#multiple outfits for every single show. every SONG

[acebytaemin]

grace jones was MAGICAL

[springgirlshowers]

How about the reader and Joost are childhood friends that get split up, but reunite because Joost wants them to be apart of his eurovison team. They realize they miss eachother a lot and confess and happily ever after (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃

It’s So Sweet

Paring: Joost x GN!Reader (no pronouns used!)

CW: none!

A/N: ahhhhhh this one is so cuuuuuute! i love the childhood friends to lovers trope so much! thank you for the request and i hope you enjoy it <333

masterlist!

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Joost and you were never seen apart as kids. Always walking in the school hallways together, sitting and partnering up in the classes you had together. Constantly hanging out after school and on the weekends. You two were basically connected at the hip.

Until your family gave you the news you would be moving to Sweden. Something to do with a better job opportunity. You begged for them not to, to move somewhere where you currently were at least. Though you knew your pleas wouldn’t do much.

Before you left, Joost and you exchanged emails. To keep in touch while you two would be apart.

You did for awhile. But as you both got older, your emails to each other took longer. It would be weeks, months, before you replied to each other.

Until they just stopped completely. You two had gotten too caught up into your adulthood. You hadn’t returned to your hometown since you moved away.

Joost fell into a successful career as a musician. You getting yours as a dancer.

It’s been years since you and him talked.

Your heart nearly stopped once you saw the notification when you were on the bus after a rehearsal.

joostklein has requested to follow you.

His profile picture was a picture of him as a toddler. The one you’ve seen so many times before, hanging on the wall in his living room when you went over to hangout after school.

You looked through his account, he almost looked the exact same as he did when he was a preteen. Only his body was scattered in tattoos, he had grown a mustache, much taller, and his hair was dyed into a nearly white color and cut into a mullet.

His most recent posts were a reel revealing how he’d be representing the Netherlands in the next Eurovision competition, and another video revealing the date his song for the event would be released.

Minutes after you accepted the request and followed him back, he messaged you.

It was a simple question, asking if you were the same one he knew as a kid. You responded, telling him you were.

The texts following after that were a little bit awkward. Soon the tension between you both was gone, you told each about what you’ve been doing for the past years, how they’d gone, what you’ve been doing now.

After exchanging phone numbers, the texts turned into calls, then video chats.

You listened to his songs, almost going through every single one of his albums in one night.

You were surprised by a lot of the lyrics, by how the innocent boy with a side swept haircut you once knew, was now singing about having sex with women to a mario kart remixed beat and saying “suck my dick bitch” multiple times in another song.

You honestly found them catchy, however you realized they were better to listen to with earbuds in or alone, rather than in any public place.

However, the lyrics in other songs were more heart breaking. God, soul shattering even.

“Maybe it was wrong. But I miss us, I miss home.”

“My dad who was laying there, seen but no authority. We'll see by the days, we don't say goodbye. My mom who was laying there, I often think about that day.”

“Hey, I have a disease, it's a very specific one. I always panic and they have no therapies.”

“But still it hurts. Am running from myself. Cry the entire day for "help"

Joost would show you his tattoos, the ones he already had and the ones he wanted to get in the future, drawings he made, but he refused to show you the idea concepts for his Eurovision costume.

He told you he wanted it to be a surprise.

The day before he revealed his outfit to the rest of the world. He called you during a work break, telling you he had to show you something.

You opened the video call to see him standing there in a big bright blue suit with extremely pointy shoulders.

You felt bad when you let out a laugh, slapping your hand over your mouth to muffle it.

“You like it?” He asked, posing goofily.

“Yeah. It’s very…silly. Very big.” His grin only grew larger at your words.

“Perfect. That’s exactly what I was aiming for.” He smiled and sat down.

“So, your other friends, one of them is gonna dress up as a bird? And the other is gonna wear a clip on ponytail?”

“Yep!” He pipped. You just laughed and shook your head. He cleared his throat, his face on the screen looking nervous all of the sudden.

“So, you told me you still dance.”

“Yeah! I do group shows and stuff.” You nodded, placing your head on your fist.

“That’s great, very great. Um, do you still hakken?” You were a bit taken aback, confused by why he was asking about that specific dance.

“Uh yeah. But usually jokingly, like when I’m with friends.” You bit at your thumbnail. “Did you ever learn?”

“Yeah! I’ve gotten pretty good at it.” He chuckled, going silent for a minute after. “I’m wondering if you would perform with me, like on the stage. I need another back up dancer. And you’ve always been so talented at it.” His words made you blush, but you were still a bit unsure on what he was asking you.

“So, um, you want me to do the hakken dance with you? At your performance?” You felt nervous, when you did the dance you usually did it after a night of drinking to make your friends laugh.

“Only if you want to! I mean, we could meet up, I’m in Sweden now.”

“What?” You shouted, cringing at how loud it was.

“Yeah, i’ve been here to do interviews and all that stuff.” He scratched at his arms, a bit embarrassed he didn’t tell you earlier about this.

“You really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” He spoke, “Its free of charge for you, you’ll get paid for it. If that persuades you.” He added on, joking.

“I’ll do it for free.” Maybe your answer was a bit too quick, maybe it was impulsive. But you really wanted to see Joost again, you’d jump at any chance you could see him.

The both of you agreed to meet up a few days later at a park not far from where you lived.

The park was quite empty, most likely due to the fact the sun was already going down, an orange gradient filling the sky.

You nervously walked up to him, he was sitting on a bench. He looked so familiar yet so different. It gave you a strange sense of nostalgia.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” He immediately grinned as he saw you. You sat down next to him.

The sunset cast a golden glow on his face, making his blue eyes so much more prominent, his face was so gorgeous.

“So you’ll really dance with me?”

“Yeah, why not.” You shrugged, completely unbothered by his question.

“You’ll be on a giant stage in front of thousands of people. You’ll be on TV with the entirety of Europe watching.” Joost felt nervous, he didn’t want to pressure you into doing this, he really wanted you to be there with himz But he wasn’t gonna force you into something you had no interest for.

“I’ve never been one for stage fright.” You smiled, the sweetness in your expression made his worries begin to drift away.

“Perfect.” He looked down at his feet, smiling so hard his cheeks begin to hurt, “I’ll text you the schedules and everything you need to know.”

“Cool.” You looked down at your shoes as well. Enjoying the comfortable silence and soft breeze of the air.

“I really missed you.” He spoke out, added your name to the sentence, making it more impacting. You looked at him, jaw ajar in admiration.

“I missed you too.” You said softly, placing your hand over his. Soon wrapping it around his. You both sat there for a few minutes like that.

“I’ve been thinking of moving back.” You broke the silence. “To the Netherlands, that is.”

“Really?” Joost looked at you, a mixture of amazement and shock in his face.

“Yeah. A company reached out to me, giving me a job opportunity. Really good pay, positive reviews, a safe workplace.” It felt funny, you were thinking about coming back to your hometown for the same reason your family made you leave.

“That’s great! You should take it!”

“I probably will. It seems promising.” You squeezed his hand. “And it’d be nice to be close to you again.” You added on, pursing your lips to try and hold back a smile, it failed.

“Yeah, yeah, that would be nice.” He murmured,“Um, I should get going, early TV interviews tomorrow.”

You nodded, getting up before he did.

“Just text me what channel you’ll be on, i’ll make sure to watch for you.” You said, a little bit too excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, I will! I’ll see you later.” He chuckled.

“I’ll be in the Netherlands in a month most likely, just so you know. See you, Joost.” You turned, only getting a few steps in before his voice stopped you, causing you look back at him.

“There’s this really great ice cream parlor that opened up there, maybe we could, uh, go there when you’re back, if you’d like?” He cleared his throat.

“I’ll be going back in a month too, just for a little bit before I have to come here again.” He fiddled with his fingers.

“Awesome then, it’s a date.”

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

[jyoongim]

Okay before I put in my request lemme just get this off my chest. I love anything you do with Al (my man my man my man)!!! Like you eat every single time and if anyone says others wise they’re hating idc. Don’t ever don’t your craft I’m so serious! Much love🫶🏾

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Now for my request could you do something with Alastor adjusting to his gf who’s from more modern times? I’d like to see that scary scrawny old man with a thick young lit bich. Both of them getting used to each others likes, habits, interests (he reads the paper while she scrolls on her phone, he hums old songs from his time when he’s getting ready for the day while she has or rnb playing on a speaker while she does her makeup, etc). Idk I like seeing opposites come together☺️

my man my man my man my man is right baby! Awwwwww thank you so much. Words cannot describe how this made me feel (giggling and blushing reading this) I LOVE YOU ❤️💕😘

Alastor didn’t know what attracted him to you. The two of you were complete opposites. From completely different eras.

Your attitude, style, language, hobbies all of it was so different from his time.

But he adored you nonetheless.

You used to think he was so old-fashioned. Not liking modern tech, reading the paper, cooking home cooked meals instead of takeout. Often confused when he spoke in riddles than actually being direct.

But the two of you made a cute pair.

For instance:

You were sitting at your vanity, makeup sprawled everywhere as your hiphop playlist played. You were recording a video or ‘going live’ as you put it. Alastor found himself liking the music you played as he got ready.

”who’s the old man?” He heard you say, a laugh bubbling from you as you broke out in giggles. He turned his head to see you give a sly smile in his direction before turning back to your camera.

”oh that fossil?” you chirped, giggling at the comments flooding your feed.

Another comment must have caught your attention because you snorted.

Alastor never understood your need to be on social media. To entertain others that weren’t him, but he let you be.

He was curious. What had you giggling so much?

You smiled as he appeared behind you, large lanky frame entering the camera frame. He wasn’t glitching.

”Dearest what’s got you so ticketed?”he asked, peering over your shoulder to look at the little words appear on your screen.

’why is an old man in the room with you?’

’HE BAGGED A BADDIE LIKE YOU? NO WAY!’

’definitely a sugar daddy’

’why you with that old man?’

He tilted his head, where they referring to him? His lip curled as he read the comments, looking at you for some context.

You giggled,wrapping an arm around his neck to rub his cheek against yours lovingly.

”yes yes this is MY man. Alastor tell everyone ‘hello’ ” he growled instead,giving your glossy lips a peck before walking back to finish getting ready.

You giggled, continuing to put your makeup on as you sang along to your music, eyes reading the comments on Alastor.

”I put this WAP on him y’all hahaha but no You know i looooove the way he treats me. Absolute princess treatment” you laughed. Alastor adjusted his bow tie on final time before turning his attention back to you

You had finished your makeup, standing up you showed your outfit of the day and made silly faces.

You leaned over your chair to read a comment

”He must be dicking you down real goodt” you read out loud and before you could respond your phone glitched out, ending your live.

You pouted, turning to Alastor “Al!”

He wrapped his lanky arms around your plush form, “such lewd comments” he said admiring your makeup.

Sometimes you catch yourself humming the songs he played as he cooked. You were NOT a cooker, so watching Alastor helped you figure out what went with what for when you actually attempted to cook.

”baby what’s that?” You asked as he pulled out multiple seasonings. He explained each seasoning, what the flavor did in different recipes and how to properly blend them so they weren’t so hard but a subtle taste. 

You weren’t too keen on his cannibalistic ways, but you loved to watch his process.

Angel and Husk often made snide comments about how you must be rubbing off on the old demon. 

“He did not use that slang right toots, what are you teaching him?”

You would shrug it off, thinking it was cute Alastor was picking up on your modern language.

Most days when the hotel wasn’t on fire, you and Alastor sat in bliss; him reading the newspaper as you asked him his opinion on random posts you saw as you scrolled on your phone.

Alastor loved to take you to lounges, not disgusting clubs you were so privy to. He thought you need to be exposed to ‘real music and dancing’. He would drag you to the dancefloor, pulling you in for a waltz or whatever old timey dance from his time.

While he didn’t mind the lustful sensation of your body rolling against his, he loved watching you trying to learn steps to old dances.

The way you flushed with embarrassment as you stepped on his toes as you tried to follow always made him laugh.

Alastor was not a fan of your attitude. You were sassy and always spoke your mind, not caring that he often spoke empty threats at you. You never cowered at him and always had to get the last word in. It really ticked him off, but it also made his chest swirl with lust when you never backed down from him.

Your arguments often led to the two of you fucking it out.

Him degrading you as you hiss insults at him, but purring as he pounded your pussy into the mattress.

The two of you were like puzzle pieces. You fit together perfectly, even if the picture looked odd.

The two of you wouldn’t have it any other way

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Round 4 Match 9

propaganda below the cut! (enormous wall of text warning)

Trent Reznor:

"he is everything. he is all that exists around us. he is the air which we breathe. he performed covered in mud at woodstock 94 and somehow made it work. he's largely responsible for arguably the most influential concept album of the 90s. he is beautiful and sweet and stunning. i want to study him under a microscope. i know closer is about sex as a self-destructive behavior but also have you seen how insanely gorgeous he looks in the music video? in the words of my friend, "he sings like he's in heat". he literally humps and destroys synths (in a variety of ways, including stripping the keys off with his boot) during performances. every single outfit he wears is extremely cunty. on multiple occasions guys have said that even though they're straight they would fuck him. finally, in the words of jude doyle: "to this day, looking at a photograph of trent reznor in the early '90s feels like looking into the sun""

"The live March Of The Pigs (1994) video makes me froth at the mouth I start biting and snapping my teeth and growling. I need to rewatch it five times a week at LEAST to stay sane. Trent Reznor is like if a trophy wife was a man. Also the way he WHISPERS INTO THE MIC AT THE END OF SUCK?????HHFSJBDNDNS???? THE ENTIRETY OF THE BROKEN EP????????? Cleanup on aisle my fucking pants. Is this too insane? Sorry"

"I’m a lesbian but that does not fucking mean anything when confronted with trent reznor"

"It's Trent, man. Even the literal devil wants him. He's just boypretty."

"This man deadass wrote a song with the lyric “My moral standing is lying down" in it"

Jonny Greenwood:

"Every art girl's (and boy's) wet dream"

"He wrote the tourist. That's all you need."

"Repeat from my Thom propaganda but he was a part of it so anyways. I had a dream once where I met him and Thom on the street and asked them to sign my Pablo Honey CD, so Thom pushed me into open traffic and I got hit by a car and died and Jonny laughed his ass off. 10/10, my last sight before death was his beautiful face laughing."

"I could probably snap him like a twig but I want to marry him and have 3 children with him before I do that"

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose 1/5 of Radiohead. Choose 1/5 of In Rainbows. Choose the man who wrote weird fishes, both Greenwood sisters ,the man in South Park, his telecaster and the stickers on it. Choose the bug Jacqueline Kennedy, his love for literature and poetry, and his lovely lisp. Choose his sublime score for Phantom Thread and his husband Paul Thomas Anderson. Choose the weird amount of straight men who thirst over him in the YouTube comment section. Choose his jawbone. Choose the most pretentious, unpretentious member of the band. Choose his silky hair and his (probably) Dove shampoo. Choose his great knowledge of music theory and how he often disregards it. Choose Astroboy's biggest fanboy (minus maybe Thom. Choose a very hot Alex James who eloped with a fish. Choose Jonny Greenwood. Choose your future. Choose life… Involuntary Trainspotting reference but please vote Jonny over Wario. Oh, and( even though Jonny lives in Italy at the moment), I live in Oxford and if I meet him, I'll tell him that he won."

"He keeps chickens guys, CHICKENS"

"I'm a straight guy but no joke Jonny is hot tbh maybe it's cuz he looks like a chick but like damnnnn"

"He's so gorgeous....kinda like an ant 😍😍😍😍"

Mike Patton:

"Mike didn't consistently wear BDSM masks matched with boiler suits and lick Trevor Dunn on stage just to lose this bracket. Also, if you don't think he's hot in every which way, you clearly haven't seen this: https://youtu.be/gjEbHBafvm0 or this: https://youtu.be/i9_hCjcFNO0 or this: https://youtu.be/Kfq7wHJu21c"

"Mike Patton collaborated with basically everyone who's anyone in music, and he speaks Italian too. He's great in a live show. And Mr. Bungle is unmatched and unparalleled, full stop."

"HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA FUNNY WHITE MAN SCREAMS IN MY EAR AND BUSTS IT DOWN SEXUAL STYLE"

"I'm a lesbian but I find him insanely attractive which I think says a lot"

"whenever mike arches his back and screams a part of my soul leaves my body and is shattered by the soundwaves."

"all you need to do to love mike is watch this: https://youtu.be/0gq_Jn41iMM&t=1375 the fact that he blurts that out and then super casually goes into the song leaves me crying with rage and hormones every time I see it"

[anxiety-pickle]

Jade and Aventurine analysis pt 2

bc I have chronic can't shut the fuck up disease

I’ve been seeing a lot of rhetoric floating around that we can’t judge (or even get a good idea of) Jade’s character because she hasn’t had her character’s release yet, which I want to address, and I’m going to do so by comparing Aventurine’s 2.0 appearance and Jade’s 2.1 appearance and related context, and why I don’t think it’s going to be a ‘switch up’ situation

This might also count as a Jade + Aventurine design analysis / theory?? I’ll leave that up to the jury

For some context, I started hsr because of Aventurine in 2.0. I started maybe a week or so before 2.1 came out specifically because I was so interested in his character, and by that point I had already made my determination about his character. And let me tell you I clocked him right off the bat. Not a single part of 2.1 was actually surprising to me (as terribly awful as much of his backstory is) and here’s why:

Aventurine’s first official appearance was his debut in “White Night” which turned out to be a direct parallel to his character arc as well as 2.1’s story, with lyrics such as “you’re hosting / a magic show I cannot escape / there’s nothin’ else left for me to do / goin’ to the other side”. This directly references both Sunday’s use of Order on him as well as him traveling through the Nihility to find Dreamflux reef

More importantly for his character however are the following lyrics “There’s no one else left for me to lose / goin’ to the other side, other side / I don’t want to be alone tonight / I’ll bring to you my best disguise / ‘cause you don’t need, don’t need to know the truth”

It tells us BLATANTLY what Aventurine’s character is - we know everything about him right from the beginning, even if it wasn’t clear that the song was about him

Now let’s move onto his design: This is an even more meta discussion of his character, but Aventurine’s design does a great job of telling us everything we need to know about him. 

Let’s start with the general card motif. The first thing I noticed was the recurring Spade design which is all over his outfit (and later turned out to be the suit that he applies to himself with his shield). In the Tarot deck, Spades are associated with intellect, action, air, and death, so already we have some morbid connotations with his imagery

Next is his general outfit: it’s very extravagant and superfluous; there’s obviously an element of seduction to his design (both with the choker and the chest window), which is likely a reflection of Aventurine’s views towards using himself as a chip (which I’ll get to later). This immediately illustrates to me that he has no problem using whatever means he has at his disposal to do what he needs to, even at risk to himself (which was later confirmed by his language towards himself in 2.0)

Finally onto the choker and the bracelets. Both are inherently restrictive pieces of clothing. The choker particularly calls reference to a collar (you might notice that Topaz, an indentured servant, also has a choker in her design, whereas Jade’s neck is bare). In Aventurine’s case, the bracelets and choker were particularly noticeable to me after Ratio and Aventurine’s staged 2.0 conversation wherein he’s called a “doomed Sigonian thrall” or openly called a “slave” in the Chinese dub

All this is to say, every element of these character designs are thought out and we can glean relevant information from them

Now let’s talk about Aventurine in 2.0

Initially, he deliberately antagonizes himself by playing up his frustration at the Astral Express taking up time when correcting a room-booking issue, and establishes a point of negotiation between himself and Himeko, who he perceives to be the leader

He ends up giving the Trailblazer his room (which he went to great lengths to get) at no benefit to himself - in fact, it’s a very large inconvenience

Multiple times he emphasizes that we, the player, should feel free to “use” him, once again showing he has no regard for his own life at all

The most damning piece of evidence, however, is that Acheron straight up clocks him the second she lays eyes upon him, “There are people who possess unwavering resolution and faith, even unto death, and they do not wield such conviction for good. One who wears a blade must use it to cut eventually. And when a gambler has nothing to lose on the table, he will surely go for broke and bet it all on a final hand.” (The Youths Who Chase Dreams)

In the ten minutes we see Aventurine on screen, he’s already 1) given up his room (to his detriment), 2) used dehumanizing language towards himself and 3) someone else who’s seen him for 2 seconds went wow that bitch looks suicidal (and she was right)

My suspicions were then confirmed by the following conversation with Ratio and Aventurine (which we now know to be scripted)

When Ratio says “doomed Sigonian thrall” we see the camera pan down to the brand on his neck while also showing the discomfort on his face → and to be honest, the sheer amount of people who weren’t immediately aware that the brand represented something dehumanizing at the least was a little surprising to me, because there were no positive connotations (or even neutral ones) in that scene. It made it very clear that it was something bad, maybe something done against his will / was outside of his control

The last important scene in establishing Aventurine’s character foundation is with his conversation with Sparkle (again, the reception to that conversation made me… a little uncomfortable. The way her comments were received freaked me out a little I’m ngl)

She first makes comments about his eyes, so we immediately know that they’re uncommon

She then tells him that Sigonians belong in the sewers (which is a crazy thing to say) and essentially says all of them are liars and thieves, so now we have real in-world prejudice against the planet that Aventurine comes from. Now we can identify the even more specific prejudice that Aventurine’s ethnic group, the Avgin, experience. Sparkle makes it clear that his eyes are distinctive and can be used to identify him as Avgin, immediately thereafter telling him that he and his “thieving people” belong in the gutters

Aventurine also says that the Dreamscape is “frivolous, vain, and flashy - and that suits me just fine” (Gentleness, the Name of Nocturne)

The worst part imo was when she mocks him, “Did you strip yourself naked, apologize to him on your knees, and promise that IPC would never harm Penacony?” (Gentleness, the Name of Nocturne). This remark is exponentially worse now considering his full circumstances, but it was already bad just as it was stated. A lot of people just took this as a joke, but I can read so I didn’t. There is a very clear power dynamic being established here - between Sunday and Aventurine (which ends up becoming relevant in 2.1), but it also establishes that there’s a power imbalance between Aventurine and the rest of the world. It doesn’t help that Aventurine doesn’t say anything to that - he doesn’t even appear offended. I assume that’s hardly the worst thing he’s ever heard said about him. The backdrop of “all Sigonians being liars, thieves, and social manipulators” definitely doesn’t help that either - playing on the assumption that because he’s Sigonian he must also be a whore

So this is yet another instance of someone (Aventurine or other) making a remark about Aventurine using himself as a tool to get what he wants → so, both internal and external instances of people using dehumanizing language towards him

This informs us that both Aventurine, and the world around him, do not value him

All this is to say it should have been abundantly clear to anyone who was paying attention what Aventurine’s character would turn out to look like: he is very clearly posturing through the entirety of the quest, he is very clearly self-destructive, and his self-esteem certainly can’t be very high

And I was right! I was exactly on the money. So now, using what we’ve seen of Jade, I’ll analyze why I don’t think Jade is in a similar situation as Aventurine (or even Topaz)

Now we don’t have nearly as much Jade content as we had Aventurine content at the time I made my determination about his character, but I feel I have enough material to make an educated guess as to what Jade and her motivations actually are. Let’s start with character design

First thing’s first: the snake. This is very clearly a Biblical allusion to the snake and the Garden of Eden. Broadly, snakes are already symbols of trickery, deception, lies, and sin (all of these having culturally to do with the christian hegemony). 

So basically, Jade has THE symbol of sin and temptation

Now, this COULD be a red herring, but so far her actions match up to her motifs - if anything, the snake is a reflection of herself rather than some kind of disembodied act / third-party-manipulation

In her splash art, the snake has an apple in its mouth (representing “sin”) that literally bleeds onto a contract she’s signing. So already we’re not painting a pretty picture here

Back to the jewelry around her neck: her necklaces are in no way as restrictive as Aventurine or Topaz’s chokers. I believe this was an intentional design choice, especially when comparing the “openness” of her outfit to Aventurine’s. Despite his attitude and posturing, he spends much of the quest making defensive gestures (such as crossing his arms or holding his arm behind his back, and largely keeps space between himself and others). He is also almost entirely covered up, aside from the chest window. This could just be due to hyv being weird about women, but I do think there’s something to be said about the relative flowy, open gestures of her outfit - Jade doesn’t dress like a woman who’s afraid

In her splash art, we can see her standing at the bough of a tree (perhaps representing the garden of Eden) and a man crawling towards her, offering jewelry and other valuable items. This man does not seem well, and the audience can extrapolate that he is not doing this of his own free will / there is coercion of some sort at play

Another comparison I’ve seen made of her clothing, and one I have to agree with, is that of a Southern Belle, and given the whip, animations, and the context in which we see her for the first time… let’s just say she’s not beating the allegations

This is a more minor character design choice, but note that her nails are sharp and pointed in her splash art. This is usually done to appear “animalistic” in some way; prescribing nonhuman traits to human characters so that they’re associated with a particular trait. In this case, the pointed nails are likely a reference to either the snake or the “demonic” connotations of “sin”

Her stone itself, jade, has different meanings in different cultures. In Chinese culture it is commonly used to symbolize success, good fortune, and prosperities. In ancient culture it was also believed to connect humans to the divine realm. I find this interesting because Jade herself works as a symbolic “connection” between the rest of the world and Diamond, who might be considered “divine” in some senses as he is an emanator. She says that she is the only person working directly with diamond, so I wonder if her stone was chosen accordingly?

‘Jade’, as in the stone itself, is also a ‘catch all’ term for both nephrite AND jadeite… so, Jade isn’t even an actual ‘designation’ of stone, referring rather to a spectrum of stones. Nephrite and Jadeite can be distinguished by their toughness and translucency. 

It’s somewhat ironic that aventurine (stone) is considered a cheap counterfeit (and Aventurine refers to himself similarly throughout 2.1) meanwhile Jade isn’t even its own individual category of stone. 

Next let’s look at her in the 2.1 plot

The first time we see her, she’s acting as a JUDGE. That is important to emphasize because people consistently downplay her role in his sentencing. I’m not sure why she was acting as a judge in this case (it might have something to do with the massive amount of money and infamy the case caused, or maybe there just wasn’t anyone else with high-enough clearance to take the case, or maybe she expressed personal interest in Aventurine and wanted to hear his piece in person), but she was literally the SOLE acting authority

I’ve already discussed Aventurine’s suspicious lack of legal options, so we know that Jade is basically the only thing that stands between him and literally dying

Immediately, she’s the first thing we see on screen, and she takes up the entire screen - domineering, pushing Kakavasha into the corner even in his own memory. This establishes another very clear power dynamic between them. Jade is sitting above him in her perfectly styled clothing while he stands beneath her in chains. The first thing she says to him is to assign material worth to his body, and goes on to admonish him for killing a slave owner - so, we know whose side she’s on, basically

Granted that Kakavasha basically just “exchanged hands” within the IPC, that’s not surprising that she’d have such a blase attitude

Here, we also see the shift in Kakavasha’s voice - I’m not sure when the change happened, but I do think he ends up mimicking her (both with the hat and the manner of speech). We already know Aventurine has the unfortunate habit of picking things up from the people who’ve hurt him (eg “all or nothing”)

I think it’s honestly a shame that people aren’t willing to engage with Jade’s character as it’s presented because that incredibly unhealthy mentor/mentee relationship is much more narratively complex and imo worth exploring than whatever it is they’re doing over there

Jade clearly has all the power over this transaction - Aventurine makes her an offer, and she accepts, but it was her choice to do so. She could have just as easily sentenced him to death, but she figured that she could get something out of him - notice how her tone sharpened after Aventurine made his wager. As soon as money was on the table, her attitude changed.

So, again, my opinion has been thoroughly substantiated by the way she acts: I think she is sinister and cunning, like Aventurine, but in the opposite way - Aventurine makes himself out to be an incompetent fool to trick others into underestimating him, whereas Jade uses a soft, kind voice to lure others into a false sense of security.

We can’t say for sure how Jade perceives herself, but I think that’s irrelevant to the discussion of her character analysis. By this I mean her motives for doing this seem entirely geared by profit, but the reason she seeks that profit is unknown. Regardless, I don’t think there’s a backstory in the world that could make me “switch up” on her. Now I’m gonna move on to 2.3 leaks so if you don’t want to see those be warned

*leaks start here

I’ve already gone through her eidolons (the clearest reflection of her soul) and they all pretty much just reference her position as a loan shark. So, predatory and exploitative in nature

Jade’s kit sucks HP from her teammates

Being a capitalist parasite is literally baked into her kit that is SO funny

Her skill drains 5% of any ally affected by Debt Collector → if Debt Collector is applied to herself, she does not lose HP but she does not receive the associated buff. So, the opposite of the self-destructive behavior we see Aventurine show (who, in his kit, literally applies a higher taunt to himself so that he’ll get hit more often than his teammates)

She may affect enemies with “blind fealty” which prevents them from attacking

She quite literally profits off of her teammate’s suffering. This is so incredibly funny

As for her light cone: THEY DELETED THE LEAKS I FOUND

If anyone knows where to find them. Please lmk. Everything I could find on tumblr, tiktok, twitter, and reddit is literally gone. I had a post saved from 2 days ago that got deleted. Idk where the crackdown is coming from (especially since Firefly’s animations are completely untouched). Maybe they’re fixing her unrendered-ass animations 

Anyways, from what I remember I think the light cone is called “Hope is Priceless” or something along those lines, which SEEMS like it should have a positive implication about her character, but if anything it feels… ironic? Maybe even mocking? When compared to the names of all of her talents and eidolons. I’m going to interpret that as “hope is a good investment because I pay nothing to achieve it”. We’ll see how that interpretation goes in the next couple of weeks I guess

Anyways, comparing that to Aventurine’s kit, which literally focuses around protection (once again showing the division between his carefree mask and his actual character), Jade straight up stealing her allies’ HP is just. So funny. Like yeah that makes sense. She’s a debt collector. Taking people’s shit is her whole job and she takes that gig seriously

From what I remember reading on her light cone, she was fixing an orphanage (or something like that? A place with a bunch of small children), and I was getting a menacing sort of vibe to it. Maybe take that with a grain of salt because I literally cannot find it to quote right now. And if/when I do I will edit this but it’s literally nowhere

**leaks end here

Notably, we have no leaks pertaining to Jade’s past or anything like that, which implies that it has no bearing on the plot of 2.3. Especially compared to Aventurine’s pre-2.1 leaks. I’m going to go out on a limb here and wager that Jade’s backstory isn’t particularly important to her character - at least, not the way Aventurine’s backstory is important to his character. At the moment, I don’t think her character or the overarching narrative would have anything to gain from trying to make her seem sympathetic, as they’ve done a pretty good job of painting the IPC workers as a morally gray entity between the IP3. You have Topaz, who is happily complicit in colonization - but an indentured servant to the IPC all the same, and Aventurine, who is unhappily complicit (note also that Aventurine was specifically assigned to the Penacony case because his methods are significantly more peaceful than whatever Opal had planned) and who is property of the IPC. From that alone we have a pretty broad gray-space of morality to work from, so I’d prefer if they went even darker with Jade (as far as motivations go).

Basically, you can’t build a villainous corporate entity off of sad backstories alone, and since the IPC references so many real irl corporations, I think it would be kind of strange if they decided to sob-story everything they’re doing away. 

If they were to go down the path which attempts to absolve Jade of her guilt by giving her some tragic backstory, or otherwise shifts the blame of her actions up the chain of command (which also doesn’t really make sense, since that would take away a lot of her autonomy and also the only person above her is DIAMOND), I feel that it would… cheapen her character as well as the story. Gray morality =/= sad backstory!!

I was also a bit confused about why Jade is becoming playable now. Like, we’ve seen maybe 30 cumulative seconds of her onscreen, and we don’t really have many story-relevant leaks right now like we did with Boothill. But Jade actually has a lot of Christian symbolism, which is significant to me because Ena has been associated with Christianity throughout the entirety of Penacony. Now, the snake alone might not have been able to convince me that this was intentional, but the tree/apple/garden of Eden imagery makes it almost impossible that it’s a coincidence. Now, does that mean Jade has connections with the Order? I have no idea, but I do think it’s interesting that she has such strong Biblical imagery right as we’re getting to leave Penacony (and with the Order, an allusion to Christianity and the Christian god)... Maybe she’s intended to be another parallel to Sunday, I can’t be sure yet. I’ll revisit that after her release.

In conclusion critical thinking is a skill and too many people haven’t practiced it

(Sorry for typos/errors/whatever I started drinking halfway through writing this)

[necnnights]

MERRY-GO-ROUND: NEON NIGHTS THE BEST is the fifth anniversary compilation album by fictional girl band NEON NIGHTS. It was released on July 12, 2024, a week after their fifth anniversary, and is the final Japanese album with guitarist QIUYUN. It contains twelve tracks: three new songs and nine re-releases of older music spanning their Korean discography as well. The album peaked at number seven on the Oricon weekly album chart.

Described by the band and critics alike as their “cutest album yet,” the three new tracks feature a brighter sound reminiscent of their first studio album. Like the vast majority of their music so far, the production was led by HWAJUNG. It is their second album to feature songwriting contributions from all five members, following their English-language debut from earlier in the year.

TRACK LIST

MERRY-GO-ROUND — Title track

Gachapon

Sneaker Cinderella

Cross - 2024 Version — The opening track of their debut album, INTENTION. Re-recorded.

We Are - 2024 Version — The lead single from the same album. Re-recorded.

Dice - 2024 Version — The lead single from their first EP, FIRST SIGHT. Re-recorded.

KICKASS - 2024 Version — A popular b-side from the same album. Re-recorded.

Deja Vu - Japanese Version — A b-side from their Korean magnum opus, NEW ISLAND OF UTOPIA. Translated into Japanese.

Jealousy - Acoustic — The second lead single from INTENTION. Acoustic arrangement.

That Won’t Save Us - Acoustic — A b-side from INTENTION. Acoustic arrangement.

I Know I Love You - Neon Nights Version — The title track of their first Korean EP, MIDNIGHT. Originally featuring FABLE’s Andrew and Mingeun.

(No More) Utopia - Symphony Version — The title track of NEW ISLAND OF UTOPIA. Re-arranged.

ERA NOTES

The elephant in the room is, of course, Qiuyun’s impending departure. They gave her a slightly different send-off with every show, and they had a lot of shows. Highlights included: part switches where Qiuyun sang a few songs (usually “Merry-Go-Round”), chose the encore songs (usually “仮面ミーハー女子”), and picked some of their stage outfits (she had Eden wearing dresses). 

No one seemed to be upset about this. In fact, it was the opposite. There were very few tears shed. Hwajung looked happy, despite being almost completely hidden behind her drum set for every show.

In their company’s usual cash-grab style, the album released with a lot of extra content. Besides the songs, each member wrote a letter expressing their thoughts on their anniversary. In the only attempt at marketing them to their widest audience, their words were translated into Japanese, Korean, and English.

The album also included a DVD of behind-the-scenes content for the re-recording of their songs, and another DVD of highlights from their careers so far.

Hwajung is still banned from her personal Instagram, but both she and Eunbyul alluded to disliking these business practices multiple times during live shows. At the same time, they both re-signed their contracts. So there’s that.

During a few shows, they took requests for songs for the first time instead of playing whatever they want. There were some deep cuts in there, especially when fans requested “Asphalt,” their second single ever. Yumi forgot half the chords, since it’s been eight years since they last performed it.

STYLING

[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

Sparks tour 2023 part 4: TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (june 14, 2023)

Show number 4 out of 5! I'll be putting more photos in this one than I've done for previous writeups as we were in a much better spot :D (I might post some of them in separate posts later on.)

@dinkydiamond and me arrived at the venue super early for this one as it was the only show with general admission, which meant... queuing time! <3 Despite the added stress and additional logistics to think about with queuing, it also added such a sense of normalcy and it was so nice to just hang out with fellow fans for a couple of hours before the show ^_^ (Looking at you, @parts-of-me-unravelling!)

When the doors opened some people made a run for it after their ticket was scanned which cracked me up - okay, running it is then! XD The hall doesn't have the best design as there were steps going down leading to the floor, and the last step was very easy to miss which led to multiple people falling... (The sound of it still haunts me to this very day.) The person in front of me had a fall which was probably the only reason I myself didn't end up on the floor. But, me and Sarah had both made it in one piece and reached exactly where we'd aimed to be: front row at the bannister, in front of Ron's keyboard! :D HELL YEAH! I'd been so nervous about it because this was the ONE standing show! (An absolutely massive consolation was that we'd always have Brussels if we wouldn't have made it. But we did it!) It almost felt scary to be so close. But also extremely exciting, it kind of felt like I'd never been up close before! Hello, Ron's keyboard - so nice to see you :D What we also spotted was that there was a small plastic figurine sitting on Stevie's drums:

(Very zoomed in photo, but look at that little dude.)

We were having some nice conversations with our show-neighbours and then it was time for...

Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

I was super excited, now we could sing along and vibe from the front row :D Get a load of big Sparks fan enthusiasm in your face, sir! Part of the things he said on stage at every show was how divided the response to him was, that some considered him the best opening act since Queen whereas others wished he would get off the stage and that he hoped we'd fall into the former category, and this audience was largely really having an amazing time, which I was very happy about! Mr.B remarked "much better than Paris!", which cracked me up. It also honestly was in a way reassuring that he said that as the legend of that Paris show from the previous night had spread far and wide, nothing will ever be Paris but Utrecht also had a lot of love to give :) It was so much fun to sing along to Mr.B's set and to cheer him on from the front! :D

Sparks

Lost my shit when they came on! I mean, when does a person not (it's Sparks!), but woo this is up close! There they are! :D I'll say it again, I love their outfits so much! And ahh finally able to admire Ron's shoes properly! (I've also mentioned that before, but seeing Ron wearing Jordans was a dream of mine for sure. And now I could actually see the shoes :D) Ron was grinning so much throughout So May We Start which was amazing! Russell's jump was excellent which he followed up by skipping around Ron right in front of us. The show was ON <3 (There didn't seem to be an awful lot of space on the stage for Russell to safely skip around/stand in front of Ron's keyboard as the stage wasn't very deep, so this was really nice!) When Russell sang "the authors are here and they're a little vain, a little vain" he stood behind Ron as he did every night, but it was so sweet to see it from the spot we were standing in. (I've shared a photo of it in this post, but I'll put it below as well because I love them.)

We were just bouncing and singing and dancing the entire time - everything was so beautiful and fun to see up close while having a proper outlet for our energy as well :) I'll not mention every single song as I've done that before. Plus anyone who's seen a show knows how special this tour is, and everyone who knows me will know I really am dancing and jumping and singing to everything with the biggest smile, so I'll stick to the things that stood out the most.

Have a shot of Ron's shoes before I continue typing the rest, because let's just admire the shoes:

Beaver O'Lindy was an obvious highlight because the more I think about it, the more it's clear that this song really has it all, but shouting B-E-A V-E-R right back at them where they could see it was just THE BEST!

I was going to capture It Doesn't Have To Be That Way because it's so special and seeing it up close was truly everything - it doesn't matter how many times you hear that song live, it just hits so hard! So I was standing there with my big eyes, camera out, looking at Russell, and Ron, singing along, being totally in awe and very moved by it, Sarah no doubt doing the same thing, and.. Russell noticed this and we got some "I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it" in our direction! THANK YOU T^T! <3 They for sure know how special this song is. Another very important note on the performance of this song: instead of singing "it doesn't have to be that way", Russell mostly sang "it doesn't have to be this way" throughout the song! So we got a rendition that was a little different! (Footage.)

I just about exploded when Balls started and hoped my response would make it really clear how epic I think Balls is and how much I love it, and how much I loved that they decided to play it on this tour :) We must have stood out as Russell came to stand relatively close to us (as much as the size of the stage allowed it) and sang it in our direction for a bit!! (THIS WAS THE BEST) After the song I said to Sarah I felt very tempted to shout "I LOVE BALLS!!" but that I had decided against it XD which we then giggled about and our giggling might actually have been audible to Ron sdjgjhsdfjh

During Shopping Mall Of Love it seemed like Russell was occasionally looking at us vibing and we also got a "YEAH" from Ron which was amazing! The Toughest Girl In Town got dedicated to Sandy and I have never seen them dedicate a song to anyone before. (I don't know who she is, but I really hope she's well.) One of the best things about seeing this song up close was that we now could actually hear the tambourine for the first time, which definitely added to the experience :)

Escalator and Russell's dance had been one of my ultimate favourite things at all of the shows, and we did a little synced up Escalator dance back at Russell. He noticed and smiled! <3 10/10 moment. I love that song so much and Russell's dancing is everything to me. Our enthusiasm during We Go Dancing didn't go unnoticed either as we were jumping and pumping our arms into the air at the appropriate moments :>

When Music That You Can Dance To started I let out some ungodly scream as I am still incapable of being normal about it (it doesn't matter how many times I hear it live - it is one of the live songs of all time). I had been beaming the entire show already anyway but if it's possible to smile even harder, that's when it would've happened. Being up close we now noticed Ron sang along to the lines "perhaps a little jazz", and Sarah said he also sang along to "a souvenir tonight"!

After When Do I Get To Sing “My Way” there was so much applause that Russell shielded his face for a bit <3 (Audience knew how to party :D)

^ Photos from during Gee, That Was Fun :) We got a little wave from Russell when they left the stage before the encore :D

Before the band intro Russell said how they always have fun playing in the Netherlands and he ended up wondering out loud if they'd played any other cities than Amsterdam and Utrecht. My mind completely blanked (despite having BEEN at a show in a different city myself!) and no one else in the audience seemed to have an answer either XD Russell then said “No. I think it's only the two cities that we've done. Or…maybe some other. I don't know.” (I really appreciated the way he said that.) He later on came back to this and said they were informed they had also played in Hilversum way way back in the dark ages, "that's the Netherlands right? We bet you never heard of it before”. (I was cracking up as I've lived close to it most of my life and it's also where all TV and radio gets recorded so actually a lot of people *will* have heard of it XD)

Ron was applauding everyone with a big smile during the band introductions which was awesome :D Russell used the words “over yonder” in his introduction of Ron! (!!!!! OVER YONDER - can't believe I got to hear him say that in in person with my own ears! Yeah, more things I am normal about. Russell says words, brain go brrr) One of our friends in the front row joined the band in bowing to Ron, so we joined in as well. Ron smiled but gestured that it was a little bit much so I quickly went back to clapping.

During All That when Russell sang “hey help me out I can't find my left shoe” he actually lifted up his left foot to illustrate the lyrics! (I love him)

@parts-of-me-unravelling has also written about this in her write up but I am going to write about it as well because it was great :) Before the audience photo Eli sat down on the stage and Stevie then sat down with him and they sat there smiling for a bit - I've been enjoying their friendship so much throughout the tour! When the audience photo was about to be taken Eli dove down onto the stage, and honestly this is one of my favourite audience photos from the tour (and maybe ever), and we're in it!

Someone in the audience had made a poster which was passed on to the front and Ron was the one to reach out and take it! (First time I witnessed Ron taking a gift :D) He had to lean over quite far to grab it though which looked a bit risky and Russell half-grabbed Ron's jacket just to be sure. I don't think I saw what was on the poster but Ron showed it to Russell (see @part-of-me-unravelling's post) and then signed if that person wanted their poster back, but they signed he should keep it. It was a sweet moment and they were smiling so much ^^ Me and Sarah had also brought letters and Russell came over to collect them :) Mine was small so I jumped onto the banister, poking out my tongue and going “hng”, while looking Russell straight in the face (... I am so graceful) to avoid him having to lean over too far. (Here's a video someone took of All That, the band intro and the audience photo.) Things had been so very nice :)

~

I'd missed A Love Story on the setlist as we hadn't realised yet some songs had no longer been on the setlist since the UK and I had really looked forward to hearing it at the front. Eaten By The Monster Of Love had also gone but for the rest the setlist had remained the same utterly incredible setlist.

We hung out with @parts-of-me-unravelling for a bit after the show which was great. Also I could finally buy merch now! (My bag had been too full when in the UK and it haunts me to this very day that I wasn't able to get the poster that was exclusively sold at the RAH.) I got a Latte shirt and the socks ^^ I also bought one of Mr.B's CD's, had a little chat and told him that we'd see him again in Brussels. He was cool with taking a photo. I was a total dork. Luckily he is a very nice man and fellow Sparks fan, he gets these things :)

(A playlist of the footage I made during this show can be found here.)

[pangtasias-atelier]

Fortuna's New Big Star

Kinda thought I already posted this oopsie, but enjoy this longer story commissioned by @maletfgrowthblog involving Ki-ria and male tf along with some macro and musclechub. Cause I definitely enjoyed practicing teehee. And messing with the male cast cause tms is a guilty pleasure of mine.

The crowded, busy streets of Shibuya a flurry of activity every waking hour of the day, and even well into the night, the closed off area is no shabby exception. A concert scheduled months in advance —the preannouncement done before summer had even begun— the immediately sold out concert had promptly become the summer event of the year in the entirety of Japan. And even beyond, already booked and busy hotels swamped with orders from foreigners lucky enough in scoring tickets to Fortuna Entertainment’s summer bash. Though the concert had been initially planned in drawing out the company’s enemies, remnants of mirages once again appearing despite Medeus’ defeat. So many people around, a concert consisting of their own in-house talent —each and every one of them more than capable enough mirage masters— had been the perfect excuse to have all hands on deck, the public all too happy to see Fortuna’s contracted performers all together for the first time with the company’s true reasons unknown to them.

The entire lineup drip fed to the adoring and crazed fandom over multiple weeks, the opening/intermissionary act of Itsuki had come as no surprise to anyone, the still blooming artist a perfect way to open the show and fill in between artists without supposedly wasting Fortuna Entertainment's heavy hitters in a lineup of heavy hitters. 

Which had caused every single news outfit in Japan to cover the countrywide cheer and appraisal when Kiria had been announced as the very last artist to perform on the first day of summer.

But unlike everyone else —and unlike even her fellow performers— Kiria thinks nothing of the decision, Maiko never wrong in whatever she puts her mind to. The still bright afternoon of the day's clear, sunny sky makes for the perfect weather for the outside concert. The crowd booms as they scream and cheer for yet another of Itsuki’s intermissions. The walls to Uzume Lesson Studio shake and tremble with the crowd so threateningly close to it. And to the rest of the talent hosted inside.

“Hmmph, seems like he’s finally taking to his lessons,” Yashiro having a seat like the others, his elbow rests on the arm of the adequate enough chair. The long exhausting day of work clearly affects him, Yashiro slumped against the back of his chair with his legs spread forward, no persistent vultures for paparazzi hounding him.

Kiria waits with Yashiro. The others with them as well, Tsubasa, Touma, and Eleonora keep their focus on the large flatscreen TV that has the free live feed of the concert —courtesy of Maiko after fighting tooth and nail with the bottom feeders that are shareholders.

“I trained him well, didn’t I?” The rhetorical question hangs in the air as Kiria continues to fiddle with her makeup. As the last one —and only one to still not have gone up— she touches up the small streak of pink makeup right underneath her eye, wiping off the minimal bit of excess product. The color matches the pink collar of faux fur around her neck. In her Reincarnation outfit, the song chosen to be the first of her set by her fans in a voting poll, the outfit still looks as snug as ever on her thin, shapely body. Her corset gives her little wiggle room, the enhanced hourglass shape pushing up her barely covered up breasts. Itsuki’s song blares in the small waiting room of the studio as they talk.

I know it's tough but I'll hold on, until we meet again someday

And I promise you with all of my heart that my smile won't fade away

The water swishes in his hand as Yashiro takes a drink. He has a brow raised at Kiria. 

“Is there something you have to say Yashiro? I thought you’d have turned a new leaf. Or is that princely persona you put on still nothing but that?” The edges of Kiria’s plump lips are upturned, her lips covered in a nude lip gloss to help them pop.

“I’m glad I’m not wearing that ridiculous outfit,” Yashiro fixes his tie. Wearing a plain purple suit, the outfit is what he changed into after his set, the gaudy princely attire immediately shrugged off the instant he walked back into the sanctity of the studio. “If anything, you’re the one not giving someone enough credit. Itsuki worked rather hard to get where he is,” Despite looking up at Kiria, he can’t help but glance at the screen every so often, Itsuki taking up most of the camera.

There was a new me waiting somewhere inside

Doesn't matter how much I searched, I'd never have found it looking on my own

“I’m glad we can agree on one thing then,” She gives her hair one final brush, the lengthy ponytail cascading down her back as she heads out, ready to start her part. Itsuki reaches the halfway point of his song, the end of the third verse being sung by the time she steps out.

But now, everything's clear-- we just accept each other, nothing held back

Now that we know who we are, we can all see how much we've grown

The rest of the studio is empty, besides a few security guards; she easily walks out onto the streets of Shibuya. A barricade is already formed. The crowd that spots her behind the wall of tall, brawny security scream their heads off, each and every one of them that see her calling for her as they take photos. But Kiria keeps on track. She takes her time walking to the stage, Itsuki still singing the last parts of his song. 

And to Itsuki’s credit the crowd loves him, the momentary shock in seeing Kiria washed away as they resume their shouts and cheers as he wraps up his set. “Ladies and gentlemen, Kiria Kurono!” He yells into the mic with all the energy he can muster in his usual shy, average body. He gestures to his right, walking off to the opposite end of the stage.

And as soon as Kiria reaches the stage —Kiria herself dead silent amidst the thunderous crowd— she refuses to say a word; her head facing the ground, the thunderous screams only become more booming as they expectantly wait, the uproarious crowd soon chanting her name. And their chanting soon devolves into a cacophony of screams and applause upon hearing the very first note from the guitar, Kiria beginning to sing.

But good things are unable to last unfortunately, the entire area dimming and graying as if all color were slowly being drained from the world, the once bright, big blue sky turning a fowl shade of gray as purple specters materialize. They start at the very tail ends of the crowd, only a single one arriving before numerous more of its comrades begin to appear along with it; putrid chains coil down from them, the blotchy essence of the enemy mirages channeled along with the metal as they descend onto the crowd. Which begins to slowly die down, elated cheering soon turning into mild screams of panic before the only sound from the sea of a crowd is a chorus of tired groans.

“Those bastards!” Touma is the first to rise up from his seat, already shifted into his Carnage form with Cain as naturally as breathing comes to him. Yashiro and Eleonora follow right behind Touma, Navarre and Virion summoned as well from the sudden onset of an Idolasphere.

“Wait! We should think at least! Oh…” Tsubasa trailing behind them, she’s the only one to notice the enemies’ crimson red cloaks, the group’s enemies the rare savage mirages —as Maiko had dubbed them the first time they were forced to narrowly escape them. But she continues on after them, transforming into her Carnage form with Caeda and riding atop her pegasus. “It’s my job to make sure nobody gets hurt,”

“Kiria. You know the plan!” Itsuki still by her side, he slashes at the abundance of ironclad knights swarming the concert. Watching over her the best that he can, Itsuki charges at them all. He stands between the spacious back of the concert stage and Kiria’s back, sword drawn as he swings at everything trying to get to the two of them.

The concert part of a coverup to draw the mirages, the scattered remnants of Medeus’ army easily fall for the bait.

Unlike the others, all of them fighting the small army of mirages, Kiria remains on stage. Transformed as well, she still continues her performance, herself the one to draw the short stick by being the one performing during the attack. But Kiria pours all her magic into her words nonetheless. She uses the months of planning to her favor, enchanting the soothing melody to lull the nearly numb crowd and beyond them as well, the honeyed lyrics swirling through Shibuya as Kiria does her best from the group’s practice and research into techniques to aid those less gifted with Performa and thus more susceptible to mirages. 

The sounds of combat swish and swirl around her. But Kiria thinks nothing of it as Tharja continues to hold a protective barrier over her. The shield fizzes against the few axes and swords that strike at it with all their might, but it never once wavers, the shield withstanding all attempts to break it as Kiria remains encased in it. But the mirages soon turn their attention back away from her, their next best interest lying in the more enticing, hittable target currently fighting their leader.

And winning at that, Falchion’s piercing blade already having torn through the flesh of the enemy commander. Though Itsuki’s fatigued state —and the way he clutches his sword arm— shows that the strike was far from a free hit, the stalwart scales a difficult thing to pierce even with the divine blade. And the savage mirages loom over him, blackscale riders screeching with delight as they swirl over his head. And the ironclad knight and red barbarians for once simply wait for Itsuki to make the first move, the numerous mirages ready to strike.

A dragon beside him, the being towers over Itsuki as it roars. “This world, and everything on it, is ours...The ones who intruded were you humans!” The dragon known as Xemcel shouts, a wound already leaking with purple mist where Itsuki punctured it with Falchion. The dragon roars once more, black mist expunged from its mouth as it attacks Kiria with ferocious anger, all of its attention diverted into breaking her shield with its minions keeping Itsuki busy. The shield slowly deteriorates against the barrage. The once clear tinted shield begins to crack under the deluge of power, a faint purple hue taking hold of the barrier.

“You two get out of the way!” Yashiro plunges his sword into a red barbarian, the axe wielding enemy charging at Touma and Tsubasa’s lance using selves. The group of four take on stragglers as they attempt to regroup with Itsuki and Kiria. But the myriad of axe wielding ironclad knights and red barbarians makes the task difficult. And the airborne blackscale riders make it impossible for Tsubasa to fly ahead all on her own. 

“I guess you all will finally realize how wonderful I am,” Eleonora claps her hands, her mirage appearing right before her side. “Virion, make yourself useful,” Stepping to the forefront, the group’s lone archer stands in front of her useful melee party members. She hands her bow out, the curved wooden design light in her hands.

“Of course, my fair lady,” Virion accepts the bow and launches himself into the air, bow taut and drawn. And in an instant, the dozens of enemies swiftly become only a mere handful; spectral corpses fall to the ground, littered with a flurry of arrows before disintegrating into nothingness.

Eleonora marches on. She has the other three deal with her leftovers. “See how easy it is? Now, pick up the pace,”

Most of his mirages are now nothing more than a memory with Eleonora’s backup. So Itsuki turns his attention to the enemy commander, the dragon refusing to budge from its spot despite the pools of miasma spilling forth from its body. The only being different from the rest of the common mirages, the slightly serpentine mage dragon is barely holding on, dozens of arrow wounds piercing through the scales on its back. It roars, expunging one final breath as it stares down at the ever singing Kiria, the last bit of her song for her numbed audience coming to close.

Then at least help me destroy it all---

My solitude, and all my pain

Reincarnation, Realization

Reincarnation I want to be reborn 

And the barrier breaks, one crack surfacing for an instant before it shatters into countless immaterial pieces; Xemcel and the scattered remains of his mirages soon disappear along with it.

“Kiria!” Itsuki rushes over to her, kneeling beside her limp form.

“I’m,” She coughs, hacking out saliva and spit as if she were choking. “I’m fine,” Already out of her Carnage form, Kiria’s form has none of the debilitating weakness or injuries any of them would expect. She slowly picks herself off the floor, on all shaky fours.

In fact, as Itsuki examines her, he finds her figure a bit more… filled out. Even her voice sounds odd, her usual mildly deeper pitch —compared to Tsubasa and Eleonora at least— now an octave lower.

“Kiria?” Itsuki asks this time, looking down at the back of her head.

“Yeah? I said I’m fine, Itsuki,” Kiria looks at him this time. And while her usual angular face glares at him, her chin seems larger, broader, like her shoulders and the rest of her. Well, most of the rest. Itsuki turns away after catching himself staring at her breasts, well chest, her modest bust size now flattening out as her clavicles gain a bit more definition to them. 

Kiria slowly loses her mildly hourglass figure achieved with her light pink corset. Both from her broadening torso and her loosening corset. The bit of musculature she has on her abdomen from trekking through numerous Idolaspheres and battling more mirages than she can keep count on follows with her during her transformation. Kiria slowly pulls down the zipper of her corset, letting out a groan upon getting a bit of relief. Her smaller chest appreciates the relief, Kiria’s flatter chest still having some definition to them as they begin to morph into the very beginning onset of pecs. The straps over Kiria’s chest begin to mildly strain. So she loosens the harness, hands reaching behind her broader, more defined back. Her arms start to look more toned; Kiria has a mild hint of musculature on her thicker arms. She even loosens the most minor of belts on her body, the small straps attached to her elbow length gloves adjusted to the loosest hole. She even grows a few inches taller, her garter belts straining against the taut fabric of her black pants before she adjusts them like everything else. Her thighs slowly broaden out as they begin to lose their once shapely figure.

“What are you embarrassed about, Itsuki? Never expected your senpai to get hit?”

“N-no. It’s just that…how do I put it” Itsuki finds it hard to keep his eyes off of Kiria. Itsuki continues to stare at Kiria, trying his best to not stare but unable to avert his eyes. He only manages to find a captivating interest in the ground once a slight but noticeable bulge appears in Kiria’s pants, the cut of pants not meant for such an extra appendage. “Well, you’re a man,”

Kiria simply laughs at him. He slugs him in the arm, much more force behind them with the added bit of muscle to Kiria’s own defined arms. “Same as the last time I checked. And I’d say the same about you if you weren’t acting so childish all of a sudden. We beat those mirages and this is how you are?” Kiria slowly stands back up, a hand on Itsuki’s shoulder for support. “Stand up,”

Itsuki graciously accepts Kiria’s hand. Where once he stood a single inch taller than Kiria, Itsuki is now the shorter of the two, a couple of inches of height separating the two of them. “You’re… you’re right, Kiria,”

“See. You’re just imagining things,” Kiria pats Itsuki’s head, his blue hair ruffled under his ever so soft, slightly larger hands. “Though you might want to get out of your Carnage form, Itsuki. The crowd is still a bit drowsy but the Idolashpere should slowly start dematerializing soon,” 

“Yes. Of course,” The clumped up Performa stored inside him slowly dissipates, the aura spreading back throughout his body as he transforms back, his usual attire back on him. Afterwards, he pulls out his phone. And typing from the expertise of dealing with everyone’s spam of texts and reaction images —and from sending his very own back at them— Itsuki hastily adds the rest of the group to a new chat. “MEET ME IN FRONT OF UZUME ASAP SOMETHING HAPPENED TO KIRIA HE’S PERFECTLY FINE BUT IT’S SERIOUS!” He texts without once looking away from Kiria. “*SHES” He texts immediately after.

“Wait, something feels wrong,” Kiria feels himself. His hands roam over his body, a minor frown formed as he tsks in irritation. Kiria looks down at himself. Inspecting every inch of himself, the fabric of his clothes shift and strain with them already being a bit tight at rest. He feels up his thicker arms, grabbing the newfound heft of them. He presses a hand on his chest, fingers squeezing his trim yet defined pecs that have a bit more definition to them than Itsuki and Yashiro’s but less than Touma’s own defined musculature that comes from a mildly dedicated training routine along with the natural strength that comes from lugging around stage props. Kiria even feels his ass, the less flabby part of himself the only thing to have lost a bit of size relative to the rest of himself as they don’t strain the rest of his outfit like every other inch of himself. 

“Yes! You finally realized Kiria, you-”

“Ahhhhh…” Locks of his cool dark green-blue hair sway in the freedom of the wind. Kiria runs his fingers through his extremely long, nearly knee length hair. His mess of hair looks more unkempt as before, bits and ends of hair splayed to the side in a slightly messy but still well manicured style. “I hate wearing my hair up. Don’t know how I managed to be convinced of that,”

“Ah. Well, I’ll be right back. Just stay here in case the crowd wakes up early. So just be ready to perform,” Itsuki holds his hands up at Kiria before rushing off and leaving him alone.

He finds Touma, Tsubasa, and Eleonora right where he asked them to be.

Touma is the first to speak. “You didn’t have to fix the typo, man. What happened to Kiria?” Eleonora and Tsubasa stay quiet, waiting for Itsuki to speak.

“It wasn’t a typo,” Itsuki explains the entire situation to the three of them, starting off by mentioning the strange mirage attack before divulging into Kiria’s transformation into a guy —leaving out the more saucy details left grabbed in his mind, Itsuki’s brain replaying the scene with a morbid curiosity he doesn’t quite wish to explore in such a crowded area— and finally ending the short retelling with Kiria’s obliviousness to his current state.

“Wait! So Kiria…” Tsubasa holds her hands to her chest. Tears well up in her eyes, the fat, salty drops threatening to spill at any second. “She’s a guy nowwwww,” She wails, her chance with her now feeling lost.

“Kiria may be fine. But now’s not the time, Tsubasa,” Eleonora chastises. Though she herself seems a bit downcast, the two women having their own crush on Kiria,

“Yes. She seems perfectly fine but while we still have the ability with the Idolashpere temporarily active, I know we can reverse this with your help,” Itsuki smiles ahead at the group.

Eleonora pushes back, jabbing Itsuki in the chest with her manicured finger, not a single scratch on it somehow. “Me? What, you think I know all these healing spells just because I’m a girl? How s-”

“E-Eleonora, Itsuki was looking at me…” Tsubasa meekly says, standing right beside where Eleonora once did. 

“Oh…”

A hand on Tsubasa’s back, Touma stands right beside her. “C’mon Tsubasa. You got this! You always patch us back to full health. Just think of this as another little status for you to cure. No reason for you to worry!” He pushes her forward with a couple of hearty pats on her back. 

“We believe in you Tsubasa. We know you can do it,” Itsuki similarly cheers her on.

“U-understood!” Tsubasa rushes over to the concert stage to reclaim her possible chance —no matter how slim and unlikely she is to act on her own feelings— with Kiria. 

Kiria is still right where Itsuki left him after all this time. 

And Yashiro is beside the man already. Yashiro glares at Kiria, still standing a couple of inches above him instead of the nearly half a foot difference from before the transformation of his newfound male senpai. “Hmmph. You’ve gotten taller, I see,” Yashiro plainly comments, as if commenting on the weather. The faint tinge of red on his exposed face betrays his glare. Yashiro is back to his normal appearance, Yashiro all too aware of the slowly fading essence of the Idolasphere.

“Forgive me, Kiria. But I need to cast some healing magic. Just to make sure everyone is okay,” Back in her Carnage form, Tsubasa stands almost an entire head shorter than Kiria now. She leans a bit down, hands over Kiria’s body. “Well, if she doesn’t remember anything and she’ll be back to normal, then maybe…” Tsubasa places her hands on Kiria’s chest, her fingernails giving the pecs a light squeeze. And Tsubasa feels nothing stir in her own heart. She puts all concentration into turning Kiria back into a woman.

Eleonora speaks up for Kiria, the entire groups’ senpai awkwardly chuckling. “You can’t just harass Kiria, Tsubasa! When we get back, I’m learning healing spells if you’re not going to honor our truce,” She threatens.

“Ladies, don’t fight over me,” Kiria laughs, smiling as Tsubasa and Eleonora fawn over him. “I thought I told you, I’m only into men,”

The two women go wide-eyed; both of their brains ding with enlightenment, Kiria never once showing an ounce of interest in men before his transformation. 

“Tsubasa hurry up with those spells!”

“I’m trying!” Tsuabsa cries. “Nothing’s working, not even amrita,” And Tsubasa’s outfit slowly dissipates, her wedding dress for her performance appearing back on her.

Yashiro interrupts the two of them, clearing his throat. “Why don’t you two wait at Uzume while Kiria finishes the rest of his set. The crowd should be waking up soon,” Yashiro gestures with his hand, done with them and shooing them off like a pair of inconsolable children throwing a tantrum.

“Sorry,” Kiria nervously chuckles. He waves them off as Touma and Itsuki join the two men. “I’ll make sure to put on a good show at the very least,”

Touma and Itsuki say nothing at the failed fix. “Itsuki and I are going to keep watch just in case some more mirages attack,” Touma gives Kiria a cheeky grin as he takes Itsuki with him in a headlock.

“Y-yes. Good luck, Kiria,” Itsuki nervously waves. His face is red, his complexion a positively bright shade of pink as he goes to sit in the small but fenced seating area right next to the stage.

“Good luck. Not that you need it,” Yashiro shrugs as he joins the other men.

“Private viewers, huh? I guess I really do need to do my best then. But, alright,” Emboldened from his transformation, Kiria wastes no time in flirting, Kiria no longer the brightest rose in the garden, the prickly adornment too beautiful to be plucked like all the rest.

“Alright Shibuya! Let me hear you make some noise!” He wastes no time in getting the crowd ready, Kiria jumping on stage in beat to get the crowd pumping. To the magic’s credit, not a single soul in the crowd utters a word about Kiria’s new self. The adoring crowd shows their enthusiasm over Kiria with their posters and merch. Even those are modified by the magic, pictures and drawings of Kiria miraculously changed to reflect his current form. They all continue to adore him all the same as he starts singing, Kiria moving onto the next song in his set, The Labyrinth, as if the mirage attack never happened.

The instant Kiria begins to sing, his body fills with the usual infliction of magic, a bit of purple haze imperceptible to himself and to the entire crowd. Kiria sings as if nothing is happening; he continues to slowly walk across the stage, looking out to the uproarious crowd as the magic begins to swell within him anew. 

The three men watching from the side keep their newfound shock between the three of them as the mirage’s spell continues to work its magic, Kiria still transforming once more. They all watch with bated breath as Kiria begins to expand, his new masculine figure beginning to look like a stick as he grows.

The growth is as slow as the beginning of Kiria’s transformation, but the extra bit of poundage he starts to gain becomes readily apparent on his lithe, mildly built frame. His corset is the first to struggle against the budding bit of fat on him, like bread rising in the oven. Kiria’s corset already having a difficult time adjusting to his slightly broader, more squarish figure as a man, the extra blubber from his swelling midsection does it no favors. The zipper slowly falls down bit by bit with every few pounds or so, his flat stomach turning into the very onset of a beginner's belly. Until the zipper gets caught from his tummy, the very little give of the corset visibly bulging from the visible swell of his stomach, the bottoms flabs of it forced at an awkward angle with his newfound love handles, the plump little rolls of fat more fitting on a perhaps a little too indulgent individual rather than Kiria’s once slim self. His budding breasts which he once lost begin to appear once more through the added helping of lard being slathered onto his figure. Kiria’s chest doesn’t hold their former voluptuousness. They instead have much more sag to them, the two puffy moobs much smaller than his waist. Kira’s ass and thighs swell up much the same, thighs becoming slowly engorged as they widen, his pants beginning to similarly strain like the rest of his clothes. His pants curve outward as his rear does, Kiria regaining his shapely ass with a bit of extra heft to it, his ass less defined with his extra pudge.

And yet no one says a single word as Kiria grows bigger, his clothes struggling to hold onto their dear life. Kiria even slowly begins to grow taller, a couple extra inches of height added to him as he surpasses six feet tall, Kiria now the tallest of the three as his pants begin to rise up his ankles. 

It takes Itsuki clearing his throat to regain his own attention, Kiria’s corset busting clean off after a rather sudden burst of flab on his gut. “Shouldn’t we do something? I mean Kiria probably…” Itsuki purses his lips.

“Just look at the brute. Do you really think he’s not enjoying himself?” The flushed Yashiro has his legs crossed, one svelte thigh resting over his groin. His fingers are clenched around the silky fabric of his black trousers.

Kira flaunts his extra bit of bulk, one hand testing the heft of his belly as he lifts it and then gives it a bit of a taunting smack; he throws the crowd a cheeky smile all the while. The underbit of his gut is exposed. A tiny portion of the smooth, creamy, and flabby skin peeking out with the taut undergarment for the corset struggling to cater to Kiria’s larger, growing size. Though Kiria’s added girth doesn’t stay so soft as patches of fuzzy hair begin to appear on him. Especially underneath his navel, a small but decent patch of pitch black hair for a happy trail suddenly on him as well. His voice grows gruffer as he keeps on singing, the pitch going deeper and deeper. 

“It’s just the spell!” Touma half-shouts half-whispers. He leans forward in his seat unlike the other two, but his face is just as red as the others, Touma covering most of his face with his hand. Besides his entranced eyes. “R-right? C’mon Itsuki. you were there when it happened, so tell us already!”

Kiria easily tears through his pants. They last very little longer against the surging tide of mass. Kiria’ thighs now easily surpass their former size, the two meaty legs looking more akin to those of a practicing sumo than a rising popstar. All Kiria has left to show for his pants are tatters of black fabric that litter the stage as well as his legs. 

“I don’t know. I mean, we can’t be affected since we remember what happened before this, right? I’m sure at least someone in the crowd would have to have screamed by now if they knew this was happening now,” He turns his head back to the screaming, adoring crowd and sees the same exact merchandise as before, all of it the same besides the morphing depictions of Kiria.

Yashiro hums in agreement, sagely nodding his head as if he has anything to add to Itsuki’s statement. “Kitria’s gaining some muscle too,” No bit of Kiria’s body goes unexplored, no single portion unlovingly admired. Both from Yashiro and the ever-excited crowd. 

Both Itsuki and Touma look to where Yashiro points, Kiria’s thighs.

His thighs already large, the two meaty limbs soon become absolutely positive in crushing another man in between. Both from the sheer heft of them but also from the bit of muscle that begins to appear and form on them, the loose, saggy fat slowly but surely firming up as well as they still keep on slowly growing. Not only that, but Kiria’s flabby, oh so smackable gut —which looks a bit too empty to all three party members— also gains some definition to it. Out with the old and in with the new, the fat accumulating on Kiria’s body soon becomes mingled with muscle. His gut continues to swell outward, his large belly bulging outward as if he drank nothing but beer. 

“Whatever,” Touma’s ass never leaves his seat. He reclines back into the plush chair, arms crossed over his chest. “It’s better that he gain some muscle. That way, he’s not a useless blob,” He taps his foot to whatever beat that manages to irrelevantly stay in his brain with the growing man in front of him demanding all of his attention. 

And Kiria’s figure demands all of Yashiro’s attention as well. Back as hunched as ever, he looks about ready to give himself a permanent hunch. “Tch. As if,” Though Touma’s words hang heavy in his fried mind.

“That wouldn’t have been too bad, would it?” The ringing laughter comes out like none before it. Itsuki painfully hot in the face, he tugs at his collar with a single finger.

Though the men have little reason to complain about Kiria’s unexpected turn of events. Not with his arms looking as capable as snapping them in half as they once did slinging spells at mirages, the former looking even more simple of a task. The heaping layer of fat on Kiria’s arms refuses to betray the unbridled strength beneath them. His arms soon surpass the largest biceps any of the three have seen, Kiria’s thick, virile arms wider than his former thighs; they easily surpass the waists of the three men watching. Or even the entire crowd as Kiria’s longtime fans begin to evolve with the times —and evolve with his girth— a choice few people in the crowd matching Kiria’s extra heft with a bit of flab and some muscle here and there. Though none of them even come close to Kiria’s large, beefy size. Much less his growing stature as Kiria soon surpasses being an incredulous seven feet tall as Kiria continues to grow like a beanstalk. The stage slowly begins to creak as Kiria takes ponderous steps on it, every part of the stage giving its own feedback on his size.

“Do you have any idea when it’s going to end at the very least?” Yashiro finally asks a relevant question, done simply gawking and admiring for a short while before turning his attention back to Kiria. He presses a hand to his lips. The others’ responses go in one ear and swiftly out the other, his attention firmly placed on Kiria’s growing firmness.

“Yeah, Itsuki. Though you clearly don’t seem to mind when it ends,” Touma bumps him in the arm, one arm slugged around his shoulders.

“BWOOORRRP,”  Kiria belches directly into the mic, the ear shattering belch loud enough to rival the wyverns they’ve dealt with and loud enough to finally remove the attention off the increasingly creaking stage. Having paused the song with his belch, he catches the crowd’s attention, a booming and resounding applause followed, it definitely catches Itsuki and Touma’s attention, the entire crowd of Shibuya captivated by Kiria’s size like a blue ribbon winning prized hog. Staring at Kiria’s face, the massive wall of a man —that’s now a towering dangerously eight foot, nearly nine foot adonis— has some facial hair to show for it, a small bit of messy scruff for a beard as if he hadn’t shaved for a week or two. His hair looks more fitting on a rockstar than his old self, the loose, flowing locks an untamed mess of hair that manages to still cascade all the way down to his ass even as he grows taller, the concert stage looking more and more cramped as Kiria fills out the massive platform.And underneath his face are his pecs, the two massively sized brawny tits jutting forward and obstructing his vision. They also obstruct everyone else's vision as they command awe and attention. Kiria’s broad chest resembles more a bulging table than anything on a properly sized person; his squeezable, grabbable chest is slathered with a thick patch of hair centered in between the two fat tits unlike the bit of dusting on the rest of his immense figure. The large patch of black hair covers most of his large pecs, the outer tufts of hair coming close to his nipples. Kiria’s tits begin to press up against his tree trunk sized arms, both parts of his grandeur that look ready to break any piece of furniture starting to struggle with mobility with so much of himself to go around. So much of Kiria to get an eyeful of, Itsuki and Touma don’t even think to look down on Kiria’s body. Yashiro gets enough of a look of Kiria’s bulging manhood for all three of them. It takes Kiria finally breaking the twelve foot tall threshold, Kiria now twice as tall as them, for Touma and Itsuki to finally notice; the two of them immediately do their best to not gawk, nervous glances to the side and staring at the floor only working for so long before they can refuse no longer.

Touma loses his embarrassment first. His high pitched and long length whistle is lost amongst Kiria’s groan muddled singing. “Damn. I guess it was a good thing you didn’t stop the spell, huh Itsuki?”

“I…” Itsuki hurriedly covers his crotch with his jacket. “I mean… yeah but still…” Itsuki’s eyes refuse to leave Kiria’s growing dick.

For all the magic’s little worth in keeping Kiria’s clothes adequately equipped for such a massive brick wall of a man, it does manage to keep the small strip of fabric as something akin to clothing, his underwear the sole surviving piece on him. He keeps up with performance even as he reaches the tailend of his set and by extension the concert. Through the effects of the spell, Kiria now wears a dark black jockstrap as deemed adequate with so much fabric needed to create that and that alone for Kiria. The strips of fabric deserve a promotion from the bulk they hold back, Kiria’s swelling manhood pushed forward by the taut, ever so revealing fabric. Kiria’s growing gut begins to press into his dick, the carpet for a happy trail resting and blending into the jockstrap. His thighs similarly struggle against his large dick, the size of it when coupled with Kiria’s still growing stature easily beginning to surpass every single crowd member’s entire body. Though that doesn’t stop Kiria from singing. He grabs and adjusts his junk, Kiria needing to pull up the dangerously low jockstrap that struggles to withstand the weight of his package.

Easily pushing four times as tall as the next tallest person in Shibuya, the stage finally gives away underneath the massive mountain of a man. Kiria neither screams nor panics. He only rests a hand on his massive car crushing musclegut as he lets out a pleased huff. “Thanks for coming -buuhhoourrp- to Shhibuya everyone!”

“Encore! Encore! Encore!” The entire crowd screams, everyone jumping as they demand more. Those in front try their best to reach and pick up as many scattered pieces of the stage as they can.

Kiria rubs the back of his head —albeit struggling to reach back there with his biceps squishing against his face as well as the lack of flexibility he has all around. His hairy armpit is visible to the entire crowd, a mess of camera flashes taken from every angle for everyone to post online and gawk over like they do with every concert. “Sorry everyone but our staff really needs time to clean up this mess,” He pats his belly, letting out another resounding belch. “And I really gotta fill up this tank,”

And eventually, the crowd slowly begins to dissipate, the countless staff members they have for such an event safely getting everyone out in an orderly line.

Kiria’s three watching party members go back on the ruined stage, rubble kicked around as they approach him.

Having now stopped growing, Kiria crouches down to face the three men standing in the tatters of his destruction. His outfit is completely gone with all of it in tatters. All that remains of it is a skimpy jockstrap that only pushes his enormous third leg forward. “What’s the matter, Yashiro? You’ve always been jealous of my size, but I mean, so is everyone else,” Kiria comments as Yashiro glares at him. The glare is no less softened as Kiria practically shoves his dick right in front of his face, Yashiro craning his neck the best he can to look up at Kiriia’s face and not the hill for a dick or the overhanging cliff for tits.

“Nothing,” He continues to glare up at Kiria despite his crimson red face.

“You said you were hungry, right? So c’mon already. I thought you wanted to fill up that tank of yours,” Touma wastes no time with pleasantries. Standing right next to Kiria, Touma is nothing more than a molehill to a mountain. He doesn’t even come up to the lowest bits of Kiria’s gut—even with Kiria crouching down the best that can— and with Kiria’s dick right in front of him, the massive manhood is longer than Touma is tall. And more than three times as wide as Touma rests a hand on it.

“Damn right I am. Come on, Itsuki. There should be some food waiting for me at Uzume,” Kiria stands at his full height. If not aware of Kiria’s predicament, the three would believe the world to be ending, all three men eclipsed in his enormous shadow as Kiria blots out the sun from where he stands, and the buildup of tremors as Kiria moves around very nearly knock them flat on their asses. His face is obscured from the three of them, his height making it a difficult task to bask in all of his glory; his jutting chest makes it flat out impossible, Kiria also unable to look down at them with his pecs in the way. Though his wobbling musclegut would do the same. He takes slow lumbering steps through the designated walkway just for him.

“Wait! You can’t possibly…” Rushing back around, Itsuki’s words are already useless with Kiria unable to hear such a tiny man. And his protests die down once he sees Uzume’s transformed state, the skyscraper-like building taking up the entire block now. All for Kiria most likely, the enormous man requiring the space.

Touma already follows behind Kiria. He has to run just to somewhat keep up with him, still lagging behind as he struggles to keep his balance from the tremors of Kiria’s labored walking.

“Just hurry it up, Itsuki. Clearly everything Kiria needs to be refit for his new identity will mold to it. So we might as well get used to it,” Yashiro beckons him forward, following behind the two men. He barely hides his near speed walk pace while he attempts to hastily catch up to them.

The two of them enter the much, much, much smaller entrance of the two, the regular door akin to a mousehole next to the broad, expansive entrance built just for Kiria. Which he even struggles to fit into, all three getting a view of his exposed ass wedged against the edges of the doorway as he tries to fit himself past the door despite the attempts from his gut and dick pressed up against the other end of the doorway try to stop him before he goes in at an angle. Which is difficult for him with his limited flexibility. But he lets out a contented groan once he’s inside. Kiria is at least cognizant of his size. He puts little pressure on the wall, a swarm of memories swirling in his brain of him breaking enough things. But Itsuki and Yashiro find themselves back inside Uzume just fine; only Touma and Kiria are waiting for them along with enough food to seemingly feed an entire army. Or enough just for one greedy, massive Kiria.

Only one room in the newly sized Uzume is able to withstand Kiria’s new bigger body. All the other rooms are far too small for him to even squeeze a fist inside. He waits inside the former waiting room now turned into a dual feature vocal training room and waiting room. The room is blisteringly cold as well. Kiria’s body heat radiates all around him, the confined area a sweltering sauna if not for the frigid temperature the air conditioning system set in place just for Kiria. And to Kiria, the room feels perfectly fine to him despite the cramped conditions. Kiria barely manages to squeeze inside the snug building despite being made with his own enormity in mind. The upper wisps of his hair brush against the ceiling, even with Kiria slightly bent over to make some extra room. He has more than plenty of room in the other dimensions until he sits down, the walls shaking and trembling regardless of how gentle he tries to be with his movement. He uses one end of the wall as his personal backrest. His broad, powerful back takes up most of the width of it. Kiria’s jutting shoulder blades make the most contact with it, his slightly doughy yet broad shoulders also pressed up against it. The outermost curves of his biceps —the widest circumference of them akin to an entire car— chafe against the walls of the room. They also press up against his bulging pecs, the two oversized tits plumped up with copious amounts of lard and muscle just like the rest of his body. The two jutting breasts obscure most of Kiria’s face with him leaning back. And his traps make it difficult for him to shift his head to look around him. Kiria also takes up most of the entire length of the room despite not even fully laying down, his feet pressing up against the other end of the room; the robust, sturdy walls already have a few cracks in them from other days. His bulging thighs rest comfortably against the floor. At least his right thigh which Kiria has almost fully extended, the straightened out leg pressed up against his crotch. He has his left knee bent up to help him a bit with his balance; his knee comes far above the three smaller men’s heads. His left thigh presses up against his gut, the large ball of fat pushed a bit back against the thigh big enough to seat all three men on it. His gut also looks more than capable of seating all three of them and many more, the jutting curve of it deep enough from the sheer size and heft of it despite how his powerful chest rests and presses atop it. Kiria’s gut still has some sag to it despite his gained musculature; it rests on his bulging dick still struggling to stay inside his jockstrap, the hill of his dick taking most of the weight of his gut. Kiria’s bulge rests on the ground, the jockstrap finally having some relief, the fabric visibly worn out from how stretched the tent-like clothing is.

“Time for the best part, fan food always tastes great,” Kiria makes no motion to move himself, rather comfortable in his spot. And neither do the three men, all suddenly embarrassed as they remain glued to their spots. “Well? What are you all waiting for? You guys always love feeding me,” Kiria burps. He rests a hand on his firm gut, rubbing the grumbling gut that’s shattered a few windows in his brand new memories before Fortuna Entertainment became properly equipped with handling his immense size.

“Hmmph. If you insist on being a glutton then,” Yashiro moves first. Very little room for him to freely stand in, he shuffles around the bulky, sinewy thighs to reach the overburdened table filled with food. Yashiro is practically stuck between Kiria’s thighs and the wall, the cramped fit especially warm with him practically pushed up against Kiria. But he finds himself reaching for as much as he can possibly hold with just two hands.

He also finds Touma right behind him,  over eager in loading the provided serving trays with as much meat he can grab. Almost all of the food he grabs is some meat dish or another. “Hurry it up. I thought you were eager to feed him,” Touma hands Yashiro another serving tray, laughing as the older man seems ready to swat him with it.

“I’ll-” The ground trembles underneath them, another earthquake suddenly striking as Kiria’s gut grumbles. Yashiro comes crashing onto Kiria’s immense thigh, his head not even surpassing the upper crest of the meaty, powerful limb. Not a single piece of food ends up wasted on the ground thankfully. 

The two men have their trays ready. The four trays alone would be an overwhelming amount of food for the two of them and Itsuki, but for Kiria alone, the food looks underwhelmingly insufficient.

The ground shakes once more with a small but deep gurgle. “That should be enough for an appetizer for now,” Kiria holds out his hand for the two men, the back of his hand resting on the floor with his palm open. “It’s more fun feeling you all crawl on me, but I need food. Now,” Kiria belches, the walls themselves shaking now as he rests his other hand on his gut. He also gives it a couple squeezes. That and his tits, his biceps struggling much more with the latter.

And Yashiro and Touma accept Kiria’s hand. Touma stands straight up, smirking up at Kiria the best he can with so much bulk in the way. Yashiro sits down, his legs dangling off the edge of Kiria’s palm.

“Hurry it up, Itsuki! I’m starving over here,” The walls themselves shake and tremble this time from his mere voice alone, his voice slightly raised. His rumbling gut quaking the floor doesn’t help matters, his gut almost resting on the floor if not for his massive endowment in the way.

Itsuki rests a hand on the wall, everything moving around him. Looking up at Kiria with his face just as flushed as the very first few moments of seeing him grow, he only sighs. But he obediently goes over to the table filled with a buffet of food —after adjusting his tight pants and a couple of deep, flustered breaths. And he joins the other two men on Kiria’s hands, Itsuki kneeling down on it in hopes of not falling over and spilling everything.

Three pairs of eager feet step down on Kiria’s body, Touma and Itsuki resting on his broad, massive traps that resemble a sidewalk to the two of them while Yashiro makes himself comfortable sitting atop the massive overhang of Kiria’s bulging chest. “See how easy that was. Feels good to have such handy little helpers,” Kiria expectantly opens his mouth. And he accepts every bit of food that they toss into his eager maw. 

Yashiro treats him like a garbage disposal, chucking entire meals into his mouth without thinking an ounce over it. “You better hurry it up, there’s still way too much food,” He even throws a bit of food once Kiria closes his mouth, Kiria ending up with a bit of a mess smattered over his lips. And he ends up quickly reprimanded each time he does it, Kiria using a single finger to press into him, holding him squarely in place despite his flustered protests.

“Yeah, man! If you eat it fast enough, then it’ll still be early enough for us to get you some more. You’re gonna need it, right?” Touma standing much closer to Kiria’s face, he still has to toss the equivalent of buckets of food to his gaping mouth, his experience in throwing spears and javelins leaving him well equipped for the job. Kiria only hums in agreement, urging Touma to hurry it up as Touma greedily lists all of Kiria’s favorites, the same as before.

Itsuki is far more reserved than the other two. Though still being willingly complicit in the situation has him looking rather strange to begin with. “Just make sure you take your time, Kiria. You might get a stomach ache,” He coos and worries over, slowly feeding Kiria his favorite foods, his assumption of his personal favorites not having changed a bit a correct one. Kiria only plucks him up and places him closer, clear in his hunger despite how he carefully pets Itsuki for his fretting.

Kiria simply keeps on accepting the food, none of them finding the situation of feeding a twenty plus foot tall behemoth of a man strange at all. “I can’t wait for the next concert,”

[mirambles]

Guilty Pleasure Kdramas - Descendants of the Sun.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon I rewatched Descendants of the Sun. For all its flawed writing, an ending twist that none of us needed, I still love this drama and the main reason is how charming Song Joong Ki is as Captain Yoo Si Jin. SJK is not a strong built muscular man - the ones who would usually fit the bill of an army captain. The script writer even takes a jovial dig at this when Kim Ji Won’s character says he looks like a girl. Despite his slim face and petite frame he carries off the role with lot of panache. You can’t take your eyes off the screen everytime he is on it.

His confessions of love I can rewatch many times. No wonder the line should I confess or should I apologise went viral when the show aired and still features amongst the top dialogues in KDramas.

YooSiJin is witty and sarcastic, confident and brave, empathetic with strong morals, charming at flirting and dropping lines that are cheesy, but will still make your heart flutter and as a bonus is handsome. What’s not to love about him?

SHK looks gorgeous and while I am not a fan of her acting, I couldn’t stop being in awe of how pretty she looked in what are simple day outfits - cotton dresses , linen shirts and shorts rightly suiting the climate the drama is based in. The wardrobe I aspire to have! Once back to Korea she is in baggy trousers, long jumpers or scrubs and still looks ethereal.

This is the first drama of Kim Ji Won that I watched and her chemistry with JinGoo was sizzling! I was as invested in the second leads as I was in the main leads. While the angst and breakup owing to the father dragged on, at no point did those two bore you.

SJK and JinGoo’s bromance is also amongst my favourite bromances in Kdramaland. Despite the clear difference in their army ranks - their loyalty , respect , unwavering support and love for each other was evident in every single frame.

I can rarely enjoy dramas if the supporting cast is not good and this one has a good squad in the medical and army gang who kept the atmosphere light and funny. The white actor as the villain was unbearable to watch and later in my kdrama journey I would realise this is the norm - they are just bad actors and maybe dramas don’t have the budget to hire good non-Korean actors.

Not to forget to mention that this drama’s soundtrack remains amongst my top 3! YoonMiRae’s Always remains my top Kdrama song ever!

People call the drama cheesy, the plot all over the place, and that the last twist of back from the dead in the last two episodes dragged the show down! I don’t debate any of this and ultimately we all have our guilty pleasures. Guilty pleasures are exactly this - we know they are flawed, but if watching the drama gives you joy, you will keep rewatching it. As I do with DOTS - because even after 4 years and multiple rewatches, I can’t get over the charm of Song Joong Ki as Captain Yoo Sijin. I have since loved him in Vincenzo and ReBorn Rich, but both had no romance plots and I would really like him back on my screen wooing his lady love!

So tell me which KDramas are your guilty pleasures?

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Review -After many a postponement, for the first time since his debut world tour in 2017, Grammy award winning artist Harry Styles touched down at Mt Smart Stadium, bringing Harry Styles: Love on Tour to Tāmaki Makaurau.

Released in 2022 and recently awarded Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammys, Harry's House, built in London by way of Hollywood, Malibu, and Wilshire, and engineered by the likes of Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson, and Samuel Witte has seen almost every major city of the world. It's only fitting that, at long last, Aotearoa finally got a taste of the artist's highest acclaimed album.

Decorated from head to toe in sequins, sparkles, cowboy hats and the coveted feather boas, punters, who had been lining up as early as two days before the concert itself, descended on Mt. Smart Stadium bright eyed and bushy tailed, eager to get as close to Styles as they possibly could. His charm, wit and general crowd interaction is a major selling point of the tour itself - something all 47,000 attendees were eager to get a taste of.

Aotearoa's own Ny Oh and Isle of Wight-based band Wet Leg opened the show, to a crowd that, although mixed in demographic, got behind every single beat. Seeing Wet Leg at Mt Smart was a bit of a big deal; the last time they were here, they performed to a sold-out Tuning Fork - a venue which can hold up to 300 people. Fast forward eight months, playing to a sold-out stadium, comprising a crowd who, for the most part, know every word to every song, is something to marvel at.

I always admire an artist who has an impeccable pre-show playlist - it shows that not only do they know their crowd well, but when done right, the right selection can show that they know the city, or in this case, country, well too. Classic tracks such as 'Best Song Ever' by One Direction and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen had the crowd doing vocal somersaults over one another, singing as loud as they could.

What took me by surprise was the addition of Poi E by Pātea Māori Club - released in 1983, sung entirely in te reo, now playing to a crowded stadium before Harry Styles of all people graced the stage. He knew his crowd, and where he was in the world, extremely well.

Styles is known for his on-stage outfits. Some are understated, some are extremely overstated, and most, if not all of them, end up being one of the main focal points of every performance. The last time he was in Aotearoa, he wore an all-black suit, assumingly paying homage to the All Blacks. Last night, he wore a short sleeve raglan tee with a bejewelled whale's tail adorning it, with a pair of purple dress pants. Not the most spectacular outfit compared to his recent Australia tour, but we'll take what we can get.

After all, fashion comes second when you're stood mere metres from One Direction's Golden Child.

It's always special when an artist comes to any given country and does more than just plays their show and jump on the next flight home. On his recent Australian tour, Styles immersed himself in the culture of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, and his stop in Aotearoa was no exception.

At his first break in the show, Styles, who, earlier in the day, had spent time with Te Matatini finalists, Angitū, sang the start of 'Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi' - written by Canon Wiremu Te Tau Huata in the 1950s.

The crowd, clearly stunned, sung the rest of the waiata back to him without hesitation while he danced around the stage. He continued to do this multiple times throughout the night, which kept the crowd on their toes. I was almost waiting for it to happen every time he got the chance to speak. At one point in the concert, he picked a Tino Rangatiratanga flag from the crowd, and put it on his mic stand - the flag found itself to be a permanent fixture on the stage for the rest of the night.

The moments of the concert I remember the most vividly seem to be the same at almost every one I go to; the times when the whole crowd is still, flashlights up, yelling the lyrics of the saddest songs back at the person singing them - and last night was no exception. At the end of the catwalk which spanned what felt like ten trillion miles, Styles performed 'Matilda', 'Little Freak', and 'Satellite' one after the other, and for all three songs, I've never heard a crowd with so much gusto.

Harry performed songs from across all three released bodies of work, such as 'Woman', to 'Golden', and even far back as a new rendition of One Direction's seminal hit, 'What Makes You Beautiful'. He even snuck in crowd-favourite unreleased weapon, 'Medicine' which went viral during the tour for his last album, Fine Line. During every song, the crowd didn't hold back. So much energy in one space - it was amazing to bear witness to.

It's crazy to think that, from Harry's end, there are 47,000 people in the same space as you are singing the words to the music you wrote back at you. Those moments stick with an artist - I feel as though they stick with the crowd for eternity.

Crowd interaction is paramount for an artist as big as Styles. Throughout his time as a solo performer, he's always placed a large emphasis on connecting with his crowds, and as he's grown, the interactions have only evolved to be more intense.

Last night was no exception. From pointing out a fan who had been throwing fruit at him (which then proceeded to him singing a two-minute-long song about people dressed as bananas, eggs, aubergines, so on and so forth), the singer, who encourages fans to bring signs with him to his shows, went back and forth with two fans. One, who allegedly sold their cats leg to be at the show, and the other, who was with her best friend going through a breakup. After finding out the now ex-boyfriend wasn't prioritising them, hence the breakup, he told the crowd to "not be a Michael, be a Romy!"

Styles also asked the crowd about the census, telling everyone that he too had filled it out prior to the show.

Finishing with crowd favourite, and aptly named, 'Kiwi', Styles had made the nights of 12-year-olds with their parents and mid-40-year-olds alike, as well as everyone in between. Harry Styles is truly an artist who transcends all levels of musical talent and incomparable wit, with a hint of charm that can't be matched.

The remnants of the 47,000 plus feather boas will live on the field of Mt Smart Stadium until Harry Styles makes his triumphant return to Aotearoa.

Admittedly, he doesn't actually know when that will be. All he knows is that he hopes it won't be too long.

[stcpidcupid]

CUPID  IS  DUMB  is  a  pre-released  single  of  STUPID  CUPID’s  upcoming  9th  mini  album.  the  song  was  released  on  june  25th,  three  weeks  before  the  mini  album,  giving  the  group  enough  time  to  promote  the  single.  CUPID  IS  DUMB  is  a  song  that  combines  minimal  disco  beats  and  retro-style  melodies  based  on  funky  baselines  and  make  echo  to  the  group’s  unique  sound. 

the  single  contains  of  CUPID  IS  DUMB,  as  well  as  the  english  version  of  the  song,  which  trended  for  the  whole  three  weeks  of  promotion  and  for  the  next  few  months  after  the  mini  album  was  released.  CUPID  IS  DUMB  is  by  far  the  only  single  where  every  group  member  contributed  in  some  parts.  TOMIE  and  VIVA  made  the  song's  choreography,  AIMEE  and  JEANNE  wrote  the  lyrics  while  CHESKA  produced  it  with  the  help  of  GLOOMY,  GLASSHOUSE’s  most  famous  producer. 

despite  the  song  being  a  b-side,  CUPID  IS  DUMB  reached  a  new  high  for  STUPID  CUPID.  not  only  did  the  song  trend  on  social  media  constantly,  but  it  was  also  number  one  on  the  billboard  charts  since  the  moment  it  dropped  out.  CUPID  IS  DUMB  can  be  officially  named  as  the  best  and  most  famous  track  released  by  STUPID  CUPID  since  their  debut  back  in  2017. 

track  list. 

CUPID  IS  DUMB 

CUPID  IS  DUMB  (  ENGLISH  VER.  ) 

era  notes.

MIGHTY  DEVIL’s  (  and  GLASSHOUSE’s  )  princesses!  the  song  fits  their  concept  so  well  +  the  outfits  used  during  the  promotions  were  very  beautiful  that  fans  couldn’t  help  but  talk  about  it  on  twitter,  managing  to  trend  “THEY’RE  SO  BEAUTIFUL”  on  the  app!!

as  for  CUPID  IS  DUMB,  it  blew  up  on  the  internet  so  much,  that  even  people  who  were  not  kpop  fans  were  vibing  to  the  song  and  posting  dance  challenges  on  tiktok  with  the  song  featured  on  it. 

the  music  video  reached  almost  90  MILLION  VIEWS  in  the  first  24  hours,  which  was  so  surprising  that  even  the  members  posted  on  their  instagram  stories  how  grateful  they  felt  and  that  they  never  imagined  getting  that  much  attention  for  a  pre-released  single!  you  could  see  how  truly  happy  they  are  that  CUPID  IS  DUMB  is  so  loved  by  everyone.

this  era  managed  to  break  all  records  STUPID  CUPID  had  from  their  previous  albums!  despite  being  a  b-side  CUPID  IS  DUMB  received  multiple  PAKs  and  the  number  continues  to  grow  as  each  day  goes  by.  a  day  before  the  mini  album  dropped,  STUPID  CUPID  received  well  over  300  PAKs  just  for  the  b-side  alone! 

this  was  such  a  great  beginning  of  the  era  and  the  girls  couldn’t  be  more  excited!  the  b-side  received  EIGHT  music  show  wins  during  the  time  of  the  promotions! 

most  of  their  encore  videos  were  praised  by  knetz  for  sounding  as  good  as  they  did  in  the  studio  version,  as  well  as  the  overall  vibes  of  the  song!  it  really  made  the  girls  happy,  especially  since  they  took  part  in  making  the  song  and  the  choreography! 

the  line  distribution  was  somewhat  fair.  AIMEE  and  JEANNE  had  fewer  rap  lines,  barely  any  in  the  english  version,  but  it’s  VIVA  that  surprised  everyone  with  having  the  most  lines  given  to  her!  the  members  explained  that  VIVA  fit  the  song  the  best  in  their  opinion,  therefore  agreeing  they  should  give  the  youngest  member  more  chance  to  show  off  her  beautiful  voice  and  shine  during  this  era! 

era  style. 

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Sleeping In The Cold Below

If I had a nickel for every time Voiceplay did a song from a videogame, featuring Omar Cardona and arranged by Geoff... (Well, this was actually a co-arrangement between Geoff and Rob Dietz, but my point still stands! 😝)

Voiceplay's video for Sleeping In The Cold Below was uploaded on the 17th of February, 2024 (which for me typing this, was yesterday), and the song comes from an "action role-playing third-person shooter multiplayer online game" called Warframe, originally released in 2013. I know buggerall about the game, and have never heard the original song before, but as we should all know by now, that doesn't matter when it comes to Voiceplay! I'm very excited to break this one down, so let's get into it!

Very cool mask things! (But also I'm glad they were only for the opening (and closing) shots)

Apparently this was filmed at some place called Optiview 360, and the name checks out tbh, because those are some very cool wall and floor effects, which I will be pointing out multiple times in this post!

(Also very niche little fun fact: the guys are in the exact same lineup order as they were for Dream On and Whiskey In The Jar: Geoff-Eli-Omar-Cesar-Layne!)

The contact lenses were definitely a great touch for this video, I must say

Cesar is wearing two different coloured contact lenses, because apparently he (and Omar too) couldn't decide which colour to go with (valid), and in fact Cesar and Omar are wearing one each of two pairs! (So basically their contact lenses match up)

Geoff's hair looks greyer than usual here, and I can't for the life of me figure out whether it was coloured grey for the video, or if it's just the lighting, or if this is more of his natural colour nowadays. I'm certainly not complaining though, and I'll just have to wait for more videos from him and Voiceplay this year to hopefully figure it out!

Also, even though I love his hazel eyes, whether you can actually see a tinge of green in them or whether they just look a dark-chocolate-brown colour, I'm not gonna lie, the contacts he's wearing here are really doing things for me 👀👌

(And his outfit in this video seems to fit *really well* on him and he looks fantastic in it okay bye)

Eli's wearing two different coloured contacts as well! (This Is Halloween flashbacks anybody?)

This is almost pure-white lighting, and I reckon this is his natural hair colour at the current moment. You can definitely see his grey-white streak here, and his hair does still have a notable bit of brown to it, but it's almost definitely getting greyer (embrace it! Love it! I know I sure do!)

(Actually I might do a Geoff hair study for this video, but later, and not as part of this post)

Everyone is now unmasked, and more cool background visuals!

Swear I won't point out every single background change in this video, because there seem to be a fair amount of them, but still! So many cool ones!

Notice Omar's different coloured contacts as well!

Is that a freaking black hole?

"It can hurt you, it can hold you, he can kick you or console you"

(Not shown here are Cesar's cool little head movements during the third shot pictured above)

Omar's got some moves! (Also background change yet again!)

Layne looking like he knows full well that he's just showing off at this point 😝😁

Complete and utter superstars!!!

(Also that hand next to/under the head movement is definitely on my list of "movements I mimic when (re)watching Voiceplay videos")

I mean WOW!

Also the background design changes at least 18 times, that's quicker than once every 10 seconds!

I loved this song and video so much I rewatched it almost immediately after my first watch, and then that night, I went and rewatched it again two more times! And honestly I'd have to say that out of all the videogame song covers Voiceplay has done (Enemy, Halo Theme, Dragonborn Comes, etc), this is 100% my favourite! Everything about this cover and video is so absolutely top-notch high quality, and the song absolutely slaps! Well done Voiceplay, you've knocked it out of the park again! Honestly the fact that they're just an independent acapella group on YouTube blows my mind sometimes.

So I'm finally up-to-date on all the full-length Voiceplay videos that I wanted to talk about, although by the time you're reading this, there will probably be a brand new Voiceplay video (edit from future me: there's not),But for now? Well either tomorrow or the day after (depending on whether there's a new VP video to talk about first (there ain't)), you will be seeing a handful of "Voiceplay-Adjacent Visuals" posts, where I'll be talking about the visuals of some of Geoff's solo videos! But that's all for now, and stay tuned!

[wardingoffevil]

Kassam as a Dad

My obsession, my heart, my soul: Kassam. I love him so much. I get so excited seeing people talk about him or use him in their work. I know a lot of people have a hard time seeing him as a LI, let alone a dad. Let me try to show you a different side to this elusive DJ.

Trust me, it’s worth it! 🖤

Please note: I headcannon Kassam’s surname as Mansouri, and I headcannon his son’s name as Amir. It’s okay if you don’t agree!

💿 It’s canon that Kassam wants a family, but I can only see him having one child. A son. He has brothers, so a son would be perfect for him.

💿 Kassam wants to be relatively young when he has Amir. He wants to be at least 30 years old.

💿 Kassam comes from a traditional Algerian family. They wanted him to name his son after someone in the family, but he chose Amir. It had to be a cool name.

💿 In Arabic, Amir means “the prince.”

💿 Chelsea did not design Amir’s nursery. Kassam thought the less he had to interact with her the better. So, he hired his own designer instead.

💿 His son is going to be the best dressed newborn leaving the hospital. As he grows up, he will always be picking out his own outfits. Kassam is dead-set on Amir having his own sense of style.

💿 Kassam and Amir have matching studded blazers (iykyk).

💿 You wouldn’t expect it but Kassam is the type of dad to get up at all hours with his son. He has no problem changing him, feeding him, and doing all the daddy-duties.

💿 This is not a dad who is all over the place emotionally. Kassam has anxiety, but for the most part is pretty laid back. He does like a routine. So having Amir on a routine makes him very happy.

💿 Kassam is not active on social media, so he won’t be posting pictures of Amir. He isn’t keen on the idea of baby pictures of him being posted online anyway. Now, in his camera roll, on his phone? Full of pictures and videos. He looks at them all the time.

💿 It physically hurts Kassam to have to leave Amir when he goes on tour. Especially as a baby. They’re only that little once, and that’s why Kassam stays on FaceTime with him whenever he can.

💿 Like Lucas, Kassam will be very protective of his son. Not quite as intense as Lucas. Not just anybody will be his nanny, and he definitely won’t be going to just any daycare. He will most likely be looked after by a trusted family member. Probably Kassam’s mother.

💿 Kassam is the type of father who will encourage structure and discipline. He won’t be strict or authoritative like his own father was, but boundaries will be set.

💿 Expect multiple songs about Amir, if not an entire album.

💿 Amir is the only one he allows in his home recording studio while he’s working. He can multitask by making beats while Amir plays.

💿 School work will come easily to Amir. He’s the type of kid we all wished we could be like in school. The type of kid who never had to study and passed every test with an A. His favorite subject is math.

💿 Kassam isn’t going to be the loud, center of attention dad at any of Amir’s events, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t proud of him. Quite the contrary. He just wants to enjoy the event without chaotic parents (no offense Bruno, Bobby and Gary).

💿 As Amir grows up, he will be known for his parties. His dad’s an international DJ after all…

💿 The boys have a “pizza night”, every single Friday, where they eat pizza and watch trashy horror movies.

💿 Lucas and Kassam are close. They do hang out. I can see Lucas’s daughter being friends with Amir. Even if she is older than him, she looks out for him.

💿 They vacation to Algeria at least once a year. Kassam is very close to his grandparents, who still live there. He loves showing Amir around and immersing him in their culture.

💿 Did Amir inherit his fathers musical prodigy gene? Absolutely. Give him any instrument and he’ll play it. Especially a guitar. But he can’t stand techno music. Kassam just shrugs when he finds out.

His route is one of the most frustrating routes in the game. It’s hard to get him to say your name. This was the guide I used. I have found that it only works once. I do not remember who wrote this, so please let me know so I can credit them asap! And, this guide, by @kokokabana, is also very helpful. @ravenadottir has everything you’ll ever need here. From information on his route, to headcannons, even another way his route could have been written. I do mean there is everything there. @litgwritersroom has headcannons for Kassam here.

[mioakem]

Ranking td characters based on how big of swifties they are

Ezekiel- 0/10 doesn’t even know who Taylor is

Gwen- 1/10 doesn’t hate Taylor or anything, just doesn’t like that kind of music

Eva- 1.5/10 idk she just doesn’t rlly seem like she would like Taylor, more like have no real opinion on her, probs just doesn’t care

Duncan- 2/10 does not like Taylor one bit HOWEVER he listens to her with Courtney all the time and he’s slowly being converted

Harold- 2/10 no real opinion on her

Justin- 2.5/10 LOVES gorgeus but that’s abt it (he thinks of himself when he listens to it)

Leshawna- 3/10 not rlly her kind of music but she respects Taylor and likes some songs off of midnights and reputation

Cody- 3/10 vibes to some of her songs but not anywhere close to a fan

Owen- 4/10 knows some of the singles and likes them, not rlly a fan but likes her

Alejandro- 4.5/10 sadly not a swiftie however he does like all of heathers favorite Taylor songs and likes rep

Noah- 5/10 doesn’t rlly like music in general but he can appreciate her lyrics and actually rlly likes folklore and evermore

Geoff- 6/10 LOVES 1989

Trent- 7/10 big fan of folklore and evermore, doesn’t like her pop songs as much but sill appreciates them

Beth- 7.5/10 calls herself a swiftie but only rlly knows the popular ones, still loves Taylor tho

Izzy- 7.5/10 big fan of fearless and debut, loves her crazy girl songs

Dj- 8/10 loves lover sm, technically a swiftie

Heather- 8.5/10- she’s a huge rep girl, loves rep with her whole heart, loves the other albums too but rep is just on top for her

Bridgette- 9/10 adores 1989, screamed when 1989 tv was announced, huge swiftie

Sierra- 9.5/10 adores Taylor, went to the eras tour and thinks of Cody whenever she listens to any of her love songs

Katie and Sadie- 10/10 THEY ARE SUCH HUGE SWIFTIES. They went to the eras tour in matching loved outfits and cried when Taylor came on stage

Lindsay- 10/10 adores Taylor with all her heart, has trouble remembering the lyrics sometimes but tries her best, went to the eras tour like five times as loved every time

Tyler- 11/10 started listening to her bc of Lindsay but somehow became a bigger swiftie than her. He went to eras with Lindsay whenever she went and cried multiple times, fav album is lover but he loves all of them, knows every word to every song

Courtney 13/10 speak now is obv her fav. She’s been to every tour, been a fan since she was little, loves Taylor with every bone In her body, is in the top .1% of listeners and has been to a secret session. She loves dissecting all of her lyrics and relates to a concerning amount of her songs. Went to the show where speak now tv was announced and was a complete mess

[lanternburning19]

I talked a little bit about this on that Loverfest outfit poll, but Taylor always "previews" the outfits she will wear on tour in earlier performances. I thought this would be interesting to add to my #taylortouroutfits series. So starting with the Fearless tour, there's some interesting predictive programming:

Let's start with the first single of the Fearless era, Love Story. Taylor performed this song live for the first time at the 2008 CMA awards. The stage was decorated to look like a castle, and Taylor wore a purple ball gown. Before the end of the song, she changed into a white wedding dress, complete with a headband. Taylor did something VERY similar with her Fearless Tour performance of this song, just minus the fountain and guest appearance by Justin Gaston. She wore a red ball gown, and changed into a white dress and matching headband:

Fans noticed that the white Love Story wedding dress was the exact same one as the prom dress she wore in the You Belong With Me music video.

Speaking of You Belong With Me, Taylor has an evolution of performance outfits with this one, going all the way back to the Fearless album photoshoot. Taylor was depicted as a marching band nerd in the album booklet next to the printed lyrics of this song. She wore a blue and black marching band outfit and her signature blue nerd glasses (which I think were actually hers she wore irl). So observant fans were not surprised when she wore a similar blue and black marching band outfit in the You Belong With Me music video. For the Fearless Tour, Taylor also wore a marching band uniform. This one was yellow, white, and gold - colors that would become associated with the Fearless album.

One of Taylor's signature looks at this point in her career was sundresses and cowboy boots. So fans were not surprised when Taylor stepped out on stage in a sundress and cowboy boots during the Fearless Tour.

Notably, this outfit is worn during the b stage portion of the show, when Taylor sings Tim McGraw, a song off of her first album. And the sundress and cowboy boots look is mostly associated with her first album.

The other signature look for Taylor at the time was sparkly dresses. Specifically, Taylor frequently wore a sequined sleeveless shift dress. Taylor had multiples of this dress in every color - blue, silver, gold, etc. I freaked out a little when I noticed Taylor brought back this signature look - this time in red - for the Fearless Tour. Another fun little fact about this dress is that she wore a silver version of it when she performed with the Jonas Brothers. And on the Fearless Tour, she wore the red version of this dress during Forever and Always, a song about Joe Jonas.

Finally, the guitars. The guitars might as well be considered accessories to Taylor's tour outfits. Taylor first debuted this silver sparkly guitar in the Our Song music video. And Taylor brought out the same guitar to play Our Song on the Fearless Tour (and Our Song only! She played Fearless on the koa guitar).

And for the finale. Taylor wore a black strappy dress for her performance of Should've Said No at the ACM awards in 2008. Taylor wore a similar black strappy dress for her performance of Should've Said No on the Fearless Tour (for the first few shows).

[devilsrecreation]

Headcanons with the Coven Heads and their respective apprentices

Darius and Eberwolf:

-Eber is proud of Salem no matter how…macabre he acts.

-Salem has managed to befriend Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus. They’re a squad

-Eber LOVES Salem’s new friends and Darius thinks they’d be a good influence on him

-Just as he does with Hunter, Darius will protect him with his life

-Salem as sewed little outfits for Eberwolf and Darius could not be more proud

-Darius and Eber refer to Salem as Hunter’s little brother

-Salem calls Darius “Dadrius” and Eber “Papa wolf”

-Darius sometimes covers Salem with his cloak when he’s sleeping, usually with Eber sleeping next to him

Terra:

-Petunia once made a cerberus-like plant to act as a guard dog and Terra was so proud

-Half of the plants in Terra’s greenhouse were named by Petunia

-TERRA AND PETUNIA MAKE AND PUT FLOWER CROWNS ON EACH OTHER’S HEADS AND NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE

Bonus: Just because Petunia is her apprentice does not mean she loves Saul any less. She’s very proud of him, actually. Thinks he’d be a much better coven head than Osran. She’s very sweet with her kids :)

Osran:

-Saul has accidentally called Osran “grandpa” multiple times. The first time was also the day he realized Osran can show emotion

-Ozzie loves the kid. Magic-wise, Saul reminds him of what he was like when he was younger

-Saul is an expert on ghosts thanks to Osran. He’s as used to all of them as his mentor is

-Osran tends to give Saul a lot of life advice…especially when seeing Terra and Petunia. He sees them hurting someone and he’s like “Let me share some advice with you, boy. If you ever meet someone like your mother, you RUN.”

Vitimir:

-From the moment they met, Vit has sworn to protect Evangeline with his life

-“I’ve only had Evangeline for a day and a half, but if anything bad happened to her, I’ll kill everyone in the Demon Realm and then myself.”

-Eve once got severely injured when they were making a new potion together. She had a feeling it was gonna blow up and she pushed Vitimir out of the way so he wouldn’t get hurt again…BUT THAT’S ANOTHER STORY

-Gives Eve tips on how to survive Glandus

-Evangeline has a pet frog that Vit gave to her as a birthday present and she helps them brew potions

THIS IS THE FROGGE!!!!!!

He literally just found it in the wild and was like “That looks like a good present to give to a child.”

Her name is Ellie Xir (Ellie for short).

Hettie:

-Has unofficially adopted Arabella after going off on and beating the shit out of her disgusting mother :)

-Lets Alaric/Arabella work out with her after a lesson

-Alaric has his own scalpel as a gift from her

- Hettie supports everything Arabella does and Arabella supports everything Hettie does. Between them, it’s really wholesome, but to other people, it’s…VERY dangerous

Adrian:

-Adrian uses Serafine as an example when he’s criticizing the scouts. He’ll say things like “Why can’t you be more like Serafine? Her detail is so….gah!” while Serafine has to stand there like, super awkwardly

-Serafine once did a presentation about Adrian and he straight up cried

-When Adrian found out Serafine befriended Gus, he felt SO betrayed

Mason:

-is low-key scared of Wihnhilda

-That being said, he still cares about her and acts like a father figure to her

-Wihnhilda likes Mattholomule. He’s like a brother she’s never had

Raine:

-Has been a fan of Taylor and Tyler’s songs ever since the twins started their career

-While Scooter merely told them to say “My grandpa’s a former coven head/my mom’s the principal” when making friends, Raine told them to be themselves and act humble

-Raine tries to be really protective of them whenever they’re mentoring cuz according to Scooter, “If anything bad happened to my grandkids, I’ll break your spine”

-Taylor and Tyler have tried to get Raine to overcome their stage fright. Every single plan of theirs has backfired horribly