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areislol · 2 years ago

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I stumble upon your writing and I actually really love it. Is it okay if I request on Neteyam, Lo'ak, and Ao'nung with a human reader with their first time hearing human music? And they actually end up liking it and the human reader teaching them with fun human dance? Again your writing is amazing! 😊💙

neteyam, lo’ak, ao'nung x human! reader

ft— neteyam, lo’ak, ao'nung warnings— nothing that i can think of... please tell me if i do need to add anything! gn! reader, the boys & reader are friends but they both like each other, fluff!! a/n— MY FIRST EVER AVATAR REQUEST!! and im so glad you love my writing ^^ im not really a fan of ao'nung since he's sort of mean but! im sure he'll change, didn’t know if it was platonic or not so i just went w/ friends but crushing. hope you enjoy this love! synopsis— letting him listen to some of your favourite music, you don't expect him to like it, but he does.

you had always kept your phone and earphones with you, it was like your comfort(ish), listening to music was comforting.

even after landing on Pandora and meeting the omaticaya clan and the metkayina clan, you always kept your phone in your pocket.

he was always so interested and intrigued by your phone, pressing the screen and clicking on the apps, not knowing what it did.

one day, you were on your phone, taking pictures of the reef when you felt someone behind you, it was like someone tall looming over you, trying to look at what you’re doing.

and you were correct, he was looming over you, trying to see what you were doing

“im taking a picture, remember what that means?” you say, putting your phone down, he nods.

you two sit down on the sand, using the trees leaves as shade, you pull out your phone and press on an icon that looked like “ ♫ “, you put your hands in your pocket and grab out something that looked tangled.

it was quite long and black, it had two stubs at the top. upon grabbing them, he looked at you, eyes filled with curiosity.

you plug the earphones into the designated spot for the earphones, you put one of the stubs into your ear, he watched your every move.

he sat beside you, looking at the long black strings connected to your phone when you lent him one of the other half of the black stub.

he quirked his eyebrow, eyeing the mysterious string looking thing, you offered to him again, this time putting your arm out a bit more further

he reluctantly takes it and observes it, he sees you pointing to his ear indicating that he’s meant to put it in his ear

he puts the bud in his ear and doesn’t hear anything, he gives you a look, “what’s meant to happen?” he asks, you put your phone in the middle and press a button, that’s when something starts to play... the volume low, you didn’t want his ears hurt or anything since it would be his first time listening to music.

neteyam x human! reader

He doesn’t know what to make of this, it’s his very first time listening to music, neteyam doesn’t understand, how could he hear another person’s voice through this little bud? many things and questions are going on in his mind, but most importantly, he can hear the melody in his ear. It’s nothing like what you’d hear at a ceremony, with percussions/natural instruments. It’s directly in his ear. You see his eyes squinting from confusion, his ears twitching. The volume is low but hearable, neteyam is still, not moving a muscle, while you on the other hand was bobbing your head and occasionally humming to the tune. Neteyam stares at you, wondering why you’re moving like that. Your eyes are closed, taking in the music, enjoying the music. Neteyam can’t help but feel all these unexplainable emotions and feelings, he doesn’t know what to say or think, but what he does know is that he enjoys it. The rhythm and beat is enjoyable, the person who was singing sounded nice, but not as good as the other singers from the omaticaya clan. The way you express how much you love and enjoy the song makes the song much more enjoyable, it even starts to make him feel good, smiling even. You catch him humming to the tune very few times, he had memorized the tune after hearing it repeat. The volume is always kept low, if it goes any higher, it might irritate neteyam or hurt his eardrums, that’s what you think anyways. About halfway through the song you press your finger on your phone, pausing the song. When hearing the song stop, neteyam looks at you confused, “why did you stop it?” neteyam questions, you turn your head to face him, you take out your earbud and when you do, he follows your action. “Well i didn’t know if you liked it or not so...” you reply while shrugging your shoulders, now focusing on the reef. There was a pregnant pause before he spoke again, “I do like it, it has a nice.. feeling.” he mumbles, his tail slapping the sand, once again, it was silent, it was killing you, the neteyam pressing a button on your phone, playing the song. You looked back at neteyam who was now staring at you, he had the earbud in his ear, the other one in his hand, neteyam held out your earbud and you took it without any hesitation. Your put the earbud in and you could hear the music, but instead of paying attention to the song, you paid attention to neteyam who was bobbing his head lightly, it looked like he was trying to mimic your movement. He was adorable. “Enjoying it?” you ask while chuckling, neteyam stops bobbing his head and gives you a nod. “Yes, i like it.” You’re not shocked or surprised, neteyam had always been intrigued by the “sky people’s” culture when he first met you, just as you were with their culture. So it didn’t shock you very much when he said that he enjoyed and liked the song. You pick up your phone, being careful not to stretch out the earbuds, you then swipe to play another song, neteyam remembered what you did so just incase he wanted to listen to music and then switch songs.. While listening to the songs neteyam asked you a question, it was if the sky people danced. If they danced to their favourite song or songs in general. You heard his question and quickly paused the song, you took out your earbud and set it down, neteyam sets his one down as well. “Yes we do teyam. We dance to our favourite songs, we dance at balls, graduations, whenever we feel like it.” you state. Neteyam nods to tell you that he understands you, “what are balls? and graduation?” neteyam asks, pronouncing the word ‘graduation’ with an accent, he had never of that word before so his accent was pretty clear. “Balls is basically dancing elegantly with a partner in a big room, with very fancy music. Not like the one we were listening to,” you look at neteyam to make sure that he’s understanding you, he gives you a nod which meant to ‘carry on’. “Graduations is when someone from grade 5-12 finishes their grade and most times they party you know? to celebrate the end of year and grade. For the year 12′s it is a very special and important time, they go out to find jobs, to find a place to live and to live adulthood.” you finish answering, neteyam seemed a bit.. confused. He was being fed a lot of information that he didn’t really understand, which made him feel a little bit too much and you can’t blame him. Neteyam sat still, looking at you. You’re staring at him when you have an idea, you didn’t know if it’d suck or not but it’s worth a shot. You stood up, grabbing your phone with your earphones attached, neteyam continues to stare at you, wondering why you got up out of nowhere, that was until you spoke. “Would you like me to teach you how to dance? the human way that is..” You’re standing there awkwardly, waiting for a response when you see neteyam get up, his much taller figure looms over you. Neteyam looked shy, his ears pointed downwards, his tail swaying side to side, avoiding eye contact with you only for a few seconds before he held your hands, “teach me.” This interaction made your heart pound rapidly, you hesitantly pulled your hand away, taking a few deep breaths you beamed at him, “of course!” and from that you unplugged your earphone from your phone, you put the earphones in your pocket and scrolled on your phone before stopping to press on a song, a slow and classical song plays, neteyam was confused. It sounded so, soft, “elegant” and slow. You went back to neteyam and held his arm, “don’t worry ‘kay? If you’re uncomfortable or want to stop just tell me.” You spend the next few 30 minutes and possibly even an hour teaching him how to sway side to side, twirl you around, and trying to waltz but it was hard to do so when he’s literally 3 feet taller than you, AND when he’s trying so hard to not step on your foot, it’d be one, embarrassing and two, it’d hurt your foot and would probably hurt for days. When you and neteyam got bored of dancing to the classical song, you switched up the music. This time it was the same song that neteyam first heard, it would be much easier to teach since neteyam already enjoys the song. After picking the song you go back where neteyam stood just started to... dance. There isn’t a specific way to dance when you’re enjoying something, like a NPC, you just dance however you feel like. You moved one of your shoulders up and the other down(if it was in the birds eye view) and did the opposite and then repeat, your head bobbing slightly. Neteyam followed what you did closely and started to mimic your dance moves, he was stiff and tense at first but seeing how you really seemed enjoyed everything he loosened up a bit and let his joy take over. You spun around and danced, and whenever there was a drum part you’d stop dancing and drum to the beat, neteyam was confused at first but upon hearing the drum, he pieced one and two together and understood, you did it enough times that even neteyam started to do it, the people walking past you and neteyam would give you weird looks because what are you two doing? but neither you or neteyam cared, you two were just enjoying your time together(or he’d shoot them looks which would make them instantly look the other way and scurry away while you’re still dancing, eyes closed, and when you open your eyes you see neteyam enjoying himself, not staring daggers at people). The entire time neteyam’s watching you, observing you, admiring you. The way your eyes light up and widen when your favourite part of the song comes on, the way you sing along, you looked so happy. Your expressions and dancing was enough to make him smile and tag along, neteyam watched you the entire time, he could never get enough of you. At the end of your ‘lesson’ you were tired but neteyam, on the other hand was not at all. It was like a warm up to him. “When can you teach me next time?” neteyam asks, still standing up, staring at you who’s sitting on the sand absolutely drained. Taking a few deep breaths you look right back at him, “eager to learn, hm?” you say, a smile adorning your face. He nods and sits down beside you, you two don’t talk for some times, both thinking. You may even teach him the cha cha or other famous dances (not any tiktok dances) that you think he might enjoy. “Maybe tomorrow?” you reply, neteyam nods his head. Whatever you teach him, he’ll always remember and one day you two might dance together, as friends, best friends or mates.

lo’ak x human! reader

Lo’ak’s ear twitches, it felt.. weird to say the least. The music, the sounds, they were coming from this small bud and entered in his ear. He has never experienced this before, he’s nervous. Once he sees you dancing to the music, he eases a little. If you’re enjoying this then he should too, his eyes paying much attention to you. The entire time, you were never out of his sight. You were sitting on the sand, listening to your favourite song, you were bobbing your head side to side to the beat of the song and sang the lyrics. Lo’ak listened to your singing, and it felt as if this voice went all through his body, into his veins and blood. Slowly but surely lo’ak started to slightly bob his head as well. His tail whipped around, his ears twitching upwards, he remains quiet just watching you doing your thing. “What do you think of it?” you question, pressing the pause button on your phone, lo’ak hums, he ponders for a bit before answering, “i... i liked it? it was nice to listen to, i don’t know what to say, how can i hear this other person through this little... object?” lo’ak spoke, he sounded hesitant to speak his mind even though he thought of his answer. He held up the little bud to your face, “well, uhm, you just connect this earphone to your phone and everything that you normally hear that comes out of the phone will come out through the earphones, you put it in your ear to hear, you can’t listen to it if you don’t have it in.” you explain with a faint smile on your face, you hope the he understands and he does, somehow. Lo’ak gives you a nod and goes on to ask you more questions about the song you two were just listening to, what it meant since every song has a meaning and others. Answering all of his questions made lo’ak even more curious, he wanted to know all the details, even if you knew little yourself. When he asked you about if the sky people danced as well, you nod your head, “of course we do! why wouldn’t we?” you reply, lo’ak shrugged. After receiving that answer your eyebrows furrowed, out of the blue you shot up, which resulted in lo’ak flinching. “Are you okay?” lo’ak asks worriedly, “why wouldn’t i be?” you respond before getting up, a gentle smile adorned your face, “want me to teach you?” you suggest, for a few (what felt like) long seconds lo’ak thinks, not before long he gives you a nod, “sure” and with that answer he gets up and you start to scroll on your phone, trying to find a song to play, after scrolling for a bit you found one of your favourite songs and pressed play. Hearing the music playing, lo’ak’s ear twitches up, his eyes kept on your figure the entire time. You then explain to him that there wasn’t anything you needed to teach him, there’s nothing specific to do when dancing, you just.. dance. It all depends on what and how you’re feeling. Lo’ak is confused, how he is just supposed to dance to his feelings? normally you learn dances from the teacher, you’re prepared. “How do you.. dance like that?” lo’ak asks, you shrug in response, “let the music take over your body.” you then say. You continue to dance while lo’ak stood still, watching your every move, watching the way your body moved when you danced, his eyes trained on you and only you. You went over to your phone and turn up the volume only by a bit then resumed dancing, lo’ak watched as you danced once again, he was hesitant to dance at first but after a few encouraging words he finally builds up the courage to start dancing along with you. Lo’ak doesn’t know what to do but observing your moves proved to be useful as he starts to copy your movements and dance with you. “Nice moves lo’ak!” you cried out while giving him a sweet smile. Once your words were registered in his mind his movements seemed to slow down, lo’ak looked much shyer now, his eyes downcast, his tail swaying from shyness or excitement, you don’t know, but what you do know is that he’s slowly enjoying this, his dancing at first was tense, he was stiff, but now? it’s like a boy going from having no balls to having balls which is a huge step. When lo’ak was getting the hang of it, you taught him how to twirl (you) and the cha cha, yes, the cha cha, and in all honestly lo’ak absolutely loved it when he twirled you, it looked fun, he wished you were just a bit taller though so maybe you could twirl him too... Lo’ak loved every second of this little lesson, the sky people’s culture differs from the na’vi one, but he has grown to (sort of) like it, being intrigued by some of the things that they don’t have but you have, curiosity always fills his mind, which may lead to good come outs, and bad come outs. Lo’ak is sure that he enjoyed todays lesson, even asking you if you could teach him more dances or things that sky people normally do which you agree at. Lo’ak goes to sleep that night, thinking about they way you held his hand, his arm, the way you stared at him when he danced with you, your eyes were on him. Needless to say, he slept with a smile on his face.

ao’nung x human! reader

He doesn’t even know why he’s listening to “whatever this is”, butttt since you said that you enjoyed this he indulged. To say the least he’s fascinated by this small “device”, what you call it. Ao’nung hears a melodic tune in his ear, he’s confused and will probably be forever until you answer his question(s), how could this happen? he finds it odd and is already asking you questions. “How does it work?” “what it the meaning of that? what is the purpose?” “who made them?” “how does it just work like that when you put it in your phone?”, he’s bombarding you with questions and you can’t even answer them due to the fact that he’s overlapping each question one by one, you have to stop him from questioning you any further or you might be overwhelmed with all the questions. When you tell ao’nung to “stop for a second” he immediately stops, looking at you with confusion for a second but seeing how your eyes squinted and your confused look on your face he pieces one and two together and figures that you’re overwhelmed by his questions, he mutters a quiet ‘sorry’ under his breath, but you don’t catch that. After a few seconds you resume talking, this time explaining the purpose of the earphones and how it works. You paused the song to talk and he almost looks disappointed to say the least.. his face droops for a bit but once you look up he looks fine, weird. Once you were done explaining, ao’nung processes everything in his mind, so you just plug it in the phone and it works? wow. You could see how ao’nung still looked confused, thinking of something to make him understand it more, (since he was really intrigued by your earphones) you finally think of something and turn to face ao’nung who was staring at you but it felt more like he was staring right beside you. It was like he was zoning out. ″Ao’nung?” you whisper, poking his arm while looking at his face to see if he’ll react and thankfully he did. His shook his head lightly and looked down to look at you, once seeing that he was now focusing on you, his gaze was on you. You cleared your throat and asked your question, “would you.. would you like me to teach you how to dance? the human way.”, ao’nung is still, he doesn’t know what to say but his big ego says otherwise. ″Sure, it probably isn’t hard anyway.” he answers, giving you a smug look on his face and shrugging before getting up, rolling your eyes playfully you grab your phone and press “play”. Ao’nung is confident that he’ll do amazing, no mistakes, absolutely nothing. He’ll nail it. But this lesson proved to be harder than he thought. Getting up, you walked over to where ao’nung stood and was he so much taller than you, it made you knees felt like jelly and made your heart pound 100 times faster... but you snapped out of your thoughts and started your “lesson”, bobbing your head you started to sing the lyrics, “aren’t you meant to teach me how to dance your way?” you nod, still singing, “why aren’t you doing that then?” he asks, “just listen to the song, and once you really start to feel it, you’ll start to dance.” you respond with a shrug. Ao’nung tsks and crosses his arm, eyeing you as you started to do these random moves, it was new to him, and it certainly made you look funny but he found it amusing. Gradually ao’nung felt this weird feeling, it was like warmth, it radiated through out his body, was it the sun? can’t be. The song, you singing made him feel some type of way, and to his dismay (?) he enjoyed it, he liked it. A smile creeps onto his face, you’re enjoying the song and look at ao’nung who is now dancing along with you but his dancing is... a bit stiff, you almost cringe. So in order to relax him you decide to change the song to something more relaxing and classic. Yes, classical music. Changing the music, ao’nung stared at you, confused on why you changed the song when a soft, slow melody plays. You walk up to ao’nung, “twirl me around, here,” you mutter, taking his hand and making him hold your hand, ao’nung can’t help but feel his cheeks heating up, his heart beating much faster now. You gesture him to raise his hand but once he does he almost lifts you up, you yelp and he stops. Ao’nung chuckles before apologizing. Letting out a huff you accept his apology and tell him to spin you around, he does so, and he does it quite well. You tell him to “flex his arm out” and “step back a bit”, he complies, and when he does you do too. You and ao’nung practice this for a while until he’s finally not so stiff. Every time he made progress you would praise him and clap, making him feel more shy under your gaze. That made him want to keep on practicing and dancing with you. While you two were practicing and dancing, ao’nung kept his eyes on you but upon seeing a familiar group walking beside where you two were, he shifted his gaze from you to them. It was his friend group, sure they were all his friends but he couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed, his friends caught him dancing with you, someone they despised due to the fact you weren’t one of them, na’vi. They were giggling and pointing at you two, covering their mouths to speak about you or him, but after looking at you, he regained his confidence. He looked back at his group, staring daggers at them. If looks could kill they would be on the floor already. Ao’nung mouthed “leave.” and gave them a stern and dark look, his friends rolled their eyes and walked away, waving their hands around and grumbling. Once they were out of his sight he turned to look at you who was now looking at him, you looked annoyed. “What’s your excuse now?” you say sternly. Ao’nung looks at you wide eyed before apologizing and explaining that he saw his friends and that they were bothering him. You eye him, squinting your eyes before letting out a “hmph” and changing the song, ao’nung sighed in relief, at least you didn’t scold him for not practicing when he agreed on doing so, but that relief didn’t last when you told him that he was going to learn how to do the waltz. He had you talking about “waltzing” to one of the sully kids and it did not sound fun at all, with you mentioning how some people step on each others shoe. It wouldn’t be fun if he stepped on your foot, but if you stepped on his foot it’d be nothing. You grinned upon seeing how ao’nung looked like he didn’t want to do this. You two spent the next hours waltzing, he hated it, but as long as it was with you then he didn’t mind. The feeling of your touches made his heart beat faster, how you gently touched his arm, the way you guided his hands to where they need to be made him stiff, to which you frowned upon and went on about how ‘no matter how many times you un-stiffen him, he always end up being stiff and tense again!!”. It’s not like he can control it though. At the end of the lesson you and ao’nung are walking back to where the the village is, both of your hands brushing against each other occasionally which makes you two look at each other, then when both of your eyes meet you both instantly turn away. There is silence before ao’nung clears his throat which makes you look up at him, “when can you teach me again..?” he asks, you raise your eyebrows at him and shrug your shoulders, “hm.. maybe never?” you joke, ao’nung face drops and he stops dead in his tracks. You’re quick to give your real answer though, “wait! im just kidding! tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon.” you say, a tinge of panic laced your words. Once ao’nung hears your reply he eases and resumes walking, with you catching up with him. “You’ve got to stop that.” “stop what?” “teasing me.”, you roll your eyes playfully and he smiles. “More like you need to stop teasing me on a daily basis.”

note: if you would like to be added to the avatar taglist pls just ask me!! dont be shy <3

taglist: send me an ask or comment to be in my avatar taglist^

liking + following + reblogs are very much appreciated!!

another note: im going on a cruise with my friends and family on jan 8th to jan 13th so i wont be writing from then :( enjoy!! also ao’nungs part is a bit rushed so <33

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!

#avatar x reader #neteyam x reader #lo'ak x reader #ao'nung x reader #atwow

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bennetisaac · 5 months ago

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ghost eyes marching band au bcus the first day of band camp hit me like a bus. if ur in any discord servers with me shut up you haven’t seen this before

tobias: drum major

nobody knows how or why tf he was picked. carmelo’s just a little shitty about it but he won’t say anything. Tobi’s movements are very rigid and sharp. he will NOT hesitate to make your ass run if you aren’t paying attention / doing the right thing. Before that, he played tenor saxophone / plays it during concert band. doesn’t have a cool salute even tho rudy BEGGED him to make one.

rudolph: gaurd

HE IS SO LOUD AND EXCITED. arguably the most enthusiastic person there. since tobias is too quiet, he helps lead the warmups. hes really spirited at football games and always makes the band bus to comps REALLY REALLY fun. he brings a HUUUUGE bag to camp so everybody has what they need. he plays flute / percussion during concert season.

emilio: bass clarinet

very strong clarinet. he’s a strong marcher, he just has to take breaks pretty often. he’s the senior that everybody is afraid of because he’s been doing it forever, even if it wasn’t at their school. he’s got perfect pitch and is not afraid to tell you if you’re flat. he’s that kid who’s REALLY good at his instrument it’s scary

carmelo: drumline, base drum

he was really hoping from drum major, but he still loves his percussion. he’s the section leader. they all fuck around and tobias has to yell at them a lot to quit. he used to be in the pit, but he likes drumline more. nobody knows if he’s serious about band or not. that kid who’s always on his phone. he’s the kid who brings a speaker on the band bus

EXTRA PPL

francis: percussion , keyboard

only really joined because he had absolutely nothing else going on for him. it’s also unclear if he’s serious or not. carmelo’s always out of place cus hes over near the pit talking to them.

dino: tuba

he’s arguably the best brass player they have.

mattias: percussion , guitar

he was only needed for this show in particular because there was a guitar solo in it, and Tobias volunteered him. he loves band a lot and thinks the people are fun. tried to march once and almost immediately hit the blacktop.

adam: drumline, snare drum

was forced into joining early by rudy, actually really loves it. has become carmelo’s “favorite newbie”

VARIOUS HC

tobias throws chalk at peoples heads to keep them focused.

speaking of chalk, they almost got it taken because carmelo / his percussion friends all went around getting their hands covered in the chalk and slapping their friends asses (specifically black shorts) to leave white hand prints on them. carmelo promptly got chased around the field by rudolph

phillippa is 10000% a band mom. she volunteers for everything she ever can. people have started calling her mom or mama phillippa

tobias has the entire score memorized and WILL call you out by name if you fuck it up

rudolph is the biggest advocate for the guard to ever exist. “we should eat first because we have to do makeup before the competition!!!”

#ghost eyes #ghost eyes webtoon #emilio murkmere #rudolph richardson #tobias schneien #carmelo demonte #mattias schneien #dino ghost eyes #francis delacruz #adam richardson

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samneric-ericnsam · 9 months ago

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Hellooooo kiddos… if you’re feeling up to it, you should talk all about what your lives were like before… everything. With the presumed drastic change from then to now, I hope you treat yourselves with excessive kindness! It’s certainly deserved.

(Also, if you please, let Ralph know that I’m proud of him. I simply think he needs to hear it.)

“Oh- We don’t mind at all! It’s a little hard to recall everything since things have been a little blurred with all that’s happened. We spent a lot of time at school and didn’t see our parents much, since we really didn’t want to have to fill out the papers.”

“yeah, the papers were always such a difficulty to go through. But it really didn’t bother us much not seeing our parents, since it gave us more time to work on learning. we actually did quite well in school.”

“and we enjoyed our classes quite a bit! we were both in the orchestra, since our parents thought it to be beneficial to us.”

“I played the Violin and eric was on percussion. (i was second chair😁). we didn’t really see much of the boys in the island while in school, mostly just maurice and harold, since they shared a few classes with us.”

“Oh- and thank you so so much for what you said. we really try our best and we’re glad to hear that- though our best isn’t always too beneficial to others- still, grateful nonetheless!!”

“we also told ralph what you said and he appreciated it greatly! he even teared up a bit. he’s been dealing with the whole ordeal a little strange, but he’s been getting better lately.”

#ooc>#this post is probably going to be pretty confusing uhhh #i kinda wrote it to take place after the island #the drawing is meant to be from before.#so yeah- please look at these tags they are actually important this time😭#i also wanna say that whoever wrote this ask you are a saint- the little note about ralph at the end made me cry it was so sweet #anyway #lotf #lord of the flies #lord of the flies fanart #lotf fanart #lotf samneric #samneric lotf #Post island lotf

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shit-people-probably-didnt-say · 7 months ago

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Any soft Wesper kid HC or prompts? I’ve always imagined Wespers kid as struggling to read just like Wylan and not fully understanding it. They just know that “Da reads everything for Dad” and growing up in a much healthier environment than Wylan they dont grow up with the same low self esteem issues and instead the idea that love is someone willing to read to you. They hope that in the future they find someone like that for themselves. IDK I’m a sucker for breaking they cycle lol

Aw Id love to share some soft Wesper Kid HCs!

Apologies for the delay in answering Ive had this in my drafts so I can build on it

- Wesper kid is an early riser and often wakes before his Dads, so the only sensible thing to do is bring his favourite book or toy and climb into their bed with them. They often spend the entire morning on off days just lounging in bed

- Swimming lessons! Being so close to canals and the harbour (and that swimming once saved his Pa’s life) having the Wesper Kid know how to swim and be confident in water is extremely important to them

- Ive always imagined if the Wesper kid had a cognitive disability it would be colourblindness or ADHD. Where his Da is the hyperactive sort he is the inattentive type and can struggle to sit for lessons without his mind wondering. So to help him they adjust his school day. They give him more frequent breaks in class and bigger gaps in-between lessons with lots of outside play, and they find tutors who teach in a very practical way to keep him engaged

- Wesper kids favourite animals are rabbits, little bit of Aditi coming to him. Jesper also sings Zemeni lullabies and reads him all his favourite stories from his childhood. Wesper kid becomes their ‘little rabbit’ and Grandma Aditi is well known in their home

- Ive love the idea that theres no shame or secret regarding Wylan not reading. Kids accept the world as it’s presented to them so he wouldnt think anything unusual of it. When it comes time to do homework or bedtime stories theres no hush-hush that only Da can read to him. But Wylan of course memorises bedtime stories and is Wesper kids go to for math/science homework

- Wesper kid has his Da’s energy and his Pa’s musical interest…which results in him wanting to learn the drums. Jesper is overjoyed, Wylan is of course delighted and supportive but makes a mental note to get ear plugs as a kid learning percussion can be quite overstimulating for autistic people

- As much as Wylan is dead set on gentle parenting that doesn’t mean it’s easy. When you’re brought up with harsh treatment and are used to that being ‘normal’, it takes daily conscious effort to break that cycle. He never ever lays a harsh hand or word on their son, but he does have to take time outs occasionally to gather himself on rough days. Its retraining mental instinct but he would do it a million times over for his son to feel safe and loved

- Wesper kid is asthmatic/anaemic like his Pa. Id love a fic of the first time the kid becomes really unwell with the flu or lung fever and Wylan & Jesper are just losing their minds. Luckily Nana Marya is there to help calm new parent worries and pass along some tips on soothing a poorly child

I may continue to add to this, but this is what I have at the moment 💕

#wesper kid #wesper parents #wesper #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #marya van eck #colm fahey #aditi hilli #soc hc

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inuhalfdemon · 7 months ago

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We Dance to the Masochism Tango!

Inspired by the AI Cover found: here

Day 6 Prompt: Dancing

Word Count: 1,306 Words

“No, Charlie!” Lucifer told her loudly, exasperated. “I’m not doing it! Not this one! Not with him!!! Find us different partners!”

“You and Alastor both need to learn how to get along!” Charlie emphasized, refusing to budge. Vaggie agrees with me; this exercise is a perfect way for both of you to form a connection and finally: really and truly bond!”

Lucifer made a disgusted face. Alastor stood well and off to the side; eyes narrowed, his smile insane, head tilted and static buzzing from him loudly.

“Seriously, dad: You both enjoy dancing, you both enjoy music…you get to pick any song! It doesn’t have to be a big thing even; just a quick little dance routine! Just do the Cha-Cha or a swing dance or something!”

Lucifer opened his mouth; about to say something when Alastor drifted up from the floor; materializing himself from shadow, beside him. Leaning in; a wide and sly smile stretched across his face he glanced at Lucifer then looked at Charlie.

“Any…song?” Alastor asked, darkly.

When it came time for the residents of the Hazbin Hotel to demonstrate their dance routines for Charlie’s recent bonding activity; the initial results to the idea were actually quite very tame. Even Angel Dust and Cherri- both having public performance backgrounds of an erotic nature - chose to do a tasteful but well-rehearsed Ramba with each other for everyone to enjoy.

Lucifer and Alastor’s dance was the final routine to be performed; and it came to be their turn.

The lights cut out. The room blazed a vibrant green from fiery pillars that depicted coiling and hissing basilisks – suddenly occupying the impromptu dance floor.

Jaws dropped.

“Holy shit…” Angel breathed and everyone nodded.

Alastor was dressed handsomely in a stark red, long-sleeved dress shirt and black tie; wearing a pin-striped black vest and dress pants with sharp black dance shoes. Lucifer wore a splendidly white suit; the lapels and the bowtie he had with it emphasized in black, matching his own black dress pants and shoes. Both were standing in the middle of the dance floor; hands clasped and arms resting on each others shoulders.

A live orchestra had emerged toward the back of the room; made up of a horde of shadow demons that Alastor commanded, and a few Lucifer clones thrown – here and there - into the mix. All were holding instruments and ready to begin. Percussion from the orchestra sounded loudly and the music bolstered lively throughout the room.

As the music began, both Alastor and Lucifer slowly waltzed together across the room – taking long and purposefully placed strides.

“I ache for the touch of your lips, dear”- Lucifer

“But much more for the touch of your whips, dear”- Alastor

The sharp crack of a whip sounded throughout the room.

“You can raise welts, like nobody else” – Lucifer

“As we dance to the Masochism Tango!” – Together

Lucifer dramatically – and awkwardly - dipped Alastor before they both smoothly spun; waltzing slowly the other way.

“Let our love be a flame, not an ember!” - Alastor

“Say, it’s me that you want to dismember!” – Lucifer

Alastor jerked an arm away; slamming his elbow into Lucifer’s face.

“Blacken my eye!” – Lucifer

Lucifer roughly pulled him by the tie; pulling Alastor close to a green burning pillar and letting the fabric combust with the flames in his hand.

“Set fire to my tie!” – Alastor

“As we dance to the Masochism Tango!” – Together

Not a single resident of the hotel moved; eyes wide and barely breathing.

Flourishing himself away from Alastor now, Lucifer took quick and skillful strides as he danced around singing:

“At your command, before you here I stand

My heart is in my hand…” – Lucifer

Sliding onto his knees in front of Alastor; he pulled a hand away: palm open and extended: holding an actual bleeding and pulsing heart in his hand – tissue and vessels clinging to it from the gaping hole he had made to pull it out from his chest.

“Yeeeecch!” – Alastor

Alastor looked at the throbbing organ with disgust; spitting his tongue out.

“It’s here that I must be.” – Alastor

Rolling his eyes; Alastor casually slapped the back of Lucifer’s hand holding the heart – pushing the organ and tissue all back into his chest. Taking him by the hands; he whirled Lucifer back up onto his feet, pulling him with him into dancing again.

“My heart entreats! Just hear those savage beats!

And, go put on your cleats!” – Alastor

“And come and trample me!” – Lucifer

They pulled each other close; disproportionate torsos brushing as they resumed their initial position: hands clasped; arms resting on shoulders as they moved quicker through room.

“Your heart is as hard as stone or mahogany,” - Lucifer

“That’s why I’m in such exquisite agony,” – Alastor

“My soul is on fire!” – Lucifer

The green flames engulfing the pillars flared brightly; burning hotter.

“It’s aflame with desire!” – Alastor

Still waltzing; Alastor reached for his ruined tie – pulling it away and loosening the collar of his shirt.

“Which is why I perspire when we tango!” - Together

The two did another turn; coming back around. The residents continued watching with open-mouthed stares; only blinking.

Alastor made to spin Lucifer; his hand smacking him across the face with the movement.

“You caught my nose…in your left castanet, love.” – Lucifer

Alastor pulled him back, dipping him low.

“I can still feel the pain yet, love. Every time I hear drums.” – Lucifer

And, the percussion crashed loudly.

“And, I envy the rose…” – Alastor

Alastor flourished his hand; sparking green, and a beautiful red rose with leaves and stem appeared in his hand. He briefly admired the flower before jamming the stem of it into Lucifer’s mouth.

“That you held in your teeth, love.

With the thorns underneath, love,” – Alastor

Alastor gripped Lucifer roughly by the jaw; pushing clawed fingers into his face, lifting the corners of his mouth so that he could see the thorns of the flower digging bleeding cuts there in-between his teeth.

“Sticking into your gums.” – Alastor

Alastor smiled down on him wickedly and Lucifer spat out the rose; glaring up at him. Smoothly, they both turned; clasping at each other’s hands again and moving forward.

“Your eyes cast a spell that bewitches,” – Alastor

“The last time I needed twenty stitches!” – Lucifer

“To sew up the gash,” - Alastor

“You made with your lash,” – Lucifer

Another loud crack of a whip echoed across the room.

“As we danced to the Masochism Tango!” – Together

Their stepping increased tempo; their strides coming and moving together more quickly:

“Bash in my brain, then make me scream with pain,

Then kick me once again and say we’ll never part!” – Lucifer

They did a quick spin and a turn; going back the other way again:

“I know too well, I’m underneath your spell,

So, darling, if you smell something burning: it’s my heart!” - Alastor

Alastor stopped suddenly; gripping his chest and making a smiling but disgusted face, looking as if he may very nearly vomit…

“Eep…s’cuse me.” – Alastor

Pulling Lucifer with him back into a slower waltzing tempo:

“Take your cigarette from its holder,” – Alastor

“And burn your initials in my shoulder,

Fracture my spine!” – Lucifer

Alastor dramatically dipped Lucifer again; his face leering close:

“And swear that you’re mine!” – Alastor

Then, lifting back up, they quickly waltzed; shuffling and stepping apart – inside hands clasped together and outside hands spread wide and open toward the small, stunned and paralyzed grouping that watched:

“As we dance, to the Maso…

-chism Tango!” - Together

They both stopped; breathing heavily and smiling proudly…waiting.

Nobody in the group moved. Nobody blinked. Nobody breathed.

Then, Niffty cried out loudly, happily: “YES!!! AGAIN!!!” Laughing maniacally and clapping her little hands; her one wide eye bulging with her excitement as everyone else stared on in dead and complete silence.

Taglist: @helluva-simper

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canmom · 5 months ago

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thinking about Deus Ex Human Revolution because I stumbled over its soundtrack in my game OST folder.

it got good reviews in its day but with hindsight it's not really remembered as a great game to endure the way the first one did. there is stuff to praise - art direction for example - but equally, you can criticise plenty: the clumsy handling of the 'augments' theme, the shallow orientalism of the China chapters, the watering down of the immersive sim elements. the clumsy outsourced boss fights and the rubbish ending.

if it's remembered today it's mainly for the "i never asked for this" meme, and the 'Icarus' trailer.

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watching it again in 2024, the soundtrack is doing a lot of the work of carrying this. most of the dialogue in this trailer is really corny cyberpunk-isms, and a lot of its visuals are blatant riffs on Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed and Blade Runner (though I'll credit that it has a great sense of mechanical design in its robots and stuff). but the opening visual motif - the Renaissance dissection tableau transitioning into the flight of Icarus - is just the right level of pretentious for a game like this. that, combined with the wordless vocals rising and falling around the synth line, does so much work to sell the idea of 'this is grand and important'.

cyberpunk has a pretty specific sound associated with it - the electronic sounds are obvious, but in some of the best remembered cases it relies on contrasting the human voice and old school percussion against those synths, typically in some unusual vocal style that is likely to be unfamiliar to viewers - most notably Indonesian gamelan in the Akira soundtrack, and Bulgarian choir in Oshii's Ghost in the Shell. the other major genre touchpoint, Blade Runner, does not generally use vocals in the same way, but still plays the synth off against percussion sounds. in the simplest terms, it's a contrast of 'natural' and 'unnatural' right? what humans were and what we're becoming.

here we're not importing quite such an unfamiliar sound, but we have a lot of long, held notes by a solo singer (either Ariel Engle or Andrea Revel going off Soundcloud, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the specific credit). it's not unrelated to what Emi Evans was doing with the 'chaos language' in NieR, and indeed to the sound that J'Nique Nicole would bring in the sequel there. I really like wordless vocals, the human voice is such a versatile instrument and brings so much texture.

against that the synth here is actually keeping things really simple. it's mostly just repeating phrases, often simply arpeggios. I haven't really learned enough to keep track of the chord movements here, I'm sure someone more well-versed in music theory could easily take them apart because I doubt it's doing anything overly complex. but it's in a minor key, it's gradually rising for the first half of the track, dropping a bit every so often so it can keep climbing for the most part... and then the final third introduces a second synth line with a slower descending motif - goddamn it's literally just the Icarus metaphor again isn't it, rising and then falling? but it's not too obvious with it, like it doesn't climb all the way back down.

against that the trailer plays a montage of General Cyberpunk Stuff, notably Adam killing people in sicknasty ways, robot limbs doing robot limb stuff, newscasters with interesting fashion sense, and protesters getting gunned down by cops. the weakest parts are the ones that refer to the game's plot and aren't just pure vibes tbh.

that trailer wrote a lot of cheques that the game couldn't really pay, but it is interesting to look back at it with a more analytic eye. it makes me wonder how to really get that human voice texture in music I make. I mean the obvious answer is 'learn to sing', and I'm working on that and making progress, but my voice is pretty testosteron'd and inevitably that limits my range. vocaloids are great but mostly for a different kind of sound. ah well, I'll figure it out. the erhu at least has a sound that's pretty close to the human voice, so maybe that can be the ingredient I need to get that Atmosphere(TM).

#computer games #canmom vs music #an off the cuff post that took me way longer than it should've...#Youtube

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acaplaya-musings · 1 month ago

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VoicePlay Stand By Me - thoughts/commentary

You really can never quite tell what kind of video you're gonna get when Voiceplay uploads something new; sometimes it's a warm hug in musical form, and this is one of those times! <3

I gotta start by giving some appreciation to how Geoff looks absolutely lovely in this one! The necklace is on full display, as is the silver-white in his hair which is *chefs kiss*, and I definitely love the blue floral shirt! (10/10 would wear it myself). Honestly it reminds me a little of the shirt he wore in Whiskey In The Jar, which is kinda funny because that was 2023's November upload, and this is 2024's November upload!

But like also everyone is definitely styling in this video. Cesar with the subtle eyeliner (we stan), Layne with that cool white shirt (genuinely he looks great in it), Eli with the leather jacket, and Mykal with that denim jacket and purple shirt that's unbuttoned about as much as Geoff usually has his! 😄

Okay, main visual thoughts out the way, time for musical thoughts!

Geoff absolutely delivered with the bassline, just as I knew he would 💜

I'm not the greatest at remembering most of the actual music arrangement after my first watch-through of a VoicePlay video, though perhaps it's harder when I already know the original song and thus my brain is still attached to what I already know. But basically the first watch is just for the vibes, lol. And so a lot of these thoughts are from after an additional watch-through!

As I said when I talked about Be Prepared, Mykal was a founding member of 4 The Love, which then became 4:2:Five, which then became VoicePlay. He only stuck around for a few years I think, and then went to go pursue a stage/theatre career iirc, but while he was part of the group, he was "Tenor 1", i.e. could literally sing higher than Earl (Earl became Tenor 1 after Mykal left, and they brought in a guy called James May as Tenor 2).

I'm atheist, but damn, I'm pretty sure Mykal took us to church with this one! Well done my guy!

Actually I'm not quite done with all my visual thoughts - I just realized that when Cesar sings the repeated "stand by me" bit at the end of the first verse (after the "no I won't be afraid" bit), he looks down at Mykal and Eli and then up/back at Geoff and Layne and smiles at all of them awwwwww

I see VoicePlay decided to do a repeat of Lion Sleeps Tonight in that we got a truly lovely section of Layne on lead vocals, followed immediately by Geoff on lead vocals in a 1-2-whammy! (I swear they do it deliberately, lol 😅)

"I won't cry, I won't cry. No I won't shed a tear..." Well I might!! (I didn't, but this part definitely had me a little bit 🥺, y'know? (but in a nice way of course!)

Not sure what sort of technique (if any?) Geoff was using for the end of his "stand by meeeeeee" line, whether it was a growl or soft subharmonic or just 'regular' chest voice, but it sounded really nice!

Honestly Stand By Me isn't a super long song - like when I've sung it to myself on random occasions, I've thought that maybe there's a verse or something that I've forgotten, but no, it really is that short and simple (not that that's an inherently bad thing, mind you).

Actually the VoicePlay version is longer than the original audio track by roughly 30 seconds, not counting the credits at the end (just going off how long the Patreon early access video is). And of course they found many cool and interesting ways to make the song their own! E.g. I liked the "ad-libs" that Mykal was doing at the end (like "you don't have to do it alone"), and I also liked the build from no percussion, to very subtle/quiet percussion, to more of a powerful beat as the song reached its climax.

So this is a Layne arrangement! Honestly was not sure - I know he arranged Be Prepared, so I guess it kinda makes sense that he did this one as well so they were both ready to go at around the same time? I still wouldn't have picked it (and genuinely wasn't sure until I got to see the YouTube video description) but very well done!

So yeah, lovely sweet song, lovely harmonies, and by the time you're reading this post, this cover will already be on my Voiceplay/Geoff Spotify playlist, undoubtedly! And now we just wait to see what December will bring! (Or late November for us Patrons, I guess). Until next time!

#voiceplay #voiceplay stand by me #acaplaya ramblings

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posttexasstressdisorder · 12 days ago

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Wednesday, 12-11-24, 2pm Pacific

Aaaaaaand a good afternoon to all, Mr. Baggins here, back with our Afternoon Stack of Classic Wax! Today I've set the dial on my Wayback Machine to 1970, not just because it was a great year for the music, but because we are gonna do another little deep-dive, this time, with one of my all-time favorite bands from the '70s, WAR! We first heard of them as the unique-sounding backup band for Eric Burdon's 1970 hit "Spill The Wine"...with the percussion, and that organ flourish and bad-ass drumming, I was hooked! I was eleven when it came out and it is STILL one of my favorite songs!

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The story was that Burdon had collapsed on-stage from "an asthma attack" while on tour with them and dropped out mid-tour, leaving them to do the rest of the tour and their massive career on their own, which they did quite handily, going on to become one of the BIGGEST bands of the '70s. Their first sans-Burdon single, All Day Music, became an instant Top 40 hit. The blend of Afro and Latino sounds along with their undeniable ability to generate a groove set them apart from any other band at the time. There is a certain kind of "south texas" feel to their music, so much so that when I first heard this song, I thought they were a San Antonio band, because the SA radio station I listened to from 120 miles away played them a lot.

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The next single, Slippin' Into Darkness (issued in early '72), went Gold and cemented their fusion of Latin and Afro and Pop/Rock as "the sound" in everybody's heads. I remember this song blasting out of radios everywhere!

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Their next single went all the way to Number 7, the title cut from their magnum opus album, The World Is A Ghetto, set them firmly in the rock/pop/soul pantheon. Recorded and issued in late 1972.

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The album gave us another couple of bad-ass hits: the next single was Cisco Kid, was almost a Number 1...it got all the way to Number 2! It's also one of the songs that made me think they were a Texas band (plus their album cut "southern part of texas"). I was actually surprised to find out they were from Long Beach!

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The next single quickly became one of my favorite songs of all time; it got all the way to Number 7, another top ten tune that I remember being on the radio ALL the time! Another one issued in '72 but a hit into the next year.

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Their next hit, Me and Baby Brother, was also ubiquitous. That really is one of the things I remember about them: all these songs are so uniquely THEM, i have a hard time separating them out by year in my head, it's like their music was just all One Really Groovy Year! This was also recorded in '73 and became a hit in '74.

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Their next single was a lot more "pop", it got all the way to Number 6 on the chart, and was an anthem of sorts for that odd, odd, ODD period that was the middle of the '70s.

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Their next hit was a return to their trademark sound, and one of their biggest hits, going all the way to Number 7.

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Their next single would be their last really big hit, Summer. It was one of those songs that defined my teenage years...it was '76, I had just bought my '69 Mustang fast back, and really did used to go "ridin' 'round town with all the windows down, 8-track playin' all your favorite sounds..."

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And that wraps up today's Afternoon Stack of Classic Wax! I hope you've enjoyed our timewarp back to the '70s and one of the biggest bands of the decade! Mr. Baggins signing off for now, I'll be back at 7pm with a set to soothe our achin' nerves and help ease us all into a good night.

Until then, be kind, babies, be kind.

Baggins out.

#radio free tumblr #Youtube

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albertonykus · 5 months ago

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Doraemon Movie Review: Nobita's Earth Symphony (2024)

What is Doraemon? The title character of the Doraemon manga and anime is a blue robotic cat from the 22nd Century who keeps an array of high-tech gadgets in a portable pocket dimension on his belly, and has traveled from the future to improve the fortunes of a hapless schoolboy named Nobita. Although relatively obscure in the English-speaking world, Doraemon is a Mickey-Mouse-level cultural icon in East Asia (and some other regions, too). The Doraemon franchise was a big part of my childhood, and there are still elements of it that I enjoy now.

Doraemon has released theatrical films almost annually since 1980, most of which involve Nobita and his friends (kind Shizuka, brash Gian, and crafty Suneo) getting swept into adventures thanks to Doraemon's gadgets. Despite being of potentially broad appeal to fans of science fiction and animated films, there are very few English reviews of the Doraemon movies, so I've embarked on a project to write about all the films, for as long as I continue watching them, at least.

For links to all of my Doraemon movie reviews, see here.

Movie premise: Nobita and his friends respond to a mysterious request seeking help from "talented musicians".

My spoiler-free take: A nice tribute to the human affinity for music, despite some issues with pacing.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT

Review: I was very intrigued when I first heard about the premise of this movie, because music is a theme that the Doraemon films had not really explored before. Having seen the movie now, I'm happy to report that I had a pretty good time! Beyond the handling of its main subject matter, I enjoyed that the foreshadowing here was surprisingly well thought out. There's so much setup in the beginning and middle of the story that pays off at the end. This includes the use of a gadget (the Future Diary) that would probably be considered "too overpowered" to be acknowledged in a typical Doraemon movie!

The film does have its flaws, of course, and the biggest in my opinion come down to the pacing. Several moments that are framed as emotional or dramatic are resolved or brushed aside too quickly, when they would've benefited from being given more time and gravitas. There's also some ending fatigue that kept me second-guessing, "Is this the climax? No, wait, is this the climax?"

However, the actual climax is quite nicely done and well worth experiencing in theaters for full effect. (It's a musical performance after all, as is pretty much a given in a movie about music.) As a tribute to the importance and appeal of music to humanity, I think the movie is very much a success.

As usual for a Doraemon movie, most of the character focus is on Nobita and his new movie-exclusive friends, but the rest of the main cast does have an active presence throughout. One thing I would've liked to see is more elaboration on why each character is deemed compatible with the instruments that they're assigned for their performances. Gian is said to be suited to playing the tuba due to his lung capacity, and the relevance of the recorder to Nobita's character arc is self-evident, but no such explanations are given for why Suneo gets the violin or why Shizuka is assigned to percussion.

Speaking of which, considering that Shizuka is the one main character who has an established affinity for playing musical instruments outside of school (she takes piano lessons and enjoys playing the violin, despite being bad at it), I'd hoped that she would play an important role in this movie. As it turns out... it would be a stretch to say that she's particularly important to the story, but the film did meet my bare minimum expectations for how much she would be involved. Her piano playing is relevant to the plot in one scene, and her poor violin skills also come up (albeit only during the end credits). Even so, it does feel like there were some missed opportunities; for example, maybe a scene where she wants to swap instruments with Suneo would've been funny. At the very least though, this movie doesn't contain a bath scene or any other similarly distasteful joke involving her, so that's good.

Star rating: ★★★☆☆

#Doraemon #Anime #Nobita's Earth Symphony #ドラえもん

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iaketpauet · 2 months ago

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A guide to Robin Finck in Guns n' Roses for people who can't stand Axl Rose

I've spent months reading, watching and listening to all things regarding Robin's time in Guns so you don't have to.

*extremely long post*

L to R: Chris Pitman, Bryan "Brain" Mantia, Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Dizzy Reed, Richard Fortus and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. At Download Festival, June 11, 2006.

From Cirque to Guns

In the beginning of 1997 Cirque du Soleil was touring Los Angeles and Axl Rose went to see the show. Matt Sorum (GnR's drummer until then) pointed out to Axl that 'Robin from Nine Inch Nails' was playing the guitar.

"I told Axl to see him and he said, 'That's our guitar player,' I said, 'Bring in Robin to play alongside Slash', but Axl said, 'I want him to play lead.'" - Matt Sorum, 1999.

Robin got a call from Axl and then he started to jam with the band (already without Slash) every Monday, his day off (circus' dark day). In April, Chris Vrenna also joined for a few sessions before he split to focus on his Tweaker project, and Robin brought Billy Howerdel (former guitar technician for NIN) to help him program his sounds, but wound up staying for two and a half years with them.

In June, Robin quit the circus and joined the band.

2 years contract (August 1997 to August 1999)

Over the year of 1998, the band took shape, consisting of Robin and Paul Huge Tobias on the guitar, Tommy Stinson on bass guitar, Dizzy Reed on keys and percussion, Josh Freese on drums and Chris Pitman helping them with writing and engineering. Although Axl was contributing with ideas, he wasn't laying many vocal tracks at that time, as he was allegedly suffering with writer's block.

They wrote at least half of the Chinese Democracy album along with other still unreleased songs and many instrumentals in this period, including parts/ideas Robin had previously come up with during his circus days. Some sources had said they were working on 35 tracks.

Robin and Josh Freese in 1998 (from Josh's Instagram)

They also re-recorded Appetite for Destruction, which was never released but a segment of Sweet Child o'Mine was included in the closing credits of 1999's Big Daddy movie. Axl's intention was to use the entire song, but Slash and Duff didn't allow it, so they made a hybrid of the old version with their new one. You can listen to their segment starting at 2'58, with the second part of the main solo and the last one played by Robin:

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It was rumored that Robin recorded an uncredited overdub of backing vocals for the track Mr. Brownstone in the Live Era '87-'93 compilation album. You can listen to it below, around 1'25 min.

Just in time for NIN's Fragility tour v1.0, his contract came to an end in August and soon he went to Bahamas with Nine Inch Nails to begin with their tour rehearsals.

Atlas Shrugged

"I have respect for Axl Rose, I wish him all the success that he deserves and if his album sounds a little industrial, I will take it like a compliment... On the other hand, when we played MTV awards, he made pass a press release announcing that it would cut of his disc all the parts of guitars played by Robin Finck and I find that a little ridiculous, it is a whim of star." - Trent Reznor, 1999.

"And they just said, 'Come over and do some stuff.' It's a long story to be honest and I won't bore you with all the details, but Axl was feeling that he was in a difficult place because the guitarist that he'd been working with on this new album had sort of replaced Slash, because they fell out, sadly. [...] The guitarist that had done most of the tracks had departed and Axl had a real emotional attachment to what he'd done, and yet he didn't want him on the album - and I hope I'm not saying too much here - he didn't really want him to stay on the album because he'd disappeared, you know - so he's feeling a kind of divided loyalty and he said: 'Brian, can you come and do stuff which I WILL LIKE, (laughing) and I won't feel too bad about ditching this other stuff?'" - Brian May, 2000.

While Axl was trying to cut Robin's work out of Chinese Democracy, hiring high-profile guitarists such as Dave Navarro and Brian May to lay guitar tracks, he started recording vocals for some of the songs, like HardSchool (now Hard Skool), Catcher in The Rye and The Blues (now Street of Dreams). Among them, the still unreleased Atlas Shrugged has lyrics which are allegedly about Robin.

An excerpt from Atlas Shrugged lyrics.

Whether it's about him or not, the lyrics go along with feelings of "following his heart" Robin expressed through interviews from that time.

"It was a difficult decision to make because I was so wrapped up in what I was doing at the time and I was proud of the work I'd done. But when it came down to it, I couldn't imagine NIN going out without me or with somebody else. I'm in a good place right now." - Robin Finck, 1999.

Prior to quitting the band to form A Perfect Circle with Billy Howerdel, Josh Freese helped Axl getting in touch with Buckethead. In early 2000 Buckethead was convinced to join in.

3 guitars lineup

"Originally it was gonna be a two-guitar player group. I split forever so I thought and went back to Nine Inch Nails. In my absence they were looking to replace me and Josh Freese, the drummer at the time, had brought Buckethead in to essentially fill the slot I had left. They really liked him but he's kind of a stunt guitar player. He does a very specific thing and he has a real genius sensibility about him. But he rarely plays the same thing twice ever and when you're trying to cruise through 'Nightrain' that just makes it a little (laughs) too different. So they needed someone to anchor the songs. They kept Buckethead to do what Buckethead does and they needed someone else to play alongside." - Robin Finck, 2014.

In late 2000 Robin returned to Guns for the upcoming gig as headliner act of Rock in Rio III Festival. As a sort of warm-up show, the band was booked for a New Year's Eve gig at The House of Blues in Las Vegas. It was the first time Robin performed live with Guns n' Roses.

Robin and Buckethead playing Paradise City at The House of Blues, January 1st, 2001.

With two lead guitarists, rumors that Robin and Buckethead weren't getting along very well began to emerge. And it seems that Axl encouraged competition between them.

"So it's taken a long time to pull these guys together and then have them develop a chemistry with themselves. When we first did our first show in Vegas, Robin and Buckethead didn't know each other at all, and you've got two lead guitar players trying to kill each other. You know, with their abilities. It's like when I tried to bring Zakk and Slash together. That didn’t go too well. (...) It was fun to watch." - Axl Rose, 2002.

Although neither Robin or Buckethead talked about it, years later Tommy Stinson showed his disdain for Buckethead on interviews and soon-to-be a member Richard Fortus has talked extensively about how difficult it was to make a lineup with three guitarists work. I'll return to this topic later.

Skullet

For these shows, Robin appeared with an extreme form of the mullet hairstyle, the skullet. Differing from his previous tours with Nine Inch Nails, this time he maintained the same haircut for the whole touring cycle: from the few performances in 2001 until their last gig in 2002. The only difference is that he straightened his hair in 2002.

At The Joint, Las Vegas, December 31st, 2001. Photo by Robert John.

From their US leg of the tour, 2002. Photo by George Chin.

Better

Between his comeback and early 2001, Robin came up with a song working titled 3 Dollar Pyramid, which turned out to be Better, the only song released with credits attributed exclusively to him and Axl Rose.

"[Better] was brought in after Josh [Freese] and was written by the band. It was Robin Finck’s song. We jammed it for a couple weeks and then went into the studio and recorded it." - Bryan "Brain" Mantia (GnR's drummer from May 2000 until June 2006), 2009.

youtube

Better without vocals

Richard Fortus

In 1999 Richard auditioned for Robin's place. He wasn't the chosen one but became good friends with Tommy. When Paul Tobias stepped out of his role as rhythm guitarist, Tommy called Richard to replace him for the 2002 tour.

Soon Richard and Robin formed a strong bond, which could be seen on as much as offstage throughout Robin's tenure, with Richard stating several times how much he loved working with him afterwards.

Richard and Robin during Nightrain at Allstate Arena, Chicago, November 18th, 2002.

Refusing to leave

After the 2002 tour being cancelled halfway through and "Guns' inability to complete an album", Buckethead quit in late 2003. In spite of the uncertainty of their situation as a band, Robin preferred not to leave them this time to tour with Nine Inch Nails. According to Reznor, his choice was driven by greed.

"Robin Finck [was] getting paid loads of money to hang out with Axl Rose and his house was getting paid for. You know what, f*ck you." - Trent Reznor, 2005.

Robin has never touched on this subject, but there are two things that need to be stressed: The album was very close to be finished and Guns was planning to perform in late 2005 - which only became reality in 2006 - so his decision might have been because of it.

2 guitars lineup?

"As far as I know, he [Buckethead] hasn't been replaced, but we already have enough guitarists". - Tommy Stinson, 2004.

"At the moment, Robin Finck and I are the only guitarists in the band. We switch off between lead and rhythm." - Richard Fortus, 2005.

They kept rehearsing as a duo until a few weeks before their warm-up gigs for the European tour at the Hammerstein Ballroom in May 2006.

"It was just Robin and myself, and we were doing rehearsals and Brain, and it was phenomenal, I mean, absolutely amazing. And literally, I think it was two days before we were supposed to do our first show, the energy was palpable. [...] Axl came down, he was like, 'This is the band I've always wanted.' The next day Bumblefoot comes in, and I guess, they found this guy and he came in, and the whole dynamic just completely shifted." - Richard Fortus, 2020.

Bullying Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal

Tommy had stated that they weren't doing auditions for a new guitarist, but Axl's team contacted Ron in 2004. Although nothing happened from it, in April 2006, Axl called him to "jam" with the band while they were rehearsing for their tour. Ron became Buckethead's replacement and stayed with them until 2015. In the beginning, he wasn't treated well by "some" members.

"Well, when I first joined the band, they did not want me in the band. And it’s not me - they just didn’t want a third guitar player. 'Cause at the time they had worked it out for two guitar players. Then suddenly the old manager at the time hits them up one day, and the tour was, like, two weeks away. He said, 'your new guitar player is coming down'. And they’re like, 'what the hell - who the fuck is this?', and I showed up, and they wouldn’t even look at me. For that first tour, you know, I was treated like shit. Like absolute shit. They wouldn’t really talk to me. If I spoke, they’d roll their eyes and walk out of the room. I was made to feel as unwelcome as possible. Until, finally, I had to get a little violent. And then they started realizing that I’m not gonna leave. They’re gonna get hurt. Physically. Then they realized that they couldn’t bully me, and that I was gonna fight at a level they weren’t prepared for. [...] ‘Cause I didn’t know why they were so cold to me, and I realized that they would have treated anybody that way. It was a set of circumstances, a lack of communication from the management that was there at the time, that set it up so it was almost like a stranger thrown into a crowded cage." - Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, 2013.

Note: By "physically", he meant he "tried to stab three people on stage at a show in 2006", as he told WickedInfo in 2010.

Extreme makeover

Robin playing the main solo of Sweet Child o'Mine in Chicago, 2002 (left) and in Los Angeles, 2006 (right).

"A third guitarist stood apart from the others both visually and sonically, effortlessly tearing through every riff and solo like a man possessed; think Jimmy Page on ecstasy. Even after Rose introduced the bearded, sunglass-wearing phenomenon by name, dressed like a cross between Jim Morrison and Chris Robinson, I still couldn’t believe I was looking at Robin Finck. [...] Exuding a confidence no amount of posturing can imitate, he brought a searing intensity to each Guns song with impassioned intricacy and soul. [...] Finck was great before his apparent bohemian awakening, but this was something else entirely. He was essentially running through a gallery of world-renowned portraits and landscapes, the best of their time and sacred to many, casting his own colors and impressions onto each canvas. Somehow, blasphemy be damned, he made improvements." - Antiquiet review of Guns N' Roses' performance at Gibson Amphitheater, December 16th, 2006.

Robin's definitive departure

On April 4th 2008 NIN.com broke the news that Robin was back to the fold with a picture of him at the studio. Without knowing for sure Robin's position, Axl showed being open for a return.

"Last I was aware, he had some interest in touring, though I can't say what that means until then. In our opinion, he's made things a bit awkward publicly, but that's just his way." - Axl Rose, 2009.

Unfortunately, even with the Chinese Democracy's release in the end of that year, Robin didn't come back afterwards.

One night reappearance

The guitarist had a surprise appearance on March 12 2012 at House of Blues venue in Los Angeles to perform his song, Better, and that was the last time he got up on stage with Guns.

That's it, most of the info and rumors here I've gotten from GnR forums: MyGnRforum.com, a-4-d.com and GnRevolution.com, so a big thank you to everyone.

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN #robin finck #nine inch nails #guns n roses #trent reznor #richard fortus #axl rose #chinese democracy #I've got this incomplete for 2 entire years #it shouldn't have ended like this but I had to let it go one day

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not-the-dum-e · 3 months ago

Text

Let me start with: nobody does it like Key.

I don't fully know how to articulate what I mean by that, and that in and of itself, says something to me.

Pleasure Shop

The rap. Now, I know very little about rap, but this is good, I can feel it.

The melodic way in which he performs it, melds perfectly with the rest of the song.

Where a lot of times in kpop it feels like rap verses have a "break for rap" if you will, which is not bad, mind you; this one feels like it has been built up to slowly, and it fades back into the song in such a way that it doesn't stand out even if it feels like a highlight.

But I love the way I didn't realize we got to the rap section of the song till midway through it, and it's a long section, too.

Following Tongue Tied with this, just... I wanna scream into my fist, it's so good. Really loopable.

The way that every section smoothly moves into the next is so nice, and even though the beat is very repetitive, it has enough variation throughout that it does not get boring or annoying.

Next, this is more about the mv but the fact that the dancers were highlighted instead of bringing in models or actors... my heart (⁠｡⁠ﾉ⁠ω⁠＼⁠｡⁠)

Since we are talking about the mv, the concept is so good, I might try to do a breakdown for the mv later.

Overthink

I can't wait to see a performance of this, I know I can watch fancams, but I haven't watched one yet.

I love that little synth... arpeggio? riff? over the bass, wish it was longer though, I feel like it could have another minute or so.

The way he uses different contrasting tones for different parts of the song is just so charming, and just gives the song such a trippy kind of feel, that, and that wubby bass and the synth.

Golden

This sounds so sweet and bright, truly has a golden hour type of feel. I always look forward to that warm tone he uses for songs like this; like Sunny Side, it has this comforting effect on me that I can't quite describe.

The percussion really catches my ear on this one, I feel like it has a lot of variation, all in all, really nice.

I Know

His vocals really are the focus of this one, it's similar to Overthink, but it's stripped down, I think.

I really like how it moves back and forth from lower tones to higher ones, and how his vocals are contrasting to the backing track. Like at parts the instrumental goes low, and the vocal line goes high, and vice versa and then meet again.

Going Up

This might be my favourite, the one I was most excited for from the highlight clip, and it did not disappoint.

I am addicted to his lower register. And paired with the shifts into falsetto for the "we're going up" *chef's kiss*

It has that sort of spacious, dark feeling that's hypnotic, for lack of a better word. Like it's pulling me somewhere, don't know where, but I wanna live in it.

The bass and synth, actually, not just in this but in all the album, but specially on this one, are just on point. I really love the soundscape. It scratches my brain in all the right ways.

Having said that, I think this is going to be a running complaint on my part (and I know I'm not alone on this) but, it's too short.

I want another two minutes of this song.

Novacaine

I really like the lyrics, it won't take Helium's crown for my fave eng Key song or second place from Imagine, but it's a good song.

The title makes me think of FOB, but I like this one more that I like theirs? Although this one is misspelled

If I have to compare it to the only other Lauv song I have ever heard, which is Lay's Run Back to You (and I like that one), I like Novacaine better. Don't know if it is Key's input or what, but there is something that I feel only he could do. I love the way he delivers the lines.

I wonder if the lyrics were written for him specifically, or with him in mind, because it's very Key? Like thematically it reminds me a bit of G.O.A.T., and has that melancholic, nostalgic feel of This Life.

Like in Golden, his vocals have that warm, deep quality to them, but this one is sadder, like a misery loves company kind of thing; Finding comfort in knowing you are not the only one that feels this way.

Reminds me a bit of Hold On too, don't ask me why cause idk.

I love that he is embracing his natural tone a lot more in this album and in Tongue Tied, and the way he is using it as the building block for the songs and using the higher and lower tones, and falsetto as embellishments. It makes his sound so much more distinct and unique.

It feels like he has honed in the finer details of his style.

Also I love how all the songs flow into the next, it's really nice.

Touring has done wonders for his vocals too, I feel like he levelled up for this album.

His vocals were good to begin with, but he has this richness to his sound now that comes through so much more, his voice feels a lot fuller even in the recording.

I was so fascinated watching fancams from the first Keyland On: and On and just how much better he got by this last one. Truly, he is meant to do live performances.

I hope I can see him live one day, same for the rest of SHINee hehe

If there is one thing I can say about Key's solo discography, aside from he doesn't miss (which ofc he's SHINee); Is that he has such a coherent evolution from era to era, from album to album, there is always a nod to past releases, a thread through sound and the fact that he is including his JP discography on that thread. Tongue Tied just fits perfectly with this.

I'm always really excited to see where he goes with every new release, and he hasn't disappointed me so far, this is no different💖💖💖💖💖

#My thoughts on Pleasure Shop #Key #Kim Kibum #SHINee #Pleasure Shop #dummie's soapbox

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