#there is something cool as fuck to me about not just improving at my instrument but also like i've been stretching and yoga-ing a lot

[loverboybrightsideghost]

for my next trick i will become god

[ladykailitha]

Can Anybody See Me? Part 7

And here we get to my little headcanon about Gareth. I saw a gif of Nancy talking to a kid with a camera at the game in season 4 and thought it was Gareth. But Gareth is shorter with darker curls. So meet Gethin, Gareth’s taller fraternal twin.

On the tagging, I HAVE REACHED MY HARD AND FAST LIMIT OF 50. I love the response this story has gotten. I do. I love you all. I love every reply, like, and reblog. It brings me so much joy, you don’t even know. But tagging is hard for my ADHD brain. I have gone up from 20 to 30 and finally 50 as my system improved but I think if I do any more than that I’ll go insane. So any future tagging requests will be ignored. Sorry.

The best way to keep update on these stories is follow me and set me on notifications. I rarely do a lot of reblogging these days (too busy churning out stories like whoa), so more often then not a post will be a story. I try to post at least once a day (some times twice if I’m trying to rush through the posting a bit like I did to make sure the Valentine fic got out in time without making people wait on Vamp!Eddie), just never at set time.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

*

Steve was the last one to arrive.

Again.

But at least this time he wasn’t late. Just last. Fucking story of his life. Thankfully all four of them were waiting in the open garage. He could see Gareth’s drum kit in the corner, but none of the other guys brought their instruments.

“You found the place okay?” Jeff asked.

“Took a wrong turn somewhere, I guess,” Steve groused. “But I finally got back on track.”

“Come on in,” Gareth said. “My mom made homemade hot chocolate and sugar cookies.”

Steve lit up. “Sounds great.” He poured himself some hot chocolate and a couple of cookies, shoving one into his mouth immediately.

“So how we do this,” Jeff explained. “Everyone hands out their presents and then one person at a time opens all of theirs at once.”

“And since this is your first time,” Gareth said, “you’ll get to go first.”

Steve blushed. “Thanks guys.” He frowned suddenly realizing something. “Wait...how did you guys know what to get me?”

All four boys just grinned at him. “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Eddie said, patting him on the shoulder.

Steve opened his gifts and since the point was to be outrageous, he laughed when he pulled out a pair of Speedo’s. “Do I even want to know which of you guys got this for me?”

Brian shook his head. “It’s better if you don’t know, man. Forbidden knowledge that.”

Steve nodded. The last thing was one of those auto-signature pictures of the 1984 Olympic gold medal swimming relay team. He looked up at Eddie, somehow knowing it was from him.

“Thanks, man. I love it.” At Gareth’s questioning look he explained. “I’m on the relay team at school. It was so fun watching this. They even had the Olympic trails right here in Indy.”

“Wow,” Jeff said. “That is cool.”

Eddie just cleared his throat and shove hair in front of his face to hide his embarrassment.

They went around the room, Gareth, Brian, Jeff and then finally Eddie.

Eddie got temporary tattoos.

“These ones are legal,” Brian teased.

A pack of guitar picks and a new DM screen. And then he got to Steve’s.

Steve squirmed in his seat, because he knew he had blown the limit. But when he saw it he knew he had to get it for the metalhead.

He opened it up to see a black leather wallet with a skull and a red lightning bolt behind it. It had a small metal ring for a chain to be clipped onto.

Eddie looked up at him with shiny eyes. “Steve...”

“I told you I was going to get you something nice for you and your uncle letting me come over and spend Christmas with you.”

“Steve wins,” Gareth said.

“Agreed,” Jeff and Brian said together.

Steve blushed. “I’m just glad everyone enjoyed their gifts.”

“You ready for some D&D?” Eddie asked trying to change the subject. Not just because he was uncomfortable, but because he had a feeling that Steve was too.

Steve nodded. “I got some pointers from Dustin and Lucas when I dropped them off. They also let me borrow some dice.”

“That’s some friends you got there, Steve-o,” Jeff said.

They led the way inside and Steve was sat between Eddie who was DMing and Gareth.

They had just gotten settled when another boy came out of the kitchen munching away on leftover ham. Steve had to blink. He looked over at Gareth and then back to the boy.

The Corroded Coffin boys grinned.

“Meet my fraternal twin, Gethin,” Gareth said, batting his eyelashes innocently.

Steve’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit, dude. I didn’t know you were a twin.”

Gethin rolled his eyes. “I’m the cooler old brother of the pair.”

“By two minutes,” Gareth said rolling his eyes.

Gethin’s eyes glittered with malice. “Still counts, nerd.”

“Go back to your camera, dweeb!”

Steve just shook his head.

“All right, let’s roll up these characters,” Eddie said rubbing his hands together and cackling gleefully.

It took a bit for Steve to get the hang of it, but he needed less and less help from Eddie or Gareth as the game went on.

They all died spectacularly.

“That was fun,” Steve said as they cleaned up.

“It’s not that bad with a campaign normally,” Brian said. “Unless specified to be a kill your darlings kind of game.”

“The point is to get your character to level twenty and beat the final boss, right?” Steve asked.

“That’s right,” Jeff said. “Sometimes we play with the club and sometimes it’s just us four having a blast. Our characters have been a party for about three years now.”

Steve let out a low whistle. “That is a long time.”

“We’ve got a paladin, that’s Jeff,” Eddie explained. “A wizard, that’s Gareth’s character. And Brian’s rogue.”

“And your druid, right?” Steve said snapping his fingers, remembering what Eddie said at the mall.

“That’s right, sweetheart.”

Steve grinned. “That’s so cool.”

“Hey, Steve,” Jeff asked. “Is okay if me and Brian get a ride home with you. Eddie lives on the other end of town and Gareth drove so...”

Steve shrugged. “Sure. Ready when you are.”

Jeff and Brian gave Eddie and Gareth hugs and then followed Steve out.

Once Steve had left Eddie turned to Gareth.

“So how did he do?”

Eddie wasn’t going to force his friends to like Steve. They didn’t have to. But he would like them to.

“He seems pretty chill,” Gareth said. “Gotta wonder if a couple of concussions changed his personality.”

Eddie nodded. This definitely wasn’t the Steve Harrington of last year. Or hell even of their experience with the guy as a whole.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think maybe there were flashes before this.” He threw his arms in the air. “Because yeah, head injuries can cause personality changes, but I think at the fundamentals he’s still the same person he’s always been. Just now he can be himself instead of whatever Tommy H and Carol wanted him to be.”

“A funky little dork who is just trying his best?”

“Exactly,” Eddie said. “I just wonder what made him decide to give up all the popularity.”

Gareth nodded.

*

They hung out a few times with Steve and sometimes it was just Steve and Eddie.

Eddie could tell that there was something that was bothering him. Something that went deeper than feral dogs and beat downs by California transfer students.

But every time Eddie would get close, Steve would shut down. Once he got so upset he got up and left. Eddie was on the phone every day for three days trying to apologize. It took actually going to his house and threatening to beat the door down before he got through to Steve.

“Hey, don’t do that,” Eddie growled. “What if you had another concussion and no one was around to help you, dude. You could have died.”

Steve sighed. “Sorry. I can’t talk about it. Like literally, legally on pain of incarceration can’t talk about it.”

Eddie blinked. How the hell did a seventeen year old boy get mixed up in something that could get him arrested for talking about it?

“So write me a story or paint me a picture,” Eddie said. “Something, because it’s eating you alive. Is there someone you could talk to? An adult or something because fucking hell, Harrington you look like someone walked over your grave.”

Steve dug the meat of his palms into his eyes. “I know. There are a couple people I could talk to but they have so much to worry about.”

Eddie thought for a minute. “This is about Will and El isn’t it?”

Steve’s head whirled to face him, fear etched into every line of his face. “I don’t know what you mean...”

Bingo.

“A girl turns up out of no where and boy that was dead, suddenly isn’t?” Eddie said cocking his head. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure out the two are connected.”

Steve looked down at the floor. “Whatever you can imagine, just know it’s much, much worse.”

Eddie nodded. “So I’m guessing the adults are Mrs Byers and Chief Hopper?”

Steve nodded. “And the other people that know about it are all younger than me. So...”

“So tell me a story...” Eddie said. “Change the names, the details, but tell me a story. Or paint me a series of pictures. I’ve seen drawing pads all over your place, man. Just something, anything. Okay?”

Steve sighed. “Yeah, okay. I’ll try. Because you’re right. I need to release it somehow. Keeping it bottle up inside isn’t good.”

Eddie smiled. “There you go. Now go get dressed, we’re going to grab a bite to eat.”

Steve smiled softly. “Okay.”

*

After the first week of January Steve came up to him, eyes darting around him like he was nervous. So Eddie pulled him into the janitor’s closet.

“Hey, I need you take a deep breath for me,” Eddie said as Steve started to hyperventilate.

Steve struggled to obey.

“Hey, hey,” Eddie said, soothingly, rubbing his arms up and down. “Take a deep breath.” Steve managed that at least. “Good, now let it out slow.” The breath shuddered, but still it came out slow. “Now can you repeat that for me.”

“I’m in so much trouble, man,” Steve sobbed, sliding to the floor, his knees to his chest. “We have to do a comic in art class and so I thought I would do what you suggested. Make a comic out of the hell I went through. Only Miss Chen thinks that it’s too dark and wants to call my parents.”

Eddie’s eyes went wide. “Shit!” He began pacing back and forth. “Do you think your parents will come?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’m terrified that if they see it...”

“They’ll lock you up and throw away the key?” Eddie suggested.

He nodded.

Eddie took a deep breath. “Okay. Do you still want it or do you want it destroyed?”

Steve opened his mouth to answer, but frowned. He closed his mouth and really thought about it. “I’d like you to see it,” he said quietly.

“All right,” Eddie said. “I won’t go into details, because you need plausible deniability. But the first page of your comic isn’t going to be there tomorrow. And hopefully with it gone, Miss Chen won’t call your parents. Okay?”

Steve nodded.

Eddie opened the door to leave when Steve called out.

“Hey, Eds?”

“Yeah, Stevie?” Eddie asked, turning back to him.

“Thanks.”

Eddie smiled softly and then made his way out of the closet, giving Steve time to collect himself before he faced the hell of high school once again.

*

Eddie couldn’t be involved in the art theft either. It would be expected. So he enlisted Gethin’s help.

“And you’ll give Janice my number?” Gethin asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

Eddie threw his arms in the air. “For the last time, yes! Besides, she probably already has it as you know, your TWIN is in the same club as she is?”

“What do you get out of this?” Gethin asked.

“I’m the one that suggested it in the first place,” Eddie admitted, putting his hands on his lower back. “So it’s my job to get him out of the trouble I put him in.”

Gethin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Steve’s going through some pretty heavy shit, huh?”

Eddie licked his lips. “Yeah, man. I thought he could get it out safely through his art, but even though Jeff and I have turned in far worse stuff...”

“Because it’s coming from Steve, obviously he’s acting out,” Gethin supplied.

“Pretty much the whole thing in a nutshell,” Eddie said.

Gethin nodded.

“So you’ll do it?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” he said.

Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17 Part 18  Part 19  Part 20  Part 21

Tag list: @shrimply-a-menace @strangersteddierthings @throwbackthrowaway @novelnovella @cursedfoxteeth @babyblender @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring @swimmingbirdrunningrock @steve-the-hairrington @winterbuckwild @spectrum-spectre @matchingbatbites @garden-of-gay @anaibis @thing-a-ling @fandemonium-takes-its-toll @artiststarme @sundead  @nelotegreitic @gregre369 @butterflysandpeppermint @thedragonsaunt @kodaik97 @messrs-weasley @scarletzgo @deadlydodos @renaissan-vvitch @evix-syne666 @emly03 @justforthedead89 @ashwinmeird @huniibee @phantypurple @stevesbipanic @shucks-yuckyuck @awkwardgravity1 @bookbinderbitch @reportinglivefromsoda @chasinggeese @be-the-spark-bitch @jinxjinn @kohlraedirectioner @cr0w-culture @xjessicafaithx @whimsicalwitchm @jaywhohasthegay @dangdirtydemons @lovelyscot  @howincrediblysapphicofyou @the-redthread

[rimeiii]

Random demon HCs (SFW)

Eyo, it's your girl, the one WHB poster who's interested in this game for all the wrong reasons with something non-gameplay related for once! Part of what definitely interests me is the demons in general and how they'll play off with each other + the MC. Doesn't even have to be related to the sexy stuff - some of these demons I feel have the potential to have interesting and complex dynamics with each other, particularly the Avisos demons!

So, um. Yeah. Enjoy my brainrot-

(Also I will be particularly biased towards the demons who've caught my eye. Refer to tier list below. So, um. Yeah. Sorry about that orz)

I feel like out of all the demons in Hell, Belial would be the one most attuned to music. He'd be the one to replay songs again and again, probably wearing noise-cancelling headphones so that he'll truly be immersed in the music. He probably used to love singing as a child, so when his voice was taken away, he was completely and utterly devastated. To compensate, he'd take up an instrument (like an acoustic guitar) or learn how to compose, so that at least he can express his love for music and performance...

Gusion desperately wants to cut down on work, but it's hard. He spends countless days and nights just going around solving problems - and there's an abundance of them in Hell. Honestly, he thought of creating systems to help streamline his work and problem-solving shenanigans, but holy shit everyone just loves wrecking those too, huh. After calculating and approximating the time and effort required to perform his duties, merely solving issues as they crop up is the more effective and less tiring solution to everything. Which is saying something, when that in itself is already tiring as fuck.

Leviathan is a gentleman, through and through. Cool, calm, and collected on the outside, he practically perfected the art of hiding away his negative emotions behind a charming smile and a no-nonsense attitude on the battlefield. The only people able to pry away his emotions from beneath the mask are his fellow kings, the demons of Hades, and eventually MC. And even then, he'll only be able to show his most vulnerable sides to his nobles and, again, MC (eventually). It's hard to win his trust and openness, what with his jealousy often getting in the way of him forming healthy relationships with others.

Beelzebub is actually a pretty bad cook. Like, Mystery Food X levels of bad - at least, starting out. Now, though? Well, the people who said they enjoyed his cooking have somehow deluded themselves to think it's good before the side effects kick in. Does it have hallucinogenic properties? Is it a side effect of Beelzebub's tendency to have weird things happen around him? Or perhaps he really did improve on his cooking? Who knows...who knows.

Naberius and Gusion are the perfect drinking buddies. They'd get together at a random pub somewhere in Hell when they have the time, and they'll spend their time getting buzzed while unloading everything weighing them down at the moment. Honestly, this started as an effort to help Naberius - letting out his emotions bit by bit to ensure everyone's safety is much more preferable than letting his anger and annoyance explode to an extent he becomes a Kerberos. Sometimes, they'll be joined by Bael, although rarely as he is standing in for Beelzebub. More often, Satan shows up and chats with them, as amiable as always - and they end up being his main listening ears if he needs to vent. Satan's secrets are always safe with them, and for that, he is forever thankful.

Leraye and Paimon often make things together! The former has a knack for sewing, while the latter has a lot of ideas for clothes and stuffed toys! Working together, they'd be able to create a large variety of trendy clothing and cute plush toys.

I know a lot of people HC this but yes, Marbas would be a gentle giant. While he's aroused by being restrained, I'd like to think the reason why he's always restrained is because something bad happened while he was doing something while not being restrained. Perhaps he accidentally killed someone with his sheer strength, during a more "daily life" scenario. While his strength is his pride, his ability to heal is a larger source of pride for him - which is why he agrees with the notion that putting restraints on him is for the best.

Sitri is a tea connoisseur! He likes tea, knows which tea leaves are the best, how to make specific blends of tea, how long each tea needs to steep in order to bring out a specific sort of flavor...and among the demons in Hell, there are few who can appreciate the finer details in tea brewing like him. Some of these demons include Barbatos (surprisingly enough), Foras, Bael, Bathin, and Paimon. They regularly get together to sample his teas!

Whenever Bathin wants someone to accompany him in his travels, Amon often takes him up on his offer. They'll wander around without any prior destination, dealing with problems that crop up during their travels along the way. They both live in the moment while traveling, letting the winds dictate where they'll head to next. Amon deals with most of the logistics of travel while Bathin would focus more on finding and learning about the points of interest wherever they end up. An MC who enjoys traveling would love being travel buddies with them!

Mammon's way of showing his affection is gift-giving. Though his gifts might come across as overboard sometimes. Because what do you mean he already sent over some more jewels your way? Nobody needs that many jewels, sir! Either way, Tartaros is a prospering land purely because of the many treasures Mammon gives away to his people. Whether or not these overflowing treasures gets sent off to other areas is a different story entirely.

Andrealphus would be the most sympathetic towards MC, I feel. He knows how it feels to lose someone you care about deeply, to have your life ripped away from you in an instant. He had already been in that position a long time ago, and it would greatly please him if MC would let him support them any way he can - up to and including sticking by their side to protect them.

Out of all the demons in Paradise Lost, I feel like Morax would be the one most versed in the logistics involving healing and first aid. Which is understandable - his method of healing involves transferring his patient's wounds onto him in the form of pain. As a result, he'll have to be able to gauge just how far into the healing process he should perform with his abilities - especially on the battlefield. He'd have his nose buried in books during his free time just so he can increase his healing efficacy.

[skelletors]

MCYT as D&D Characters 5 - Philza

Part 5 of me turning MCYTs into playable D&D characters! Today, as you might’ve guessed, I’m taking a crack at the man, the myth, the legend, Philza Minecraft. And, of course, before we begin, the ground rules.

This will not be balanced and the builds may not be very good. This isn’t for the minmaxers (not that there's anything wrong with that), this is purely based on either stories these people have participated in or their overall persona on the internet

These characters will go up to level 20, but in no way do you have to play them to the max level to get all the mechanics that make up the character

There will be no homebrew in this build.

I will be using standard array for all of these characters (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) when determining the stats for these characters for my own ease of use.

Character Traits to Emulate:

Bird

Angel of Death

Old as hell

Anarchist

THE father figure

Race, Class, Background and Stats

Race: Protector Aasimar (There was a lot of debate on what race Phil would be, if he would be a full bird or more human, but I decided on Aasimar purely for the connection to celestials/gods in D&D canon. Plus, they live longer than the bird races and have some fun features!)

Ability Score Improvement: +2 to Charisma, +1 to Wisdom

Darkvision: You can see in the dark! Sick

Celestial Radiance: You’re resistant to necrotic and radiant damage

Healing Hands: You can heal people a number of hit points equal to your level once per long rest. Maybe use it on a particular pig to make sure he can keep standing…

Radiant Soul: Once per long rest, for a minute you gain the power of flight (a fly speed equal to your walking speed) and deal extra radiant damage on attacks.

Background: Far Traveler (I think this one fits the best with Phil and his connection to his hardcore world, where he’s generally implied to be from.)

Proficiencies: Insight, Perception, a musical instrument or game of your choice (let’s choose lute) and a language of your choice

Class: Ranger 11, Cleric 9 (This one may need some explanation, but the features Rangers get are just about getting knowledge about creatures quickly and fucking people up, which is a very Philza vibe. Cleric is for his connection to Mumza)

Stats

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 12

Intelligence: 13 

Wisdom: 15 + 1 = 16

Charisma: 8 + 2 = 10

The stat distribution is also somewhat self-explanatory, Phil isn’t really lacking in any stat but he’s definitely not the most charismatic and as a bird man, probably not the strongest. Not to worry, he definitely uses finesse weapons rather than heavy longbows.

Level 1: Ranger

Favored Enemy: You’re really good at tracking and know quite a bit about certain enemies. I’m not sure what Phil’s would be, maybe undead or something like that.

Deft Explorer: This is a more general replacement for the normal level 1 ability Natural Explorer. Natural Explorer makes you specialize in different areas but I think the more general expertise that comes with Deft Explorer makes more sense.

Expertise in one ability of your choice

Two more languages of your choice

Level 2: Ranger

Fighting Style: Dueling

You get a +2 to damage rolls with a weapon if you’re only holding that weapon

Spellcasting: You get some cool spells! Like Hunter’s Mark! To kill things better!

Level 3: Ranger

Primeval Awareness: You can expend a spell slot to become aware of the kind of creatures around you like abjurations, fiends, fey, undead, etc.

Sssssssssssssssssssssubclass time! The subclass being…

Monster Slayer! Fuck yeah, this subclass is exclusively about learning the weaknesses of your enemies and fucking shit up. It’s just better Hunter, I will not be taking criticism.

Hunter’s Sense: As an action, you can choose an enemy within 60ft of you and learn any immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities as long as they aren’t immune to divination. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus

Slayer’s Prey: As a bonus action, you can designate a creature within 60ft to be your victim. The first time each turn you hit the creature, you deal an extra 1d6 damage

Level 4: Ranger

ASI Time baby!

Level 5: Ranger

Extra Attack! Not much, but hey, you can hit shit more often

Level 6: Cleric

Time to finally go into those Cleric levels! Clerics are pretty fun, especially since they get their subclass at level one. That subclass, of course, being…

Death Domain!! There was a bit of debate between this and Grave Cleric, especially with how the two synergize with other members of SBI (especially a certain pig), but I chose Death Domain because it really is just a Cleric class for people who want to fuck shit up. Also, Death, Mumza, pretty obvious.

Bonus Proficiency: You get proficiency in martial weapons. Unnecessary, since Rangers already have proficiency in martial weapons, but I’m mentioning it just so I’m not skipping any features

At first level, you learn a necromancy spell from any spell list. And, when you cast a necromancy spell that targets one creature, you can target two within range and within five feet of each other

Level 7: Cleric

Channel Divinity! This is one of Clerics more fun features, and there are two options open to you. You can do this once per long or short rest.

Turn Undead! As an action, any undead within 30ft of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, it must take it’s entire action to either run away or, if it cannot run away, take the dodge action

Touch of Death. This is something exclusive to Death Domain Clerics, and it's pretty fun. Whenever you make a melee attack, you can add necrotic damage equal to 5 + double your Cleric level

Level 8: Cleric

ASI Time! This time we’re adding a +2 to his Wisdom, bringing it to 18

Level 9: Cleric

Nothing special here but you have more spells!

Level 10: Ranger

Back to ranger baby! Rangers are so cool, they are my favorite class and if I can put my favorite CCs in the ranger class, I will

Deft Explorer Improvement: Walking speed increases by 5 (that’s 45ft for those of you keeping track) and you have a climbing and swimming speed equal to your walking speed! That’s also a 45ft fly speed, so good luck to anyone trying to escape you.

Level 11: Ranger

Supernatural Defense: Whenever an enemy makes you make a saving throw or escape a grapple, add a 1d6 to the roll. Helpful, especially with the grapple. You have a +0 to Strength, you’re not escaping anything

Level 12: Cleric

Destroy Undead: Basically an improvement to Turn Undead, if the undead you’re targeting is under a certain challenge rating, they’re instantly destroyed

ASI Time! We’re going to be adding another +2 to Wisdom, bringing it to 20

Level 13: Cleric

Inescapable Destruction: Necrotic damage dealt by Cleric spells/abilities ignore resistance to necrotic damage

Level 14: Ranger

Land’s Stride: Moving through non-magical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement, as well as being able to move through non-magical plants without taking any damage from hazards. You also have advantage on magical plant spells meant to impede movement

Level 15: Ranger

Nothing special here, but you get more ranger spells!

Level 16: Cleric

ASI Time! Now, we’re taking another feat, and it’s going to be Observant! With the observant feat, you gain a +1 to Wisdom, can read lips as well as a +5 to passive perception and investigation. And if Phil is one thing, it’s perceptive. Seriously, he could tell his eggs were being played by different admins on the QSMP insanely quickly, this fits so well.

Level 17: Cleric

Divine Strike: Your weapon attacks are infused with necrotic energy. 1d8 until 14th level, so effectively 2d8. Pretty sweet, and it fits perfectly, thematically speaking!

Level 18: Cleric

Nothing special here, unfortunately

Level 19: Ranger

Nature’s Veil: Briefly, you can turn invisible until your next turn a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses with a long or short rest. Kinda redundant with invisibility, but hey, could also free up spell slots

ASI Time! We’re going for Shadow Touched. You can add a +1 to Charisma, Intelligence or Wisdom, obviously we’re going for Wisdom. You also learn invisibility and another 1st level illusion or necromancy spell, and there are some fun ones out there. Seriously, do not discount 1st level spells, some of those things are broken. Also, I think it’s fun that both Phil and Wilbur have this feat, since they’re both touched by death. Also, Phil now has a 22 in Wisdom, so a +6. Fucking christ.

Level 20: Ranger

Magic User’s Nemesis: If an enemy is casting a spell within 60ft of you, you can effectively counterspell them by making them make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. You can only use this once per short or long rest, but it’s pretty nice to be able to counterspell if your allies can’t!

And that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed reading and let me know any requests for future mcyts, I accept requests for pretty much everyone

[knittedbond]

18, 20, 22 :]

18. already answered but im gonna give u another of this FUCKING IMPROV GNOCCHI i was proud of cause we didn't have cream so i used oatmilk +cornstarch to thicken. and it was so good oh my god it was like a week ago but so good (cat for size)

20. something i learned this year

gosh! i learned a fucking lot. its really wild. the most not boring thing is IM LEARNING BASS!!!!!! which i feel like i will not stop talking about for as long as i live bc its so fucking cool i think its the sexiest instrument ever and i love it. im still learning and being very slow at it but i think it rulez

22. favorite place you visited this year

ok like it feels cheatsy because its ur ask im answering it on but like the communist bookstore we found on a whim in brooklyn was so fulfilling and nice and such a nice time and im so glad we got to hang out this year!! nyc in general was just such a good and healing time for me. also i realized this year i love solo travel so i want to do more of it in the new year :D

[sindumpster]

Hey Wiggs idk if you have any experience in storywriting but i really wanna introduce my own characters to the world but have no clue how. I can't draw to save my life and i'm too insecure about my writings i always delete the drafts. H e l p

STOP DELETING YOUR DRAFTS!!

Like I mean this in the kindest way, but how are you going to share anything you make if you delete it? Especially drafts, because the whole point of a draft is to serve as a stepping stone. How are you going to improve upon a story you no longer have? At the very least, make yourself a hidden folder and save it to that so you can pretend it doesn’t exist without actually deleting it. Or make a burner email or private account somewhere you won’t check often and copy-paste your drafts to it. There’s a butt ton of ways, but I recommend picking one until you’re comfy letting your drafts stay.

Cuz yeh I do have a bit of experience as a writer. I consider myself more of a visual arts person, but I do write a lot, both for college and for myself (and RPs with friends, which is also a practice option). And I started with writing stories years before I pursued art. Neither of which I was particularly good at when I started out. I’m not a savant-type lol, I had to practice and keep working at it. It’s like learning to play an instrument—nobody expects you play Bach the first time you pick up a violin, but if you stick with it, you can learn how to play Bach.

But you’re also gonna be your own worst critic, and you’ll also have to learn how to fight the gremlin in your brain that says you suck. Like if you think I’m a good artist/writer/whatever, know that I still have that voice that tells me I suck, and that I can’t draw or write for shit. There’s artists and writers out there that make me look like a baby by comparison, and they have to fight that gremlin too, because you can always do something better. There is no point at which you can no longer improve. But that’s also kinda cool because it means there’s no limit to what you can make, and no cap to how good you can get if you stick with it. As a creative, it’s both a blessing and a curse, but it takes time to appreciate the blessing side of it.

…weird ramble aside tho, I think you should also lower your expectations when it comes to drafts. Like I mentioned before, drafts are stepping stones. Sometimes my drafts are incoherent word vomit where I just throw up sentences and words as they come to me, or lists of things I want to have in a story. Drafts will never be perfect, and may not even be good, because they’re for sorting out your ideas and trying things. The point is to fuck around and find out. Give yourself permission fuck around. Maybe it’ll go somewhere, maybe it won’t. If you stick with it though, you’ll eventually start revising and honing it down, and it’ll sound more like complete story. Trust the process and give yourself permission to make mistakes. And if your end goal is to post it, figure out how to get it to a point where you’re okay putting it out in the wild. But ultimately, let yourself enjoy the process of creating, even if you think it’s flawed. Perfection is an illusion, so fuck perfection, and have fun instead.

Another thing I’ve found is that sometimes you just need to let a project sit (writing and drawings). I usually let art age a few days where I don’t do anything, and I don’t post it. It lets me come back to it with fresh eyes so I can spot anything I want to fix. But also I’ll dislike it less. Sometimes you just hate something because you’ve been staring at it for too many hours/days/weeks, and need to NOT look at it. Writing especially, sometimes I just need to walk away from a draft for a while, so that instead of being like “THIS IS ALL GARBAGE >:[” I can instead be like “I like the idea, and that last line is 👌, but this dialogue feels a little stale”.

Also if it helps, I’ve rewritten this ask 4 times now. I’ve been drafting, if you will I’mnotsorrylmao. And I’m certain there’s a better, more concise way to say what I want. But if I fixate on that, I’m never gonna post an answer to this ask, am I? And that would suck so much worse that this imperfect response lol.

PS: I know writing and drawing are super complicated and nuanced, along with all the feelings related to them, and there’s a ton I didn’t even touch on cuz otherwise I’d never finish writing this. But if you need any pointers or more specific help on how to start, feel free to ask or reach out.

[firelord-frowny]

lmaooo i have a dumb lil crush on my violin man lmaoooo

i mean it's not an Actual Crush bc he's like in his 50s and also uhhhh kinda short, but his personality is so smooth and confident and polite??? and he's a fucking WIZARD at repairing/maintaining violins???

whenever i go to him for a tonal adjustment, i sweaaarrrr my violin always sounds better than ever. idk how he does it. but it's like magic.

and it's such a cool experience!

Basically, you go into this big fancy lookin room with a bunch of string instruments displayed on the walls, and there's fancy rugs and tapestries and stuff. you stand in the center of the room, and he sits in a chair a few feet in front of you like he's on a goddamn throne or something, and you're a royal subject.

then you basically just! start playing for him! Just play whatever ya feel like. Could be just scales or etudes, could be orchestral excerpts, whatever. sometimes he may request a certain kind of playing, like he might ask you to play something slow and loud, or something with really short bow strokes, or something with double-stops, etc.

then after you play, he explains a bit about what he hears in the tone quality, and gives his opinion on how it could be improved. So he might say that the tone could be richer in the lower register, or the mid ranges sound a little constricted and should be opened up a bit, blah blah. and then he takes the instrument back into his lil workshop room and..... idfk WHAT he does it it, really, for all i know he's casting magical spells, but when he brings it back out, it sounds like a whole new instrument. And basically that process is just repeated until you're happy with the end result. i usually just defer completely to his judgment on how it should sound because my dude is THAT GOOD. far be it from me to think i know better than him.

and just??? idk, the level of prowess and skill he has is super sexy lmao.

also every time i take my violin to him, he always mentions what an amazing instrument it is lolol and it makes me feel specialllllll

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

tuning my lyre

I bought a purple tuner for my instrument

but it is not intuitive to me because I've never tuned anything

and I'm upset because I'm going to have to

watch a video to learn how to use it to tune my lyre

which honestly I need to do anyways

but I'm upset it doesn't just all magically come to me

like I know harps are part of my ancestory

so why I can just summon all my inner knowing?

oh right, I have to remind myself

by watching it at least once

and then I'll figure it out

there is no reason for me to expect to

be good at something I've never done

but I always find myself thinking in that pattern

so I write shit out so I know what I'm really thinking

so I can look at it a little more closely

it's easier to understand one voice narrating your life

but I've always had a greek chorus in my mind

really you should blame the muses on hercules

I took one look at that and thought

yep except my muses are the spice girls

and there you have the story of my

awakening consciousness

and they always had cool outfits and colors

when I was younger I just called them

the pretty guardians of sailor moon

rainbow bright and stormy

we always keep a little village in our mind

of characters we kind of think of people like

everyone makes their own archetypes

and you get to change them out

as often as you want to

it's your RPG, right?

why keep the shitty ones?

and then you learn toxic attachment

and how sometimes you just gotta keep

a few dark characters for when it's time

to do the dirty work of maintaining boundaries

guess what my first ideal romance was?

was it a knight in shining armor?

a conquering kind or a poetic solider?

no, no it was not

it was with a fucking telepathic hawk

and I am so upset by the truth of this

it was like beauty and the beast except

a hawk was somehow even cooler

and he could turn back into a boy at will

so it all sort of worked out in a life that felt like war

that was back in the days where I'd go to the library

with Meghan and her kind grandmother

we loved each other so much

Meghan caused teenage girl political friendship scandal

because she wanted me to sit on the front row

at her funeral instead of her best friend

I loved the library so much

I begged as soon as I taught myself to read

the library was a house of portals to worlds

like o'hare airport and its portals to our world

it was magical and a place that felt in between others

I usually like places that are in between

transitional like staircases or train stations

a place you go to wait for your transportation

I've always been a patient sort of person

but I seemed to have forgotten all about that

in my current life experience and my evolution

I watch my own behavior patterns and loops obessively

trying to find ways to improve until I drive myself crazy

to be fair that's why I'm tuning the lyre

give my hands and mind something to do

with my heart so they learn how to talk better

all together because it's been nothing

but non-stop hand to heart to mind combat

and I'm fucking tired of watching it

but it's still annoying that I can't just

pick up the tuner and understand it

or twist the string and know how find the tune

I just need to accept I'm going to break some strings

a lot of strings so I'll just make sure to

have a few spares of them

luckily they aren't expensive or anything

I still have such a childish heart

and I don't think I'd change it much

but it's nice to find where I can frame my thoughts

in a way that helps me problem solve

and not just throw a little tantrum

because it didn't turn out how I wanted or anticipated

but also learning hot to tune this instrument

is going to be so boring and I'm going to have to

focus and my adhd is absolutely incorrigible today

ulysses is going to have to take the beeswax

out of his ears at some point and I want to be

ready to make sure he never gets away again

and this lyre just might be the ticket

worked for achilles, didn't it?

[kalikai]

My first flute was almost a success.

Like, it was a success. I spent time and energy and concentration and now I have an out of tune PVC whistle that I can get a couple of different tones from.

But I'm going to start over and change a bunch of things. Not going to bother to finishing this first one by tuning it properly because I'm not happy with it; it's just misaligned with my expectations.

But it was useful because now that I know its first-hand performance attributes, I can connect the felt-sense to the numbers, and so now I can knowingly choose the numbers to pull felt-sense things in the desired direction.

Figuring out how to make this thing was frustrating.

There's like, this one random French guy on YouTube who gives a tutorial. Super clear trilingual directions, very simple tutorial, zero amounts of bullshit (beyond the obligatory preamble of "hey check out this cool weird instrument! Listen to me play some neat little tunes on it to prove it's a musical instrument!"), and his measurements are all in millimetres. Lovely. Wonderful. Literally the single best outcome you could possibly hope for from a video tutorial.

But he doesn't talk about the accoustic physics, or about how it feels to play.

Just "use these material and cut to this length, and then make these other cuts."

And also did not explain how to measure the other cuts (which fortunately doesn't seem to actually matter, because any high-precision acquired from fine measurement would be obliterated entirely by my extremely low precision implementation method: random rusty woodworking tools I found in the garage.)

So, okay, fair enough one guy isn't the repository of all human knowledge. I'll just look up "DIY PVC overtone flutes" elsewhere.

Here were my options:

👨🏻‍🏫 couple of other random YouTube guys, being all "wow, that French guy made a cool thing! What a fun little project that will be for me to try. Here's my own little video about how I followed his tutorial and made my own copy. That was pretty fun, but it was annoying when he used millimetres because I'm American." And then they digress into talking about how they adopted the first guy's project specs into their native gobbledygook measurements.

👨🏻‍🏫 one or two blog posts that were the same thing, basically

👨🏻‍🏫 couple of amateur websites about Native American Flutes (and COMPREHENSIVELY so). Awesome!

But:

- while NAFs *function as* overtone flutes, they have some added design elements to add functionality and improve their performance as musical instruments

- all their measurements in fractional inches

So for me to parse guidance from those resources I have to figure out how to unpack their formulas to get at exclusively what's relevant to my simplified design, convert their fractional measurements into decimal measurements, and then convert from imperial measurements into metric measurements.

Goddamn pain in the ass when I'm trying to work on a project in the evening and I'm crashing off all my meds and all this bloody runaround isn't impossible merely very difficult and very very very frustrating.

👨🏻‍🏫 a random post on a forum for people who make flutes and et cetera.

- guy being like, "hey I'm trying to make an overtone flute, and I'm using pvc pipe to simplify things for myself, and I started my numbers off using this science paper about didgeridoos (because the physics is the same; vibrating columns of air with one end closed) but something's awry with it can you give me some pointers please?"

- other guys being like "yeah man, of course. Okay, see, to get nice overtones whatcha want is for the dimensions of your column of air to have super high diameter-to-length ratios. Like, 1:35 is bare minimum, 1:40 is better, 1:50 would be amazing."

Immediate problems:

❌ That French guy who made the really awesome YouTube tutorial, his ratio in that tutorial is more like 1:20, lol

So while his flute does function and is super simple to create, it's janky as fuck.

❌ And because he doesn't explain ANY of the relationships between his measurements, the accoustic properties of his flute, how it feels to play, and how that relates to the range of tones it can play; it's impossible to know which measurements you should tinker with to redistribute the project's jankiness in order to emphasise a different prioritisation in the pursuit of high ratios.

❌ As an additional fun layer of obfuscation, the numbers used in the French guy's tutorial are the length and width of the plastic pipe, and not the length and width of the vibrating air column held within it (which is what the ratio is about), so that makes it even harder to connect the dots there.

The lengths being different is easier to catch, since those are measurements you've made yourself and there's a clear and separate starting point for each of the two measurements.

and then it's also a difference that doesn't even matter in the end anyway, because you end up adjusting the length of the pipe by shaving tiny increments of the end to get your flute into tune.

So you can't target a fixed ratio by measuring to an arbitrary length, because the lengths aren't arbitrary. Best you can do is have a desired target range of ratios, to hit a ballpark length for your desired tone.

But the widths being different is harder to catch. Because "20mm" is a designation of a type of pipe, and not necessarily a measurement of the air column that we imagine inside of the tube when doing calculations about it. 🙃

Good luck even noticing that without a set of callipers! And have fun getting your calculations all sorted out when you're trying to work out the ballpark lengths of pipe required to get your flute in tune!

(Because starting with a wrong width measurement leads to everything that follows being "imprecisely correct" at best)

Hmm, okay. 🤔

What does the comprehensive NAF website have to say about it?

They have a simplified version, which, in its examples, uses fractional inches as assumed input figures, and then simplifies the equations with those figures in them,

so when I want to plug in my own numbers into the formula they provided, I can't do that, because I don't know which numbers are part of their assumed inputs and which numbers are part of the function which relates input to output. Grr.

And then they also have an extremely in-depth version, where they treat it like a physics homework problem and get deep into the nitty gritty of accoustic physics,

which is equally as useless, because that gives an unachievable precision of measurement, which simply can't be implemented with the tools, skills, and materials at hand. Best you can do is that french guy's way, of getting it close enough to where you want and then gradually shaving the length down to get it into tune.)

High ratios = overtone flute.

Low ratios but it doesn't sound horrible and it isn't horrible to play = different kind of flute.

Different kind of flute that doesn't sound far worse than an equivalent overtone flute of similar materials and construction methods = far beyond the scope of this project

High ratios = jankiness

Therefore overtone flute is inherently janky, jankiness which can not be removed, only reallocated.

The kind of flute I could make the best using what I have at hand is an overtone flute, so I'm going to embrace the jankiness as a design feature and work on building the best overtone flute I can, even though an overtone flute isn't the best kind of flute that I could try to make (flutes without jank is a solved problem; the technology of overtone flutes was superceded in the stone age)

So, problems:

- to make nice music with overtone flutes, you need to be able to close off the open end of the flute with your hand while playing, which gives you more tones to be able to use.

- therefore the length of your air-column is restricted by the physical length of your arms

(Because one end of the tube goes to your mouth, where you blow in air to get the tone, and the other end of the tube has to go somewhere within reach of your hands)

- and so if you want to pursue a high ratio, you have to make your flute higher and higher pitched by shrinking the diameter of your air column instead of its length

(- also, thinner pipes can be longer than wider ones, because you only need a finger to close the far end and not the palm of your hand, which improves their ratio even more.)

To get higher overtones you have to blow harder which makes them louder.

The limits of my lung capacity and of my eardrums are thankfully closely paired, which is a limitation on the number of overtones you can have for a given pipe.

More overtones by way of high ratio, by way of shrinking the air column's diameter makes the flute's tones more and more high-pitched. This steadily increases the whistle's irritation factor but eventually becomes inaudible.

Same at the low end; once you get long enough the fundamental frequency requires you to blow air so slowly that the tone is inaudible. Any tones you can hear, then, are some higher overtone or another, and so you lose the bottom part of your theoretical maximum range too.

A nominally 15mm pipe needs 525mm of length for a 1:35 ratio, 600mm for 1:40, and 750mm for 1:50.

Which note the fundamental frequencies are for those lengths idk.

The didgeridoo paper that the guy mentioned in his post on the flute-making forum, that was supposed to have a table of lengths to frequencies, wasn't it? Let's go have a look!

1. Dead link, but oh well never mind that,

2. Found the paper, and it's an undergraduate homework project rather than a publication from professional academia, and not that that matters, but oh well never mind that

3. All their measurements are in fractional inches because of course they fucking are (🤮), but oh well never mind that,

4. Didgeridoos aren't flutes, so they're occupying a very different zone of the frequency scale, so this paper's table of lengths to frequencies stops before it gets up to the numbers I need. Drat.

So! Where I'm at is that I have a long whistle I'm not super happy with, which is good because now I've got a spare metre or so of 20mm PVC which I can entirely sacrifice to practicing and refining my PVC-cutting skills, and testing which of my cutting tools are best suited to the job.

And then there are two possible directions to go in for the next attempts:

- loooong whistle with a wider bore, with a deep voice like a fujara

- looong whistle with a narrower bore, with a high piping voice like a penny whistle, to try to push that width:length ratio as high as I can get it just to see what that's like

[maybe-i-should-try-harder]

OK actually fuck you I'm doing a deere week prompt because I'm in a deere mood enjoy

It's not too romantic. Kinda badly written and all kver the place, but it's something. Lmao (a bit boring but eh how will I improve if I don't write) @rebuke-me

day 3: fantasy

Deep into the forest, Jake finally finds a place to rest.

A lake shining in the sunset behind the trees, beautiful flowers sprouting all around it, like a special ring.

He breathes out in relief, dipping his hands in the clear water.

Then, he can't resist it, but dunks his whole face in, the cooling is pleasure itself, he'd drown in it just like Narcissus, though according to a certain fae he isn't all that different from him.

Jake lifts his dripping head to find a new face in the water.

With a yelp, he backs away as a body emerges from the lake.

"Couldn't you at least ask first?" The bluest eyes he's seen, glowing freckles, and a body so slender Jake feels the urge to share his food.

A boy, sleeping in the lake? Pale, timid, with such a sweet voice. Jake feels himself get dizzy.

"I apologize, I didn't know you were here."

The boy sits on the edge of the lake, floating above the water as more of him reveals, Jake's mouth feels drier.

"Would you mind if I drink?"

The face the boy makes is almost endearing, as red as the roses before they wilted in Jake's bag, and it almost looks like as if the water's turning purple with him.

"Excuse me?" He splashes Jake, just with a throw of his hand.

Jake doesn't seem to understand.

The curls bounce as the boy huffs, face still red and movements as gentle as the waves across th-

Lake.

The lake.

Oh, the boy is a nymph! Of course.

Jake starts to chuckle and smiles brightly at the boy.

"I didn't know it was you."

He crosses his arms, looking away from Jake.

"You're awfully cheeky, you know?"

"I'd rather call myself clueless." Jake shrugs, sitting by him, even if his pants get wet as the continuous drip of the nymphs body gets to him.

"You're beautiful. Are these yours?" Jake looks at the flowers, blooming all around.

"They're Michael's. I just helped them grow." Finally, a smile on his face, fond and sweet, the curl of his lips is as gorgeous as the curl of his hair, or of the fabric caressing the boys body, blue as the lake, blue as his eyes.

"Michael." Jake says, rolling the name around his mouth.

"Sounds nice."

The boy nods.

"Would you mind if I rest here?"

"Weren't you requesting a drink? You ask for a lot.."

"I travel a lot. May I?"

The boy shrugs.

"Don't scare my friends."

"And I'll leave you a gift."

An interest of curiosity sparkles in the boy.

"Drink."

With a smile, Jake obeys.

"Who are your friends?"

He looks away.

"Ducklings."

That's adorable.

"No mom?"

Something in his face displays hurt. Do nymphs have parents?

"She left."

Jake hums, laying his head on the grass.

"What would you like your gift to be?"

His face, so sweet.

"A song, please."

"A song?"

"You're carrying an instrument."

Jake nods.

"I've never given a song before."

"I've never heard one."

"Whats your name?"

The nymph whispers, shy.

"She named me something I did not like. Please, use Jeremy."

He nods.

And let himself play as the ducklings come, a song about the most beautiful boy, with a name that's truly his own, residing in a lake.

And as Jake leaves, he hears the song play in the forest, by the flowers, by the birds, by everyone who loves Jeremy so.

And Jake sings along, leaving a trail to return to him.

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Hi! 🥰 10 & 28 for the writing asks? 💕

Thanks for asking 💕💕💕

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

I like kidfics, in part because the number of organic barriers a child can create between two characters is a great way to have them constantly struggling to make the romantic connection work despite being highly competent.

I like a good hook up turned into catching feelings. I love that tiptoe around trying to be cool and wondering who is going to be vulnerable first and just spit it out that maybe they could do something domestic together.

Enemies to lovers done well is truly and art and especially in an action adventure situation where they are like noticing how fucking competent the other one is and trying not to notice but the person is just so fucking talented at blowing things up or whatever, and they can't stop noticing...

28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

Yes so first I went to a very rural, small college and ended up being friends with many professors because there just weren't very many people to hang out with. Many of my friends were professional writers or artists and I learned so much just about the work that goes into craft, about the day to day schedule of a professional fine artist, which is a lot grit and discipline and repetition. It was helpful to see first hand how you move from having fun and dabbling (which is FINE I have many artsy things I do for FUN and do not want to IMPROVE at because I just want to play) to being highly skilled at a craft.

If you want to be excellent at something, you just have to do it, and do it, and do it, you have to pour the most tender parts of yourself in, but at some point, you have to depersonalize yourself from the personal parts of it, and focus on the craft of it. I think this attitude is easier to understand with say, learning a piece of music on an instrument, because you want that to be emotional but also highly skilled and technically proficient, but imo it's the same with any art form.

I have my masters in poetry and am also a weirdo and an introvert, so I have always learned how to separate and keep private things that were too tender for critique, those things are for me. But, I am good at separating my tender artistic side from the craft of how best to put the words together, and the gift that someone gives you when they share how they are perceiving your work. Critique is an opportunity to make the things I love about my story come out better to the reader. I also have strong opinions, so that helps, its easy for me to take critique and say, yeah nope! But thanks!

Easy reading is hard writing. But also, hard things get easier the more times you do them. Before I wrote smut for the first time, I read a ton of it, and cut and pasted lines I thought were good into a document, and then wrote a smut scene that was essentially straight up plagiarism but from like 6 different fics, and it took FOREVER. I never published that one but I think it's a good type of writing exercise for any kind of new writing style. Now I am actually pretty fast at writing smut, assuming it's sex with the body parts I've gotten in the habit of writing about.

I never had any interest in writing fiction till this past year, but I think my background in poetry as well my decade plus of writing in professional contexts has heavily shaped my fiction. With poetry, I got very good at cutting out words that I don't need. All the components that are left should multi task, and you have to trust the read to get there. You do the work of putting the words together in their like delicate jenga tower construction, but the reader sees the detail or not. They get it or they don't. It's not my problem.

With my professional writing, which is often in an advocacy context, I am trying to convey complex information but also persuading the reader, so every turn of phrase and word choice matters. You have very limited space to capture someone (a billboard is 8 words max typically) so I actually use the hell out of that poetry degree in my political advocacy career.

I know I'm a VERY WORDY writer, but believe it or not, I cut about half of what I write from my early drafts, and spend a lot of time condensing paragraphs so that the information is conveyed in subtler ways.

[sitespeedmaui]

Lindsey jordan snail mail

Is that a reflection of the higher production values on the new record, or did you feel more confidence in your abilities as a singer that you were comfortable with foregrounding your voice in that way? Your voice is much more prominent in the mix now. There’s a marked difference in your vocals between the Habit EP and Lush. And so I was always really attracted to music and I was just adamant about getting good at it. I just wanted a job that was my own that wouldn’t be, like, team-oriented a real standalone thing. For starting really young – I just liked ballet and soccer, and I wanted to do something on my own and not have to be competitive about it. My sister – I remember when she was younger, she tried out every single instrument and never stuck with anything. I don’t know – I’m the only person in my family who’s into it. What drew you into embracing music at such a young age? Did you grow up in a musical family? You’ve been playing the guitar since you were five. I don’t want to let my rough drafts out into the world. I feel like if it doesn’t end up on the record, it just isn’t good enough. I don’t think we’ll ever do a B-sides thing. But we didn’t actually record any of them. There’s a bunch of opens all over the place, all over my computer. What happened to those other 20 songs? Are you planning on using them in the future? I heard that you had written thirty songs for Lush but only ten made the cut for the record. Oh yeah, I’ve heard good things about that one. And I was talking to some magazine editors about it recently and they’re like “yeah, that’s how it used to be… but it’s nowhere near that anymore.” I haven’t read Confessions, but I did read his The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea awhile ago and it was so good. Her take on the whole thing is really cool and I love how she talks about coming into the job and she’s like, “yeah, they gave me the keys to my new office and the card for a limo company,” all this stuff. I love that… New York glamour, a fashion magazine that isn’t quite how it used to be. I also just finished this book called The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown where she’s talking about like infiltrating Vanity Fair and redesigning it and bringing it back. I’ve been reading the last couple chapters of this book called Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. I had the chance to talk to Jordan recently about growing up with the guitar, being a bookworm, and what people get wrong about her songs.Īshley Naftule: You’ve mentioned in past interviews that you like to read before shows. On songs like “Pristine” and “Full Control,” Jordan comes off as Liz Phair’s kid sister: vulnerable, emotionally bold, and unwilling to give any fucks if you don’t get where she’s coming from. It’s a stellar showcase for her preternatural guitar skills while also showing off how much she’s improved as a singer. 2018’s Lush, her full length debut, builds on the songwriting prowess she already displayed on 2016’s Habit EP. She’s grown leaps and bounds as an artist over that brief span of time. Jordan has been writing and performing songs as Snail Mail since 2015. The sound of your bestie spilling her secrets in your ear. And over those knots of melody Jordan’s voice rings out: plaintive yet assured. It’s patient, intricate work: delicate lines threaded together into a complex image. Read our interview with Snail Mail on Lush.Lindsey Jordan plays the guitar like she’s sewing a tapestry. Referring to the process as the deepest level of catharsis and therapy I have ever experienced would be a huge understatement. Jordan had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “I wanted to take as much time as possible with this record to make sure I was happy with every detail before unleashing it unto y’all. Valentine was written and produced by Jordan and co-produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). The album’s third single was “Madonna” and there was also a live performance video for the song. Then she shared another track from the album, “Ben Franklin,” also one of our Songs of the Week.

When the album was announced, Jordan shared its title track, “Valentine,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Read the review here and check out the album below.

Also, yesterday we posted our review of the album. Now that it’s out, you can stream the whole thing here. Snail Mail (aka Lindsey Jordan) has released her sophomore studio album, Valentine, today via Matador.

[mymarifae]

i was talking to a friend about art processes and development and at one point he said, "i don't know how you do it." 'it' being my refusal to study color theory, the way i rarely use references, and the way i've managed to rapidly improve over the past year especially despite not learning anything. and it just got me thinking, like yeah huh how do i do it indeed, and i think it's literally just the way i frame my thoughts.

when i draw, i think "i don't know what the hell i'm doing." and it's not in a negative sense. it's not like, "i don't know what i'm doing, so this drawing is going to come out poorly :(" i just shrug my shoulders and see what comes out from my pen anyway. when you go into something thinking it's going to end poorly because you don't know what you're doing--in this instance, trying out a more dynamic pose than you normally would, or attempting a new technique, or whatever--you're dooming yourself to a self-fulfilling prophecy. you've already decided that you're not going to like the final drawing, and you haven't even drawn it yet..! you doom yourself to fretting over imperfections and putting pressure on yourself to Learn and that's just not conducive to creativity

i'm realizing that what i've done over the years is built up confidence. i don't take art seriously; i never have. i draw something knowing that i technically don't know what i'm doing, i accept that fact and i decide to see what i can make anyway, and more often than not, all i feel once a drawing is finished is pride. like fuck yeah. i don't know what i'm doing. but look what i was able to make anyway!! even if i end up looking back on it in a few years and decide it sucks ass, what matters is in the moment, i feel proud, and i feel confident enough to try something a little more daring in my next drawing. i go for it, rather than force myself to stew on the same lessons and concepts for weeks on end so i can get it "perfect." i accept that my art isn't going to be perfect and i embrace it

no, i won't draw disembodied hands for hours to "get a feel for the anatomy." i'm just going to go draw a full character piece and i'll figure out how hands work in due time. i don't understand how lighting and shading works; i just guess based on what i happen to observe in real life. color theory means nothing to me. i simply pick out what i like. you know? obviously i'm learning. but i'm not learning in a restricted, stifling environment.

i see lots of people say their art feels stagnant or that they're slow to improve or that they're just. burnt out. and i really do think a lot of that can be traced back to how we're taught to approach learning to do anything. "sit with it until you get it perfect." that's an awful lot of pressure to put yourself under...!! your brain is going to shut down pretty damn quickly. like, yeah, sometimes that is the best way to get yourself to learn something. but i think it's really, really important to recognize when (in terms of art especially) it might not be.

i've been talking about drawing specifically, but really, this applies to any form of art. learning an instrument and you're avoiding trying out a complex song because "you're not that good yet"? throw yourself at it anyway. you'll be surprised how much more quickly you learn through direct experience. go make a complex sculpture out of clay even though you've never done it before. paint landscapes and sceneries. crochet a blanket. write a novel. bake a three-tiered cake. don't wait until you're "better" to try tackling a big project. acknowledge that you don't know what you're doing, and let that be a positive force rather than a negative one. just... think about things a little bit differently.

"i had no idea what i was doing when i made this, so isn't it fucking cool that i could make anything at all?? i can do more than i initially gave myself credit for. and now that i've done this really hard thing once, i've learned a lot of different things, so i can do it even better next time!! :D"

in conclusion:

[mountaingoatsfirstlineaday]

I've always wondered why John repeatedly says his guitar skill + compositional creativity has improved a lot from his early days (obviously everyone's does as they practice, not what I mean)—so much of his early lowest-fi stuff is really experimental and fun sounding to me! E.g. "Chinese House Flowers" with its G7, F7 E7 ending to say nothing of the main chord progression in the song, "Alpha Gelida" which is just fucking amazing, the coroner's gambit studio version of "Shadow Song" which is soooo much more powerful than the I V centric version of it I've heard live, tunes like "bluejays and cardinals" or "new Britain" that make heavy use of suspended chords... And a lot of these early tunes have little melodic picking parts in them too. I love all his stuff but to me the boombox stuff is a lot more sonically interesting than the heavily folk/country inspired instrumentation he sometimes uses on later songs. It's different and a lot of the new stuff is harmonically complex too, don't get me wrong, but I feel like he underrates some of the lyricism and songwriting of his early stuff. Sorry for the huge ask but I wondered if you had thoughts on this

ayyyy never apologize for a big ask!! i love getting stuff like this. give me your thoughts 😈

I get what you mean, though. And I agree with you -- I love the newer stuff deeply and with every inch of my soul but there is something very... interesting, and special, about the lo-fi era of tmg music. Imo it's a little less accessible, it makes you work a little harder as a listener to figure out what the hell's goin' on, and that makes it a different experience from the newer stuff. Not inherently good or bad, but very very different.

The first thing your question brought to mind for me is how he thought that The Sunset Tree was the last record he was ever going to get to make: "But then after we moved here, I, you know, I wasn't quite sure what we were gonna do and our original contract with 4AD was for three records, and I sort of, because I'm me and I'm kind of defeatist and I have a thing about worrying that nobody actually likes me and that someday this will all be taken away, you know, I was like, well, we're gonna get to the third album of the contract and then you have to go back to the nursing business, right. So that's why I sort of, like, opened up and said 'well, I'm gonna tell a story that is true for the third record 'cause it'll probably be the last Mountain Goats record that ever gets made', was the thinking in my mind." (source) (if anyone has a video where he says this speech, that'd be great! I only know it from the wikia page on tst).

And he thought this after he had made ahwt and tallahassee.

John Darnielle can probably see in a lot more detail than we can how and in what ways he's grown as an artist, because obviously he's privy to all of the inner workings of his music. I can speak as a person who's been doing creative things for my entire life, including songwriting, that having to interact with your old work can be incredibly painful. Not just in a cringy "I can't believe I ever made that" way, but also because it might remind you of old times, events, or feelings that you'd really rather leave behind. It can be easier and better for your mental health to diminish your old work to cringe, unintelligent drivel, novice shit, etc etc to make it hurt less. Obviously I'm not John Darnielle and am definitely speaking from my own experiences, but I feel like it's a valid theory. I also come from a mentally ill place, and was abused as a child, and all of that frequently makes its way into my art.

It's also possible that as cool and fun and experimental as his old stuff is, it just isn't what he wants his music to sound like! In the early days of tmg there's a really good chance that the music sounds more experimental because it is. He was probably playing around a lot more, trying to figure out what he liked and how to make those sounds. This is also something to consider in the context of the evolving nature of the band. We've got our core group figured out now (John, Jon, Peter, and instrumental mastermind Matt) but in the early days there were tons of lineup changes and studio changes and production + mixing differences from album to album, and even from song to song, especially in the case of the triplet comp albums of 1999 (Ghana, Protein Source of the Future... Now!, and Bitter Melon Farm) and in the case of an album/ep/etc that had recordings from radio stations. If I remember the liner notes of the 2013 ahwt rerelease correctly, ahwt is the only album that the descriptor of "one guy alone in his house with a guitar (and the Panasonic RX-FT500)". I suppose that now, Songs for Pierre Chuvin also fits this description :)

Honestly, I think he underrates his old stuff too. There will never be a love song that hits me in quite the same way that Masher does. Never another song that makes me feel as hopeful as Onions and Elijah do. Hearing Water Song at the show on the 19th, I mean, it was transcendent! It's really beautiful, special material; that being said I also understand why he might shy away from it.

I hope this at least sort of is what you were talking about? If not, feel free to send in another ask and I will happily discuss more! This is my jam, and we all know how jd feels about jam...

[animamosaic]

Years and years ago, like a decade, I tried to create a group with friends to share our art. Writing, drawing, singing, painting, ceramics-- Whatever, if it was creative I wanted us to share it. But, it was specifically a "bad art" group. That is, I didn't want it to be a group where we gave advice or talked about what was wrong with our art. This wasn't a workshop, no constructive criticism welcome.

I know a lot of people who are professional artists in some capacity; and a lot who make art as a hobby but never share it, like it's a secret, in part because they compare it to professional art of people we know. I'm one them in both categories, I'm pretty confident in showing any of my theatre related stuff, I love people coming to shows because my shows are great. But I cringe at sharing my drawings, I only sing at karaoke with very specific songs, my confidence in my writing swings wildly.

I wanted a group where we could share our art without worrying about how unskilled it is. I wanted us to receive praise and acknowledgement just for creating. We all want that, want to share what we make and share the joy of creating something. The joy of bringing something from your mind into the world. But the fear of ridicule, the fear of being bad at something in view of others, is paralyzing.

This would have been a group we could show the bad painting we spent 2 hours on that we had fun making, and we would all say, "That's so cool! I love that you made this! I can tell that you put a lot of thought into your color choices! This poem is so personal, I can tell it means a lot. Thank you for letting me read it!"

But the overall response was extremely negative. It was hostile. Why would they do that?? Why would they show people something and not immediately reassure people that they were trying to be better? Why would they spend time on something that couldn't be picked apart and polished? They weren't going to admit to anyone that they WASTED time like that! Why would they make art that they could never hustle for a career?! Who does that?!

It was like I'd suggested something immoral. Make something bad just for the fun of it? Art that couldn't be put in a gallery? Writing that people might laugh at? Might as well kick puppies, it would be the same use of your time.

It was so weird. It was beyond demoralizing. The few friends that had expressed interest apologized for even thinking of wasting time and energy like that.

And I really internalized that. That it was wrong, bad, of me to spend time on something just for fun. Spend time on something I'd never be good at. If I wasn’t constantly striving for perfection I was committing a crime. There are a lot of things I never picked up again because of how people react when I'm not good at it.

I like plucking at instruments, but I'm never going to be a good musician. I don't have the coordination or timing. If people find out though? All I hear is how much I need to practice, how I NEED to spend hours each day to be good. Why am I not good enough to book shows yet? Have I been practicing? I don't want to practice, I just want to make noise. Similarly I can paint for hours everyday, and I'll improve a little, but I'm never going to be objectively good. I stopped making art for a long time because I hated advice on how I should improve. Just let me play with paint.

I know other people do this. We are social creatures, we like sharing. It's always nice to have people make happy noises when you share something. Art doesn't need a point. We shouldn't have to defend our creations by adding, "I know it's not good. I'm trying to be better! I swear I'm not wasting time, someday I'll be able to make money from this!" We aren't bad people because we don't know color theory, or how to properly shade a nose, or what the fuck semicolons are for.

I've been trying to deprogram myself of this, to stop qualifying everything with, "I know this sucks". To let myself make stuff that I know will be bad, just because I want to. Trying not to panic about being a bad person because I wasn't spending the time on something productive like washing the dishes or making money.

I have a lot of days where I can’t really do anything now, so I just sit and think. And I’ve found myself thinking, “I could draw”, and then immediately shutting that down. Because I’m bad at drawing. I’m sitting here in pain, with the possibility that I could lose control of my limbs in the near future, and I’m worried about drawing badly. I’ve spent years not doing something that brings me joy, and now I could lose that.

Make bad art. I already love it, because you made it.

Here’s a self portrait I did the other night. I didn't use MS paint, but I might as well have. I’m very happy with it. I’m not going to improve at all.

[voice-of-anarchy]

ARCH ENEMY's MICHAEL AMOTT: I've Always Been Interested In A Blend Of 'Aggression' And 'Melody'

In a new interview with Rauta, ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott was asked if he gets any inspiration to listening to newer metal bands. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't really listen to current metal deeply. I've had a very wide taste of music. I grew up in a kind of eclectic home. My mother is a big fan of classical music and jazz, so I kind of grew up on that first. But I'm into everything, man. If it's got a good melody…

"When you're a musician for so many years, you become a little bit jaded maybe," he continued. "If you've heard it before, you don't really connect with it. You can quickly figure out what they're doing and it's maybe not that interesting. But if somebody comes out with something that's just, 'Oh, I've never heard that…' Nowadays it's more about fusion — taking one idea, mixing it with another and adding something else. That's kind of what you have to do now.

"I grew up in a time when metal was very pure and hardcore punk was very pure," Amott added. "It was very scene based. You stayed in your lane. And I did that; I grew up with that. And if bands got a little bit more melodic, I just dropped them: 'Fuck this band. They've got melodic vocals.' I just wanted the hard, fast, heavy shit. I was like that; I was that teenager. But then you grew up a little bit, and I improved on my instrument; I became more interested in [incorporating other styles into the music]."

When the interviewer pointed out that even Amott's former band CARCASS went from playing "gore grind" in the early years to pursuing a "more melodic" sound, Michael said: "Yeah, I was a part of that a little bit, with the '[Necroticism – ]Descanting [The Insalubrious]' album and the 'Heartwork' album in the early '90s. So that was a breaking point as well, of course — melody in the death metal sound.

"With ARCH ENEMY, I'm really interested in melody, I'm really interested in riffs," he explained. "I'm very much still into classic metal — a lot of the more obscure stuff. I've listened so much to IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST and all those kind of bands that I'm kind of done with that. I'm a record collector, a vinyl collector, I'm into all that obscure stuff that nobody's ever really heard of on a large scale. But I find some inspiration in that. And I really kind of like bad metal from the '80s. I like, basically, kids making noise, and that kind of gives me the energy. 'Cause I'm always trying to find my way back to that 15-year-old Michael Amott that's excited about metal. I surround myself in my music room with just artifacts of metal culture and punk culture and the stuff I grew up on, and I just get into that zone. And that's how I try to keep it fresh. I don't really hear something new that's out there now and go, 'Oh, that's cool. I wanna put a bit of that in ARCH ENEMY.' That never happens. It's more like everything that we've listened to, it's all inside of us and it's just a mix. And I've always been interested in this blend between aggression and heaviness with the melody and the catchiness, but not going too much on the pop side, but staying metal. It's just like a balance. It's difficult. [Laughs] It's always a challenge."

ARCH ENEMY's 11th studio album, "Deceivers", arrived on August 12 via Century Media Records.

The band played the first show of its "The North American Siege 2022" tour with BEHEMOTH and NAPALM DEATH on April 16 at The Marquee in Tempe, Arizona.

ARCH ENEMY is appearing at select summer festivals before embarking on the rescheduled "European Siege 2022" trek (with BEHEMOTH, CARCASS, UNTO OTHERS) in the fall.