#rina and her alter lives

[whoatemyshoe]

Rina Sawayama - Alterlife (Official Karaoke Video)

[perfectlyripeclementine]

queer novel masterlist

cleaning up that post i've got running with books that touch on queerness. these are not organized in any particular fashion, or gathered along any particular theme. these are just gay novels i've either read and enjoyed or would like to read. blurbs are the books' own descriptions of themselves. not all these blurbs mention the queer stuff, but trust, if it's on this list it's in there. last updated 9 dec 23.

lists: sapphic books by Palestinian authors; butch memoirs; another list of masc, butch and stud books; a digital library of trans-related content; free access to the works of Leslie Feinberg.

After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz. "“The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho,” so begins this intrepid debut novel, centuries after the Greek poet penned her lyric verse. Ignited by the same muse, a myriad of women break from their small, predetermined lives for seemingly disparate paths: in 1892, Rina Faccio trades her needlepoint for a pen; in 1902, Romaine Brooks sails for Capri with nothing but her clotted paintbrushes; and in 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: “I want to make life fuller and fuller.” Writing in cascading vignettes, Selby Wynn Schwartz spins an invigorating tale of women whose narratives converge and splinter as they forge queer identities and claim the right to their own lives. A luminous meditation on creativity, education, and identity, After Sappho announces a writer as ingenious as the trailblazers of our past."

All Boys Aren't Blue, George M. Johnson In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

The works of Dionne Brand: In Another Place, Not Here. Beautiful and meticulously wrought, set in both Toronto and the Caribbean, this astonishing novel gives voice to the power of love and belonging in a story of two women, profoundly different, each in her own spiritual exile.

Love Enough. In Love Enough, the sharp beauty of Brand's writing draws us effortlessly into the intersecting stories of her characters caught in the middle of choices, apprehensions, fears. Each of the tales here—June's, Bedri's, Da'uud's, Lia's opens a different window on the city they all live in, mostly in parallel, but occasionally, delicately, touching and crossing one another. Each story radiates other stories. In these pages, the urban landscape cannot be untangled from the emotional one; they mingle, shift and cleave to one another.

The young man Bedri experiences the terrible isolation brought about by an act of violence, while his father, Da'uud, casualty of a geopolitical conflict, driving a taxi, is witness to curious gestures of love and anger; Lia faces the sometimes unbridgeable chasms of family; and fierce June, ambivalent and passionate with her string of lovers, now in middle age discovers: "There is nothing universal or timeless about this love business. It is hard if you really want to do it right." Brand is our greatest observer—of actions, of emotions, of the little things that often go unnoticed but can mean the turn of a day. At once lucid and dream-like, Love Enough is a profoundly modern work that speaks to the most fundamental questions of how we live now.

What We All Long For. Tuyen is an aspiring artist and the daughter of Vietnamese parents who've never recovered from losing one of their children while in the rush to flee Vietnam in the 1970s. She rejects her immigrant family's hard-won lifestyle, and instead lives in a rundown apartment with friends—each of whom is grappling with their own familial complexities and heartache.

By turns thrilling and heartbreaking, Tuyen's lost brother—who has since become a criminal in the Thai underworld—journeys to Toronto to find his long-lost family. As Quy's arrival nears, tensions build, friendships are tested, and an unexpected encounter will forever alter the lives of Tuyen and her friends. Gripping at times, heartrending at others, What We All Long For is an ode to a generation of longing and identity, and to the rhythms and pulses of a city and its burgeoning, questioning youth.

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, Soraya Palmer. Sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home.

But the sisters, like their parents, must come together to answer to something more ancient and powerful than they know—and reckon with a family secret buried in the past. A tale told from the perspective of a mischievous narrator, featuring the Rolling Calf who haunts butchers, Mama Dglo who lives in the ocean, a vain tiger, and an outsmarted snake, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts is set in a world as alive and unpredictable as Helen Oyeyemi’s.

Telling of the love between sisters who don’t always see eye to eye, this extraordinary debut novel is a celebration of the power of stories, asking, What happens to us when our stories are erased? Do we disappear? Or do we come back haunting?

Before We Were Trans, Kit Heyam. Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives.     Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.  

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Lillian Faderman. As Lillian Faderman writes, there are "no constants with regard to lesbianism," except that lesbians prefer women. In this groundbreaking book, she reclaims the history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America, tracing the evolution of lesbian identity and subcultures from early networks to more recent diverse lifestyles. She draws from journals, unpublished manuscripts, songs, media accounts, novels, medical literature, pop culture artifacts, and oral histories by lesbians of all ages and backgrounds, uncovering a narrative of uncommon depth and originality.

note from roo: essay in this about how queer white women engaged with Harlem should be essential reading for white queers who enter spaces (like drag spaces, ballroom spaces etc) that are informed by Black culture.

Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang. A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world's troubles.

There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef's boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world. It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.

Grievers and Maroons by adrienne maree brown. Grievers is the story of a city so plagued by grief that it can no longer function. Dune’s mother is patient zero of a mysterious illness that stops people in their tracks—in mid-sentence, mid-action, mid-life—casting them into a nonresponsive state from which no one recovers. Dune must navigate poverty and the loss of her mother as Detroit’s hospitals, morgues, and graveyards begin to overflow. As the quarantined city slowly empties of life, she investigates what caused the plague, and what might end it. In anguish, she follows in the footsteps of her late researcher father, who has a physical model of Detroit’s history and losses set up in their basement. She dusts the model off and begins tracking the sick and dying, discovering patterns, finding comrades in curiosity, conspiracies for the fertile ground of the city, and the unexpected magic that emerges when the debt of grief is cleared.

In the second installment of the Grievers trilogy, adrienne maree brown brings to bear her background as an activist rooted in Detroit. The pandemic of Syndrome H-8 continues to ravage the city of Detroit and everyone in Dune's life. In Maroons, she must learn what community and connection mean in the lonely wake of a fatal virus. Emerging from grief to follow a subtle path of small pleasures through an abandoned urban landscape, she begins finding other unlikely survivors with little in common but the will to live. Together they begin to piece together the puzzle of their survival, and that of the city itself.

Elastoe, Darcie Little Badger. "Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and it’s dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started? A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year."

Sordidez, by E.G. Condé "In the ruin created by climate disaster and a devastating civil war, survivors in Puerto Rico and the Yucatán peninsula struggle to rebuild their communities and heal their lands, but powerful forces from abroad plot against them. Desperate for answers, Puerto Rican journalist Vero Diaz seeks the counsel of the Maya revolutionary known as the Loba Roja, triggering a chain of events that will forever reshape his destiny and the fate of the Caribbean world."

When They Tell You To Be Good, by Prince Shakur "When They Tell You to Be Good charts Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalized adult traveler, writer, and anarchist in Obama and Trump’s America. Shakur journeys from France to the Philippines, South Korea, and elsewhere to discover the depths of the Black experience, and engages in deep political questions while participating in movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock. By the end, Shakur reckons with his identity, his family’s immigration, and the intergenerational impacts of patriarchal and colonial violence."

My Government Means to Kill Me, Rasheed Newson "Earl "Trey" Singleton III arrives in New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, at 17, he is ready to leave his overbearing parents and their expectations behind.

In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning."

Where There Was Fire, John Manuel Arias Costa Rica, 1968. When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, and her husband disappears, the future of Teresa’s family is changed forever.

Now, twenty-seven years later, Teresa and her daughter Lyra are picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa, but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by a missing husband and the bitter ghost of her mother, Amarga, is unable to reconcile the past. What unfolds is a story of a mother and daughter trying to forgive what they do not yet understand, and the mystery at the heart of one family’s rupture.

Brimming with ancestral spirits, omens, and the anthropomorphic forces of nature, John Manuel Arias weaves a brilliant tapestry of love, loss, secrets, and redemption in Where There Was Fire.

[archiveikemen]

Morganatic Idol Prologue: Chapter 6

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting

I was brought to the meeting room out of the blue without explanation, and the atmosphere was extremely tense.

The room was filled with the company’s executives whom I rarely saw, and the top management from Aisance.

Also… the members of exe Creed were staring at me with looks in their eyes that felt like thorns.

(... What on earth is going on? Why was I called into the meeting?)

General Manager: Kawanaga, were you the one who came up with this project plan?

My eyes widened when I saw the documents handed to me.

Rina: … Yes. The format has been altered slightly, but I was indeed the one who thought of this plan.

The executives were shocked.

General Manager: How did this happen?

Department Chief: I was also under the impression that this was Mori-kun’s original project…

(Don’t tell me… Mori-san claimed my project plan as…?)

Mori: …

Mori-san avoided my gaze and lowered her head in annoyance. 

Sakura: Whatever. This sort of mess is for you to clean up…

Sakura: Kawanaga-san, is it? I have something to ask you, may I?

Rina: W-what is it?

Sakura: Why do you see exe Creed as gemstones? 

The members’ gazes were directed at me. … I tried my best to pull my cowering heart together. 

(I must provide a proper explanation, because I worked hard for this project plan.)

Rina: That’s because… everyone from exe Creed are like gemstones. 

Jace: Because we’re gorgeous and people long for us?

Rina: No, that’s not the reason.

The members reacted to my instant response with a surprised expression.

Finn: It’s not? Then, what’s the meaning?

Rina: It’s true that your flawless performances and unrivalled visuals shine brightly.

Rina: However, to me, that sort of brilliance feels lifeless… and robotic.

Ivy: Us?

Rina: Gemstones are beautiful and attractive to look at, but they’re also hard and cold lifeless objects. Just like all of you.

Hugh: Cold…

Rina: But if you were to have a ‘turning point’...

Rina: Don’t you agree that by adding on ‘something’ that will give life to your presence and banish that chilling aura, you will appear more charming than ever?

Rina: That ‘something’ is ‘fragrance’.

Rina: Fragrance has a direct effect on a person’s instincts. Even though it’s the same fragrance, the person’s physical constitution and body temperature will cause a subtle change in the smell. 

Rina: That is what allows people to feel the warmth of a living person.

All the members listened attentively to my explanation.

Amongst them, Xeno-san’s gaze was especially sharp.

(His eyes are as cold as ever… but his arms that held me earlier were undoubtedly warm.)

At that moment, I was certain that this flawless, robotic, and icy person was a human being as well.

Rina: This perfume is powerful enough to give ‘warmth’ to even the coldest of gemstones, bringing out a stronger brilliance and charm in them.

Rina: That is the concept of my project plan.

As soon as I finished my speech, the people from the company spoke in panic. 

General Manager: Y-you! How rude! 

Department Chief: How dare you say that the world’s top idols are cold and robotic…!

(! Perhaps I was indeed being rude…)

Contrary to the unrest from the company’s executives, the members of exe Creed remained silent with stoic facial expressions.

I couldn’t tell if they were upset, or what was going through their minds. Thereupon—

Sakura: I see… I have a good understanding of the plan now. 

Sakura-san smiled and stood from his seat.

Sakura: We’ll get back to you a month from now. It’s about time, we shall take our leave. 

The members and our clients followed suit and left the meeting room as well.

General Manager: Guess the presentation was a failure, huh…

Department Chief: *sigh*... How could this happen…

The company executives who remained in the room signed. I couldn’t help but feel disheartened too.

(This is all my fault… it’s because I said those rude things to them…)

Mori: … I knew from the start that this would happen! 

Mori-san suddenly exclaimed.

Mori: As you’ve all just witnessed, Kawanaga-san doesn’t have the capabilities to make a successful project presentation! 

Mori: That is precisely why I pushed forward with this project plan! This is my responsibility as the team leader! 

(What…)

Department Chief: You’re right… it would’ve been much better if we had you present the project. 

General Manager: It has always been a bad idea to allow a regular staff member to do it. 

Reproachful glances turned to me at once.

(There’s no such thing…) 

But I no longer had the energy to refute their words.

…

Rina: *sigh*...

(Just got the scolding of my life… but I deserved it.)

I sighed and walked outside. Just then—

???: It’s dangerous to walk with your head down. 

Rina: !?

Standing there was… Sakura-san.

[savagestarlightsys]

savage starlight system alter bios

see below for information on some of our alters.

the alters listed are the ones we (expect) will be most likely to post to this blog. as noted in our rules, not all alters will post on this blog, including littles, those who aren't very sociable, et cetera.

collectively, you can call us starlight. most of us accept they or it prns. posts relating to most/the whole system will be tagged #ss: system.

note: we do have a simplyplural. we will share it upon request to mutuals only.

🌻 angel / ellie

● adult; it prns, they/he aux ○ host and primary fronter ● brain-made ○ #ss: angel, #ss: angel posts, #ss: angel reblogs

🌿 grove

● adult; she/they prns ○ protector, caretaker ● brain-made ○ #ss: grove, #ss: grove posts

🫧 katrina / bot

● 18; she/it prns ○ soother ● introject of tennoji rina (love live! franchise) ○ #ss: bot, #ss: bot posts

⚡ luka

● 16; she/it/spark prns ○ energy holder ● brain-made ○ #ss: luka, #ss: luka posts

🌹 cain

● 19-22; he/she prns ○ caretaker ● introject of original character ○ #ss: cain, #ss: cain posts

🎂 mabel

● 16-18; she prns ○ trauma holder(?) ● introject of mabel pines (gf) ○ #ss: mabel, #ss: mabel posts

☎️ sock / charli / puppy

● ageless; they/it/she prns ○ vibes only (/lh, we don't know her role) ● introject of the marionette/charlie emily (fnaf) ○ #ss: sock, #ss: sock posts

📖 ford

● adult, may ageslide younger; he prns ○ role unknown at this time ● introject of ford pines (gf) ○ #ss: ford, #ss: ford posts

👾 dorian

● 17; he prns ○ role unknown at this time ● not sure of source yet, very fragmented ○ #ss: dorian, #ss: dorian posts

final note: we do not owe anyone (1) information on our trauma, (2) fronting conditions/triggers, or (3) generally any details we aren't comfortable sharing about ourselves. weirdos who cannot respect that will be blocked.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I posted 6,578 times in 2022

That's 954 more posts than 2021!

2,006 posts created (30%)

4,572 posts reblogged (70%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@batmanisagatewaydrug

@dykerory

@dykeschemicalromance

@marywisdom

@pcklesthings

I tagged 3,290 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#sex edventures 2022 - 246 posts

#the locked tomb - 174 posts

#gotham time - 142 posts

#weekend positivity - 131 posts

#edward riddlehands - 113 posts

#a court of fey and flowers - 109 posts

#our flag means death - 108 posts

#pokemon - 108 posts

#art - 107 posts

#wwdits - 98 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#'no ethical consumption' is not a get out of jail free card for when you just. don't want to make a very easy and harmless lifestyle change

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I get why fantasy authors would default to using, like, the same basic arrangement of seasons and weather and gravity that we have here in The Real World because they have to make up so much shit as it is and it IS probably good praxis to give your readers some familiar touchstones in your world so they can just focus on the plot, but. having said that. I think there should be more settings that have seventeen seasons, all of them different lengths, and constellations that don't have fixed patterns because sometimes they'll get pissy and just move to a different part of the sky, and sometimes the sun tells people things telepathically, and there's a type of weather where the air just gets really thick and difficult to walk through that's unpleasant but not any more uncommon than rain. it's called smärklf.

19,155 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#4

hey if you have a pet or pets you need to reblog this rn and tell me in the tags what their names are. bonus points for including what kind of animal.

31,495 notes - Posted July 20, 2022

#3

the worst part of my job (standing around at college orientations being Visibly Queer) is when parents nervously alter their entire walking trajectory to stay out of range as if I'm going to bite them and pass on my infectious homosexuality.

this is wildly eclipsed by the best part of my job, parents who are such wildly enthusiastic allies that their children seem a little embarrassed about it. I'm talking parents who eagerly point out my little rainbow-draped table and urge their kids to come over, parents who excitedly pick through my button box offering up the relevant pride flags and pronouns to their kids, parents who have detailed questions about harassment policies and gender affirming care while their kids are trying to wander away, parents who rush over with open arms and obvious glee on their faces knowing there's a space on campus dedicated to keeping their kids safe.

the ferocity with which these parents love and affirm their queer kids is so humbling and wonderful.

36,652 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#2

cannot believe twitter libs are whining that protesting outside Kavanaugh's house is iNcOnSiDeRaTe To HiS nEiGhBoRs. if you live nextdoor to Brett fucking Kavanaugh and you're not shitting on his porch or at least throwing eggs at his house every day you're wasting your life.

42,481 notes - Posted May 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

all goofing aside I genuinely don't understand the urge to reimagine Taylor Allison Swift as a secretly queer icon when the pop music scene(TM) is like. literally overflowing with women who actually like women. Gaga and Kesha and Miley and Halsey are right there. Rina Sawayama and Hayley Kiyoko and Rebecca Black and Kehlani and Victoria Monét and Miya Folick if you're willing to get slightly less top 100. Janelle and Demi for them nonbinary takes on liking girls. like what are we doing here. like I'm not even saying you can't enjoy Taylor but why would you hang all your little gay hopes on her.

70,455 notes - Posted September 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[photogirl894]

Would you mind to tell 3 fun facts of each The Koriena Force members ? (except Rina, well 'cause it's from @l-lend 's oc 😅)

Sure thing! 😁 and I'll leave Rina to K, of course!

Kida Firestar

(Race: Pantoran)

(Homeworld: Pantora)

Specialty: fashion and strategic alterations

From a rich family

Now that she's a mom, she wants to make herself better for her son (while still being a flirty badass)

Lex Valen

(Race: Zabrak)

(Homeworld: Nar Shadaa)

Specialty: weapons and demolitions

Lived in the criminal underworld since she was a child, grew up learning stealth and subterfuge

Was more keen on helping the Republic when the Bad Batch asked for their help and that carried over into fighting against the Empire

Irys Montari

(Race: Togruta)

(Homeworld: Balmorra)

Specialty: intelligence and slicing/hacking

The smartest girl growing up

Has never met anyone remotely as intelligent as her until she met Tech and she sees him as a challenge

Reblog if it's okay for people to come into your askbox and ask about your OCs

[manysmallhands]

My Albums of 2022: The top 10

Was 2022 a great year for music? I don't know tbh, though I think that I can confidently state that it was at least quite good. But certainly, I heard some records that I liked this year and since I've gotten back into the habit of writing now, I thought that I might make the effort to say something about my favourites. Also, my girlfriend likes to read these reviews so i wrote them in the hope of making her happy.

My tastes have broadened notably over recent years so i feel a bit out of my depth with some of this stuff. But tbh i'm such a fanboy that i tend to absorb facts about everything I that listen to, so i'm hoping not to come over as too poorly informed about any of these acts. Anyway, if I start to fall back on too many adjectives at some point for want of something to say, you should know that I did at least make an effort to write something that was vaguely interesting.

So, the main list goes in chronological order...

March:

Charli XCX - Crash

Watching Charli take pot shots at her label at the start of the year while indicating that this contract fulfilling album was a form of going thru the motions, I can’t say that I had high hopes for Crash. But if the build up was less than edifying, the record itself has ended up sounding a lot more worthwhile. Putting aside some of the more neurotic elements that characterised 2020’s How I’m Feeling Now, she instead falls back on a cartoonishly brash alter-ego, one that’s too busy berating her boyfriend for getting mushy or cheerfully remarking on how goddamn hot she is these days to have time for any deeper self-analysis.

Musically, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the summery 80s bombast of New Shapes and Lightning, where clattering electronic drums meet massive synth chords to create a charmingly trashy retro sound. Elsewhere, there are shuffling, club-friendly beats which project a more up-to-date vibe, most notably on Used To Know Me and the Rina Sawayama collaboration Beg For You. But while Crash always basically sounds like a Charli album, it’s clearly a move away from the past and feels a good distance from the glitchy hyperpop of old.

On sparkling closer “Twice”, our heroine reflects on the darker side of life but, in contrast to the self baiting Charli of recent times, decides that she's better off trying to live in the moment. One might say that Crash itself is an applied version of that idea, where weightier themes and experiments are put aside in favour of a more user friendly approach. I suspect that, record company pressure aside, this would have happened in the end anyway - most artists who’ve pushed at the boundaries eventually retrench a little. But I think the true measure of Crash is that, in its own way, it feels just as satisfying as its predecessors, as Charli sets her colossal talents to the task of making an album of fun, danceable tunes you can shout along to and aces it all with style to spare.

Ex-Vöid - Bigger Than Before

If you know anything about Ex-Vöid, it’s probably that they rose from the ashes of the excellent but terribly named indiepoppers Joanna Gruesome. That ought to give you some idea of the noise they make: Alanna McCardle and Owen Williams’ twin vocal style is basically a trademark in itself and they still do that bit where they pinch the first chord from You Made Me Realise before they start half of the songs. However, Bigger Than Before is not just a retread of past glories: while some elements here do have a certain familiarity, its 70s powerpop vibe brings them closer to someone like Big Star than the speed jangle of previous efforts, giving them a sound that has all the languid charm of classic American Rock while retaining the urgency and fun of their origins.

One key difference here is that Alanna takes on more songwriting duties and the album is better for it: there’s a strong sense of her angsty female perspective on tracks like “(Lying To You) Baby” which offers a sharp contrast to the slackerish feel of the music. The cover of Arthur Russell’s “I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face” is another highlight, as they add some energy to Russell's beautifully maudlin ballad whilst still retaining the song’s essential gloom. CD hold outs will get cracking early single “Only One” as a bonus but, despite the album’s brevity, its ten song run is flawless in itself and requires nothing to shore it up. Old Joanna Gruesome fans ought to be happy enough with the results (I am anyway), but Bigger Than Before feels like a record to win over new converts as much as one that preaches to the choir.

April: Jeanines - Don’t Wait for A Sign

Jeanines debut found them more often that not in something of a panic but on Don’t Wait For A Sign they manage to balance that out with a more cheerful disposition. Alicia appeals to ideas of trusting to fate and seizing the day just as often as sinking into gloom and the results lend a brighter and more optimistic sheen to their folksy indiepop sound.

The guitars strum and jangle as appealingly as before but as ever it’s Alicia’s voice which is the star, swooping around with an assuredness which belies the nerves so often on display. Singles “Any Day Now” and “Who’s In the Dark?” hit with a sugar rush immediacy but there’s plenty of strength in depth too, with tracks like the insistent “Gotta Go” and the wonderfully ambivalent “Turn On the TV” creeping up on you after repeated listens.

As ever with indiepop albums, its familiarity is a given, but the strength of lyrical insight and sheer melodic verve here marks Don’t Wait For A Sign out as a genuine keeper. On this showing, Jeanines remain one of the few current players in the genre who can make this deceptively simple art form so memorable and so satisfyingly rich with feeling.

Let’s Eat Grandma - Two Ribbons

In a year where there has been no shortage of intensity in pop music, Two Ribbons still stands out as something else. Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton have, to put it mildly, had a time of it since their last LP, dealing with the death of Hollingworth’s boyfriend alongside struggling to patch up the increasing cracks in their friendship amongst a huge weight of personal upheaval. While all of this has clearly thrown them hard in various ways, the album that it’s inspired is their best by a long distance. Every song feels like a message transmitted from a place of radical and unsparing honesty, whether it’s directed towards lovers past and present or, more often, at themselves and each other, as they attempt to understand the new, difficult and at times terrifying situations that they’ve suddenly been forced to navigate.

And yet…overwhelming it may be but Two Ribbons never gets bogged down in grim reflection: it’s always a pop record first and manages to deal with its baggage in surprising ways. Like all the best stories it starts at the end, with single “Happy New Year” acting as an upbeat celebration of the endurance of their friendship as well as a pulsing synthpop banger. And for all its anger, “Watching You Go” is also a fierce cry of resistance, with a wealth of bewilderment and brittleness bound up in its jittery, powerful rhythm track and a breathtaking melody to carry it across. Hollingworth’s top lines in particular are head-spinningly beautiful throughout and help raise the album beyond the merely impressive to something that’s jaw droppingly great. While nothing is resolved as the title track closes, Two Ribbons is still a powerfully cathartic record, a treatise on love, death and friendship as well as the ability of music to express the things that words alone can’t always explain.

May Florence + The Machine - Dance Fever

Dance Fever marked a new high point in Florence’s ultra-confessional bombast, using the twin stresses of the pandemic and a mid-career crisis to fuel some of her most satisfying work in a decade. The title is somewhat misleading, with the concept for the album being less club culture, more nervous panic: the notion of Choreomania - where German peasant folk danced themselves to death back in the Middle Ages - provides a key image for the record, which Florence manages to map onto the tortured relationship she has with both her muse and her career.

The opening “King” is solemn and regal enough to befit such a title, but its gender swap accentuates the song’s toughness and that brutality comes back time and again, whether it’s in the frequent and unsparing references to personal conflict that pepper the lyrics or the occasional projections of Florence's inner turmoil out into violence against her own body. While single “My Love” is something of a banger, Floz generally skips between styles in her usual goth-pop modes, with the fresh and unexpected motorik of “Free” balancing neatly against the more epic, windswept feel of songs like “Girls Against God” and “The Bomb”. The rumbling rockers are less consistent but “Cassandra” in particular hits a richly theatrical vein, combining myth and drama with the wider arc of the album’s story to fine effect.

While many artists might have faded after 15 years in the spotlight, Florence seems to be using her longevity as something to power her onwards, tapping into her neuroses about stardom and the need to be seen to make a record that can only perpetuate it all for even longer. Given how tortured the whole business has clearly become, one might feel somewhat ambivalent about that result, but when it still drives her to spin it all into great art like this, I guess she must believe at heart that it’s worth the trouble.

Kendrick Lamar - Mr Morale and the Big Steppers

Writing about Mr Morale is, in one sense, something of a treat because there’s such a lot to say about it and such a lot that it says for itself. From another angle, it’s extremely daunting: as a record with so much density and substance, it’s easy to get lost in all the layers on display. It’s clearly intended to be a Big Statement by A Major Artist but its playfulness is vital too: whether in the humorously conspiratorial nature of the lyrics, with Kendrick being prepared to goof around and openly mock himself while talking about issues which are obviously very personal to him, or the musical breaks from hip hop convention, where he strays at times towards more jazz based textures or even elements that wouldn’t sound out of place in a musical drama.

Kendrick’s message is often contradictory but rarely incoherent, as the point of the album is basically that we have to work towards understanding our own truths, with unexamined judgements and behaviours fuelling the worst aspects of our lives. He's often tough on himself, whether he's raking over his infidelity, struggling with the violence that’s surrounded him from an early age or reckoning with what he feels to be his many emotional shortcomings. But he’s similarly scathing about everyone else too, lashing out hard at social media, the church and the superficiality of the modern world. Further to this, there are prominent appearances from the deeply unpleasant Kodak Black throughout, essentially emphasising the message of songs like Mother I Sober and Mr Morale, where Kendrick muses on the issues that keep black people in abusive cycles and chooses unconditional support for all, including forgiveness for the abusers. You may disagree with his ideas about this - and god knows I struggle with some of them - but it certainly provokes thought about a concept that's excruciatingly difficult to deal with. In the end, as he astutely points out on Crown, “you can’t please everybody”.

Ultimately, the important thing is that I liked the album a lot: often because of what it was saying, sometimes in spite of it and frequently when it was irrelevant because so many of the songs are absolute bangers. It is almost certainly the most adventurous record that I’ve listened to this year: Kendrick has often been someone who was prepared to break ground and go against the grain and the sheer weight of ambition on Mr Morale is hard to overstate. But the overwhelming feeling I take away from it is an enormous sense of respect for the man, both for his extraordinary talent and his willingness to put his emotional life on display in this manner. In the frequently ultra-masculine world of hip-hop, this is hardly a commonplace in any sense, but it’s hard to think of any other record at all which shows such an unvarnished, bold and often thrilling portrait of an artist who gives absolutely everything for his art.

August Danger Mouse and Black Thought - Cheat Codes

Cheat Codes finds Black Thought given a project to front that’s every bit the equal of his best work, as producer-to-the-stars Danger Mouse returned to hip-hop for the first time in an age to helm this absolute belter of an album. The Roots MC sounds fully in his element here, by turns witty, furious and, erm, thoughtful, as he dissects the modern experience of being black in America and spits some of his most musical and incisive bars in the process. Danger is, of course, entirely up to the task of backing him, armed with a plethora of scratchy old soul records and a trained ear for spotting the hook, as he makes Cheat Codes sound as inspired and enveloping as anything from the golden age of the genre.

The guests are, unsurprisingly, largely of a certain vintage (MF DOOM is even resurrected from beyond the grave on “Belize”) but all bring vital force to the LP, with Conway the Machine’s gritty sang-froid counterbalanced by the likes of Killer Mike’s punchy nervous energy. The title track is a particular standout, as Black Thought spins a beautiful and brutal web over Danger’s machine gun-style clatter, but there are few weak moments of any kind at all.

Bleakness does set in over the course of the album, as the neo-soul swagger of the first half gives way to an increasingly frosty outlook. But that’s all in keeping with its themes: there’s only so long that you can set a brave face to the harsh environment where these songs play out. If comparisons spring to mind, it’s perhaps something like Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s Winter In America, another LP where its creators looked for solace under the weight of a country in shock. Such a lofty pedigree may sound tough to live up to but, in truth, Cheat Codes punches that weight pretty comfortably.

October Westside Gunn - 10

I’ve previously struggled to find a way into underground hip hop, but it’s only lately that I’ve stumbled across Westside Gunn and his Griselda label associates and I feel like I’ve been missing out on a lot. The vibe is, I guess, reminiscent of old east coast records, all gritty jazz and soul samples slowed down and hammered out of shape, with a shifting cast of hoods and crack dealers making moves over the top. But while I can’t deny that familiarity, there’s a genuine distinctiveness to the Griselda sound too, with its strange, sometimes beatless loops forming an hypnotic sludge which it’s easy to become immersed in. I can’t claim to be hugely versed in it all as yet, but 10 was an instant favourite when I first picked up on it last month and is as good a record as I’ve heard all year.

There are cameos galore from a stellar cast here (Wu-Tang, Black Star and Run The Jewels aren’t even the half of it) as well as a surprise nod to 60s psych singer Margo Guryan on “Science Class”. But it’s the more obscure turns which often stand out, especially the hilarious run from Gunn’s daughter Westside Pootie on “Nigo Louis” and the apocalyptic holler of DJ Drama’s narration over “Red Death”, the grisly epic that closes out the album. Best of all is “Shootouts in Soho”, a hazy and surprisingly poignant take on addiction, where Stove God waves away the crack smoke for long enough to soberly reflect “When the feds come, they don’t love you no more” over the eerie synth backgrounds.

While AA Rashid’s opening reflections on Gunn’s place in the enlightenment are clearly a bit of a goof, my guess is that he has a solid and serious point underneath: that Gunn - and Griselda’s area of hip-hop in general - should be taken seriously for the high level pop art that it is. But even putting that aside, his arch reflections on “where is the enlightenment in contradistinction to the renaissance?” make for the most entertaining opening to any hip-hop record I’ve heard all year, and from then on, right thru to Drama yelling out “And like that…we gone!” at the end, the whole album is full of similarly winning lines that help to puncture its murky atmosphere, a febrile counterpoint that stops it from sinking into the swamp of its foundations.

10 was the first Griselda record to come to my attention and it's the one that got me hooked. It’s creepy, fucked up and incredible: I can’t get enough of it.

November Weyes Blood - And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

I read an interview recently in which Weyes Blood was framed as the voice of Generation Y, an impassioned, world weary commentator on the emotional casualties of our digital age. If I’m honest, it all feels a bit ridiculous - who on earth wants to be the voice of a generation anyway - and in reality it’s surely not that simple: apart from anything else, is it really possible now in these increasingly fragmented times? But on Hearts Aglow, it does feel like she’s stepping into that idea of herself even more so than on previous albums and, remarkably, it’s a fit that only adds to the weight and power of her music.

Certainly, Natalie has a flair for taking her own circumstances and broadening them out to address wider issues: the opening “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” uses her personal angst to fuel a grand statement about alienation, while “The Worst Is Done” rakes over the wreckage of the pandemic in unflinching emotional detail. All this is accentuated by the sweeping Laurel Canyon melodrama of the music and Merring’s rich and soothing vocals, which seem to have gained an increasingly mature depth since 2019’s Titanic Rising. It feels similar to the shift that Joni Mitchell’s voice made during the mid-1970s and fits perfectly with the new scope of her songcraft.

But perhaps what makes Heart’s Aglow such a remarkable record is how she manages to bring all this home at an individual level: she might be talking about all of our predicaments but when she turns that gaze towards herself, the surge of identification has an even greater poignancy to it. Whether it’s to do with her role in the wider questions she’s trying to address or simply “searching for a man who actually understands me” on the glorious title track, not only does Natalie seem to feel everyone else’s pain but, more to the point, we feel hers as well. Is she the voice of a generation? No, reader, she is not. But if Generation Y were really on the lookout for one, they could do a lot worse.

December Permanent Vacation - Shelf Life

Though released just three weeks ago, I’d wager that Shelf Life will have a somewhat longer, erm, shelf life than most of the records that came out this year. Permanent Vacation are an Anglo-American duo by way of Mexico City and their sound is one of haze and dust, late nights and broken mornings.

Juliette sings like English is her second language, with a husky, slightly hesitant delivery that feels like it's being broadcast from another universe. The music is minimal, a gentle acoustic guitar and some ghostly synths, with occasional piano notes that cut through with an unearthly clarity. Sentences drift by that don’t necessarily make much sense (“Do you know what it’s like to buy a paper?”, “I never told you you're a flower”), apparently meaning little but which begin to haunt after repeated listens. The mood is of low key drama, often brooding and fretful and which seems to mask a good deal left unsaid. “The King In Yellow” is named after an old horror story about a book that was said to drive its readers insane and, while I can’t truly say the same of the song (I still apparently retain my mental faculties), the unsettling vibe of Juliette’s strained voice and the staccato descent of the piano makes me understand something of what they're getting at.

More than anything, Shelf Life feels eerily evocative: amongst the things that came to mind while listening to it were the feeling of walking into a room which everyone had left ten minutes ago and seeing the echoes of their actions in object form, and waking up in a stranger’s house mid-afternoon, immediately wondering where you are and how yr going to get home. In a list where some of these albums will piss out the number of streams in a morning that this will get throughout the entirety of next year, this record goes to show that talent and recognition do not necessarily go hand in hand. In truth, Shelf Life is easily the equal of any of them.

And that's it. Or not, because this is just the top 10. There are in fact two more posts to come detailing the second tier of best albums of 2022, though I didn't write so much about them as they aren't quite as good. But I'll get on with posting them soon and will link to the next one here as soon as it exists. If anyone gets this far, thank you for reading.

[irnjehernandez]

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[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x09 Review

Spring Break was a bit of an odd ep but helped move some key plots forward. Let’s dig in!

Well people can no longer claim that Portwell is one sided. We finally got Gina’s pov and she starts off the ep uncertain whether the shift in their relationship means that EJ likes her but by the end of the ep she seems sure of herself and that EJ likes her back. I liked that she didn’t try to pretend that nothing had changed or that she hadn’t noticed potential signs that EJ might like her; it always sucks when tv characters act like idiots. 

Perhaps the most important reveal of this ep was that Gina has a much older estranged brother who left her and her mom many years ago. That certainly makes her backstory more tragic and is definite set up for her brother to eventually return.

The writers continue to give Portwell great tropes, capping this ep off with an airport rom-com trope that also calls back to EJ getting Gina the place ticket so she could come back in S1. Not only did Gina keep EJ’s Duke sweatshirt but she altered it to fit her better which is both sweet and bold in the assumption that it was hers to keep. Gina got her sign when not only did EJ show up to drive Gina home and take her luggage but he brought her the granola bar that she had wanted but forgot to pack. I wonder if her posting on her story that she was ubering home after her flight was cancelled was intended to see if EJ would show up since the camera focused on her posting it. Also sweet that she’s taken to calling EJ, ‘ Eej’. 

EJ’s opening was good, shows a lot of his character growth from the selfish guy he was in S1 and how he’s learned to value other people which of course leads into his feelings for Gina. We got another great use of the camera as character tonight when Gina was laughing after her facetime call with EJ until she realized that the camera was on her. 

Jack was a lot of fun. Though he didn’t really change Gina’s mind over anything like the ep description said he would.  Seemed like Gina was largely over Ricky and wondering about EJ at the beginning and the end solidified her feelings for EJ but Jack didn’t really play a role in that, it’s not like he encouraged Gina to reach out to EJ or anything. There’s a vague sense in which Jack being nomadic linked him to Ricky’s unreliability in Gina’s eyes with her craving stability but that’s a stretch. Jack mentioned that the second most dangerous part of a plane ride is when the plane takes off, a hint to the blossoming Portwell relationship where in order to take off one or both of them has to risk a confession even though they could be turned down.

This ep might seem a bit weird in hindsight. The zoom parts probably won’t age well and five years from now people might be wondering why they had Gina hang out with a manic pixie dream boy of sorts for an ep.

The path is clear for canon Portwell in the finale with EJ being Gina’s second chance at romance and her first kiss since they clearly telegraphed it out of nowhere. I’ve been impressed with the great work the writers have been doing since 2x05 to build up Portwell as a ship but also work on Gina and EJ as individual characters; they’ve been the highlight of the season so far. 

There was discourse this past week over how well or poorly Portwell has been set up. Objectively very few ships on this show get much in the way of set up or consistent writing. Redlyn and Kowie had barely any set up before getting together. Seblos had none (though in fairness that was due to Disney restrictions) and Miss Jenn and Mike Bowen didn’t have much set up either. Rini did get lots of development in S1 but that’s because they had already dated and were the main ship of the show. The show’s not really about slow burns, if Jenzzara canons in the finale they’ll count and if Rina ever got together they’d also count but neither of those ships have gotten consistent development with Mazzara not being in several eps and Gina and Ricky not even interacting for the past 3 eps. 

Is Portwell a slowburn? In a sense since they did feature quite a bit in each other’s S1 plot lines and even had a fake dating plot but it is true that they were platonic and not that close in S1 so it’s a wash. There was clear set up for romantic Portwell in 1x10 with team wonderstudies and Gina staring at EJ (which interestingly enough looked more like set up for Gina to pine over EJ). I think the main problem is that even though we saw Gina and EJ hanging out in the background we didn’t get any scenes of substance between them until 2x05. It was a mistake and there should have been some scene, like EJ and Gina commiserating in 2x03 over being single on Valentine’s Day or something like that. Hell there was even that still from 2x01 of EJ and Gina looking at each other at the piano while they were in the frame between Ricky and Nini singing and having a moment  which would have been good foreshadowing but that shot wasn’t in the ep.

Whether Tim just really wanted Portwell to be a surprise in 2x05 as a mid-season twist to throw the audience off of what looked like a Rini/Rina triangle or he was unsure as to whether he wanted to go with Portwell or if he just planned it out poorly we may never know. Regardless they’ve had great writing for 4 eps in a row now which puts them slightly ahead of the 3 eps in a row of development Rina got in S1. I’m sure if someone added up their screen time they’d find that Portwell has more screen time this season than Kowie and more screen time than Redlyn or Seblos  got in S1. 

Caswell cousins was fun and Ashlyn did in fact paint EJ’s nails. 

Set up for Seblos drama next week, it’s refreshing to see Seb being jealous over Carlos flirting with other boys that’s definitely not something you see on Disney shows.

Ricky got some healing done with his mom. Enough to cover their issues? No but this is probably the best this show is capable of. There was a brief mention of therapy sandwiched between other options which sounds more like checking off a box then setting up Ricky actually going to therapy. I noticed Lynne was smiling at odd times like when she told Ricky she knew about his breakup with Nini; whether that was poor directing or acting I don’t know. Who knows if we’ll see Lynne again. As an aside still so wild that Tim named Lynne who’s been a kinda shitty mom after his own mom who he seems to be fairly close with.

Really liked You ain’t seen nothin as a song but not a fan of the Tiktok style vid. I’ll level with you wildcats, I’m too old to really get Tiktok, it just seems like a crappy version of Vine to me. Let you go was good, seemed better fitted for Joshua Bassett’s voice than some of his previous songs. A big sign that they’re not circling back to Rini for a long time for sure. Though on that note we got a bit of a hint that Ricky was Nini’s muse which may one day come back as a way to help bring them back together. 

Looking Ahead:

If there’s only 3 weeks left till the Menkies, with only 2 weeks left for rehearsal due to spring break, it’s hard to see East High winning unless North High is disqualified or has to withdraw. 

Lily is in a promo photo so she’s likely the unexpected facetime Ricky gets which is what I had theorized. Also makes it much more likely that she’s the party crasher Ricky re-evaluates in the finale though what Tim actually wants to do with those two I do not know.

There’s little point in bringing back the Valentine’s chocolate since there’s no real stakes. Rini are already broken up, Gina hasn’t spoken to Ricky since 2x06, and it’s not like Nini and Gina were ever close so even if they stopped talking to each other it wouldn’t really affect the show in any way. 

Seems pretty likely that Second Chances refers to Gina realizing that her first try with Ricky failed but her second chance with EJ won’t and that leads to her sharing her truth and cue the Portwell confession and kiss, perhaps with an assist on EJ’s end from Mazzara. We’ve gone well past the point where Portwell can be brushed off as just a plot device to help Rina but Tim is playing with fire by getting the audience so on board with Portwell if he’s once again going to have EJ lose a girl he likes to Ricky in S3.

Gina certainly needs to talk with Ricky and I do think that happens in ep 11 or 12 and leaves them on better terms. As I mentioned last week, if Tim was smart he’d slam the door on Rina if he’s going with canon Portwell or vice versa. If he wants Rina to be a slow burn he’s really botched the writing this season, it’s been too one sided and too angsty to sustain any kind of momentum or audience interest. They haven’t even interacted for 3 eps now and not only has it not affected the show but it’s inarguably made Gina’s story line much better.  Again I don’t think he’s smart enough to not try and do Portwell and then later Rina but he’s accidentally set up the Rina story line to quite easily slam the door permanently on them by having their conversation be closure for Gina who’s moved on and an apology from Ricky who never liked her back as much as Gina liked him.

Not looking forward to seeing Nini basically live out Olivia Rodrigo’s life in future seasons

Curious to see Carlos’ apology song to Seb. Ricky helping him with it is a great way to help start redeeming Ricky’s character in the audiences eye’s. According to Matt there is a bit of a Ricky/EJ rivalry this season and if it’s really happening the sleepover would be a good place to do it though I hope it’s not about Gina. 

Until next week wildcats.

[ryqoshay]

Putting on Hairs: Dead of Light

Focal Character: Shizuku Background Ships: ShizuKasu, AiRina Also Starring: Kanata, Hanayo, Setsuna, Mr. & Mrs. Osaka, Gwædangau Rating: G Words: 630 AU: Theater, Monster, Cryptid Fandom: Love Live Nijigasaki Parent Fic: Putting on Hairs Time Frame: During the main story Event: Promptober 2022 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Ghost Content Warning: Implied Major Character Death, although she did get better... in a way. The prompt is Ghost, after all.

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Author’s Note: Primary entry for Oct 4th

Summary: The theater’s new lights have an unexpected effect

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Finally, Gwædangau burst out of the tree line and into the clearing surrounding her home. She raced toward the entry, barely remembering to transform back into her human form so she could open the door without barreling into it, or worse, through it.

“Cut!”

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“Shizuku-chan, are you alright?” Kanata inquired.

“I’m fine.” Shizuku replied. “Why do you ask?”

“You look… dead…” Kasumi stated, stepping out from backstage.

Shizuku raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend. “Well, I am dead. I’m a ghost. Surely you haven’t forgotten.”

“Yeah, but normally you look, well, not dead.”

“Rina-chan, did you do something with the lights?” Kanata called to the theater’s head of lighting and effects.

“I replaced two amber bulbs the other day.” Rina reminded.

“And used the ones you made with my hair, right?” Ai asked.

“Correct.”

“But that was days ago.” Kanata drawled sleepily. “Why would that cause issues now?”

“Could it be because this is the first time I’ve rehearsed on stage since then?” Shizuku pondered.

“Now that you mention it, Maki-chan and Nico-chan have been kinda hogging the stage as of late, haven’t they?”

“Well, they are the stars.” Hanayo spoke up. “Shizuku-chan and I are just their understudies.”

“There’s nothing ‘just’ about understudies.” Setsuna stated decisively. “You two are wonderful actors and it’s an honor to share the stage with you.”

“Well said, Setsuna-chan.” Kanata agreed. “Anyway, Rina-chan, is there a way you could disable those two bulbs to see if they’re really the issue?”

“One moment.” Rina responded. “How about now?”

“Much better.” Kasumi declared. “Shizuko almost looks as cute as Kasumin again.”

“Sorry my hair left you in a snare in the dead of light.” Ai called.

“Anyway, let’s pick up where we left off.” Kanata directed.

---------

“Amber theater lights made from the hair of a doppelganger causing a ghost in corporeal form to look dead.” Mrs. Osaka summarized.

“Right.” Shizuku nodded.

“I must admit, that’s a new one for me.” The woman turned to her husband. “Any ideas?”

Mr. Osaka shook his head. “We may have to reach out to some of the others. Are the Sakurauchis still in town?”

“I believe so, let me send them a message on LINE.” Mrs. Osaka reached for her phone.

“Who did you say made the bulbs again?”

“Rina-san. Tennoji Rina-san.” Shizuku said.

“Tennoji…” Mr. Osaka thought for a moment. “The Jiangshi?”

“You know her?”

“I only know of her. But I do know who turned her. Let me reach out to them.” Mr. Osaka pulled out his phone as well. “Perhaps they may have an idea as well.”

---------

“You didn’t have to go out of your way for something like this, you know.” Ai pointed out as she watched Rina apply Shizuku’s ectoplasm to the surface of the bulbs.

“Perhaps,” Shizuku conceded, “but I know that you take pride in helping Rina-san in her work, and I didn’t like being the reason for one of your contributions being unusable.”

“I see. Thank you, Shizuku.”

“Also, this is my first time to contribute something of myself to the theater and Rina-san’s inventions.” Shizuku added. “I’ve seen Ai-san, Setsuna-san, Riko-san, Maki-san, and many of the others give of themselves to improve this place somehow. It’s nice to finally join the ranks.”

Ai grinned. “I know, right?”

“I believe these will work now.” Rina stated, holding up the altered bulbs.

“Can we test them before you go through the trouble of reinstalling them?” Shizuku asked.

“Yes.” Rina replied before turning, snapping the bulbs into a nearby device and turning it on.

“Well?”

Ai gave a thumbs up.

“Great. Then I’m going to head to rehearsal.” Shizuku turned toward the door, then paused. “Let me know if you want any more ectoplasm for other projects.”

“Will do.” Rina replied.

---------

Author’s Note Continued: For the record, last year’s prompt for the 4th was Amber, which I challenged myself to include here. And as a bonus, I had an idea to directly follow up the story of that entry with this one.

As for the very first paragraph of this chapter, I copy/pasted it from one of my entries for the Fantastic Departure event, The White Circle Comes. However, instead of Maki playing Gwæd, it’s Shizuku as the understudy for the role. I hope I dumped enough exposition to make that clear.

What I didn’t have room to expo is that Gwæd is a werewolf, and is one of two who are the lead characters of the play Putting on Hairs. While I don’t believe that to be necessary to the plot of this chapter, it may nonetheless be interesting to know for those who may not have dug through all of my event collections. I do intend to write more about this play whenever I get back to writing the main story of PoH.

And finally, I would love to eventually come up with a way for all of the cast and crew members of the Sonoda Kurosawa Theater to contribute something of themselves to the theater. Some were easy, like Kotori’s feathers, as that is literally part of the lore for her monster type. Extrapolate that out to get feathers from Yohane and You as well. But what Shizuku could give had evaded me until writing this event entry chapter. And I suppose I can apply it to Hanamaru as well.

[doridoripawaa]

thinking about how like half of nijigaku is autistic

like they're all neurodivergent but we also have every flavor of autism in nijigaku and I love that very much

Rina: quiet tech autistic who is bad at expressing emotions so she finds alternatives in order to be more authentic to herself, and everyone is cool with that

Setsuna: repressed autistic who is so accustomed to masking that she basically had to develop an alter ego who can freely hyperfixate and stim. idols are her special interest.

Lanzhu: idols are ALSO her special interest but she's the stereotypical prodigy autistic who is great at everything except Connecting to People

Ai: a delightful mix of ADHD and autism who doesn't have the best sense of self but is HYPERempathetic and is like a hamster in a wheel but the wheel has LED lights and the hamster had 3 red bulls

Shizuku: suppressed her autism and special interest (old movies & theater) to "fit in" until she couldn't tell where her mask ended and Shizuku began. now she's living her dream, being herself, and writing fanfic of her friends.

honestly there's arguments for all of them but like. wow I love nijigaku.

[mogai-infirmary]

hey not a rq, but do you know rina tennoji from live live? onr of the alters in our system is rina :3 i think rina and allister would be rlly good friends if they were in the same "univrrse" they have the same unparalleled vibez

sorry for the late response but yeah i’ve seen her!! she’s so cute! ALLISTER would definitely be friends with her!

[medea10]

My Review of Love Live Nijigasaki School Idol Club

AAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I’M BACK IN IDOL HELL!

Another damn Love Live! Seriously? Another damn one!?

Actually, I knew this was going to happen from like almost two years ago. Back when I was an active player with the rhythm game app LLSIF, we’d get these special characters popping in every now and then, usually as SSR, SR, or N scouts. Then in 2019, they put out singles for each girl to play and I knew then and there that a new Love Live was already in the works and were going to feature these girls.

THIS STORY: First of all, the characters of this story are not becoming idols because the school is in danger of closing down. I know that was like a big thing in the original Love Live and in Sunshine, but that’s not the case this time. This school looks very well populated and well-established. So let’s just squash that trope.

Ayumu and Yuu got bit by the idol bug leaving school one day when they came across a solo performance out in the open. The girl performing is named Setsuna Yuki and she’s part of the Idol Club at Nijigasaki (the school Ayumu and Yuu attend). The next day, they learned from the student council that the club has been disbanded at the request of Setsuna. So what do Ayumu and Yuu do now? They’re going to try and revive it!

But what about the girl who started the idol club in the first place, Setsuna?! The reason for Setsuna disbanding the club was because she felt that she and the rest of the girls in the group were on a different wavelength. So she decided to disban the club, leaving the other girls, Emma, Kanata, Shizuku, and Kasumi to go their separate ways. But that wasn’t the only thing on Setsuna’s plate. Setsuna kinda lives a double life on campus. She’s Setsuna in the school idol club, but she’s also the student council president, Nana. So Ayumu, Yuu, and Setsuna end up reviving the idol club. Emma, Kasumi, Shizuku, and Kanata end up joining again. And eventually, we get other members Ai, Rina, and Karin to join in. And since there’s quite a long list of characters, let’s talk about them.

Ayumu is one of the first girls to revive the idol club. Unlike the main girls from the other series like Honoka and Chika, she’s not as crazy-energetic and idol-crazy. She’s more of the lover of cute things. She was sparked by idols when she saw Setsuna perform.

Speaking of cute things, Kasumi is the idol-loving crazy girl that loves all things cute and wants all of her performances to be cute.

Emma is the first Love Live character originally from a place that’s not Japan. This Swiss-miss came to Japan to become an idol.

Setsuna lives the double life. At school, she’s the disciplinarian student council president, Nana. But when she’s in idol form, she’s Setsuna Yuki ready to shine on stage.

Shizuku got interested in becoming an idol to help with her acting aspirations.

Rina got curious and ended up joining the idol club despite having problems showcasing her emotions. That’s why you see the computerized monitor on her face.

Ai joined alongside with Rina and with her Sporty Spice persona, she’ll get the club on their feet.

Karin is already well-established in the modeling world, but ended up getting into the idol world after hanging with Emma.

Kanata…likes to sleep. Oh, and she has a younger sister in an idol group at her school.

Then there’s Yuu! She isn’t the kind of idol member that sings and performs like the other girls, but works to support each girl in their goals.

Oh and all of these idols are SOLO ARTISTS!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As usual with the Love Live franchise (and most other idol animes), these voice actors are brand-spankin’ new. These girls are usually only known for their work as actual idols and only a few of them really go on to do a full-length voice actor career. Then I get, SURPRISE! Akari Kitou is in this too! This girl was in EVERYTHING these past two years! Everything! Every-damn-thing! Now she’s a Love Live waifu! Actually, several of the seiyuus here I’ve seen in a few things here and there and that’s pretty rare since I’m not hip to all the idol groups in Japan.

Now for the dub, because we all know FUNimation! Yeah, they licensed this just like the previous Love Live series. However, they really kept this series all to themselves where not even Hulu could air it. At the moment, no dub has been announced or planned. I’m assuming it’ll happen one day. I only say this because of all the other Love Live series. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Ayumu is played by Aguri Oonishi

*Setsuna is played by Tomori Kusunoki (known for LLENN on SAO: Gun Gale Online)

*Kasumi is played by Mayu Sagara

*Ai is played by Natsumi Murakami

*Emma is played by Maria Sashide

*Rina is played by Chiemi Tanaka (known for Ririko on Sakura Quest)

*Kanata is played by Akari Kitou (known for Nezuko on Demon Slayer, Yashiro on Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, Iwanaga on In/Spectre, Tsukasa on Tonikawa, Aru on Hitoribocchi, and Kaho on Blend-S)

*Shizuku is played by Kaori Maeda (known for Selka on SAO: Alicization)

*Karin is played by Miyu Kubota (known for Sister Lily on Black Clover)

*Yuu is played by Hinaki Yano

NEW BEST GIRL: As you may know, I have picked my favorite girls from the Love Live fandom. Nozomi is best girl in the original and when it comes to Sunshine, Ruby is tops!

When I saw the new girls back when the app LLSIF released all the single songs for the Nijigasaki club, I was curious about one particular girl. I had a feeling Rina was going to be a special kind of interesting. Why was she wearing a special mask on stage? Is she an introvert who hates to be seen up-close? I had to learn more about her! Turns out Rina had a lot of trouble expressing her feelings. When she’s excited, sad, irritated, or satisfied, it’s just the same expression. I love Rina. She’s my precious cinnamon roll and if anyone talks smack about her is gonna get a bop in the face.

ABOUT YUU: I know what you’re thinking, what the hell is going on with Love Live giving us 10 girls  instead of 9? And I would agree! LLSIF game gave us 9 solo albums and Yuu is not among any of them. But then I recently downloaded LLSIF All Stars and discovered the interactive portion with all of the girls and how your character is the unspoken 10th member of the group. Yeah, Yuu is pretty much that character.

SHIPPING: In the original series, I was a bit of a multi-shipper that was open to any hookups if I can see it. When Sunshine came along, I was still a multi-shipper, but heavily Kanan x Mari to a point where I’m imagining their wedding. This time around…yeah, once again I found myself shipping the fuck out of third-years.

This is Karin x Emma. I support the fuck out of this. Never forget that!

And while I’m at it, let’s add Ai x Rina. Ai was literally Rina’s first friend. She will go anywhere for this girl and do anything for her.

I should probably add Ayumu x Yuu too. But then again, this is Love Live. No matter what ship we all choose, it’s all for naught as no one really confesses their feelings for each other. Right?

Hahaha…Foreshadowing!

THE SAME, BUT…: Yeah, you know how this goes. Since this is an idol anime and the third one from the same franchise, I’m gonna squawk about the similarities this series has with the first two Love Lives. Yes, we’ve got the cutesy, annoying idol with Kasumi. Yes, we have the token class president with Setsuna. Yes, the animation for all the dance scenes is wonky CGI. And yes, we have a center second year with a red-ish hue to her hair with Ayumu. But there’s just so many glaring differences compared to the other two series.

*First of all, the school is not in any danger of closing down. The original Love Live had Honoka and her friends starting a school idol club to drum up attention for their school so it wouldn’t have to shut down. Love Live Sunshine also had that with sadder outcomes for the school. This school is huge, has many different clubs and activities. This school is safe! But if they pull some shit out in season two saying it has to close down, I call bullshit.

*Nijigasaki High School Idol Club mostly has solos. One of the reasons for the falling out at the beginning between Setsuna, Kasumi, Emma, Kanata, and Shizuku was differences. Every girl has their own thing and they respect that. Even in the app, there are a lot of solo songs and only a few where two or more of the girls are singing together.

*Add to that, this group doesn’t really have a “group name”. I mean Nijigasaki School Idol Club doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like μ's or Aqours.

*The big, scary student council president is a second year. Unlike Eli and Dia from the previous series, Setsuna (a second year student) is really the scary one with power. But much like Dia, she does have a passion for idols. It’s just that Setsuna goes above and beyond to hide that along with her true self. I bring this up because when the second season comes (AND IT WILL), I have a feeling they’ll introduce this one character that’s in the game and that’s going to be quite the game changer.

FAVORITE SONG: Chase by Setsuna.

I think all of us were blown away by that song in episode one.

ENDING: After Diver Fes and Karin’s solo performance, the girls decide to hold a training camp at their school. During the camp, Yuu was still awe-struck by everyone’s dedication to the club and the performances in the previous episode. And by the end of the camp, Yuu says there should be a school idol festival to show everyone that school idols are awesome. Much to my dismay, I doubt that this anime will follow the game route and have μ's and Aqours perform. Actually, the groups seen throughout the series are characters I would run across in one of the other Love Live apps, including Kanata’s little sister. Moving on!

Everything was going along swimmingly with this School Idol Festival. The student council (or Setsuna as her alter ego Nana) agreed to it, the students of Nijigasaki are excited for what’s to come, and other schools including Kanata’s sister Haruka’s school are willing to participate. However, the big friction that sparked came from Ayumu. As we all know, she and Yuu are close as can be. Ever since the resurrection of the School Idol Club, Yuu has been there to realize the dreams of everyone. Ayumu got jealous, especially seeing Yuu with Setsuna. So she corners her and wants Yuu all to herself and…

Whoa. Confirmed lesbianism!

Let’s just say Ayumu’s jealousy came and went as she realized she can’t stop Yuu’s dreams and that Ayumu’s gonna have plenty of devoted fans besides Yuu. So thankfully that was resolved quicker than I thought and now we can focus on the School Idol Festival. The festival was actually going really well. There were separate stages for all of the solo idols and there were sample songs from all the Nijigasaki girls heard throughout the finale, and only a few hiccups during the day. But nothing Rina couldn’t fix. So much for the rainstorm!

Oh come on guys, plenty of idols from this franchise and other shows performed in the rain and they all turned out just fi…

Oh, I forgot about Honoka.

Oof. Zombieland Saga did her wrong. Never mind what I said!

Unfortunately, the rain didn’t clear up until 7:05 (five minutes after the time allowed for this festival). But all of these idol fans waited and they wanted a show. And so, that’s what they got. Nijigasaki and all the other participating schools performed together. So the festival was a big hit. People who watched it sent a request for another festival to happen. So there’s definitely going to be another School Idol Festival in their future. But what about a season two?

Pfft. COME ON! You know there’s going to be a season two. The girls haven’t experienced heartache of the upperclassmen graduating. Shioriko hasn’t been introduced yet. Tokimeki Runners hasn’t been sung yet. An actual Love Live hasn’t happened yet. That is the whole point of this franchise, right? To have idols participate in the famous Love Live School Idol Festival? So yeah, I know no one has greenlit the Nijigasaki series or announced anything, but I know it’s gonna happen. I can smell it. Love Live will never die. Why else is there going to be a Love Live Superstar series coming out in July?

I gotta say I enjoyed this series. It’s nice to see the struggle of creative differences with the club members. I mean in the past two series, the girls would all agree to something or eventually get to a happy conclusion and sing together in perfect harmony. Cute, but not realistic! And these girls are all very different so it’s good to see a lot more solo performances. Both μ's and Aqours have members with solo songs. It’s just that if you’re an anime only person, you probably wouldn’t know that. Otherwise you would know that Riko and Maki are superior in the singing department.

Prove me otherwise!

Recommendations are always tricky in this area. Idol shows are either loved or hated by the anime community. And I unfortunately can only recommend this to idol show watchers. I’ve already stuck my neck out to recommend Zombieland Saga to everyone.

If you would like to watch Love Live Nijigasaki High School Idol Club (fuck that’s a mouth-full), it is available for streaming only on FUNimation.

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

What is the weridest thing you have ever done working in TV? I bet you have weird stories!

ummmmmmmmm IDK, the mental filing cabinet doesn’t have a folder for ‘weirdest’. A lot of our shoots can be weird. Or not even ‘weird’ just... different.

Some of the experiences include:

Holding a me-sized bounce for an outdoor interview that lasted so long I fell asleep standing up and had to be woken when it was over.

Shooting sacred rituals for the 5-day consecration of a new Hindu Temple and being given an apple from Ganesha for breakfast (the head priest gave me an apple from the blessed offerings after the morning prayers and said it was from Ganesha and that the god wanted me to have as many babies as there are seeds in the fruit; he was a really sweet old man who couldn’t speak much English).

Spend 3 hours playing with a herd of alpaca so they seem active in the background. Literally running back and forth in a grass field with alpaca chasing me. 3 hours. I have a broken foot. Alpaca like ear & neck scratches.

Act as a magician’s audience plant for a card trick and also a trick involving a single ball that turned into 2 balls in my closed fist (I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THAT ONE HAPPENED I DIDN’T FEEL ANYTHING).

Speaking of the magician- turning around while we were setting up for the show and seeing his breasts (he has a female alter-ego (his words) and his wife allowed him to get actual breast implants). Didn’t expect to see tits at the magic show...

Randomly picking someone to interview about a special show at this massive theater in honor of Chinese New Year and finding out three days later that I’d grabbed the fucking Chinese Trade Ambassador to the US at random from a huge crowd (I got major brownie points for that).

Having an Imam declare me his favorite crew member because not only was I the only one who stopped to take off my shoes in the mosque, I yanked the two camera men back just before they stepped into the prayer room with their shoes still on (thank you to @ladyvanserra who advised me on proper mosque etiquette before the shoot). He also sent an e-mail to the VP of Production to say how much he appreciated that at least one member of the crew was informed (thank you again Rina!).

Several things that would probably launch and OSHA investigation and so I probably shouldn’t say....

We interviewed President Jimmy Carter (as in the former US president) on August 24, 2018 and I was feeling a bit off. That part is special for a very specific reason: it is the last day I can actually remember before blacking out for a month from a still-unknown illness that left me weak, my lungs damaged, and fever-riddled off and on for the better part of 6 months (given that my symptoms line up perfectly with COVID-19, I’m guessing it was some kind of similar-ish one. No one I worked with got sick). I wrote and posted a fanfic during my blackout. I refuse to read it, I think it’s funny that I don’t know what the hell it’s about. I even still went to work and did my job, though the guys apparently did “Is Kristen still alive” checks every hour.

Just last week having to maintain O_O eye contact with an actor (not just ‘talent’ in front of the camera, an actual SAG-card carrying actor who does TV and such) for like 15-20 minutes so he’d have an eyeline for some coverage shots. We were giggling like idiots.

Interviewing one of the city’s richest guys, noticing one of the photos on his desk kind of looked like my cousin, and then finding out that MY cousin is HIS cousin.

Going to an IMAX premiere of one of our documentaries I worked my ass off on and finding out during the credits that I was given a producer’s credit-- and my very own title card with no one else’s names around it (I cannot stress how rare this is on documentaries).

This one isn’t good-weird but has a funny ending: Thinking a guy we were  about to interview live looked familiar in a bad way, googling my assumption but alas the page loaded too slowly to stop it before the interview went out live, and as the man is talking about how much he likes children having to whisper into the headsets, “Um, guys, this man is a registered child sex offender” (he was my brother’s high school band director when he was arrested). The producer yelled ‘fuck’ so loudly that- even though she was a room away from the supposedly sound-proof studio- you could kind of hear her in the broadcast!

There are more, so much more probably, but those are the shoots that come most to mind :)

[timeaftersometime]

How do to think Pure would have been different had Sara lived? Do you think she could have given up her Pearl (since mermaids can kinda sorta live without bc of Luchia)? I would have loved to see Sara making amends and helping to rebuild her kingdom, Kaito and Gaito getting to have an actual relationship, and Seria getting to meet Sara!

Wow I gave a thought to this and it turns out this thought just branches out into so many rabbit holes that I’m not sure if I can completely answer your question, but I’ll try!

From your ask, I gather that you assume that Gaito would live as well. I’m also going to assume here that Sara would still follow Gaito even if they had lived. Aqua Regina did note in the final episode of the first season that Sara’s duty is to save Gaito’s soul. Which means that even if she lived, it is possible that she still would need a successor in Seira. Seira would be still too young to lead a rebuilding of the Indian Ocean Kingdom, so I don’t think we would see much of that in Pure anyway, even if Sara had lived.

Even so, everything would be very different. A few reasons summed up here: 1) Taro probably would not have left Japan, 2) Sara would be the one taking care of Seira rather than Luchia, 3) all the Mermaid Princesses will be present.

1) Taro probably would not have left Japan

A bit of context here: I am making a few assumptions here for the canonical story. The biggest one is that someone had to break it to Taro that Sara is gone. Through the events of the finale in Season 1, Taro was mostly unconscious after his brief reunion with Sara, right before the final battle. The evidence is that Sara bid farewell to Taro while he was still unconscious on the back of Hippo.

Had Taro been unsure if Sara was still alive or not, he might have returned to India out of desperation just for that chance to see her again where they met. (small headcanon: Taro and Sara met at Rama’s Bridge in Tamil Nadu. Where else but a bridge that Suvannamaccha the Mermaid Princess disrupted?)

But it is more likely that either Luchia, Hanon, or Rina had to gently break the news to him. After composing himself, he would then decide to further study music in Germany in order to let his inner melody flow, as a tribute to Sara.

Now, assuming that Gaito’s castle still sunk anyway, but not into the deepest depths of the ocean floor, the location of Gaito and Sara would still be off the east coast of Japan. When Taro wakes from the ordeal, he would still ask about Sara’s whereabouts. Luchia, Hanon, and Rina would still have to break bad news to him, but something quite different: that Sara has chosen Gaito over Taro. But the key difference is that Sara lives.

It is possible that Taro could have wished Sara well in his heart and continued to pursue music. But I think it is more likely still that he would stay in Japan, constantly looking out to sea as long as his mermaid princess was still alive.

Which brings me to the fact that we would have seen how Taro and Hanon would both had to learn how to let go at the same time. Nagisa would still appear as part of the story, and Taro would still gift Hanon his music score. But with Taro’s constant presence (and Sara’s choosing of Gaito), Hanon would be more determined than ever to win Taro’s heart. Taro would then have to constantly gently reject and refuse Hanon’s advances, and maybe set Nagisa and Hanon up. (which he kinda did already, even if he was far away in Germany)

Sara would resurface every now and then, and Taro will then have to struggle with practicing what he preaches. He would have kept telling Hanon to move on from him, but likewise, Sara would have had to give him similar advice that he would have to follow.

Which reminds me, I haven’t even talked about Sara proper yet. 😅

2) Sara would be the one taking care of Seira rather than Luchia

This is interesting because we go into the details of what exactly is the relationship between Sara and Seira. Generally, we’ve been considering Seira and Sara as two separate mermaids, two separate souls. However, Hippo noted all the way in Episode 1 that “Pearls are an element of mermaids”, or even more specifically, “真珠わ人魚の分身” (lit: pearls are a “clone”/”alter ego” of mermaids). This suggests that while it is definitely possible that mermaids can be alive without their pearls, they would also be incomplete without them. Which means to say, that the pearls contain an essential identity inseparable from the mermaids who possesses them.

This raises the question of the Orange Mermaid Princess’ Pearl: if Sara is still lives, can Seira be born? Which leads us to think about something even more interesting: can we consider Seira as a reincarnation of Sara? And there’s even more: do the Mermaid Princesses have friendships that lasts beyond lifetimes, reincarnation after reincarnation?

This is of course, assuming that every mermaid owns a pearl that they keep in their shell necklace. But, if we assume that the pearl is more like a Crown Jewel for each kingdom, then perhaps it is possible for Seira to be born at the will of Sara’s abdication being approved by Aqua Regina.

Even so, I cannot imagine the relationship between Sara and Seira to be anything but profoundly deep and intimate. Even if we allow for the fact that the ownership of the pearl can be transferred when the previous owner is still alive, there is a sense that Sara is at once Seira’s mother and other self. Sara has so much to teach Seira about the beauty of the Indian Ocean Kingdom and all her culture. But consequently that means that Seira will spend more of her time in the Panthalassa Palace with Sara and Gaito. It would be nice to see Gaito’s humane side for once, responding to the antics of a kid. At some point, Seira would surface, not only to experience the human world but also to socialise and meet with the other Mermaid Princesses. Which brings me to:

3) All the Mermaid Princesses will be present.

The power of the seven Mermaid Princesses have been shown to be invincible when they are combined. Michel would be somewhat less threatening, even though he is still as powerful. Seira would have been protected during her birth in the Indian Ocean, considering the fact that Sara could have more easily gathered all the Mermaid Princesses to witness and protect the birth of Seira together if she was alive.

If Michel was successful in absorbing Seira’s power though, Sara would have been the caretaker of Seira’s pearl, which would have been even more interesting to see what Sara might confess to Seira in their private moments alone in the subconscious realm.

Other stuff:

It would have been interesting to see how Kaito and Gaito interact as brothers, but also at the same time they were both brought up in vastly different environments; it would take a lot of communication for them to kindle a sense of brotherhood. If Sara had lived, I would also be keen to see how she would make amends to Coco, and perhaps a couple of episodes following the duo as they explore the human world.

Thank you so much for the ask, anon! This was such a fun rabbit hole to dig into. 😆

[babygoestozspace]

Thank u for tagging me @tweedstoat! I’ve kinda been wanting to get back into fandom so maybe an ask meme is good actually.

Name: Hilda

Gender: Female

Star Sign: Scorpio!

Height: 5′8

Birthday: ...Scorpio!

Favorite bands: Bastille, Of Monsters and Men, and Years and Years are the ones I fairly regularly keep up with. Fall Out Boy was embarrassingly high on my 2019 Spotify recap.

Favorite Solo Artists: Janelle Monae, Sam Smith, Hozier, Rihanna, Megan Thee Stallion, Rina Sawayama, Juice WLRD (too many to count!)

Song stuck in my head: Rain on Me by Lady Gaga lol

Last Movie: Girls’ Trip I’m pretty sure

Last show: Teen Wolf! My mom and I binged the whole thing when I was home for winter break, I stopped watching back in s3 in 2014 and it was so delightful to get into it again, Scott McCall remains the GOAT. Luv bingeing teen tv with her (we watched Riverdale, the 100, and the Flash during summer quarantine).

When did I create this blog:  probably fall 2012?

What do I post: Whatever the heck I want 💕Currently ASOIAF, a lot of art and photography/modeling and poems/words/quotes, some MDZS, will probably start posting Riverdale again in the event I watch the new season or if I just see something funny

Other blogs: I have a Riverdale sideblog bc I wanted to keep that all in one place, but I quickly learned I just don’t have the patience for one. I put some edits for my ASOIAF college au on there and will likely continue to to that.

Do I get asks: Just PMs from my mutuals, I’m not really active in any fandoms!

Why I chose this url: Animorphs permanently altered my brain chemistry. I used to read recaps of the books bc I couldn’t get my hands on all of them and one of the recappers had a blog w/ the tagline Baby Goes to Z Space (z space being the negative space where extra matter goes when morphing i am not a scientist and have not read these books since i was 15) and it stuck with me! I had an SnK blog at the time but when that time was over I changed to this and kept it ever since! I’m sentimental 💕

Following: 251

Followers: 408

Average hours of sleep: 5-7

Lucky number: 9!

Instruments: I was a band geek in middle school, played the clarinet

What I’m currently wearing: leggings and a sweatshirt

Dream job: Increasing access to healthcare and education, esp with immigrant and refugee populations

Dream trip: I just want to go back to the motherland lmao, my aunt’s family just got back and I’m big emo over it lmao, like damn take me with you. I was supposed to study abroad in South Africa over the summer but... it’s a pandemic! I’d like to visit France too.

Favorite food: Chapati and dengu is elite. Mom’s spaghetti, unironically.

Nationality: Kenyan

Favorite song: Flowers by Bastille

Last book I read: “The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali” by Sabina Khan

Top three fictional universes I’d like to live in: None ❤️I’ve never been much into sci-fi, fantasy, or like, superheros. I just want to live a very idyllic life like those people on TV.

I’ll tag @displayheartcode, @rhaella, @daisybrien, @petsohp, and @gonewiddershins! Y’all r the real ones.