affirmed Frederick, cheerfully. -”We already paid for everything so, you better not abandon us! Besides, I know how much you wanted to go!” he says teased her. “I-I know... it’s just that... I-I’m really thankful a-and happy but... I-I’m sorry.” she started to tear up, sniffling and covering her mouth. ~Oh, Yumi... don’t cry.~

Seeing Yumi starting to cry, they all went to give her a group hug. Well, except for G, who was awkwardly sitting on the sofa, silent the entire time as they were talking about the trip. That’s all he could do really. However, despite not wanting to say anything, he did feel a little lonely as well, as if he was out of place. What the fuck was he doing here?

“Oh, but... w-what about G? I’m not sure if I should leave him here.” she asks, worried. *Uh, no it’s fine. I can stay here, I- -”Of course he can come!” confirms Yoru. ~Ren will not be able to come... she has a trip with her family. Sso we have one sspace free for your friend.~ Syl smiles warmly. *No really, I’ll be fine on my own. he rejects. >Come on! Don’t be a party pooper, G-man, it’ll be fun!< insists Frederick. °°I... agree with Freddy.°° Nami nods. *I-I dunno... I have to tell my boss and- [We could take care of that, if you’d like.] -”Maybe I could help better since I’m a human and all. I know my kind can be rough on monsters.” he smiles wryly *I... “I don’t want to force you. If you can’t go or... if you don’t want to, that’s fine. I just... I mean... n-nevermind.” 

She looked down, a little flustered, tugging on her armless sleeve. They all look at her or a moment, as she doesn’t say anything more than that, but they all understood what she wanted to say. She wanted him to go, it was written all over her face. They all looked back at G, except for Yumi, waiting for his response. Maybe he could’ve said “no” before, but now...

*I... I-I’ll see what I can do. he finally said, nervously. >HELL YEAH!< yelled Frederick, ecstatic. ~If you have any trouble, pleasse do not be afraid to talk to uss.~ [Yoru might be able to find a way to convince your boss, worse comes to worse.] explains Roland. -”Yep, I can always kick his ass, worse comes to worse!” he laughs jokingly. *U-uh, please don’t do that. “U-um... I hope you don’t feel like I forced you to come. I just...” *N-no, its fine. And...thank you to all of you. You’re very kind to just a random stranger. -”Come on, don’t say that. All friends of Yumi’s are friends of ours!”

They all nodded.

*... You’re really all too nice to me.

Despite being a strange bunch, he really was grateful for how nice they were, just like Yumi. He wasn’t sure if he deserved all of this but... this could be fun, right? One day he’ll repay them, for sure.

[lvlsrvryhigh]

LVLSRVRYHI-044: Spurz

Hey man, how it's going? I usually start off with introductions, so, for anyone who doesn't know, who are you and where are you from? I'm Spurz, a producer/DJ originally from a small town in Canada, now based in London because I felt like my life needed a shake up and I wanted to chase some things I love. Aside from my own music, I also run a label called Drama Hands with one of my best friends, Jesse.

Now that you're in London you're ostensibly within spitting distance of places where a lot of your musical touchstones (grime, dubstep, jungle, garage) were born and developed - Was that a part of the decision behind the move? Did you come with specific expectations? Yeah, honestly that was kinda the biggest reason for the move. I was growing very disheartened by an increasingly bleak music/club scene in Vancouver where I've been for the past few years, but I'm a firm believer in the idea that if you don't like your situation or surroundings, you change them. More than that, I really wanted to experience firsthand not only the birthplace of all these sounds and scenes I cherish, but to better understand the societal factors that influenced their conception. I didn't move over with any concrete expectations besides the rent being pretty astronomical, but having a really solid network of London-based friends that I speak to on a regular basis helped give me an idea of what life was going to look like.

I mentioned the UK dance spectrum already, but something I've noticed just from hanging around you a lot lately is the breadth and depth of your listening habits; from Carly Rae Jepson to Lorenzo Senni to house and techno tracks I'm not even going to pretend to know. What were some of your first beginnings with music, electronic or otherwise? Is there anything you've revisited recently that's left an impact? I owe a lot of those eclectic tastes to my parents. My dad holds Delta blues musicians in the same light that people worship saints, while my mum worked the pop spectrum from the ‘50s onwards. Mum accidentally turned me on to electronic music, actually. She used to instruct aerobics classes and was always on the hunt for music with a solid beat, which at that time (mid 90's) meant a lot of "dance music" (the catch-all term at the time). The fact that she openly hated it all, referring to it as "circle music", made it extra appealing to me in the same way some kids gravitate to punk or metal. There was an underground rave DJ in Toronto, Chris Sheppard, who used to put out these Pirate Mix cassettes that I used to horde as soon as she bought them, that was really the entry point for me. While they had some questionable Eurodance content, they also had a lot of house and rave classics that served as a great gateway.

As for retrospection, I've been diving back into the LOL Boys catalogue. A lot of their productions were transformative for me, and there was something innocent and explorative about that time in electronic music, at least for me, and I miss it sometimes. Their Fader mix is one of the only mixes I ever revisit with any frequency.

Once I hear it I'm sure I'll start to pick out elements of that erratic taste of yours on your album - Loud Futures (which just dropped on Apothecary Compositions) - but if you had to give a sort of elevator pitch for the record what would be the main points to mention? It's mainly a study in contrasts, whether it be weight, textures, tones, etc. I suppose it's meant to be a more cohesive narrative, repurposing fragments of my influences while aiming for something that sits slightly out of any one pocket.

What brought you to release on Apothecary? Why the effort to put something physical out as well? Joseph (Druid Cloak) has been a friend and huge inspiration to me for years, not only as a producer but as an example of an artist who isn't afraid to put his vision and values above everything else. He was an early supporter of my music and it had always been a goal to work with him in some capacity. In a night of mutually drunken text messaging, we started bouncing around the idea of doing a full LP.

The physical element stems entirely from my younger days. I fully endorse digital consumption of music, but part of me will never be able to fully divorce from the feeling of owning a physical recording as an immersive experience. For this release, it was a great opportunity to add some extra layers to the record, and having my dear friend Markus Garcia (former LOL Boy, now Heartbeat(s)) supply his art on the project makes it really personal for me.

Drama Hands, the label and club night you co-run with your house/soulmate Jesse Rhodes, moved its operation to London the same time the two of you did. How do you see this change of base affecting something that started out as a specific response to the absence of a local scene or platform? Where do you plan to take the label now that you're here? You're right, it is a bit of a 180. Drama Hands was born out of a complete lack of spaces for local artists we loved that needed a platform. Even though we've moved to a place with one of the biggest possible platforms (albeit with ever-dwindling spaces), I think our goal is still very much the same. I feel that with the brighter spotlight London offers to some, it means others get left in even darker shadows, so we'd like to continue to help amplify the voice of artists we believe in. Our club nights will be up and running in London soon, and I'm excited about some of the upcoming projects we've got in the wings as well.

With both Drama Hands and Loud Futures in mind, I wanted to ask about what kind of influences you might have outside of music, and also how you adapt or recast those within your productions? A lot of my influences are actually spaces and moments, I write a lot of music to be a score to small, passing everyday scenes or structures. I'm inspired heavily by design, architecture and fashion, so in a way, my music is a way to build and sew in a sonic medium.  

Where and how did you record the mix? Did you set out with any particular idea when picking out the tracks? The mix was recorded in my flat, on Ableton, which I tend to shy away from usually, but for mixes such as this one, I view them as a statement or composition, so I can add extra elements and utilize the elasticity that Ableton provides. Track selection was basically like any of my DJ sets, random grab bag of tracks I've been enjoying lately with a few older tracks peppered in. For me, nostalgia is an extremely powerful emotion when I'm on the dance floor so I usually try to work something timeless into my sets.

What else do you have planned for 2017? A bit later in the year, I'll be releasing a mixtape/cassette of productions titled 'Vexed 2 Rest On U'. I'm hoping to follow that up with a small collection of my writings accompanied by a sibling collection of more ambient works. A few other EPs/projects in the works for Drama Hands and some other labels too.

And finally, if you had to pick something for people to listen to immediately after this mix what would it be? If you enjoyed the Jungle / DnB direction the mix was headed in, I'd highly recommend revisiting some of the earlier Moving Shadow catalogue. 

If you'd like to cool off, Steven Hauschildt's newest one 'Strands' is fantastic, as is Emika's new 'Melanfonie' project.