#silo the altogether

[emiko-matsui]

my friend, after i put on my playlist and playing after all, see the day, night, newton's first, etc.: wow there's a lot of those altogether songs on this

me: yeah... do you know who brian david gilbert is?

my friend: yeah, it's that guy who did the pokérap right?

me, about to drop the most world altering knowledge on her:

[themaskofreason]

what is the best song by the altogether:

ROUND 2 bracket 1!!

[nextimeiny]

while i'm humming softly to a song that you made

[dammitradar]

Happy Altogether August everyone, how's the longing going?

[osaka-lilac]

ya know there is something about putting on your vinyl records and sitting on the floor and playing F1 22 on xbox game pass and sippin on some water that can be so Personal and Healing

[kteezy997]

The Heart of a Bene Gesserit-Part Two//Paul Atreides

Warnings: mention of slaves(for spice harvesting), drinking alcohol, speaking of heartbreak

You were given your own room at the Emperor's house. This wasn't the first time you'd stayed at a House of Atreides, but this felt altogether different from your childhood.

Duke Leto was an untouchable force, but not necessarily a man to be feared. He was a man who commanded respect. But you could tell that the people here, servants, soldiers, Paul's men, were all afraid of him under the surface.

As you spent the following day with Paul, you could still sense the melancholy from him. You sat in on his council, you walked the Arakeen halls with him, everything he said to everyone was met with a "Yes, my lord." As if they could not say anything contrary.

You knew that this wasn't what Paul desired. He was still Leto's son. He had a heart, and you knew that all he really wanted was love and to be loved. There was something specifically off about him. You could tell that he was troubled. You wanted to know what was going on in his mind.

Paul was headed to take some time to relax. He deeply stressed, as was everyone else during this time of war.

"Paul, do you need to talk about anything?"

"No, I'm fine." he said.

"You can trust me, Paul. I am your friend, don't forget that."

"I'm going to need more time. What personally troubles me is miniscule in comparison to everything around me."

Just as Paul had sat down, one of the guards burst into the room, "My lord, another smuggler crawler has been intercepted. They need your approval as to what to do with the prisoners aboard."

"Kill them all." Paul said, without any thought.

"No." you said sharply.

Paul frowned at you, his eyes darkening, "No? How would you deal with these traitors?"

"Don't be so much of a Harkonnen, Paul." you warned, knowing that you would pinch a nerve mentioning his mother's bloodline. "No need for senseless killing. That would only be liberation for these smugglers. I would keep them as slaves for the spice silos. Make them work to the bone, under the burning desert sun until the end of their days."

He tilted his head, a look of intrigue on his face, "Seems cruel, but quite useful, y/n."

"Think of it as a lesson for other wannabe thieves. The taste of slavery is much sourer than death. The spice harvesters will be kept in line. The empire will be better for it."

Paul nodded, a grin on his lips, "Hmm." He agreed, stepped closer to you. "I want to offer you a job on my council, if you'll have it. I need your mind, y/n. Someone sensible for once."

"I will consider it, my lord. Give me time." you answered, smirking up at him.

"I must leave now and give orders to the new slaves." he said to you, then looked to the guard at the door behind you. "Y/n will stay and watch over House Atreides in my stead until I return." he gave one last nod, then left the room.

......

Hours upon hours passed, it was so late into the night that you weren't informed about Paul's return. You needed to see him, to be assured that he was alright. You instructed a servant to take you to him.

Paul was alone in the dining hall; a few bottles of spice liquor littered the grand table. You looked ahead, above the large door across the room, stared into the eyes of the bull's head that hung there. You heard footsteps, saw Paul walking out toward the table.

"Leave us." you told the servant and watched them leave. This was seemingly a moment of weakness for the emperor, his staff did not need to see him this way, so vulnerable.

“Y/n, forgive me for not seeking you this evening. My duties took longer than anticipated. I figured you were asleep.” Paul said, holding a bottle to his lips, downing the liquid inside.

“I wanted to be sure that you came back safely.”

“I know my way in the desert. I’m the emperor, you don’t have to worry about me.” he sat down in one of the chairs, setting his bottle on the table.

“I think someone should look after you, Muad’Dib.”

“Oh?” he took another sip, “And you wish to be this someone? To look after me, bed me, so you can be the mother of the next Kwizatz Haderach?”

That remark made you angry, you understood that he couldn’t fully trust you yet, but he was being too harsh. The alcohol must bring out his defiant streak. “Don’t mock me, Paul Atreides. I’m not just Bene Gesserit, you know. I’m your friend, we grew up together, I am still the same person.”

“Are you?” he asked, not looking at you. His blue with blue eyes were obviously tired. Exhaustion was all over his face.

“Yes. I’m here for you, even if you don’t realize it.”

He turned his head, glaring at you. “Tell me, what exactly are you here for? I assume there’s a mission for you at hand, yes?”

This was it, you couldn’t conceal it anymore. He knew. He just needed you to admit it. “You’re right. I was sent here to secure your bloodline. To seduce you. I accepted the mission, but not to see it through. I just missed my friend. And I worried about you. Everything you’ve been through, Paul-"

“I believe you.” he drank down the remaining spice liquor from the bottle, then stood up. “Come with me.” he said, walking out of the dining hall.

“Paul, I think you should go to bed, get some rest.” you suggested, following him.

“Afterward." he replied. "I want to show you something.” He led you out onto the large balcony that overlooked the spice depot. “I remember when we used to watch the sunset on Caladan. I know you thought it was beautiful, the way the sun reflected on the water, but the moons here are just as breathtaking.”

You looked at him looking up at the night sky. The dark night shadowed his features, softening them. Then you looked up at the moons, shining brightly, “I have heard of the two moons of Arrakis, but it is something entirely different to see them with my own eyes.” He was right, it was a sight to behold. It was beautiful. “I may be biased, but I prefer a Caladan sunset.” you teased him.

Paul chuckled, looking over at you, “I knew you’d say that. What I wouldn’t give to be kids again. Feels like I’ve taken those memories for granted. I’m glad you’re here to bring them back. I miss Caladan, who I was there. Who I was when I was with you.” his voice was so tender and soft, if not for your training, you’d be weak in the knees.

“Maybe you could tell me what’s bothering you now. Get something off your chest. You have enough weight on you, Paul. Let me help you.”

He sighed, shaking his head, "I loved a Fremen woman, but she left when I ascended the throne. She hates everything I stand for. She didn't believe in the Lisan al Gaib. She thought I wanted to control her people. I betrayed her by seeking power. In avenging my father, I lost her."

You nodded, understanding why he had turned to the spice bottles, "I've never been in love. But I imagine losing it is very hard to deal with. I know you're hurting, but it sounds like you met a strong woman and had a great love. Not everyone gets that." You couldn't help but feel jealous. You hoped the marriage arranged for you one day would be a love match. But you were also jealous of this mysterious Fremen woman that had Paul's heart.

"I will always love her. I've seen many futures of her coming back to me, of me finding her. I don't know if any of those visions will come to be, but I will love her as long as I breathe."

Your heart sank, coming to realize that he may never love you that way. You swallowed, "I can only hope that I will feel that way about someone one day."

Paul took your hand, "I'm certain you will. You should know that I am, and have always been, very fond of you. So, it would be easy to get a man to fall in love with you." he smirked, "Especially if you use your Bene Gesserit tricks."' he winked.

"This Fremen woman, what was her name?"

"Chani. My Sihaya." he looked away, but he couldn't stop the smile on his face, but it was quickly replaced with sorrow.

"Sihaya? Desert spring, right?" Things were falling into place for you.

"Yeah. She hated that name. She preferred Chani."

"The prophecy. She was part of it." you whispered to yourself, realizing.

"Which is why she hated it." Paul concluded.

You stood there a moment, looking at the moons, soaking in the view. Now you knew that Paul would never want to be with you. He couldn't, even if he wanted to. He and this Chani were in the same prophecy. It was fated.

"I'm going to go to bed. You should do the same. Goodnight, my lord." you let go of his hand, and gave him a short curtsy.

He gave you a nod that felt strangely formal. You could somehow feel the intimacy between the two of you fading away as you left for your room.

@gatoenlaciudad @thebetawolfgirl @musicandbooksaremyhappyplace @softhecreator @tchalamss @lixzey @ducktapebar @aoi-targaryen @yukideadinside @elloise0 @thatoneweirdgirl17 @bitchyunknownuser @mel-vaz @sammy-halpert @iwishchalamet @that-one-fangirl69 @jindongdongie @briefkittenearthquake

[lets-try-some-writing]

In the AU where unicron is optimus father what would happen if the kids were harmed or in a dangerous situation thanks to unicron resulting in the response of the optimus and the rest of the autobots

More pain for my lovely boy. This is going to be complete angst so to make sure Prime gets some comfort eventually, I am going to make an additional two parts for this in different posts.

A Father's Wrath

After months of watching Optimus be ignored and feared by his own team, the bots Optimus had come to see as family, Unicron grew angered. The chaos god understood their initial fear, but as he watched his only creation wallow and slowly fall to loneliness, his patience wore thin. This was his son, his glorious creation who had lowered himself to protect and care for Primus's lesser spawn, and now said spawn were rejecting that kindness. It was despicable.

The chaos god tried to reign in his anger for Optimus's sake. If nothing else the human vermin that had taken up residence on his frame were there to support his wayward creation. But days turned to weeks, and weeks into months until at last Unicron could take it no longer. One day after Optimus had struggled in vain to try and speak to any of his team only to be promptly ignored, Unicron at last snapped.

In a fit of rage, Unicron transferred power over to his creation unknowingly, causing Optimus to once again fall to the ground in agony as his frame rearranged itself to make up for the surplus of power. It was unintentional on Unicron's part, but as Optimus flailed and screamed, the waves of power emanating from him struck the children and the team. The team grew ill, most purging on the spot as Optimus pulled himself together and stood on shaky pedes, his spark once again exposed. But the children... they did not fare nearly as well.

They collapsed and convulsed. Jack became violently ill, throwing up as blood leaked from his eyes and ears. Miko started having a seizure that very nearly stopped her breathing altogether. And Rafael screamed and clawed at his face as the worst migraine he had ever gotten assaulted him. Before Optimus could do anything, Fowler was called in and the children were taken away for immediate hospitalization. The team left in Vehicle mode and parked in the hospital parking lot to keep a general optic on the children for fear that they might die while Optimus remained at base.

Left completely and utterly alone, Optimus cried. His frame once again shattered so thoroughly could not shed tears even if he tried, but the mixed dark and normal energon that leaked from his armor was enough of a testament to his grief. Otherworldly cries and wails echoed throughout the abandoned missile silo for hours as Optimus wept, hating himself and everything he was in that moment. The Matrix thrummed within him, trying to calm him and comfort its chosen bearer in its own odd way, but Optimus only composed himself nearly a day after being left alone to drown in his guilt. By the time the team came back, Optimus was no longer crying, but he was frantic for answers.

Optimus: The children, are they well?

Ratchet: *refusing to look at him*...

Optimus: Please, tell me their conditions!

Ratchet: *turning to leave* ...

Optimus: *grabbing his arm to keep him still* I can endure this silence no longer! Tell me what has befallen the children!

Ratchet: *snarling and ripping his arm away* They live, no thanks to you.

Optimus: Ratchet-

Ratchet: Save it! If this incident has proven anything, it is that you are dangerous, too dangerous to be kept near.

Optimus: Wait!

Ratchet: We are done. Take what you need and leave. You are no longer welcome here.

Optimus: Please don't do this-!

Ratchet: LEAVE!

The dooming declaration hung in the air as Optimus stopped dead in his tracks, the blazing motes of light that served as his optics flickering and wavering. His outstretched servo shook and his exposed spark pulsed in shock and horror. He looked at the rest of the team, desperate for it to be some cruel joke or perhaps a mistake. But as he met the fierce gazes of each of his former team, he knew the truth.

They feared him, and they wanted him gone.

The only one who didn't meet his pleading gaze was Bumblebee who instead opted to look away, unable to watch as Optimus was sent away. The Prime shook and energon leaked from his frame in his own version of tears as he sputtered in vain. However after a moment of silence, Optimus shuddered, turned away, and began gathering the few items he would take with him. He did not want to strip his family of anything important, after all, they still had a war to win. So all the Prime took was the few personal accessories he brought with him to earth, a singular first aid kit, and a whetstone for his in built blades.

He looked back pleadingly one last time as the ground bridge was fired up and prepared to send him halfway across the country. But as he was met with only cold and frigid glares by most, he tore his gaze away and said only one sentence before stepping through.

Optimus: If this is what you wish of me, I will honor it... but let it be known that I never intended for this to happen.

Optimus: ...

Optimus: I'm sorry.

He stepped through and the groundbridge closed behind him the moment he was out of sight. As soon as Optimus was gone, the team sighed collectively, not out of relief like they expected to, but out of grief for what they had done. But despite those feelings, they did not call Optimus back and instead each took time to themselves to think over the matter.

Arcee had been the one to hate Optimus most adamantly after the reveal, but as she lay in her berth, she found herself sorrowful. Optimus had been nothing but kind to her, caring for her and showing her the utmost sympathy and respect after the losses of her partners. He never yelled, he never harmed her, and he even willingly took hits for her more times than she could count. He was Unicron's creation, but he was the kindest mech she had ever met. She hated to admit it, but laying there after he left, she cried and tried to tell herself that it was for the best.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack were both very torn when it came to the matter of Optimus. Both respected him and looked up to him, even after the reveal they wanted to serve under him as they always had. After all, wreckers don't judge a mech so long as he does good. But with how dangerous he had proven to be, in their minds they could not afford to accept the risk that he posed, not when the children were in their care. As much as they loathed sending their Prime away, to them it was only right. It was what good wreckers would do...

Ratchet despised himself the moment he saw the look on Optimus's face after he ordered him to leave. He wished more than anything to take back those words, but his spark... his spark screamed in terror whenever his old friend looked at him. The sight of Optimus's blazing form and the feeling of his sickening spark waves washing over him were engraved into his memory. He couldn't look at Optimus the same way, not after all he had seen since Unicron's near awakening. He wanted to believe that what he was doing was right, that he was sending away a monster that had posed as Cybertronian like some sleeper agent for millions of years. But the pain in Optimus's glowing optics... it made Ratchet regret.

No monster could have looked so betrayed and so very broken at being sent away.

As for Bumblebee? He was left in a state of internal conflict. Much like Ratchet, he was terrified of his Sire's true form and nature, but like Arcee, he couldn't just ignore the fact that he had only ever been met with love and care from Optimus. The Prime had raised him, taken care of him, fought for him, and never once done a thing to harm him. Bumblebee wanted to think that he was cutting off a parasite or getting rid of a spy when he blocked off his bond with Optimus. But as he watched his Sire leave the base for what was likely the last time, Bumblebee felt empty and more alone than every before.

He had betrayed his Sire on every level and his spark knew it...

The children were not allowed back to base for over a week afterward as they recovered. Thankfully they did not suffer any serious damage and healed quickly. But upon entering base for the first time since the incident and seeing Bumblebee issuing orders instead of Optimus, they grew concerned. Immediately they tried to ask what had happened in their absence only to be met with silence from Fowler and June. Even when they turned to the team for answers, the bots simply dodged their questions, eventually up and lying by saying that Optimus was taking a few days to himself because he felt guilty.

The children were suspicious as pit, especially once they noticed the lack of avatars from Unicron and the mysterious disappearance of Optimus's plants, but they accepted it. The reasoning seemed plausible with Optimus's personality... so they waited.

Every day after school the children asked about Optimus. Bulkhead and Wheeljack only met their queries with guilty gazes and did their best to dodge the question. Arcee outright told the children to leave her alone every time they tried to talk with her about the absent Prime, only further rousing their suspicions. Ratchet straight up wouldn't even look at the children and tended to wander off muttering something whenever they tried going to him. And so lastly, after an additional week of prodding and begging for answers, Bumblebee stepped up as leader and gave them.

Jack: Where's Optimus? I know you said he was taking some time off, but it's been nearly two weeks!

Miko: It isn't like him!

Rafael: Optimus is always working and never takes breaks. Did something happen to him?

Bumblebee: ...

Rafael: Bee?

Bumblebee: For your safety, Optimus Prime has been stripped of his badge and exiled for harming innocents, associating with the enemy, and traitorous behavior.

The children: What!?!

The children were distraught but could do nothing once the truth was revealed. They could only make a fuss and give the team the silent treatment in retribution. The team did not take Optimus's absence and the children's reactions well... and neither did the Prime even with the distance between them.

Optimus set up camp in his alt-mode once his frame had healed from the power burst. He hid out in an old garage on some farmstead where a human male and his daughter lived. He stayed undercover for nearly a week in his alt-mode, both to allow his frame to recover and to wallow. He was absolutely spark broken at being sent away and most of his time in alt-mode was spent lamenting his losses.

But the Matrix has never been one to allow its bearer to remain inactive for long, and it swiftly pushed Optimus to move, to do something. As such Optimus resolved himself and left his makeshift base of operations with one goal in mind.

He would continue to fight for his Autobots, weather they wanted him to or not.

Unicron tried to reach out to his creation multiple times during the whole fiasco, but Optimus ignored him, angry at his father for destroying the delicate balance he had forged with his team. As such Optimus went at his work alone, using his remaining access to Autobot codes and signatures to track down his old team to assist where he could.

He would not stand idly by, not while Megatron still lurked.

[acasternaut]

yayy my turn my turn

[albumoftheday-versary-town]

today's album of the day is Silo by The Altogether

[lesbianboyfriend]

@dykehayleywilliams tagged me to post a 10/10 album that was released when i was 16!!! tyyy ro <33 and there is, of course, only one answer to this question….

silo by the altogether….i would not have survived 16 without you you literally got me through 2020…..album of forever all time

too sleepies to properly tag but mutuals i would love to know your answers!! whether you make a post or just reply <33

[emiko-matsui]

my mental stability vs. the altogether's uncanny ability to write songs that remind me of my brother

[starvingnarcissistmusic]

totally completely unrelated to my last message on Orchestra but any chance you could do a analysis/breakdown of We Sapient Stardust?

Alright so for the sake of not regurgitating things I've already said, I'm not going to go in depth about any of the songs in particular. I've already written loads about them on Genius so if anyone wants to know What's Up With [insert song here] they can go there. Instead, I'm gonna talk about what went into making the album as a whole.

We Sapient Stardust's """production""" began pretty much as soon as And That Means Everything finished. In fact, I'm pretty sure I had written most of Sleepless Friends before And That Means Everything even came out. After spending a whole year making an album about the past, I was really itching to write about how I felt in the present. And I felt.... bad. A friend has told me that We Sapient Stardust feels like "dealing with the condition of Being 17" and like. That's honestly exactly what it was. I was 17, limping over the high school finish line, feeling tired and sad and anxious about the future pretty much every day. The opening line of There Are Some Things I'd Rather Not Say was pretty much a summation of how I felt then. One year left till I fell apart.

Attached: Old cover idea/placeholder I had for Limbic System's Rag Doll. Was originally playing with the idea of it being part of the Burnout Series (Dysania, Anemia) but ultimately decided it didn't really fit in with those songs.

Initially, the album was a lot less existential. It was more just songs about how badly I felt, with most of them trailing off into angsty self-loathing. I had kind of made up my mind from the start that this was going to be the sad album, but at the beginning a lot of that sadness and misery was specifically centered on me. I felt really bad so I wrote a lot of songs about feeling really bad. At some point I leaned more into the existential themes, because honestly you can only spend so much of your free time writing songs about how much you don't like yourself before it feels just a little bit counter-intuitive to your mental health. Writing songs like that doesn't really feel like catharsis to me, it just feels like kicking myself while I'm down, and I didn't want my second album to feel like a thirty minute self hate session. Some artists can pull that off really well, I definitely can't.

Attached: The first demo of Sleepless Friends (at the time called Anarchist Cookbook), featuring slightly different lyrics and my (sickness afflicted) out of tune singing.

The cover started as just a test to try and make something in a collage style, I was really inspired by The Altogether's Silo EP cover art and wanted to make something in that vein. The oldest version of it on my PC I could find is from February 2nd 2024. It went through a few changes, at one point I had drawn a little figure in the sky in place of the plane, and at another point it had the album title and drawn-on stars like ATME, but eventually I just settled on using the collage as it was. It felt strong enough with to stand on its own. It was a little weird having something and knowing it would be the album cover, since for pretty much all of ATME's production I had convinced myself the cover was a placeholder.

Attached: collage album cover attempt.png, the first ever version. Kind of mostly the same, although the saturation was way down and it didn't have the outlines drawn in. These are how the photos looked when I took them, but then I realized the saturation made it look 1000% better.

The name was also a bit subject to change, as there was a lot of places I wanted to go with the album. I think at one point it was called "Songs For Scum". A few others include "Wish It Would Settle In", "Something About Drowning" (if I used this one the acronym wouldve been SAD which I think is funny), and "The Boy Who Cried Lonely". A lot of these names were made around the same time I was writing all of those self-loathing downer songs, so they were all vaguely angsty. Once I landed on We Sapient Stardust though, it was pretty much set in stone. Although, at one point there was going to be a companion EP called "Searching For Solace", filled with outtakes. I scrapped it mostly because I just didn't have enough scrapped material that I liked enough to release.

Attached: The moodboard I made for the album a month before it came out. The cat is the same one from the Blacktop Angels cover, because at the time Kafkaesque was Blacktop Angels Pt II. I didn't end up going with that though, so if I could remake it now I'd probably replace it with a dog instead. Fun fact: The cat was a stray at my high school, and my friend named it Chickpea.

Honestly between the two of them, We Sapient Stardust was a way harder album to make then And That Means Everything was, on pretty much all fronts. It's definitely my favorite between the two of them, but in my head, they're sister albums that are meant to go together. I'm incredibly proud of We Sapient Stardust, and I think I'll stay proud of it for a long time. I hope anyone who listened to it connected with it. That's really all I could hope for.

(And, as a final note, thanks to everyone who provided their voices for the group chant! That moment is probably my favorite thing I've ever made, and I couldn't have done it without them. All of their names are listed in the description of the YouTube video and in the Bandcamp page. Some of them even have their own music, so check them out!)

Anyways, hope that sufficed as enough rambling for a satisfying answer, haha

[grapefruiters]

all the records i have

•silo by the altogether

•and everyone else smiled back by bears in trees

•i feel chaotic/keep me safe by bears in trees

•beetlejuice musical cast recording

•prolonging the magic by CAKE

•titular album by the head and the heart

•jesus christ superstar original concept album

•cheers by jukebox the ghost

•everything under the sun by jukebox the ghost

•let live and let ghosts by

•safe travels by jukebox the ghost

[themaskofreason]

What is the best song by The Altogether - Quarter Final bracket 3:

[rpcburnbook]

TLDR: The rpc identifies or fantasizes about life through their character's perspective far too prevalently for me to believe in the widespread separation of art and artist in this hobby. Also, a lot of people who write dark shit do it specifically to upset or goad people irl even when they know specific boundaries exist. // i respect that you have boundaries and know what makes you comfortable, but I am curious how you know what other rpers motivations are? there's a lot of assumption here. // I should have stated this more carefully. i also saw there was another reply too so I'll do my best to address both. fwiw, I've been in the pbp rp scene for 20 years and I absolutely don't know other people's motivations. I can only go on the basis of patterns. I have written about lots of darker stuff in my time- sa, dv, child abuse, etc, always on board where those things fit the setting. I don't actually think most dark theme writers set off to upset people, that was badly stated. However I think the behavior - in general - reveals most rpers don't have the maturity to be handling some of these topics in a communal setting, so I usually approach with caution and a fair amount of suspicion at this point. Sasha is a *really* extreme example of deliberately instigating, obviously, and I've never personally run across someone that far off the deep end. I'll instead speak to what I usually see which is more tame and probably less conscious but still in poor taste imo. I've been approached several times about what I'm writing making people uncomfortable, and only in 2 cases has the person been so overwrought or aggressive that there was no good solution. Sometimes the solution was moving plotting for certain characters to dm or a specific channel, other times it was putting things in a doc, and in some cases it was just talking to people about why I was writing those things. On the flipside I have talked to a few people in my time about keeping certain topics siloed in similar ways and seen many conversations where someone else did and they've rarely gone well. About half the time, I have seen whoever is being asked to pull back instead: get really passive/aggressive towards the asker, start soliciting similar plots from characters directly adjacent to that persons characters, start talking about the topics more, start tagging those people when they post like 'lol @ person don't read I know you'll hate it', or leaving the site altogether. I've also seen writers cut their partners off for realizing a topic was too much to write explicitly and backing out of graphic depictions of some of this. To me this says someone is too personally entangled with a character or theme to be writing them in a community, and more often than not I don't have a problem with anyone until that's been demonstrated. Again, I get squicked by these things because it shows me someone can't separate their personal feelings and self image from criticism or distaste for those topics. [pt 1]

[pt 2] I think if you're going to write these topics, you need to be prepared to handle the occasional pushback or discomfort gracefully and respectfully. Since I have seen that so rarely, I can't help but believe that most people aren't doing a good job of separating themselves from the topic or the character, much less considering other people when they're writing things which can genuinely be disturbing. If you can't do that, I don't think you should write those things outside 1x1s, and even then only with people you can hear criticism from without spinning out. In a public context, to another replier's point, there are certainly people who are looking for reasons to be upset or are at least coming into those conversations with a lot of sensitivity, which speaks to part of my original ask in that I don't think many admin teams are equipped to moderate well when one or both of those things are true. And in other contexts, rping those kind of topics is a left field kind of decision based on the setting/overall tone and shouldn't be done. All of that means I just regard most writers who focus on dark themes with caution. Like I originally said, most of the time I just ignore stuff I don't like, it's just hard for anyone (myself included) to do that if an individual has decided people are being too sensitive and the right medicine is to push harder or carry resentment instead of respecting other people.

Again, I don't think that's everyone. But my experiences on both sides of those conversations make me think a small fraction of people are genuinely equipped to handle these topics in public responsibly.

[jellyfish-neo]

Songs by The Altogether Poll Tournament

I'd like to know what the most popular songs are for fans! I'll be making a poll for each album, the singles, and the winner from each category will be put against each other for a final result. Poll links under the cut!

Singles

Look Up

When We Were Kids

Silo Side One

Silo Side Two

Dance on the Walls: The Songs of Twelfth Night

Fences Side A

Fences Side B

Fences Side C

Fences Side D