#music from another world

[readingbooksinisrael]

When I was younger, it was easier to know what I liked. Lately, I keep changing my mind about everything.

-Music from Another World/Robin Talley

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: Music from Another World

Author: Robin Talley

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2020

Genres: fiction, historical fiction, LGBT+, romance

Blurb: It's the summer of 1977, and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can't be herself anywhere - not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church, and certainly not at home, where her ultra-religious aunt relentlessly organises antigay political campaigns. Tammy's only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk...until she's matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything. Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully-shared secrets, and soon, their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies - the kind she tells for others, like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom, and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervour in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they'll stand for, and who they'll rise against.

[falling-star-cygnus]

my toxic personality trait is taking the unyielding stance of support for obscure media i’ve barely interacted with the second it gets hate, binging it all over again, and making it my entire personality for however long the endorphins last

[fleariddenart]

Sebek!!!

He's personally one of my favorite characters. I have not gotten to book 7 yet tho...

My opinion on him changed drastically over time, initially he was my least favorite character and I found him kinda annoying, but then I got to play the Halloween and the Glorious Masquerade events!

Truly he is just as ridiculous as everyone else at NRC, and I love that about him.

Bonus image of him listening to his workout tunes :D

[isp-annafer]

I find the snippet Jay showed us very, very interesting. Eurylochus went from, "Let's just cut our losses and run" in the Circe saga to "You miss your wife so bad you'd sacrifice your own crew." I wanna see this. I wanna see where Eurylochus's character development goes.

(And then Odysseus replies with, "You would have done the same", likely referencing to what he said in the Circe saga.)

Now, I have been told by numerous people that Odysseus sacrificed some of his crew to escape Scylla (which, yikes, and also may be the actual event refered to in No Longer You, because it fits so well. Thanks guys!)

Seems to me the Eurylochus from the Circe saga would have understood Odysseus sacrificing a few men for the greater good so that they can get home, but the Eurylochus in the next saga doesn't seem to agree. In fact, he condemns him for it in the Mutiny snippet.

Hey, wouldn't it be funny, if, while Odysseus is having his downward spiral into ruthlessness, Eurylochus had his own rollercoaster of a journey from distrusting the Captain's decisions after Polyphemus to actually trusting him again? Wouldn't that be funny?

It's implied Eurylochus had something to do with the bag of storm being opened, whether he did it himself or just never stopped the crew, Eurylochus's own mistrust of Odysseus, likely, led to it being opened, and so many people killed. Do you think he thinks about it? Does it eat him up inside? And when he advocated to leave the men-to-pigs behind and escape Circe while they still can, did Odysseus's determination to get them back, that he'd do anything to get Eurylochus back if it were him, slap him in the face, too? That was how much Odysseus cared for him, and yet Eurylochus had thrown that love at his face when the crew opened the bag of storms. And the thing was, Odysseus succeeded! He got the crew back (Mostly. Elpenor wtf were you doing up there), and it was by opening himself up to her! Wouldn't it be so funny if, in the end, it had been Eurylochus who picked up Polites's philosophy??

Dusted it off from where he had dropped it in grief. Held it up to the light where he could see the fractures, the flaws, but also the warm soft glow of it, too. He may not be able to trust the world to be kind, but he can trust Odysseus. And wasn't that what Polites had wanted in the end? Trust in each other. Lead from the heart. Whatever they face, they'll survive it together.

Wouldn't that be so, so funny?

Boy, I sure do hope Odysseus won't do anything that would irrepairably break that newly grown trust :))))))

*muffled Scylla boss music steadily growing in the distance*

[queenlucythevaliant]

We see him come and know him ours

Russia: "Carol of the Russian Children," traditional // Kenya: The Nativity, Elima Njau // France: "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella," Nicolas Saboly // Haiti: Madonna and Child, Ismael Saincilus // Australia: "The Three Drovers," William James // China: Tryptic by Lu Hongnian // Canadian/Algonquian: "Huron Carol," Jean de Brébeuf

[aq2003]

i saw a post saying boom was good bc it feels like it could be done with any doctor/companion duo and honestly that was one of the things i felt was wrong with it

[rubra-wav]

Broooooo I've got an idea for a Vox x reader that's like really unhinged:

Reader is this parasitic master manipulator who worms their way into people's lives and they get picked up by Vox when they fall into hell to essentially work for him as a spy on adversaries like other overlords where they adopt new identities and just fuck shit up, and he just watches them doing this for entertainment.

And they are both in love with one another, but the twist is that they are actually really healthy for each other and literally only each other

No reader whos actually nice and a good person getting him to be good. They are just both genuinely awful and in love with each other

This would also really work for a Velvette x reader too negl

[the-cat-at-the-theatre-door]

Once again I am thinking about the lyric parallels between Gus the Theatre Cat/Grizabella the Glamour Cat and Memory, not only in the comparison of how the other cats (namely Jellylorum) talk about Gus vs. how they talk about Grizabella, but more specifically how that one set of lyrics:

For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime/Though his name was quite famous, he says, in his time

I can smile at the old days/ I was beautiful then

Putting emphasis on the concept of *was* - as in no longer. As in these cats are trapped in a modern world that no longer has any use or affection for them, as it did once. Of...outliving their usefulness or their talent or (even more emphasized) the virality and attractiveness of their bodies (see how even affectionately Gus' physicality is commented upon as being a "shame" now, as is Grizabella's - less affectionately - considering what it was before), and struggling to adjust in a way that will never quite be possible for them. They are relics of old, they *realize* this even if they are aware of little else, and it's too late for adapting or catching up. They will long for their prime, but it will never be back in their grasp.

[raamitsu]

ONE is like the other guy that I know...

[seventh-district]

Could've left me just the way you found me, but you came and put your wings around me. You went out of your way, to fix what you didn't break.

This song is so incredibly Sam & Darlin' coded and no one can tell me otherwise.

[lots of lyrical analysis below the cut] [there's also a short little fanfic blurb of them stargazing down there too (this post got really out of hand lmao)]

For those not fully caught up, note that the following commentary contains various spoilers for Sam and Darlin's stories.

Note: Unfortunately this song is gendered, using the word 'girl' several times. Which sucks a little bit for immersion purposes, not only for keeping Darlin' gender-neutral, but also because I see this song as a duet between them, and Darlin' obviously wouldn't be addressing Sam with the word 'girl' either. So! As with most songs on their playlist, we're just gonna mentally omit any gendered terms we come across.

Side note: Frustratingly, this is one of those songs that didn't really even need to gender the subject in the first place. No part of the story or message is lost without it. But alas, many songs are like that, and so the playlist-makers of the world shall continue to suffer. [/lh]

Anyways, preamble's over. It's lyric time now yay!

Sam's Part

I was a ten-year train wreck

Technically for Sam I suppose it was 13 years, but ten is close enough (and 'ten' admittedly flows a lot better in the rhythm of the song than 'thirteen' would.) Anyways, we're not here to split hairs, (I have to remind myself), we're just here to point out similarities.

In Sam's Dec. '22 HBW, he says "For the last 13 years or so I haven't had to care too much about how I look. Seemed a little redundant after turnin', considerin' I didn't wanna be around much'a anybody anyway."

I think he's mentioned or alluded to that roughly 13 year period of time more than once, but that's the one I remember best so it's the example I'm using. There's still about 4 Sam audios I've yet to listen to as of making this post, so if I'm missing some Key Lore I'll edit this later. But for now, I don't think Sam has given many specifics on exactly how bad things got during that time. Luckily, 'train wreck' is a pretty broad and subjective term, so it easily covers any degree to which he may have fallen apart during those years.

It also feels like a very 'him' way of quickly brushing over the details of his past/his hurt, as he seems to tend to do with Darlin', (not all the time ofc but it's still something I've noticed) putting his own hurt on the backburner to prioritize and attend to theirs. Even outside of his dynamic with them, I think as a healer, it's something he learned to do. And now he does it with everyone. Put on a brave face, compartmentalize things and unpack them later, etc. I could go on and on but there'll be time for that in other posts I'm sure. For now, lets get back to the song at hand.

With a last-call longneck

Due to personal reasons, I've yet to decide if I want to HC him as having used alcohol as a coping mechanism during that time. I don't recall him having mentioned alcohol much, if at all, (maybe one mention of whiskey that I don't have time to find right now) so I don't think it's necessarily canon that he did, but it's certainly possible. My personal preferences aside, I'll admit it makes for some good additional angst. (And- self-indulgently- it makes some other songs on my playlist for them more fitting.) So, for the sake of this song, let's imagine that he did.

I was searchin', I'd been hurt real bad

This one feels pretty self-explanatory given what Alexis did, (and, if you wanna get even angstier with it, whatever his family did earlier on in his life) so there isn't much commentary to add on my end.

I HC that in spite of 'not wanting to be around anybody', he- like Darlin- still had a tiny part of himself buried deep down that was, in a way, 'searching' for someone to find solace in. (No this isn't me projecting onto them both haha what are you talking about-)

Movin' on, gettin' sidetracked One step forward and five back

This is generally applicable enough that I don't feel the need to give too much of a specific example. Anyone who's recovered or is recovering from trauma knows this non-linear, back-and-forth struggle well already, and I'm sure he was no stranger to it.

If I were to give some examples though, I could point to Darlin's (and subsequently, Sam's) encounter with Alexis at the summit, or the shit that Quinn dredged up about Fredrick and threw at Sam in the interrogation room. Those are both more recent examples and I imagine these lines of the song to be coming from a place of him prior to meeting Darlin', but still, they're some instances where I'm sure he felt like the past was pulling him back in. I'm sure that there's been many throughout those 13 years that we were never witness to.

Not your fault, I was scared to fall

This line reminds me of their 'Cuddles and Confessions' audio. I don't think he ever explicitly said he was 'scared' per se, so afaik there's no specific line I can quote, but in that and every audio prior, he was obviously hesitant to admit, perhaps even to himself, that he was gradually falling for them. Even after the initial confession, there's certain limits of his (e.g. biting) that he carries for far longer, and some that I (and others) HC that he'll carry forever. So this line feels to me like him reassuring Darlin' that his reluctance isn't the fault of them, but his past.

Darlin's Part

You were the star in the pitch black Shine the way on the way back

We don't have any canon instances of them comparing Sam to a star, but I can see it being something they'd say (perhaps less poetically, but the sentiment would be there) one night while laying up on their roof watching the stars with him. Maybe they're dead-tired, talking nonsense with lidded eyes at the end of a long day, fighting sleep in favor of more time spent with him.

"What- what're you pointin' at Darlin'?"

Their hazy focus is trained on the brightest star visible in their line of sight, arm stretched out to the sky above them. "That really bright one, to the... to the left."

Sam does his best to follow their less-than-specific directions of 'to the left', their pointed finger doing little to help given the difference in perspective. Luckily, after all these years, he knows this stretch of night sky like the back of his hand, so it isn't hard to locate the brightest one. Ghosting his fingers up along their arm, he takes their hand in his and brings it back down to earth. "Okay, yeah, I see it now. What about it though?"

"That's you." They say, matter-of-factly.

"That's me?" He questions, humor in his tone.

"Mhm." They nod with finality, blinking slow.

Sam considers the odd statement for a moment before gently correcting them. "I'm uh, I'm pretty sure that's Sirius, actually."

They scoff. "I am being serious."

Sam stifles a laugh into their hair. "No- no I mean- like... what's another name for it... Oh! It's also called the Dog Star."

"C'mon Sam, at least call it the Wolf Star if you're trying to turn this around on me..."

He shakes his head and readies himself to explain further, but they cut him off before he can start. "But no- no, this one isn't about me. That's you."

He decides to play along, finding something endearing in their overtired nonsense. "Okay... then would'ja be so kind as to explain to this confused old man just how, or why that star is me?"

Their frown is audible in their voice as they latch onto the wrong part of his sentence. "You're not old, Sam. ...Do I need to tell Asher to kick the jokes down a notch?"

He smiles at their over-protectivity. "There'll be no need for that, now. Was just a joke, darlin', I promise."

They huff, but thankfully shift focus back to the prior topic. "It's... I dunno. It's just you, Sam. It's... bright. Light. Something warm, out there in the cold dark. Standing out amongst all the rest. Calling to me, stealing my attention. I... I didn't come out here looking for it, but there it is. ...There you were. In the dark. The only bright thing I'd seen in... fuck, in years. Years of chasing fleeting warmth, tripping over myself in the pitch black, falling into... places 'n people I shouldn't have. You were the light in that darkness. Even there, surrounded by the ghost of him. You outshone it. Your warmth didn't hurt. I didn't have to squint when I looked at you. You weren't the blinding sun. You were the brightest star I'd ever seen. You guided me back home."

In the back of their mind, they recall something they once heard, something about light, and time, and distance. Space. Something about... how you can see a star that's already burnt out, because it's light hasn't reached earth yet. The ghost of a star that's already died. Only still perceptible thanks to time, and distance.

They remember Sam's words, once whispered to them on this very roof.

"Whatever your choice is... I'm not gonna live forever. I made that decision a long time ago."

They think about dead stars.

They think about time.

"...-lin'? Darlin'?" Sam's calloused hand slides up their forearm, pulling them out of their thoughts. "There you are. Think I lost ya' for a minute there... you good?"

They look up at Sam, concern creasing his features, shadows cast across his face from the light of the dying stars above him.

They reach out, pulling him down into them. Burying their face into his collar, Sam's concern grows when he feels it saturate with tears. A human might struggle to hear their words, muffled against the thick fabric, but his hearing catches it just fine.

"Don't burn out too quick. Please. I still need you here. I don't- I don't wanna be left in the dark again. Please, please Sam. Don't leave me here. I'm not selfish enough to ask you for forever, but please. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet."

.......Whoopsies! Really, genuinely didn't mean to improv an entire scene there, good god. Also didn't mean to swerve hard into angst at the end but uh. that's what came out! so I'm rolling with it lmao. Aaanyways let's move on, it's getting late and this is a song analysis post, not a fic.

Out of nowhere, answered all my prayers

'Out of nowhere' reminds me of Sam's words from the same HBW video I referenced earlier. "You came into my life like a damn wreckin' ball. There was no preparing for that, clothing or otherwise." While those were Sam's words, not Darlin's, I still feel like they feel similarly to how suddenly Sam came into their life as well. (Not in a bad way, mind you!)

[the significance of 'answered all my prayers' edges into my own personal more headcanon-y/personal/OC-ified Darlin' territory, so we can just gloss over this one for the sake of at least attempting to keep this more universally applicable]

Picked up the towel that I threw in Took in a heart that was ruined

Again, largely self-explanatory I feel. (*proceeds to explain anyways*) I imagine that Darlin' was at the point of throwing in the towel, hellbent on a solo-mission to find Quinn regardless of the danger it posed to them. I doubt they were looking toward the future anymore, (to reference Sam,) fully willing to throw themself at their problems until they really did break.

The specific use of 'ruined' hits hard here, because after everything they went through with Quinn, and especially after he recounted it all to Sam in that interrogation room, I imagine that they really, truly did feel ruined.

Showed me the past ain't a tattoo Loved me even when you didn't have to

These lines in particular make me sick with emotion every time I hear this song, because I feel like they hit the nail on the head for how Darlin' feels.

I'll be here citing various quotes all night that I feel showcase that sentiment, but we don't have time for that! So instead I'm just pointing to the entirety of 'Quinn's Aftermath' video, and leaving you with this single quote from it.

"Everything that he said reflects nothin' on you, and everything on him."

Equally Applicable Lines

And I don't know why Why you saw something in me, baby But you saw right through All the pain, and you came and saved me Yeah, I know you didn't leave me lonely Weren't the one that put the heartbreak on me Picked up the pieces It wasn't the mess that you made Could've left me just the way you found me But you came and put your wings around me You went out of your way To fix what you didn't break

Again, I think these lines are all pretty self-explanatory, and are just as accurate coming from either one of them. To me, at least, their entire dynamic is that they saved each other, in their own ways.

(But I will admit, the final verses about 'going out of your way to fix what you didn't break' are definitely conjuring up memories of Sam in the early days, literally going out of his way to visit and heal Darlin' after their fight with the two vamps. In general, his continued/repeated healing of them after they once again hurt themselves is the very literal definition of fixing what he didn't break.

But! While we may have more blatant examples of Sam being 'the fixer' so to speak, I think he'd argue that Darlin' has done plenty fixing of their own. Physical wounds aren't the only things that need healing, after all.)

-------

[shameless self-promo of my Sam & Darlin' playlist for those few of u interested enough to make it to the very end of this wall of text. if u liked this then u might like some of the other songs on there soooo maybe go check it out and maybe perhaps give it a follow so i can get a little serotonin boost or dopamine or whatever the chemical is that's released when Number Go Up. ...okay that's it i hope u enjoyed my fixation-induced ramblings! thank u and goodnight]

[readingbooksinisrael]

God made each of us the way we are. Why are we supposed to think being different is a bad thing?

Music from Another World/Robin Talley

[oklotea]

Sooooo I haven't moved on from the trolls world tour bounty hunters.

The reggaeton trolls and their really cool designs and music....

Hickory and Dickory's entire thing with playing the long haul in trying to get close to poppy to steal her string.......

THE KPOP TROLLS AND THEIR MISSED POTENTIAL AND AND THEIR DESIGNS AND THEY'RE REALLY CUTE AND LOVELY

And CHAZ THE FUCKING SMOOTH JAZZ TROLL!??!??!??!?! need I say more. I mean just look at him.

I am going to start. A fandom. Surrounding these guys. Just watch me.

They are so silly and I love them

[vimbry]

"nanobots" the song is this deconstructed view of child development and parenthood where it's like, 'wow have you ever thought about how weird producing offspring is. like, it's weird, right! we make these little people and they quickly grow into their own individual personalities with their own lives and autonomy and I've lost all authority and there's so many and you've gotta be responsible for them all the time, what did I do !!!'

but as well as approaching it with this slightly overwhelmed perspective, there's a sort of affectionate optimism in there, too. that even tho the concept's intimidating, there's a sense of wonder in how humans develop and raising them and watching them grow up. hey this kid thing's fun actually, yeah I wish they'd leave me alone sometimes, but look at how cute and resilient they are look at what they can do. and then "replicant" is like jesus parenting a teenager is hard.

[notanotherockstar]

I think sometimes people HAVE to work with abusers because the industry is just so filled with them that you can't boycott them all or it's actually you who are being boycotted or jobless. But date? That too when she is already on this level. This was SOOOO avoidable and yet she willing chose him. Willing looked past all of his racism and what not and for what prize? Ratt Mealy?

yup, exactly

many up and coming female (and even some male) actors and artists find themselves with no other choice but to work with horrible men

recent examples i can think of is chloe bailey - a lot of people gave her so much shit for working with chris brown without thinking that she simply may not have had a say in who her record label wants her to collab with

as well as with the women who end up working with sam levinson, i doubt either sydney sweeney, alexa demie, barbie ferreira, hunter schafer or lily-rose depp enjoy having to be canvases that sam can paint his p*rn fantasies upon

but that being said taylor, the biggest pop star in the world, is definitely not being forced to do anything especially not date an absolute and utter shithead

this whole thing reeks of when taylor dated john mayer, a very obvious racist and misogynist but back then she was a child who just seemed to be so hopelessly infatuated with him who just couldn't see what was wrong with him

but now she's a grown thirty three year old woman and she's once again dating an obvious racist and misogynist only this time it's very obvious that she knows about the things he's done and she knows what her fans (and even just the general public) are saying about her - about them and she's just choosing to ignore it

and that isn't it, especially when she's choosing to stay quite about politics and social issues while working with people have done incredibly shitty things, traveling all around the world in her private jet whilst there's a climate crisis going on, and performing in states like florida and texas whose governments are doing everything in their power to the strip rights of women and the lgbt community

[w-i-m-m]