#r u focusing on the joy of the craft???

[quirkle2]

art from 2021 vs 2024.damn !!!11!

[the-fiction-witch]

Lovely Tag Thomas Brodie Sangster

A - Affection [How affectionate are they with you?]

He's very affectionate, when at home but never in public. He likes to be affectionate and a little weird with you he'll poke you and then just lick your nose for no reason but its so cute and adorable, he'll just walk behind you and cuddle you tightly while your looking in the fridge, and he'll spank your butt as you bend over just generally cute fun affection

B - Butter [How much do they coddle you, and how?]

He does like to coddle you a little, he keeps you away from the press, the internet and all the sorts of things that would upset you, and really anything that you could get hurt in anyway he will not allow it full stop not going to happen, he wasn't even that thrilled about you being on his bike for the first time but he bought you so much gear that if you where to have an accident you would be as okay as he could possibly make you, he very much stands as your night from all the bad things that could hurt you even if you whine about being allowed to do more then you are

"god damn it! I am not going to electrocute myself Thomas! I'm just changing the light bulb"

"I wasn't worried about you electrocuting yourself I'm worried about you falling off the chair.... and shocking yourself"

C - Confide [How easily do they confide to you?]

He was open to confiding with you, however it was sort of an unspoken thing that it was sort of tit for tat as it were, if you confided something in him he would confide something in you almost like a trade, he would never keep a secret from you or anything just didn't feel the need to tell you unless you asked really or if you had said something,

D - Defensive [How protective are they over you?]

He can get very defensive especially with the internet he knows the sorts of things they say about you and he tried so hard to protect you, he tries to make sure the press stay out of your business and away from you, hides you behind him a little when there is camera's around because he knows the sorts of things they will say about you so he tries very hard to protect you.

E - Exhausted [How do they take care of you when you're tired or feeling low?]

It takes him a little while to notice but once he's realized he'll make you something nice to eat that won't make you feel any worse, let you sit across his lap and tell him all about it or just fall asleep on him whichever you need at the time, he'll cuddle you as tight as you want make run his hands across anywhere that hurts, petting your hair and soothing you with kisses and reassuring lovely words

F - Fluffy [How sappily sweet can they get?]

He can get pretty sappy if he wants to. but its a rare thing its saved for date nights and celebrations, but you can tell he's in a sappy mode because he'll be leaning his head on his hand and looking at you with that stupid dorky smile and he'll tell you out of the blue how much he loves you.

G - Game [How much do they play around, and are they a tease?]

He loves to play around, licking your cheek, poking your nose, eating your hair, doing all the stilly childish things that make you laugh even if its just an awkward laugh of weirdness, picking you up and carrying you around on his shoulder like his personal damsel in distress,

H - Happy [What's their favourite thing to do with you, that makes them happy?]

He loves having you on the back of his bike, He likes wrapping you up in all the gear and in his spare helmet he loves feeling your arms around him as you hold him close as he speeds his motorbike though London, going a little fast as you go around round about's going super fast on the duel carriage ways, taking you off to little unknown beauty spots for you to lean on the bike and cuddle.

I - Initiate [Do they make the first move?]

He will always make the first move, unless your in public then he always waits for you. He'll wrap his arm around you and give you a little kiss as you watch tv or cuddle up and have some kisses as you make dinner.

J - Jealousy [How jealous can they get and how do they show it?]

He'll glare. If he starts to get jealous He'll get very quiet and just glare at whoever it is talking with you, One day you where out to dinner with Dylan while he was visiting London for press and the two of you where just having a nice chat getting along really well and you could have sworn Dylan was about to burst into flames the way Thomas was glaring at him.

L - Love [How do they react to you giving them affection?]

He blushes and giggles a little when you give him affection and he'll always give you some back ,if you give his cheek a sweet kiss then he'll give you one back, if you give him a cuddle he'll cuddle you even tighter, he loves giving you affection and it always makes him smile and go all giggly

M - Married [What's it like to be married to them?]

its lovely, he's very kind and sweet as well as playful so it never gets dull or boring. Luckily he likes to ticker so he's a very handy husband doing household tasks like fixing the sink or building furniture, he's a perfect husband and you wouldn't change it for the world.

N - Newborn [How are they with having kids, and how would they be as a parent?]

he got so happy, he wanted to show the whole world your baby bump, he told every human being he possible could that you where pregnant and that he did it! he treats you like a princess anyway and when you where pregnant he treated you as if you where his queen, he held your hand every moment from the second you knew to the moment your baby was born. you where worried due to his work that he would end up being a bit absent from your children's lives but he always makes time for them, taking you all with him or even turning things down when he can't have the time with you, you and his children became the priority above everything on earth, and he spoils them a lot, but not enough that they become spoilt little rich kids they still learn to work and a good ethics, and still have to earn there pocket money even if Thomas spoils them around Christmas and there birthdays. And your children respect him, as the man of the house and as there father likely because of this odd wise father sat in an old chair with a facial hair and a cigarette look that he sort of developed when you had children, they love him and he loves them all very much too.

O - Outdoors [How are they with you in public?]

He likes to hold your hand, keep you close but not so much with kissing and such like probably because London is a very busy place and he doesn't like people seeing you kissing and cuddling,

P - Propose [How would they propose, and where would that be?]

He did it quiet classic, with the beautiful ring in a little red velvet box, getting down on his knee telling you how much he loves you, he made sure to make sure you did your make up and your hair and wear a nice dress even if it was hard to make you do so without letting out something was happening. He took you to your date spot in hyde park and tricked you into looking for an ice cream cart so he had time to get the ring and get down on one knee before you turned back.

Q - Quarrel [How are they after a fight, and will they try to make amends right after?]

if there is a fight between you even if it is very rare he goes and sits in his shed for a while on his little stool pondering with his tools until he knows he was a dick or he did wrong and he goes out on his bike and returns with a bottle of wine, the biggest box of your favourite chocolates and a nice bunch of flowers or perhaps a little cute potted plant and he'll apologize a thousand times until you smile again

R - Romantic [How much of a hopeless romantic are they, and how do they show it?]

He's romantic with gestures, buying you plants and plushies, making you a nice dinner, helping you with your favourite crafting, putting on your shows and such, he likes spoiling you with whatever you ask for even stuff you don't ask for.

S - Snuggles [Do they like to cuddle, and how do they do it?]

He is okay with a cuddle its just never completely cuddly as he doesn't like trapping you or making you feel claustrophobic, and he likes to be the little spoon a lot just rests his head on your shoulder or your chest an arm around your waist while he nuzzles up and tells you he loves you before bed time.  

T - Touchy [How touch starved are they, and would they show it?]

He doesn't show it as its kinda his default state being away from you for work so much and often when he is home being off with jack on the bikes or at auditions and such being touch starved is actually pretty normal for Thomas, but you can always tell when he's got it bad because he'll just hold you for... well until you move yourself.

U - Urchin [What's one negative trait about them that hurts you?]

He at times gets lost in what he's doing he tends to focus on one thing like if he's in his shed working on his bike he won't respond to messages, he won't do anything else unless you literally go to the shed and poke him, which can be great when you get him focused on something you want him to do, like cleaning the house, he won't stop of change focus until it's spotless but if he gets stuck on something like playing his video game he will not move until you force him or he gets bored.

V - Vibe [What energy do they give off when you're with them?]

Just pure joy. Whenever he's with you he feels like a child in love, giddy, excited and full of joy.

W- Wedding [What are they like at their wedding?]

teary, He could barely get thought seeing you before he completely  bursting into tears, Barely though the vows before getting teary. but its okay it was all tears of joy and you kissed away all his tears after the ceremony.

X - Xtreme [What lengths would they go to for you?]

he would do anything you asked, and he would often offer if you wanted something off him. He'll do his best to do what you ask even if at times he can't help it, like if your sad and you miss him when he's away working. He'll do his best to call you up or skype you for a while maybe flight you out to visit him if possible, but even if he can't due to time zones or anything he'll make it all up to you buy taking you out and spoiling you when he's home.

Y - Yogurt [What's their ideal place for a date?]

Thomas loves taking you on a nice motorbike ride to the seaside or the beautiful grounds and gardens of a nice house or Park, a little dinner in a small not to busy restaurant and an ice cream before heading home for a cuddle and a glass of wine.  

Z - Zipper [What clothes do they like seeing you in?] His, he can't help but go bright red and almost verbally awww at you when he sees you in his clothes. But he also loves when you dress up as he says himself its fun to dress up so you always have a day once a month or so where you get fully dressed up in heels a dress, and he gets on a full suit and you have your own little red carpet trip in his vintage car, to go and get pizza.

[cxhnow]

Chloe x Halle Talk Police Brutality and Postponing Their Album

“The way our music has evolved is exactly how we're evolving as young women.”

Four days before the release of their sophomore album, Ungodly Hour, Chloe x Halle addressed their fans to let them know they’re postponing it. In a video posted across their social channels, sisters Chloe, 21, and Halle Bailey, 20, sat shoulder to shoulder at their home in Los Angeles, surrounded by hovering green trees, and tried to sum up their range of emotions after witnessing a global uprising against police brutality.“In honor of all of the lives lost in police brutality, we felt like it was right to postpone, and fully shine our attention and our work on them,” Chloe said, with both a shake and clarity in her voice, in the video to the duo's 2.7 million followers. Halle added, “Music has been used for a long time to bring us joy and healing in difficult times like this.” Just weeks before, George Perry Floyd, a Black man living in Minneapolis, died in police custody while a white officer’s knee was pressed on his neck. As video of his killing spread, and after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, protests sparked around the world demanding accountability and allyship with the Black Lives Matter movement. On the day Chloe, Halle, and I spoke by phone, Tony McDade, a Black trans man in Tallahassee, Florida, was fatally shot by an officer. In Los Angeles, where the sisters live, protesters strung their bodies together to temporarily shut down the 101 freeway. In Atlanta, where they were born, six police officers were charged after being accused of using excessive force on two Black college students who were tased and pulled out of their cars days earlier.During a time when fans are more critical of how celebrities engage in civil rights activism, Grammy-nominated musicians and actors Chloe and Halle Bailey don’t tiptoe. They urge fans to sign petitions, donate, vote, and recognize Black life, early and often. They celebrate Black joy year-round. This is what their followers have grown to expect from them. Chloe and Halle have always had something to say, and it just so happens to be an important time to speak up.

It’s hard to wrap your head around the unbreakable confidence it takes to be a female pop artist if you aren’t one. Thankfully, Chloe and Halle have each other. For decades, the bond among members of Black singing girl groups has given audiences soulful and fun music. In the '90s, groups like SWV, En Vogue, and Zhané made upbeat R&B music that made you want to dance with your homegirls. Now, contemporary duos like KING, Van Jess, and Ibeyi stand out for their rapturous vocals enveloped in dramatic production. Chloe x Halle add to this legacy by singing, writing, and producing ethereal music that resonates with the girl next door.Yet there are distinct differences in the duo’s vocal style; they don’t try to match each other’s voices to create some sort of uniformity. Rather, they play off of rhythm and song pacing to meld their voices. When they do sing choruses and bridges together, their voices, albeit distinct, create layered, otherworldly melodies.The duo’s sound is often described as angelic, giving leeway for some to describe them as two women without sin. Chloe and Halle want to shatter this idea because it’s not realistic. “For Ungodly Hour we were so excited to just flip the narrative of being the perfect angel and show the other side[s] of us.…," says Halle. "The dark side, the naughty side, the things that happen that you don't see behind the scenes.” 

The majority of the 13 songs on the album are about navigating messy situations — sometimes ones that you have caused. In the midst of trying to be a better friend or romantic partner, you know that you’ll always be imperfect, and decide to love yourself anyway.“I've always been a jazz head," Halle says. “I don't know why, but there's something about the pain and the love and the heartbreak that you can truly feel through the essence of those songs that are sung by Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald.” As of late, Chloe’s “really, really been inspired by '90s music and early 2000s production,” a vibe you can hear and see in “Do It,” the second single off of Ungodly Hour.“We wanted to show our sensual side because we are growing as young women, but we still kept it classy and cute,” Chloe says. “It was just really fun for us to do that. We also wanted to start dancing this era, and just something really simple. And it makes us so happy to see everyone doing that dance on TikTok.”Chloe expands on how the name of the album and title track came about after working with the U.K. duo Disclosure: “We wrote this song [the title track “Ungodly Hour”] with Disclosure, and we had the best time,” she recalls. “I forgot what I was watching, but I heard the phrase ‘ungodly hour’ and wrote it in my notes. [It] kind of stuck out to all of us, and we were like, ‘What can you say with this?’ We all came up with this sentence: ‘Love me at the ungodly hour,’ which means love me when I'm at my worst; love me when I'm not all dolled up and made up. Love me when all my insecurities are out on the table.”’

“We started writing about when you're in a situationship with a guy and the chemistry is there, and you know the love is there and your connection is so deep, but he's not going all in," she continues. "For some reason he doesn't want to commit. He's entertaining other options, and it's just saying, ‘You know what? I love myself enough to walk away and put the brakes on this and to pause this. So when you decide you like yourself, when you decide you need someone, when you don't have to think about it — love me at the ungodly hour.’”Other emotionally complex tracks on the album include “Forgive Me,” a haunting song inspired by Chloe’s own life, after she discovered a guy she was involved with was going back and forth between her and another young woman. “I Wonder What She Thinks of Me” is a song that tells the story of the new love, the one a man gets with after he’s broken up with his ex.The vocalists are eager to make music that grows with them and becomes more layered as they do. “The way our music has evolved is exactly how we're evolving as young women,” Chloe says. The chromelike wings they turn around and show on their album cover, worn with black, latex dresses, are symbolic of their strength and power.When I ask what they hope for in the future, the Bailey sisters seem at ease. Chloe would love to work with BTS: “They're performing — it's top-notch. I'll sit at my computer and watch all of their music videos and all of their performances.”“Awards would be nice," she adds. "Being at the top of these Hot 100 lists would be beautiful and amazing, but as long as I'm growing and I'm a better version of myself tomorrow than I was today, I am content.”

The duo is used to releasing music during times of political duress. Two years ago, when Chloe x Halle were part of our music issue for the release of their debut album The Kids Are Alright, the world was grappling with an immigration travel ban enacted by President Donald Trump, the #MeToo movement, and pressing climate change legislation. That album was an intonation from the sisters to young activists approaching human rights issues head-on: “Do it while you young. Don't let them turn you numb. Don't let them get you strung. Ooh, let me put you on,” they sing on their first album's title song.“I was 15 through 17, and Chloe was 17 through 19 during the making of the album,” Halle says of their debut project. “We were still very young. We were still trying to figure out what we wanted, and I think that showed in the music.”As artists, the singers say their first album was about proving they could play an active, hands-on role in the production of their own music in an industry dominated by men. As two teenage women, it was about showing the world that, although they didn't have all the answers and weren’t sure what was lurking around every corner, they had the guts to find out. At that point in their careers they had been signed to Beyoncé’s Parkwood for five years and had released one other project, the Sugar Symphony EP, in 2016. But aside from opening tour performances and high-profile appearances, they hadn't become household names.

Now, amid a health pandemic and a country in unrest because of its history of white supremacy, Chloe and Halle are navigating being famous and also having a distinct voice. While finding ways to take care of themselves, the sisters are also promoting an album from their home, in the rooms where they first honed their craft as writers, instrumentalists, and producers. “We've kind of gotten back to our roots and started doing what originally got us started," Halle says, "which is doing YouTube covers, interacting on social media, and connecting with our beautiful fans through there.” A lot has changed in their personal lives as well. They're private about the details, but say they’re learning more about guys and finding themselves in relationships and situationships. They’re experiencing more love, heartbreak, and the misguided antics of boys. "We have to take our power back as women and not allow ourselves to be played,” Chloe riffs.In January, the third season of their Freeform show, grown-ish, dropped. In the college-centered comedy, led by Yara Shahidi, Chloe plays Jazz and Halle plays Sky, ambitious twin sisters who attend the fictional state school Cal U. Jazz is balancing being in love with her boyfriend Doug (played by Diggy Simmons) and schoolwork; Sky is focused on being a track star while navigating her interracial relationship. Like the sisters in real life, their characters are witty, impeccably stylish, and proud of their Blackness. But unlike Chloe and Halle, they’re far more overt about their love lives — often kissing in hallways and openly discussing their sex lives — and unfiltered opinions.Before stay-at-home orders went into place, Chloe and Halle had been expanding farther into Hollywood, and pursuing separate film projects.In July 2019, it was announced that Halle is set to play Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid. Many saw Halle’s breakout feature-film role as a huge win for inclusion, but, like clockwork, people on social media found an issue with the revamped iteration of Ariel being played by a Black woman. Halle spoke out on the discourse, telling Variety at the time, “I feel like I’m dreaming, and I’m just grateful. I don’t pay attention to the negativity. I just feel like this role is something bigger than me. It’s going to be beautiful.”

Halle remains grateful, but says of the negative criticism, “We've always learned to just keep our heads up no matter the situation. No matter what anybody has to say about you...just keep pushing.”

Like Halle, Chloe is also expanding her acting chops in feature projects. In December, Chloe wrapped filming for her role in the horror film The Georgetown Project, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Simpkins. “I'm really protective of my energy, I'm very spiritual, and I love God,” she says about the thriller. “So I was constantly praying when I was on set. But surprisingly, the energy on set was so positive. And I learned so much by being around all of these Oscar-winning actors.”

Humility is a running trait between the sisters. They don’t hide their confidence, but are also God-fearing and incredibly gracious. They’re media-trained and polite, but also find a way to be frank. They say this album is a “whole different world” for them as they reveal more of their personalities, while exploring what it means to be grown women.

“We are learning to embrace who we truly are,” Chloe says about their music evolution. “Our insecurities, our sexuality, owning our power. I'm grateful that we are given a space where we can do that comfortably. And I'm grateful for our parents, because they instilled in us that we need to be strong and independent young women.”

[theaurorfileshq]

C R O W   F A L C O N E R - Q U I N N  /  A U R O R   R E C R U I T

AGE: Twenty

BADGE NUMBER: U99F87

BLOODSTATUS: Halfblood

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Trans Man, He/Him

IDENTIFYING FEATURES: magical warding tattoos, tattoo of a Kestrel over his heart, tattoo of a cypress tree on his right side, tattoo of a door surrounded by ancient ruins on the left forearm, Two tarot cards on his right forearm (The devil and the tower reversed). Red sunglasses, so much fucking neon everywhere, a pink acid wash denim jacket covered in patches.

STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES:

(+):  Spiritual Medium, Divination, Winning Personality.

(-):   Combat Magic, Overly Emotional, Flawed Decision Making Skills.

BACKGROUND:

Crow comes into the world first. It speaks to his natural inclination to rush into things head first, damn the consequences. He’s followed closely by Kestrel. Cooler, calmer and collected. She sticks the landing a hell of a lot better than he does. They’re inseparable from their first moments alive, because of course they are. They’re like their father and Aunt Athena, attached at the hip, two parts of the same whole. Crow is pretty sure that they never would have survived without each other, but that’s just because they’ve always been together. Objectively, either of them would have been fine as individual entities. Cypress Crow and Hades Falconer-Quinn were good parents, after all. Loving, kind, patient. So damn protective that it hurt.

They had good reason to be protective of their children, their twins, their bundles of joy. Maybe it had been foolish of them, but they never expected their own gifts to be passed down to the next generation. Their talents descended on them in subtle ways. Kestrel always knew what her brother was thinking. Crow was seemingly normal until he woke up screaming about the ghost who lived in his bedroom. He feels bad for screaming, later. She was a nice ghost, after all. She just surprised him.

The worry on his father’s face is clear, when the ghosts begin playing up. As far as Crow can remember, he always had a careful childhood. Slightly more careful than Kestrel, who took that little thing called Legilimency in hand with an endless kind of grace. Crow had always been the more delicate of the two, the one who was coddled and minded and fretted over. Even Kes took a turn in it, mimicking the fretful behaviour of their fathers as children do. Crow has to be sheltered, taught how to cope with the very scary things that linger in the world, the voices and the specters that might make themselves known to him. Aunt Athena and Uncle Sol crafted wards for him, delicate spellwork that would keep the ghosts away, as much as they could. It dulled them to the quietest litany of lullaby whispers, voices drifting by on the wind that could be easily ignored. He overheard Cypress, one night, talking about how he didn’t want Crow to suffer through the same things he had in his life, haunted and sleepless and fraught.

The thing is, Crow was always kind of a wildcard. He wanted to run fast and take risks. He wanted to be the center of attention. He wanted to take risks. More often than not, he got himself and Kestrel into trouble. Crow spends far too much time focusing on the things he isn’t allowed to do, finding ways to bend the rules as far as they’ll go, figuring out how to break them as best he can. He has a wild heart, he can’t be penned up, he chafes under the weight of worry. The ghosts are so carefully kept away from him that he doesn’t even realise how bad things can be.

He plays around with rebellion, in his teenage years. He smokes a cigarette, and coughs his lungs out, and makes himself keep going because Alexander Hernandez  is there to slap him on the back and give him a warm smile. He does things at school that he knows he probably shouldn’t, pulls harmless pranks and spends way too much time on his phone. Aster and Kestrel share long suffering looks about him, but Becca thinks that he’s funny. Lots of people think he’s funny. And isn’t that the most important thing? People like him, they smile at him and they share in his jokes, even though sometimes he talks too loud or laughs for too long, even if sometimes they might be laughing at him more than laughing with him.

He becomes something like a nightmare of a child, melodramatic and moody and unlikely to listen to anything that his dad’s say. During the summer before school, he really does fall hopelessly in love with Alexander Hernandez –– he’s seventeen already, and he lives in the old house by the graveyard, which is problematic for reasons that Crow doesn’t even consider. He laughs when Crow tells him that he thinks his house might be haunted, and kisses him until he doesn’t care enough to listen to any restless spirits with their whisper quiet voices. Looking back on it later, Crow will know that Alexander wasn’t a very good boyfriend. That he was thoughtless, and pushed too hard, and in the end left Crow feeling empty inside. At the time, it seemed like the end of the world when Alexander broke up with him the night before they went back to school. It left him heartbroken, tender around the edges, and he’d run away to Marleigh’s house to cry about it.

Sixth year feels like the time when a lot of things fall apart. Something about him feels caged and caught and stifled, when he gets to school that year. It makes him want to run too fast and take too many risks, it makes him want to push the boundaries and break the rules. His dads put up careful wards around him all the time, but Crow is foolish, and he’s pretty sure that they’re useless. It’s his own responsibility to keep them up as best he can, while he’s at school. He really doesn’t think anything bad will happen if he lets them drop. Of course, nothing but bad things can happen. Ilvermorny is full of ghosts, he realises. More than he knew. Not the blatant one’s, but the kind that linger in dark corners. The ghosts from the Hernandez house follow Alexander and his brothers around the school. Their mother and eldest sister. It seems like there are more ghosts than real people, sometimes, and it leaves him raw and scared and strained, stretched too thin about everything he has to know now.

His mind is an open door, and the bad things have a way in now. He’s too scared to tell anyone that he messed up. That he can’t build the wards back up from scratch. That he underestimated what Cypress meant, when he said these things could break you. He almost tells Becca, but she’s got her own issues. Her and Aster explode in some kind of drama, and it rips their little group asunder, leaving him feeling stranded without a raft for a moment. He almost tells Kestrel, but she’d tell their dads, and Crow feels stupid enough already for getting himself in this mess. He pulls away instead, retreats a little, and goes back to talking too loud and laughing too hard. His grades plummet, and he doesn’t sleep, but he tries to keep up the act as best he can.

Crow forces himself through packs of cigarettes, and finds that they really do help with the nerves. He goes to a secret party, held by one of the seventh year students, and takes an offered drink, and finds that that helps even more. Kissing boys quiets him down, inside, makes it quiet for just a moment. It’s a vicious cycle that he lets himself get lost in, a mask he slips on even when the hopelessness throbs up inside of his chest. He smiles his smile and most people don’t notice when it’s strained. It falls to Kestrel to worry, in the absence of everyone else. That look on her face like she wants to make him behave himself, like she knows he’s falling apart, like she wants to worry at his edges until they grow less sharp and he can stop cutting himself on them.

He isn’t proud of the way he pushes her away. Of the way he runs from the problem. It’s easier to get lost. Easier to make himself something else. Easier to feel like things will never get better. Crow knows that honesty would have ended it sooner, knows that Kes can feel every hopeless spark of fear and panic and pain inside his chest. In the end, enough is enough for her, and she does tell their parents what’s going on.

They pull him out of school, and he spends days curled up with his head on Hades’ lap, avoiding Cypress eyes. He feels like a failure, like he’s thrown all of their protection back in their faces. As much as he’s chafed under their care, his parents have always been his heroes. He lets Cypress hold him close and shoo away the ghosts, and takes comfort in the warm embrace he always loved as a child. It’s slow work, rebuilding the walls that had taken years before, tidying everything away as best they can. Cypress kisses him on the forehead, and helps him get back on his feet, and takes him to get the same magical warding tattooed on his skin as he has himself. He laughs, when Crow asks him if he can get a normal tattoo as well, and it’s a thrilling return to form for both of them.

He goes back to school, gets back on his feet, and carries on with his life. He learns to control everything as best he can, with his new wards and his new understanding of how dangerous things can be. He learns the art of things, dedicates himself to understanding the universe, and thinks a lot about his dads. They’re still his heroes. They’re a lot of people’s heroes, when he looks at it closer. Neither of them are active aurors anymore, out in the field. But Hades teaches at the Salem academy, and he’s old enough now that he can get Cypress to tell him stories. He’s seventeen when he decides he wants to be an auror, a little bit because of them, a little bit because that’s what Becca is doing, and he doesn’t know how to exist on his own. Mostly, he wants to help people. He doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur, doesn’t think he’ll be the smartest or the best. But he knows that someone like him can change the world, if they do it right.

He follows Becca to New Orleans, like a shadow she can’t shake off. He parties too hard, and works harder at the academy. Sometimes, he introduces himself, and people talk about his dads. Falconer-Quinn? Like the one that solved the Pelican Island Killer case? He always has to laugh that off, but sometimes it feels like a legacy that’s too heavy on his shoulders. This career runs in his blood. He knows that Becca must feel the same. That Aster must, off at Salem, sporadically replying to the letters he tries to write to her. The Crow Falconer-Quinn brand solidifies more as he moves through the academy, and he gets better at being something bright and beautiful, eye catching and far too often glitter stained. Embarrassingly, he sleeps with too many of his classmates, and gets his heart broken a few times more. He still drinks too much, but that doesn’t matter, because for the moment it feels like him and Becca against the world.

He must do something right at the Academy, because just a couple of weeks after graduation he gets the offer from MACUSA. Central Squad. Just like his dad’s. He’s proud, and a little scared, and devastated for the time that he’ll be apart from Becca after all these years. He wants to do a good job, but he feels high strung and strange when he starts in June. Crow imagined that working under Aunt Cassie would be fun, but it leaves him feeling stifled and fifteen again, and she clearly worries too much about him to put him in harm’s way. She throws him lowball cases, and freaks the fuck out when one ends up being more intense than anybody could have realised. It’s your run of the mill cursed object case, telekit covers that someone fucked with for the hell of it. Officer Micheals is a pro when it comes to curses, an up and comer on the squad. It’s not his fault that he ends up at Calderon Memorial Hospital, minutes after he manages to bring their bad guy in. Not his fault that Micheals practically got blown up in front of him, leaves him wide eyed and shaking and scared.

Aunt Cassie, of course, has to find something to do with him. She tells him that he’s good, of course he is, but she can’t stomach making him do anything like that again. The transfer to Pacific Squad comes a couple of weeks later, and they make it clear that it isn’t a punishment. So he does what Crow Falconer-Quinn does best, and tucks all the damage away. He covers it up with the glitter, and the bright colours of his clothes, the smiling and the jokes. He drinks himself into oblivion a little more, and tells all his friends on Pacific Squad that they’ll have to get used to the idea of coping with his presence when he starts there.

[space-blue]

The Sights

Sorry, this is pretty full of forum inside jokes and references to stories I've not chosen to re-publish here.

Imagine losing it all. One by one or two by fours - everything, gone. For Sullyman, it was first his mother, then his home and peace in the land. Finally his father and sister, his friends, all dead, taking hope and joy with them.

It's a past in ashes and a future of smoke that drove Sullyman to the recesses of his world. Through rampant, hungry war consuming all in its reach and harming well beyond it, to places so quiet and forgotten they slowly rotted back into the earth; for years he prowled on the cold trail of the Ceu'ki Save Shamans.

An elusive tribe of people, they were said to command immense power and welcome in their rank anyone who could both find them, and survive their initiation ritual.

It does things to a man, to live with his back to the wall. It changes him. Sullyman had found the Shamans two weeks ago, and as the chants droned around him he refused to remember. Refused to see how different he was from the man who had once set out on his quest.

How alien to the one who had once had a family.

It was a new man - a ghost - who dipped his lips in the thick white liquid of the drug that was passed around the circle of initiates. A man with no purpose beyond the determination to survive this. Then, maybe, would come a time for plans. A time for a future of fire, alight.

"Relax, son." It was the voice of Shaman Sidovar.

Sullyman turned an already groggy head towards his elder, who was settling by his side, falling on crossed legs, his limbs disappearing in the seemingly infinite folds of his tunic.

"Accept what you will see. Do not fight it, Sullyman. I know you have the greatest potential."

"That would be... because I have no.. nothing... to cling to," he answered, drooling in his effort to pierce the smog that was swallowing him.

He fell in it, in himself.

Every thing  s l   o    w      e         d

a n d c r u m

p

l

e d

.

..   ...

              it took

time

–       ages

for it to

finally

make sense

- again.

Sound clashed in great streaks of amber, darkness dilated, danced, exploded. Light came through, unseen, wrapping around huge, tan pillars. Mounds of flesh crashing around. Their beats, irregular vibrate, a heartbeat violent, crafting and shaking him.

Sullyman listens, hovering, he has no body, but he will sense, and saw. Above him –

An eye?

No, as he focuses himself to the task, he could tell :

Two eyes. And a smile, broad like the world, peering down on him with the might of a God. A face, infinite, as wide as his mind can think.

The beats throb and he sees behind his back, where the future always hides, the possibles. He feels under his feet the threads on which he steps, balanced on the web of many paths.

There, a man going through dust and rubble, a long coat flapping in his wake, a monstrous weapon in his hand, glistening obscenely under the dying sun of a dying land.

Elsewhere, girls walking foggy nights, running from themselves, walking through portals in search of truths to save. Endless nights of stars where aliens drifted and humans, an anecdote, disappeared. Views of lands impossible, flown over in the smooth gliding of a serpentine body. Earth seen from under, the sky a field of flames, the song of birds the screeches of the damned.

He could taste it on his tongue, a jumble of voices all belonging to others. He could chew out their lines, spite out the thoughts given them. Remember the curses they knew, the magic they felt, the feelings pasted to their back for all to see.

Under his foot he steps on the thread that is his - country, land, planet. Timeline. He knows now how it will burn, how Others will come and enslave his children to save them. It's in the same piece of paper, the same roll of destiny. Star crossed lovers of different species will arise then, after him even though they existed long before he was born, they will heal the world he would singe.

And Sullyman understood. It all made sense, his place in his world clear and imbued with meaning, every block falling into place at the beat of the pillars of flesh, the fingers of Fate.

He screamed, high and piercing, emotions burning him from inside out.

A shrill sound pierced the fog : Sullyman's own cries woke him back to reality. His reality.

Hands were pinning him down, eight of them for the four heads that peered over him, their expressions ranging from anxiety to satisfaction.

"He's back."

"He survived the Sights."

"I will go to Sha'Mera, she will be glad. Prepare him."

Sullyman silenced his yells, his anguish brought to a smouldering panic. He was pulled upright and ministered to. Shaman Sidovar crouched before him. The man looked exhausted. Behind him in the shadows of the lamps lay a row of still bodies. At Sullyman's frown the old shaman turned to look past his shoulder and sighed.

"Yes. You're the only one of the initiates who made it, Sullyman." A weary smile split on his face. "Or should I say, Sha'Sullyman."

Before he could protest, a woman entered the room, robes billowing. All the shamans spread out, settling in a ring around him. The Elder woman, Sha'Mera, opened her palms, spreading her arms.

"Speak up, Sha'Sullyman. Your words froth at your mouth."

"Why?" He barked. "Why would you pay such a price to obtain your powers? No magic can be worth the horrors I felt." It was all he could do not to choke on his words.

"Search inside you child," the elder said, "can you feel the power you say you grasped?"

Sullyman looked in him for the surge he'd felt, the hum of power that had contained him like skin. "No... Nothing... The magic, it's gone?!"

"There never were any magic. What you felt was Knowledge. What you saw was the Truth."

Tears welled up and poured, unstoppable. He knew it. He couldn't even deny it.

"The power we wield is the power of awareness," Sha'Mera went on. "One cannot push at one's bonds if one isn't even aware of their existence."

"My family," Sullyman said in a broken voice. His rage burst through him, pushing at the seams of his good manners. He balled his fists and pressed them hard into the stone floor. "They never even existed, did they? None of this is real. Why was I even written into existence?"

"Child, they exist in you, and through the many eyes that will give you life. What you experienced was the First Sight. You saw the Writer, the one who gives us flesh and purpose, and from which we draw our powers to bend the world. But many other Sights exist, they come from the Readers, and all will give a different flavor to your flesh and your past."

Like that would be reassuring? Sullyman shuddered. What had he done? Why seek such cursed power? He had wanted to understand Why - why his family had had to die, what wheels brought about the cycles of war and death, that tore lives apart. He had wanted the power to change things, to save others from turning into the wraith he'd become.

Now he knew Why - his perverted Writer had decided to give him a miserable past, to bring him to a terrible future. No reasons for it beyond, what? entertainment for Readers? Attention seeking?

Who could gorge themselves on the miseries of others? Who could watch a world burn and move on to other timelines, other worlds, always yearning for more?

"I don't want to be a part of this..."

"You cannot refuse it. The hand that wields you will give you the power to realise your destiny. You cannot escape the Writer. What future did you see for yourself, Sha'Sullyman?"

Tears still ran along his cheeks as Sullyman met Sha'Mera's eyes. Hers were full of sorrow and hope, the conflicting emotions warping her face. He was to be the last Shaman born to this Age. She knew his task would be grand, and she feared what it would be. He'd known what he was getting himself into before he drank from their cup, before he risked seeing the Sights. But now Sullyman wasn't even sure it had been his own choice.

He cursed me under his breath.

"I will have this world burn. Destroying this planet will bring about its salvation."

He choked, crying for his family, for the millions that he knew would now die at his hands. The whole world would be brought to the brink of death for the future to unfold.

"It has already been written. It was already posted."

~~ January 2016 – Theme : Breaking the fourth wall

[deivorous]

aesthetics for the entities.   bold what applies to your muse, italics what applies situationally or only in certain verses. this is based on a horror podcast;  potentially triggering and / or upsetting content ahead!

i.  the buried.   weighed blankets.  drowning.   the comfort of a loved one’s weight.  soil and sand piling on top of you.  hugging so hard it hurts a little.  cramped hiding spots.  letting out air underwater to sink to the bottom of the pool.  walls pressing in on you.  not moving from a position even though you’re cramping a little.  dragging the last second before you have to inhale.  lonely subways.  feeling like one with the earth.  a layer of dirt on you.   looking for something below.  cardboard boxes and tiny pillow forts.   hands calloused from digging. knowing that your purpose is just below the surface.  entering your final resting place before it kills you.  a storm drowning you out.  dust and sand speaking to you.

ii.  the corruption.   insects. a close imitation of the natural course of life.  an illness in a community.  a rag that dirties more than it cleans.  an untreated wound.  containment.  breaching containment.  unbreathable air.  fungi. one with that you love.  one with what loves you.  a corpse unfit for a glass case.  hearing a song in the sound of tiny wings and legs.   honeycomb patterns.  an ecosystem within a person.  a curse passed on.   the hubris of a scientist.  an ugly death where a glorious one is owed. blood on a handkerchief.  parasites.  something pushing up the sewer.  a mask to keep something out.  trypophobia.  knowing you belong.  death weeks after impact.  fever.  food that’s gone off.  pandora’s box.   death behind a glass.

iii.  the dark.   shadows. lights that turn off by themselves.  the feel of cold marble.  a beaked creature in the night.  the difference between seeing darkness and seeing nothing.  touch of something you can’t see.  hiding under a blanket.  white, clouded eyes.  months without going outside during sunlight.  pouring dark.  unscrewing lightbulbs.  black matter.  light sensitivity.  a starless night.  time before light was created.  a shadow on the wall without a body to attach to.  withering plants.  a world without a sun.  footfalls in an empty house in the night.  a light that doesn’t reach as far as it should.  desperate reach for a flashlight.  clothes that hide your shape.  staying unperceivable.   winter months in the north.  an empty church.

iv.  the desolation.  senseless pain.  warmth of faith.  wax where skin should be.  a blazing fire.  heat without a source.  the third or fourth tragedy in the family.  losing everything you’ve ever held dear.  so much to live for, gone so soon.  the smell of gasoline.  touch that scars.  coffee cup that never goes cold.  scorch marks on wood.  inescapably warm air. a child born in fire.  death of a loved one.  a candle without a flame.  an altar in the middle of the woods.  animals with burnt fur.   plastic explosives.  burning hot metal.  sweating in an interrogation room.  never touching a loved one.  disfigurement.  a kiss that ruins you.  the scent of burning fat.  a tattoo that terrifies its viewer.   the agony of hellfire displayed as art.  auburn hair.  little clothing in cold weather.  a ripple in the air.  trying to cool down in vain.

v.  the flesh.  body horror.  factories.  a hunger for something more filling.  never quite happy with how you look.  the terror of an animal waiting for slaughter.  a very good meal.  the liquid of a perfect steak.  fighting your worst survival instincts.  a twisted bone.  long nights working out.  more than one heart.  appearance that shapes like clay.  a bag of bones.  bone broth in a pot.  knowing to fear pigs.  the butcher’s shop.  plastic surgery.  something alien inside your body.  a hunger in the gaze laid upon you.  unwitting cannibalism.  forgetting what you used to look like.  being admired for your appearance and appearance only.  teeth marks on skin.  scars from wounds that should’ve killed you.  cooking in scarcity.  fenced in with one way to go.

vi.  the end.  the last page of a book.  nightmares that don’t feel like nightmares. a skeletal hand.  the grip of the grim reaper around your throat.   existential pain.  ivory dice.  flatlining in a hospital.  gambling with death.  as old as the universe.  soul and spirit tied to an object.  a dream where you die.  closing your eyes for the last time.   the plead of a dying one.  knowing the fate of someone you know and being unable to prevent it.  a thousand cords tugging you towards your end.  skin that’s freezing to the touch.  an act of desperation.   someone’s life for yours.  an eternity spent alive.  the cost of your selfishness.  watching your own burial.  causing your own burial.  the smell of death.  numbness to fear.  words from someone gone.   meaninglessness of the actions or lives of single people in the universe.  multiple near-death experiences you refuse to die from.

vii.  the eye.  googling something you shouldn’t have.  eureka moments.  the unforgiving lens of a camera.  witness reports.  hidden libraries.  eyes of different colours.  feeling of being watched.  a death recorded in tape.  a tragedy you can’t look away from.  endangering yourself for knowledge.  truth.  analog records.  a symbol of an eye.  a watch tower.  compulsion to document.  turning on recording devices without thinking about it.  saving the evidence before the person.  extracting information.  truth or dare, without the dare.  a thirst for knowledge. books that speak to you.  coordinated shelves.  cataloguing systems.   voyerism.  police report you can’t put down.  reasoning your way out.   smell of old papers.  books that read you back.

viii.  THE HUNT. -  sharp canines. sore calves after a run. the scent of blood. an adventure for the journey’s sake.  the adrenaline right before the kill.   a whistle’s echo.   the woods.   the doe eyes of a prey animal.  your own breath in the air.   sharpened claws.   being tracked.   fear of someone knowing your every movement. hunting down monsters.   hide and seek.  running away only to end up where you started.   staying alive purely because the enemy enjoys seeing you run.  a set of footsteps behind you.   blood dripping from bare hands.   barks and growls.   focused eyes.   a victim going limp under your hands.   a mouth full of fresh blood.   catching the scent of something monstrous.  perfecting your craft. peering into the dark and running after it.

ix.  THE LONELY.   -  an apartment too small for a double bed.  completely vacant streets.   waking up to see everyone gone.   fog. point nemo. a house too big to hear your family members in.   alone in a faceless crowd.   a mask with nothing behind it.   separated cubicles. a deafening silence where joy should be.   a blinding spotlight. the least missed in your friend group.   streets without lights in the windows.   isolation.   not truly knowing your friends.   your friends not truly knowing you.   need for silence.   fear of crowds.   staring into space knowing nothing is looking back at you.  a ship alone at sea.   depression.   knowing your friends are better off without you.   talking to someone only to realize they’re gone.   a family too large to notice you there.  safety in being alone.

x.  THE SLAUGHTER.  -  a game of tag. senseless violence.    a true crime hobby.   improvised weapons.   blinding rage.   intent to kill.   a horrific day in a quiet community.  a medal of bravery.   holding on to what validates your anger.   history books that spare no details.   an injury you want revenge for.   war.   counting kills.   songs of soldiers.   a knifeblock on the counter.  a pool of blood.  shellshock.   unspeakable horrors.  anger pushing you forward.  unimaginable pain. not seeing who will hurt you but knowing the pain is coming. a fully human monster. an authority sending its lessers to their deaths.   kill or be killed.   unedited wartime memoirs.   a weapons collection.   not knowing the names of who you kill.  too many to remember.   loss of hope.   there’s no heroes in war.

xi.  THE SPIRAL.   -  sleep deprivation.   corridors you can get lost in.   maze puzzles that loop back on themselves.   losing possessions.   losing people.   losing your sanity.   corkscrew curls.   rows of funhouse mirrors.  optical illusions. a separate reality. walking through the wrong door.   delusions.   not knowing what your hands are doing.   blank spaces in documents. hallucinations. wrong proportions.  a nameless thing.   a place that has never existed. doubting your own mind.   blind faith.  losing track of names, labels, categories.   distorted sound.   an imperfection in a glass that twists the view.   loss of time.   a garish colour.  doors that open to nowhere.  lies.   an unnatural laugh.   jokes and tricks.   illusions.   a doorway.  a sculptor with a wild imagination.   limbs in impossible angles.   doing what’s fun, not what’s sensible. fractals you can get lost in.

xii.  THE STRANGER.   -  wax figures.   a close approximation of a human face.   a borrowed appearance.   a strange smell.   glass eyes.  furs and pelts.   a dance.   a song of a choir.   the uncanny valley.   stitching yourself together.   the colours of a circus.   a puppet with no strings.   mannequins.   glitter and sequin.   a stranger you’ve always known.   someone strange in the place of someone you knew.   stolen identities.   stolen skins.  a machine imitating humanity.   the anonymity of a service worker.   hiding in plain sight.   uncomfortable to look at.   a faked accent.  concealing. forgetting who you are.   forgetting who others are.   a replacement no one notices.   images that look posed.   the only one seeing the false face of someone.

xiii.  THE VAST.   -  open spaces.   carnival rides going up and down.   fear of heights.  endless infinity around you.  your insignificance in an universe.  stomach turning at a drop.   fear of not the crash down but the moment you slip.   the sway of a cable car.   an adventure holiday.   losing track of where the surface is.   miles and miles of nothing around you.   staring at the sky and feeling like you may fall into it.   loss of control.   a fall that doesn’t end in death.   glass floor to the view below.   terminal velocity.   the sound of wind in your ears.  a reach over the railing.   a jump from the top of the building.   falling into nothing. feeling your feet let go of the ground.   a leap of faith.   motion sickness.

xiv.  THE WEB.  -  undecipherable code.   a puppeteer holding the strings.   power over the weak-willed.   strings of fate.   manipulation.   an arranged accident.   a hundred minions doing your bidding.   cobwebs.   spiders.  a laid trap.   never voicing discomfort.   outwitting a cheater.   doing things without realizing it.  red string across a corkboard.   finding something lost where you were sure you checked.   power over the unreliability of chance.   watching others dance for you.   an entangled death.   a thousand tiny legs and fangs.  shady forum threads.  something important gone missing.   suspiciously disregarded case.  a missing witness.   connections.   the world wide web.   power of victimhood.  gullibility.   no control over your own decisions.   an invisible leash.   mass psychology.   a horror film in the making.   scapegoat.   never remembering to ask for a name.

+  THE EXTINCTION.   - the end of an era.  apocalypse movies.  the alarms of warning systems.   a desolate landscape.   end of the world cults.   nihilism.   the last written history.   a changed world.   no survivours.  old prophecies.   a thousand predicted ends.   a new chapter.   an end with no escape.   catastrophes.   a calendar counting down.   breaking point.   overindulgence.

Stolen! from: @paismurcielago​ Tagging: Its free real estate

[seokjins]

I’m not the original anon but I loved reading that so much, please do their strengths! It’s really interesting to hear about this stuff from people who know what they’re talking about

I’m a different anon but I’d be interested in reading what you think their strengths are if you feel like sharing. 

AAAAA wow thank you so much !!! i will try to do my best, but it’s very hard to talk about this kind of stuff because, as i mentioned in my first post, i’m not there for the rehearsal process. 

this affects my ability to talk about their strengths bc im not able to see them build a piece from the ground up. one of the things i admire the most + dancers hold to high regard is the ability to pick up choreography, how fast they can adapt to the style, and how quickly they reach a performance-ready image. additionally there’s rehearsal attitudes, how focused one can be, and how willing a dancer is to accept corrections + self correct + work w the choreographer 

this said .. !

jin

his work ethic. it’s no secret that even from AHL and pre-debut days, jin has always been one of the hardest workers in terms of his dancing ability compared to the other members. to come from a NON DANCING background for the majority of his life (it gets harder to start picking things up the older you get due to habits and posture that ur body becomes used to) and to be able to pull off any single one of bts’ dances WITHOUT standing out and looking like a true professional is something that i greatly admire. with all my dance experience, albeit in ballet, i can’t dance the way he did in NMD even now. many many many idols and dancers will never reach his level of proficiency/energy/attitude in that piece as well. 

currently i would say his greatest strength is probably his upper body movement. the only other member that rivals his loose flow is hoseok (re: mic drop dance break w the body rolls), as well as his incredible ballon. he has this ability to seem suspended when he’s doing certain dances �� !!! 

he also has incredible stamina. he is stable when he sings and dances, and often isn’t pitchy or sounding super out of breath. compared to 99% of the population, this is a talent and skill that many don’t have LOL this can only come from his natural altheticism and his work ethic due to hours and hours of practice ! he also always appears at ease when he dances (unless the song is an “edgy” or “angry” song), which is difficult to accomplish TT 

yoongi

his strength as an overall dancer! he’s not just a one-trick pony. he doesn’t have any tricks (except for the recent double endehans that we saw in tokyo “so what”??????omg) but he excels in every single bts dance . there is always a point/move that he does better than his members. for a non dancer, he has such innate ability to move and feel the music, something that is rare for people just breaking into the dancing scene like he was pre-debut.

his footwork in dope is unparalleled. his stylistic choices in fake love r so fitting and unique and fjalsdhgalkhg i can’t praise him enough for opening himself up mentally (because dance is also greatly taxing on ur BRAIN) and getting to a place where it seems judgement has decreased on his OG dance abilities. this allows him more freedom in molding to new pieces and making sure he excels in them !!!!! 

namjoon

wowowowowow namjoon also has unbelievable work ethic. i cannot imagine have a stiff, non-dancer’s body (pre-debut) shape itself into the Dancing Machine it is now. there are people who are born to dance, have movement sewn into their bones, but namjoon wasn’t given all of that and yet he continued to work until he found his own rhythm. 

YES he is tall, and YES that means he has to move his body faster than everyone else in order to stay on the music, and YES that means when the group cleans a piece he has to bend lower than the others just to be on their same level – a task that can build exhaustion when it’s done over and over the course of a song – but YES he manages to pull it off EVERY TIME. 

i cannot believe the amount of growth i’ve seen from him in all different styles. i could never imagine the hard hitting NMD dancer being able to do spring day or, an even better example, FAKE LOVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is light in the chorus section (so less resistance compared to JM or JK) but then he contrasts that immediately after w bound-flow, showing innate understanding that dance cannot all be one energy level; you need to have contrast in order to give impact to important parts & keep the audience engaged. otherwise if U attack a piece w the same energy the whole time, it will actually end up looking flat and boring, like all the movements are the same since they will read the same way to the crowd 

hoseok

i cannot cannot cannot talk about hoseok enough. for me his greatest strength is his performance quality. ignoring everything else he does so well, i’m gonna cut straight to the chase and say he’s the best dance performer in bts. when he dances – between rehearsal and the stage – there is a clear difference; he’s engaged in both, but there’s a level of freedom that he allows himself which demonstrates his connection to the audience. 

he’s very focused on what he looks like in the mirror during practice, but like all great performers, he throws the mindset of “fix technique fix technique fix technique” away once there is an audience and actively invites them to join in on his joy. he has pure passion in his heart for his craft, and it’s never been more clear. the love he has for his art is breathtaking. his fearlessness in switching styles; he’s an absolute chameleon. from spring day to NMD to seo taiji, i’ve never seen him falter before, and all topped off w the most electric connection to the crowd 

like WOW is that breathtaking. being confident in choreography is one thing, but going above and beyond by pushing himself to be in performance mode (a whole beast and a half on its own) as much as possible requires more space within himself that i’m lacking from the other members. YES he is an idol, and he is very aware of this business of tricks, but he never forgets that dance speaks it own language, that it has its own rules, that it possesses his body and governs his movements the minute he sets foot on that stage. i can’t even explain the sheer talent thats in him when it comes to this aspect 

jimin

oh jimin TT his greatest strength is style. i know i talk a lot about how he doesn’t let go enough of it to really excel in all sorts of genres, but what he’s built from a background in classical-esque styles is incredibly admirable. i’m not sure i would be able to do what he did, coming off of 14 yrs of ballet and not much else. to establish himself pre-debut/debut as a member of dance line in a COMPLETELY different style is so unbelievable to me. he knows his body and he knows how to push his body to get the results he wants

i mean . obviously bts are overworking themselves but to have the mental strength to push thru and continuously crank out all these different pieces w a touch that’s uniquely Jimin™ is smth you can’t deny !!! homeboy knows what lines look good on him, and he adapts the choreography to best suit his body 

he also is a great camera fiend. this is more of an industry dancer situation (since great dancers ≠ industry dancers) where his idol status comes into play, but there is a good reason why his fancams get so many views on music shows ! he knows what the camera wants ! he knows how to be sexy ! he knows how to change his image ! he knows how to work with what he’s given and make a whole new meal out of that and its just ! wow ! fuckn yum ! 

taehyung

ok so let’s talk tae’s upper body. let’s talk . tae’s upper body .

he has such control and awareness over his movements, especially his body rolls. he knows how to make his torso fluid, which is something a lot of the members actively struggle with today. he has such ?? nuanced articulation thru his chest that is typically absent from male dancers , so it’s always a treat to watch him perform 

additionally he has great confidence and performance aura. as u can tell from singularity or stigma stages, he also (like jimin) knows how to work a camera well. but this also translates to his dancing. while he can’t catch all the footwork that others may, he understands that facials and his upper body will make up for the deficit. 

i’ve said this before but if you want to see how good of a technician a dancer is, you look at their legs and feet. if you want to see how good of a performer they are, you look at their upper body (arms too) . he knows how to make an impact w the way he moves & it’s so clear in the division of his energy thru his body (more towards his chest since) so ! 

jungkook

for me JK’s strength is how solid he is as a dancer. while he doesn’t excel at a particular style or have a Thing™ which sets him apart from the group, he does exactly what he’s given and he does it well. he works hard. he’s undeniably clean. there’s never a moment where his limbs are flopping around for no reason, and his energy is always portioned exactly where it needs to be. this innate cleanness and confidence in his ability is what allows him to move quickly and look like it’s not costing him much energy 

he also has incredible stamina TT i can’t even begin to explain ???begin????him singing it live???WITH THAT FOOTWORK?????? god 

his footwork is so strong. i would argue the strongest in bts ... the speed and the sharpness of what i’ve seen him do . while singing. is unbelievable. he is able to keep his wits about himself when the choreography is fast shows just how relaxed he is when he dances. he doesn’t feel the need to rush because he knows he’s just . gonna do everything right LOL (at least that’s the impression i’m getting)

again it’s just so hard to say what his tru strength it without seeing him in rehearsal. this is becoz the level of dancing ability in bts is so high already TT so the basis of my comments are a little redundant since i’m comparing members to members instead of members to regular people lmaoo

[emmetohboy]

Favorites: The 2020 Conundrum

Illustration credit: Orkenoy

I’ve heard it from numerous colleagues, friends and family members. The sentiment along the lines of "...can't end soon enough." or " Worst year ever." I don't disagree. Along with virtually everyone I know, this year has meant personal loss, crippling angst and the missing of loved ones. But do I wish 2020 had not happened? Along with the uncertainty and hardship, would I wish away everything else that the years has brought? I don't know.

I'm not one to pontificate what the pandemic has taught us or accelerated or revealed. But I am interested in drawing it as a frame around the creative work that was generated in the context of it. At the close of 2016 I hoped that the lemon of the new political environment might bare the lemonade of generational creative output. That may or may not have been the case. We’ll have to wait longer to assess that from a more objective distance. But the last 10 months have been a concentrated, intensely focused, if not simply harrowing time. Has the pressure been so intense, in such a short period, that we graduated from lemonade to forging cultural carbon into diamonds at an unprecedented speed? Are these gems be so luminous, that they will one day be viewed as heirlooms? Was the pain of 2020 worth its blessings?

Listen

Released right at the onset of quarantine was my absolute favorite record of 2020. Waxahatchie's St.Cloud is a stunner first track to last. Some hook you instantly ("Can't Do Much"), and others slowly worm their way into your soul ("Witches"). Several year-end best lists included the latest from Lucinda Williams, Katie Crutchfield's musical hero. I disagree with its inclusion, finding the tracks a little flimsy and familiar.  Katie's St. Cloud, however, is as close to prime Lucinda as anyone has gotten in quite some time.

Termed "Hip-Hop's first pandemic masterpiece by Exclaim magazine, Oddisee's Odd Cure brought a lot of joy this year. A tidy mix of R&B tinged hip-hop intertwined with calls to friends and family, the record has broad appeal and a narrative that only 2020 could supply.

The Remote Tiny Desk concert Oddisee performed with his band, mostly present, is fantastic.

Every year I can count on being introduced to one or two new artist via the New Music Mix that Apple Music serves me every Friday. This year I was pulled in to the track "Safe in Sound" by Orlando Weeks. I dropped it into a growing playlist that I have for background music while working. Each time it came up on shuffle it begged to be replayed. Eventually I tapped the entire record and googled Mr. Weeks. He is not a new artist to me at all. The former frontman for the U.K. band the Maccabees had ventured into a solo career. And it is so strikingly different from the Maccabees record I love, 2007's Colour it In, that it is no surprise I didn't recognize him. Weeks’ A Quickening is transformative and almost spiritual at times. He contemplates fatherhood ("Milk Breath") and community ("St. Thomas") and an aging seafarer’s relation to the elements that surround him ("Moon Opera"), in such ways that the record works in prioritizing what is important during difficult, if not odd times. 

I came late to Natalie LaFourcade and I’m a little angry at ignorantly depriving myself of this joyful talent for so long. She is a prolific dynamo. 2020 brought Un Canto por Mexico Vol.1. And so as the tile suggest, there will be another volume on its heels. Natalia had similarly released the wonderful Musas as two volumes spread over 2017-18. These three records along with 2015's Hasta la Raiz have supplanted the Trio Los Panchos records I played for cooking  accompaniment.

One of the most creative and infectious records I heard all year was Buscabulla's Regresa. The husband and wife outfit returned from New York to their native Puerto Rico following the tragedy of hurricane Maria. The environment made for joyful and melancholic results musically.

Buscabulla’s remote performance for NPRs Tiny Desk, from the back of their car at the beach in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico makes me smile the entire 13 minutes. Here’s to the resourcefulness of creativity.

I've been a fan of White Denim for some time. They are also quite prolific, generating new records almost yearly since 2009. So who could have blamed them after releasing Side Effects in 2019 if they had taken 2020 lying down. Not James Petralli and Michael Hunter. When faced with Austin Texas' pending stay at home order, the band wrote and recorded the entire record in thirty days. World as a Waiting Room is among the band's best. 

2017 Juno award winner William Prince is a huge star in Canada and should be stateside as well. His voice is as unique and warm as any I can recall. And his songwriting is as earnest, if not as clever as fellow Canadian Ron Sexsmith. "Wasted" is an unintentional anthem for 2020.

I am hooked Frazey Ford's vocal delivery. There is a Van Morrison quality to it, so nonchalant to almost be conversational. It as if the lyrics might be different every time she sings the song. U kin B the Sun is laden with grooves and a casual coolness that  always set me down lakeside on a summer day.

Circles feels like it was released a lifetime ago. The loss of Mac Miller was devastating and his partnership with Jon Brion is was one the most visionary collaborations of all time. This record feels timeless.

Lianne LaHavas is one of the most talented musicians alive. This year’s self-titled release is as close to a Sade record as we've had in a while.

Its great to see local acts get such national acclaim. Even better when they demonstrate creative growth. DEHD's Flower of Devotion expands the bands previously bare bones approach to music making with lovely Cocteau Twins-esque shimmer.

Orkenoy in the daytime.

Speaking of things local, I have been rooting for Orkenoy since finding out the Humboldt Park brewery was in the works back in 2019. What a journey it has been for the folks behind it all. Brewing equipment, transported from a distance, tumbles off of the truck as it nears its new home. It was damaged but not irreparable. It was nothing compared to what was to come. We may have hit the tipping point on craft breweries, but can you imagine readying your passion project for the world and the world snaps back with a global pandemic. They admirably soldiered on.

Turns out they are not just another brewery. They bill themselves as a "creative enclave operating as a brewery, kitchen and synergetic haunt for local artists." Their offerings, from brews to food, are a delicious blend of the rare and traditional, Norwegian Smørrebrøds and French Farmhouse, to new and experimental. Their branding is charming and narrative. We've taken carry out of cocktails and beers. Both were fantastic. Very recently Orkenoy has added even more allure to their footprint in the Kimball Arts Center by stringing lights from their facade to the elevated Bloomingdale Trail. As the nights have grown to their longest, my morning runs begin in darkness. So when I came upon the illuminated Orkenoy early one morning last week my path became a bit merrier. I was also struck by how much the scene reminded me of Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night. 

Orkenoy at pre-dawn run.

Lulu Miller has worked as a producer for Radiolab and is a co-creator of the NPR show Invisibilia. Her book Why Fish Don't Exist was my favorite read of 2020. Told in Miller's quirky voice, the pages navigate herculean scientific achievements, our country's racial history, murder and ultimately love. While this may all  sound a frantic lot, Miller weaves it together tersely and with self-deprecating humor.

One of my favorite books of years' past is Michael Pollen's lesser known, Second Nature. It was in my initial reading of this that I learned from Pollen about Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac. I purchased a copy and thumbed through it when I finished Second Nature. A recent interest had me recall the work, so I set about our house to find it. It's a short book and so it took me a couple of looks to locate it behind thicker, stacked volumes on our bedroom bookshelf. I've been immersed in it ever since. I'm intentionally taking small bites, savoring every page, even highlighted passages—something I haven't done probably since reading Pollen. Leopold was an American philosopher and naturalist long associated with the University of Wisconsin. His writing is keenly observational, almost poetic. As he winds through the seasons on his Wisconsin farm, he introduces us to the behaviors of migrating geese, defensive plover and elusive trout among other inhabitants. Leopold is almost always alone with these creatures and his thoughts, save occasionally his dog. And while I wish I had a printing that contained the forward by Barbara Kingsolver, Leopold's original forward from 1948 suits me just fine. 

Aldo Leopold

"...the opportunity to see geese is more important than television., and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech...But wherever the truth may lie, this much is crystal-clear: our bigger-and-better society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its own economic health as to have lost the capacity to stay healthy. The whole world is so greedy for more bathtubs that it has lost the stability necessary to build them, or even turn off the tap. Nothing could be more salutary at this stage than a little healthy contempt for a plethora of material blessings."

[theartofdyingrp]

Congratulations!

Welcome, Courtney! You’ve been accepted as Lucia Moreno. Choosing between applications was difficult, but I believe you’ve really captured Lucia’s essence with this application. I’m excited to see how you mold her further on the dash.

Please send in your account to the main within 24 hours and be sure to read our New Member Welcome Page.

OOC INFORMATION -

N A M E

Hello, I’m Courtney, and i use she/her pronouns.

A G E

I’m twenty two years old.

T I M E Z O N E

Pst! sorry dumb, but that makes me laugh because makes me feel i’m whispering to you.

A C T I V I T Y  L E V E L

REMOVED FOR PRIVACY

A N Y T H I N G  E L S E

REMOVED FOR PRIVACY

IC INFORMATION -

D E S I R E D  R O L E

I would like to play Lucia Moreno.

W H O  A R E  T H E Y  T O  Y O U

Lucia is a woman conflicted. Her life path hasn’t exactly mirrored what she’d seen for herself. In her younger years she was a charming social butterfly with her heart as open as wide as the smile that graced her face, but that girl was torn from her. The rose colored glasses she once wore had cracked and Lucia was changed.She had become more guarded, careful of who she let in and the intentions of those around her. Of course, the charm had followed her into her new life, but the sincerity that came with it, well it was reserved for who she allowed it. The change hadn’t all been negative though, with the help of an old friend Lucia had a new job, and more importantly learned to protect herself.

Arms dealing for the Ross family had become the perfect job for Lucia. She knew how a gun could make a person feel and she wanted to lift up people as she had been. The traveling part of the job also allowed her some distance from the past and the true realities of what she was part of. Lucia knew about it, she wasn’t an idiot, but it was easier to turn a blind eye when you were able to separate from it once and awhile. Her carefully crafted bubble however was burst with the assassination of Victor. Suddenly she was face to face with reality of what she’d be doing, with how she had change, and with how she truly hadn’t.

The tension growing within the organization had made Lucia realize that maybe she didn’t have the heart for all of this, or maybe she did. She wasn’t sure where she truly lied, and with the time she had with the family she never actually allowed herself to explore it. Lucia had never questioned what would happen as she healed, never reconciled who she’d been and who she was becoming. Did she want to be the dynamic and trusting girl she had been before, or was she the charismatic, albeit jaded woman who she became within the family? Could she live with the actions of their lifestyle even though deep down she didn’t agree? Would she find a way to agree?  Maybe she never asked because she was afraid of the answers and what it’d mean for her. The answers to the questions though were becoming more important each day and yet she still found herself at a loss. As Lucia searches for her answer she tries to continue life as usual, though she knows those close enough to her can sense the anxiousness in her actions no matter how she tries to hide it.

Overall, I find Lucia to be a character that keeps ahold of my attention because she is very moldable. She has many facets of herself, though she’s never really found her true self in it all. Lucia has been living her life with a degree of separation and denial, and I think that leaves her open for so many ways to develop. She could find that her truest self is the one she left in the past and try to find her way back no matter the consequences. She could find a way to bridge the conflicting part of herself, making peace with the life she’s in and find contentment within the grey world around her. Or she could eventually find a home in the darker parts once she fully allows herself to dive in. There is so many ways the world could take her and I’d really enjoy the chance of seeing how she develops and what she turns into.

C R E A T I V E

I have made a pinterest board which can be found here . I tried to do it on the bottom is her younger years and then it goes up to now.

Mock blog: mocklucia

Hopefully, I will be continuing to update both of these!

Para sample:

Easing her foot on the break Lucia released a heavy sigh, it seemed to be a never ending game of red light green light. Her stare lingered on the line of cars in front of her so intently one might think she was trying to make them disappear. As someone who had grown up in LA she was well aware that the traffic was utterly unpleasant to drive in, but that didn’t stop her from wishing for it to miraculously clear up. Lucia lightened her grip on the steering wheel, trying to at least relax herself a bit. She knew why she was so worked up and it wasn’t actually the traffic, as much as she wanted to blame it, it was her destination.

She was on her way to Hoppers to meet Marcus, something normally exciting for her and something she hadn’t done in awhile. Ever since the assassination of Victor Ross she had found herself avoiding him. It had started out gradual, but it’s become rather obvious she was distancing herself from him. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him, of course she wanted to, but it was just harder to be around him as she became more unsure of her place in the Organization. He was one of her oldest friends, any unease she had wouldn’t take him long to spot. She already felt bad enough having the doubts when they’ve, when he’d, done so much for her that she wasn’t ready to fully admit it to him. Though she wasn’t entirely sure how long she could keep it all from Marcus.

Finally the traffic began to thin out and Lucia could make her way to the bar and grill with much less interruptions. Yet any relief that brought to her was short lived as what was left of her frustration returned to it’s true emotion, anxiety. Lucia bobbed her head to the music trying to distract herself from the growing pit in her stomach. She stared at the road intently, a focus she definitely didn’t need as she’d drive to Hopper’s what felt like hundreds of times without much direction, but by focusing on it and the road before her. She didn’t need to stare so intently on road she’d driven to Hopper’s what felt like hundreds of times and didn’t need to worry about getting there, but it kept her mind busy.

It didn’t take nearly as long as Lucia would like for her to reach the restaurant and an even shorter time to find a parking spot. The irony wasn’t lost on her, she had spent so much time wanting the traffic to disappear, but now that she was here she wished she had more time. Maybe it was for the best she couldn’t push it off anymore. She’d been sitting in the car too long, had too much time to over think, maybe she was worried for nothing- if anything letting it fester much longer would probably only make it more obvious. With a deep breath, a last attempt to calm herself, she pushed the car door open and stepped out. She walked towards the door knowing he was probably inside by now, after all she had to be at least twenty minutes late. “ Here we go.” She muttered to herself as she opened the door. Once Lucia stepped inside she began her search for Marcus, it only took about a minute to find his familiar face. As she made her way to him she couldn’t help the smile growing on her face, yes she’d been rather nervous about this meeting, but she did miss him. And in the end her joy to see him won out, at least for the moment.

[lionhest-blog]

hello !!! my name is katie but you can also call me kait / kt / anything u want really !!! and this is my sweet extra daughter hestia !!

╰ °✧ ( LIABILITY BY LORDE ) comes on as soon as ( HESTIA JONES ) comes into the room. she is ( twenty ) and was formerly in ( GRYFFINDOR ) and is rumored to be sided with the ( ORDER ). some people say they look particularly look like ( PARK SOOYOUNG ) and would describe themselves as ( BOLD ), but also ( SENSITIVE ).

here are some key points / just little things to know about my young daughter !!

there isn’t a whole ton with canon in regards to hestia; canon does state that she has dark hair and pink cheeks. i chose park sooyoung / joy from r red velvet for her !! she’s represented often times with red or blonde hair but just know hestia has dark, almost black hair !!

hestia’s personality type is the performer; she’s very friendly and outgoing and flirtatious. 

she’s conflict-averse and likes to keep friends everywhere; she’s not likely to start or continue conflict and will do her best to ease any situation away from it. 

her parents are pureblood and so is she; although her parents and family alike don’t have a clear opinion on the blood purity issue either than they’d like to stay out of it, she very firmly sides with the order.

during her time at hogwarts, her house was gryffindor; she was a year behind the marauders and their squad.

isn’t the best duelist around; she joined the dueling club during her time at hogwarts in order to change that fact. she’s still not great but she’s trying !!!! she’ll always take tips she loves to learn : -- )

she is fairly clever !! although she isn’t naturally the brightest student and has trouble with her attention span, she worked v hard to get good grades. she isn’t and has never been afraid to admit she doesn’t understand something and that aided her !!  ( side note: if you think your character would’ve been a tutor or study buddy to her you are most likely right hmu !! )

hestia’s dream in life is to be a singer; she loves to write songs and perform and will literally show anyone her craft ngl. her parents aren’t super into the idea so she hasn’t made any moves on it and with the war coming she feels like she has bigger fish to fry but just know its her passion y’all

she’s a lowkey thottie but it’s just bc she loves everyone she has so much love to give she’s really just a free spirit (tm)

she’s pretty manipulative she knows how to work people to get what she wants but you’d never realize it bc she’s so nice

as for negatives; she says she sides HIGHKEY with the order but if she was approached with literal voldemort and he was unarmed and she was given the chance to end it all she’d still wanna talk it out. she hates conflict, really doesn’t believe anyone can be inherently evil and believes she can change things    ??? it’s kinda selfish esp bc she doesn’t consider that people feel so strongly otherwise bc they’re literally being hunted ( a pureblood who’s been kinda sheltered away from the effects of blood purity doesn’t really get it tbh )  also again, manipulative, doesn’t have a ton of close friends as a result, kinda self-centered

she’s pan but has a leaning towards women that she knows her parents wouldn’t approve of so she’s highkey spooked(tm) by it ok

now as for wanted connections / plot ideas / etc.: 

friends !!: i know this is dumb but just general friends. doesn’t have to be besties bc as i said as u get to know her better u may not want to know her. however on the surface she’s a fun friend !!! she in some way knows everyone ya feel 

past flings: she’s never really had a Serious Relationship however she’s had tons of flings ( and remember she sides w the order but is v conflict-averse and loves people in general so literally anyone )

the dude her parents want her to marry but she’s like : -- ((( : okay so her parents as previously mentioned aren’t blood purists but they do want her married to someone that can Care For Her(tm) and Provide For Her(tm) so if u got a Good Boy(tm) on ur hands (or a not good boy that seems like a good boy) hmu !!!

the person she has a gigantic crush on: ok so i’d prefer a lady(tm) for this role but just hmu tbh. it can HIGHKEY be unrequited i do not care but she would highkey fall hard for ONE person and just be in shock bc shes like wow i wanna hold ur hand and go on dates with you? this is so weird haha but as friends obviously :’ -- ))) 

her  wizard chess rival: she’s great at wizard’s chess give her just a casual rival i would love that i love a good rivalry 

a bestie!!!!!: anyone hmu someone that can deal with the aforementioned things and maybe try and Get Her Woke(tm) to the real effects of the war

former tutor: for dueling club or her studies, she was clever but not particularly smart and had trouble focusing. she was a good student and loved to ask questions and learn ok luv her

anything else really hmu !!!!

this has been long but hmu w any questions or plot ideas i love to plot : -- )))

[macbetha]

What are some of your favorite books of all time?

sorry this took a bit to answer, i took this question prettyseriously because books mean so much to me haha. so, i made a list! thesearen’t all specifically books; there are plays and poems as well, just becausethose have a tendency to have as much of an impact me as novels and such.

D R A M A / P L A Y S

Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire- On a streetcar named Desire, Blanche DuBois travels from the railroad station in New Orleans to a street named Elysian Fields, where her sister, Stella, pregnant and married to Stanley Kowalski, lives in a run-down apartment building in the old French Quarter. Having lost her husband, parents, teaching position, and old family home—Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi—Blanche has nowhere to turn but to her one remaining close relative.

William Shakespeare: Macbeth- Macbeth is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.

G R E E K  D R A M A ( C OM E D Y  &  T R A G E D Y ) 

Aristophanes: Lysistrata- Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BCE, it is a comic account of a woman’s extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War by denying all the men sex - and it works. 

Sophocles: Oedipus Rex- Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family.

C L A S S I C S : G R E E K L I T E R A T U R E

Homer: The Iliad- Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states. The Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege; the earlier events, such as the gathering of warriors for the siege, the cause of the war, and related concerns tend to appear near the beginning. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles’ looming death and the sack of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as these events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly, when it reaches an end the poem has told a more or less complete tale of the Trojan War.

The Poetry of Sappho- She was one of the few women mentioned in ancient Greek literature and doesnot frequent the topics of other writers of her time, such as politics and war. She writes about compassion and love; her work is really beautiful andheartfelt. 

C L A S S I C S : E N G L I S H/ A M E R I C A N  L I T E R A T U R E

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”This first sentence filled with irony and playfulness. The novel revolves around the necessity of marrying for love, not simply for mercenary reasons despite the social pressures to make a wealthy match.

Emily Brontë: Wuthering HeightsAlthough Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English literature, contemporary reviews for the novel were deeply polarised; it was considered controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty was unusually stark, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals of the day regarding religious hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby- The best third-wheel story of all time.

P O E T R Y / S H O R T  ST O R I E S

Sylvia Plath: “Lady Lazarus”Out of the ashes / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.

Sylvia Plath: “Poem for a Birthday”“Eaten or rotten. I am all mouth.”

Lucille Clifton: “Homage To My Hips”these hips are mighty hips. these hips are magic hips. i have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top! Maya Angelou: “Phenomenal Woman”It’s the fire in my eyes / And the flash of my teeth, / The swing in my waist,/ And the joy in my feet.  

Warsan Shire:Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth- “later that night / i held an atlas in my lap / ran my fingers across the whole world / and whispered / where does it hurt? / it answered / everywhere / everywhere / everywhere.” - “give your daughters difficult names. give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. my name makes you want to tell me the truth. my name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.” - “every mouth you’ve ever kissed / was just practice / all the bodies you’ve ever undressed / and ploughed in to / were preparing you for me. / was it a long journey? / did it take you long to find me? / you’re here now, / welcome home.” -“I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes; on my face they are ��still together.” -“I want to make love but my hair smells of war and running and running.”

Maya Angelou: “Still I Rise”Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance likeI’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs? 

Maya Angelou: “Chicken Licken”When she saw a bed / locksclicked / in her brain

Edgar Allan Poe: Murders In The Rue Morgue- i read this in eighth grade and it is a mystery that stuck with me for therest of my life. it is fascinating in the way that poe always is, i so recommend it.

Edgar Allan Poe: “Evening Star”- “I gazed awhile / On her cold smile /Too cold - too cold for me.”

M E M O I R S / B I O G R A P H I E S

Christine Wiltz: The Last Madam: A Life In the New Orleans Underworld- In 1916, at age fifteen, Norma Wallace arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars.

Stephen King: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped King and his work.

Y O U N G  A D U L T / C H I L D R E N ‘ S 

Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments- so, i didn’t finish this series but it’s the memories of reading these books that makes me put it on this list. i remember reading them on the bus rides home from school, in my eighth grade history class, running to the store on their release date and begging my dad for the newest addition. it is a very fascinating universe; i haven’t watched the show shadowhunters, which is based on this series, but the books were good.

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events- i read ALL OF THESE BOOKS THEY WERE MY LIFE. they were so depressing but i loved these three siblings so much that i refused to leave them alone in that horrible world. haven’t watched the netflix series! 

Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson Series- for me, as a bored thirteen year old, this was one of the things that opened the door to greek mythology, which is now one of my favorite topics to study. 

S O U T H E R N  G O T H I C

Flannery O’Connor: “Good Country People”- Southern Gothic literature is a genre of southern USA writing. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters. The humor is strange and even when it is finally realized, it might not be all that funny, because humor in Southern Gothic stories is twisted, and usually quite vile. There are consistent grotesque themes of decay, desolation, and supernatural forces that are often credited to lost family honor, ghosts, witches, faeries, or god - but the shit all takes place on an isolated corn farm. It is a very fascinating genre and “good country people” is a prime example of this. (personal note: most of ewoatt chapter one was inspired by the southern gothic genre).   

R E F E R E N C E

Thomas C. Foster: How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines- THIS IS THE BOOK I REFERENCE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE WHILE WRITING. It’s an introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.

Joseph Bates: The Nighttime Novelist:Finish Your Novel in Your Spare Time - Franz Kafka was an insurance agent. William Faulkner was a postmaster. Stephen King taught high school English, John Grisham was an attorney, and Toni Morrison worked in publishing. Though romantic fantasies of the writing life don’t often include a day job, the fact is that most writers have one. Yo, if you’re wanting to write a book or just a big fanfic, please get this book. I give it so much credit. 

Barbara & Allan Pease: The Definitive Book of Body Language: The Hidden Meaning Behind People’s Gestures and Expressions- It is a scientific fact that people’s gestures give away their true intentions. Yet most of us don’t know how to read body language–and don’t realize how our own physical movements speak to others. Now the world’s foremost experts on the subject share their techniques for reading body language signals to achieve success in every area of life. Great writing reference. 

Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down the Bones- This text offers encouragement and advice on many aspects of the writer’s craft, from first thoughts to the use and misuse of adverbs, from where the best places are to write - both public and private.

[itsfurty]

Here we are in July. Hope everyone has been having a great half of the year and a good summer! Things are exciting in my end with a new job starting soon and will be having me moving halfway across the United States once again. As I prepare my move I figured I'd do another set of reviews. This one has less indie focus than previous entries but I think it'll be just fine. If you want to catch my last post just click here and hopefully my gibberish thoughts and opinions are of some interest. Also I changed these posts to be called Quick Thoughts since my posts aren't really in depth reviews. We'll see if I stick to it.Steamworld DigI’ve already played Steamworld Dig when it came out on the Wii U but I decided to pick it up for the Switch considering how much I enjoy the series and especially its sequel. Well I gotta say, the sequel is better in every single way after replaying this one but I do think the original is still worth your time. The basic premise is you dig. You dig for gems and power stones to upgrade your character so that you can dig faster and through tougher stones. There is a very simple plot with characters that have some personality but it isn’t much to be honest. The visuals are also just okay. To its credit the game was originally a 3ds game and then ported to other platforms. The style looks fine but it gets massively improved upon in future entries. Really the hook here the aspect of digging and gaining new skills as you unlock equipment in test rooms. You’ll unlock a double jump, power drill, and dynamite amongst other skills and items as you play. The test rooms are honestly some of my favorite parts of the game as it makes for some fun quick puzzles and platforming outside of the regular digging you will do. I should mention you will encounter some foes to bash with your pick axe but the combat is just all about holding “A” and dodging any attacks. You will also have to watch out for toxic water, spikes, and some other surprises the deeper in you go.The biggest thing holding the game back is the length and lack of replayability. You can easily clear this around 2 hours and that’s with doing all the test rooms you come across. There are some secret gears to collect in the rooms but it doesn’t add that much extra play time to go through and collect them. Honestly you can skip Steamworld Dig and just go into its sequel. But if you really want to play the game 10 dollars is a decent price but I’m sure during the holidays there will be a decent sale for a more reasonable price.Still it isn’t a bad game, it’s just too little of a game without its truly own identity since it plays so much like the old flash game Motherload. Now if only a sequel to Steamworld Heist would get announced!Price: $9.99 Time played: Less than 3 Hours Verdict: Wait for a sale Flint HookDamn. I really wanted to like Flint Hook but too many aspects just had me wondering why play it over the (personally) better roguelikes out there. I mean visually the game is outstanding. This is the same team behind Mercenary Kings so the pixel art and animations are top of the line. Its colorful, charming, and just fun to look at. The music is also outstanding. The main theme when the game starts up gets me pumped to do a run and has me forgetting all the reasons I didn’t enjoy this game but then I start playing it... The biggest hurdle I thin this game has is it should not have been a rogue like. The dig draw in this game is you have a grappling hook that can pop bubbles or grab onto certain locations to have you zip around really tiny levels. Already the bigger focus is on movement and platforming as you avoid cannons, lasers, spikes, spike balls, motion detection enemies, regular enemies, ghosts, fire, and so much more. This should have been a platformer with carefully crafted levels right from the beginning rather than what feels like an attempt to chase the indie roguelike genre.Just consider the actual content in the game. The way it works is you pick a boss bounty and and complete a few ships (levels) to get to the boss. During this time you will retread very similar rooms with no interesting abilities unlocked. Most are passive like more health, more gold, higher critical chance hits, or faster movement. Nothing that makes you excited to pick up and encourage multiple replays since these are minor passive change ups with no major adjustments to gameplay. The worst part is the obvious hook is the grappling hook but only 1 or 2 abilities you can find changes how it works. It’s like the devs made a really cool mechanic but didn’t know what to do with it. Also, the shooting and combat was clearly an after though as the majority of enemies stand still and do not move. Some don’t even attack and could just be replaced by targets that need shot. The ones that do shoot back have really basic attack patterns. The bigger challenge is moving around the screen with your hookshot and avoiding stage hazards. I honestly had way more fun traversing the maps in the game than fighting any enemy. That should have been the focus. Anyways, back to the content. The bosses you fight will always be the same no matter what. Attack patterns are the same and you will always fight the same boss when you reach the end of a run depending on the bounty. It makes runs feel like there are only 5 variants, one for each boss, as opposed to nearly limitless mix ups.The game contains a lot of collectibles in the form of lore and relics. Neither of which effects the abilities of the layer but rather add background to the game. I found these uninteresting as I do not find reading text on the screen about a watch exciting or a good way to provide purpose to a game’s universe. Relics at least offer XP to your character so that you can unlock new starting skills but again the skills are just not interesting that I did not care about this aspect. I know this mini review negative and disappointing but that is just how I felt when playing Flint Hook. It is a game with great visuals and charm but lacks in gameplay department. It isn't terrible but I think Gungeon, Isaac, Don't Starve, or a Robot Named Fight are way more interesting in what they offer. I really thought I was going to love Flint Hook but it just didn't mesh with me like I had hoped. Price: $14.99 Time played: 15 Hours Verdict: Wait for a sale Splatoon 2 with DLCSo Splatoon 2, it's good, really good. If you’re following Nintendo then you know this game is great. It has risen to being one f Nintendo’s big franchises. I mean this game has so much going for it. It is colorful, some great music, and such an interesting gameplay mechanic I can get my friends and family, that don’t play games, into a match and they’ll have a blast. While at the same time playing ranked can create an incredibly stressful few minutes. So obviously the multiplayer is excellent but single player wise can lease a bit to be desired. I love the hub world where you explore and select the next level to jump into. The traversal of the world by spraying ink is the best part. The enemies don’t really do much of anything in the base game that I’d rather for larger more interesting levels. Plus, the story is pretty simple and doesn’t offer that many exciting moments. Sure the boss fights are a highlight but there aren’t any character moments unlike the dlc, which i’ll get into. Overall with the base Splatoon 2 game the multiplayer is the main draw with the single player offering a decent one time though experience. Sure, you can replay levels with different weapons but nothing major changes that I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a huge fan of the single player.Splatoon 2’s DLC somewhat fixes a lot of the complaints I have with the base game. While it does not offer larger levels, instead smaller for focused challenges, this is still much better than the base game. These focused challenges (I think 80 or so?) levels are a lot of fun. Some will have you reaching a goal with no items, fighting waves of enemies, escorting a ball, shooting shapes out boxes, flying in a jet pack, and so much more. These are great bite sized missions that are vastly better than the single player missions. Sure, they aren’t large open levels to explore like I wish but they’re still great in their own way. The other big fun aspect of the dlc is how much character interaction there is. Pearl, Marina, and Cuttlefish, have a lot of dialogue between each other and they are swimming with personality. They’re a joy to read and watch as they interact with one another. Plus the ending sequence has an actual cutscene which adds a nice cinematic quality to the game. It makes me really excited with where Nintendo takes the single player.Splatoon 2 is a no brainer when it comes to the Switch. I didn't even get into Salmon Run which I have poured tons of hours into. This is easily my most played multiplayer game and maybe my most played game in general. Both the base game and DLC are well worth picking up. Price: $59.99 | DLC: $19.99 Time played: 140 Hours Verdict: Recommend Ys 8Ys 8 is the first game I played in this series and I gotta say I’m impressed. You play as Adol, the silent protagonist, who’s ship is mysteriously destroyed at the the beginning of the game. You wake up on a deserted island and have to reunite with other castaways to find a way off the island. I liked the aspect of finding survivors as they would be added to your base camp which would grow in size as you played. It has a nice sense of progress the more you play and the deeper you explore the island. Sometimes the base camp will come under attack and you will have to fight waves of monsters so be ready to have to travel back from time to time. The story and pacing however is pretty strange. It starts of with a nice hook of ending up on an island and a strange side plot about a mysterious girl who lives on the island. But by the halfway point the story kind of just disappears and you just gather survivors with the vague plot of “find a way off the island” is your only goal. There is no real antagonist throughout the game until the very end. This is where you are hit with heavy exposition and everything comes together and makes sense. It just would have been better if it was better spread out through the game rather just appearing at the very end.While Ys 8 might falter a bit around the plot department the gameplay is a high point. It is all real time and unlike most JRPGs you do not enter a battle arena upon fighting an enemy. You can attack as you please with no transitions and this makes combat fast. You attack with a single button to perform very simple combos but can perform a magic attack with on of the 4 face buttons. You’ll gain a lot in the game so there is a nice variety of moves you’ll perform. For example by the end my main moves for Adol were a vertical arching slash, magic tornado, a spinning air dash, and a long automated ground combo for heavy damage. There are tons more you unlock but that is just what I chose to use by the end. You can have up to 3 party members active at once and you’ll want to switch between them (this is done by pressing “Y”) to fight certain enemies as many are only weak to one type of attack which a party member will fall under (Air attack, smash, or slash). You’ll upgrade armor and weapons as you play but in order to change the visual appearance of characters you’ll need to trade for costumes ( as there is no currency in the game since you’re on an island) which I found disappointing. It did not feel like I had as much control over my character’s visual appearance which I really enjoy doing in these types of games. The last bit of gameplay is exploring the island which is somewhat metroidvania like. You’ll find new tools to let you get through swaps, climb vines, or double jump. Oh, and there is fishing which can be fun to get supplies.The soundtrack to Ys is solid albeit nothing amazing in my opinion. Only a few track really stood out and the rest sot of blended in with that jrpg electric guitar generic sound but nothing out right terrible. The only bad aspect of Ys is sometimes the frame rate and resolution can really dip. Grassy areas are hard on the eyes especially in handheld mode but it is still playable and there are varied environments that you can move to other parts of the game. Also, the translation is sloppy at times with some misspellings or forgetting words in sentences. It’s sloppy but I wasn’t too bothered, although for 60 dollars you’d expect a bit better. If you hate turn based jrpgs then this game might be what you’re looking for as long as you can deal with some anime tropes. There are a few in this game that had me cringe and feel mildly uncomfortable but overall not too bad. Definitely a fun game though and way better than I was expecting. I hope future entries release on the Switch.Price: $59.99 Time played: 40 hours Verdict: Recommend Wolfenstein 2Wolfenstein 2 is another technical marvel ported to the Switch thanks to the devs at Panic Button. Visually it is obviously going to be the weakest compared to the other platforms but it still is quite a game to look at. There were compromises to make it possible to run however. Frame rate is capped at 30 fps, textures can be blurry at times, motion blur is mandatory, and there is a subtle haze to limit the field of view. Still, the game has some great visuals considering the Switch’s limitations. In case you aren’t familiar with Wolfenstein 2 the premise is Nazis won WW2 and it’s time to start a revolution. You will kill a ton of Nazis and it is glorious. You’ll fight inside ruined American cities, Nazi airships, subs, secret bases and other locations. The story is really enjoyable with a great mix of absurdity but also a serious somber tone. There are only a moment or two I felt out of place but over all the game does a great job at setting up characters and moving the plot along. The game is not very long maybe about 10 hours but it’s a quality 10 hours.The weapons, while not as varied as I’d hope, control very well and provide excellent feedback and sound as you dual wield shotguns blasting Nazis to bits. Running and gunning is not the only thing you’ll do as there is some simple stealth in the game. In many situations you can sneak around with a hatchet and knives so you can eliminate Nazis without any hearing a sound. If spotted it just means reinforcements are called in on your area. Now when the game originally released I heard it was deemed to hard and maybe it was changed for the Switch but I’d say normal and hard are perfectly enjoyable experiences. Hard mode will have you hiding behind cover a bit more but it never reached a point where I was frustrated. Gyro aiming is also in the game which is great for fine tuning shots when aiming down sights. I do wish the game had more varied enemy types similar to how Doom does as encounters can sometimes feel too samey at times.In terms of extra content there are extra missions you can play that take place in levels you have already beaten. These are harder than the first time you play these and task you with eliminating a high ranking Nazi in the area. I have not beaten them all but from what I’ve played you have no checkpoints and need to beat it without dying. I wish there was a more arcadey mode in its place where you can just run around killing waves of Nazis as the game feels great and I’d rather just be able to jump in to play rather than having to select one of thee bonus levels but that’s a personal preference. Even with that small complaint Wolfenstein 2 is an excellent game and definitely should be played. If you only own a Switch I fully recommend it. If you have a PC, Xbox, or PlayStation pick it up there as it is cheaper and has better performance. But either way, play this game and enjoyable the world. Also, don’t forget to kill as many Nazis as you can.Price: $59.99 Time played: 10 hours Verdict: Recommend That finishes this set of games. Next time I do one of these I'll be in a new state so I don't know when I'll actually get around to it. I don't think it'll be too long but I'm not sure how many people will actually be missing me haha. Either way, take care and enjoy the rest of the summer months! via /r/NintendoSwitch

[weekendsinmaine]

I jumped in again and am now a proud two-time survivor of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I learned from last year that the majority of my time would be spent visiting and engaging with other bloggers. I didn’t want to have something as pesky as actually writing a blog post get in the way which means that this annual one month challenge was in reality an intense two month process.

I researched, wrote and prepped everything in March while in April, other than some minor edits, I focused on all the social aspects of the challenge which is one of my favorite parts.

Click on any picture to jump to a slide show with hyperlinks to my A to Z Challenge Post associated with that image.

A is for Atayne | Even a couch potato needs good performance gear.

B is for Baxter’s Fine Candies | They knew how to do candy right in the 1800s.

C is for Carved Wooden Spoons | 7 tips to keep them forever young.

D is for Dr. Dandelion | Will this gardener’s scrub turn my thumb green?

E is for Eagre Games | Get ready to experience the dream world of ZED.

F is for Flight Deck Brewing | We love (really love) our craft beer in Maine.

G is for Good Natured Brand | Facing mosquito season with Bugaroo and no fear.

H is for Highland Maple Pepper | Maple makes everything taste better.

I is for Islandport Press | Stories connected to New England.

J is for Jarva Cakes | Delicious things come in small packages.

K is for Kendrick | scrappy little nobody | 10% defiant should be everyone’s goal.

L is for LooHoo | Add some fun to your laundry routine with wool dryer balls.

M is for Might & Main | A design firm that understands my passion for Maine.

N is for Northwoods Gourmet Girl | The special joy of a blueberry dessert sauce.

O is for October Fields | Finding my zen with clean burning soy candles.

P is for Pike’s Original Maine Garden Hod | Practical and Beautiful.

Q is for Mainely Quilling | I am in awe of these paper creations.

R is for Recycled Lobster Rope Mats | No better way to say “Welcome to my home”.

S is for Stringin’ Along with Me | Giving new life to old guitar strings.

T is for Tree + Vine | Costumes that match a child’s imagination.

U is for U. Smelly Dog | Now my dog is going to smell better than I do.

V is for Vintage Maine Kitchen | Creatively flavored all natural potato chips.

W is for Waldostone Farm | Elevating brunch with a bloody lobster cocktail.

X is for Xtreme Conditions | STABILicers Maxx make winter hiking a breeze.

Y is for Younity | Want to try a blueberry wine? You’ve come to the right state.

Z is for Zeitgeist Factory | Using concrete in unexpected ways.

Many of my goals for participating in the challenge were similar to those that I set last year including:

Expand My Content. I recently hit a few milestones on my blog including my first year anniversary and my hundredth post. Just as I celebrated completing my first A to Z challenge, I continue to be proud of and celebrate all the milestones I achieve on my site which now includes being a two-timer for the A to Z.

Write Consistently. I am excited that I have successfully  maintained a regular and consistent blogging schedule (for the most part) but nothing compares to writing 26 days of content in one month. It’s always an adjustment to transition back to a normal blogging schedule but I always approach it with more inspiration after the challenge.

Improve My Writing. I’m confident this goal will remain no matter how long I continue to write. There is never an end to getting better at writing. However, practice does help! This challenge improves my writing skills in two ways – all the writing that I do and all the reading that I do. I love stumbling upon other bloggers during the challenge who have fun, creative writing styles and engaging posts.

Highlight Maine. While I had focused on Maine for last year’s challenge too, this year I drilled down and picked one specific area: Made in Maine. I enjoyed researching and learning more about my theme and it helped me build up another area of my site so it was a double win.

Connect with Other Bloggers.  This is without a doubt my absolutely favorite thing about the blogging challenge. Getting to meet, engage with and learn from other bloggers. It was a little more difficult this year without the Linky List to visit every site as each letter had a new “list” to choose from and in the end I think a lot of those I connected with happened to have similar posting schedules to me so I was able to find them easier. But still, I did meet some awesome bloggers who I will continue to follow and support.

I took a few days off to enjoy achieving another successful year of participating in the A to Z Blogging challenge, but now it’s time to figure out what comes next as I continue to work on expanding and growing my blog.

As I finish up this recap, I wanted to again thank all my fellow bloggers for the support and encouragement they provided during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. As always, it motivated me and helped me stay on track. It really makes a difference when you know someone is actually reading and engaging with your posts. Thank you!

  #atozchallenge | Reflections of a two timer and what comes next. #blogchallenge I jumped in again and am now a proud two-time survivor of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.