#plus mcr again this september

[androidsnsteroids]

ive been so awesome for so long (collegepilled) that i feel im allowed a little bit of regression. my top 3 bands this week are my chemical romance, fall out boy, and twenty one pilots. GET INTO ITTTT

[allnightlongzine]

The Eternal March of the Black Parade

Twenty years after their debut album and more than a decade after the critics dismissed them, My Chemical Romance stands as one of the greatest rock bands of the 21st century. How did we end up here?

Rob Harvilla | Jul 26, 2022 | theringer.com

Illustration by Brent Schoonover

My Chemical Romance is touring again, Paramore and Jimmy Eat World are headlining a major festival this fall, and there’s a skinny, tattooed white dude with a guitar dominating the charts. In case you haven’t heard, emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—The Ringer is following Emo Wendy’s lead and tapping into that nostalgia. Welcome to Emo Week, where we’ll explore the scene’s roots, its evolution to the modern-day Fifth Wave, and some of the ephemera around the genre. Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us in the Black Parade.

Our story starts in New York City on September 11, 2001. It just does. Suspend your disbelief; respect his audacity. But is it really so hard to believe, and is it really so audacious, that Gerard Way—then a 24-year-old New Jersey native, NYC art school graduate, and creatively stifled Cartoon Network intern—would choose that awful, vulnerable, crushingly human moment to reimagine himself as something immortal, someone superheroic? “That felt like the end of the world,” he told Newsweek in 2019. “It felt like the apocalypse. I was surrounded by hundreds of people on a dock on the Hudson River, and we watched the buildings go down, and there was this wave of human anguish that I’ve never felt before. Since then, I’ve continued to think about what we would do at the end of the world if we knew we only had a little time left.”

Standing on that dock, what Gerard decided he would do was channel his shock and grief and newfound sense of immediacy into the ultimate rock-star origin story. “Something just clicked in my head that morning,” he told Spin magazine in 2005. “I literally said to myself, ‘Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference!’” So he hooked up with a drummer friend from high school named Matt Pelissier (the first of several drummers, alas) and wrote an anguished, furious, and yet startlingly tender pop-punk song called “Skylines and Turnstiles.” It starts like this.

You’re not in this alone Let me break this awkward silence Let me go, go on record Be the first to say I’m sorry Hear me out

Gerard sang and played guitar, though he struggled to do both at once. (It’s harder than it looks.) Slowly, he found other bandmates: Ray Toro and Frank Iero on guitars, plus his own younger brother Mikey Way on bass. Thanks to his gig working at Barnes & Noble, Mikey also contributed a band name: My Chemical Romance, an improvement on the title of an Irvine Welsh book. The band signed with a tiny label called Eyeball Records and released, on July 23, 2002, their debut album, called I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, produced by New Jersey punk deity and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly, who’d already mastered the dark art of combining the rawest possible materials into something impossibly gargantuan.

This broken city sky Like butane on my skin Stolen from my eyes Hello angel, tell me Where are you? Tell me where we go from here

“Skylines and Turnstiles” is not, by a long shot, the highlight of MCR’s least-great album. The raw materials are there, of course: the scabrous and shimmering guitars, the breathless downhill-sprint propulsion, the throat-shredding screams to bolster the chorus and punctuate Gerard’s unguarded and brutal horror-flick lyricism. But your first song is never your best. Here, the one called “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us” is better. And the one called “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” and the one called “Demolition Lovers,” and the one called “Drowning Lessons,” and even the one called “Cubicles.” But as an opening salvo, as the gritty first panel in a dense and ludicrously ambitious comic-book-punk saga, as an achingly sincere attempt to break the awkward silence and roll back the wave of human anguish, as a macabre but heartfelt attempt at genuine connection, Gerard Way’s first song got him where he needed to go, which was firmly on the road to leading everyone where they needed to go.

And after seeing what we saw Can we still reclaim our innocence? And if the world needs something better Let’s give them one more reason, now

It’s the rousing, heartbreaking vocal harmony on the words the world needs something better that shows you what Gerard and his vampiric cohort is really about. Look beyond the eyeliner, the hair dye, the ghostly pallor, the extra-macabre marching band outfits, the wholesale mall-goth hijacking of this band’s whole look, its whole ethos. Don’t flinch at the lyrics no matter how gnarly and nihilistic they seem to get; don’t get too wrapped up in the surreal sensationalism of their flames-and-chaos music videos. Buy the album tie-in comic book or don’t. Just never forget that the closer we get to the end of the world, the tighter Gerard Way means to hold us, to make however much time we have left just that much more bearable.

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love just celebrated its 20th birthday, and inspired some very excellent anniversary pieces despite being, well, MCR’s least-great album. Their next record was a gleaming and snarling major-label-debut colossus that crowned the fellas as Warped Tour royalty; the record after that was a hilariously overblown rock-opera funeral march and consensus masterpiece that now stands among the greatest emo albums ever born, any era, any wave; the record after that is my personal favorite. Then MCR broke up in 2013, to appropriately operatic dismay, going out as close to On Top as a youngish rock band possibly can.

There was no explicit tabloid-roiling catalyst, no real drama, except no drama is not exactly this band���s vibe. Gerard’s farewell letter, posted to Twitter three days after the news broke and titled A Vigil, On Birds and Glass, is my personal favorite Rock Band Breakup Explanation Letter, any subgenre, any era, precisely because it captures this band’s precise and fantastic combination of galactically overwrought and unabashedly intimate.

We were spectacular. Every show I knew this, every show I felt it with or without external confirmation. There were some clunkers, sometimes our secondhand gear broke, sometimes I had no voice- we were still great. It is this belief that made us who we were, but also many other things, all of them vital- And all of the things that made us great were the very things that were going to end us- Fiction. Friction. Creation. Destruction. Opposition. Aggression. Ambition. Heart. Hate. Courage. Spite. Beauty. Desperation. LOVE. Fear. Glamour. Weakness. Hope. Fatalism.

And then he expands on the fatalism part as a way of explaining why, exactly, this band broke up after only 11 years and four albums.

That last one is very important. My Chemical Romance had, built within its core, a fail-safe. A doomsday device, should certain events occur or cease occurring, would detonate. I shared knowledge of this “flaw” within weeks of its inception. Personally, I embraced it because, again, it made us perfect. A perfect machine, beautiful, yet self aware of its system. Under directive to terminate before it becomes compromised. To protect the idea- at all costs. This probably sounds like something ripped from the pages of a four-color comic book, and that’s the point. No compromise. No surrender. No fucking shit. To me that’s rock and roll. And I believe in rock and roll.

He goes on at great length. It’s wild, it’s lovely, it’s absurd, it’s genuinely moving. The fellas found stuff to keep them busy post-breakup, and Gerard most prominently, of course: the solo album, the ongoing and relentlessly off-kilter Netflix series based on his comic book. And then, inevitably, MCR reunited—tentatively in late 2019, and full-throatedly here in 2022, headlining giant festivals and packing arenas as what certainly feels like the first rock-band reunion that anybody’s actually given a shit about in years. Put it this way: If you are a remotely young person who, like Way himself, still believes in rock and roll, My Chemical Romance is very likely why, and it’s worth ruminating on how, exactly, this profoundly strange and desperately necessary band has inspired such belief. Anybody who listened to I Brought You My Bullets in 2002 couldn’t have predicted any of this. But the guys who made it did.

Emo is back, baby! In honor of its return to prominence—plus the 20th anniversary of the first MCR album—we’re diving deep into all things emo.

Grab your Telecasters and Manic Panic and join us for Emo Week.

The most striking song on I Brought You My Bullets—the most Gerard song, the most MCR song, The Most in general—is called “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville.” It begins as a woozy but deceptively gentle waltz but darkens by ominous degrees, and soon Gerard is wailing the line “If I had the guts / To put this to your head,” and maybe you worry for a second that this is the 200,000th uncouth and unnervingly violent post-breakup emo song. And then you find out that Monroeville is in Pennsylvania, and parts of George Romero’s 1978 zombie-flick classic Dawn of the Dead were shot there, and oh, wow, suddenly you realize this is actually a very grim, very romantic song about an inconsolable man realizing he has to kill his no-longer-human wife:

And there’s no room in this hell There’s no room in the next And our memories defeat us And I’ll end this duress

Not the best song, but the most. My Chemical Romance would get truly dangerous, and truly great, when their best and their most intertwined. They signed to a major label; all the coolest kids do. Deal with it. Deal with this, while you’re at it.

“You like D&D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini, and croquet,” Ray Toro informs Gerard Way at the onset of “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” one of several monster singles from their 2004 Reprise Records debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. “You can’t swim, you can’t dance, and you don’t know karate. Face it: You’re never gonna make it.” Cue the high-school-outcast histrionics, the cuddly arena-punk viciousness, Gerard’s destabilizing magnetism as he practically screams in your face, the vintage airbrushed-van metalhead radness of Ray’s guitar solo, and, before the final bone-crushing chorus, a truly bonkers Gerard buildup/breakdown for the ages:

But you really need to listen to me Because I’m telling you the truth I mean this I’m okay (Trust me)

And, boom. There are days when this is the best song ever written. And there are other days when it’s not even the best song on Three Cheers: “Helena” has a majestic Mötley Crüe meets the Misfits chorus, the power chords ascending a stairway to hell, an infinite legion of demons pumping their fists along to every word: So long and good night / So long and good night. Or maybe the power-ballad pyrotechnics of “The Ghost of You” do it for you, the classic quiet-verse-loud-chorus dynamics, Gerard’s unapologetic controlled-screaming melodrama (“At the top of my lungs in my arms / SHE DIES”), the extra-luxe video that recreates D-Day down to the puking soldiers landing on the beach. Tell me these guys aren’t spectacular, and not driven by friction, ambition, LOVE, glamour, and fatalism.

By 2005 MCR are headlining the good ol’ Warped Tour alongside Fall Out Boy, and early-2000s third-wave emo—undaunted in its embrace of pop-punk, of the mall, of teenagers both actual and perpetual—has its very own Queen, and/or Led Zeppelin, and/or Pink Floyd. Suspend your disbelief; respect their audacity. “The main thing that we’ve always wanted to do was to save people’s lives,” Gerard informed the magazine Alternative Press in 2004. “That sounds Mother Teresa–ish and outlandish, but it really does happen. It does make a huge difference. We’ve seen it in action.”

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, by the way, is a semi-derailed concept album involving two lovers, a man and a woman, who both seemingly die in a gunfight: The man goes to hell, is informed by the Devil that the woman is still alive, and agrees to kill 1,000 evil men in exchange for the chance to reunite with her. I say semi-derailed because during the writing process Gerard and Mikey’s beloved grandmother died—“Helena” is about her—and Gerard considered scrapping the whole thing. “When that happened, I was like, ‘Fuck. Oh, God. How am I going to deal with this story? Does it even matter anymore? Is it just fucking pretentious? Is it bullshit?’” he told Alternative Press. “And then I came to grips with it and said, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to write the songs that I want.’” Even the song called “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison” has a certain funereal poignancy to it.

Even for a band already operating at this scale in terms of both ungodly rock-star bombast and naked emotional intimacy—Gerard has gotten increasingly forthright in interviews about his struggles with mental health and substance misuse in this era—My Chemical Romance’s third and biggest and most extravagantly beloved album, 2006’s The Black Parade, struck like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. There is an awful lot to absorb here; the marching-band outfits are as good a place to start as any.

The Black Parade is a classic leveling-up record, the fairly conventional tale of a young, ferocious rock band hitting its commercial peak (the album debuted at no. 2 on the Billboard album chart, behind a Hannah Montana soundtrack) with the help of some new big-shot collaborators. It was produced by Rob Cavallo, who probably also produced your favorite Green Day album; the screaming-and-fire video for “Famous Last Words” was directed by Samuel Bayer, who also directed your favorite Nirvana video. (I’m just assuming your favorite Nirvana video is “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”) Several members of the band got severely injured while shooting this, by the way, and somehow you can just tell.

The Black Parade is also an unprecedented and not-at-all-conventional narrative flex credibly described by The New York Times as “a stricken tour de force about coming of age in the post-9/11 era.” It’s a not-at-all-derailed concept album about a man (“The Patient”) dying of cancer while wracked by fear and regret; Gerard decided to add to the verisimilitude by cutting his hair short and dying it a stark silver. (“I wanted to appear white and deathlike and gaunt and sick-looking,” he cheerfully told the NYT.) Liza Minnelli (“I love those guys”) drops by to portray a grieving mother; musically, the klezmer parts somehow hit harder than the heavy metal parts. Influences range from David Bowie to KISS to the Beatles; there is also, as the marching-band uniforms might suggest, a marching band. The scale of this, in every sense, is nearly overwhelming, so if you’re new to it all maybe start out by just putting the caustically hilarious goth-blues anthem “Teenagers” on repeat for six hours.

They said, “All teenagers scare the livin’ shit out of me” They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed So darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me

Even five years ago, this record was an easy fan favorite but not necessarily an agreed-upon, era-defining masterwork. “The Black Parade, though well-reviewed at the time, hasn’t accrued the same reputation as other classic albums,” the critic Jeremy Gordon wrote in 2016 in a 10th-anniversary piece for Spin. “It was almost entirely ignored in lists of the best albums of the ’00s run by tastemakers and canon-formers like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Billboard, Paste, Complex, NME, and, yes, Spin.” By this record’s 20th anniversary, however, it might be universally hailed as the pop-punk Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: In 2020, when Rolling Stone unveiled its updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, there was The Black Parade at no. 361, not quite as good as Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, but just a little better than Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much.

You could argue that rock critics ruin everything. You could regard The Black Parade’s steady ascent on lists like this as proof that something essential—a life-affirming secret shared only between MCR and their Day One fans—is being lost. As a Late Pass–holder myself, out of respect/trepidation, I have decided not to argue that the band’s fourth and last album, 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, is actually their best album, even though I love it profoundly for both the reliable audacity of its concept (now MCR are Mad Max–esque rebels battling an evil corporation in postapocalyptic California, with the Gerard-penned comic book to prove it) and the chaotic scope of the songs themselves. Get acclimated by putting the song “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” on repeat this time.

Danger Days probably includes one too many songs that blatantly reach for Coldplay-style arena-rock uplifting grandeur, but what I will say is that this record’s final attempt at volcanic sentimentality, “The Kids From Yesterday,” totally works, and the album ends with an extra-caustic and extra-hilarious trashing punk tirade called “Vampire Money,” in which Gerard politely declines to contribute a song to the soundtrack of a Twilight movie.

(Come on!) When you wanna be a movie star (Come on!) Play the game and take the band real far (Come on!) Play it right and drive a Volvo car Pick a fight at an airport bar The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey Pills don’t help, but it sure is funny Give me give me some of that vampire money, come on!

“Originally, what we did was take goth and put it with punk and turn it into something dangerous and sexy,” Gerard explained to the NME. “Back then nobody in the normal punk world was wearing black clothes and eyeliner. We did it because we had one mission: to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate. But then that image gets romanticized and then it gets commoditized.”

This is all delightfully but decidedly rude: There’s an excellent argument that the Twilight universe is every bit as vital and inclusive and life-affirming as any of the rock bands it attempted to romanticize and/or commoditize. But I will laugh at the line Pick a fight at an airport bar forever.

As for MCR’s breakup, and the failsafe doomsday device that triggered it, within a few years Gerard was opening up about it: In 2014 he told the NME that he’d relapsed into alcoholism after Danger Days, and worried that his daughter would grow up without a father; the choice, he concluded, was “Break the band or break me.”

The band first reunited for a single show in 2019 in Los Angeles: “That was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had playing on stage with My Chemical Romance, for sure,” Gerard told the NME, adding that “to me, the new version of My Chemical Romance and the way I want to go about it is exercising less control.” (The NME loves this guy.) The band’s festival-headliner status now is in part a reflection of pop-punk’s bizarrely ascending reputation in the past five years as both a commercial and critical proposition, from Olivia Rodrigo to Machine Gun Kelly to Juice WRLD. But however many sonic and stylistic precedents there might be, there has never been a rock band quite this courageous, spiteful, beautiful, desperate, glamorous, hopeful.

I believe Gerard when he says that this band’s original mission was “to polarize, to irritate, to contaminate,” but that was never their only mission. MCR was born in an apocalypse, and designed to help us all survive it. Us meaning actual teenagers, not critics, but we caught on eventually. We are all bandwagoners on the Black Parade now. Meanwhile, the apocalypse is closer than ever, but at least we can all huddle together in the glow. 

[jevilowo]

The complete list of everything to happen in and around the 8th of September 2022:

Reigen became ultimate twink and dilf and milf and babygirl and hottest anime girl and

Sans vs Reigen for ultimate tumblr sexyman on twitter (Sans won by 420 votes)

Toby Fox wrote a fanfic about Sans vs Reigen (it's on twitter, it comes up if you google it)

Lea Michele can't read conspiracy

Also she debuts in Funny Girl

Splatoon 3 dropped

Enstars cover of Tell Your World dropped

2 year anniversary of Eric Trump calling Mob Psycho 100 leftist propaganda

Star Trek day

The Queen of England died

Trisha Paytas went into labour, but it was a false alarm

Kiwi Farms shut down

Don't Worry Darling drama

Dan and Phil made a video saying people gave them cocaine and celebrities wanted to have threesomes with them

Thurston Waffles died (rip)

Finding out they censored destiel many times

Bastille performed in Argentina

Mercury Retrograde (not sure what that is, but it's today apparently)

Out of touch Thursday and Felix Huaves (again, not sure what that means but someone reblogged with those tags so)

Bernie Sanders, P!NK, Ruby Bridges, Gaten Matarazzo and Martin Freeman's birthdays

MCR IN BOSTON BABEY

Danny Phantom graphic novel cover reveal (first dp content since 2008)

24th anniversary of the Pokemon anime broadcasting in the US

Warnuts first birthday/anniversary

Critical role massacred one of their player characters in the episode last night

Anniversary of sega dreamcast debut

Song for the new sonic game got released

New Pinocchio movie. And many other films and shows dropped on Disney Plus, due to it being disney plus day.

Comment if I missed anything

Update, I've edited this post like a million times, lmao. I'm honoured to be the keeper of events.

Update 2, here's all the polls Reigen has won so far, from a post by @blackberry-s0da

Update 3, END OF REIGENSWEEP I REPEAT END OF REIGENSWEEP

[half-doomed]

rules: share your 12 favorite songs from this year (one from each month or just your favorites overall) and tag 12 people!

So @smileandasong tagged me in this quite literally 2 years ago and i never finished it but I always liked the idea (and I found the abandoned draft of it recently) so I'll do it for 2022!

january: silently screaming by bad suns

This album came out in january so it only makes sense for a song from it to be january's song! It also perfectly captures the vibe lol

february: bone bag by superet

We saw superet open for idkhow in february so I was really getting into them around this time!

march: come on home by franz ferdinand

I really don't know what I was listening to around march but I know I was listening to this band a lot more this year! And i think it started around march ? Idk this month was a blur tbh

april: american dream by weathers

I started getting into weathers around this time! (We saw them live in may!) This song is also a huge mood because I was extremely disillusioned with my job (and I'd end up finally leaving in June)

may: what a day to lose my mind by dbmk

I started getting super into dbmk again because we saw them live (and met them) in may! They also started releasing new music around this time! (Which everybody should go listen to)

june: parade by joywave

You can literally see exactly when i started going feral over joywave lol. I got obsessed with them immediately after the hellvetica tour was announced. And then, along with idkhow, they completely dominated my spotify wrapped for this year.

july: thelma + louise by bastille

I was starting to get into bastille by association with joywave lol. Plus a lot of joywave friends I had made were also into them! They're also a slightly spring/summer band to me

august: hang em high by mcr

I was getting really into mcr around this time because we saw them during this month and again in september! I almost went with a different mcr song but they played this one at my first show 🤠

september: mad iqs by idkhow

September was hellvetica month!!!!!! No thoughts only mad iqs

october: simple by de'wayne (feat. idkhow)

It's a feature so it doesn't count as a repeat artist. This song came out this month! And so did his album!

november: genius of love by tom tom club

I got really obsessed with this song for a short period of time

december: goodnight socialite by the brobecks

Because apparently almost all my other top songs were actually christmas songs?? But truly one of the Most songs of all time ever

Tagging @vanweezer @girlmikeyway @comfortingdecay @fangs-frthmmrs @goodbyetommyyy @intheblueglow @aftercoffees @cyncity2000 @softnsquishable @ofalltheginjoints @voluntaryvictim @purgatoryhips if you want! Sorry if I double tagged you!

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

pog ok shadow songs + short explanations

cooler than me - lyndi wadsworth: this is that rock cover of cooler than me i sent a while back. i explained already why i think this sums up shadow and sonic's dynamic and his feelings toward sonic.

custer - slipknot: the opening lines referring to both death by guns and being reminded of a person's beauty scream shadow's feelings regarding the life and death of his best friend maria who was shot and killed. figthing hell and fear because you understand it hits really well with him, too. other than that it's a lot of general anger and cynicism, which, even when shadow has developed as a character not only over the course of games like adventure 2 but also past that intense edgelord characterization shadow the hedgehog 2005 gave him, is still pretty fitting. even if he's not cruel or anything outright, he's still bitter with a short temper and angry at a lot of things.

dead memories- slipknot: the entire song is about losing the past and the pain of remembering. granted, the lyrics aren't anything near a 1:1 comparison, but i mean, the theme fits him really well.

chop suey - system of a down: i love this song. the vague, slippery grasp on a heavy theme of death i think fits shadow well too, as death is a recurring factor in his story.

wake me up when september ends - green day: the entire song is about mourning, which again, the trauma he suffered when maria died is a big factor in his character.

born with horns - machine gun kelly: shadow as a character has a lot of turmoil. as shown in one ending of shth 2005, he has a lot of regret for the damage and pain he's caused, directly or inadvertently. he stays away from making friends after maria died. he was made and repeatedly attempted to be used as a weapon. through two different games, in essence, shadow was stuck on the same feeling and the same traumatic event again and again. ("how much time can i waste constantly feeling the same thing?") plus the entire ending refrain really just sums up shadow's character arc and his isolated nature and experiences.

lonely - machine gun kelly: i mean, come on. maybe the lyrics aren't anywhere near a 1:1 comparison, just like dead memories, but the theme of loss and mourning?? the way it's presented? it fits him really well. shadow lost so much. plus the recurring theme of "i'd trade it all for you," i know it's metaphorical and it's a common feeling when you lose a loved one (yeah, i'd know that personally /lh) but shadow's motive for trying to destroy the earth was driven by vengeance and mourning over maria's death.

nothing inside - machine gun kelly: no explanation. the lyrics don't fit, the theme is wrong, but i hear it and i'm like yeah, that's shad, mainly because of the chorus.

rocket man - elton john: now we get into the stuff that's gonna warrant an ummm wtf but, the mix of lyrics about space and themes of feeling lost? "i think it's gonna be a long, long time 'till touchdown brings me 'round again to find- i'm not the man they think i am at home, i'm a rocket man" first of all. space. shadow was created in space. he lived on the space colony with maria. a "long, long time", shadow being sealed away for 50 years in cryostasis, but for some reason it's really his story in sa2 ending with him falling to earth from space that makes this one hit for me? like, i know he survived, but still.

space oddity - david bowie: wish i could say i wasn't too stupid to know what this song is actually about. i just kind of hear an astronaut dying in space when a mission goes wrong, accepting it in the last moments ("tell my wife i love her very much") and no one can reach him, and it probably represents something but i have no media comprehension. anyways death in space.

ok these are all too depressing what about teenagers by mcr because it's so funny to me that shadow is literally my age and he's out here like THAT

Love the MGK songs in here, my propaganda has worked- /j

Also the fact that I'm older than a fUCKING SONIC CHARACTER SCARES ME-

[rosequartzstarswrites]

20 Questions for Writers

Thank you @cheesyficwriter for the tag!

How many works do you have on AO3?

27

What's your total AO3 word count?

351,699

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

As of now, I have only written for Harry Potter; however, in February I began several LOTR/Hobbit WIPs that I have not yet published. The first one is due out at the start of September though!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In Another Universe: Hermione Granger is brilliant: she completed her PhD in Linguistics at 25, and is the youngest faculty member at the University. Ron Weasley, an unruly quantum physicist... well, he's getting there. But when Granger gets stacked with a project she hates and has to talk to other scholars at the University, their paths cross and become permanently intertwined in a way neither of them could've ever anticipated. (Slow Burn Multichap Muggle Uni AU) Rated T.

Rosebury Grounds: Lady Hermione Granger has been reared up in society, to marry well and be a good housewife, like any good Edwardian lady, but that's far from what she wants. When a handyman by the name of Ronald Weasley joins the house staff, utterly disarming her from the moment they first meet, he might just be the opportunity she needs to break loose and choose her own destiny.Lord Draco Malfoy has a secret— a secret he knows would cost him everything if it ever saw the light. But it's getting harder and harder to keep it from his father, because Draco keeps bumping into a pair of emerald eyes and a head of lush black hair, and he can't pretend his knees don't buckle at the sight. Which would be quite alright, if not for one small problem: it's not a woman they belong to.Two tales of forbidden love, set in Edwardian England. (Multichap Muggle AU) Rated M.

Something Growing: Hermione’s pregnant— and she’s freaking out. She’s always been good at everything, but she’s not sure that’ll hold for being a mother; however, when Ron gets home earlier than expected, she realizes she doesn’t need to be great at everything so long as she’s got him beside her. (Oneshot) Rated G.

Big in Japan: Harry Potter is a famous rockstar out on a world tour— but when one too many meet-and-greets threatens to drive him insane, he takes an escapade out into the streets of Tokyo, where he ends up at an expat bar with a captivating redhead that seems totally unaware of who he is, or why she should know him at all, for that matter. (Muggle AU oneshot) Rated E.

Teaspoon Vindication: After escaping Malfoy Manor, Ron comes to visit Hermione in her room at Shell Cottage, and does the one thing that may be the hardest for him— talking about his feelings. (Romione oneshot)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try my best, though I don’t always get to all of them! My reasoning is that if folks are kind enough to tell me how much they enjoyed my writing, the least I can do is thank them for their lovely words. 

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

The Last Farewell! It’s a Wolfstar oneshot, set in canon universe, where Remus comes to Sirius’s grave to ask for his blessing (and forgiveness) to marry Tonks. It was angst central from the start and I even wrote it while listening to an angsty song.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I generally write happy, fade-to-black endings, but if I had to choose I’d say Truth or Dare. This is a male!Hermione x Ron summer camp AU born of a game of spin-the-bottle/truth-or-dare that ends with them figuring out their feelings go beyond friendship. I say it is the happiest ending because I think the “boy figuring out he likes boys” scenario has been overdone in angst a bit too much, and the fact that the feelings are reciprocated and they decide to stay in touch would make me giddy if I was their age and in their shoes. Anyway, it’s just a sweet ending.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

Not at all— I actually don’t like crossovers at all, so I have never even entertained reading, let alone writing, one. (No hate at all to those with imaginations large and strong enough to conjure up awesome crossovers— I am in awe of you all, they’re just not for me!)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Never, luckily, since the Romione community is so lovely and supportive! But, though not outright hate, for a while I had an anonymous FFN reviewer who left reviews on every chapter of Rosebury Grounds saying that my title was a porn/sex act...? I was distraught and scoured Google to see if they really were right and this was some obscure euphemism I’d entirely missed, but turns out it wasn’t, and they had gotten confused with a vulgar but similar term. So I ignored those reviews but they kept coming and then eventually one time I found a 500 word very graphic description of the sex act in question in my reviews, so desperate was the reviewer (apparently) to get their (wrong) point across. Yikes. 

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes! I’ve written a lot and of many kinds— explicit, implied, just foreplay, fade-to-black, referenced... I’ve written both M/F and M/M. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No— I didn’t even know that was something I should worry about!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I speak fluent Spanish, so I’m planning on translating In Another Universe and Rosebury Grounds myself once I’ve finished the latter. 

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, the most I’ve done is beta from the plot-building stage!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Gahhhh don’t make me pick! Romione (HP) is first in my heart because I see so much of myself and what I want in it, but Samfro (LOTR) is, to me, the truest depiction of love in all of literature, ever. I will forever come back to it.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I hope to finish my Hogwarts Actually series that I started for Romionecom (hi, Discord friends!) inspired by Love Actually. I have it all planned out, translating all the relationships in the movie to HP pairings and friendships, and all I need to do is write— but I think I’ll come back to this periodically and unoften. Hopefully I’ll finish it!

What are your writing strengths?

I like to think that I write good and witty dialogue. I’m a theatre person, so I think my dialogue sounds mostly natural when spoken. I also have a good sense of beginning and ending, so most of my works/chapters start and end with a memorable phrase of some sort. I also have excellent grammar and spelling, so except for a few occasional typos, that makes the job of proofing much easier!

What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I sometimes write sentences that are waaaay too long and convoluted. I use words that are too big sometimes and just take approachability from my writing. Fanfic has been excellent to practice correcting this, though!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

As a bilingual writer myself— don’t write dialogue in other languages unless you speak it well or get it translated directly through someone who speaks it well. Though I appreciate the effort, I can always tell when something was put through Google Translate, and that kind of dialogue most often ends up lacking the context clues/colloquial familiarity of real language speakers, and ends up sounding stiff and forced. 

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’m not proud of it, but I used to write MCR RPF back when I was 13 or so. It was a very brief stint and I have since deleted the works in their entirety, since my principles have evolved to the place where RPF to me seems disrespectful and invasive. Plus, it was on Wattpad.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

Again, don’t make me pick please!! I truly have had a lot of fun with Rosebury and I think it is a testament to how much I love it that I was able to keep the idea on hold for a full six months before I started writing it. I love the Downton setting and the Edwardian dialogue is a lot of fun to me. But I also have a soft spot for the In Another Universe original oneshot I submitted to the RFF2020— that work awoke my love for Muggle AUs (which I like to think I’m most known for), inspired me to start work on my first multichap fic, and keeps me coming back to it anytime I have doubt in my ability to write swoonworthy scenes. It was the oneshot that started it all. 

Tagging: @accio-broom @be11atrixthestrange @folk-melody (and anyone else who would like to!)

[a-sweet-violent-urge]

Michael Jackson

Yeah, I know, I know what state the world is in right now but trust me, this post has been a long time coming. I just never got around to write it. And I’m sitting down to do it now because I’ve been locked at home for a week so I guess it’s now or never. 

One look at my blog will tell you that I very rarely post personal stuff on here. I just reblog things and sometimes express opinions about my fav shows but that’s it. But I’m gonna get personal now.

I guess now’s the time to point out that I’m also not the most eloquent person around so to anyone reading, this might seem a bit all over the place, you’ve been warned. 

The last few months have been really hard for me and my family. My father died last December. I still can’t wrap my head around it. I was used to not having him around at home, he was always working, you know, to bring money home, and now.. I ... I think of him as not home, not gone. Don’t know if that makes sense. You’re probably wondering what does this have to do with Michael Jackson? I’ll get to that, be patient with me. 

Anyone who really knows me, and to be honest this is not a lot of people, I’m introverted, knows that listening to music is how I deal with things. I remember being a senior in high school, we were doing a speaking exercise in my English class, and my teacher asked us what influenced us the most in life, like, what helped shape our view on life and the world.  When it was my turn to answer, I said that it was music and the artists I listened to. The rest of the group (I’m saying group not class for a reason, but I don’t want to go into that much detail) probably thought it was weird, they talked about their friends and family. But this was the truth for me. It still is. The music I listen to (along with the books I read) is what has influenced me the most in life, it’s what made me the person I am today. This is the reason why I’ve always hated talking about music, my favorite music has always been something very personal to me. I’ve always hated the question who’s your favorite artist. People would think it’s an easy one to answer but it’s not, not to me

This is where I start to talk about Michael. He was one of those artists (who influenced me) but I only realize that now, in retrospect. Actually, around the time I answered that question, the artists I meant were 30STM, or Linkin Park, MCR or whatever the hell I listened to back then. 

I think the first time I listened to MJ intentionally was sadly after he died. I was born in September 1994, so I was not 15 yet. Up until that point, MJ was just a name in my head. I knew he was a singer, I knew what he looked like (’cause who didn’t or doesn’t), I know what he was very famous (though I had no idea why), I had heard songs, of course, though I didn’t really realize they were MJ songs. And despite all of that, me not knowing basically anything about him, I remember how hard his death hit me. I don’t know why. I felt like my fav artist had died, I felt like I had lost someone. To this day I can’t explain to myself why. I remember in what room I was when I heard the news. I watched the memorial and cried my eyes out. 

After that, I decided to listen to his music. I listened to a lot of it and for a month or two, (or probably more, I don’t really remember) I listened mostly to him. I learnt more and more things about him. Like, about his philanthropic work, about the allegations (I’ll talk about that later), actually I remember being like 10 and watching the trial being covered on the news here. Songs like The way you make me feel, Dirty Diana, Give into me quickly became my favorites. But I remember the first times I heard Man in the Mirror, Earth song, Heal the Word, We are the World. And especially Man in the Mirror. The lyrics If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change had become like my motto in life and I didn’t even realise it until the past few months. I realized that often when I had to make a choice about something, those lyrics would pop up in my head. When I saw or read something about the environmental problems that we’re facing, Earth song ended up popping in my head. Yeah, MJ had helped shape my view on certain things and I didn’t even know then.

After my 2009 MJ phase, I hardly ever listened to him. I would listen to some songs from time to time when the mood struck me, but that was it. 

Fast forward to October/November 2019. I was on YT and I ended up listening to some MJ songs., it was one of those times when the mood struck me, and I was going through the comment section (as I always do) while listening, and I noticed people commenting about .. a certain documentary. I don’t even want to say its name. So I was like what the fuck has happened and I looked it up. My initial reaction was seriously, this again?

Ok, I’ll go back to 2009 for a bit. When I got into MJ 11 years ago, as I mentioned earlier, I read about the allegations, I remembered even seeing it on the news as I said. But he was found not guilty. It was good enough for me. I didn’t think much about it. I didn’t care much about it. Plus he had just died. Nobody had one bad word to say about him. Ironic, huh? Also, I couldn’t do research even if I wanted to. I was young, I didn’t really speak English that well, and honestly, in the last few months I realized that when it comes to Michael Jackson, the truth is buried under so many false stories and dare I say, blatant lies, that you need an excavator to dig it out. I’m putting this in bold, in case a none MJ fan reads this, if you want to find the truth, know what you’re getting yourself into. Anyway, I couldn’t even fully appreciate some songs, because you need context to fully understand them, and I didn’t have that context then. 

Fast forward to 2019 again. So I found out about you-know-what and I started reading about it and watching videos, educating myself on the matter. In other words, I had gone down the rabbit hole. But it was not just that what sparked my interest in Michael. I noticed something. Something many people were writing in the comment section of different. Michael was an angel. Michael is/was love. What would have Michael done (about whatever) if he was alive? I was like what?! Look, I have spend my life fangirling over different celebrities and I had never seen people saying things like that. And this was the moment, I asked myself the question, why was this person so famous and so loved by so many people from all over the world? Why HIM? Yes, he was immensely talented but that applies to a lot of artists. So why Michael? Now I know why. If you’re a fan reading this, you know why, too. If you’re not, go figure it out on your own. 

It’s funny how a movie filled with not even clever lies, made so Michael’s name could one more time be run through the dirt, made me his fan (ugh, I hate that word, I almost feel like it has a negative connotation nowadays). Made me more than just a fan. If you remember, I started this post by saying that my father passed away in December. It all happened very fast, in less then 3 months, he wasn’t sick and then he was, and then, before we even knew it, he was gone. I was in the room when he died. So you see in what period of my life Michael’s music entered my life again. In a period when I needed a little light, something to keep the faith. In those months (and even now, more than 3 months later) Michael’s art was my lifeline. Keep the faith, Gone too soon, Had enough, Will you be there, Little Susie and so on. 

Here are some lyrics that really hit me hard

The feeling of terror she felt as a youth Has turned from a fantasy into the truth (Scared of the moon)

I drowned my pain in his music. His love, his kindness and generosity reminded me of my purpose in life. I won’t go into details about what I experienced because this already got more personal than I’m comfortable with. Plus, my vocabulary is not good enough to do it justice. I’ll finish with this. I’m in complete awe of him and the things he did. Like, yesterday I found out he made a song about sign language. Seeing voices. 

So, that’s my MJ story. I hope it’s comprehensible, you don’t know how hard it was for me to put this into a somewhat coherent narrative. But I really needed to get it off my chest. I probably missed some things that I wanted to say, if I think of something more, I’ll add an edit.

By the way, as you can see, I’m new to the MJ community and I’d love to make some friends, so feel free to message me. 

[mysticsparklewings]

2018 Art Summary!

I've never done one of these before because usually, I don't even have to look to know I'll have several months left blank, as I have a bad habit of finishing things and either just waiting to post them or uploading things in bulk. This time though, I felt more confident about having a piece for every month...Turns out somehow I lost February in terms of art-making . Oh well, 11/12 ain't bad. (And I'm very positive I drew something in February, but evidently, I didn't think to post it. Which is weird because February usually isn't that busy for me ) Also, I think I'm a few days late to the party on these, but whatever. And now for a short description and links to each artwork so you can understand & see them better. January: Coraline One of my earlier attempts at just straight fan-art from one of my favorite movies. I'm still really happy with how it turned out, almost a year later February: Surprisingly, nothing! (Seriously, I have no idea what happened to February...) March: Killjoys, Make Some Noise! The first piece of My Chemical Romance fan-art I ever made.  Poor me and poor them, they look a wee bit feminine, but I'm working on getting better at that. Maybe this year I'll take the time to color the line art to honor the anniversary again--we'll see! (I put this one in sideways because I couldn't size/crop it to fit the other way to my own satisfaction) April: Ivy Enchantix 2018! You know, I would've thought if there was any month I had no art posts, it would've been April. There was Spring Break and Easter, school stuff including taking a trip to New York...And yet it seems April was actually one of my busier months, considering what all I had to pick from. But it was really no contest of which one to pick as my favorite. While I definitely only rarely make Winx art anymore, when I do there's a lot of heart and soul poured into every piece, to the point there isn't much I can find fault with. This may not have been the "grand return" I was hoping for, but it stands as a reminder that I'm not ready to fully let Winx Club go anytime soon. May: Watercolor Stars The tail end of May 2018 marked a big milestone I almost never thought I'd see; My first display drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq that I stalked eBay for months (possibly even years) to finally get my hands on. This was also the first time I actively revisited my Mini Magnet Challenge from the year prior, using one of my favorite poems as inspiration for the first piece of art made with the tablet. Looking back on it now, I really am in love with the overall atmosphere. June: The Sandman This month proved to be a busy one, and I have to say honorable mentions go to my Art Style Challenge and The World is Ugly, the second piece of MCR fan-art I made. But ultimately I went with this one because I'm still obsessed with Mr. Sandman's unique character design and for as simple and quick as the image was, it's honestly one of my most favorite pieces I think I've ever made. (I even have it posted as a Portfolio piece on my website). The other two are great and easily tied for close seconds, but they don't haunt me the same way this one does. July: One Little Spark Early July was time for my family's annual theme-park vacation, specifically to Walt Disney World.  After we got back, I had that feeling I usually do about being just so inspired by everything we saw and did, but not really knowing what to do with it. Every year I want to do a small series for every day we're at the parks, but I never have the time or means to do so. So an obscure crossover of Figment from Journey Into Imagination at Epcot and Animal Crossing: New Leaf was my compromise for 2018.  I still think it's adorable and though it is ridiculously unlikely, I have to say I would absolutely love to see Figment appear in an Animal Crossing game someday now. August: Grav3yardGirl Once again, August had a few different options but ended up being a no-contest. This is the first piece of fan-art I ever made of my favorite Youtuber, Grav3yardGirl , made and posted at basically the last minute for her birthday on August 3rd.  I'm not sure she ever saw it or knows it exists, but there's always next year! I do still think it turned out really cute for how much of a rush I was in to complete it. Also, someone needs to remind me to use that parchment paper in my artwork more often... September: Marco Renoir Colored Pencil Test This month was relatively calm with only a few art pieces to choose from. I went with my test piece for the Marco Renoir pencils because I do still really love how it looks and also because it sort of marked the beginning of my hunt for colored pencils and would eventually lead me to pick up a few other specific brands. Plus doing all these test pieces ends up boosting my colored pencil skills overall.  This also marked the beginning of me using galaxy/sky pictures to test colored pencils, which has proven pretty effective, I think. October: Outfit of The Day This was my busiest October art-wise in a while, I think. For once I wasn't competing with art/theatre classes that demanded a ton of my extra attention, and this was also the first time I was super committed to seeing Inktober through to the end. And admittedly my Inktober 2018: Wrap Up! picture was very close to getting this spot, but I ultimately decided against it since I would be really hard to tell what it actually is and that seemed like cheating since I'm not sure I could pick a favorite Inktober piece anyway . So I went with my first-ever Outfit-Of-the-Day drawing instead. I am still really thrilled with it and it was one my first real holiday-specific pieces I made also. I was also rushing to get this one done, and I still think it came out really good, all things considered. November: Why, Curious Butterflies! This one was honestly the hardest to pick because this was easily the busiest November I think I have ever had art-wise. For at least four years prior I always had a ton of theatre stuff to do, but not in 2018. (Don't get me wrong, I really miss that class but it was definitely a big commitment). In the end, I went with the picture that makes me the happiest; this little fan-art inspired by a purse I had just gotten IRL. It's cute and its mixed-media, which I am increasingly convinced is where my artistic talent really shines brightest. December: The Nutcracker Oddly enough, this feels like the sparsest December I've had for art in a while because I think before Winter Break was like my main comeback after months of having to put stuff off. I may not have made that many art pieces this December, but the ones I did were pretty elaborate/in-depth for me. I went with my Nutcracker girl since it's a concept I've been wanting to play with for a while now, and once again this was a mixed media piece that I think really showcases my skills. And it's also one of the first real like Christmas-y drawings I've made. I also spent a good chunk of this month acquiring new art supplies to play with . All in all, I look back and I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished art-wise is 2018. It was a year of experimenting and milestones, and I think I'm in a much better place as an artist now than I was a year ago. Lord knows my journey is not over yet, but I like where I am so far. Art Goals for 2019: Keep experimenting, maybe learn to draw faster, post more consistently; and most importantly, keep striving to be better. ____ Template (c) DustBunnyThumper Artworks (c) me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[vampqueersarchive]

I’m actually hopeful for this year

I’m graduating I’m going to be finished school and have a degree in something I really enjoy!

My teacher is trying to get me a job at a post production company and it’s a really fucking cool one

Me and my friend are hoping to move in together we are currently looking for places and hoping to move in together better may and June

I’m going to see MCR hopefully in September!

I’m also maybe going to see Louis Tomlinson

Going to vist my cousin and her fiancé and her two dogs! Plus seeing all her friends

Trying to maintain my 4.0 and getting scholarships for said 4.0

Getting more tattoos and piercings (once I get snake bites it’s all over for you)

Getting back out and dating

Getting a binder

Getting away from my mother and never having to speak to her again

IM GETTING A DEGREE IN FILM

[beholdagay]

I was tagged by @pirate-patton . Man, talking about myself is weird XD Let’s do this shiz!

Answer 30 questions and tag 20 people

Nickname - I usually go by Izzy. If you call me Bella…. probably nothing will happen to you but I’ll have Twilight flashbacks

Gender - Cis Female

Star sign - Aquarius

Height - 5'4" (I think? 165cm anyways)

Time - 00:00 (Spoopy(Yes I’m still not over Halloween))

Birthday - 21st of January

Favourite​ bands - Panic! At the disco , Green Day , Skillet, MCR, Fall out boy, Set it off, Imagine Dragons…. Honestly I could go on, I love music

Favourite solo artist - Troye Sivan, Melanie Martinez, Sia… Again I could go on, but do I need to XD

Song stuck in my head - Bruised by Jack’s mannequin

Last movie I watched - V for Vendetta

When did I create this blog - I think on like the 10th of September?

Last show I watched - Brooklyn Nine-Nine

What do I post? - Mostly things to do with Thomas Sanders, Jacksepticeye, Markiplier and Dan and Phil but I also post a lot of random shit because fuck it, that’s why

Last thing I googled - “where is the death penalty legal”…. I can explain XD

Other blogs - Don’t have other blogs, abandoned them when I created this one

Do I get asks - Nope but asks are cool so…. Send that shiz :P

Why did I choose this URL- Because of that one story of that dude (whatshisface??) that ran in with a chicken and exclaimed “Behold, a man!”…. Plus I’m super gay (Me: is pan)

Following - 95

Followers - 193 (Omfg thank you all so much)

Average hours of sleep - Like , between 2-3?

Lucky number - Either 3 or 7 XD

Instrument - Nope. I got a keyboard… Don’t know how to play it but I got it

What am I wearing - Harry Potter pyjamas and my black hoodie

Dream job - I don’t know?… Game Developer?

Favourite food - Ugh food is weird but I guess redskin peanuts?

Nationality - Polish! (Imma Pole)

Favourite song - Partners in Crime by Set It Off , or So what I lied by Sick Puppies

Last book I read - Killing Cupid by Louise Voss & Mark Edwards

3 favourite fandoms - Thomas Sanders, Jacksepticeye and Supernatural

Tag time! Oh boy I don’t know half of yous, would like to change that XD (You probably all got tagged at least once tbfh)

@virgils-myspace @thesanderssidesnerd @pattonwillfight @babiegreen @evilmuffin @xxfluffypandazxx @remmythepegasis @marionpixie @hexdream18243 @preciousbeaan @wotusayinm8 @treblesanders @virgillikespurple @paranovigilant @thatloginceshipper @ai-logical @ilovemygaydad @virgil-salty-sanders @i-support-angsty-virgil @virgilmood

[flockofdoves]

spotify wrapped stuff bc i like archiving it here i guess

this year was weird and my musical listening habits kinda reflected that so its cool they divided by season ig

the design of this is kinda dumb w/o titles imo but ig youre not supposed to screenshot the whole thing so.

thats brockhampton, mitski (think i got most intensely into mitski fall 2018, i still like her music but that def makes sense as my winter phase for this year), my chemical romance, gerard way & ray toro

the protomen, the mountain goats, and like. two pics for damon albarn i guess? all of it was just journey to the west which was supposed to be a gorillaz album tho

mcr, gorillaz, the mountain goats, lemon demon

the coup, mcr, the coup again (i dont understand the image logic on these 4 pages some are albums some are artists), the used

september/october was me getting really intensely into the coups discography that i hadnt listened to as much and then november with mcr reunion brought me just. exclusively listening to mcr plus its members side projects plus the occasional other band i associate with them like the used so that makes a lot of sense lol

of course

def listened more than that but so much of my obsessive listening was stuff not even on spotify bc i wanted to get back into their more obscure stuff ive neglected since streaming

did not expect this honestly although i guess i really have no idea what i wouldve expected i listen to almost all their songs so much. this was the first song i ever got into by them when i was 11 so its kinda poetic or w/e i guess to begin and end the decade with

honestly was not expecting the mountain goats so high? i like them but theyre not any of my go to top favorites at least not yet. i think its the combo of listening to just beat the champ over and over again bc that albums a lot of fun i love pro wrestling and i dont know their other ones as well and then jacqueline and rain gave me a rec list for what to listen to next that i kept starting but didnt get around to making the time to listening actively enough, would like to soon!

the things on this one were kinda dumb it showed me russell crowe (from the les mis soundtrack) for australia dkfjghdf

genre-fluid. what a term

theres like . a lot going on here i guess https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EtcQvYE0EPa4s?

the second to last song i honestly dont even know what that is or why its on here? maybe it was on a playlist i was trying to listen to idk. similarly dont know why some songs are on here and not others but thats the only one i def didnt legit listen to at least somewhat

i didnt discover the protomen this year! ive loved them for a few years now jacqueline introduced me to them but i think i just didnt add them to spotify til now accidentally

i’m honestly really confused about 2013 i dont think i had spotify as a 13-14 year old?????? but like . listening to the sweeney todd soundtrack absolutely checks out for the cusp between me being emo and a theater kid dfkjghdfkj and i dont have it in my library now so like? i guess i did??? (also 2016 is just weird (i like regina spektor but not That Much) bc i only listened to like. 3 songs i didnt have premium i used itunes)

nice

wild..

[rpf-bat]

Dance Alone To The Tune Of Your Death

Pairing: Frank Iero x Reader

Genre: Fluff, Romance

Summary: Request fic for @chloethebinch.  “I was wondering if you could do a fic where the reader is Frank's friend and he suggests that she could be Helena in the music video and he gets a huge crush on her in the Helena dress?”

The dance studio at your college's fine arts building was empty, except for you. You weren't surprised. It was past midnight. What other student besides you was crazy enough to be pirouetting at this hour? 

Maybe other people would think it was weird, but, when you were stressed, dancing always calmed you down. You slid on your ballet slippers, tying the ribbons tightly so they wouldn't slip down your ankles. You put a CD onto the stereo and hit play. A normal ballerina would have used classical music. To be honest, you should probably be using the soundtrack to Swan Lake, since you were going to be performing in your school's production of that ballet later this year. Instead, for some reason, all you wanted to dance to was your friend Frank's post-hardcore band, My Chemical Romance. 

Frank had dropped out of college to be MCR's rhythm guitarist full time. At the time, you were worried he was making a mistake (and, of course, sad that he wouldn't be your classmate anymore). But, his decision seemed to have paid off. His band had been signed to a major label, and last summer, they'd traveled the country as part of Warped Tour. Part of you wondered if Frank was going to forget all about you now that he was getting rich and famous. 

Don't worry about that right now, you told yourself. Just dance. 

You pointed your toes and began a spin as the opening notes of 'Helena', the first track on the CD, began to play. You did a demi-plie as you let the sound of Frank's wild instrumentals wash over you. The vocalist, Gerard, was great, too, but when you listened to MCR, your focus was always on Frank. Maybe it was because you had a bit of a crush on him.

So do ten thousand other girls, at this point, you frowned, and threw yourself harder into the dance to distract yourself from your negative thoughts. You whirled and twirled across the floor to every song on the album, and by the time the last track concluded, you were panting, brow streaked with sweat. 

You froze, and gasped, when you heard the sound of someone clapping. 

Who the hell is in here?! you wondered, turning around in shock. Your jaw dropped when you saw Frank Iero standing there in the doorway, grinning at you. 

"Frank?!" you gaped. "When did you get into town?"

"We just got back from tour," Frank explained, "so I had to come and see you."

"But, how did you know I'd be here?" you wondered. You nervously tucked a sweat-drenched strand of hair behind your ear. Great. First time Frank sees you in months, and you're in your grimy workout leotard. 

"Cuz I know you," Frank laughed. "I went by your dorm, and you weren't there, so I figured this was the only other place you'd be." 

"It's good to see you again," you said, stepping closer and giving your old friend a hug.

"Good to see you, too, Y/N," Frank said into your ear. "I missed you."

You blushed and pulled away. 

"Your dancing's gotten better," Frank complimented.

"Oh, no, I still need lots of practice," you shook your head humbly. 

"No, I mean it, you're really talented," Frank insisted. "Actually, that's part of what I came here to talk to you about." 

"What do you mean?" you asked, puzzled, as you sat down on the floor and took a swig from your water bottle.

"You know my band's song 'Helena', right?" Frank asked, sitting down beside you.

"Yeah, it's my favorite song on your new album," you nodded. 

"Well, the label's decided we need to make a music video for it," Frank explained. 

"Wow, so this will be your second big-budget video shoot, right?" you replied, remembering how crazy it had been when you saw Frank - your Frank - on MTV last September when the video for 'I'm Not Okay' came out. 

"Yeah, it's nothing like the dinky little video shoot we did with Eyeball, back in Jersey, for 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You'," Frank compared. You still remembered the day Frank and the guys shot that video. It was a couple years ago now, but it felt like more. 

"So, what's the concept for the new video?" you asked curiously. 

"It's a funeral scene," Frank revealed. "We're all there to bury Helena." 

"That's going to give me deja vu of the real funeral," you frowned. 'Helena', was, of course, named after Gerard and Mikey's grandma, who had died several months prior. You'd accompanied Frank to the memorial service, to support the Way brothers. It had been such a sad day.

"Me, too," Frank admitted sadly. "But, the video director said he doesn't want Helena to be played by an old lady, like the real Elena Way was when she passed." 

"For real?" you blinked, surprised.

"Yeah, he says if it's a young person, it's more emotional," Frank shrugged. "The idea is that, during the video, she'll open her eyes, and get out of the coffin, and start dancing towards the door, like her spirit is leaving for the afterlife." 

"That sounds beautiful," you whispered, impressed. "I'll watch the video when it comes out, for sure."

"About that," Frank said, a smirk crossing his face. "I don't want you to watch it." 

"What?" you said, confused. "Why not?"

"I want you to be in it," Frank declared. 

"What?!" you gasped.

"I want you to play Helena," Frank clarified. 

"There's no way!" you cried. "Frank, I'm just a student. This is a for-real music video, that's going to cost tons of money to make, and be on TV, and everything. You need to hire a pro. I'm sure any experienced dancer from, like, the New York City Ballet company, for instance, would love a chance to work with....." 

"But, I don't want somebody from the New York City Ballet," Frank interrupted with a smile. "I want you." 

"Why?" you argued. "I know how important the song is to Gerard and Mikey. I mean, it's about their grandma. If I screwed up a role that important....."

"I already talked to Gerard and Mikey," Frank assured you. "They don't think you're going to screw up. They want you in the video, too. And after seeing you dance tonight, I'm sure it's the right decision. Please, Y/N, will you do this for me?" 

You looked at Frank for a moment, uncertain. His eyes were pleading. 

".....Ok," you decided, heart pounding. "I'll do it." %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The day of the video shoot finally came. You had to let all your professors know you'd be missing a week of classes, and reserve a plane ticket to Los Angeles. But, when you drove from the airport to the church where 'Helena' was being filmed, Frank was there on the steps to greet you. 

"Are you ready for today?" he asked, hugging you in greeting. 

"I'm nervous, to be honest," you confessed when you pulled away. 

"You can do it," Frank assured you. "I believe in you, Y/N. Come on, let me introduce you to the director." 

The director, Mark Webb, and the choreographer, Michael Rooney, were polite and friendly to you. There were several other dancers milling about, but Mark explained that you were the one the camera would primarily be focusing on. Your heart thumped anxiously, but you reminded yourself that you'd been practicing your dance routine for weeks. You could do this. 

"You'll need to get changed into your costume soon," Michael suggested, handing you a garment bag. You took it and went into the church's bathroom to get changed. 

Your costume was a black and red dress. It was sleeveless, which made you a little self-conscious, because you didn't usually wear outfits that bared your shoulders. Plus, it showed a little more cleavage than you were used to. Not a lot - it was supposed to be a burial shroud, after all - but enough to make you yank up the top of the dress, a little embarrassed, as you exited the bathroom. 

"Whoa," a familiar voice gasped as you entered the chapel. You turned and saw Frank, dressed in his own costume: a three-piece suit, with a fedora that made him look a bit like a Mafia boss. 

"Whoa, what?" you asked shyly, still fidgeting with your dress.

"Whoa, you look gorgeous," Frank said, eyes panning over you slowly. He'd never stared at you like this before. 

"Th-thank you," you blushed, not sure what to make of this unusual attention. "You look nice, too." 

"Well, I....." Frank wasn't able to finish his statement, because suddenly the makeup artist Mark had hired walked over to you. 

"Your makeup's going to take a while, so we should get started, Y/N," the woman told you. "We've got to make you look nice and dead." 

"Isn't that an oxymoron?" you laughed.

"I'm sure you'll be the nicest-looking dead girl I've seen," Frank joked. "Um, I guess I'll talk to you later, Y/N."

"Right," you agreed, and headed towards the makeup chair. You wondered why your face was flushing. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

It felt extremely weird to climb into the coffin near the pulpit. You lay still, eyes closed, doing your best corpse impression. The camera man stood over you, leaning over your prone body so he could capture the shot of your eyes opening. 

"Cut," the director called. You sat up and looked over at him. Had you done something wrong? 

"Y/N, that was very good," Mark complimented, to your surprise. "Before we film your dance, we're going to try and get some shots of the band playing, alright?"  

"Alright," you shrugged. You propped your elbows up on the coffin lid as you sat and watched Frank and the other band members pretend to play their instruments. Even though it was just a fascimile of the real thing, Frank was putting so much heart into it, like he always did. You'd always admired his energetic playing style. 

"Cut," the director called again. "Gerard, loving the emotion you're giving the camera, alright? Ray, Mikey, you're doing good, too. But, Frank, I need you to look at the camera for me, please." 

"I was," Frank argued.

"No, you weren't," Mark disagreed.  

"Dude, he's right," Gerard admitted, crossing his arms. "Your acting was good, but you kept looking over at Y/N the whole time." 

"I-I did not!" Frank denied, turning crimson.

"Frank, we need you to focus," the director advised. "You can talk to your girlfriend after we're done filming this scene."

"Y/N, uh, she....she's not my girlfriend," Frank stammered. He wasn't usually a stutterer. Why would he be acting like this?

"Oh?" Mark blinked. "Well, my mistake. Let's take it from the top." %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Eventually, the guys wrapped up the scene focusing on them. It was time for your dance. The song played from a stereo in the background, to set the mood and help you sync your steps with the beat.  You were nervous. You didn't want to mess up, and make the whole camera crew start over with a new take. 

But, then, you thought of what Frank had told you when you got here this morning: You can do it. I believe in you. 

Summoning your nerve, you opened your eyes, climbed out of the coffin, and began to dance towards the pews. You resisted tears when you thought of the symbolism of your movements - when you tilted and grasped at the 'funeral attendees', it was meant to be Helena wistfully reaching towards her loved ones, who were mourning her. You glanced at the band. Gerard looked emotional, too. But, Frank was just staring at you, looking completely riveted. The unguarded adoration in his eyes surprised you, and you almost stopped moving. 

Could Frank.....like you?

There wasn't time to process this. Knowing that the cameras were trained on you, you continued the dance, taking care not to forget any steps. When you were done, everyone in the church clapped. You flushed, feeling proud of yourself for pulling off such a complicated routine. And you were going to be on national TV! 

"Y/N, that was amazing," Frank said, running over to you as soon as the director yelled cut.

"Thank you," you smiled. "You, uh, you looked like you were enjoying it."

Frank's expression changed, and now he looked embarassed. "You were looking over at me?"

"I'm always looking at you," you confessed.

"Y/N....." Frank asked quietly, not wanting the rest of the video's cast to hear. "Do you like me?"

"I mean, of course I like you," you mumbled. "We've been friends for years."

"You know what I meant, Y/N," Frank said, looking at you seriously. 

Your face reddened. "Why are you asking me this, Frank?" 

"Because I realized today that I like you back," Frank admitted, and, suddenly, he was kissing you, in front of his band, the camera crew, God, and everybody. You were embarrassed by this large audience, but you didn't resist. You'd wanted this for so long, and it was even better than you'd imagined. 

"Yes," you said breathlessly when Frank pulled away at last. "Helena likes you very much."