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ao3bronte · 4 years ago

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To Live Without Loving (is not really to live)

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Et vivre sans aimer n'est pas proprement vivre. - Molière

“Marinette!”

With a start, Marinette shoves her mobile phone beneath her pillow and grabs the novel beside her, opening it at random, “Oui, Maman?”

“It’s nearly 23:00,” Sabine announces, hoisting the apartment's trapdoor open and peeking inside, “Why are your lights still on?”

Marinette grimaces, “I have to finish this book by tomorrow and I’m still not done!”

Raising an eyebrow, Sabine climbs up the steps and gently pads towards Marinette’s bedside, “You’ve been at it for hours and you’re telling me that you’re still not finished?”

Marinette knows a lost cause when she sees one, “I may have gotten…distracted.”

“Hmm,” Sabine crosses her arms across her chest, “You have ten minutes, then it’s lights out.”

“But Maman…”

“Hush. Your brevet is coming up soon and I expect you to excel, as you always do. You need your sleep.”

Marinette groans, “Oui, Maman.”

“Doux rêves, mon coeur.”

Marinette returns the sentiment and watches as Sabine closes the trapdoor behind her. She listens, holding her breath as her mother’s footsteps carry down the stairs, leading into the bedroom. After a moment or two of quiet chatter, her parent’s bedroom door opens and squeaks shut with a click.

“Finally.” Exhaling, Marinette snatches her vibrating phone out from under her pillow and slides her thumb against it, illuminating the screen. An image of the infamous cabaret Le Chat Noir casts a shadow across her bedroom, “Allo?”

“M’Lady! I thought you had fallen asleep on me.”

Marinette rolls her eyes, “I got distracted.”

“Not distracted enough to leave me hanging, are you?”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Until then, mon amour.”

Quickly, Marinette taps the end call button against her fingertips and slips from beneath her covers, eager to sneak out before it gets too late in the evening. She tugs on a pair of pyjama pants and crawls outside, crossing over to the potted plants hanging from the wrought iron railings enclosing her balcony.

“Ready to go?” Tikki asks, rising from the fronds. Marinette nods and fastens the zip of her sweater before allowing Tikki to merge with her Miraculous, bathing the balcony in scarlet light. Mask safely affixed to her skin, she slips out into the evening breeze and leaps across the rooftops, eventually plopping down onto their favourite meeting spot along the city-spanning river, the Seine.

“Bonsoir, ma chérie!”

Ladybug turns towards the source of the racket as Chat Noir drops onto the quai from above, landing in a crouch beside her. The lattice of the bench she’s sitting on trembles as he digs his claws into the metal, steadying his balance, “Hey Chat. How’s my favourite stray?”

Chat spreads his arms dramatically, “La vie est belle!”

“You seem like you’re in a good mood,” Ladybug smiles, relaxing against the backrest.

“My day improves exponentially each time I get to see you.”

“Really?” Ladybug is pretty sure that if she rolled her eyes any harder, they might just get stuck there, “It’s been, what, two days since we last crossed paths?”

“An eternity,” Chat replies, holding his hand over his chest, “It wounds me to be so close, and yet so far.”

Ladybug can’t help but snort, “I can’t say that I’ve missed your melodrama.”

“Forgive me M’Lady, but I’ve been forced into reading Molière for the past week and I feel it may be rubbing off on me.”

Ladybug hesitates before responding, having just left L'École des femmes sitting on her duvet not twenty minutes ago, “Let’s just get down to business, shall we?”

Chat smiles and opens his palm to the horizon, “Après vous.”

“Chat!”

Ladybug screeches to a halt and uses her momentum to launch herself against the buildings lining the boulevard, pulling a hard 180° turn. She flings her yoyo and it wraps around the base of a satellite dish, sending her flying back to Chat’s location, “Are you okay?!”

He’s lying in the base of a crater, the akuma having body slammed him into the concrete, “Never better!”

Ladybug drags her eyes from Chat’s prone body and focuses on the akuma instead. Its body is huge, not unlike the rock monster they encountered on their very first adventure together. However, this particular akuma is far more calculating and intelligent that she had initially assumed.

“Hey! Bonehead!” Ladybug hollers to distract the monster from squashing Chat again. She can tell from his wheezing that whatever the akuma did to him while she wasn’t looking, he would need a minute or two to recuperate, “Look over here!”

Using her yoyo, Ladybug swings back and forth, drawing the hulking mass of a monster towards her. She reaches the other side of the boulevard and runs down the length of it, leaping off of a bench and vaulting back up into the sky. The akuma lumbers towards her, its hands flailing wildly in her general direction, and Ladybug does all that she can to keep one eye on potential tools for a plan and the other on Chat.

“Alright akuma,” she mutters, “Let’s get this over with.”

Ladybug raises her hand above her head with a flourish, summoning her Lucky Charm. It’s a sledge and it doesn’t take long for her to figure out what to do with it. With the help of her yoyo, a cement truck parked up the way, a tandem bicycle and a clothesline, Ladybug effectively smashes the monster to bits and releases the black akuma hiding inside its abdomen. Ladybug reaches up to capture it, purifying its soul, and releases it to the mercy of the winds.

“Bravo!”

Ladybug is already halfway over when Chat starts pulling himself out of his Chat sized crater. He droops over the chunks of concrete, wincing when the hole corrects itself under Ladybug’s restorative magic, and rolls over onto his back instead.

“Are you alright?”

Chat blinks up at Ladybug, “My Lady, il le faut avouer, l'amour est un grand Maître.”

“Ugh,” she groans, running her gloved hand over her face as her Miraculous begins to beep at her, “If you’re well enough to recite love poems to me, then you’re well enough to get up.”

She offers him her hand and he takes it, brushing himself off as she hauls him up easily, “Excuse me for being well versed in the classics, M’Lady. I am a cultured cat.”

“You have a test tomorrow on Molière, don’t you?”

Caught, Chat glares at her sidelong, “It’s an in-class essay, I’ll have you know.”

“Well, don’t let me Horace you any longer.”

Chat gapes at her suddenly, his eyes wide, “Did you…did you just…?”

“Make a pun? Maybe, maybe not,” she smirks, batting him on the nose, “Now, it’s time to get going. You need your beauty sleep.”

“But—”

“Off with you,” she grins, gesturing at him to leave with a flick of her wrist, “À plus!”

It isn’t a particularly long walk to school the next morning, but Marinette spends most of it thinking about her in-class essay. It’s one of the very last assignments that will count towards her brevet at the end of the year; it’s also the third time since the beginning of the semester that Chat has mentioned having to work on a school assignment.

The same school assignment as her.

It’s been niggling at her thoughts for some time now, the fact that Chat may very well be a student in her grade. First, it was the same unit test in maths that had come up in their conversation and between the binomials and trinomials clogging her brain, Marinette hadn’t thought anything of it. But a few months later, it happened again and Chat was waxing poetic about a particular stream of science and the experiment he was completing in class…

...which was the exact same experiment that had blown up in her face that afternoon.

Armed with the sheer determination to ignore any and all comparisons between her life and his, Marinette stuck her head in the proverbial sand and promptly tuned him out whenever school came up in their conversations. That is, until last night.

Marinette tugs at her ponytails and racks her brain for clues. There are only two 3ème classes in Collège Françoise Dupont and she shares her age with only five other blond boys, one of which is shorter than her. There’s the twins in Mlle Mendeleiev’s class, but they both have much bigger noses than Chat. Then there’s Christien, and that would be impossible given his fairly distinctive Belgian accent which leaves the only other option as…

...Adrien Agreste.

She watches him duck into his locker from the other side of the room and wince as he holds his ribs gingerly, grimacing at another one of Nino’s terrible dad jokes. He’s quoting Molière again, favouring his left arm as he waves it around theatrically, making Nino roll his eyes in response.

Oh.

When she sits down, lined paper in hand and essay prompt at the top, she’s never been so sure of something in her life.

She’s going to fail this essay spectacularly.

And, Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir.

#miraculous ladybug #ladynoir #adrinette #ml fanfic #ml fic

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years ago

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Women are Space Orcs

Alright ever one, been pretty excited to give you this one. I have a few female characters, including Sunny, that I thought deserve a little love. Plus I wanted to explore the dynamic between Sunny and other members of the crew.

Its just supposed to be a fun little adventure, so nothing philosophical or anything :)

Sunny walked beside Adam as he paced through the cargo bay checking off shipping manifests on his clipboard, checking and rechecking the equipment they would need for re-supply. They had stopped on the Tesraki home world for a much-needed rest and some recuperation. They would be here a couple days, so shore leave was in order for a night or two, a prospect the entire group was excited about considering what the Tesraki home world had become.

If the Tesraki and humans had one thing in common, it was their desire for a good time. It had probably been a horrible idea to introduce the Tesraki to the idea of gambling and casinos. Honestly it had probably been a bad idea to introduce the Tesraki to capitalism as it was, since they took to the idea like fish to water, but mistakes had been made and there was no turning back.

On the coattails of that debacle, the Tesraki;s home world had quickly transformed itself into the Vegas of the galaxy knowing, in true business fashion, that humans couldn’t resist debauchery and a good time. The sheer amount of revenue and inherent benefits that had come to them simply by way of human tourism had been astonishing, raising their planetary gross income to 7% more than any other planet in the GA system.

Commander Vir paused beside another pallet of cargo.

“Hey, SUNNY! SUNNY!.”

Sunny Turned her head in a wide arc searching for the voice and found a group of women standing next to one of the shuttle doors, each waving at her. She left Commander Vir out of curiosity and walked over.

Dr. Katie was there with a few women from engineering and a couple female marines. Maverick, a short female marine with buzzed blond hair and grey blue eyes greeted Sunny with a wolfish grin. “‘Bout time. I’ve been yelling at you for half a minute.” Sunny looked around the circle. It was strange seeing the marines in anything other than their usual uniforms. Maverick was wearing camouflage cargo pants, a black tank top and a pair of blue tinted sunglasses perched atop her short blond hair. Dr. Katie wore a form fitting black dress and pointy red shoes. Another marine had her warm strawberry blond hair curled down past her shoulders.

“Where are you guys going?” Sunny wondered.

“Out on the town, where else. A couple of us decided to get together and go get wasted, or whatever trouble we can get into, maybe lose some money. We don’t know, yet.”

Sunny glanced back towards where the Commander was standing, still going through inventory. “Oh, well I don’t know if we were-”

“Oh come on, the two of you hang out all the time. I think it’s about time you got out more, besides we’re prettier.” The group laughed. Dr Katie flipped her hair and grinned at Maverick, “Well, except for Maverick, but we had to have an ugly one to make the rest of us look better.”

Maverick snorted and waved a hand, “Are you kidding me?” She motioned seductively, “Nothing can top ‘this’.”

“A sack of lard,” more laughter.

“Keep laughing ladies. You’re just jealous of my stunning physique. As I was saying though, seriously Sunny, you need to get out. The Commander has work to get done anyway and he's going to be boring for the next 48 hours.”

Sunny wavered on the edge of indecision as a pair of boots thudded on the ground next to her.

“What are you jackals trying to get sunny into?”

Katie linked an arm through one of Sunny’s, “Girls night, and YOU aren’t invited.”

“Yeah only women or those who identify as such are allowed’” one of the engineers piped up from the back.

Commander Vir snorted, “Y’all better be glad I don’t identify as a woman,”striking a quick pose and flipping imaginary hair over his shoulder, “because I’d be the prettiest.”

“Yes, a beautiful monkey, sir.”

Jackie tilted her head, “You know, now that I think about it probably not the prettiest, or the smartest, or even the strongest. Bet Mav could crush you with her thighs if she wanted to, pop your head like a melon.”

He raised an eyebrow, “As fun as THAT sounds, I am afraid you might be right. You all are too much for my delicate sensibilities. I was actually coming over here to give you the pre-leave lecture.” He cleared his throat, “Don’t get pregnant, don't get anyone pregnant, don’t sell your body for money, don’t accept drinks from strangers, any bail, ransom, or parking tickets will be paid out of your monthly wages. Keep all debauchery, drunkenness, fighting and gambling to a minimum, and please for the love of Jupiter, try not to kill anyone.”

“Yes sir, I will try very hard not to get anyone pregnant,” there was laughter about the group.

The commander raised a hand, “It is 4023, so I am SURE you could find a way.”

“What if I get kidnapped Commander, can I hurt them then?”

“You wouldn’t need to hurt them Jackie. They would bring you back and I would make them pay ME ransom to take you back,” he tucked the clipboard under his arm and looked at Sunny. “Good luck with this group. Don’t die, and don’t kill anyone.”

She hadn’t exactly decided to go with them just yet, but it appeared as if that decision had been made for her. She waved a hand at the Commander who turned back to his earlier duties as the group of marines, engineers and one doctor stepped their way into the small shuttle. The strawberry blonde CJ was a passable pilot and took them down through the clouds with a loud whoop. Sunny’s stomach flew into her face reminding her rather unpleasantly of what she had had for breakfast.

Mav sat next to Katie opposite and over the roaring of entrance into the atmosphere Sunny heard bits of conversation. “I hate it when people assume that you have to choose one or the other. It’s the 41st century, if I want to play with big guns and explosives AND get my nails done afterwards, I am going to damn well do it. You’d have to be stupid to turn down either option, so I say, best of both worlds.”

Katie raised an eyebrow.

The way the light cut across Mavrick’s arms and shoulders made it pretty clear she spent a good portion of her time at the gym.

Dr. Katie through a strand of hair over her shoulder, “Ok, yes I agree, but also at least be careful when you do that sort of thing. I have been a doctor long enough to know what degloving skin looks like, and yes it is exactly how it sounds. So please for the love of all that is holy BE CAREFUL. Personally, just give me a good book and a bag of chips and I’m set for the afternoon.”

“What genre?”

“Meh, whatever strikes my fancy. Mostly fantasy if I am being honest, sometimes romance hits the spot, but other times I can do for a western. It just depends on the day.”

Sunny tilted her head, listening intently. While she had spent a lot of time with the marines, she had never actually gotten to know them on a personal level and she barely knew the name of the women from the engineering and science departments.

If she was being honest, she didn’t really have much of a relationship with anyone, especially not women.

She never really had, considering her history with her mother.

She grew up spending most of her time with her brother and her father and eventually she had become such good friends with Adam that she had become rather short sighted with her other options aboard the crew. To be honest though, it didn’t much matter on her home world, so she couldn't imagine that it would be much different here.

She couldn’t help but pipe in on the subject of weapons which turned into good natured banter between her and Mav who had some pretty strong opinions about the nature of projectile vs energy weapons. Though when it came to other subjects, she was a bit lost. The humans were an interesting race in that they enjoyed both their war and their relaxation in equal measure, so the topics they were discussing went heavily over Sunny’s head.

She got involved in a couple of conversations she probably could have done without. Humans were gross no matter which group of them you talked to. The only difference was this group of humans was more willing to share

The discussion on how to properly scratch a nipple in public was followed by a debate that included but was not limited to scratching in other unmentionable places, random overgrown hairs, body fluids, body smells and on and on.

Sunny turned the conversation back to music, something she was comfortable with. Mav liked punk, alternative, and hard rock, Dr. Katie was ok with anything as long as it was catchy. Jackie, the engineer, had a thing for country music, and CJ was some strange mix between classical and R&B it just depended on the day. The other women chimed in with their favorites and soon all genres were accounted for.

They were all laughing about something by the time they hit planet side and Sunny stepped from the shuttle, eyes wide as she turned in a circle talking in the bright neon lights and a million billboards shamelessly advertising for human tourists. Billboards hundreds of feet across showing pictures of half-naked models, both men and women, rose high into the sky.

The one sad thing about the future was that it hadn’t stopped the objectification of the human body, but had simply equalized the amount of objectification between the sexes, men and women in equal measure, because it was always easier to sell a product when you were really just selling sex instead.

The Terasaki certainly had no moral qualms about doing it either. It wasn’t their species after all.

CJ clapped her hands together throwing her strawberry blond curls over one shoulder, “Alright, we need a game plan.”

Mav eyed one of the billboards, “How about we start there?” she pointed.

The group of them turned to find an advertisement for nightly ring fighting, “It’s just like what I was saying, gotta go see someone get fucked up before I get my nails done, that's just how things should be. Plus twenty bucks says there will be alcohol for those of you who are less interested.” “Hey, I am down for anything as long as I get a massage later.”

Mav nodded, “Deal, I get to watch someone get the snot beaten out of them and you can get wasted. Everyone wins.” Sunny wasn’t entirely sure what she had expected, but she liked what she got. Sunny, Mav and CJ got seats just outside the ring while Jackie, Katie and a few others stormed the bar. Turns out CJ had a thing for yelling at the referee. Mav didn’t care what happened just as long as someone was getting punched in the face and Sunny, well Sunny loved it yelling and screaming with the rest of the humans as Drev and Humans alike beat the pulp out of each other.

Halfway through the night Sunny was interrupted

“Hey,, HEY, Scarab.” Sunny turned around to find a large human looking at her from the aisle, “Why don’t you go stand with the rest of the Drev. I reserved these seats.”

Sunny looked down at him, “Uh ... yeah, there’s room.”

“Let me talk slow since you don’t seem to speak good human, but you’re big and I don’t want your arms getting in the way of my view so why don’t you get lost.”

Sunny was ready to ignore him, but before she knew what was going on Mav and CJ were standing in front of her arms crossed, “The hell you say, you DON’T talk to our friend, bitch.”

The guy looked a bit nonplussed, but straightened himself up, “I told her to go sit with the other Drev.”

“I didn’t know these seats were segregated.” Mav shot back, “but if that’s the case, I think idiots are seated on the other side.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. Now either you can back up, or I can back you up.” Mav was right in his face now, but CJ put a hand on her arm warningly. It was human culture that the first person who threw a punch, whether man or woman, was opening up to a fair beating.

Sunny stood from her seat looming a good foot to two over her short companions glowering down at the man. She didn’t say anything. The man backed up a few steps.

“Aww….. little bitch gonna cry to mommie,” Mav taunted, much to the chagrin of CJ.

The guy’s face turn beet red, “If you weren’t-.”

“Here let me finish-”

CJ grabbed Mav by the arm and pushed her back to her seat, “Down Mav.” She turned her eyes back to the guy “Look Imma make this as clear as I can. We aren't moving, so either you get over it and take a seat or you get the hell out. Pick your poison.”

The guy took his seat and shut up. Sunny couldn’t help making a point to step in front of him a few times blocking his view with her bulk. Mav got a kick out of her pettiness, but eventually they left to find Jackie, Katie and the others at the bar. Just a few drinks in and already they were coming up with stupid dance moves.

Grabbing them, they moved out of the bar and onto the street. It was leaning towards late evening, but managed to get themselves checked into a nice little spa hunched between two buildings, a bit out of the way and pushed back from the rest of civilization. Everything going on here was pretty foreign to Sunny.

The Drev had nothing comparable in their culture to this practice, and she watched in confusion as the other humans took their seats at strange tables. Mav was “getting her nails done,�� pointing out that there was nothing better than a hand massage and anyone who disagreed could go right ahead and fight her. Katie had her feet soaking in a pool of hot water, while Jackie lay on her stomach on a strange flat table towel wrapped around her curly dark hair obscuring her face while her dark skin shone in the delicate white light overhead.

Water trickled somewhere in the distance, and the entire room was done in shades of white and pastel giving it a very un-Drev aesthetic.

It was an extreme 180 from the earlier venue and Sunny wasn’t entirely sure how to behave.

Eventually, someone came to her rescue as she was ordered to take a seat and relax by CJ, who determined she was in for a treat. Sunny had to admit the warm towel around her neck was nice and she hummed softly as her feet soaked in a pool of water. The human that walked in looked a little surprised to see her, but shrugged and got to work. It took a little more elbow grease to get through Sunny’s tough hyde, but when they managed it Sunny had to admit it was probably the best feeling she had ever experienced… in pretty much ever.

Mav snickered, snapping a picture of the big blue Drev, face covered in a green mask, cucumbers over her eyes, sprawled in a chair as one person messaged her huge neck muscles, one worked on the claws of her left upper hand, and another knelt at her feet.

Sunny was quite displeased when her time was up. She needed about an hour more work on her shoulder muscles and at least another ten minutes on each of her hands, but her time was up so they paid, leaving just as a few familiar faces walked in. Another group of tipsy marines, who made it very clear that they intended to get their feet done while they were here, were filing in.

Sunny found the image somewhat amusing, but was glad to see they were having fun and agreed with their decision. She had a new favorite pastime now and understood why they had chosen it.

With that amazing ritual behind them, they went out to eat. The humans ordered a round of drinks and Sunny asked for some water, not actually capable of getting drunk in the same way that humans did. The berries and fruit that her species ate were often fermented when preserved, giving her species an extreme tolerance to ethanol such that it wasn’t even worth trying to get drunk since you would likely die of heightened liquid consumption before actually reaching the point of intoxication.

Humans on the other hand reached that threshold pretty quick. A few of them were a bit closer, having consumed a few drinks earlier in the day and were not yet totally down from that high. As the night grew on the conversation got louder, and much more interesting.

Dr. Katie raised her hands, “ok ok… you wanted to hear it so I’ll give it to you. I’ve worked in the ER for fifteen years plus trauma centers and other level one clinics and there is NOTHING I haven't seen, and I mean nothing.”

“Worst story,” Mav urged.

“No…. no, no, no, not at the dinner table,” begged one of the ladies.

Katie took a drink, “There was this one time I come into a room to check on a patient, and there is this guy with real shifty eyes and he can’t stop squirming. Real professional looking type right, so immediately I know he’s got something crammed up his ass.” The table burst into a fit of giggling. “So I go up to him and I ask him what’s wrong and he hems and haws and he's all like ‘Doc, I have some intestinal pain, a stomach ache,’ you know because of the thing he's got jammed in his ass.” More giggling. “So of course I ask him all the usual questions, where is the pain, is it something he ate, how long has this been going on, you know and the entire time I am just trying to figure out what he's got up there, because I KNOW he's got something up there, but of course he won’t admit it. We go around like this for like twenty minutes, right, and eventually I am just like send him down to radiology. If this guy won't give me a straight answer, I bet an X-ray will.” Sunny shook her head. “Low and behold, the x ray comes back and what does this guy have spelunking in his insides? None other than… a Barbie doll.”

“No!”

“Yes, and he had thought about this, like, he had tied her arms down to her sides with rubber bands to make sure they stayed in place. So I go back in there, I look at him and I show him the X-rax and of course he plays it like I’m a moron. ‘Well doctor, I was cleaning my kids playroom, naked,’ as you do, ‘and I slipped and fell.’” Maverick snorted into her drink. “And of course I am like yeah sure, but why didn’t you tell me that when you came in, and you know what this sucker does? He Looks me dead in the eye and goes…I forgot.”

The table erupted into laughter. CJ laughed and wiped her face with a napkin, “Now hold on, I got one. It was in boot camp.”

Mav rolled her eyes, “Oh no.”

“Oh yes, some of the guys had been clearing an abandoned hotel, as part of our training. I wasn't there at the time, but I guess while they were looking around they find this nine inch, monstrous rubber dong stuck to one of the walls. So of course they laugh it off right, and go back to what they were doing. Well, when they come back later, it isn’t there. Kind of weird, but whatever. At least whatever until this thing starts SHOWING UP around barracks. Like our Sergeant walks in one morning to do an inspection and we had all just gotten up right, so none of us were paying attention. She starts yelling at us like she does and then goes all quiet. She tilts her head one way and then the other. I swear I have never seen someone look so confused in their entire life and she’s all like, “What the fuck is that?” We all turned around to look and this thing is sitting in the middle of the damned floor and it just flopped to one side, and you know of course we can’t stop it so we just start laughing. The sergeant is trying not to laugh and everyone is trying not to laugh, but it just gets worse. When she could finally talk she just starts screaming at us, trying to figure out what the hell we had been doing the night before. I don’t think I’ve ever done so many pushups in my life.”

Jackie raised a hand just then, “No hey, I have always had a question for you guys about the whole boot camp thing. So what do you do when it’s your time of the month? I mean do they let you guys off easy to go fix things? Or do you just have to suffer?”

“Suffer,” Mav piped in. “Mostly suffer. Like I knew girls who would be bent doubled in pain and still had to stand in formation with us like it was nothing. I mean honestly the shit we had to go through. Seriously, there is nothing worse than standing in front of your sergeant and feeling half your innards just sort of shlop out of you and you have to look this guy in the eye like nothing is going on. Like yes sir, no sir, like insides aren’t totally falling out right now.”

Jakie moaned, “Tell me about it, cramps are the worst.” She glanced towards Dr. Katie, “Seriously, when is the medical field going to do something about that?”

Katie finished off her drink and set it back on the table with a thud, “You would think after more than 200,000 years of menstruation we would know how to fix cramps, but nope, the medical field still has no friggin clue how to deal with them. The general consensus is to throw an anti- inflammatory, a heating pad or a shit-ton load of chocolate at it and pray, but otherwise sucks to suck.”

Sunny looked between the group of them, “Cramps? Your insides falling out…er ... are you guys ok?”

The group turned to look at her with incredulous looks on their faces, “You aren't serious?” Jackie asked.

Sunny stared at her blankly.

“You guys don’t have cramps, periods on your planet…like really?”

“Explain?”

Sunny wasn't entirely sure that she appreciated the explanation once it was over and shook her head vigorously, “EWWW no…. no,” she shivered. Battle sounded like a more amusing pastime.

“How does it work on your planet?” Katie wondered, the scientist in her taking over.

Sunny shifted awkwardly, “Well uh…we have a mating season. The female can become fertile twice a year. It’s during the dark season, so generally all the kits are born during or right before the bright season.”

“So, what? Do you guys just get really horny twice a year or something?”

“Er…. well no. Any time of year is fine but you are just more likely to get a kit during those times of year.”

“Uh huh, how interesting.”

Sunny didn’t exactly see how it was all that interesting. She had never been caught in this sort of conversation, oddly enough. Adam had never asked so she had never been forced to answer the question. In fact, she learned more about humans in the last ten minutes than she had learned about humans in the last year she had been aboard the ship and not all of it was great.

One of the biggest things she learned was that humans get slightly strange the more they drank.

“Ok, Ok,” CJ slurred, “Hottest guy aboard the ship, go.”

“Ramirez,” Katie responded almost immediately.

Mav snorted into her drink again, “Really….. no…. no way.”

“What, he's cute, I’d do him.”

Jackie raised her hands over her head, “I couldn’t tell you who the hottest guy on the ship is, but I CAN tell you who the hottest girl is.”

Mav didn’t bat an eye, “Well of course that would be me, like we even have to debate that subject.”

Jackie rolled her eyes and the rest of the table laughed, “Ha ha, your confidence never ceases to amaze, but you're not my type.”

Katie waved a hand, “Oh come on, I know you don't’ LIKE guys like that but you must be able to tell when one of them LOOKS nice . Come on, a shot in the dark.”

Jackie shrugged, but thought about it for a second, “Uh…. well, how about Adam, he’s good looking, right?”

The table thought about it for a moment. Mav tilted her head to the side thoughtfully, “Well I mean yeah he is, but he's also a super massive juvenile.”

CJ shrugged, “I don’t know, I think it's kind of cute.”

Katie waved a hand at all of them, “Not like it matters, because I have a couple of theories.” Sunny and the other’s looked on in interest, waiting, “I’m pretty sure he's: A into guys, B not into anyone or C a closeted extrial. There was some muttering from around the table, but Mav shook her head in disagreement.

“No, he’s too uncomfortable around women to like guys, and you can’t say he’s hiding it because he has no reason to. If he really liked guys he would be indifferent to women and awkward around men. If he wasn’t into anyone, he wouldn’t be nearly so awkward… however, I can probably get behind C.”

Sunny did not noticed the glances pointed her way

The conversation moved on to the hottest girl on the ship which sparked a furious debate despite Jackie being the only one that like girls. Turned out though that female humans had no issue discussing the perceived hotness or notness of other women. Nairobi down in engineering took the title with almost unanimous agreement.

That lead into the subject of who was the best looking DREV aboard the ship and once Sunny explained that height and carapace color were the most important outside factors mixed with fighting status, it turned into a rather entertaining debate as the humans tried to decide which Drev was the hottest while continuing to steadily drink. It finally devolved into a slurred argument between Cannon and another of their Drev members, Roc.

Sunny would have found the entire thing funny if it wasn’t also rather disturbing. Her vote was the tiebreaker which was obviously biased considering that Cannon was her brother and that was super weird, so of course Roc won the title.

The drunker they got, the worse they got, until the conversation was oscillating constantly between being mildly lewd and hilariously embarrassing stories that Sunny wouldn’t have admitted to in her wildest daydreams.

In the end, it was up to her and Mav, who also didn’t drink to get the other girls back to the shuttle. That was all before realizing that CJ was the only one who could fly the ship so they had no way of getting back on their own. In the end, they had to call for backup and a rather amused shuttle pilot showed up on scene to take the staggering party back to the ship.

Sunny wobbled onto the ship holding up two drunk women while Mav helped a third.

Together they collapsed onto some cargo containers laughing and slurring.

A shadow fell over them a moment later and Sunny looked up to find Commander Vir standing over them with a raised eyebrow, “Fun time, Ladies?”

A burst of giggling, “Yes sir,” Mav smirked.

Katie almost fell off her seat, but Vir caught her by the arm, “Alright, to bed with the lot of you.”

Kate tried to wave him off but nearly fell over once more. “Krill is going to have a fit when he sees the state of you. Come on, let’s get you to bed to sleep it off.” He glanced over at Mav, “Get the rest of them back safe.” Mav saluted and Katie giggled drunkenly, but managed to make it to her feet and together they wandered off towards the medical bay where the medical staff usually slept.

Sunny also helped Mav get the other two to their quarters before retiring to her own room exhausted, but happy.

It had been a good day. She determined to do it more often.

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geekgirles · 5 years ago

Text

Una rosa es una rosa

In all honesty, this one-shot is an excuse to describe an outfit I came up with for Poppy, but hey, it got me to write something, didn’t it? XD

Special thanks to my lovelies @foxlanaeshrek and @tipolover22. You guys rock! And because you do, this one-shot is set on the Rock!Branch AU.

Read on AO3

With the Skulls and Roses Ball fast approaching, Branch asks Poppy to go with him as his date. However, an unfortunate comment sets Poppy out to prove to her boyfriend she can be the last thing she expected she'd want to emulate: a Rock troll.

Ever since the different tribes of trolls had been reunited and agreed to coexist once again, many changes were made to Troll Village. It had been decided the home of the Pop trolls would take in the rest of the kingdoms, because it was the one that held the most chances for other trolls to make a home of their own, adapting the landscape to their particular needs. And it had the sweetest acoustics by far, too.

Now that all tribes lived together, the leaders had agreed on creating spaces where all trolls could enjoy each other’s company at the same time as any individual kingdom could gather to speak about issues that concerned their kind specifically.

One of such places being a grand pod, known as the Conference-pod, that was built the closest to the centre of the village as possible. It was of every hue that was once represented by the six strings that used to hold each realm’s music. The top was electric blue, representing the techno string; its bottom was a golden yellow, that of the classical string; rotating around the spacious place were purple swirls and warm orange rope-like shapes, symbolising the funk and country strings, respectively; and finally, in the very middle of the pod, where the entrance was, zig-zagged blood red shapes intertwined themselves with bright pink hearts and flowers, a reflection of the rock and pop strings.

Said pod served as a ballroom and an assembly room. In there the trolls would celebrate any party in need of an indoor space, as well as the leaders meet to discuss different ways of ensuring a better collaboration and coexistence between their people. Even so, the place served another purpose, any king or queen (mayor and conductor in the Country and Classical trolls’ case) could request to use the pod in order to hold a party or meeting exclusively for their kind.

Being that last purpose the reason why it was currently being occupied by the Rock trolls, Queen Barb currently addressing her subjects, “As you know, our annual Skulls and Roses Ball is in two days’ time. I doubt I need to remind you it’s our most, if not only, formal event.” She said as she looked at her people. “I’ve already asked Queen Poppy if we can use the pod for it and she gave me the green light, so dudes”, she leaned in closer from the podium she was standing, “we’ve got a lot to do!”

After a minute or two she gestured for her trolls to calm down after the uproar that came when she shared the news, “Captain Branch here will read you the memo. They’re all yours, Branch.”

“Thank you, your rockness,” he thanked her as he took the place she’d previously been in, “As the queen just explained, the Skulls and Roses Ball is a formal event. That means the requirements for it are: we must all look our best, we must bring plus ones with us ‒if somebody can’t bring a plus one, either because they’re in a poly or just can’t find anyone to go with; we must be informed ahead of time‒, and absolutely, under no circumstances must we trash the place. Did I make myself clear?”

He narrowed his eyes at the lack of response from his comrades and repeated himself, louder, “I said, are we clear?!” Immediately, a chorus of agreements and clapping hands came, satisfying him. “That will be all. Dismissed; we have much to do.”

As the Rock trolls retreated, Branch stayed behind to clean up the pod. In doing so, he was approached by the queen of rock, a knowing smirk placed on her lips, “So…,” she began playfully, “are you bringing Poppy as your date, Branch?”

“That is correct, my Queen,” he turned back to face her, then his expression became worried. “Why, is there a problem with my decision, your Rolling Highness?” Branch feared not being able to have Poppy accompany him to the ball. He was well aware his relationship with the pink queen ‒the pink queen of Pop, to be precise‒ was something unheard of, even from back when the trolls still lived together the first time. But he simply couldn’t take anybody else as his date to the event; she was his one and only and he would not accept anyone but her.

“No, no. It’s cool, dude”, the redhead replied, motioning with her hand to ease his concerns, “Popcorn is pretty hard-core once you get to know her.” She smirked at him, which he answered with a smirk of his own. It was true, Poppy could be a force to be reckoned with if pushed too far; outright terrifying. He loved her so much. “But,” that made him worried, “you should really let her know she can’t come in her usual pop fashion.” Barb was now looking at him, her expression serious. “This is a rock formal event, Branch, she must look the part.”

The Captain nodded, “I will make sure she knows, your rockness.”

After the Rock Queen took her leave Branch was sure to follow, he had to find Poppy.

..........................................................................................................................

Poppy could barely contain her excitement the moment her charming boyfriend handed her an invitation ‒scrapbooked by him, might I add�� to invite her to an upcoming rock event as his date. That would be their first appearance as an official couple! She really wanted to sing as loudly as she could to express her excitement right now. But, figuring there were still things they had to talk about, she did the next best thing; she tackled Branch to the ground in a hug.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” She practically yelled, “Yes, Branch! Of course I’ll be your date!”

After allowing himself to relish the attention his beautiful ladylove was giving him, he reluctantly broke the hug, “Poppy, angel, there’s something I should tell you.”

She looked at him with a furrowed brow. Seriousness wasn’t really the mood she’d thought he’d be in after inviting her to a party. “Okay…,” she said, feeling a little uneasy, “What’s up?”

Branch took a deep breath, “You see, the Skulls and Roses Ball is a huge deal for us Rock trolls. It is literally the only day of the year where we are expected to behave and follow certain rules.” His nervous gaze found her confused one, her nodding head encouraging him to continue. “This is the first time ever a troll that worships a different type of music will be attending, so I need you to be in your best behaviour.”

Wording his thoughts like that had been a mistake, he could tell from the queen’s narrowing eyes. “What do you mean by ‘my best behaviour’?” she air-quoted.

“I need you to look and act like a poised, elegant rock troll.” He explained, hoping he didn’t screw up. “I know it’ll probably be difficult-“

“Why would it be difficult?” She cut him off, crossing her arms. She had a feeling she knew where he was going, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“W-well… Y-you k-know… Be-because…”, Ugh, how did she manage to make him lose his usual level head?! In twenty years nobody had ever managed to make him lose his level head!

Then again, he had never met anyone as unique, inspiring, and incredible as Poppy… Oh, Rock. He really did have it bad.

“No, Branch, I’m afraid I do not know. Please, enlighten me…” she challenged.

“W-well, because…” he averted his eyes from her as he uttered the words that were sure to cause him several nights away from his pink, sweetly scented Eden, “…you’re a Pop troll.”

At the confirmation of her suspicions, something stirred inside Poppy. The same kind of resolve that only awakened when her people had truly needed it. But this time it was mixed, once again, with the desire to prove herself… And a hint of smugness.

And so, with a new purpose, she slowly got closer to her tattooed beau, a fire in her pink irises that, hadn’t it been for the fact that he was now slightly disturbed by the heat of its fury, under any other circumstances the Captain of the Rock trolls would have found insanely hot. Without a warning, she quickly pecked him on the lips before whispering, “Challenge accepted.”

As the retreating form of the Pop Queen was finally far enough, Branch let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“…What was that about?”

..........................................................................................................................

Poppy had been pacing and ranting inside the Fashionistas’ pod-shop for twenty minutes. Any troll from another land would be at a loss at what to do with the agitated ball of pink fury, but the twins, having been close friends with the queen since childhood, knew just exactly what was troubling her.

“So Branch invited you to Rock troll party-“, Satin started.

“-But he doesn’t actually think you can pull it off?” Chenille finished.

“Yes!” Poppy threw her arms at her sides, exasperated with her boyfriend. “I can’t believe him! We’ve been together for months and he still doesn’t trust me when it comes to his people and their customs! Like, what gives?!”

The twins exchanged a look. As siblings that were literally bound to each other, they knew of unsaid things, hidden behind bickering, better than anyone. “Poppy, hon.” Satin called her as Chenille put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

When their friend was finally looking at them, the blue sister began to explain, “We don’t think Branch doesn’t trust you.”

“Really?” Poppy asked, incredulous.

“Really.” The pink twin assured her with a soft smile.

“Then why doesn’t he think I can actually behave like a ‘poised, elegant Rock troll’?” She rolled her eyes as she did a half-hearted impression of her boyfriend’s voice.

“It’s probably not that he doesn’t think you can’t behave like one of his kind-,” Chenille tried to reason.

“-But more like he’s trying to protect you from them.” Satin added.

“What?”

“You know how we trolls can be, Poppy”, Satin shrugged, “We get very defensive of the things we care about.”

“So Branch probably fears his people will give you a hard time if you don’t act like them on such a special occasion.” Chenille smiled at her, reassuringly.

The royal troll’s eyes widened. It all made so much more sense now! Of course her romantic, thoughtful, and caring boyfriend would never think anything but highly of her! He just had a hard time delivering harsh things gently due to his upbringing. Sometimes even to her. He’d explained himself before.

“I want to make things right.” She spoke up. “I want to make Branch see I can handle myself so he doesn’t worry to death for my sake.” Poppy suddenly felt very small under the amused smirks and knowing eyes of the twins. She knew they saw right through her… “And… I also want… to… make his jaw… drop… when he sees me.” She admitted quietly, a blush spreading over her already pink cheeks.

The Fashion Twins simply giggled. Those two were adorable!

“Luckily for you-,“ Satin began to speak.

“-We happen to have the perfect idea in mind for your outfit.” Chenille completed the sentence as she showed Poppy a very peculiar flower. A flower Poppy knew all too well but had never given much thought. After all, it wasn’t the kind of flower a Pop troll would have a soft spot for.

“A-are you sure?”

“Positive.” They answered in sync. “Besides, it sure is perfect if what you’re aiming for is something that helps you erase your pop vibes temporarily. It does symbolise death, hatred, farewells, and tragic romance… It’s sure to grant you the darker side that is so characteristic of Rock trolls, since it’s a stark contrast to your usual, well, you.”

Poppy didn’t know which twin had said it, but she didn’t care. She had the perfect chance to become a poised, elegant rock troll and she sure as Hair was going to use it.

.............................................................................................................................

Branch had been waiting anxiously at the entrance of the Conference-pod for the last ten minutes. Despite their disagreement, Poppy had sent him a card saying she’d be there at 7:00PM. And yet, it was already 7:10PM and she was nowhere in sight.

He couldn’t help but think back on their “argument”. Ugh, if only he’d been better at choosing his words! How he was simultaneously able to smooth talk his girlfriend until he swept her off her feet and speak to her with his foot in his mouth was beyond him! But alas, it was a power he had been both blessed and cursed with, apparently.

He was also feeling very curious regarding her outfit of choice. Even if he knew for a fact Pop trolls had their own formal events, a part of him still worried about his queen’s (the one by choice, not the one he’d sworn to serve because he was her Captain) choice.

He, himself, never really lost sleep when it came to his own clothing. He was dressed smartly; wearing a buttoned-up white shirt, a black tuxedo and a navy blue tie and waistband to match his dark hair, which was carefully combed back, giving him a refined presence. Even if his attire was appropriate for the occasion, his mind was still going back to Poppy’s.

Just what would she be wearing?

“Branch, over here!”

As he turned his head to the sound of his name, he could feel his eyes widening like saucers, his rocker heart skipping a beat, his jaw hanging right open... And he was pretty sure he’d stopped breathing, too.

It was so strange. The female in front of him looked so much like Poppy. Her skin was the same pink he’d compared to the sunset’s hue dozens of times. Her magenta eyes still sparkled with the same sense of wonder and excitement Poppy’s always reflected. Her glittery freckles shimmered when the light hit them just right… And yet, the troll before him looked nothing like his sweet, happy angel of morning.

The pink troll before him had a certain feeling of mystery and danger to her. Her beauty screamed enchantress, siren, goddess of the night! …Of course it was Poppy, Poppy always looked like a goddess! He couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

Her magenta hair was reminiscent of a bud that was yet to bloom, with both the strands at the top of her mane and framing her face shaped after two perfectly round spirals. But what really caught his eye, though, wasn’t the extra softness it seemed to radiate, but the single black streak that went across his mate’s silky locks. A black highlight he’d only ever seen once before; when she was (seemingly) turned into a Rock troll.

Glinting in the night almost as much as her rosy gaze, three silver earrings gave the pink troll a bit of a wilder look. Two of them adorning her right ear, and one on her left. The smoky eyeshadow she wore made her eyes resemble two magenta lights in a fog of mystery. A spiked choker covered her neck, forcing his mind to daydream with the thought of marking it with a love bite.

The masterpiece she was using as dress was black and strapless, it hugged her body perfectly; the bodice accentuating her curves in such a manner that it reminded him of a corset. And the skirt, the long, filmy skirt, had a cut on both sides of it; teasing Branch with the sight of Poppy’s long, perfect legs. From closer inspection, the unusually smooth texture of the dress reminded him of a flower’s petals, rather than fabric. And yet, its rose-like velvety feel gave it a quality no other silk could amount to achieve. It was almost as if Poppy had picked rose petals and woven them together to create such garment.

That’s when it clicked. The dress was inspired after a black rose.

What really sold the look, however, were the twin armlets she wore, alongside her headband. The bracelets, made out of obsidian, were crafted in the form of vines with thorns. And, in contrast to the Pop Queen’s usual style, the headband followed a simple design; a halo of silver decorated by three black roses.

He gulped.

From the corner of his eyes he could see Riff arriving with his own date. At the sight of his Captain, he subtly motioned to the corner of his mouth. Following the movement with his own hand he realised what the drummer was referring to, he discreetly wiped the drool falling out of his open mouth.

A triumphant grin made its way to Poppy’s lips. Judging by the look on her boyfriend’s face ‒and his jaw, which was barely avoiding touching the floor‒, she’d succeeded. She looked like a classy Rock troll. Still, even if it was just to tease him, she asked, “So? How do I look?”

Breaking out of his stupor, Branch lightly shook his head before speaking up, “Poppy you… Rock, I don’t know what to say!”

She giggled, “Tell me, do I look like the perfect Rock troll now?” She wanted to sound confident, but a part of her still feared not meeting her boyfriend’s expectations, making her direct her eyes to the floor, only looking up at Branch ever so slightly.

His heart sunk at the insecurity hidden behind her melodic voice, “Poppy,” gently grabbing her chin, he directed her eyes to his before continuing, “you’ll always be perfect for me.”

A soft smile appeared on her lips at the clever reference of the beautiful ballad Branch once serenaded her with to express the depth of his feelings for her. He truly had the soul of a poet.

He then offered her his arm, “Shall we, my lady?”

“Branch, before we go in, I wanted to tell you something.” She watched as he turned, fully facing her now with his icy blue peepers. She had his full attention. “I’m sorry.”

His eyebrows knotted in confusion, “You’re sorry? What are you sorry for, Pops? I’m the one who doubted you!”

“No, you didn’t.” She said with finality. “I now know you weren’t doubting my blending in with your people, you were worried they wouldn’t be pleased with my ensemble and give me a hard time for it.” She sighed. “You were just trying to protect me.”

She really did get it. Sometimes he wondered if this selfless creature could read him like an open book. As a matter of fact, that didn’t sound so bad. “Yes, you’re right. That’s what got me worried, but still, Poppy, I should’ve voiced it differently.” He let out a humourless chuckle, “Looking back, no wonder you thought I was underestimating you for being a Pop troll. So,” he shrugged after holding her hands, “I’m sorry too.”

After a minute of silence, he asked, “Does this mean the gates to Heaven won’t be closing on me?”

Poppy snorted at that, “No, they won’t. ‘Sides, it’s not like you don’t have the key to them anyways…” She replied in a sultry voice.

Smiling widely at each other, no more words needed to be said. So, instead, they just closed the distance with a soft kiss before settling in an embrace.

Poppy was the first to break the silence, “Branch, I love you. And it means so much to me that you worry about my wellbeing so much, really, it does; but I don’t want you to have a heart attack every single time I find myself in a difficult situation. I swear, I can take care of myself; I did save my people from the bergens, after all.” She winked at him.

The blue troll chuckled, “Yes, you do.” He then offered her his arm again, “Now, shall we join the others, my rose?”

She took it, “Well of course! But tell me, Branch, do you really think I’ll be fine at the ball?”

He gently kissed her nose, a stark contrast to the roughness he treated almost everyone else with, “Believe me, they’re fools if they can’t see you’re the most tender flower in the rose bush.”

#Trolls #trolls world tour #twt #twt spoilers #trolls au #trolls fanfiction #Rock! Branch AU #Poppy #Branch #broppy #queen barb #riff #satin and chenille #rock trolls

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hmel78 · 4 years ago

Text

In conversation with Anthony Phillips ...

1967 – the World watched on as San Francisco experienced it’s ‘Summer Of Love’, and listened on as music reached the dizzy heights of psychedelic rock; Classical music seemed to be drowned out by the screams accompanying The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who … Meanwhile, at Charterhouse school - one of Great Britain’s finest ‘public’ educational establishments in the idyllic English county of Surrey - a handful of budding young musicians, were busily trying to prove to their masters that banning guitar practice as a punishment for missed homework, would not stop the musical revolution that had begun to happen within it’s own splendid Gothic walls! Unsurprisingly, there is a noteable list of ‘Old Carthusians’ – including the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, amongst numerous artists, actors, poets , sportsmen, TV personalities, journalists, politicians, and Bishops! – but we doubt that they could ever have imagined that they would also nurture, and eventually include in that list, the founder members of a band called … ‘Genesis’. Perhaps you have heard of them?

Peter Gabriel, Michael Rutherford, Tony Banks, Christopher Stewart, and … Anthony Phillips. Despite his departure from the band in 1970, Ant has never strayed from his musical path. His solo discography boasts in excess of 30 albums; in addition to that he enjoys an incredibly busy, and successful career as a TV and ‘library’ composer; and has been involved with a number of musical projects including collaborations with fellow ‘Genesis’ band mates Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Peter Gabriel - but it hasn’t all been plain sailing … Helen Robinson, caught up with him to find out more : HR - So where did your musical journey begin?

AP - I was pretty much self taught at school. I studied music later, but in the beginning I was self taught. I briefly had guitar lessons from a chap who was very impressive. My mum used to buy me the Beatles sheet music, and kindly send it down to me at ‘Charterhouse’ – and this chap would just look at them and read from the piano score, with guitar ‘shapes’ written in fret numbers as opposed to tablature – and he would play the chords and the melody on this beautiful classical guitar. I just wanted to be able to strum the chords to the songs and sing along really, and I think at the time he was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t prepared to go the classical route … Anyway I didn’t. Then formed a band at school – doing Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Animals, The Shadows - Hank was a big influence - and that took me up to starting to write my own stuff; A lot of it with Mike Rutherford. I met Mike when I was 13 – the other Genesis guys were quite a bit older so we didn’t get together with them for a couple of years. The school band – The Anon - was people more my age. I was the babe of Genesis!

HR - Indeed – and with that in mind, how much input did they allow you to have on the debut album – “From Genesis To Revelation”?

AP - The first album I didn’t do an enormous amount of writing – it was very much dominated by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. The second album – “Trespass” - was much more of a ‘group’ album. In fact, myself and Mike were responsible for the basis of 3 or 4 of the tracks on “Trespass”. “Visions of Angels” was my piano track originally. Songs like “Looking For Someone” were Peter Gabriel songs that the rest of us developed the instrumentals around. I had a reasonable amount of stuff on “Genesis To Revelation”, but Mike had very little – we came much more into play on ‘Trespass’.

HR - You’d left the band by the time their 3rd album was released. Did they take any of your ideas forward into “Nursery Cryme”? AP - Actually, I was responsible for mucking about with a few ideas that ended up on the album, way before I left - Mike had this weird tuning of F# which we played about on. That song became “The Musical Box” later – so, yes, a couple of ideas made it.

HR - Do you ever listen back to the first two albums, and hear things that you would change?

AP - I don’t often listen, no - and I haven’t listened to them enough to have any really strong thoughts. I think if you don’t listen for a while then it’s quite pleasant. If you have a period away from these things, you tend to forget what you thought was wrong, so then it’s not so bad – but I must say that when you listen repeatedly, then you start to think “oh dear”, I could have done that differently. We all felt that the business of putting strings on “Genesis To Revelation” - which necessitated reducing the backing track to mono -was a bit of a disaster. Whilst our playing wasn’t the best, the album had a rough, raw power to it which, that process of adding these high wheeling strings to, made it lose something, and anodyne, perhaps. I know that our producer was trying to give it a more commercial edge, which I understand, but I don’t think it really came off - and it was at some cost too!

HR - Would you re-record or re-mix any of it again now, in your own way?

AP - No I don’t think so. I think it is of its time really. The other thing of course is that it’s physically impossible now. That reduction process, means that things were erased, so we can’t get back to the original stages even if we wanted to. That’s all changed now, mercifully, with computers . You can get back to any stage these days – providing you remember to save it!

HR – Ah, yes! The wonders of modern technology. And … NOT saving things! [laughs]

AP - Yes – we’ve all done it!!! It’s all so easily done. We take too much for granted with technology. You can become over reliant on it, and lazy! I do fall into that trap myself sometimes actually – musically. I don’t think enough about original sounds I just tend to buy virtual instruments. T hey are wonderful, but if you think back to albums like [The Beach Boys], “Pet Sounds” and [The Beatles] “Sgt Pepper”, those sounds were created, they weren’t just there at the push of a button!

HR - I know you’re quite experimental with your solo work … Once you’d left Genesis , how easy was it to move into a more classical sound with your compositions?

AP - I found it difficult! I could play by ear, but learning to read music at the age of 18 was incredibly hard to grasp. It was a different discipline of course, of not looking at the guitar or the piano, whilst reading music. My motivation in doing it, was because I wanted the ability to orchestrate ; Not having had that set of skills in Genesis , we couldn’t really have any input into the orchestral approach because we simply didn’t really understand it. Tony Banks did more than the rest of us, although he wasn’t orchestrally trained, but he could read music. So I wanted the power to orchestrate. It wasn’t simply about being able to read music, or being able to play piano pieces – It was definitely to understand notation, so that I could write orchestral pieces. I had a ‘Road to Damascus’, if you like, after I left Genesis, and listened to all sorts of composers. “The Karelia Suite”, by Sibelius, was my epiphany. I suddenly thought “this doesn’t sound like classical music!”. I must have listened to the wrong things, or maybe my ears weren’t ready to listen as a child, so I had a lot of catching up to do. There was a huge ‘pop’ / ‘Classical’ divide as I was growing up in the 60s – it was rancorous between the establishment and the young tear-aways, and hippies. It was a wonderful voyage of discovery though, but frustrating at the same time – technically - I loved doing Bach ‘Chorales’ and things like that, but some of the exercises I had to do, I found quite dull.

HR - Having honed your skills then, did you find that it made a difference to the music that you wanted to write? Did you find yourself wanting to bridge the gap between pop and classical – through a ‘progressive’ angle?

AP - Hmmm, Bridge the gap is interesting. It didn’t make a great deal of difference to me in terms of the progressive wing of my writing – I think I would have grown into that anyway.

With Genesis - There were some moments which were quasi classical, but I don’t think they bridged the gap really, no. Tony Banks was very familiar with the classical repertoire, so you could argue that his chord sequences were classically influenced. What studying did for me, was give me the ability to do - with the more markedly classical wing of things (although you may argue that it’s a fine line to distinguish which bits are prog, and which are classical!) – was cope with them better.

On “The Geese And The Ghost” for instance, having studied orchestration, and knowing how to write the parts, I didn’t have to get an arranger in. I could think for myself and make my own judgments on which instrument to add where. Plus – arrangers inevitably, like anyone else, tend to have their own styles which then reflect on the piece, which might be good, but it might not be necessarily what you want. So it really did help me in that respect.

HR - Genesis certainly didn’t carry any of that vibe forward, into their commercial phase …

AP - No! Well, the post Gabriel group gradually became more and more commercial didn’t they. Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were quite different animals really - Obviously Peter did some successful commercial things afterwards. To be fair to them [Genesis], it would have been very difficult to carry on that way – especially post punk, and disco eras. There was almost a unilateral, multilateral, Palace revolution, that everyone had to start doing that! It became very unfashionable to be ‘prog’ and have such complicated long and drawn out pieces of music.

My timing was peccable - I’m not sure there is such a word, but I like it anyway! - coming back into the business, because I walked straight into the teeth of punk! Whilst I had nothing against it, in the sense that if I had been 10 years younger I would have been doing the same thing –what I did object to, was being asked to go into reverse gear, and start doing simple pop stuff, because I’d out grown it.

So I think it actually, for the purposes of the market, became very difficult for groups to stay true to their former selves and continue to produce classically based music. I don’t think it was a conscious direction on behalf of a lot of groups to start to simplify their music, they just were not given much choice. It didn’t do England a great deal of credit the way that everyone cashed in on that - there was so much clichéd nonsense around and people were saying “this music hasn’t got any balls!”. In a lot of European countries and the States, different styles were able to co-exist much better, than here in the UK. It was the fault of the record companies rather than a lot of the punk musicians really - they were just happy doing their own thing, but there was a lot of unpleasantness at that time. There were a lot of people who were heroes one day, and then being knifed in the back the day after by the people who had been adulating them! Which wasn’t anything to be terribly proud about …

HR - Not at all! But, something to be proud about is this lovely re-issue of your debut solo album “The Geese And The Ghost”!

AP - Yes! Absolutely! It’s just come out again, and in surround sound too, which is the first time I have had a surround sound album, and they have done a fantastic job with it! Particularly the instrumentals – it really does make a difference to have that experience of surround sound. And they’re releasing limited editions on Vinyl too, which is fabulous because that is when the artwork really comes into it’s own. Vinyl seems to be having a bit of a revival, which is great! MP3s are OK, but the sound is pretty impoverished really one you’ve narrowed the bandwidth of the sound. It sounds like a different album really, with that treatment! HR - When you started work on “The Geese And The Ghost” originally - Did you write it from a fresh perspective or was it something that you had brought forward from Genesis?

AP - It was actually written from a period as far back as 1969 / 1970. Things that Mike [Rutherford] and I had played around with then. There were some additions and refinements made between 1973 / 1974. Recording began in 1974, although the main body of it was done in 1975 – which is actually 40 years ago, isn’t that terrible?! And then, because they were now unfashionable times, we really struggled to get it released - so it didn’t come out until early 1977, by which time some of that material was over 7 years old!

HR - When you were selecting musicians to work with, what influenced your decision to ask Phil Collins and not Peter Gabriel?

AP - Well, Mike and I wrote together, and Peter and Tony [Banks] wrote together - when we came together as a group, that modified a little, but that initial pairing pretty much stayed the same way. So, because Mike and I had all this unreleased music – which was frustrating –at the earliest opportunity ; at a time where solo albums looked like a possibility - we wanted to use this material. We had done a single with Phil in 1973 which ironically was written about the previous Genesis drummer, Jonathan Silver, who was on the first album. I had written this with Mike – a very uncharacteristic kid of loose country song called “The Silver Song” and Phil came down and sang the demo and did such a great job of it. You see, Peter was married, so whenever we had any time off - he went home to spend it with Jill ; whereas Phil was foot loose and fancy free and had tons of energy. The single never got released for various reasons, but when it came to “The Geese And The Ghost” he was the obvious choice because the three of us had worked together before. HR - I’m glad you mentioned Jonathan Silver there – with regards to him, and John Mayhew – were they just hired guns for the early Genesis albums or did they have creative input?

AP - No, they weren’t hired guns as such, but by the same token they didn’t have a huge input, but we did group compositions on all the tracks on those first 2 albums – so whilst they weren’t writing huge swaythes of chord sequences, they were putting in little bits here and there. Jon Silver was full of energy and ideas about arranging and how things were connected. HR - We never really get to know the dynamics of the early stuff, which is why I was curious. It has always seemed to me, that Phil Collins became Genesis … or is that an unfair judgment?

AP - Well he had the big commercial success and I don’t think it would have been easy to keep him unless he had the lion share of the writing credits, although I think they’ve shared the credits pretty well … I think it’s sad to see him fall so far from all of that these days, with the press in particular, but he was colossally successful, and I think the group would have been looking the gift horse in the mouth if they hadn’t run with Phil.

The media can be so cruel. I remember a duel review of “The Geese And The Ghost” being handed to me from the states. One called it a “mellow rock classic”, the other said it was “music to wash dishes to” … and sadly you seem only to remember the bad ones!

And do you know, that it was the album that very nearly never came out?!! It sat on a shelf whilst punk roared away, and I’d given up on it to be honest. It was 15 months between finishing it and it being picked up to be released. For the first 3 or 4 months I was quite hopeful; by new year 1976 I was beginning to lose hope, and by the summer I was definitely starting to think about other things, and applying to go to music college full time.

It was a pretty soul destroying time – I’d spent a lot of time and energy on it; a lot of angst , and thought, apart from hard work, had gone into it … And then right at the 11th hour, while I was going for auditions to music college for the following year - suddenly it was picked up by an American record company. It was never actually released on a formal English record company label - it was released by the Genesis management company with whom I was with at the time – ‘Hit And Run’ – so like I say it’s the album that nearly never was!

HR - If it hadn’t been picked up then, do you think you’d have given it another shot down the line?

AP - No … I don’t actually. I think I would have gone to music college, and ... Good point! What would I have done at the end of it? I think I would have carried on composing, definitely, but I’m not quite sure where I would have come out at the other end, because the progressive scene had long gone, when I finished college in 1979– [laughs] Yes - in a parallel world what would I have done? I have absolutely no idea! I would probably have ended up as a music teacher.

HR - Did you teach, at some point?

AP - Yes … yes I did funnily enough. Whilst I was studying, I taught classical guitar - which helped me a lot. I had always played acoustic guitar, but didn’t play proper finger style - my right hand was quite basic, so I studied classical guitar as well as piano when I left Genesis, and teaching then helped me to pass the Classical Guitar teachers exams (as opposed to the performers diploma). I taught at a couple of different schools. One was Pepper Harrow ; which was like a progressive borstal for kids who were very bright, but who’d fallen foul of authority - not so badly that had to be interned, as it were. A great number of them had come from some pretty horrific backgrounds, but a number of them have gone on to do great things. Some of them were brilliant musicians! I remember wondering what I was letting myself in for initially, but it’s something that I look back on with a great deal of affection. They weren’t just guitar lessons – they were much more - the music was a vital part of these guys rehabilitation.

HR - Sounds like you’d have made a fantastic teacher, had all else failed! Given that “The Geese And The Ghost” almost didn’t happen – did that fill you with confidence to carry on to do the next album straight away, or had it discouraged you a little?

AP - Oh I’ve had more than my fair share of discouragement over the years! The album that came directly afterwards was “Wise After The Event” and I was immediately told that it had to be an album of songs – the writing was on the wall for these straggly instrumental albums - and it was time to crank up the electric guitar into a heavier rock genre, or don’t bother turning up, kind of thing.

“Sides” was originally going to be called “Balls”, which was cocking-a-snook at people for saying that my music didn’t have enough balls! At the time it seemed to me to be so ludicrous to have this blanket approach across all music - so that’s why we had the cover with the table football table on it - But the powers that be, over-ruled “Balls” and we had to change it to “Sides” ; because it did have one side that was more overtly commercial than the other, which is a little more instrumental.

I was lucky at that point, because the “Private Parts and Pieces” idea just came out of the blue really. I had been recording and stockpiling quite a lot throughout the year when nothing was happening with “The Geese And The Ghost”, and I asked if it might be possible, as a foil to this more rock orientated stuff, to be able to release an album of piano pieces, guitar pieces – sort of home recordings, which made up in their atmosphere and mood, what they lacked in technical perfection - and they said yes!

The first X of “Sides” was released as “Private Parts And Pieces” - as a freebie. It wasn’t actually “Private Parts and Pieces I” because it was a one off, but that numbering thing became sort of a generic term for my albums which were more homespun and simple – you know, small scale, as opposed to the more magnum opuses.

Not that I was able to do a Magnum Opus for quite a while! There was the “Invisible Men” album, which had a certain amount of record company backing, but that was again released around the time of the ‘New Romantics’ – more bad timing! I’d just bought my first house, and was under huge financial pressure with about 18 lodgers to pay the mortgage! So there was big pressure on to have hit singles and get paid, and so I didn’t do another full scale album for about another 6 years. I was lucky to still have this ‘outlet’, with the small scale releases, to continue to get some music out there during the 80s - when the climate was very much against the more classical stuff - at least I did continue to get piano, guitar, synth - slightly more imaginative stuff - out there, but all very much on a small scale.

Thinking about it, it was actually a full 7 years gap before I had the opportunity to do another large scale album at the end of the 80s. It was a frustrating time that too, I can tell you. I had rather a chequered career for a while. I was doing a lot of songwriting, and aiming it at other artists. We would keep getting close, but then, the management would lose the artist, or the album was canned. They weren’t collaborations or anything, but we had some placements in the works for Sheena Easton, Roger Daltry and people like that, but they never worked out. We had a song covered by Bucks Fizz – who promptly had a coach crash! So I had a run of bad luck with that really. It was an interesting time – I was trying allsorts of different things whilst my own music wasn’t making much money, and whilst trying to pay for the new house. It didn’t quite come to being a cat burglar, or an assassin, but I did give it some serious thought!

HR - Your celebrity friends could have hired you to assassinate the music press …

AP - [laughs] Yes …

HR - Is there anyone in particular, that you would like to collaborate with? AP - I thought you were going to say Assassinate! I don’t know these days … about collaborations … Mike and I were always a good team but we have gone in different directions now. I’m not sure that he’s interested in doing complicated instrumental stuff any longer. He did ask me if I wanted to be involved with the Mike and Mechanics albums, but I knew that I couldn’t see the whole project through with the touring and everything, which is what he needed. And it’s not necessarily my bag if I’m honest, although I very much respect what he’s achieved. I think maybe we’ve gone too far down different roads now to make anything work. Steve Hackett and I have talked about writing together a few times, but it’s always risky when someone is your friend. Working relationships do change things, and I’m not sure I’d want to risk my friendship with Steve!

With my TV library music, I do collaborate with quite a lot of people then anyway, so I’m not one of these musicians who doesn’t want to work with anybody else.

HR - When are you at your happiest then? When you’re working on solo stuff and you’re completely in control of it (and I’m not insinuating that you’re a control freak!) …

AP - Ha, NO! Actually, a great friend of mine calls my studio the spaceship! And I’m completely happy in there when I’m just mucking about with all the wonderful synth sounds, creating tapestries of colour with sound – Love it!

And also playing guitar, which increasingly seems to happen late at night in front of the TV. Just picking up a guitar – 12 String or Classical – when these ideas enter my head at absurd times of the day. On the recordings you can invariably hear Alan Hansen and Match Of The Day commentary in the background! And I do actually present demos to my library producer, with TV programmes going on in the background.

HR - What sort of boundaries are in place with your Library writing? Can you remain true to your ‘album’ style, or are you tied to a brief?

AP - I have a lot more freedom these days to create some varied pieces – guitar, synth – it’s very varied, and that’s what I love about it, but it’s hugely competitive, and the recession spawned a lot of ‘under-cutting’ - the market is flooded, and the rates of pay have dropped! I feel very fortunate to have done well at a time when it was less competitive, and to have continued to do it. It’s incumbent on me to keep writing as much as possible - I can’t afford to take my foot off the peddle. So when things come up, I don’t ever really have a blank page because of the stockpile of guitar, piano , synth, and orchestral library pieces already down – I have all of this material ready to go, rather than start from scratch. Some of them are slightly rough and would need to be redone, but the mood is there, and if someone came to me tomorrow asking for such and such, I would hope that I have something that would suit. Unless they asked for a bagpipe concerto. I haven’t got one of those. It’s unlikely to happen, but you never know …

HR - So when we end this conversation, you’re going to go and write one …

AP - [laughs]They’re not a pretty sound when people turn them off you know! What they don’t tell you is that when they’re warming up and cooling down they sound like a sick cow! It is a racket! We had a funny incident on the road with Genesis actually. Peter Gabriel was a little bit accident prone, and slightly absent minded on stage, and used to play the accordion in Stagnation, a bit – in quite an unconventional way, not like jolly French stuff with the onions and the beret - but he would put it down during a very quiet section and if he didn’t put it down properly, it would make this kind of squealing noise going off into the distance, and suddenly we would sound like a John Cage outfit! People would look up completely startled! Another thing he would do – he was a good flute player but struggled with an A flat in “The Knife” which was our closing song – and Tony Banks had to remind him before we went on, that you had to tweek the flute to tune it by a semi-tone. Occasionally Tony would forget to tell him, and Peter wouldn’t remember; The lights would dim, and we’d be ready for this lovely moody bit, and BANG! He would come in a semi tone out! That was pretty tense I can tell you! I love all of those instruments …

HR - What’s your favorite instrument?

AP - Ooooh Tricky. I think pushed to answer that, I’d have to say 12 string guitar 1st, followed very closely by piano, Classical guitar 3rd, and underwater sousaphone 4th …

HR - And, may I say you play all 4 brilliantly!

AP - Aww thanks …

HR - I’ll look forward to your underwater sousaphone symphony at some point, amidst the forthcoming re-releases! Were you looking at reworking your back catalog, or was it something that you were approached to do?

AP - They approached me! [Cherry Red / Esoteric Records]. Not to put too finer point on it but I make the majority of my living from my TV music, and the album work has always been a very nice foil to that, but it’s not been my bread and butter, as it were. I’m probably one of the only artists who has ever said to a record company – “are you really sure you want to do this?” And they did, so I was a bit surprised really! I gathered they were in the business of picking up back catalogs– and I hate the world ‘cult’ – but of people who have ‘cult’ followings, and it felt like entirely the right thing to do. It feels a safe place to be, and with a decent company who have their act together; after having had so many years of uncertainty with this stuff.

HR - How much influence did you have over the way that the 2014 anthology “Harvest Of The Heart”, was put together?

AP - Not a lot actually, but entirely by choice. I wrote a little bit for the blurb on the boxset, but as far as choosing what songs to include – I couldn’t make the decision. It was too difficult – I mean, I dither anyway, at the best of times! And I’m not in any way trying to imply with arrogance that this is all so wonderful, but it was just too hard for me to decide. I’m not a good judge of what other people would have wanted, and to be frank I don’t like listening to a lot of it anyway, once I have done it, otherwise I start to pick it all apart and convince myself that I could have done better … So I was very happy to leave it up to Jonathan Dann, who runs my website ; and Mark Powell (Boss of Cherry Red), who went through all of it. He deserves a medal for that!

HR - I know it’s unfair to ask an artist what their favourite piece of their own music is, but – do you have one?

AP - The albums I’m most proud of , would be “The Geese And The Ghost”, and an album called “Slow Dance” ; which was the first album that I did when I came back after that 7 year hiatus in the wilderness, as it were …

HR - Was that [Slow Dance] released under your own steam outside of record label jurisdiction?

AP - It was actually! I did that off my own bat, and once again ended up having a bad time of it! We’d done an album called “Tarka”, and there was a bit of an upturn in the 80s with the ‘new age’ boom. I’d been doing what was effectively ‘new age’ for a while, but suddenly people realised that, after about 5 years! So I borrowed some money from my management company to crank up my gear, in order to enable me to do a larger scale record. This was in lieu of a small advance from the record company, who then went bust! So the rights to my songs were impounded, under US laws, and my catalogs were frozen (as assets) in the states for a number of years and I couldn’t get them back - so it was a pretty chaotic period in terms of America, but also I had to finish what I had started here! So I pressed on with this album, very much in debt, because I’d bought the gear, but then hadn’t got the advance to pay it off! Looking back I’m not sure how I kept going really because the record was very complicated … But I did have an ulterior motive which was to try and secure a publishing deal with the then’ Virgin Publishing’ under Richard Branson. I don’t to this day think he realises what he let go of when he sold it on to EMI – it was such a wonderful company to be a part of. Ultimately, I got a deal, which got me out of the mire; I finished what became “Slow Dance” and then Virgin came in and released ALL of my albums onto CD for the first time, so I was very fortunate then. I owed a lot to that record in the end. But it was a real blood, sweat, and tears album, and it wasn’t just mentally painful to listen to afterwards – it was literally physically painful too ; I would writhe around and cringe listening to it because I spent too long on it, and it sounded awful to me. It tried to do too much. It’s quite filmic, and unabashedly lyrical - It’s very orchestral at times and some of it is artificial; the sounds at that stage weren’t particularly brilliant and in hindsight it would have benefitted from more real orchestra. I think I could listen to it now … There is a two year rule – don’t listen for something you did for two years, and you’ll forget what was wrong with it!

HR - Would you re-record it, now?

AP - Well – it’s one of the things that will come up for discussion, funnily enough, because we are planning to release some more in surround sound, but it has to be practical to do because it’s a very expensive process, and Cherry Red are very fair, but they know we possibly won’t sell a million copies. I would like to do “Slow Dance” yes. I think any of the orchestral albums would really benefit from being in Surround Sound. The bigger it is, the more there is going on, and the more you can throw around the room. The re-release schedule is a bit torturous actually. Up next is “Private Parts and Pieces” with a bonus CD of material from the time, and … I don’t want to give too much else away really, but we will be doing more … maybe “Tarka”, eventually.

HR - Would you like to get any of your compositions to a point where an orchestra could perform it live? AP - Oh You bet! I’d love it!! There was a performance of “Tarka” in Australia, but it was with a scratch orchestra, so a rather mixed affair. It’s quite hard [Tarka] although it’s not an incredibly difficult score, but it needs some very good players to do it justice. These things are just so incredibly expensive to put together though, aren’t they?

HR - Yes, they are! Do you ever perform?

AP - I don’t … no. My experience with Genesis made me very tentative about performing, but to be honest - the thing that I enjoy most is composing. I’m a terrible practicer! The process of playing something over and over again, just bores me to tears!

HR - How about conducting then? AP - Gosh no, I’m not a good enough conductor – I did study it for a while, briefly, but I’d be much better on a bus! I know the moves, and the beats, but it’s that business of making the left hand totally independent of what’s going on with the right hand – that’s really difficult. It’s an extraordinary art! And when I go to see an orchestra, the conductor always seems to be so far ahead, that I can’t ever put it together!! When I was first studying I used to get the orchestra seats behind the Albert Hall proms, which are the ones behind the Orchestra where you’re looking directly at the conductor – and some of the conductors seemed to be so far ahead of the orchestra, that we used to joke that the conductor would be in the dressing room toweling down, whilst the orchestra were still finishing off! I don’t understand it!! It’s one thing that I do regret in life actually – I would have loved to have been in the middle of a big phat orchestra when something like the “Rites Of Spring” [Stravinsky] or “The Planets” [Holst] is being played. That must be amazing! Even to just play the triangle or something! I’d love to do that …

HR - There’s always time! What about your life outside of music? Do you ever divert from your musical routes?

AP - [laughs] It would seem not to the untrained eye eh? I have a lot of friends and probably spend too much time socialising, and eating out, so I burn the candle at both ends too often. I spend a lot of time with my nieces and nephews, and God-children – I don’t have kids of my own but keeping up with all of them makes life pretty full! It is a difficult balance to keep because I really can’t afford to fall behind with work stuff and that involves an endless amount of mind boggling admin with the album career, and for composing for the library - I have to keep up with all the new technology in the studio, and the new sounds – endless changes! I love sports ; all sorts of sports … I’m a big film man - love films. Probably my favourite music is in film scores these days. My big musical heroes are film composers – amongst many, my favourites are Ennio Morricone : particularly ”Cinema Paradiso” and the wonderful ”Gabriel’s Oboe” from ’The Mission; John Williams, ”Schindlers List”; George Fenton , ”Shadowlands”; Thomas Newman , ”Shawshank Redemption”; Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri and many others … so, yes! How do I actually find time to work? That is the question ... Not too long after we’d had this chat, Ant got the opportunity to work on a re-release of “Slow Dance” ; here’s the verdict ... HR : So the ultimate question is, forced to listen to it again, have you grown fonder of Slow Dance during the re-mastering, for this re-release?AP : My own view in general, which I appreciate may be very different to that of other musicians, is that when you come back to an album not having heard it for ages, it has novelty value and you think ‘that’s not bad at all’….! That’s why i prescribe the ‘two year rule’. Don’t listen to a piece, album, whatever, for a while and you will forget what it was that you are aspiring to that made you feel dissatisfied with its original outcome !Alas, repeated listens gradually bring back the issues that worried you at the time ! And the more time spent on an album (in my case Slow Dance, Geese were particular long campaigns) the worse it is. QBG and I flew through PP3 in the lovely summer of 1981 and it all remained fresh and therefore untarnished in one’s memory. This naturally makes us completely unobjective when it comes to judging our work ! Slow Dance was such a painstaking haul that when I finished it I found it excruciating to listen to.You have a mystical image of how a piece should sound and capturing this remains tantalisingly elusive ! Perhaps this very frustration is what drives you on to try and do better …?So yes, at first pleasantly surprised, with a few reservation, then gradually I began to feel ‘could have done that better - in many instances !But there are sections that I am still quite proud of and I know it is a piece that has been a moving experience for number of people……. HR : When last we spoke, You were enjoying the opportunity to take your recordings into the surround sound arena - has this one surpassed your expectations?AP : The Surround was a tough one : the toughest of all the re-releases thus far….Perhaps not harmonically but certainly in terms of the arrangement, the album was in parts very intricate and both the balance and flow hung by a thread. Any slight change and the wheels would come off. And they did ! It presented an almost insurmountable challenge to Simon Heyworth and Andy Miles, as there were effects on outboard gear (now either absent or defunct !) that weren’t recorded to tape and therefore had to be somehow ‘reconstructed’. On the other hand instrumental albums such as this and particularly 1984 ( a feast for the guys with all the weird, tricky sounds lending themselves well to sonic spatial manipulation !) do benefit from the size and ambience that 5.1 affords. So my considered view is that the more ambient, floaty parts benefit greatly whilst other sections slightly less so….But what does the musician / composer’s view count…..? It is only the audience’s opinions that ultimately counts ! I am happy that we try to give anyone repurchasing these albums enough extra material to make it feel worth it !

#genesis #modern classical #anthony phillips #ant #cherryred #cherryredrecords #esoteric #prog rock #prog #classical #composer

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doomedandstoned · 4 years ago

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Are You A Bible Basher?

~By Billy Goate~

Art by J. Hannan-Briggs

Words from the Bible,

...riffs from Hell.

This is BIBLE BASHER, a lumbering, sludgey beast of a death-doom band, drawing its fellows from Kurokuma, Archelon, Spaztik Munkey, and a band whose name alone intrigues me enough to spirit them out: Temple of Coke. The debut recording before us is 'Loud Wailing' (2020), just released last month on the Sludgelord Records Label and it's good stuff.

Chances are good that if you're unfamiliar with the band, you're waiting for the other shoe to drop: what's the agenda here? It bears mentioning that "Bible Basher" is an almost uniquely UK term. In the States, we tend to use the more politically acceptable (though still insulting) "Bible Thumper." Getting to the point: a Bible Basher is not someone who subjects the big black book and the pages there to beating, maiming, or otherwise spilling syrup on its Holy Writ nor turning its sacred pages into roll paper for a cheap high.

No, a Bible Basher is someone single-mindedly determined to bash you with their beliefs, clean across the head. You gotta get you on board with the whole worldview, the Last Days manifesto, the 3 steps to this place, the 5 steps to somewhere else, and however many more steps to the sanctuary doors. Usually, this evangelism has all the clumsy subtlety of a Jack Chick tract left on the Gas Station john. Sometimes it gets a bit more intrusive, like a manic street preacher with a megaphone or, more annoying still, a brainwashed politician determined to fence you into their highly selective idea of "God's Will."

All culture warring aside, it might surprise you to learn that I hold a great deal of respect for the Bible and believe it has an important role in developing our understanding of what makes human beings so fundamentally religious. The Bible is just one expression of people's religious and spiritual identity, of course. There have been many volumes written, by the gods it was said, attempting to reconcile the real and the ideal, time and eternity, the drab and the divine.

All fancy preambling aside, I wonder why more bands haven't gotten into the Bible and other sacred/profane lit, you know kinda breathing new life into old words? You have to admit, the concept is fascinating and the medium of expression surprisingly fits the unsparing nature of the content.

Perhaps afraid of appearing sacrilegious or being denounced as a Deicide wannabe, bands have just decided to walk away slowly. That or they don't even know how truly bizarre and sometimes brilliant the Bible can be. True, there are bands like Trouble/The Skull who have adapted Scripture into music, even succeeded in crossing over to a non-religious audience. Hell, The Byrds practically immortalized the words of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes back in '65 with that folk rock classic, 'Turn, Turn, Turn." Bible Basher are definitely onto a thing here.

Regardless of where you find a band called Bible Bash on the meter between "disgusting" and "fucking awesome, dude," they really aren't here to mock Scripture or Christians, not even to pronounce a value judgement. This is an artful attempt at retelling the stories of old, allowing us to gaze upon their vision.

☩

So Samson Sang

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

Out of all books, The Bible is perhaps most prized for its collection of ancient stories, many of which become embedded in our collective consciousness over time (if not the unconscious mind itself). The tale of Samson, for instance, is practically universal (Hercules, anyone?). Bible Basher invoke its powerful imagery for this Rage against the Philistines opener. The bulldog gruff of "So Samson Sang" suits the song unexpectedly well. Perhaps the impact is greater because we feel the punch of each word, measured and metered, calculated to leave the most indelible impact.

Simson verslaat de Filistijnen met een ezelskaak (1562) by Cornelis Massijs

Plagued

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

You'll never hear the anguish of Job expressed with as much weight as you will in "Burning and Blackened," for example. And the death-mongers among us, you'll enjoy the swirling storm of blast beats that "Plagued" stirs up and whips around Egypt, 10 plagues in all it is said. As this topsy-turvy number swarms along, the song feels like it's burrowing itself deeper and deeper into the ground in a crazed hypnotic dirge, as if seeking some relief from this madness of rivers turned to blood and a head full of lice.

Seventh Plague of Egypt (1823) by Martin John

Burning and Blackened

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

I'm really digging the Middle Eastern vibe of "Burning and Blackened," on the tape's flip side. I could all but feel the cool of dawn and that first burning lick of the sun's rise. As a die-hard doomer, it won't surprise you that I marked this my favorite song of the experience. The way this grand skeleton of chords suffles about had me thinking of Iowa City's Aseethe (I hereby wish an Aseethe-Bible Basher tour upon the world come 2021).

Job and his Friends (1885) by Gustave Dore

Sodom & Gomorrah

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

By the time we reach "Sodom & Gomorrah," we're battered, basted, and baked, ready for a fine finish to this four-course nosh. The vocals seem harsher than usual this time, but you have to understand that's the prophet divining judgement upon the most infamous twin cities of history (we find out in the interview to follow that there are multiple vocalists).

The whole song's got a nice, chewy groove to it. Plenty of meat on them bones. The lyrics consist of nothing more than the Bible's words, adding as much expressive liberty as death vocals will allow. The thick, smoky atmosphere of this whole song gave me flashbacks to 71TONMAN's "Phobia" and Old Man Gloom's "Procession of the Wounded."

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Jules-Joseph-Augustin Laurens

If I've any gripe with Loud Wailing, it's the runtime. Okay, yeah, sure, it's appropriate for an EP, but I can't shake the feeling that this is actually more of a teaser for something even grander in scope. Perhaps this is a toe in the water for the band, to see how people respond? Well, it's enough to reassure us that this sound and subject matter is poised to make some mighty big footprints.

Heck, I'd do the whole Bible book by book, if I was in their shoes. 66 in all, right? No problem. Okay, 73 if you're Catholic, 78 if you're Eastern Orthodox. Whatever, bonus editions. Works either way, 'cause you've got a guaranteed record deal and freaks like me to follow you wherever this piper lures. The band can break up from the repetitive bore of the long-ass genealogies in Leviticus and Numbers, but then reunite again to take on Deuteronomy.

All kidding aside, the dramatic potential of this collaboration is unreal. Bible Basher's debut is a promising record that presents tantalizing artistic possibilities (perhaps even with a roving collective of performers). The EP wears well on its own terms with repeated listens and I never found myself disinterested, even for a moment. Loud Wailing is the brutal dawning of a New Age in dirty grunts and dank riffs.

Give ear...

Loud Wailing by Bible Basher

An Interview with Bible Basher

By Billy Goate

Intrigued by this hulking beast shrieking out in my backyard, I had to move in for a closer look. Following is my conversation with band member Joe E. Allen, who most of us know from Kurokuma and gives us insight as to who Bible Basher is and what the band is up to.

☩

Would you be so kind as to give me some background on the band, how you guys ended up coming together, basically the whole history?

Tich has recorded and helped produce most of the Kurokuma releases up till now, most of which you've heard or written about. Tich mostly makes electronic music and is pretty well known for it, but he was also in a band called Temple of Coke back in the day. Daft music with two guitarists and no bassist. Some big riffs in there.

They stopped doing much after one of the guitarists left Sheffield, but Tich still had a lot of riffs lying around. Obviously, he used to come to a lot of Kurokuma gigs in Sheffield -- and even saw us in Japan -- so he felt like getting back on writing some big guitar stuff and asked me if I'd give him some input. Over the course of a year or so we just reshaped those old riffs and added plenty of new ones and as we progressed it just kept getting bigger and heavier.

What's up with the name? You've got pretty distinct religious themes (love the motto). I come from a strict religious background myself (preacher's kid). What are your own backgrounds relative to the themes you explore?

I've always thought that some of the stories from the Bible, especially the Old Testament would make for perfect concepts in heavy metal. Unrelatedly, one day we were sitting around and Tich said let's call this Bible Basher -- it just came out of nowhere. I agreed, it just seemed to make sense. Here in the UK it's what you get called if you go to church, it's an insult. I had a really Christian upbringing with my dad being a vicar, as well, so was very into all that when I was younger.

Plus I went to a religious school, so I've definitely been called a bible basher quite a bit. It's actually taken me a while to remove that whole paradigm from the way I see reality, but that's another story. Tich wasn't like me in that aspect, but he did go to a religious school, as well. At this point, I think we're both not massive fans of organised religion, but that doesn't mean we're not into philosophy and more celestial concepts. We've both read quite a bit of things like Manly P. Hall and The Kybalion. We didn't wanna make a "statement" on anything with this, though. Just wanted to present it "as is."

I'm sure we'd all love to know how the individual tracks came together. The single on this one was "So Samson Sang," which met with some pretty positive reception.

I know the Bible pretty well and it wasn't too difficult to find concepts for the tracks. "So Samson Sang" was the first one we did. The lyrics are: "With a donkey's jawbone, I made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, killed a thousand men." And then "I have slain, heaps on heaps." They were from the book of Judges, when Samson slaughtered loads of Philistines, pretty much taken straight off the page. It was that easy. We got George in to do the vocals, for obvious reasons. We sat on the track for a bit and sent it round a few mates and everyone was like, "This is sick," which made us want to finish up the other tracks, which already were mostly done.

The other three tracks all came together in one night. We basically asked three mates from other bands to come over and figured out concepts for each of them. It was good to get their input and it was pretty collaborative. I think they all enjoyed being given a bit of a brief to work within and we were buzzing to end up with four different vocal styles for each track. So on track 1 you have George from Kurokuma, then on track 2 you have Bing who used to be in a thrash band called Psython and can obviously do the really fast/rhythmic thing and his death growls were just spot on. That track ended up sounding like Pig Destroyer or something to me. Obviously, it's about the ten plagues of Egypt and the fast/swirling nature of the riffs just seemed to fit.

On track three, we have Craig from Archelon and Holy Spider, so I know him pretty well. He did more of a Neurosis style on the track about Job. That one starts off with a zurna, which is a pipe from the Middle East area. There's a spoken word section in the middle, a conversation between God and Satan. I actually only realised what this was when we were going through the Bible for the lyrics.

God calls all his angels together, Satan being one of them, and they get into this conversation where God is saying he likes Job and Satan is saying if his life went to shit, I wonder if he'd still worship you. So God is like, "Okay, go for it." It's stuff like this that fascinates me. I think there's a fairly deep message to be heard in that if you read into it, but most Christians won't. As a text of folkloric wisdom the Bible is pretty meaningful to me, but most Christians don't treat it in that way in my experience.

And then we have the demented squeals of Chris from Spaztik Munkey doing the voice of God on track four which is about Sodom and Gomorrah. It worked out well that the ending riff fit perfectly with the syllables in the phrase "Sodom and Gomorrah."

In general, this release was a right laugh to work on. The songs just came together and it was good for us all to collaborate on something outside of our normal bands. And the response has been mega positive so far. Aaron sold out the first 50 tapes in three days so we're already on the second batch now.

Get Their Music

#D&S Reviews #Bible Basher #Doom #Sludge #Metal #Death Doom #Doom Metal #Sludgelord Records #HeavyBest2020 #D&S Interviews #Doomed & Stoned

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expurgatedversion · 5 years ago

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magic shop excerpt

In honor of International Fanworks Day (and EAD) here’s about 1200 words of The Foul Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart chapter 8. Consider yourself warned that this is a draft and subject to change. Life is kind of fucked at the moment, but I’m still trying to write. I’m hoping that this will help motivate me to use at least some of the free time I have.

Chapter 8

In Peter’s house, wonders were commonplace, but Stiles still jumped whenever Slendy appeared from an improbable scrap of shadow. A cool wetness slid over his hand where the tiniest crack of the desk drawer disgorged his strange friend. Stiles watched in fascination as the viscous fluid flowed across the woodgrain. The way it caught the light startled him. Somehow, he’d never noticed that they weren’t actually the blackness of ink and shadow; no, the homunculi were the deep, dark red of blood on a moonlit circle. As the last bit of him plopped onto the floor, Slendy swiftly metamorphosed from puddle to the homunculus Stiles knew and loved—plus a stack of books.

“From Peter?” he asked.

Slendy didn’t speak, but the homunculi didn’t seem capable of vocalizing, or perhaps had simply not chosen to share that ability with him yet. Instead, it gave a short nod and held out the books in spindly limbs.

“Thanks, buddy.” Stiles took the small stack and watched as Slendy stepped into the shadow limning his door.

“Wow.” He laughed at himself. “Somehow it doesn’t get any less weird.” Or less cool. So few people had one homunculus, much less the herd Peter had created, that each time Stiles interacted with them still gave him a thrill.

“Every day’s an adventure.” Stiles shook his head, refocusing his attention, and took stock of the books Peter thought he needed. A Treatise on Magical Unions. Two Treatises on the Masculine Divine. Sympathetic Magic in Fertility Rites. The False Boundary of Biological Function. Achieving Oneness: A Guide to Sex in the Circle. A Brief Note on the Benefits of Consubstantiation. Transforming Symbols: Advanced Transubstantiation in and out of the Ritual Circle.

He whistled between his teeth, drawing it out like a boiling kettle. Those were some heavy titles for such a short stack, and he still had his project to think about. Frowning, he rolled the chair the short distance to his bed and gently deposited the books on the blue duvet.

Steve hissed her annoyance when one of the spines came perilously close to touching her.

Stiles flapped his hand. “Oh bit your quitching. You’re fine. It never even touched you.”

He turned away from his pouting familiar and back to the problem at hand: the king’s ransom of magical stones scattered across his desktop. They were beautiful, rare, and costly, and not one of them was fit to hold an Imprint. Oh, they had all the right properties with impeccable provenance, all ethical and specially created or mined for this or similar purposes, but after tests, tests, and more tests, Stiles couldn’t deny it any longer. They simply weren’t right for his project. Even though he was only using a soul blank in tests, something about his alteration of the Imprint process put too much stress on the physical structure. Before his eyes, a pristine celestite crystal emitted a few weak flashes and cracked.

“Fuck.” Stiles ran a hand through his hair. That was the closest he’d come, and it had only lasted two days.

He half-heartedly poked at the celestite, already knowing what he’d find. Of fucking course. Inert. He’d killed another one.

---

And now he had homework for his sex thing, appointment, ritual. He picked up the paperweight that had appeared on his desk one day, a beautiful replica of Steve twining through a bone-white apple, and hefted it in contemplation. It was pretty heavy. If he hit himself hard enough, maybe he’d just be able to Sleeping Beauty his way through the ritual. In a coma, at least he wouldn’t need to worry about his failure to make a prototype and fulfill Deucalion’s little request.

“Fuck,” he said it again, softly and with more feeling. He put the fake Steve back in pride of place and spun in idle circles, letting his head fall onto the chair back as the Prussian blue of his walls blurred around him.

He’d been so sure about his project, so meticulous about the research and planning, almost scientific in his process. When the structure of the rite had finally slotted into place one day, the sense of rightness that had filled him… it was indescribable. He’d known it was exactly the breakthrough he needed to create this new type of Imprint that could act as a beacon to the dead soul, inviting its attention and presence for a more meaningful interaction with the living.

But even the blanks were shorting out his most potent stones. He’d fallen into the classic mistake and underestimated the power requirements. If he thought about how much of Peter’s money he’d wasted on futile experiments, he’d throw up all over his useless fucking rocks. The chair slowed to a stop, and Stiles scowled at his room. For one furious moment, he hated it. The blue walls and antique furniture, rare sketches of sacred geometry, the Sputnik chandelier that had been love at first sight: how dare Peter give him a place so suited to his tastes when Stiles couldn’t even get this one thing right.

The giant ruby on his ring glittered at him, a cheerful reminder that he had so many people counting on him.

His throat closed as frustrated tears threatened to fall. What the fuck, Stiles? Are you really such a fucking whiner that you’re crying over this? With the last dregs of his rationality, he swallowed the tantrum, shoved the panic and self-pity to the furthest recesses of his mind. He was old hat at compartmentalization; after all, it was the only way he’d survived his apprenticeships.

Temporarily shielded from the day’s crushing disappointment, Stiles surveyed the beautiful, useless pile of stones, and swept his arm across the desktop. Rocks, pens, and papers fell to the floor with a satisfying clatter.

Good.

Steve’s concern pressed on his awareness, so he spared a moment to reassure her, sending a pulse of acknowledgement. He was fine now that he’d gotten it out of his system, and he’d clean it all up later.

It was clear now that his mistake had come from allowing terminology to tie him down. He understood now what he was doing. This had gone beyond the normal boundaries of Imprints long ago. He was creating something else entirely. A thrill raced down his spine, and Stiles shivered. Was he prepared to take this step and be a true necromancer?

Peter’s face flashed through his mind. “Go big or go home,” he whispered to himself and pulled out his phone. His thumbs raced over the keys, dashing off his request before he could reconsider.

Deucalion had offered any help within his power, but this would test the resolve of anyone.

Stiles nearly dropped the phone when it dinged, notifying him of a text. Fuck. Deuc never texted back.

His fingers trembled as he checked the reply.

Consider it done.

Stiles boggled down at the three words. “He said yes? Just like that?” he whispered. It must be nice to be a thousand years old and richer than God.

Slowly, he sagged in his chair, limp with relief. This would work. It had to. He’d make it work. If blood rubies couldn’t make an almost-phylactery, then nothing would.

#steter #EAD2020 #necromancy #magic stiles #long text post #lapsus calami

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something-tofightfor · 5 years ago

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Phoenix (Drabble #9)

Pairing: No pairing, but it’s Ryan Brenner

Word Count: 2100

Rating: PG-13

Author’s Note: This was an interesting request, so I’m hoping that you enjoyed the direction I went with it. I’ve always wanted to explore this angle.

The one thing that Ryan didn’t like about his lifestyle was the fact that the summer months were relentless with heat. He didn’t wear shorts often - in fact, he currently only had three total pairs of jeans in his pack, but the heat was making him rethink things. Could buy a pair of shorts from a thrift shop. He sipped his coffee slowly, looking out the window of the shop and shaking his head. Nah, they’d look stupid with my boots. He grinned, taking another drink and setting the cup back down on the table in front of him, his long fingers rubbing against the curve of the plastic.

He’d chosen iced coffee that morning, the Arizona air almost stagnant around him as he’d jumped from the train outside of Phoenix, and though it wasn’t his preference, caffeine was still caffeine, and the air conditioning felt good on his sun-browned skin. Being back in the western United States also felt good, and though he’d mostly stuck to the central areas following his stint in Utah, he knew that he couldn’t ignore the mountains and the desert forever. It’s time.

Ryan pulled out his notebook and a pen from the overstuffed pack that was sitting on the bench next to him, idly flipping through pages until he found a clean one, the blank paper bright and white against the dark wood of the table. He typically did his best writing at night, but the last few days on the train - coming through Texas and New Mexico had been so hot that he’d barely been able to do more than catch a few hours of sleep, waking up to use a spare t shirt to wipe his brow. “Excuse me.” He looked up, long hair falling over his brow and Ryan saw the young woman that had taken his order standing next to his table, a smile on her face. “My shift’s about to end, but I wanted to know if I could get you anything else before I clock out.”

She was pretty - dark curly hair that framed a rounded face with full lips and wide eyes, her sundress comfortable and showing off a few tattoos on her shoulders - and Ryan smiled at her. “Sure, another one of these, maybe?” He pointed at the cup in front of him, now mostly ice and some pale liquid on the bottom. “And… a muffin? I don’t care what flavor - surprise me.” The girl nodded, eyes moving over Ryan’s face and then down to the table before she turned and stepped away. He lowered his eyes back to the pages of his notebook, pen tapping idly on the corner of it. Heat? Sun? Loneliness? Think, Ryan. Glancing out the window again, Ryan frowned, using his free hand to push his hair back as he thought.

“Here you go, sir.” Startled out of his thoughts, Ryan looked back up at the woman, who was holding out the coffee in one hand and a paper bag in the other, her lips curved into a smile. “Blueberry lemon.” He reached out, taking the bag from her first and setting it down before reaching for the plastic cup, too.

“What do I owe you?” She waved him off, looking out the window before glancing back at Ryan as if she was making a decision.

“You don’t. My dad owns this place, so it’s no big deal.” She shrugged. “Plus I’m off duty now, so I can’t accept anything.” He smiled, thanking her and she took another breath. “But.” He raised an eyebrow, sitting straight up. “I would like to ask you something.” Ryan made it a point to not get involved with people in the cities that he stopped in, using Jackie as a shining example of why, but he wasn’t opposed to conversation, wasn’t opposed to talking with people, and definitely wasn’t opposed to showing a little kindness to someone that had done the same to him.

“Sure, what?” He waited and the woman took a breath, closing her eyes before she spoke again.

“Could I hear you play?” She pointed at the guitar, resting on the bench seat beneath his pack, her words coming out rushed. “I know I don’t have the right to ask, but as soon as I saw the guitar and heard you speak… we get a lot of people here like you, just moving through, taking a break… and I’ve never asked any of them to play before.” She sounded nervous, but the truth was that Ryan was itching to play, and her request actually wasn’t too far from normal.

“Yeah, I’d like that. I haven’t played in a few days, it’s been too hot.” He looked around, eyes falling on the few other customers in the coffee shop. “In here?” She shook her head, pointing to the doorway behind the counter.

“No, we have a break area in the back that’s outside, but it’s covered. Everything’s brick, so the sound’s really good out there, too.” She shrugged. “I sing, so sometimes I’ll go out there on my breaks and…” Ryan’s eyes widened, and he nodded, already standing. “Really?” He nodded again, and within a few minutes, he’d cleaned up the table, throwing his empty cup into the trash, the woman picking up the bagged muffin again and leading him through the restaurant. “I’m Mia by the way.”

“Ryan.” He pushed the door open with one hand, letting her walk through it before him, and then followed, making his way through the kitchen. “Ryan Brenner.” Once they made it to the back patio, Ryan shrugged his pack from his shoulders again, setting it down in one corner and looking around. “You weren’t kidding, it’s comfortable out here.”

“My dad’s a little older, so he needs a spot like this when he comes out to smoke his cigars.” She smiled, and Ryan saw the look in her eyes as she spoke of her father, the adoration easy to read. “We added in the roof a few summers ago, and it makes a huge difference.” Mia sat down on the brickwork, crossing her legs at the knee, and for the first time, Ryan noticed that she was wearing a pair of teal flats, the color bright against her tan legs. “So what do you play?” She leaned in as Ryan sat too, unlocking the clasps on his guitar case and pulling the instrument out, his fingers moving over the smooth wood. “That’s a damn nice guitar, Ryan.”

“Thanks.” He nodded, looking down and swiping his tongue over his lower lip. “Got it in Utah a while ago.” He spent a few moments tuning the guitar, fingers deftly moving. “I play a little of everything, actually. Blues, mostly… some classic rock, some… originals.” When he looked back up, Mia was watching him with definite interest. “What do you want to hear?” She thought for a minute,

“Play something you wrote.” She nodded as Ryan’s lips parted, surprise evident on his face. “You can play something else after if you want, but I want to hear you, Ryan.” He paused, still trying to collect his thoughts and then nodded, setting his shoulders as he took a breath and started strumming. He didn’t play Southbound, which was typically his go to for an original, instead he chose one of his newest songs, a slower one that allowed him to sing quietly, the tone ideal for the small space that they were in. Ryan lost himself in the melody, actually surprising himself when the song ended and he opened his eyes, seeing that Mia was watching him wordlessly, her hands clasped in her lap. “Ryan, that was… you’re not what I expected at all.”

“That a good thing?” She nodded again and Ryan laughed, squeezing the neck of his guitar. “I’m glad to hear it.” He rolled his neck, wetting his lips. “So you said you sing? Wanna sing something with me?” I’m comfortable with her, this is nice.

“Really?” He nodded, waiting and the girl uncrossed and then recrossed her legs, looking past Ryan and at the bushes behind him. “Yeah, I’ve never actually… I usually just sing along to the radio, and my voice is nowhere near yours, and…”

“Doesn’t matter. You wanted to hear me, and I wanna hear you. Just tell me what to play, and as long as I know it, I will.” She thought for a long time, and Ryan was about to speak up again when she did, her gaze returning to him.

“I was trying to think of something that would work. How about ‘Mrs. Robinson’? Do you know that one?”

“Of course.” He grinned. “You start, and I’ll jump in.” Agreeing, Mia closed her eyes and Ryan took a breath and began playing. Her voice surprised him - strong and clear, the confidence apparent in every syllable. Ryan jumped in on the second verse, Mia’s eyes opening as he did so, locking with his as they both sang. Caught up in what he was playing, Ryan was almost disappointed when the song ended, but Mia simply clapped, laughing.

“That was fun, Ryan!” Shaking her head, she reached up to pull her hair over one shoulder. “Do you play out often?”

“No, not really. I’m not in one place long enough to do that.” She frowned, leaning forward. “I’d like to, but it’s hard to get a gig like that when you don’t live in one place.” Ryan licked his lips again, taking a sip from the straw. “I mostly busk in the cities I stop in, but -”

“Have you ever been to Vegas?” Mia was sitting up straight, head tilted to the side. “There are people playing everywhere there, Ryan. You could make more in one night than you can in a week anywhere else. When Shawn - my fiance - and I were there a few months ago, it was insane. Plus, you’re good, so I’m sure you’d have a crowd.”

“I’ve never been there, no.” Ryan shook his head. Vegas? It’ll be even warmer there. But Joey lives out there, maybe I’ll give him a call… “You think it would be worth it?” She nodded, looking into Ryan’s eyes.

“I do. Even for a few days.” She shrugged. “I said before that we get a lot of people that just kinda drift through there, so I’m almost positive that I won’t ever see you again, but I’m not kidding. You’d like it. Might even learn something about yourself there.” She stood, checking her watch. “I really should get home, Ryan, but it was really great to meet you, and even better to get to see you play and hear you sing.” Ryan set the guitar down, standing and extending his hand to the woman to shake it, but she rolled her eyes, pulling him into a hug instead. “Handshake? Nope.”

The hug wasn’t an intimate one, and it ended just as quickly as it started, but Ryan still felt himself grinning at the woman when they parted, one hand moving through his hair. “Fair. Thank you, Mia. For the coffee and the muffin and for this. It was nice to play with and for someone new.” She gave him a few minutes, watching with her arms crossed over her chest as he packed the guitar up and gathered his things before leading him back through the kitchen and to the front of the restaurant, where her car was parked. “It was nice meeting you, Mia.”

“Likewise, Ryan Brenner.” She took another deep breath before speaking. “You gonna think about Vegas?” Laughing, Ryan nodded.

“I am. I have a buddy that lives out there, we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll head there in a few days, even though I can’t imagine the heat’s any better out there than it is here.”

“Oh, absolutely not.” Mia was laughing again as she unlocked her car door, her curls blowing slightly in the breeze. “Vegas in July is miserably hot, but it’s well worth it.” The woman said goodbye, climbing into her car and waving before she backed out of her spot, pulling away. Once she’d turned out of the parking lot, Ryan nodded to himself, thinking. Should I call Joey? Squinting in the sunlight, Ryan began walking down the sidewalk, deciding to find somewhere to sit while he thought. If I’m staying out here for the summer, I might as well get used to the heat. And I’ve never been to Vegas…

Ryan sat down on a park bench a few minutes later, small trees shading him from the sun as he pulled his phone out to text Joey, asking if he’d be able to stay with him for a few days if he made it to Las Vegas. I can always play at night… probably more people out then, anyway.

Ryan grinned as he tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Alright, Brenner. Vegas it is.”

---

#ryan brenner #ryan brenner imagine #ryan brenner drabble #ryan brenner story #ryan brenner fic #drabble #rachael's random drabble #neon lights #just a place #before #writing

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koisurufortunecephalopod · 6 years ago

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A Comprehensive Guide to DESURABBITS

Hey guys, your friendly cephalopod here to tell you all about the group I’ve fallen in love with!

(ripping of shades sorry not sorry)

So what is this group?

Formed as DEATHRABBITS (デスラビッツ) in late 2013 when the idol group usa☆usa Shoujou Club (usa☆usa少女倶楽部) of Mochizuki Emi, Okawa Yuzu, and Yasui Karin did a crossover unit featuring the section chief of their indies label G-ANGLE RECORDS and vocalist of the digital hardcore unit AKIRADEATH, Kanzaki Akira. While “Bucho” supplies backing death metal screams and often stands around menacingly in the background, the girls sing and dance like any other idol group. Their style is often described as “Japanese Death Pop”, often compared to BABYMETAL and (OG) LADYBABY with how it has maybe a slight bit of an edge compared to other songs in the idol genre, plus metal influences.

For the past six years, they’ve evolved their sound in a variety of different ways, trying different styles with their latest released song “Sotsugyou Shoujo- Mirai E” taking on more of a rock influence. They’re one of those groups that tends to just throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. One of these being “ramen editions” of their singles. Starting in 2016, the singles sold at their live shows are packaged with dry ramen, and purchasing one also sends packets of ramen to disenfranchised areas of Malaysia. Unfortunately as of 2019, this is being discontinued (although the members and staff have expressed interest in replacing this with ramen edition goods). They’ve also changed their name (confusingly) a few times as well-- to Desu.Rabbits (です。ラビッツ) in 2016, and recently to DESURABBITS (デスラビッツ) in February 2019. Either way, most fans affectionately refer to them either as “DesuRabi” or “Rabbits.”

Also fun fact, Bucho is bffs with Ladybeard because of course those two are friends. They crowdfunded a unit song that’s a collaboration between their groups called “DEADLIFT RABBITS”

Members!

Mochizuki Emi (望月愛実)

Currently 17 and about to start her final year in high school, Emi is the youngest member of the group and was only a sixth grader in elementary school when she joined. Her parents were both involved in the music industry, leading her to become interested in becoming a singer from an early age. She’s the lead vocalist of the group as well as the center of all currently released songs. She’s the one who gets all of the long solo parts and has always had a rather strong voice since she joined. Emi’s grown up A LOT since the early days (they’ve never posted heights on their profiles, so we’re not sure, but she has guessed that she’s grown about 15cm (~6 inches) and has gotten a much more mature hairstyle. As the baby of the group, in some of their older material, she would often come across as a little spoiled and quick-tempered and compared to that she’s really mellowed out, becoming more mature and cool-headed. Her English pronunciation is impeccable, but she actually isn’t very good at speaking it in conversation. Before member colors were abolished in 2019, her image color was pink! She also posts song covers on her personal Youtube channel, but it hasn’t been active for a while.

Okawa Yuzu (大川柚)

Yuzu is the leader and often the one tasked with leading MCs and acting as the spokesperson of the group. Since joining, her catchphrase has been “Always full of energy,” which is something that describes her well. While she isn’t necessarily a ball of sunshine bouncing off the walls, she has more of an intense “Let’s give 100% to everything” sort of energy to her. She takes her role as leader very seriously; consulting with staff about the direction of the group and recently dying her hair ash pink and requesting that her new costume look “strong and like she can fight in it” in order to really highlight how their new era is about taking a new direction. Since early childhood, Yuzu has aimed for a career in show business. Originally wanting to be a talent or a broadcaster, she eventually studied dance in order to become an idol. From there she made connections with singer-songwriter and producer of other idols and artists (such as KOTO, Terashima Yufu, and TsubasaFly), SAWA. She is the best dancer in the group, so look for her if there’s a dance break. Her voice is the deeper one out of the girls, although she doesn’t get as many solo parts as Emi. It was announced recently that she will be getting her first center song as the double A-side with “Sotsugyo Shoujo”, “Demo, Nigenna.” She’s also an avid bookworm and very studious, and will be attending university this spring. Her member color was previously purple!

Yasui Karin (安井夏鈴)

Karin is the oldest of the three girls and the mood maker. She’s carefree and my pace beyond my pace. If she actually speaks during an MC (and isn’t just staring off into space the entire time), she will most likely forget what she’s saying halfway through the sentence because she’s always off in “Kariko World” as she calls it. She has a very distinct way of speaking that’s very slowly rhythmic, so she will often get speaking lines in songs (and recently something of a rap verse). Her singing voice is also the most “idol-like” of the three-- high pitched and sweet-- but while she also doesn’t get many solos, it’s very easy to pick out. Also she has such sweet guitar skills. She and Tomo-zo should totally collaborate. Totally. I can’t find much about her background, but I do want to say on a personal note that she was the first member to remember my name and that I was a Bucho oshi after even the first time I saw them. And every time she’s the one taking the cheki, the camera “somehow” doesn’t have any film in it and you two just have to hold that pose for a bit. Karin will also be attending university in the spring and I am so proud of her. She used to be the green member!

Kanzaki Akira (神崎晃) Bucho (部長)

The 41-year-old section head (or “bucho” in Japanese) at the record label G-ANGLE RECORDS with a background in singing in metal, grindcore, enka, and classical styles who was a vocalist in a handful of metal and rock bands from high school that never went anywhere, Bucho officially emerged in the music world in 2006 with the underground digital hardcore duo AKIRADEATH. As such, Bucho’s role in DESURABBITS is to provide backing death metal vocals (and rap). At 190cm (~6′5′’) with his gas mask and body armor, he can strike an intimidating figure. Despite this, he usually plays the part of a bumbling goofball of an “uncle” figure to the rebellious teenage girls. He himself is a huge idol wotaku (which is really annoying at events when you’re trying to get a two-shot with him and he’s wandered off to get in line for a different idol group. The girls however seem to find it hilarious to yell across the very crowded room for him to get back here because Loren wants to take a cheki with him) and has done video streams talking about the state of the idol industry. While he definitely doesn’t dance (but is incorporated into the choreography sometimes), he does his best in the back to kind of furi-copy or give gestures for the wota-gei if he’s not bumping into things. As technically a part of the record label staff, there is something of a debate over his status of a member. Since the early days of the group, there was a theme of “Emi, Yuzu, and Karin vs. Bucho,” with even several of their one-man concerts being titled as such and given the caveat of “if tickets sell out, Bucho will be fired.” However, as of their 2019 makeover, it was announced that they will be “graduating” from this image and “allowing” Bucho to be a member. In the earlier singles, his involvement was a lot larger (often having full verses), but his vocal parts have been scaled down a lot since 2015. Since 2018, he has remedied this by often having a DJ set up behind the girls and DJing live along with their performances (doing some sick mashups while singing, it’s pretty sweet), and their most recent song plays this up. He also does solo DJing as “DJ Bucho.” Not to be confused with “DJ Akira,” which is just what he calls himself when he talks in an “ikemen voice.” His member color was black!

Okay, so what about their music?

WELL I’M GLAD YOU ASKED. HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF MY OPINIONS.

“Idol STAR WARS”

Their very first song. The girls are at peak baby. Emi is a literal fetus.

I actually really like the instrumental for this, it has a bit of a gritty electronic edge to it. It sets the precedent for their style of “cute but with a screaming man”, but is a bit more so, because Bucho actually has verses???

The chorus is pure sugar pop though I love it

But what I love more is Bucho just hecking going off with the verbal keysmash screams after the final chorus. Fucking spectacular you funky bastard.

I’m pretty sure they only filmed like seven minutes of video for the music video. I’m not convinced Bucho and the girls were ever in the same building.

“Hell Near Bucho ~ Ugokisugi da yo Nihonjin 2013 ~”

The B-side off of Idol STAR WARS, so still pretty old form with the line distribution but

Bucho screaming about having a hernia for four minutes

ngl because of the title being partly in English and the album version having a random-ass intro with an American woman talking about Bucho battling an endless battle with the enemy of “hell near” i didn’t actually make the connection for months and thought this was like. DesuRabi Lore.

OKAY BUT THAT CHORUS IS SO CATCHY AND PEAK IDOL I LOVE IT

And A+ screaming I love it

I really want to see it live at least once because the “Hell! Near! Bucho!” chant part sounds like it would go so hard

“Koisuru Kisetsu”

Second single, getting into their style a bit more

But they still acknowledge that like... Bucho has a name.

I highly recommend checking out the subbed version because the things Bucho is screaming about are just. What.

Literal Rabbits to represent Emi, Yuzu, and Karin

Emi, Yuzu and Karin just being like “The lyrics are kinda dark... Bucho’s singing about his love life again lmao let’s just hecking change this song because we wanna sing something else

Just hecking shove him behind some fake cherry trees. He’ll be fine.

“Omatsuri JAPAN!! Kokuhaku Night”

This is probably their most straight-up idol song. Like you could legit just have this song without him grunting in the background, but why would you want that.

Like that sounds weird by itself but trust me it really pumps up the energy of the song

It’s one of the songs that’s an absolute bop at lives, especially when they shuffle around who does the “Daisuki desu” line. And then we mosh.

Listen it just has such a great energy that you don’t always get in the “cute summer love song” niche of idol songs and I greatly appreciate this

“DESURABBITS Gun no 7 Kajou”

Another one I highly recommend watching the subbed version for because it outlines the “Seven rules of the DESURABBITS Army”, and is basically the theme song and list of principals for the group and fans.

Music and MV aside, I want to say that this was one of the things that REALLY sold me on the group, as the rules are all “do your best at your life outside lives, be kind to one another and the live venue” and the fanbase really reflects that. Like they’ve welcomed me more than Gachamen/pinkos which is kind of an accomplishment.

Like you don’t gotta make your edgy idol group 2edgy4me, you can still be about respecting the fans of other groups and the other fans and just having a good time.

ANyways

Yuzu: Yeah we have no idea what the fuck Bucho is ever saying

Emi’s vocals in the pv are really great for her age and I wish there were better quality live versions for it recently bc dang she’s improved so much

This is another goes absolutely insane at lives with the “WE! ARE! DESURABBITS! DESU!” chant it’s amazing

I do kinda love the bit where it looks like they’re going to go into a dance break and all they do is... spin.

Also they call Bucho a mascot character

“Usagi no Kimochi”

Honestly this song is just kind of hilarious once you realize that it’s basically just “don’t talk shit online and come watch our shows”

Complete with Bucho fucking murdering the Twitter bird

They’re starting to change their styles a bit with many tonal shifts and fewer Bucho parts. I’m not personally too into the verses, but I do like the choruses

I really dig the way they go in on the “pyons” at the beginning as well as the piano parts

DJ AKIRA GA KONNICHIWA

“Chuuni no Natsu. Ojisan no Natsu.”

This is a very good summery idol song just in general and mood which I love, with that lovely piano, string, and Emi-solo intro. Very refreshing and nostalgic with a good energy to it.

THEY LET BUCHO SING!!!! About how much he wants to go to the beach but can’t because he has work just let him go.

But for real, I really love his singing voice here. It matches well and has a bit of a punk rock sound to it which is my jam outside of idols. Also in the last chorus the way all four of them harmonize is surprisingly nice!

Also as a song that really sums up the relationship between Bucho and Emi, Yuzu, and Karin, it’s hilariously fitting.

KUSAI, KUSAI!

O-Ji-SA-N!

“Nande?”

First things first the video is amazing like could you guys not shoot on the same day who came up with the story what is going on who believes Bucho could fight ninjas

But honestly that’s kind of the point

ngl this is my favorite DesuRabbi song, because:

A) HOOKS FOR DAYS. From the “nande naze nande naze nande naze” to the “chikirichi, chikirichi, chikirichi” to the “nande, nee, nande”

B) honestly joining the fandom I was in the mindset where I needed something to express my “why what what the fuck what why what”

and this song supports that that is okay. If you can’t have a happy idol song that is just like “lmao we don’t know what’s going on and that’s fine” idk you’re a stronger person than me I guess??

Also the video

This also really marks the shift into Bucho taking a backseat to the girls, which ye Emi’s voice is clearly getting stronger

But tbh the highlight for me is Karin’s solo at the start of the bridge. Her voice is perfect for the whimsical tone they’re going for at that part of like “hey it doesn’t matter my dude!”

“Shitsuren Shitara Wasabi”

Okay, just gonna be up front, I’m not the biggest fan of their 2016-2018 “です。ラビッツ” era songs. They tried experimenting with songs a lot more with tone changes and different styles, and honestly I just found them lacking the same energy. However, I love this song a lot as it has that with that same “throw a bunch of things at the wall at once”

The tone is a lot more mature than their older material, but you still get the energy, especially in that chorus

The girls are the focus, and even though Emi still has ALL OF THE SOLOS, Yuzu gets some spots too, especially her spoken line which kind of makes this “her song” among her oshis and I’m really happy that she got that since she was the only one who didn’t have that before this

The lyrics are just so hopeful and good??? Idk maybe I’ll translate someday

WASABI WASABI WASABI KURE

“Sotsugyou Shojo-Mirai E-”

Or as I like to call it “When the heck did you guys get a budget???”

This is the first song with a different producer and uh... yeah you can tell. It’s radically different with a darker, rock image, but the lyrics are really hopeful and nice. I translated them over on my jp twitter if you’re interested??

THAT BASS THO

Yuzu’s voice suits this well with her very short solos. I feel like Karin’s solo singing part barely sounds like her, but I do like her little “rap”

And of course Bucho’s rap. What a nerd I love him.

Seriously where did they get a music video budget

I’m more into their old stuff just because that’s what I like, but I do really appreciate that they went for a harder sound but keeping the hooks and the hopeful outlook and the weird old man who stands behind them

This is most definitely the most intense dance they’ve done. Emi and Karin tried very hard.

Okay we get it so how do we follow them?

Unfortunately, on one hand, DesuRabi very much are focused on live performances as part of the underground idol tradition. They don’t have a very active release schedule, and while their Youtube channel sometimes posts live videos, it’s a bit sporadic. HOWEVER, they are a group that if you somehow manage to get to Japan, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out, if only for the fact that they have lives almost every weekend which are very cheap and very easy to get tickets to. Unless it’s a larger event or through a different event planner, usually you just reserve under a name and email and pay at the door. The DesuRabi Army is super nice and accepting and I will possibly be there.

But other than that: uh yeah, social media.

Official Youtube

Official Website

Twitter (group)

Twitter (Emi)

Twitter (Yuzu)

Twitter (Karin)

Twitter (Bucho)

They’re all fairly active on twitter (although Karin will sometimes just kind of... fade from existence). Emi, Yuzu, and Karin seem to have SOME rules on when they can reply, but Bucho just replies whenever he wants, which is often. Even sometimes when he isn’t tagged in the conversation or following you. They’re always very excited to see foreign fans, so tell them Loren sent you!

#desurabbits #desu rabbits #death rabbits #this is a bucho appreciation blog #idols #idol #jpop idol #with the kind of person bucho is there is always a 60% chance he will find this #please do not #but anyways please love them

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emeraldwaves · 6 years ago

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Title: Dance With Me (It Won’t Kill Ya) Post-Lesson Pairing: Kacchako (side Todomomo) Dance/College AU Rating: M Word Count: 5,588 Read on Ao3 Summary: When Bakugou damages university property, he’s forced to take dance lessons with the best dance student at the school, Uraraka. There’s no way he’ll actually enjoy learning to dance though… right?

Absolutely not…

Thanks to @its-love-u-asshole for betaing this!

Bakugou took a deep breath, pulling the fresh fall air into his lungs. He pushed his cleats into the earth, the spikes pressing down against the soft mud.

'Fuck yes. Finally.' he thought, cracking his gloved knuckles together. Bakugou was more than ready to get down and dirty during practice. It had been too long. Of course, Coach Toshi wasn't too happy Bakugou missed as many practices as he did, but he was happy to have one of his star players back, so he allowed him to immediately jump back into the fray. No need to punish him or the team more.

The first play began and Bakugou ran down the field. He really missed being outside; the way the wind blew against his hair, his hot breath curling out from his lips. Sweat soaked the back of his neck and he grinned, glancing towards Kirishima with a smirk.

It was just a practice game, but like hell Bakugou was going to lose.

The wind blew by his ears and for a moment, Bakugou was convinced he could hear the song... the classical piece Uraraka always used for their waltz.

'The hell?' He glanced around, as if to look for the source. He could see the dance building from the field, but it was too far away to actually hear anything.

He shook his head, continuing the play as he tackled Kaminari to the ground, the two of them landing with a large thud.

"Dammit!" Kaminari groaned, sitting up slowly, the ball clutched to his chest. "Bakugou is really back."

"'Course I'm back! Did you think I was gonna stay away forever!?" he snarled, looking at the cheerful blond.

"I dunno!" he shrugged. "Heard you were getting pretty close to your dance instructor," he winked. "She's pretty hot."

Shoving him back, Bakugou stood up. "Shut the fuck up, Lightning Rod. I'm fucking back and I will kick your ass!" he yelled, pointing his finger at him aggressively.

"Bakugou sure is back alright," Sero sighed, moving to stand next to Kaminari.

He stormed down the field, folding his arms. This was exactly the reason he didn't want to continue things with her. She was a distraction... something he didn't fucking need.

Of course... occasionally he would check his phone, brushing his finger over his contacts. As if she would somehow magically text him, even though she presumably didn't have his number. But maybe she got it from Deku?

"Ugh!" he growled, kicking at a rock on the ground. This was exactly what he was trying to fucking avoid!

"There's no need to be this aggressive, Young Bakugou!" Coach Toshi called from the sidelines. "I know it's been awhile since you've played, but we all know how good you are. You have nothing to prove!" he laughed heartily.

Yeah right he had nothing to fucking prove! He constantly was trying to prove himself on the field, and after four weeks of being away, he felt out of touch. Plus he saw the way Kaminari looked at him... how many others on the team were wondering about his relations with fucking Uraraka. How many of them thought he would change his mind and leave the sport? How many of them wanted him to?

He swallowed and glanced back towards the dance building.

Fucking Uraraka. Fuck her cute face and her sweet smile. Fuck the way she wrapped her hand around his, or draped her dainty fingers over his shoulder. Fuck how good she smelled, even when they worked hard, sweat trickling down her neck. And especially fuck the way she made cute noises against his mouth when he kissed her!

"-ugou! Oi! Bakugou!" Kirishima waved. "We're starting the play!"

Fuck, the hell was he doing spacing out?

"I'm fucking ready, what the hell are you waiting for?" he grunted.

"You, dude you looked like you were thinking about something real hard!" Kirishima laughed. "Let's get going."

"Shut the fuck up and start!" he yelled.

The play began and Bakugou started running down the field. He felt the way his cleats dug into the earth, his feet pounding against the ground. She would be mad at him, saying he was putting too much weight on his feet...

No! This was fucking rugby! Of course he was going to put weight on his feet. The thoughts only made him run harder.

He growled, catching the ball when Kirishima tossed it too him and he ran harder.

Again, the music trickled into his head, and his gaze flicked towards the dance building. He knew it was ridiculous, but his running slowed, his red eyes focusing on the stupid building. She was probably in there, he could imagine it now. Her, raised up on her toes, her body twirling around as she glided across the floor. Her arms wrapped around herself, her brown hair swishing against her round cheeks. She was probably looking fucking beautiful and-

"OOF," he grunted, feeling his body smack against the wet earth. "Shit."

"GOTCHA!" Kaminari cheered. "That's what you get for spacing out!"

Bakugou groaned. His arm and chest throbbed from the hard impact. He was definitely going to have some bruises from that one.

Pushing himself up, he felt his left arm shake, his shoulder aching already. "I wasn't fucking spacing out!" he snarled.

"You... sure about that?" Kaminari asked, tilting his head. "You practically stopped running in the middle of the field!"

"Fuck off," he said, pushing himself up, his face wincing from the bruise which was mostly likely already beginning to form on his shoulder.

"You okay, man?" Kirishima asked. "Maybe you should call it a day?"

"No! I'm fucking... fine," he hissed, storming past them. He knew what his problem was... as much as he hated to admit it. He had to go apologize to fucking Uraraka. He wasn't going to dance with her, but there was no way he could stay like this. Even with him trying to purposefully not make her one, she was still, somehow, a distraction.

"Are you sure?" Kirishima's eyes held concern as he stared at him, and Bakugou nodded.

He attempted to focus for the rest of practice, though it wasn't easy. He could tell Coach Toshi was concerned about him, and his shoulder did really hurt from the impact of hitting the ground so hard. Normally he could prepare when someone tackled him, and adjust his body accordingly, but Kaminari took him completely off guard.

When practice ended, he grabbed his stuff, changing only into his normal sneakers, and he stormed out of the locker room. He heard Kirishima call after him, but he didn't care. He had a goal and he was going to get her out of his fucking head. He wasn't going to deal with this for any longer than he had to.

He stormed all the way down to the dance building, noting the lights were on. There was no music, and it was possible it wasn't her, but who else stayed there this fucking late?

He walked down the halls, and though it had barely been a few days... the whole place felt foreign to him.

He stopped outside the door to the studio and wasn't surprised to find Uraraka sitting on the ground stretching. His eyes immediately met the curse of her ass, her body folded over as she pushed forward. Bakugou blushed. This... fucking distraction.

She raised her torso up, stretching back, and then stretching to the side. Seeing how flexible she was... Bakugou could tell his mind was starting to wander to dirty places, and he dug his fingers into his skin.

This was not why he came here.

He pushed on the door, slamming it open. It hit against the wall, announcing his presence as he always did during their lesson. She yelped, and immediately pushed herself up off the ground, turning around to face him.

"B-Bakugou-kun?!" she gasped, her eyes wide as she took in the sight. Though quickly her face morphed into a frown, as if she remembered she was mad at him. "What are you doing here?!" she snapped, turning away from him. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with dance."

"Oi. I fuckin' don't!" he growled, kicking off his shoes. He stormed forwards towards her, standing in front of her.

"Then why did you come here?!" she hissed, turning away from him again. "There's no reason for you to be here." The small skirt she wore swished around her legs, her hair brushing across her cheeks. Fuck. He wanted to touch her; cup her cheeks in his hands and kiss her-

He growled, folding his arms. "I came here to fucking..." he trailed off.

"Is this because I didn't answer your text?" she asked quietly, turning back to look at him.

"Hah!?" he frowned. "What fucking text?! I didn't send you a text!"

She walked over to the piano, picking her phone up. She swiped her finger across the screen and sighed. "Oh really? So this half-assed 'Sorry' wasn't from you? Aizawa-sensei gave me your number in case I ever needed to contact you."

Bakugou paled. Shit. Shit! The text he typed out must've sent when he slammed the phone against his bed. "Fuck," he grunted.

"Yeah. Look, I don't know why you're here, Bakugou-kun, but I think it's... best if you leave," she said quietly.

"No. Listen, I sent that text as a fuckin'... accident."

"An accident?"

"I was writing out... I dunno... twelve different fucking texts to you and that's the one that accidentally sent, okay?!"

She sighed. "Bakugou-kun, why did you come here?" she repeated. Her eyes looked so sad, like seeing him was physically painful.

"I came here because I..." he trailed off. What would he say sorry for exactly? He wasn't going to dance with her, so did apologizing even matter? She didn't seem happy about his sorry text. Fuck. He just wanted to get her out of his fucking head.

"Because... you...?" She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak.

He bit his lip, groaning. "Because I... wanted to say... s-sorry… or whatever..."

"So difficult for you," she hissed.

"Yeah it fuckin' is!" he muttered.

Clenching her fists, she glared at him. "I don't know what you want from me," she snapped. "You yell at me after I tell you my honest feelings... just... leave me alone! You've made it very clear you're not interested in dance or me!"

He could see the tears pooling at the edge of her eyes, and he sighed. This wasn't what he imagined happening when he came here to apologize. He didn't want her to fucking cry!

"Look... it's got nothing to fuckin' do with you okay?!" he yelled back at her. "I don't have time to have... a fuckin' distraction hanging around me."

"A...A distraction?" she mumbled, blinking at him.

"I gotta focus on shit. I missed four weeks of practice and that's a damn lot. Imagine if you didn't do this shit for four weeks!" he said gesturing wildly. "But now I'm finally back and I can't get you outta my fucking head. So I'm fucking apologizing!"

"So you're apologizing because you can't stop thinking about me?" she asked, her teeth pushing into her bottom lip.

"Yeah..." he grunted, turning his eyes away from her. "I can't be your fucking partner. But I didn't have to... fuckin' yell at you... or... whatever," he muttered.

She sighed and shook her head. "Bakugou-kun... I don't think sorry is going to cut it this time. You blew up at me, and you've said countless hurtful things at this point," she said softly. "I don't understand why it's so hard for you to just... say how you really feel!"

"Hah!? I just fucking did!"

"No!" she yelled back. "No you didn't! And this is all so... so... selfish of you! I'm in your head so you're apologizing to get rid of your guilt?!" she hissed. "I know that's not what you mean..." she whispered, looking down to the ground. "But that's what you're saying and that's NOT how apologies work!"

"What the fuck do you mean that's not what I mean!?" he growled. "I'm telling you I'm fucking sorry."

She kept her eyes facing the floor. She couldn't even look at him. Was she really that fucking mad? Sighing, she pointed to the door. "I told you to leave," she said, her finger trembling.

"The fuck-"

"Leave!" she hissed. "I-I don't want to be around you if all you can think about is yourself."

This really wasn't going as planned. How the hell was he supposed to let this go if she was seething with anger at him all the damn time.

"Please," she repeated, her voice trembling.

"Yeah whatever," he muttered, and walked away from her, leaving her in the middle of the dance floor alone yet again.

"I really hate him," Uraraka whined, resting her chin on the edge of the table. The group was meeting for their normal Saturday morning breakfast, though Iida and Deku were gone for the weekend for a math decathlon, Kirishima replaced the two for the morning.

"Mmm... I find that a little hard to believe," Mina hummed, leaning against Kirishima. Throughout all the drama, somehow the two of them were growing much closer, and Uraraka cursed herself for clearly falling for the wrong roommate of the two.

"What do you mean? He came to apologize to me yesterday so that he could stop thinking about me! How am I supposed to feel about that?" she hissed.

"Mmm..." Kirishima sighed. "Sounds like Bakugou... he's a moron. I mean... the guy's my best friend, but he's not very manly when it comes to his emotions. Sorry you're dealing with him, Uraraka-san."

"I'm not dealing with him anymore!" she hissed. "I told him to leave me alone."

"You really think that's going to be the end of it?" Momo asked.

Uraraka glanced between the couples. "...well... yeah?" she muttered.

"I guess the better question is if you want it to be the end of it," Mina said.

"O-Of course I do! I mean... why wouldn't I!?" she said.

"I don't blame her," Todoroki scoffed. However, everyone knew his opinion was a little biased.

"Well, she did mention she has feelings for him and those don't exactly go away in a few days," Momo said softly.

Uraraka glanced at her friends. "Do you guys want me to get with him after he treated me with... with such disrespect!?"

"Not exactly," Mina laughed. "I just... don't want you to get hurt again when he comes back and tries to get with you. You know he probably will do that."

"I dunno," Kirishima sighed. "Bakugou is insanely stubborn. If she really told him to leave he might be gone for good."

Uraraka felt her heart sink. She knew she shouldn't care anymore. After how awful Bakugou treated her... she needed to let him go. He wasn't going to care about her.

"But... he's an idiot. He likes you a lot, Uraraka-san... so... I dunno why he's fighting it!" Kirishima laughed awkwardly.

Her cheeks lit up. "W-What do you mean?"

"I mean he has a crush on you... or feelings... or whatever. Bakugou doesn't go and watch dance performances... he also doesn't do things unless he wants to, so he wouldn't have just kissed you for shits and giggles," Kirishima shrugged. "I kept trying to tell him he could dance and be with you and do rugby but he keeps fighting it and saying it's not possible."

"When he 'apologized' to me, he called me a distraction," she whispered.

"Well that's cause you are!" Kirishima laughed. "You should've seen the way Kaminari took him out at practice," he chuckled. "Dude was just standing in the middle of the field holding the ball!"

Uraraka snorted. "Really?"

"Yeah! It was kind of hilarious," Kirishima quickly cleared his throat when he saw how the other four at the table were staring at him. "A-Also bad, I think he hurt his shoulder a bit."

"Sports..." Momo muttered, shaking her head.

Kirishima chuckled awkwardly and turned to Uraraka. "I'm not gonna tell you to give him another chance. To be honest, I don't think he really deserves one, I've been telling him to just be honest this whole damn time! Does he listen? 'Course not!"

"Eiji, you're such a good friend," Mina said, gently patting his cheek.

"Yeah," he smirked, looking down at the pink-haired girl. "A-Anyway... I don't think Bakugou has ever dealt with feelings like this before. He sucks at this shit and he probably thought he was really apologizing."

"Oh he definitely did," Uraraka said, rolling her eyes.

Mina smirked and leaned forward. "You know, you could look at it as a good thing."

"A good thing?" Uraraka blinked, looking at her friends.

"Yup! I mean, he's not going to stop thinking about you, you're going to continue being a distraction... so if you really want him to apologize for real, you could... explain to him how to do so," Mina said.

Uraraka frowned. "So it becomes a lesson in teaching Bakugou how to be a real person." She rolled her eyes. "That doesn't seem very fair. I want him to figure out he can't just blow up at whoever he wants!"

"Yeah I don't think he's ever gonna learn that," Kirishima sighed.

"Or!" Mina smiled. "You could tell him to make it up to you!"

Uraraka twisted her lips. There was nothing he could do really... nothing would make up what he did and said. They were partially his true feelings after all, even if some things he said were more to cover up his real emotions.

"I think I need to just... let it go," Uraraka said softly.

"I think you should do whatever you feel is best. I don't want you being with someone who is going to hurt you over and over" Momo said, reaching over to gently squeeze Uraraka's hand.

"Yeah..." she said.

"I can't say it's not his fault," Kirishima sighed. "I wish he would stop being so stubborn, cause the second he got over himself, I think he'd be so damn happy with you. But he's such an idiot."

"I think... this way is for the best."

"I'm sorry, Ochako-chan," Mina said, nudging her friend.

"I'll be okay," she sighed. "I was working towards getting over it... I'll just continue to do the same..." She hated how much the thought made her heart hurt.

Why couldn't Bakugou just be... a normal guy... a normal human even? She didn't understand why it was so difficult for him to offer a sincere apology? She wished it could be easier... but moving on was probably her best option, as much as it made her heart ache.

"Well, I knew you were an idiot," Kirishima said, stepping into their room. "But I didn't realize you were this much of an idiot!"

"HAH!?" Bakugou said, yanking his headphones out. Why the hell was Kirishima calling him an idiot? He hadn't done anything today. He worked out in the morning, and now he was finishing up schoolwork he didn't feel like doing.

"I just had breakfast with Mina-chan, and Uraraka-san was there too," Kirishima began.

Immediately, Bakugou put his headphones back in. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about that girl... not after she humiliated him completely.

"Oi! Don't ignore me!" Kirishima said, storming towards his bed. "Come on dude, don't be like this! Did you try and apologize to her after practice yesterday?"

"What the fuck about it?" Bakugou barked, yanking his headphones out again. "Did she tell you I was a selfish asshole?"

"No, actually. She said she wanted a real apology."

"I gave her one!"

"Not from the sounds of it," Kirishima shrugged. "What are you doing man?"

"What do you mean?!" Bakugou snorted. "I told her she was in my head too much and so I apologized to get her out of it!"

"Yeah dumbass, do you think any girl wants to hear that!?" he scoffed. "You basically told her you want to stop thinking about her!"

"But... I do," Bakugou said, looking at him with confusion. "I can't focus at practice if I'm standing around thinking about her!" He touched at the side of his shirt where his shoulder was completely bruised.

"Your shoulder still hurting?" Kirishima muttered.

"No!" Bakugou hissed. "Why the fuck do you care about this so much?!"

"Because," Kirishima sighed. "You're my best friend and honestly at this point, you're just hurting yourself. Uraraka just wants a normal apology, and the reason you keep thinking about her and are viewing her as a distraction is because you like her!"

Bakugou's cheeks flushed. The last thing he needed right now was to get lectured again by Kirishima. "This is all you fucking do lately; yell at me about this fucking girl," he snorted.

"Because you're being an idiot! She. Likes. You. You like her! Why are you making it so fucking complicated, dude!?"

"Because! I don't have time for this shit!"

"Bullshit!" Kirishima yelled. "You're just making up excuses. You just seem fucking scared. Are you scared you like her and somewhere down the road she's gonna stop liking you and then she'll dump you?"

Bakugou stood up, glaring at his friend. "You shut your fucking mouth right now! I'm not... scared," he hissed out.

"I didn't realize you could be so cowardly about having feelings for a girl," Kirishima smirked, teasing him.

"I said shut your fucking mouth!" he yelled. "I'm not a fucking coward. I'm here on a fucking scholarship for rugby Kirishima. I just got in trouble and wasn't able to practice for four fucking weeks and now I'm back and I need to focus! I can't just stop playing rugby and I don't want to!"

"Look, dude, I get you missed practice, but you can have a girlfriend and do other things, you don't have to focus on this one thing!" Kirishima retorted.

"I have one focus! One! I don't need any others," he said.

"I don't understand the level of stubbornness you have about this," Kirishima said, rubbing his forehead.

"What the hell am I supposed to do? I don't even know why she wants me to be her fucking dance partner!"

"You know you could've stuck it out with her and not been her partner!"

"Oh and feel guilty all the damn time?"

"Uraraka-san isn't that type of girl and you know it. I don't get it dude… If you want to dance with her… just do it? Are you scared you might suck if you did do some dance competition? Cause maybe you might lose?!"

"Shut up, I wouldn't fucking lose!" he hissed. This conversation was getting him nowhere. Even if he wanted to be with Uraraka... even if he could focus on her and rugby and dance all at the same time, none of it mattered anymore. Bakugou ran his hand down his face. "It doesn't fucking matter..."

"It obviously does. You've been pissy for days, and you went to apologize to her, and though you said it was to get her out of your head, we all know it was because you actually legit feel bad, and you probably miss her a little bit."

"Yeah well, she didn't fucking accept my apology so it doesn't matter!"

"Did you want her to accept it?" Kirishima asked, getting quieter.

"No, I was hoping she would yell at me and tell me to leave," he deadpanned, and sighed. "Look she's done with me, I'm done with her. I tried my fucking best to say sorry."

"I wouldn't call that your best. Bakugou... since when do you give up? When you really want shit you make it happen? Don't you really want her?"

Why the fuck did it seem like everyone around him was so damn right all the time?

"It's too fucking late for that."

"Not really. If you really want her, you could apologize for real. Be fucking genuine about it! Make it up to her. There are a lot of fucking options," Kirishima sighed.

"She made her feelings very fucking clear," he snarled.

"Yeah because you pushed her away! Don't be an ass! If you like her, then go after her."

Bakugou wasn't the type to back down from shit. He needed to be focused, but he didn't like losing and right now it felt like he was losing the best fucking girl he ever met. He hated it. He hated hearing everyone around him yell at him. He hated knowing he made her cry... probably more than fucking once.

What kind of asshole was he? If he were her, he wouldn't want to be with him either, as a dance partner or a friend... or anything.

"Just leave me alone, Kirishima," he said, standing up to storm out the door.

His asshole roommate was right. If he liked her, he should just go after her... but from the way she spoke to him yesterday, he had a feeling he really lost his chance.

What a fucking idiot he was.

Uraraka told herself she would move on. Hell, she told all her friends too. Bakugou wasn't good for her, in any sense of the word. In fact, he was horrible for her. He was horrible to her, and yet she missed him. She missed his stupid apology, the way he was so loud about everything... how he was certain he wouldn't mess up anything he did... She missed the way his lips felt against hers... the thought made her blush.

She was a little ashamed, for still wanting him after how awful he was.

She needed to move on.

Yet as she stared at the small flyer attached to the bulletin board in the dance hall, she couldn't help but feel her heart throb.

The ballroom competition. She knew it was happening... Todoroki and Momo had been preparing their quickstep dance for quite sometime now. There were three branches, one for the waltz, one for the tango and one for the quickstep. She purposefully hadn't entered, due to not having a partner, but...

Uraraka glanced at the flyer again, thinking about what Mina said. If Bakugou didn't understand how to apologize right... she could help him understand, she could set ground rules... and hopefully he would understand what he needed to do to make up for the awful mistakes he made. If he even wanted to talk to her... though Kirishima certainly made it sound like he did.

She bit her lip and tore the flyer from the bulletin board.

Heading to the dance room, she saw Todoroki and Momo stretching, sitting in the middle of the floor.

"Ochako-chan! Evening!" Momo waved. "Are you here to practice?"

"Yeah," she said, placing her bag down.

"Why do you have the competition flyer?" Todoroki asked, pointing bluntly at the paper in her hand.

"E-Eh!? T-This!? I just... grabbed it to... give to you guys!" she said, flailing her hand quickly.

"Us?" Momo blinked, tilting her head to the side. "Why? We already signed up."

"Uhm..." Uraraka glanced down at the sheet.

"You want to try asking Bakugou again." Todoroki stated, and Uraraka jumped back. How was Todoroki so good at knowing things like this?!

"E-EH!?" she gasped. "N-No! That would just be stupid."

"Yes-" Todoroki began to speak but Momo was quick to cover his mouth.

"O-Ochako-chan! W-Why?!" she stammered, though Uraraka could tell she was thinking something similar.

"Well... I was thinking about what Mina said... and he really does owe me one at this point. If I tell him I'll forgive him if he does this with me, maybe..."

Momo sighed. "I won't stop you if that's what you want to do! I just don't want you to be disappointed if he says no to it."

"Mmm... Yeah... I kind of feel like I wanna just... try."

"You're too forgiving Uraraka-san," Todoroki said bluntly.

"Well I know you don't like him very much, Todoroki-kun," she said. "And... I get it... I do... I just.."

She trailed off, unsure of how she wanted to continue that. She just wanted to see if he could dance? She just wanted to forgive him? She just... liked him, for some stupid inexplicable reason.

"I think I can make this work," she said, walking back to her bag. "Sorry I gotta... go!" she said.

"Okay, it's your choice if you want to forgive him," Momo said, calling after her.

"Oh... you got it all wrong," she laughed, rushing out the door. "I'm not forgiving him! Not yet!"

Bakugou stood on the field, tapping his cleats against the grass. Lately practice was... better... sort of. He was less distracted, but for some reason he was finding it difficult to play to his fullest. Normally, at times like these he would've been angrier... and able to take out his aggression on the field, but frustrations were clouding his mind.

It was unacceptable, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He already talked to her and he wasn't going back to have her yell at him again.

He wasn't so distracted he got hurt, like the first day, but he could tell he wasn't up to par, and he fucking hated it.

"Oi, Bakugou," Kirishima called out. "We're starting."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, and made his way to the beginning, crouching over. Focus. He was going to focus, and he was going to kick some ass. Hopefully he could tackle Kaminari a few times for some good fuckin' payback.

The whistle blew and he stumbled forward, charging towards the other team. Sero dodged him, and Kirishima attempted to toss him the ball, Kaminari knocking it out of his hand, trying to get his hands on it until Bakugou crashed into him, tackling him to the ground. The whistle blew again and Kaminari winced. "Jeez... Bakugou... warn a guy next time, will ya'?"

"Fuck off," he hissed.

"Hey Bakugou," Sero laughed from the opposite team, "isn't that your girlfriend?"

"HAH!?" he yelled and turned to see Uraraka standing on the side lines. Her purple jacket hugged her body, the wind gently blowing her hair. She looked horrified, as if she just witnessed Bakugou commit murder. "Fuck," he muttered. "She's not... She's... whatever," he growled and stormed over to the side.

"What the hell do you want?" he growled.

"Good to see you too, Bakugou-kun," she sighed. "I don't know how you... play this. Are you... okay?"

He hated the slight concern in her eyes. Like she was actually concerned for him... she hated his guts.

"Tch. 'Course I'm okay. I tackle people every fucking day." He folded his arms. "That didn't answer my question."

"..." she glanced at the other boys staring at her on the field. Kirishima waved, and she waved back, smiling a bit. "Here," she said, handing him a flyer. He took it and blinked. A dance competition?

"The fuck is this?"

"Be my partner," she said, her brown eyes staring at him with determination.

What? He was convinced she hated him, but she was asking him again? After all that?

"Uraraka..." he muttered. "We fucking talked about this-"

"You came looking for my forgiveness. Even if your apology was... well... awful," she snorted. "If you do this with me... I'll consider forgiving you," she said, a smirk pulling across her face.

"What makes you think I'm so desperate for your fucking forgiveness?" he snapped.

"Well," she hummed. "You came to me to apologize, which for you, I know that's a pretty big deal," she teased. "Plus I've heard rumors you haven't been doing your best at practice."

He turned around, immediately glaring at Kirishima, who simply waved at him too.

"Why the fuck do you want me to be your partner?" he asked.

'I'll just fuckin' disappoint you...'

"Because... You're good at it and I think you enjoy it more than you let on and I... wanna keep teaching you," she said. "We'll pick one and enter."

"What if I don't have time?"

"We'll make time," she said. "Or you will, if you actually want to try." Her voice was filled with a challenge and Bakugou clenched his fists. "You can come after practice."

Bakugou Katsuki never turned down a fucking challenge. Especially one he knew he could win.

Bakugou pursed his lips. He spent most of this week frustrated he couldn't do anything about her, knowing he couldn't win her forgiveness, and yet here she stood, offering it... with a price.

His hand crushed the paper. "Fine. I'll... do it," he hissed. If this was the way to get her to stop haunting his damn mind, he would do it. One competition.

"Great!" she smiled, "And don't get hurt... doing all this," she gestured to the field. "It would suck to dance with bruised legs."

"Shut up, Round Face," he growled, stomping back onto the field.

"See you later!" she sang, waving to him.

And even though he technically got what he wanted, Bakugou felt like he somehow lost. The dance lessons were about to begin again and Bakugou wondered what the fuck he was thinking.

#kacchako #bakugou katsuki #uraraka ochako #BNHA #boku no hero academia #BNHA fanfiction #dance au #college au #dance with me #bakugou is dumb

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art-of-manliness · 6 years ago

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Movies Every Millennial Dad Should Introduce to Their Kids

I’m a Millennial dad approaching middle age. My young kids are finally at the ages (7 and 5 respectively) where they’ve developed an attention span that allows them to watch a film for longer than 20 minutes. We’ve watched a lot of Cars and Toy Story movies together, but something that has given me a lot of enjoyment is introducing them to the movies that served as the backdrop of my childhood. My parents did the same with me. Thanks to them I got steeped in the archetype of the cowboy by watching plenty of John Wayne, learned why Steve McQueen is called the King of Cool by watching The Great Escape, and discovered how well spooky suspense can be built in the absence of blood and gore by watching some Hitchcock. The movies they shared were classics and enjoyable to watch, but they also gave me a window into who my parents are. When you’re a kid, your parents kind of seem like un-relatable aliens, but when you watch a movie with them that they enjoyed in their youth, you get in touch with a bit of their personality and human-ness. You also get a taste of the era that they grew up in; even when the film they show is a period piece, a certain “flavor” of the time in which it was made comes through. It’s been fun to continue this tradition with my own kids — it creates a little bridge between us, a shared cultural reference point. Plus it’s just fun to watch a movie you personally enjoy with your children. Below is my non-definitive list of movies every Millenial dad should introduce to their kids — the movies that feel like nostalgic “classics” from my childhood. Being at the very oldest end of the Millenial generation, these are films that came out roughly between 1982 and 1995. If you’re a younger Millenial, you might have some different, later picks, but really, come on, this was a golden time for movies and it’s hard to get better than these. That’s what everyone says about the movies of their childhood, sure, but in this case, it’s totally, actually true. The Goonies The ultimate kid adventure movie. Treasure maps, secret tunnels, pirates, booty booby traps, an awesome cave water slide. The Goonies has it all. I watched this movie over and over again as a six-year-old and even demanded that my family call me “Mikey,” just like the film’s young protagonist. When I was in kindergarten, I got hit in the eye with a rock during a dirt clod fight in a field by my house. I nearly lost my right eye, but I took solace in the fact that I got to wear an eye patch just like One-Eyed Willy. And of course, I watched The Goonies again and again while recovering. Watching The Goonies with your kids will hopefully inspire them to go on their own adventures for hidden treasure. The Karate Kid (I and II) Oh man. The Karate Kid. This movie had a huge influence on my childhood. I learned the importance of standing up to bullies from Daniel (or was Daniel really the bully?) and why you should always look people in the eye from Mr. Miyagi. The Karate Kid: Part II was pretty good too. The Karate Kid: Part III fell off a cliff quality wise. And let’s not even mention the later movies made with Hilary Swank and Jaden Smith. The Karate Kid is so wholesome and sincere and full of legitimately good lessons, and yet somehow doesn’t seem cheesy. It’s magic. A few months ago, I introduced The Karate Kid parts I and II to my kids and they fell in love with the movies. We went through a phase where we watched them every day for a few weeks. Lines from The Karate Kid have become part of our family vernacular. Gus will ask me every now and then “Live or die, man?” before honking my nose, and Scout will bark at me “Look eye! Always look eye!” I’ve succeeded as a father. Aside: The new YouTube Red series Cobra Kai is really good. The writers did a great job balancing the earnestness of the early Karate Kid movies with the snark and edginess of 21st century humor. Probably should wait until your kids are teenagers to watch it, though. Includes adult humor and language. Back to the Future Trilogy Why should you watch the Back to the Future series with your kids? The story is amazing (time-travel!), the acting is top-notch, and the music score is one of the most iconic in film history. Yes, you should watch the Back to the Future trilogy with your kids for all those reasons — it’s pure joy. But I think the reason these films have become modern, timeless classics is that the heart of the story is a kid coming to grips with the inadequacies of his parents, the difficulties of adulthood, and his own place in the world. By going back to 1955, Marty gets an upfront and personal look at his folks in their youth; he sees they were young like him once and had dreams and foibles just like he does. When he travels to the future in Part II, he sees a possible adult life for himself filled with stunted teenage ambitions. And when he travels to the 19th century in Part III, he sees firsthand how his ancestors’ decisions shaped who he is today. Every kid should see Back to the Future because it shows in a very entertaining way that who we are is not only shaped by the decisions we make, but also the decisions of our family. It teaches you to have grace for yourself, but also for those who came before you. Also, let’s not forget the allure of power laces and hover boards. I’m still waiting for that legit hover board. Flight of the Navigator Flight of the Navigator is a lesser-known time-traveling adventure that subtly teaches the importance of family. 12-year-old David Freeman goes out into the woods to look for his little brother in 1978. Along the way, he takes a fall that knocks him out. When he awakes, it’s 1986, and though David hasn’t aged at all, his family has. What happened? Well, he got picked up by an alien ship flown by a robot eye with Pee-wee Herman’s voice and dropped off in the wrong time. The rest of the story is him trying to get back to his “real” family in 1978. I watched this movie with Gus a few months ago. I think the story of a kid getting back to his family really hit home with him. After the movie he gave me a big hug and said, “I love you, Dad.” Compliance. The Sandlot I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that The Sandlot is the best movie about being a boy ever. My friends and I would watch this movie over and over again during the summer (in between our games of Pickle and Pepper), and have a great time laughing at and repeating all our favorite lines (“You’re killing me, Smalls!” “You play ball like a girl!” “FOR-EV-ER!”) and drooling over Wendy Peffercorn. The Sandlot doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a simple movie about close boyhood friends and their shared love of baseball. I introduced this movie to my kids last year and it’s become a beginning of summer tradition in the McKay household. Both kids have incorporated “You’re killing me, Smalls!” into their verbal lexicon. Indiana Jones (Original Trilogy) The hat, the whip, the legend. There aren’t too many films today that inspire adventure like the Indiana Jones series does. I still remember seeing The Last Crusade in the movie theater on the 4th of July in 1989. And, of course, when I got home I immediately donned my grandpa’s old cowboy hat, fashioned a whip for myself, and started fighting imaginary Nazis. The first three are the best. I tried watching the one where Indy finds the alien skull. Just didn’t do it for me. Can’t wait to watch these with Gus, soon. Heavyweights Hot take: Heavyweights is Ben Stiller’s most underrated and overlooked movie. His crazed fitness guru Tony Perkins is one of the funniest bad guys in film history. Plenty of fart jokes and awesome montage scenes of kids having fun and taking part in hijinks. I still want to try out the Blob, thanks to this movie. The Monster Squad The Monster Squad is an oft-overlooked kid’s adventure flick. People typically go to The Goonies to scratch that itch. But The Monster Squad will do the trick too. I had a buddy say it’s the edgier, cooler version of The Goonies: “The Monster Squad is to The Goonies as a Greaser is to a Soc. The Monster Squad is The Goonies’ scarier, more rebellious cousin that wears a leather jacket, carries a switch blade, and gets all the girls.” Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy, and Gill-man descend upon a small town, and a group of plucky kids take it upon themselves to kick some monster ass. This movie is a cornucopia of quotes: “My name is, Horace!” “Bogus!” and of course, the greatest line in movie history “Wolf Man’s got nards!” Ghostbusters I was a big-time Ghostbusters fan as a kid. The raunchy, adult humor definitely went over my six-year-old head (it wasn’t until I was 17 that I finally caught on to the sexual innuendos), but when you’re a kid, you don’t watch Ghostbusters for the jokes — you watch it for the ghost-fighting scenes. What makes Ghostbusters a good introduction to scary movies for kids is that the humor tamps down the fright factor. A monster-sized Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is scary, but not too scary, because he’s, well, made out of marshmallow. (The shushing ghost in the library is legit scary though.) I just wish they still made Ghostbusters toys. Christmas 1988 was Ghostbuster Christmas for me — got the firehouse, a proton pack, and lots of bottles of ectoplasm. Home Alone This past Christmas, Home Alone became a new McKay family holiday tradition. The kids pretty much watched it non-stop all through December and they even started watching it again in March. Why do kids love this movie? First, it’s funny, but the story of a kid facing the world all by himself without grown-ups lights up a child’s imagination. Our kids seem both scared of what parent-less life would be like, and intrigued by such independence. So a perfect encapsulation of how it feels to grow up. The Princess Bride A great, action-adventure movie for kids filled with heady humor for adults. Plus, The Princess Bride is filled with classic one-liners that can be pulled out for almost any occasion (“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”). E.T. My in-laws introduced my kids to E.T. this summer and they loved it. A troubled boy named Elliott musters the courage to help a lost, cute alien return to his planet. Such great storytelling in this movie. It also contains one of the best product placements in film history. Every time I watch it, I want to eat Reese’s Pieces. SpaceCamp It was every ’80s and ’90s kid’s dream to go to Space Camp. While I never managed to get on Double Dare to win a trip there, I was able to vicariously experience Space Camp thanks to the campy 1986 movie of the same name. A bunch of kids go to Space Camp and get the chance to sit in the Space Shuttle for a test run. Fate steps in and they actually get launched into space. The rest of the movie is them trying to get back home. Not an award-winning film — just a good time flick. The Buttercream Gang Back in the ’80s and ’90s, there was a production company called Feature Films for Families that put out direct-to-VHS movies for kids that were designed to teach moral lessons. My mom bought my brother and I bunch of them. They were super cheesy, but I’ll be damned if we didn’t wear those tapes out. The Buttercream Gang was the particular movie in the collection that got lots of playtime in our household. It’s about a “gang” of boys who do good deeds in a small town. One summer, the leader of the Buttercream Gang, Pete, moves to Chicago where he joins a real juvenile delinquent gang. When Pete returns, he starts another bad dude gang. The Buttercream Gang rallies together to try to save their wayward friend. It’s a nice story about friendship, love, and grace. The overly-dramatic acting makes it a hoot to watch. Pete’s meltdown in the general store is epic. It’s also got some great lines that I still drop into my conversation today (“Is that a threat? No, it’s a promise.”) The post Movies Every Millennial Dad Should Introduce to Their Kids appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/Qnll7C

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claitynroberts · 7 years ago

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Captain Hook & Rapunzel

Part 1 of 3 —> Part 2 Part 3

Description: Reader insert; multi-part oneshot. The reader has been a member of Team Free Will for a year now. During an unexpected lull in jobs recently, you, Sam, Dean and Cas decide to attend Jo’s themed birthday party. During the events of the night, cards are shown and things definitely take an unexpected turn.

Author’s Note: This fic was written for @eyes-of-a-disney-princess and her Rapunzel’s Tangled Up With Supernatural Challenge, and it is my first ever reader insert, as well as SPN fanfic. I’ve tried so hard to authentically portray the beautiful characters of the series, but I’m only human so please bear with me! I hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Contains: angst, some language, fluff, potential bad decisions, physical fighting/violence

Warnings: physical violence, taking advantage of a drunk female (the reader) is mentioned but never acted on thanks to a big muscular hunk ;)

If you find any other triggers that may affect readers please let me know and I’ll add them here

Word Count (parts 1-3): 7,106...sorry, it’s so long :D

*This pic isn’t mine, credit to the owners and Google images.

You had been a member of Team Free Will for some time now. Long enough to fall into a comfortable, yet predictable, routine with the boys. Research, road trip, more research, gank, repeat. Like washing your hair, or winning the nightly games of rock, paper, scissors with Dean when y’all fought over the bed in the motel room, it became second nature.

You and Sam had become pretty close during this time, especially since you both enjoyed the more brainiac side of things. Cas even seemed to enjoy your quiet company; it was the precarious friendship with Dean that could make things uncomfortable sometimes. It’s not that you two didn’t get along, but sometimes the bond you shared felt as if it went substantially deeper than either of you let on.

The strange lull in paranormal sightings and jobs recently was odd; and to say it was taking its toll was an understatement. As much as you enjoyed spending time with Sam and Dean, you had spent more idle time with the boys in the bunker over the last couple weeks than you ever have. It was beginning to strain the friendships between each of you.

To pass time, you and Sam had spent time together digging through old files, inventorying artifacts and cursed objects, and even brushing up on the obscure lore the Men of Letters left behind. Whenever the dust got to you and caused your allergies to act up, you would spend some time with Dean cleaning and oiling guns or helping tune up Baby. You even had a Netflix binge session with Cas one time, although you had to explain to him that ‘no, watching Grey’s anatomy did not train you to be a real doctor’ no matter how real it seemed.

On this particular day though, you had decided to spend some much needed time alone listening to music and catching up on your very large ‘to be read’ pile. Toward the halfway point of the dusty tome you liked to call ‘light reading,’ sleep began to pull at the edges of your consciousness. The soft rock on the radio combined with the heady scent of the musty pages lulled you into a light doze. About the time you decided to let go and surrender to the tide of sleep, allowing it to pull you under its soft current, the phone began buzzing. Loudly.

A tortured groan fell from your lips as you roused yourself enough to locate the damn thing. Pulling the phone out from under your hip you noticed Jo’s name on the screen.

“Girl, I love you and all, but you just called as I was drifting off into what was probably going to be the best nap of my life,” you grumble-whined into the receiver.

“Sorry, not sorry,” came her clear voice. “You think every nap is going to be the best nap of your life,” she shot back with mirth.

“Well, if I keep getting interrupted how am I supposed to be able to compare them, huh?” You said, using your most logical sounding, matter-of-fact voice.

“Listen, just give me two minutes, then you can return to your nap.” You could practically see her eyes roll.

“Fine. Your time starts now.”

“As you know my birthday is this weekend. So I am going to have a party. You, Sam, Dean, and Cas are invited.”

“Alright.” Sigh. “Do you need us to bring anything? Booze, food, boozy-food…” you replied with a giggle at your own joke.

“No smart-ass. Mom and I have it covered. Be at the Roadhouse Friday night around nine.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” You said, pantomiming a mock salute, although you knew she couldn’t see it.

“Oh! Before I forget. It’s a costume party. Theme is Modern Fairytales. Be sure to tell the boys.”

“I will never understand your obsession with costumes.” You groaned as your rubbed your thumb and index fingers across your forehead.

“It’s kinda like a scaled down Halloween in April.” She said.

“Alright, we’ll be there.” You replied, huffing an exasperated sigh,

“In costume!”

“Yes, in costume.” You acquiesced.

“Good! See y’all then!” Her voice was so chipper you could hear her face splitting smile, as she hung up and the line went dead.

You sat up and texted the guys, Family meeting. Kitchen. 5 minutes, and carefully placed the thick book on your nightstand. Switching off the radio as you walked out the door and toward the kitchen.

Padding down the hallway, you made it to the kitchen before the rest of the crew, your stomach growling very loud. Geez, I guess I shouldn’t have skipped lunch. Opening the pantry you noticed your favorite snack, (Y/snack of choice), was up on one of the higher shelves. This place was not designed with average size humans in mind, you thought. Raising up on your tiptoes and stretching out the rest of your body did nothing to help the situation, especially since you could just barely touch the corner of the package. Struggling to retrieve your bounty, you didn’t notice the figure behind you until he reached up and retrieved your snacks; his chest brushing the side of your arm and his wrist grazing your fingertips.

Startled, you whirled toward the intruder and let out a small yelp, soliciting a grin from him. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” You yelled, smacking him in the chest.

Feigning offense, he raised the snacks higher, “Oh, so you want me to just put these back, then?” He stopped in midair and quirked an eyebrow.

“Dean, no! I haven’t eaten all day, and all I want is my (snack of choice). Plus, that’s not where I left them, so some titan around here must have gotten into them.”

He threw his head back and let out a bellowing laugh as he handed you the package. “Titans. That was a clever one, (y/n).” Still grinning he leaned against the counter and set to work wiping the grease off his hands with the towel he was holding. “Of all the things we’ve ever been called, Titans was not one of them if I remember correctly.” He looked at you with a smirk, his eyes crinkling with mischief. “Weren’t titans devilishly handsome and well endowed in the...ahem...height department?” His eyebrow quirked up again, his flirtatious words making a scarlet blush rise to your cheeks. God, he was so attractive; not that you’d ever let him know that.

“I think that’s all wishful thinking,” you spat back while rolling your eyes. “Where are the other two at?”

He cleared his throat. “I think Sam is heading up from the archives, and Cas was watching something on Netflix last I checked.” His half smirk dropped and his eyes became heavy with concern as he remembered why he was called to the kitchen, “what’s up with the abrupt family meeting?”

“Nothing bad, I promise.” You raised your hand as if testifying in court.

With that sentence, all the tension left his face. The furrow between his eyes disappeared, and he relaxed his jaw which he had unknowingly been clenching. As you completed an inventory of him, watching his shoulders become less strained and his posture relax, you met his magnetic green eyes. They held yours for longer than you expected, deep green piercing into (y/ec), causing the moment to become charged with all the tension that had been building between the two of you for some time now. You were glad you had walked to the other side of the room earlier and put the kitchen table between you two; you’re not quite sure what would have happened in that moment had you been beside him. His body always beckoned you to touch him, always left you wondering what it would feel like to be wrapped up in his strong arms. To feel the short strands of his hair slide between your fingers as his lips crashed down on yours, molding to the shape of them.

The tension built and the visions of fantasy kept coursing on until a soft cough broke the two of you from your intense staring competition. “Ahem.” Someone cleared their throat from the kitchen doorway, breaking the spell and jolting you out of your reverie. You turned to see it was Sam and Cas, both of them looking at the two of you with inquisitive looks. “Did we interrupt something,” Sam asked, trying to contain his smirk. Appreciating his attempt to remain somewhat nonchalant.

Embarrassed you buried your face in your snack bag, attempting to hide your blush. Peeking up through your lashes you saw Dean rub the back of his neck with his right hand, and turn toward the cabinets to retrieve a glass, which he quickly filled up with water from the tap.

“Well, that’s not weird,” said Cas.

Chuckling, Sam agreed. Still looking between the two of you, but deciding to leave the awkward moment for later, he asked, “so why did we need a family meeting?”

“Oh! Jo is having a birthday party this Friday; and we are all invited.” You replied as nonchalantly as possible.

“That’s it?” Asked Dean. “I was in the middle of changing Baby’s oil. This could have waited for later, (y/n).” His voice was gruff and aggravated as he feigned outrage for interrupting his alone time with the classic Impala. To undiscerning ears he would have genuinely sounded angry, but you knew him better than that. He was attempting to save face by making it sound like he had better things to do than stand around the kitchen with you.

Rolling your eyes at him and his weird obsession with his car, you went on. “There’s one catch. It’s a themed party.”

“Huh-uh. No way am I dressing up to attend her birthday party.” Dean said adamantly.

“Okay, first of all, Dean, we all know you’re a closet nerd and secretly love LARPing. This is no different. Second of all, her theme is ‘Modern Fairytales’ so we have to come dressed as a modern interpretation of a fairytale character. Third of all, we are all going in costume. No ifs, ands, or buts.” Sometimes the only way to get through to these three lunk-heads was to put your foot down, hard.

“Dean, she’s right,” Sam agreed with a smothered chuckle, “and it sounds like fun.”

“I’m not sure what any of that means, but I am in as well,” said Cas.

“I’ve already got my costume planned.” You said to Dean, raising your eyebrow.

“Fine.” He replied, unhappily. “I’ll wear a costume. What are you two thinking of going as?” He jerked his chin at Sam and Cas.

“Nope.” You interrupted. “No stealing ideas. No piggybacking. No talking about costumes in general until we are ready to go to her party. Got it?”

“Fine”. All three of them replied at once.

This was going to make for an interesting evening, that was for sure.

——

Friday night finally came around, and you couldn’t deny it—you were pretty excited to see what the boys came up with. You had decided you were going to go as modern Rapunzel, your character being loosely based on the Disney version instead of the original tale. Since she was a sweet, sheltered girl, you thought a modern day version would wear a pretty floral sundress. The dress you chose was a pale pink color, trimmed in lace, with a beautiful pattern of cherry blossoms on the skirt and bodice; a white pair of ballerina flats adorned your feet, and a blonde waist length wig covered up your (y/hc) hair. After you had checked and double checked your outfit, you decided you were still missing something. After you thought for a minute you realized what it was.

Down in the kitchen you were rummaging through the cabinet beside the stove attempting to find the smaller skillet you knew you could carry around for an evening. As you were stooped down digging through the various pots and pans, Dean quietly walked up behind you, unbeknownst to you. “Let me guess, Cinderella?”

You raised up abruptly smacking the back of your head against the cabinet opening. “Son of a bitch,” you groaned as you retreated from the storage space with your pan. “No I’m not Cinderella,” you said rubbing the goose egg forming on the top of your skull. “And what is it with you always sneaking up on me?”

“What can I say,” he shrugged. “I’m silent but deadly.”

“You know you just compared yourself to a fart, right,” you asked as you turned around.

While he was silently contemplative, mouth gaping like a fish as he remembered the conversation and attempted to come up with a retort to explain it away, you got a look at him in his costume. Dark wash, nearly black jeans adorned his beautiful bow legs. He wore a dark maroon shirt, untucked, with the top two buttons unfastened and covered by a black leather jacket. His dark emerald eyes were rimmed in a line of kohl, and a ruby earring adorned his left ear. On his left hand, was a shiny silver hook with a black leather cuff; his trusty Colt 1911 strapped into a shoulder holster in lieu of a sword. The breath caught in your throat as you took in how attractively badass he looked.

Giving up on his internal dialogue, he asked, “Alright, Blondie, who are you supposed to be, then?” His words broke through the mental fog brought on by his presence.

“Rapunzel. Obviously.” You said as you brandished your frying pan at him.

“Gesundheit.”

“Smart ass.” You rolled your eyes. It’s a wonder they haven’t become stuck in the back of your head. “Where is your brother and Clarence, hmm?” You asked affectionately using Meg’s nickname for Cas; as the words left your lips you heard Sam and Cas arguing as they approached the kitchen doorway.

“Cas, I don’t think you understand the theme here,” Sam was finishing as they entered the room.

“You explained it to me and now I understand perfectly,” he began, “we are supposed to dress as modern interpretations of fairytale characters.” He looked between the three of you. “Dean is obviously Captain Hook, (y/n) is Cinderella, you are Prince Eric, and I am Aladdin.”

Sam facepalmed, and you spoke up, “Umm, I’m actually Rapunzel, Cas.” He looked at you confused, so you didn’t bother to elaborate on the finer points of fairytale/Disney lore. “How are you dressed like Aladdin?”

“Aladdin was a street urchin who stole in order to feed himself and his primate friend Abu. Street urchins today look like anyone else, just like he resembled the people surrounding him. Thus, by wearing my usual attire, I am Aladdin.” He grinned in self-satisfaction.

Your eyes became wide, a retort on the tip of your tongue, when you locked eyes with Dean; his expression telling you explaining things to Cas would take more time and energy than it was really worth. You let the subject drop. Looking over at Sam you realized he pulled off a great modern rendition of Prince Eric. He had on salmon colored shorts that fell a couple inches above the knee, boat shoes, a white oxford button down with the sleeves rolled up, and a navy colored sweater tied across his shoulders. A pair of Ray-bans covered his eyes and a captain’s hat sat atop his luscious mane of hair. Around his neck hung a sign with the words, “Have you seen Ariel,” written on it. You stifled a giggle, “nice costume there Sam.”

He grinned in thanks.

“Well, then. Should we blow this popsicle joint?” Dean asked with reluctance.

#eyes-of-a-disney-princess #supernatural #spn #deanxreader #insert #fanfiction #fanfic #sam winchester #dean winchester #castiel #jo harvelle #ellen harvelle #april #costumes #party #theme #birthday #bad decisions #Rapunzel’s Tangled Up With Supernatural Challenge

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hubskitchen · 7 years ago

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Hub’s Kitchen Episode 5: Dragon Ball FigherZ Review: The Game Dragon Ball Fans Need

Hey guys, Hub here again, and welcome to Episode 5 of Hub’s Kitchen. Today, I’m gonna be reviewing Dragon Ball FighterZ for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. I apologize for not being active for a good while. Blame college and my okay-ish midterm grades and me getting them up for that. I’ve been wanting to talk about FighterZ for a while, and oddly enough, I didn’t think I was I gonna talk about Dragon Ball so soon on this blog. I’ll get to the point: I’m a casual Dragon Ball fan. I haven’t read the manga, but I have watched the original Dragon Ball anime as well as the Dragon Ball Z anime (well Kai anyway because fuck having to watch 291 episodes). Dragon Ball is not a masterpiece in story-telling, nobody’s gonna argue that it is. However, the fighting and character interactions make up for those shortcomings (except for GT. Fuck GT). That, and Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Watch that, it’s amazing. I have played a few DB games before, mainly the first and third Budokai games and the Legacy of Goku games on the GBA, but I haven’t played that many games from the franchise. Anyway, enough with the stalling, it’s time to review Dragon Ball FighterZ!Oh, and be prepared to see names and storylines that might not be familiar to you guys, since I’m not sure if my followers know anything ‘bout Dragon Ball.

STORY

Dragon Ball FighterZ takes place within the Dragon Ball Super timeline (aka, in between the Buu saga and Peaceful World arc from Z). When exactly? I don’t really know. I’ve seen conflicting reports from saying it takes place after the Universe 6 arc but before the Goku Black arc, other say it takes place before the Tournament of Power. I’m gonna say it takes place before the Goku Black arc, but I think FighterZ is non-canon anyway, much like the DBZ movies. Anyway, because of strange energy waves that are disrupting their power, the Z-Warriors lost all their power (or strength) and are now on the same level, and believe me, for some characters, that is a good thing ‘cause it won’t be another Goku show (That’s what GT is for). The Z-Warriors also see that a soul is trapped inside the main character of the arc (yes, I’ll get to this), and that by linking with that soul, it allows you to fight alongside the Z-Warriors. Elsewhere, there’s a new character: Android 21. All we know from the Super Warriors arc is that she resurrected some of the classic DBZ villains using the Namekian Dragon Balls, like Frieza and Cell, and plans on doing… things to them. I won’t go into spoiler territory because that’s just one of the three stories. Yes, you heard me right. FighterZ gives you three stories to play. The Super Warriors arc, which focuses on the heroes and Goku being the main character (I mean, he is Goku after all), the Villain arc, which focuses more on the villains and Frieza being the main character (man, Super really loves Frieza. Not that I mean, but still), and the Android arc, with Android 18 being the main character. Having three stories in a fighting game, a genre not known for story? Sounds awesome, right? It does… until you actually play the story mode.

Okay, so here’s the biggest problem with the story mode: There are three, fucking stories in this game, and all of them last roughly four hours long. Doesn’t sound bad yet? Well, throughout the story, you move your characters throughout different points on a map, with limit amount of movements. That never becomes a problem, so ignore that. The bad part starts with the clones. As you’re moving along map, you have to fight clones of the characters, and this gets old faaaaaaast. By the time I got to the Android saga, I was so fucking done fighting clones that I had to listen to different music, podcasts, and have something on in the background because I needed something to keep me going. That’s a huge shame because the cutscenes and the character interactions are great. Whenever you enter a fight with certain characters, you’ll get a cutscene to trigger. Let me just say: Anything, and I do mean anything with Cell is fucking gold. Go look up videos of Cell in this game. He’s fucking amazing. It’s just that having to play 3 stories, fight clones the entire time, and for roughly 12 hours too gets tedious and boring fast. It’s easily the weakest part of this game.

PRESENTATION

Dragon Ball FighterZ looks and sounds fantastic. The Unreal 4 engine was used brilliantly, and the game almost looks like it came straight from the anime. The game even lifts direct pages from the manga and anime, like the Father-Son Kamehameha and the Family Kamehameha, and they look beautiful. The characters animate well in cutscenes and on the battlefield, and many of their signature moves (take Krillin’s Destructo Disk or Kiensan for you weebs out there), look fantastic.

The soundtrack is also pretty good, if a little reliant on hard rock. Then again, I love hard rock, so I don’t mind. Sadly, because of this, the music can all blend together, and the character themes are often ignored. A lot of the character themes are great. My personal favorites being Goku, Yamcha, Hit, Gohan, and Vegeta.

The voice acting is solid too. FighterZ allows you to switch between Japanese and English, and as much as I love Masako Nozawa’s take on Goku, I’m more of a Sean Schemmel guy. Anyway, both voice casts do a great job. Got not much to say about that.

GAMEPLAY

If you’ve played Marvel Vs Capcom 2, then you’d understand how Dragon Ball FighterZ works. For the uninitiated, first off, get initiated, but more importantly, DBFZ is a 2D 3v3 style fighting game. What that means is that you have a team of 3 characters and you can tag them in and out of battle. You have your combos, tech, assists to help you in battle, super meter that allows for heavy-hitting attacks, all that good stuff. In an interesting twist, FighterZ is designed as a fighting game first, and a Dragon Ball game second. Most of the time, it’s the other way around. A lot of Dragon Ball games try to capture the feeling of the anime, even down to the gameplay. From what I’ve seen, the Tenkaichi, Raging Blast, and Xenoverse games tend to do this fairly well. While that’s well and fine, I tend to prefer a simple 2D fighter with Dragon Ball characters.

One thing that sets FighterZ apart from something like Street Fighter is that FighterZ decides to make things simpler for new players. The game has an auto-combo system. What that means is that you can press a button (let’s say square for example), and you can get a combo from that. While this is good for introducing players into the game, it’s gonna get their asses kicked if they try to spam auto-combos online. It’s recommended that you get into practicing the game’s mechanics, which the game’s first story in the story mode helps you come to grips with. Or you could try learning the mechanics in the practice mode.

The roster for FighterZ is pretty solid, but if you’re spoiled by the likes of the Budokai Tenkaichi games with their huge rosters, FighterZ might disappoint you. It has everyone important (Goku, Vegeta, both Teen and Adult Gohan, Frieza, etc) to characters from Super like Hit, Goku Black, and Beerus. The game is getting DLC, and the first two characters confirmed are Bardock (father of Goku) and Broly (one of the most popular DBZ movie villains, and is, to quote his abridged movie, is a “literal giant fucking baby”).

Like every fighting game these days, Dragon Ball FighterZ has an online mode. Sadly, this review will not be going over that because I have not played any of them yet ‘cause I don’t have a Playstation Plus subscription at the moment and need to renew it. From what I’ve heard, the online has had several problems, from games losing connection, to having a hard time finding matches, etc. Doesn’t help that the game has this stupid lobby system that you have to be online for. Sure, there’s an offline lobby, but it’s still kinda lame that the game has to have an online lobby to begin with. There recently was an update that I heard fixed some of the problems, as well as adding a Party Mode of sorts, but again, ‘cause I don’t have PS Plus, I can’t verify if that’s the case for me.

OVERALL

Dragon Ball FighterZ is definitely a welcome addition to both Dragon Ball and fighting games in general. While the story mode was a bust outside of great character cutscenes, and the game having some noticeable online problems, FighterZ excels in the most important area: the fighting. Fast-paced, frantic, and easy to play, you don’t need to be a Dragon Ball fan to enjoy this game. I highly recommend it.

And that’s it. Sorry for the lack of depth, but I wanted to try to be quick and to the point with this review, seeing as how it was my first game review. Anyway, on the next episode of Hub’s Kitchen, I’m gonna review my second movie on this blog, and one I’ve had requests for. That movie, is Coco. ‘Til next time guys. I’m Hub Pie, and thanks for reading!

#dragon ball fighterz

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gothify1 · 5 years ago

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How do you decide what to buy? (Besides reading Who What Wear, of course.) Perhaps you purchase something out of necessity , maybe it's celebrity-inspired , or it might be because of sheer FOMO . But have you ever tried shopping based on your zodiac sign? After reaching out to a slew of fashion girls and getting their smart, stylish, and well-articulated zodiac-based fall picks from Zara, I'm fully convinced that it's a worthwhile pursuit. (In case you're curious, you're reading words written by a Libra—moi —who already got her fall wardrobe sorted by an astrologer .) I got brilliant answers from a Taurus based in Copenhagen, a Scorpio in New York City, a Sagittarius in Madrid, a Cancer in Miami, and a Gemini in Los Angeles—and that's just the tip of the iceberg. These stylish ladies might not share the same sign, but they share a knack for being well-dressed and having good eyes for style. Scroll down to see what 12 women of each sign would buy from reader-favorite Zara right now. "Aquarians are known for being 'detached' emotionally, and I can be guilty of that sometimes. Even though I have my extroverted social moments, I do enjoy my introverted, no-one-talk-to-me times, too. This cozy, oversize cashmere sweater will be able to handle both—I can wear it when I want to hibernate at home solo and when I venture out for fall outings with friends." — Sarah Yang "Maybe it's my Aquarius nature (read: a bit eccentric), but I've always been a print person: florals, animal, stripes, polka dots, I'll do it all. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited that leopard print is still all over the place. I have quite a few animal prints in my closet that I have on rotation, but to update the mix, I'm very into these slingbacks, which I can wear to just about anything (work, cocktails, brunch, whatever!)." — Sarah Yang "As a Pisces, being so go-with-the-flow means that we need to be prepared for anything. Nothing says prepared like a leopard-print dress that can take you from day to night with a switch of the shoes." — Madison Rae "As one of the most emotional signs, what's more emotional than purchasing something so timeless that you just might have it forever?" — Madison Rae "Aries are natural-born leaders, and this bright-red blazer screams girl-boss vibes. I love that it makes a statement the second you walk in a room and that it can be taken from the boardroom to happy hour to holiday party because an Aries girl wants to do it all." — Kristina Zias "'These boots are made for walking and that's just what they'll do.' Impatient, speedy, and competitive, these boots were meant for an Aries babe ready to take action!" — Kristina Zias "For Taureans like myself, autumn and the change of seasons are all about the balance between comfortable at-home entertaining without falling into a total rut in the cozies. A wool sweater is a go-to. This one is a great version in warm earth tones." — Amelia Hoy "A wrap skirt is a low-key downplayed classic that is both no-fuss and perfect with boots and heavy coats for the autumnal homebody that still likes to look expensive." — Amelia Hoy "This wrap/kimono/lounge robe is perfect for staying warm and looking luxurious. Pleasing my Taurean vibes with rich earth tones while still looking chic." — Amelia Hoy "In true Gemini fashion, I always rotate my denim selection depending on my mood. For the office, I'd style these with a fitted sleeveless turtleneck, and for a night out, I'd wear them with some sort of long-sleeve slightly cropped top." — Michelle Scanga "Being a Gemini, I like to keep my social schedule filled, which means the majority of my closet is focused on clothes I can wear to dinners and events. These heels make for the ideal fall shoe that I can wear from day to night, and I'm very much into the deep-burgundy leather." — Michelle Scanga "I'm a very shielded person; there's a reason why my zodiac sign, Cancer, is represented by a crab with a hard shell to protect and guard it from the world, which is exactly why I always gravitate towards tulle. It adds a touch of softness to my personality." — Danié G. "I like pieces that allow me to express my creative Cancerian self, like this jumpsuit. It’s a beige canvas waiting to be accessorized, layered, or even painted on." — Danié G. "I am extremely receptive of people's emotions. When I enter a room, I can tell if there's tension or not. I can read people quite easily, and it can be sometimes overwhelming, which is why I gravitate towards elements of power that make me feel safe, like my braid or this beautiful and shiny golden belt." — Danié G. "Leather Bermudas? Not really for the one who likes to stand in the corner and not be noticed. Luckily for a Leo, that is really not the case. I sometimes feel embarrassed about how peacocking my clothing is. But then I take a step back and see that I have exactly nothing to be embarrassed about and that my leather Bermudas are awesome." — Fanny Ekstrand "I have since I was a child always loved anything that sparkles. My mom used to tell me when I was younger that one can't wear exactly everything one loves at the same time. So like the true little rebel I am, I have spent my sartorial life proving her wrong. She now agrees with me. Kind of Leo." — Fanny Ekstrand "I guess these boots are the typical Leo choice? Tiger and all. We Leos like to keep company with other animals with humor, and these boots sure look like they can show you a good time, no?" — Fanny Ekstrand "Fringe is back in fashion this season! I'm in love with this coat from Zara, as it's stylish and easy to wear. Don't be afraid to go one or two sizes up to wear it as an oversize coat. I'm a Virgo, and I'll style it with jeans, a chunky sweater, and cowboy boots." — Renata Jazdzyk "I love wearing big comfy cardigans during the autumn/winter season. My wardrobe is full of them. This one from Zara is currently on my wish list because of the oversize puffy sleeves and fun animal patterns! Layer it with a turtleneck top and a white shirt, and you will be ready to brace even the coldest weather!" — Renata Jazdzyk "The Libra in me loves a well-balanced black-and-white print, and this one is perfect. It easily pairs back to a wide range of accessories, shoes, and outerwear for layering. Plus, the dress itself is fun and flirty with a flattering shape that will suit a range of body types. Libras are known for being mediators, so it makes sense that I would like something that a variety of people would enjoy." — Logan Russell "As a Libra, balance plays a big part in my style. If I want to play with something more exotic, like a sequin pant, I love pairing it back to something soft like a beautiful sweater. I want the pants to make a statement but not be overwhelming." — Logan Russell "When I think about outfits that epitomize my own personal style, I'm so honored to feel like my personal style reflects my identity as a Scorpio. One of my closest friends in the world is astrologer Colin Bedell of @queercosmos, and he's encouraged me to embrace both my power and my vulnerability as a Scorpio. I'm a better person for it, and it's given me the confidence to rock power jumpsuits and feminine dresses in equal measure." — Catherine Smith "I have and love this dress, which I feel perfectly reflects feminine confidence. I love adding a belt at the waist." — Catherine Smith "I love the strong lines of this jumpsuit—it's my version of a power suit—and the touch of whimsy from the belt." — Catherine Smith "Sometimes people say Sagittarius people are not very diplomatic, even a bit unreliable. Isn't that crazy? But I have the solution: Get the perfect office look and leave them speechless. Go for this pinstripe blazer and defeat clichés!" — Sofía Paramio Delgado "Blue is Sagittarius's color, so this top is clearly the perfect option. Do you want another reason to choose it? Girl, fire is our element. Flaunt your sexy shoulder while wearing it and heat your mood up!" — Sofía Paramio Delgado "Freedom is the best of privileges: It always leads to unknown and incredible roads and for us, Sagittarius, even more! We are so curious that we never stop exploring. No day ends the same! We need clothes that come along the way with us. These trousers will be your allies no matter if you are drinking coffee or your third margarita. Cheers!" — Sofía Paramio Delgado "Capricorns are known to be ambitious and strong-willed, and nothing says that more than a statement-making sleek red dress, right?" — Sara Tan Christensen "Capricorns are also super practical and hardworking, so an easy (but stylish) jumpsuit like this that I can put on without thinking too much about is perfect!" — Sara Tan Christensen Next, Anna Wintour says these are the 8 biggest trends of 2020 .

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tenorcolt8-blog · 6 years ago

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Exploring the NBA's Two Newest Arenas

A back-to-back in Detroit and Milwaukee earlier this week didn’t bring the 76ers the success they were looking for.

But it did take the team to the NBA’s two newest venues.

With some time to kill before each game, I decided to scope the arenas out. Here’s what I found…

LITTLE CAESARS ARENA

Location: Detroit, Michigan

Opened: September, 2017

Size: 20,491

Cost: $860 million

Downtown Destination

The starkest contrast between the Pistons’ new digs and their old ones, The Palace of Auburn Hills?

Location, location, location.

The Palace, which opened in 1988 and was the site of several Iverson-era playoff series between the Sixers and Pistons, was about a 30-minute drive north of Detroit, in a relatively posh suburb.

Little Caesars Arena, on the other hand, is now an anchor establishment for the up-and-coming ’District Detroit’ neighborhood.

It’s like what Brooklyn and Queens are to New York, and what Northern Liberties and Fishtown have become to Philadelphia - an area full of rehabbed buildings, new construction, trendy restaurants, and plenty of investment dollars.

Also worth noting about Little Caesars Arena is its proximity to Detroit’s other two pro sports venues - Comerica Park (Tigers of MLB) and Ford Field (Lions of NFL). You can see the tops of both stadiums from Little Caesars Arena’s Chevrolet Plaza, a nice open-air space that feeds into one of the entrances of the building.

Multifaceted Design

As the above photos show, Little Caesars Arena has a very classic exterior look - straight, sharp edges, with a bunch of red bricks. The feel is appropriate, with plenty of apropos blue collar, midwestern undertones.

The interior of the building, though, reveals a much more modern infrastructure. The arena bowl itself is actually a separate, curved structure, connected to the brick exterior with rounded glass panes.

Not only does the exterior and interior architecture create a cool blend of styles, the windows that make up part of the roof bring in lots of bright, natural light.

Hometown Touches

Gameday didn’t offer a ton of time to investigate Little Caesars Arena, but I did manage to get a quick stroll in.

Out of everything I saw, I think I had the most fun stumbling upon all the Detroit-inspired features that projected civic pride.

Above the Chevrolet Gate entrance, not only was there an actual Chevy affixed to part of the brick wall…

...but a sculpture of the Detroit Red Wings logo called “Wheels & Wings” that was made out of 186 auto parts from 13 different Chevrolet (part of Detroit-based General Motors) cars. The project apparently took over 700 hours to finish.

Then, placed along the concourse floor, there are these manhole covers, each one commemorating an iconic player, coach, executive, or team from Pistons or Red Wings history.

Nods to Motor City culture crossed over into the dining options, too. After all, what's more than something associated with Kid Rock?

Game Experience

Before looking down at the actual playing court at Little Caesars Arena, it’s hard not to first gaze upward, at the venue’s 43,000-square foot ceiling, which consists of 1,700 LED light strips. The colors and design can change over the course of a game or event.

The scoreboard itself is impressive as well. Four big screens combine to form a 5,100 square-foot box, that, at the time of the arena’s opening, was the largest “center-hung” scoreboard ever built.

For a 20,000-seat facility, Little Caesars Arena actually felt cozy enough. Unfortunately, the night the Sixers were there, the crowd was somewhat sparse.

Next Time I Go…

I’d love to check out the upper level gondolas, which, despite being up pretty high, apparently offer neat views of the action.

Maybe that’ll be my move for (at least a portion of) the Sixers’ second and final regular season game at Little Caesars Arena, a December 5th nationally-televised appearance on ESPN.

FISERV.FORUM

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Opened: August, 2018

Size: 17,500

Cost: $525 million

Stunning Sight

Google Maps told me it was about a mile from the team hotel to fiserv.forum. The early fall afternoon was crisp (temperatures topping out in the low 50s that day), but still pleasant enough.

So, I decided to hoof it to the arena, and was glad that I did.

The 20-minute walk was really nice. It took me from the the revived Historic Third Ward district…

….north along the Milwaukee River that runs through the heart of downtown…

… and past Pere Marquette Park.

Fittingly, it was while I was heading down ‘Old World’ North 3rd Street, past the iconic Mader’s German restaurant (est. 1902), that I saw first caught a glimpse of the newest school venue in professional basketball.

fiserv.forum may have only been partially peeking from in between the handful of far more traditional-style buildings in downtown Milwaukee, but man, did its beaming glass facade and curved, copper-colored, wooden-looking roof grab your attention immediately.

After turning onto Highland Avenue and reaching the arena’s entrance, a handful of Bucks branded items came into view. One of them was this sculpture, located at the head of a plaza that joined the ground the arena was built on to a nearby entertainment complex still under partial construction.

A little bit farther up the street, I passed a mini-mural along along the north side of the arena. The artwork depicted lots of Milwaukee nostalgia.

By the time I reached the end of the block, I was, yes, kind of cold, but more than that, pumped to see what was inside.

Sparkling Fresh, Starting at the Top

The very first thing that hit me about fiserv.forum was its smell. Less than two months old, the place still had a super fresh scent, the kind created by construction materials.

After being tight on time in Detroit, I made sure to get to fiserv.forum early enough to allow for some solid exploration.

When I got to the 100 level concourse, I first came across this steep escalator that enticed me upward towards the very futuristic looking Panorama Club at the tippy-top of the building.

What do you do when you’re in a place called the Panorama Club? Take a panoramic picture, of course.

True to the last part of its name, the Panorama Club has every bit the feel of a club, from its carpeted flooring, shiny lights, and lounge-style seating. You won’t find traditional chairbacks in this space, which is meant primarily for the standing-room-only crowd.

What you will find, however, is a terrific view of the Milwaukee skyline, and an outdoor balcony on the side of the Panorama Club opposite the court.

It may have been located in the highest accessible part of the arena, but the Panorama Club, for me, was one of the most distinct aspects of fiserv.forum.

I headed down a staircase to the 200 section, which, despite being the second level, offered good sightlines. In general, whether up there, or in the 100 level, there were few places on either of the fiserv.forum concourses where you didn’t have at least a partial view of the court.

Had it been open for business while I was walking around, I would have grubbed at the fiserv.forum Southside Market. This 200 level dining area featured some local favorites, like Klements (sausage) and Cedar Crest Ice Cream, plus other enticing stands that specialized in fare like mac and cheese, grilled cheeses, and gyros.

Luxury to be Found

To get back down to the main concourse, I once again took the escalator on the east, glass-facing side of fiserv.forum. Going down offered a neat look at all the different levels of the arena, and with the sun setting, there was a nice glow to that part of the arena.

I hopped off the escalator at a premium seating section called the West Bend Lofts. I’m by no means a design expert, but words that come to mind to describe this area are hip, high-end, and cattle ranch.

A large dining space inside the West Bend Lofts was being set up for a pre-game event, so I took a peek inside a few of the private boxes, which were well-stocked, and very nice.

Built for Basketball

Much like Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the walking space on the first-level concourse at fiserv.forum was especially spacious. The rustic, woodsy motif from the exterior of the arena, and parts of the second level, carried through.

Once again, if you wanted to consume local products, especially of the drinking variety, you had ample chances to do so.

One of my biggest takeaways from fiserv.forum was that you could tell the building was built for basketball. For a multi-sport facility, Little Caesars Arena was still intimate for hoops, but the seating in fiserv.forum, especially in the 100 level, seemed perfectly pitched for fans to watch round ball action.

While this picture (taken from my press seat) might not do a good job showing it, at fiserv.forum, you felt on top of the action.

The scoreboard, as to be expected, was bright and sharp, with some nice bells and whistles underneath. I liked that its size, while big, wasn’t off scale for the size of the arena.

Next Time I Go…

I think I walked past what were a couple of meeting spaces and / or premium suites that were actually on the event floor level. The Sixers will be back at fiserv.forum for a Sunday, March 17th matinee, so I’m going to look into those more then.

FINAL THOUGHTS

For teams and fans, Little Caesars Arena and fiserv.forum both offer top-of-class experiences. The two venues have each clearly been constructed and designed with lots of cutting edge features, t.l.c., and branding thought in mind.

Is it hard not to feel just the slightest pang of jealously over the Pistons’ and Bucks’ shiny new digs? Of course. That’s human nature.

But, I’m also excited for all the renovations that will be taking shape at The Center over the next couple years. The upgrades should only enhance a place where the 76ers have been enjoying increasing success.

Source: https://www.nba.com/sixers/news/exploring-nbas-two-newest-arenas

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