#there was a lot more streaming of season 1 though and I kept recordings of my past streams that I’ll upload eventually I just haven’t had-

[theodorobrejablog]

3.Intertextuality and Transmedia - League of Legends by Riot analysis

Fig.1 League of Legends Cover

Nowadays, we live in a society where “mass consumption” is a key element. In the last few decades the amount that we consume on any level: food, films, games, entertainment, even work, has increased dramatically, which has led to a higher level of dopamine required for the brain to “feel good”. This led to a constant need of stimulation, which we are not even aware of most of the time. For example: watching streaming platforms while eating and working, playing mobile games while going to work or during breaks. 

This constant social consumption motivated companies to extend and create more and more material in order to satisfy the viewers and at least keep them engaged if not bringing other viewers. Gaming studios extended into films, TV series, books, and film studios extended into games, books, comics etc. Another factor of the extension of gaming and streaming companies is the competition between them for “territory” who owns monopoly over the studios and by default, the market. Because studios need to produce so much in such a short time, as the quantity delivered has increased, the quality of it has drastically decreased. 

Fig.2 League of Legends World Championship

In the video gaming market many studios tried to extend their franchises, making sequels and prequels of their games, making smaller versions for mobile or even realising small books with the story. However, I believe that the gaming studio that perfectly managed to create a complex transmedia universe is Riot Games through League  of Legends (fig.1). Starting from the League of Legends game in 2009 the gaming studio constantly developed adding new playable champions to the game, skins, game modes and events with every update. In 2011 Riot Games started organising League of Legends World Championship (fig.2), with a prize of 100,000$, eight competing teams from Europe, North America and South Asia and 1.6 million viewers. Since then, the championship kept growing with amazing intro shows, live singers, holograms and many more. In 2018 the World Championship final was watched by 99.6million people on streaming platforms breaking the record of its previous year. Through their hard work, in 2019 the game peaked at eight million competitive players and kept growing since then. In present there are 165 unique playable characters for the player to choose from, each having multiple skins, abilities and playstyles. It is impossible for someone not to find at least a few champions to enjoy playing with.

Fig.3 Ruination Book

The champions that are released are not just simple characters. Each of them has a lore and background story that adds a little piece of the puzzle which is the whole Runetera universe, perfectly illustrating Jenkins' multimodality (Jenkins, 2011). Even though the game itself is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game, with no actual story play, Riot games put a lot of attention in building the story and complex characters. The world map contains ten distinctive regions: Freljord, Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Piltover & Zaun, Targon, Shurima, Ixtal, Bilgewater and Shadow Islands. The story is kept alive through the release of cinematics and lore pages during seasons or events. The story expanded so much that Riot released multiple books with background stories of certain champions, art books, world exploration books, and even whole events like “Ruination: A League of Legends Novel” by Anthony Rynolds. This expansion of the game studio into literature enabled the players to have a better grasp of the reason why certain champions are released and how they connect to each other. It also gives more depth to the game, creating a more immersive experience for the player. It’s not just a 30min game in which you keep fighting random people, it’s a whole world you can explore.

Fig.4 KDA League of Legends K Pop Band

Besides the books and World Championships, League of Legends dived into the music industry as well, adding a new layer of transmedia. Starting with the music released with champion themes and cinematics, in 2014 Riot Games presented the virtual heavy metal band Pentakill in order to promote the release of the skins with the same name. Four years later in 2018 League of Legends got a new virtual band named K/DA (fig.4), a K-pop girl group formed of the in game champions Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai’Sa and interpreted by Cho Mi-yeon, Jeon So-yeon, Madison Beer, Jaira Burns, Bea Miller. The band had a huge success with their singles “Pop Stars” and “The Baddest” which made K/DA the first K-pop girl group in history to achieve this milestone. In the more recent years, Riot has released two more bands True Damage in 2019 and Heartsteel in 2023, formed as well of in-game champions, with huge success. Each champion from the bands got their special skin with the same name as the band. I believe that by creating these fun virtual bands, League of Legends received a new, innovative way of engaging with the players and many more people who are not video-game passionate. The cinematic and music videos have thousands of reviews and reactions from music and film producers from all around the world, granting League of Legends even more publicity.

Fig.5 Arcane Wallpaper

Having roots in the gaming, book, comics and music industry wasn’t enough for Riot games and they took a huge step further and released in 2021 the first season of the animated TV series Arcane (fig.5), which had a huge impact among cinephiles. The first season has nine episodes and presents the story between the League of Legends champions Vi and Jinx, and features others like Caitlyn, Jace, Viktor, Ekko, etc. The story reveals a new, more complex side of their lore and adds so much more depth to the universe. Once again, Riot Games used transmedia to bring multiple areas together such as the characters from the game, incorporated in a new cinematic plot and with original music which features legendary artists such as Imagine Dragons and Sting.

In conclusion, I believe that the complex fictional world of League of Legends perfectly illustrates the concept of transmedia: "complex fictional worlds which can sustain multiple interrelated characters and their stories " (Jenkins, 2007). It combines the radical intertextuality, having similar elements across platforms like characters and regions, with Jenkins’ multimodality, having so much variation across many platforms such as virtual bands in music, TV series with extra plots, characters, books, comics with background and side stories. Having such a complex hyperdiegesis hooks the player and attracts even more viewers from other areas, creating a huge fandom. It offers a wide range for the player to interact with and explore, an immersive interactive experience on multiple levels.

Bibliography:

Fig.1: Demirkol, O. (2023) When does LoL split 2 start in 2023: Ranked, gHacks Technology News. Available at: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/18/when-does-lol-split-2-start-in-2023-ranked/ (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

Fig.2: Jacobsen, M. (2023) League of legends world championship 2023 cities revealed, RiftFeed. Available at: https://riftfeed.gg/lol-news/league-of-legends-world-championship-2023-cities-revealed (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

Fig.3: Cover launch: RUINATION: A LEAGUE OF LEGENDS NOVEL collector’s edition (2023) Orbit Books. Orbit. Available at: https://www.orbitbooks.net/2023/11/09/cover-launch-ruination-a-league-of-legends-novel-collectors-edition/ (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

Fig.4: Haasch, P. (2020) Meet K/DA, the virtual pop group that teamed up with a fake influencer who made controversial mental health posts, Insider. Available at: https://www.insider.com/kda-members-league-of-legends-riot-games-what-is-twitter-seraphine-2020 (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

Fig.5: N/A (2021) Arcane. United States, France.

Wikipedia contributors (2023) League of legends world championship, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=League_of_Legends_World_Championship&oldid=1189902922.

Wikipedia contributors (2023a) League of legends, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=League_of_Legends&oldid=1189383126.

Music - league of legends (no date) Leagueoflegends.com. Available at: https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/tags/music/ (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

KDA (no date) K/DA Wiki. Fandom, Inc. Available at: https://kda-lol.fandom.com/wiki/KDA (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

Jenkins, H. (2011) “Transmedia 202: Further Reflections’ Confessions of an Aca-fan". http://henryjenkins.org

Wikipedia contributors (2023a) Arcane (TV series), Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arcane_(TV_series)&oldid=1189231328.

Map of Runeterra - universe - League of Legends (no date) Leagueoflegends.com. Available at: https://map.leagueoflegends.com/en_GB/ (Accessed: December 28, 2023).

[contagious-addiction]

Yeah! But not exactly. The recording of the second season is here if you wanna check it out anon ^v^

I’m not in a place where I can actually stream but if that at all changes I’ll def post about it! I think maybe Roxy still streams? And Emmett on occasion but I think he’s in the same boat as me atm.

Otherwise a majority of us on the smp aren’t streamers so at most there will probably just be fun clips or screen shots XD

Is the metsmp being streamed in any way

god i fucking wish but no lol i mean my good friend @contagious-addiction recorded the first night so if wren wants to drop that then she can do that :)

[kyotakumrau]

2020.12.18 The World You Live In at Zepp Namba, 1st event report

I arrived with friends past 1:15 (door time), but lettings fans in here was very smooth. And there were leaflets for sukekiyo's January shows/MADARA and Dirt waiting for us on our seats.

After the interview, live footage and music videos, staff brought two long tables on the stage with 4 chairs. Fujieda again started with greetings and introduced himself and Takabayashi, and finally asked the audience for the applause for the band members as they come on stage.

Kaoru and Kyo came then.

Kaoru wore all black, jacket, glasses.

Kyo had green hair (same as for the a knot calendar photo session), shocking pink jacket, washed denim, pink socks and white trainers. He wore sunglasses.

They both introduced themselves with simple '薫です' and '京です' but I love how different it sounded for both of them.

Fujieda again talked first about the live footage from March. Kaoru commented that with the document it was really busy. For Kyo it felt that the staff, especially the staff under the stage was restless, moving a lot, but he himself just came and sang.

Next, Fujieda outlined the events in 2020 like he did in Nagoya, he asked if they watched the audiostreams.

Kyo: Yes, I watched all of them.

F: and then yours came last.

Kyo: I could really feel member's personality showing there.

Ka: how was the order out setlists came out decided? Was it after we submitted our setlists?

Takabayashi said that no.

Next Fujieda continued with the 2020 timeline and asked about what they can remember from the Pia VIP meetings.

Ka: I thought that Mr.Higuchi was really nervous interviewing all five of us at the same time.

Kyo: first day the atmosphere was so gloom it felt like a funeral.

After that they moved to the topic of Ochita single, F sked them about filming.

Ka: it finished so quickly, in an instant!

F: did you also feel it went by very quickly, Kyo?

Kyo: not that, there was something else. When filming we were working with a new director. For the first time, I got praised when shooting. Like only 5 minutes passed but he was all 'that's great! yes! very cool!'. Huh? What was that supposed to be? Being told that so much wasn't it too much? And then he had some issue with equipment and asked to go again. When the director saw my costume first he also went 'huh wow!' And the place was so narrow.

After that they moved to the merch items for this events. F passed them their own items and Kyo just kept holding the choker, almost like being frozen.

Meanwhile Kaoru said that there's no special meaning behind deciding to produce the pouch. Then, Kyo, asked about the choker, reacted.

Kyo: isn't this super cool?

(and then again)

Kyo: it's seriously cool. It's super cool. ...it's super cool. ...it's super cool.

(all the time just holding and looking at it)

F: about the embossing?

Kyo: not that, it's just super cool.

Agreed😆🖤

Then F announced they will move to the part with questions from fans. He divided the question sheets and passed them to everyone. But Kyo just kept moving to the next page, next page, next page...

F (trying to avoid silence😂): there were many questions on similar topics, I grouped some of them, many people asked about a movie you saw recently, movie you enjoyed.

Ka: I saw 'Hansekai', a Japanese movie.

Kyo: (after a moment) I watched 'Videodrome'.

He told us a bit about the plot, that you start questioning there what is real when watching. He said it's an older movie, and I didn't catch it but there was some connection with Robocop? He said he's also watching 'Friends' and Netflix's 'Dracula'.

After that Kaoru read a question from a fan: 'F seems to be really loved by all members and staff, but can you tell us how do you actually feel about him?'

Ta kept it cool just saying F is his kohai (younger friend/colleague). Kaoru, too, said that F is cool. But then it was time for Kyo ('s rant)🤣

Kyo: I would like to say you're cool, but there are those things I told you you should try to work on. You say you can eat anything, that's okay, but the way you eat is just, too eager (talking about his eating manners), you're even biting your lips, you also ask me about things when you don't really care, and then you reply with 'yeah yeah'. Don't do it. Saying 'yeah' once is fine, but saying 'yeah yeah' is too much.

(possibly didn't get it all xD)

F: I'll be careful. ...any questions you'd like to read?

Kyo (just kept moving on to the next paper, next question, next, next): nothing good.

Kaoru to the rescue picked a question, but had comments.

Ka: 'I'm moving the day after tomorrow and I'm curious bout the life with many people together (in a big group). How is it when you have to stay together?' Is there a connection between this and moving?

He talked about touring abroad and spending time together in a bus, but they just go to sleep soon. But there are more chances to talk before the shows.

Ta: 'can you recommend us any good restaurants in Osaka?'

nothing from the band members besides heavy thinking😂

Ta: 'which do you like better, takoyaki or okonomiyaki?'

Ka: I like both, but I don't eat them much. Monja(yaki) is better though.

Kyo: Monja is good, but choboyaki, from Kyoto, is the best.

Ta: I like both.

F: I eat everything. But abroad it's more difficult.

Kyo: ...the kebab chicken story.

He told us about the time when they were touring, he always stays on the bus so he would ask a roadie to go get him something to eat. He was thinking about eating McDonalds, but then F suddenly said 'let's do kebab!'. After F said that it's not like he could say he wanted McDonalds.

F laughed but got scolded by Kyo.

Kyo: I told you not to laugh like that! Like just a moment ago!

😂

Kaoru brought up that they played at Osaka Jo Hall on this day in the past. They talked about some trouble they had and the venue staff being angry at them.

Kyo: I don't remember anything from that day. I deleted it from my memory.

F: but you chose I'll and Zan for your audiostream.

Kyo: I wanted to do it for my setlist. But then I saw on twitter few fans wrote they want me to do it, I got upset and almost changed it. Almost. In the end nowadays it's something we wouldn't do.

Ta: 'anything you're into now fashionwise?'

Kao (after thinking): nothing really. ...but I'm not wearing socks today.

F stood up to check.

Kyo: You're THAT interested???

F: just wanted to see what it looks like.

Kyo: that's really weird.

F: 'what's the 'fashion point' for you today (the main idea of your look)?

Kyo: well, what do you think?

F: pink?

Kyo: the whole outfit, you're dead!😂

F: ...but even your socks are pink?

Kyo: you really think pink is the main idea?  Look at my hair, green, I couldn't wear this outfit if I had black hair. It's about total balance! You're really a weird one.

all the love😂

F: 'winter is a nabe season, so what is your favorite nabe?'

Ka ...talked a lot about different types of nabe to make at home.

Kyo: nothing in particular.

F: what nabe do you want to eat now?

Kyo: what do you think?

F: k...kimchi nabe?

Kyo: I was going to say you're dead if you say something else than kimchi nabe.

F (laughing): I got it right?? But I wanted to hear I'm dead😂

Ta: I like chanko nabe.

Ta: 'what's your favorite tea?'

Ka: don't know, I drink a lot of jasmin tea, but I just buy it in a bottle.

Kyo: any tea is okay.

F: I drink Tokucha (for dieting benefits)

(there's one question here when I zoned out) *found my missing bit: there was a question about the name for their fans, toriko. It came from a poster of Die from MACABRE era, fully dressed up, it said 'I'll make you into my slave'.

F: 'what's your favorite alcohol?'

Ka: wine, Napa Valley, I think I talked about it with Mr.Higuchi (at the Pia VIP meeting).

Kyo: I don't really drink now.

He said he used to buy some stuff to make drinks, cocktails, but doesn't drink now.

F: 'what's the most fun moment or something interesting you've done recently?'

Ka: so we've never played here before, at Zepp Namba. When we arrived we talked together in the dressing room. It was nice to have a chance to chat.

Kyo: same really.

Next, F talked about the additional streamed event and the filming.

Ka told us he felt funny when filming (with motion capture) because one of the sensors to record his movement was exactly where he usually plays the guitar so he had to hold the guitar a bit higher than normal (he showed us how it looked and it was quite funny).

Kyo said that when he was filming, and he went second, Die was first, they had to wear costumes like a Mojimoji-kun (like a black skin tight onesie), he felt Die looked much better, and it really made him feel bad, that his style was too 'minimal'. He felt shocked and didn't really like the filming.

F asked everyone to join them on New Year's Eve and next asked band members for the last comments.

Kaoru: We're not able to do concerts and it's very difficult now to gather together like this, so I'm really grateful you all came. We're thinking a lot about what we can do next year.

Kyo: It must have been difficult to come here today, I'm sorry. And 'おおきに・ookini・thank you/sorry for the trouble.

F: oh sudden Kansai dialect.

Kyo: I'm from Kansai.

F: It's fine if Kansai person uses Kansai dialect.

Kyo (turned to fans again): ookini.

Kyo waved to the audience, then they stood up and stood looking at fans a bit, bowed and finally left.

(unfortunatelly I only went to the 1st slot, but might dedicate my time on the train to Sendai tomorrow to collect some bits from twitter!)

[firefly464]

The Gilded Cage - Chapter 9

hehe i’m very excited :) also thank you pami for doing write time with me that was super poggers and awesome you’re so cool 

Written in collaboration with @pamiiap​​ :D Thank you @tea-with-veth​ for beta reading, and editing :D

Master Post

First -  Previous - Next

~~~

Three days. That’s how long Eret stayed with the computer. Three days of nothing but staring at the same screen, desperately trying to test out different commands to see what would work. Three days of sitting in a dark, cold room, with nothing to keep him warm. 

Over the past three days, Eret had barely slept. 

He’d lingered there for hours, the clicking of the keyboard and flashing of the screen filling his senses. All he could think about was this could be his way home. A way to end this and leave it all behind. Maybe he could wake up and it would all be a dream. 

A dream.

Dream.

Dream was his friend. Dream was…

Dream was.

After hours of clawing at the keys for an escape, he hesitated for a moment. He curled his hands into fists and relaxed them, trying to release the tension he had. 

Instead of typing commands, he typed:

Why?

If anyone is reading, send me something

A sign, preferably

Tell me I’m not alone

Give me something

Anything

The shaking in his hands slowed, the edges of his vision melted away. He watched as his world faded into darkness.

~~~

“Hey, chat!” He says, on impulse. “How’s it been? Feels like forever.”

“Sorry for the long hiatus, life’s been throwing curveballs at me.” He continues.

Don’t worry!

You’re fine!

Its okay :D

“I hope you guys have been alright. Don’t know what we’ll be doing with this stream so I’m going to start a little poll in the chat here…”

Time melts away as he talks to his stream, he knows that. That’s how streams usually go. It happens in a blur, the eyes of thousands of people aren’t on him anymore. The stream has ended.

He falls into nothingness.

~~~

Journal Entry #1

I found the Console, still can’t get back home yet though. I’m still unsure on how it works, but I know, I know, that I can get home. It’s kind of like a command block, you can input code but it needs some sort of activation key to trigger it. Haven’t found that yet.

I’ll update this as I find more information.

Journal Entry #2

Text commands seem to work, more extreme commands need the trigger. I really should make some sort of command list, that might help. 

Journal Entry #3

I’ve made a list on a separate paper. I’m running out of space.

Journal Entry #6

What could the trigger be? I need to find it.

Journal Entry #8

I haven’t slept in three days. I need to head back.

Journal Entry #9

Nothing new as of the moment. I’m going to start working on a trigger to activate this thing.

Journal Entry #10

I wonder if I could undo whatever Dream did to everyone’s memories? I wonder if I could make it so that they didn’t hate me anymore. 

Journal Entry #13

I can’t sleep. 

Journal Entry #15

Going home back again. Bad’ll still have muffins, I hope. (If George didn’t eat them already)

Journal Entry #16

George ate my muffins. Prick >:(

Journal Entry #17

Packing for another trip to the Console today. Bad made extra muffins to compensate for the atrocity that happened yesterday. (Sidenote: George had his muffin privileges removed for a day)

Journal Entry #20

Bad’s worried. I wouldn’t blame him. I don’t think I can blame myself either. I have to get home.

Journal Entry #24

I’m here. Glad no-one’s tampered with my list. I’ve been gathering some redstone supplies to try and make a prototype trigger.

Journal Entry #27

I’ve tried several combinations of levers and buttons and redstone but nothing seems to activate it. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Journal Entry #28

Nothing’s working.

Journal Entry #30

Can’t sleep again.

Journal Entry #32

I don’t think I’ve eaten. 

Journal Entry #33

I have to go ho back. I need to be more careful, George and Bad are getting worried. I don’t want them to be worried about me. They don’t even know me.

Journal Entry #34

Do I even know them?

Journal Entry #37

I won’t go to the Console for a couple of days. That might calm them down.

The weather’s getting warmer actually. I think spring might be almost here. Not sure if seasons might not work the same.

Journal Entry #38

George says it’s already mid-spring. I didn’t realize I’d been here for so long

Journal Entry #???

I want to go home. 

~~~

Eret closed the small book with a sigh. Ever since he had found the console several months ago, he had tried to do his best to keep a record of what he found. 

However, the journal had quickly turned into a place for him to pour his emotions, rather than document his findings. All of his actual records were with the console itself, where he could better keep track of them. 

He placed the small book in his bag, before swinging it over his shoulders. He needed to go back. Even if everything about the small, dark room made him want to scream, it was his only hope. His only way of potentially returning home. 

Gently, he pushed back the small curtain that separated his room from the rest of the community house. Even after several months of staying here, he still hadn’t bothered to make an actual room. After all, it wasn’t like he had a ton of free time. 

Almost all of his time was spent either at the console, or digging out tunnels underneath L’manberg. God, he hated those tunnels. 

As he gently stepped out into the main room, he quickly glanced around, checking to see if the coast was clear. 

It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust Bad or George, in fact it was quite the opposite. He just�� He hated making them worry. He knew how much his frequent visits bothered both of them, and so lately he had begun trying to quietly slip away. 

He was almost at the front door of the community house, when a voice called out to him. 

“Eret?”

He froze. 

Shit. 

Maybe, if he kept walking, whoever it was would just… let him go. Maybe he could pretend like he didn’t hear them, and he could just move on with his day. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to figure out the best course of action. 

“Eret? Are you alright?” 

Fuck. 

He slowly turned around, trying his best not to grimace when he saw Bad standing at one of the other doors. 

“Hey…” The word sounded forced, even to him. “Uh, I was just… um…” 

Bad’s face fell ever so slightly as he noticed the small bag slung across Eret’s back. 

“Are you going to the forest again?” Eret tried his best to ignore the way that Bad’s voice was tinged with a slight disappointment. It would only make him feel guilty. 

“Uh, yeah…” 

“Were you just going to leave again? Without telling anyone?” Although there was no accusation in his tone, the words still cut deep, acting as a harsh reminder of his own actions. 

He shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to dispel some of the nervous energy that was swirling around him. “I didn’t want to worry you guys anymore… I left a note upstairs though, I swear!” 

That was a lie. There was no note, there never was a note. But if claiming that there was helped to ease Bad’s worries, then that was what he was going to do. 

He could tell that Bad didn’t believe him. Although his friend would never actually call him out on it, he could still tell from the way his shoulders slumped ever so slightly, or the small frown that crossed his face. 

“Ok… Well, before you head out again, me and George were hoping to give you something,” Bad’s voice was filled with a forced cheerfulness, complete with a matching smile. 

Eret’s head shot up in disbelief. What on earth did they possibly have to give him? They had already done so much to help him, what more could there possibly be? 

Tendrils of guilt began to worm their way through Eret’s mind, reminding him of all the ways his friends had helped him over the past months, and all the ways he had failed to return their kindness. How was he supposed to accept yet another gift? 

“I really don’t need anything, you guys have already done enough for me,” he protested, knowing full well that nothing he could say would actually dissuade Bad. 

“Nonsense, this is something that we wanted to do for you. Hold on, I’ll go get George. Don’t go anywhere!” he cried out, already rushing out of the building. 

Eret let out a long sigh at the final sentence. Of course Bad didn’t trust him to not run off. 

Why would he?

~~~

Despite every instinct in his body that was telling him to run, Eret found himself rooted to the spot where he stood. When Bad returned nearly 10 minutes later with George behind him, he had hardly moved. 

“So… What exactly is going on?” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded forced and strained. 

“Well, George and I were talking,” Bad started, already rummaging through one of the many chests that lined the walls, “and we realized that you’re going to be king soon, right?” 

Eret couldn’t help but flinch at the reminder. To him, the title of king was nothing more than a reminder of what he had lost. A reminder of the pain he had caused for his friends. A reminder of the pain that he would continue to cause. 

But still, he couldn’t let his own reluctance show. If he remembered correctly, becoming king had meant a lot to his alter-ego. Hell, he had gone so far as to betray his friends, just so that he could secure the crown. 

And so he forced a smile onto his face, doing his best to swallow the bitter taste in his mouth. “I mean, yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to happen for a while, but… yeah that was the idea. Why?” 

Bad’s grin grew wider, his face alight with barely contained excitement as he continued searching through different chests. Even George, who rarely showed any outward excitement around Eret, had a small smile on his face. 

“You’ll see, it’s a surprise. I just gotta find it first” 

“I uh, I think it's hanging up downstairs,” George interjected, already moving towards the stairs, “I can go grab it, hold on.” 

He was gone only for a few moments before he emerged at the top of the staircase, holding something behind his back, hidden from Eret’s line of sight. “Do you wanna explain what it is?” He asked, his question clearly directed at Bad. 

Bad nodded, then turned back to Eret, pride showing in his eyes. “Well, we wanted to get you something nice for your coronation. I know it probably isn’t going to be for a while, but you’ve seemed really stressed lately, and we wanted to do something nice for you!” 

George grinned, revealing a long, extravagant coat from behind his back. “Sapnap and Punz helped out with collecting dyes as well.” 

The silk coat was a deep shade of crimson, embellished with gold accents. It felt nice to touch but it was also durable. The inside of the coat was lined with an insulating fur that pokes over the collar, making the inside of it warm. 

He glanced up at both George and Bad, his brow furrowed in slight confusion. “Wait… Wait is this… What?” 

“It’s a coat! I know it gets cold at night so we made you this. Not to mention, a king should look the part.”

Tears started to form in his eyes, threatening to spill over as he gently took the coat. “Thank you” He forced out, unsure of what else he was supposed to say. 

“Go on then,” George said. “Put it on!”

Slowly, he took off the tattered L’manburg uniform, bloodied and stained with dirt, and put on the new coat. It felt… different. But, a good different. 

“Thank you.”

~~~

Several days had passed since Eret had last left the community house. Several days since George and Bad had gifted him the red coat. 

George could tell that their friend's absence was starting to chip away at Bad, his worry festering underneath his skin. By the third day, George had had enough. 

He quickly packed two bags, complete with everything that they would need for a long journey. He might not have known where exactly their friend had gone, but they knew the general direction. That would have to be enough. 

“Hey Bad!” He called out, his friend quickly coming down the stairs of the community house. 

“Whats up?” 

“Come on, we’re gonna go look for him.” 

~~~

Neither of them had any idea what they were looking for, all they knew was that it was somewhere in the eastern dark oak forest. They had spent nearly a week searching every nook and cranny of the woods, never finding any trace of their friend. 

That is, until they stumbled across a pathway. The dirt had been worn down, leaving a trail that they could follow.

The path had led to a small clearing, with a dark building in the center. 

Both George and Bad had recognized the strange material almost instantly. Bedrock. Eret had somehow found a building made of bedrock.

What the hell. 

The area surrounding the building was devoid of any human life, the only exception being a lone horse that was sleeping in the warm sun. 

“Well, I think we found him…” Bad’s voice was filled with concern. 

As they stepped into the strange building, they saw the room completely empty except for a machine in the middle. And unconscious at the desk, was…

“Eret?!”

~~~

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[expectedbehavior]

So I was telling my husband how people (including me) were unhappy with the Supernatural season finale, because a lot of us felt as if the last episode invalidated the concept of “Team Free Will” that had been a through-line for the series, reducing each of the brothers to the fate they had at the beginning of the show — Dean dying young on a hunt, and Sam having a white picket fence life away from hunting. The choices they made should have changed those fates, right? Should have given them new lives and new paths?

When I was trying to explain this, my husband (who has only seen sporadic SPN eps over the years but knows the basic story, and who watched most of the finale with me) was standing there. He’s a writer, a great one IMO, who is currently trying to finish a teleplay of his own about the life of a young man and the choices he made. He made some points that, while they don’t magically change my feeling about the finale, they made me think more about the messages.

(For the record, even he says that the “packaging” of these messages could have been much better, and I agree — I think the finale was not written or structured well. But this is specifically discussing one aspect of the story that seems to be sticking in a lot of fans’ craws.)

He pointed out that everything Dean has done in his life has been about protecting people — his brother, his found family, even complete strangers. He took on this burden of feeling responsible for everyone and carried it for his entire life. Yes, at first part of it seemed to be that he felt he didn’t deserve to live, and carrying the burden was atonement of some sort, but at some point it became a purpose more than a self-appointed punishment. He kept doing it not because he thought he didn’t deserve a life apart from it, but because he just couldn’t bear the thought of anyone suffering because of evil if he was able to help them.

So now he’s on a hunt, when we all think he should be trying to sort his life out without hunting because he finally has the chance to love a long and happy life! To do whatever he wants! To be happy! But here he is in a dark barn, fighting vamps, because KIDS were in danger. And it’s the core of Dean’s being to protect people, especially kids, so of course he was out there. And I have no doubt that even as he was dying, he didn’t regret going to that barn. He might have regretted leaving Sam, or that he didn’t tell Cas he loved him back, or any number of other things, but I am confident he didn’t regret being there on that hunt. He died saving two kids from vampires — and if the show has taught me anything, it’s taught me that THIS MOMENT is 100% Dean Winchester through and through.

And it isn’t an invalidation of free will either. It feels like it, though, right? Because in the first ep, if Dean hadn’t gotten his brother involved, if he hadn’t asked for help, Dean would have died young on a hunt. But he did ask for help, he reached out, he changed “fate” and kept changing and fighting it his entire life. And then he still died relatively young on a hunt after 15 years of character growth. So what does that mean for free will? Maybe it means that the choices Dean has made, that he will ALWAYS make OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, are ones that put others’ lives ahead of his own. He didn’t die because he was reckless, near-suicidal, and didn’t care about whether he lived to see tomorrow, like “live fast die young” season 1 Dean. He died because two children were in danger and he went there to save them. He died because (at the risk of crossing the fandom streams) “it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose — that is not a weakness, that is life.” Dean CHOSE to be there. Dean CHOSE to try once more to help people. Dean’s death is NOT a failure, because he fought as hard and as well as anyone, and sometimes you can do that and still lose and that’s LIFE. That’s THE REAL WORLD that Jack remade — alive and beautiful and imperfect. Dean’s death wasn’t meaningless, since he was fighting to help save the lives of two kids, which he succeeded at. Dean died doing what he felt was right, what he chose to do, despite the risk to himself. That’s free will.

It hurts to see someone we love die, especially when we know they have so much potential ahead of them, but seeing Dean die this way doesn’t invalidate the years in between season 1 and now, and it doesn’t invalidate his character growth in that time. If anything, it reinforces the immutable truth of what makes Dean, Dean. It’s helping. It’s putting the good of others above himself. More than just hunting things, it’s SAVING PEOPLE.

You did good, Dean. It’s ok. You can go now.

[norealdestination]

No one from Nowhere (1/?)

Finally caved and wrote this sad Stressed boy OC that has been rattling his cage forever. inspired by the stream of LC OC’s that @sparklecryptid and @secret-engima have been pouring from their skulls. sorry if this is garbage but I haven’t written anything serious in years

Mors’ Bastard OC

Name: Miles Nemo [Neh-moh] Graucus Lucis Caelum

Dark haired, grey eyed. Male. Older than Regis by 9 years.

Mother was a loyalist who handed him over to Mors. He was named Miles (soldier) and secretly raised and trained to serve the trueborn heir by Mors and Lord Amicitia. Miles did not have a very nice childhood, but proved magically powerful and talented. He also bears quite a few scars from his child soldier training. (when Cor came along, Mors already had plenty of practice)

Never verbally acknowledged as Mors’ son, but in classified Kings-Eyes-Only files there are medical and progress reports that record their relation.(this may come in later)

Though Miles was desperately loyal, Mors eventually realized that Regis could never be trusted with the knowledge or use of his older brother servant, the crown prince was much too soft would love him too much, would trust him too much. So when Regis was about 10 and Miles 19, Mors magically “gagged” his eldest from any claim to the throne or royal kin and banished him from Insomnia, with the clothes on his back and little else to his name.

Miles renamed himself Nemo (No one) and returned to his mother’s family, House Graucus, or what’s left of it. His granduncle owned a run down farm out on the edge of a tiny town in the boonies of Duscae and gave it to him to live on. Out of sight out of mind.

Run down is a generous description, but cleaning it up gives him something to do so he doesn’t have to think . Since it’s an out of the way property in the middle of nowhere, he experiments with his magic in his free time. Nemo has no other skills but fighting and is kind of lost with no structure to his life, so he makes structure. He fights daemons at night and depression naps during the day between clean up spurts. Gets pretty good and very subtle with his magic. Eventually he weaves a nearly imperceivable anti-daemon warding around the borders of his farm.

The first night he lies awake in bed, with no daemons trying to claw their way inside, the silence is suffocating or maybe that’s just the heavy bitter seal in his mouth. He spends the rest of the night pretending the junk in the fields are daemons and disintegrates them with prejudice.

Clearing the land takes time for one person even with magic. But Nemo has nothing and no one but time.

No he’s not bitter.

Cleaning the up the farm lets a lot of wild flowers grow back in the new space, and soon there are a lot of bees. A Lot of bees. In fact a swarm of bees has invaded his porch.

On one of Nemo’s rare visits to the tiny nowhere town, he actually talks to the man he buys his produce from for the first time. About the bees. It’s a LOT of bees. He has to keep using the back window to get into his own house. Please help.

Taking pity on this hapless city boy, the farmer (Jeth, apparantly) helps him set up a hive and catch the swarm that has claimed his house. Jeth, seeing the Huge field of wildflowers, hints that he wouldn’t mind the first batch of honey from the hive if Nemo can manage to harvest it, and donates some old equipment from his own farm.

It’s...a learning process, but Nemo eventually becomes the local bee keeper of Graucus Farm. It takes time, but Nemo has nothing but time.

The first honey is almost sweet enough to banish the sharp bitter taste he’s been carrying in his mouth since the day that Father-, and smells like standing in the middle of his field at night under the stars. Jeth finds a jar of honey on his own porch with a dried wildflower on the cover, stuck with a beeswax seal. There’s a terse handwritten note of thanks under the jar, but Jeth has come to find that’s just Nemo’s way.

A few years pass. Nemo has planted a couple of flowering herb patches on Jeth’s recommendation, and planted hives in them for when the swarming season comes. At night he weaves wards over the hives, protection and calm, until he can check the well-being of a hive at a glance. The smell of flowers and the soft hum of the hives lulls him to sleep at night, and he feels like maybe one day he’ll be fine.

After a while he has more honey and herbs than he can sell or give away locally in his tiny nowhere town. Jeth asks if he’s ever heard of mead. He hasn’t but the local barflies are enthusiastically supportive and Nemo ends up with a distillery set up in his shed. Every town visit has the locals asking about how it’s going, and well, it’s certainly going that stain on the shed ceiling will never come out. But more and more of them know the reclusive beekeeper by name and it’s.not...bad.

It’s a process, (and if he quietly experiments with infusing his honey, herbs, and mead with magic...) but Nemo has nothing but time.

He lets Jeth have a taste of his first good batch, a bottle with a dried wildflower pressed into the hand written label made for him by Falx, the owner of the bar. Graucus Farm Wildflower Mead. A little silver bee stamped in the middle. Nemo takes the rest of the barrel down to the local bar as a thankyou to the rest of the town. Falx made him his own seat in a quiet corner of the bar. The mead is sweet and floral on the nose, with a dry bite at the end, and it almost disguises the bitter weight on back of his tongue. The old tv on the wall celebrates the Crown Prince’s 18th birthday. Nemo is 27 as he drowns old wishes and nightmares in mead.

One night when Nemo goes out to his shed to check on his latest batch of wildflower mead, he finds a half-dead hunter bleeding all over his lavender. There’s a bloody trail carved through his flowers all the way to the broken fence on the border of his farm. Daemons wander and search in confusion beyond the buzzing of his wards, but cannot find their prey.

He may or may not heal her up with “salves” and “tinctures” (not potions, what would a humble beekeeper in the middle of nowhere be doing with potions) made from his Perfectly Normal herbs and honey and then in the morning puts her to work cleaning up his ruined lavender. Then he feeds her a late lunch, reverse pickpockets one of his many, many jars of honey into the hunter’s pack and kicks her out.

Nemo doesn’t expect to see her again, but she comes back a few months later. With friends. Who are bleeding all over his sage.

Nemo is not a bed&breakfast clinic, he would have you know.

This happens a few more times as his bee farm becomes known to the local hunters as a safe place to stay and recover, (for some strange reason daemons avoid the place like it doesn’t exist. might be the big magical Fuck Off sign Nemo made years ago) and the honey, salves, and tinctures seem to have real rejuvenating qualities. He’s not quite a witch, but the hunters think he might be some kind of green mage. Nemo is not.

Nemo gets so fed up with these hunters (and one repeat offender in particular, she has to be doing on purpose, Astrals know why) that he complains to the Auburnries and tells them to get their hunters Off His Lawn. Instead he gets a caravan set up just within his property line. The Meladico Hunters HQ even pays him rent and a little extra to keep it stocked. He sulks about it a bit, but stocks the caravan with mead and not-potions so they’ll stop trying to come up to the house and trampling his flowers and disturbing his bees. His mead becomes quite popular with the hunters, and they keep on their best behavior, lest the green mage curse them. Nemo is Not a green mage.

That cuts down on the amount of trespassers by 99%. That one particular hunter insists on seeing the (very fetching in her opinion) bee keeping witch personally whenever she gets a booboo. And if she says she stomped one of his flower bushes on the way in, well it gives her a reason to stay and “apologize” to him don’t it? Nemo shouldn’t find this charming, but somehow he does.

Some of her hunter friends think she’s nuts and are worried she’ll get herself cursed. Instead Dacia eventually gets herself a husband.

Nemo gets married, though he couldn’t tell you how it happened. Old Jeth is his best man, and the hunter that trampled through his flowers is his wife. The wedding is attended by nearly the entire town and his wife’s hunter friends. It’s loud and bright, and Nemo is hugged by everyone he knows at least twice.

His Granduncle does not come (travel is unkind to his joints), but sends an orange sapling as a wedding gift. Nemo is startled to see it signed for Miles & Audacia Graucus. No one in his nowhere town knows him as Miles, and it’s jarring to see it again. He pretends he’s not terrified that someone draped in royal black will come as if summoned by his deadname. He pretends he’s not somehow still hurt when the night passes with no sign of acknowledgment from the crown, after all, it’s not like he sent...that man an invitation.

Nemo always thought that even though he had been banished, Mors might have kept watchers on him. He had half-expected a threat of some kind delivered among the wedding gifts, a reminder to stay in his lane and not get ideas above his station. But it is almost worse to find that Mors has decided to forget about him entirely. That he meant so little in the end as to not even merit a warning.

He sends a message reminding his granduncle of his name change not that he even has any papers to begin with in the thank you letter, and plants the orange sapling in the empty space between the house and the brewing shed. Nemo wishes he could bury Miles and all of his twisted feelings in the ground along with it.

It’s strange to be married. His Dacia comes and goes with her work and his house is becoming a home. It takes getting used to. Jeth reminds him that it’s a process, just like life. It takes time and no little effort, but Nemo has someone and not as much time as he used to, and it’s...good.

Eventually, just as the young orange tree starts throwing blossoms, they have a baby. She is the most beautiful thing Nemo has ever seen, and when he holds her for the first time, their magic sparks between them in a way he’s never experienced in all his life. Warm and Safe and Loved. The way family was meant to be. He cries harder than he has ever cried before or since. He names her Kara. Precious. Beloved. So she never ever doubts.

The day of his daughter’s birth is the day the boy who still loved Mors, in spite of everything, finally dies.

He’s free of Miles. And a bit angry. Nemo makes a trip to his mother’s grave on the main family property and pours a bottle of mead over the headstone. They never had contact after she handed him over, and granduncle doesn’t talk much about her. She died a few years before he was banished, so Nemo supposes she was at least spared the shame of it. Both he and Dacia only had to hold their daughter once and knew that they would never have given her away to anyone. He never knew his mother or her circumstances but he finally cuts her out of his heart too and walks away.

Eventually he stops being angry. There’s literally no time with a baby and a wife and friends on top of the honey, herbs, mead, and caravan.

Eventually Prince Regis goes on his pilgrimage. Nemo holds his breath as news of the retinue’s approach trickles in from the hunters. He sends Dacia off to Lestallum to visit her parents with Kara just in case. The prince bypasses their little nowhere town and Nemo can breathe again.

Eventually there is a death and then a coronation. Nemo brings his best cask of mead to the town bar to watch it commence on the old tv and is not bitter. Everyone else in the bar is drunk and joyful. No one much liked Mors, Astrals rest him and so forth, and Regis at 23, seems more personable at least. But the new King is a son of Mors, and Nemo doesn’t trust that smile as far as the horizon goes. After all, he too knows what it means to be a son of Mors, and there was never any room for love in it.

Nemo is quiet sitting in his booth, swirling his glass. He’s the only one at the bar and probably most of Lucis who actually has an inkling of what this truly means for the young king. Even in the tv broadcast on a shitty tv, the ring flickers menacingly at him in the sunlight. Nemo wonders if Regis has felt its teeth before the day of their father’s passing. Perhaps there is no room for love under Mors’ shadow, but there is room for pity.

He toasts his would be master little brother’s image on the screen and thinks, better you than me. The mead is floral on the nose and goes down smooth and sweet, and Nemo is not bitter. Long live the King.

/

Regis is not King for more than a week when the Restricted Access files become known to him.

In those files meant for the King’s Eyes Only, Regis finds a brother.

[mykpopwire]

interview: The multi-talented band + dance group W.O.W debuts with ‘Miss U’

1.     Firstly, please introduce yourself.

Yonghun: Hi! I’m Younghun, the rapper of W.O.W.

Yoon Daro: I’m W.O.W’s drummer, A.CONIC’s model and designer, Yoon Daro.

Jeon Sejin: Hello! I’m the leader of W.O.W, Jeon Sejin. I’m also the leader of the group The King and the band A.Fact. Currently I’m active as a director and actor. Thank you so much for having us for the interview.

Joo Wondae: Hello! I’m Joo Wondae, the guitarist and vocalist of W.O.W!

Yousung: Hi! I'm Yousung who’s in charge of singing and dancing in W.O.W!

Kwon Taeeun: Hello, I'm Kwon Taeeun, the vocalist and dancer of W.O.W and I'm also a model!!

Lee Pando: Hi! I’m Lee Pando, W.O.W’s bassist.

2.     Tell us about your debut track.

Yonghun: This track is about breaking up with a loved one and missing that person.

Yoon Daro: It's a soft song that’s suitable for spring when you miss your ex-lover.

Jeon Sejin: Our debut track, ‘Miss U’ is a song that anyone can comfortably listen to. It's a song that shows the members' voices well, so you can see the team's colour as well.

Joo Wondae: The song is called ‘Miss U’ and it's about missing a departed lover, it's a song to listen to in spring.

Yousung: ‘Miss U’ is a hip-hop song that combines both band and dance. It’s a song that expresses the feelings of longing for a shattered love and hope it blooms again after the season.

Kwon Taeeun: It's a dance song called ‘Miss U’ with band sounds. The song expresses the longing for a departed lover and hope that in time we will be together again, just like spring that comes again after four seasons.

Lee Pando: This track is a lonely but fast tempo song that expresses the desire to remember and hold on to the woman who I broken up with.

Jeon Sejin

3.     What is the killing point of ‘Miss U’?

Yonghun: The lyrics in the chorus are very sad. I think those lyrics are the killing point of this song.

Yoon Daro: The killing point is Yoon Daro’s drum part, which has the combination of dance part and band sound with long hair waving from behind.

Jeon Sejin: The killing point of ‘Miss U’ is Taeeun’s high note and the member who’s in charge of rap part in the first verse is also very good. I think those parts are the killing points.

Joo Wondae: I think it's the perfect group dance and my singing part at the beginning of the chorus.

Yousung: The lyrics of ‘Miss U’ are pretty, but the hand choreography is very pretty.

Kwon Taeeun: Since I'm a vocalist, I think it's an ad-lib in the second half.

Lee Pando: There’s a lyric, ‘Even your pretty voice’, and I think Taeeun’s sentimental side is the killing point in that part.

4.     What side do you wish to show through this debut?

Yonghun: What we've prepared so far is a collaboration performance between the dance team and the band team, unlike other idols. We want to show this to the fans.

Yoon Daro: Beyond the model, designer, and drummer, I want to show you how I become an all-rounder entertainer who stands out in many broadcasts.

Jeon Sejin: I want to show you that when you meet and get together with your friends who have been doing individual activities, even if it’s not your first debut, you can create synergy like this. I also want to satisfy my thirst for the stage through more promotional activities.

Joo Wondae: New challenges are always fun. I want to show the side where my friends who’s working in other fields can gather and make good music together.

Yousung: As we are a group with band and dance combined, I think we can show various performances that other groups have not shown. Please look forward to our upcoming side!

Kwon Taeeun: We formed a project group while working in different fields, but I want to show our cool and talented side that is second to none.

Lee Pando: I want to show that the members who are active in their respective field can get together and also do well in various other fields like music and dance.

Joo Wondae

5.     What is the new challenge that you took on while preparing for this debut?

Yonghun: It was great to work with new team members, and I think our efforts to show a better performance itself is a challenge.

Yoon Daro: It wasn't shown on the stage, but the members who played instrument also practiced the choreography together and challenged the dance.

Jeon Sejin: There was no new challenge, but it feels new to dance once again. While learning the choreography for the debut track, I was able to feel how I felt when I first debuted.

Joo Wondae: I learned how to play the guitar! It's my first time learning how to sing too, so I'm still inexperienced, but I hope you like it. 😊

Yousung: While preparing for the debut, I think it was a new challenge not only to dance but also to work with the band.

Kwon Taeeun: When I was in Produce X 101, I was mainly a sub-vocalist. But this time, I’m in charge of the high pitch. So that’s a new challenge for me.

Lee Pando: I've been playing bass like since I wanted to play an instrument, but I think this time I practice more while making and recording music. It’s a new challenge.

6.     Who had the hardest time while practicing for the debut?

Yonghun: No one had a hard time. Everyone enjoyed the experience, so it was comfortable while preparing for the debut.

Yoon Daro: All the members might have had their own hard time during the preparation period, but I think it wasn't that difficult because we worked hard together.

Jeon Sejin: Everyone worked so hard. Since each member had a lot of individual schedules, we adjusted our schedules and kept working hard together.

Joo Wondae: Everyone worked hard, so I think it must have been hard for everyone.

Yousung: The one who had the hardest time… I can’t think of any member. Each member has a strong personality and everyone is good at their own field. At first, I was worried that there might be a conflict of opinions. But we were able to practice comfortably because we know our own style and each other's difficulties.

Kwon Taeeun: I think Yonghun must have had the hardest time. My dancing skill is a bit lacking, so I’m thankful for the 1-to-1 Spartan class but I think it must have been hard.

Lee Pando: None of us had a hard time. When I saw the members learning, making, and practicing the choreography, I thought they were really cool. The band members were doing their best too, so I got motivated and practiced harder.

Kwon Taeeun

7.     All members come from different backgrounds, how your experience in respective areas actually help as W.O.W members?

Yonghun: I've been dancing for a long time, so I think it helped a lot in the dance part.

Yoon Daro: Since I’m a fashion designer, I have a lot of interest in fashion and I have variety of clothes, so I think it helped the styling and style making of the members.

Jeon Sejin: My two leadership experiences and activities in many fields serve as guides for the members.

Joo Wondae: Since I've been a model for a long time, I was paying a lot of attention to the styling of the members. 🖖🏻

Yousung: Since I had debuted as an idol before, I was able to help the members in adjusting the stage settings with the choreography!

Kwon Taeeun: I started out as a rookie on Produce X 101 and modeling activities, but I think I can improve the perfection of the stage by knowing how not to tremble in front of the camera and how to look pretty.

Lee Pando: Because I act as a profession (though I'm still lacking a lot...), I think I was able to understand the emotions of each lyrics when I was singing and dancing, and I was able to express my feelings more sincerely.

8.     After a long day of schedules, what do you do to relax yourself?

Yonghun: I’d go home and fall asleep while watching a movie.

Yoon Daro: When I reach home, I take a shower and watch YouTube or read books. These days I’m studying various languages to communicate with fans from all over the world, of course I want to learn to speak Malay too 😀.

Jeon Sejin: Since I’m working hard to lose weight through diet, I’d fall asleep while looking at the food pictures. I also check everyone's cheering messages from time to time.

Joo Wondae: I often get neck pain, so I always do stretching and massage when I get home.

Yousung: After a long day's schedule, I usually like to watch dramas or movies while drinking Iced Americano at home.

Kwon Taeeun: I’ll definitely eat grilled chicken. Finishing the schedule with delicious food... I don't think there's anything more enjoyable than this. 😊 But still, I don't eat fried food because I have a conscience.

Lee Pando: My friends, whom I became close to while in the military loves to play games, so I play games and talk with them to relieve my stress.

Yonghun

9.     Anything you are addicted to recently?

Yonghun: I’m addicted to The Twilight Saga movies these days.

Yoon Daro: As I communicate with fans these days, I have a lot of interest in different countries’ languages.

Jeon Sejin: Recently I’m addicted to stevia tomato. It's those sweet tomatos and you should try it too. Eat them two or three times! It's very delicious. 😊

Joo Wondae: Recently, I moved to a new house and have been addicted to decorating!

Yousung: It's been so much fun to practice acting these days!!!

Kwon Taeeun: I think it's perfume and beanie. I have 14 bottles of perfume and 7 beanies now. I feel proud each time I add my collection.

Lee Pando: Game, bass guitar practice and how to get closer to fans? 

10.  What do you want to do on a rainy day?

Yonghun: I want to turn off the lights in my room and rest while listening to calm music.

Yoon Daro: I'd like to look out the window, drink coffee and play good songs while talking to all of you through live stream or any other platforms.

Jeon Sejin: On a rainy day, I want to have makgeolli (rice wine), fried pancakes, and pork belly while listening to the sound of rain at home. Just a sip of makgeolli...

Joo Wondae: Drinking coffee while listening to music by the window on a rainy day!

Yousung: I want to drink Iced Americano while watching the rain. 😊

Kwon Taeeun: I hate getting rained on, so I always stay at home. I think I'll order fish cake soup or chicken while listening to the sound of rain at home.

Lee Pando: Squid, kimchi pancake and green onion pancake with makgeolli.. I'm going to write lyrics and melodies when I get sentimental.

Yoon Daro

11.  What kind of music you wish to pursue as W.O.W?

Yonghun: I don't know what other members think, but I want to try all type of genres.

Yoon Daro: I want to make music that can sympathize and speak to everyone.

Jeon Sejin: W.O.W will continue to play music that is comfortable to listen to and we will often come up with music that everyone will like.

Joo Wondae: I want to do music that’s popular and shows W.O.W's colour.

Yousung: I want to do music that can express each individual’s personality better and stand out without being bound by the genre.

Kwon Taeeun: All the members like the band sound. Through band songs, I want to make songs that have a good rhythm and can be familiar to everyone who listens.

Lee Pando: Whether it's bright or heavy music that many people can relate to and get comfort from, I want to do music that can start the day and end the day.

12.  What is your biggest strength as a singer?

Yonghun: When I stand in front of the camera, I don't get nervous but rather do much better.

Yoon Daro: A relatively tall in height, clothes, stories from various background and long-haired visual?

Jeon Sejin: My biggest strength as a singer is my high notes. It's a strength that I haven't shown you much yet, but I'll try harder to show you more someday.

Joo Wondae: The tallest in the team and main vocalist’s soft voice 🙆

Yousung: I think my strengths are being able to do well in both visual and singing and rap. ^^ Hohoho

Kwon Taeeun: I'm not very good at singing, but I think I have a good voice...^^

Lee Pando: I’m an actor, but I think my vocalization is good.

Yousung

13.  What was your reaction when you hear fans said you are good looking?

Yonghun: I have to thank my parents for giving birth to me with such look.

Yoon Daro: I'm always grateful and I think I should work harder.

Jeon Sejin: It's always thrilling and fun. That compliment always makes me feel great. I want to keep listening. Please shout out more and more, with my name.

Joo Wondae: I've never heard of being called handsome. ^^...

Yousung: Whenever I hear that I'm handsome, I feel happy and I can't get enough of it! I remember what actor Jung Woo Sung said, “It's always refreshing. It's always thrilling!” That's what I remember.

Kwon Taeeun: I like it. It's good whenever I listen to it, but I always feel shy. For some reason, I don't think I deserve that compliment for now.

Lee Pando: It's always exciting. It always feels like the first time. I'm embarrassed, but I want to keep listening.

14.  Your goal as a W.O.W member?

Yonghun: As a member, I want to live a smooth life without arguing with each other.

Yoon Daro: I want to work hard as a band and become an all-rounder entertainer. I want to be good friends with all of you as well.

Jeon Sejin: My goal as a W.O.W member is to make sure that everyone in the team can achieve satisfactory results. I’ll lead each member well so that they can shine with their abilities and charms. I’ll do my best so that we can receive greater love from everyone.

Joo Wondae: I want to do music together for a long time. I want to meet with our fans who love W.O.W all over the world.

Yousung: Now that we started with W.O.W, my goal is to make as many people as possible interested in us and like us.

Kwon Taeeun: As a member of the team, I will try to carry out my activities without bothering the team even though I can’t lead the team to do very well.

Lee Pando: I want to become a W.O.W member who can communicate more with the members and fans and feel the joy and sorrows together.

Lee Pando

15.  Lastly, can you say a few words to your fans in Malaysia?

**watch the video below

*Photos courtesy of A.CONIC

Don’t forget to like and follow My K-Pop Wire for more K-Pop interviews, events, debut and comeback updates!

Twitter: @mykpopwire

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Connect with W.O.W!

Instagram: 

W.O.W with A.FACT: @wow_afact

Jeon Sejin: @tkhdsejin

Joo Wondae: @joowondae

Kwon Taeeun: @kwontaeeun_

Yonghun: @0_choi

Yoon Daro: @daroyoon

Yousung: @ys_317_

Lee Pando: @leepando1995

[rwmhunt]

Leviticus, Chapter 26

1. It's my training- I find With polarizing factors- In essence, they are Attentional. And lo, we're on to how pandemics End, And where I say that I find it normal To see false flags on everything. The victims Are disseminators In isolation stasis, As believers are cast into many Disparate factions- desperately seeking Their own audience and fracturing Reality in their processes. They plead the cause of a deepening iniquity As to a factor for relief, But maketh of ye here, no idols, no bones about it; And rear thee up no columns, No analogue that might measure or mock me with restraint; No feat that might inspire ye to fall, For tis ME. And all of you Need fear More Than hope Now.

2. And here Moses might only be seen In the reflected beam Of his own headlamp, As by it he travails into The little that it casts, For, tis about time we said Goodbye to Sinai, And, having toyed with the pretence, Admit that it is no place to biggeth of a home. But, let us first cut our losses With the aforementioned, spurious Sacrifice.

3. Then walk in My statutes, And in effect, I will take the lot. From Exodus through Numbers, Leviticus Shall appear in the role of Mose's malignant, Functioning as something of a priest in prototype, Here, used for example of what is otherwise superfluous.

4. Thus shall he chafe, at first, against the thing at work- Twas the people who provoked him into the begetting Of a golden idol, whence he went before them and said, - For whom does it end, and who as so doth get to decide? I'll give ye the reigns to such a season as they be deigned for, And hence hath he tapped into some rural frustration, By atleast pretending to pay an attention Unto those who'd’ve had it That they were deserving of an attention, And hitherto presuming That they were getting not of it, Because it was a given that it be going unto others.

5. And, warming- Threshing Shall verily reach unto the vintage, No timescale shall lie upon our dessert, And thence, that it should there suffice And be so furthered of a surfeit also- Sick and tired of winning. There’s an uncertainty about the path That goeth forward, which was always there, But masked By Mose's exceptional approaches from god, With troubling things to report From the frontiers of the rhyzome As dictated by him from a distance; Be it tented or from way up on Sanai. More to the point, with Aaron found in a position Where the idol he created is out of his control, Mose is perhaps more eager now than ever To retain his grip on the base, so To the top of the Mountain, where he again Is lolling with a god who has legacy to defend, And from where he’s tolled upon the god, Who now hath a record of statutes Which need be ramified over time to maintain The same supplication from the base hereunto- By a means that looks increasingly precarious;

6. And still he blew- I can cause evil beasts to cease your path, And slope away, out from the land, So be it a safe space for thinking, yet, Even before Mose had left Egypt, Aaron was charting a course that would bring his horn to clash In conflict with the legacy his brother hath sought As that from up on the mountain. - He, without standing- Made Manifest Destiny As Aboriginal Calamity; Lo, that He should speaketh Only through ol' measly Mose, It’s sick. It’s a sick joke- that’s what it is, And it’s not a joke as far as I’m concerned, It's April the first.

7. And Mose, as responding to winds only when forced to, Is always leveraging to give away the wiggle room For people to interpret his position however they would. He’ll say things vaguely enough to send one message Unto his base while maintaining deniability when questioned By Dr Moloch, with, - we were able to pivot, _, But here, defending himself publicly against his former compatriots, Who had criticized him as a “rogue” and a selfish coward- And of Denver Riggleman hath he chastened as an enemy unto the good, That he shall fall before you as from a sword; where swords believe not... Because sometimes a little bloodletting...

And he trails off...

8. But, as marketing hath recently divined unto Me, In allowance that there shouldst be For a different kind of people to be present at storytelling- The national need for experts in critical languages and other regions- Go thither - that it shouldst not always be Mose, As effective a spokesperson as he fairly is- - We wouldst be able to pivot, deep Into a different frontal cortex and through The past year, shew how powerful our mind could have been, So Denver giveth five of you wriggle room to chase a hundred, And a hundred of you are now chastening of ten thousand; As so shall I up thee thy ante, And my enemies will fall before you as by a sword, For I thought it funny- that there could be no room For anybody who should come As would be so dumb as to think it real, But, lo... it's complicated. When ideas are swords, there broods a tribal metaphor, Absorbing the recondite and thus blooming the tribe, trained To a stream of algorithmy on a fact-immune, ignorant, Analytic white paper.

9. Lo, and compliant with the photograph, I shall have respect as unto you, And make a fruitful of you, and multiply the effect of you; And shall establish My covenant as parley with you; However, with you there, shall I stop- And if you shouldst know of an influencer, That goeth as amongst you, It is upon you, to cut them off, And cast them from the convention, To leave them afloat In the void of their influence; Know me, you are not missing out. And they looked at each other

10. And carried on through A buildingsite for hackers, unto The streaming platforms, as linkethed up Among these sealed back channels, deep In amid online influencer culture, As aideth escape from our antibodies Who deeply infringe into the working of others, Which I see no incentive in trying to dispel, Saying- ye shall eat old-store pottage long kept, And ye shall bring forth such vintage from before the new; The seed shall be my seed and my seed only; me a monothe, find There are plenty of such who want this pandemic to continue; - 'Exactly.' ...But it's not us. - 'Exactly. Thanks to you, Dr Moloch.' And away I rode As quick as I could.

11. Lockdown is as a low gloss and of loss- Gratitude, thank you, thank you, 80 neg 95 from the day before, My soule shall not abhor you In these toxic patterns thrash, For even though there's darkness, Let it be as such that is found exhilarating; For there's nothing like a sword to save us.

12. I will walk among you, And lo will I figure the triggers That allow keeping it alive in a tiny form. A worldly preserve from a range of exotic, begotten In order to find what goes on in the yard; As without ever leaving The bold tent of meaning, Where the project itself shall take care of me. I must not run out; The shelf of ideas must not be let empty.

13. When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ They are asking about the social conclusion, Where the real answer Is very close To the wrong answer. But you’ve all been doing it, in various ways, And that's evinced as an important reminder Of what we are yet culpable for. Go upright- the answer Affects us all; Differently.

14. But! lo, A better question might be About the so-called-end, Dr. Moloch, he sayeth, - For withdrawal Is a-talkin' 'bout affect- Oh, pay no attention to changes.

15. If, enervated in heat, Wounded with guilts, Stained with sins, An image without a caption, so advanced That all she could offer were comfort care; An hour later, declare the epidemic as so over- Here, as memories are going to be difficult to archive; For the seed hath been sewn by the hackers, Where hackers had shewn a new level of stealth, For they had bade a solitary star, As softly warn on solar winds, To infiltrate networks, take The footprint far, far from Babylon, Raise columns and fresh idols- With such malware attached As may still be working.

16. Then I will appoint terror, same, Death be a-killing people- Catenated, then moderated, then killed off: Lost in the entropics of cancer That so maketh the eye to fail And the soul to languish; Thus, this incident with the Golden Calf , The incident as so nearly brought God To deracinate intrigue, where nobody new Walked in on our room for all our wide length of time; Who- who would escape the crime for a role in the affair ? Aaron was not the teflon idol-maker his resilience, Built, as of an impossible Self-reliance, should determine him to be; Aaron is eroding. And he shall sow your seed in vain, For my enemies shall maketh a relish of it; Then needst I seek for your polluted replacement; Catenated, then moderated, then killed off: The human condition shall not save itself, Ellis said; I find it normal.

17. We are told to use a common inference to decide Whether an aggadah be taken as lateral or vertical; And once you've come to smelt the rood, Drempt of the chundering of swords, Quietly dumped the lot that was- The wild dream, thus superseded With a totem dream- you turn, bearing An unforgotten, felt as a missing, As so make you up to grab of it back- Loss.

18. The calvary the calvary- To characterize this away from me, If amorality be light years over the sky-effort of casting an opinion onto everything, As all be bedraggled before the judgment Of its own rhyzomic scruples, Then I'm not passing nothing; I don’t do horses, ok, Should the fox be all of one beast You me, as the cavalry Charge Decidedly, then seven times worse- Know of our own action, a fiction; I wouldn't say we'd be comfortable In the skin of it today, or ever. If.

19. And I will bust the pith of your power; And I will glove your heaven with iron, And your earth will be rung like brass. Why not? Nobody’s coming round my house. We kept moving, flashing in at the high post. Sparks of titanium came over in a shower, Mose was feeling plangent And understood that the rituals of hegemony Were both ridiculous and necessary; filled, If pulled and scrubbed of reference to _, It was a lot to deal with- Open it, he said, whatever it is. - Did not convince them.

20. Entropy. A runner with beautiful legs- Unsure why I was called here: I can't see any questions You haven't attained a ransom for; Is there reason to speak If it isn't with answer or question?

21. And if ye walk cater-cornered unto Me, And will not hearken to My rune; I will bring seven times more plague Upon your, as-yet-unvisited, doom, Each according to your ills in the manner apt as I see them; Why, lo! Me? Sanctimonious? Is it a sin? - It's ridiculous That you should think To hear the voice of god, Opined Leviticus, - When you don't even know What I've come to mean. - If I am deluded, And I am speaking counter-wise to my meaning, Then who is it who is speaking? And if I walk contrary as to myself, And I am deluded, Who is it that should so moveth, as within me? Nae, you are deluded- You were not deluded, and You have not reached the threshold of paradox; Someone is coming to help.

22. As i stood on Bilston roundabout, No chance of a crossing- Cars Fast revveth they past- I smelt the sting Of their kind of damage; I looked into their eyes, They had an inkling To what's going on. The Golden Calf- Loss.

23. But they're just hire vans Picking up wood and what have you. So Belisha was a beacon on the road to captivity, I fear for the understanding and the regard Of increment and consequence, Now endentured within the culture, And exhibiting an inordinate amount of animus To conventionally pollute the landscape; I too have proved dependent On lorry drivers. Still no?

24. Then I'll do the crab, And I'll drop you again, A fulle seven times deeper in, Among the analogue of what Streamed out of the book of Leviticus- Manifest Destiny, Aboriginal Catastrophe, Rout the field; the rave plague- Widescreen monoculture; No one's coming for us.

25. So hear The horror At harvest time- Of produce Being plunder, A proof Upon the alter That poses itself As a given Which isn't to give.

Your past is unintrudable. Until that they come.

26. By suggesting an invalid value As to the nature of the work, I pool you into the conceit via the threat of its loss; There, lost, found budded and blossomed, Producing the taste of ripe almonds, It's base near the solar wind farm, Whispering soft that shepherd is a crook. And, woe is me! but, worry not, I aim to set it up as something, for a while. Where bread of bread be broken and never enough, Even though all women bake forever at once. Exodus hath let his rod turn unto a snake, Then stretch itself out in order To bring on the first plagues; May hey go pound sand.

27. Still? Really? I defy you, Creeping normally over Hebron In fear for the understanding and regard -As I told you- Of consequence and increment, Endentured in the culture; An inordinate amount of animus exhibited- And a swordly sword upon you- saying you're gone When you're not even off the sacremount. A vengeance of a covenant I'm unsure that you've ever agreed to, But the veil has been bought over- Pestilence and loss.

28. Furious, me, Seven times seven times seven times worse. i.e. as optimized to amplify outrage, unearthed, although, I'm not sure I've invoked enough dimension to illustrate All of what should be press-ganged unto the frontal lobe.

29. Eat your children. There- that's me. I'm my own actress.

30. And I will devoid your high places, And cut down thy sun-pillars, Leave you a skeleton crew to a ghost ship, Intemperately adrift.

And so the carcass wore on, And so hath foundered against the carcasses of idols; And so His soul hath fairly abhorred me.

31. Loss, loss, I'm not sniffing. Slowly go back, A little bit broken, Caution is the easiest option; A draggyness will reinforce a positive While performing an unintended habit; It’s not enough to treat either of us with the end of the week- Make sure the reward is something i experience as of when you are amid your behaviours. No, I'll say it, Die at the tent of an open market, Between repetition and habit formation, I shew correlation, that is not causation — Not with the repetition, for lo, I'm emotion- I will always be idiopathic- Think it a divine dispensation. So tired of the restrictions I declare the end over, And, that the virus continue to smoulder, All characteristics in being so mutable- Then Moses stood in the door of the tent, Amid multiple failed predictions, - I deserve the ability to return to my life.

32. There is a number we can all be comfortable with. Have it then, So bad as to make your enemies feel some for you. And who goes looking for replacement? Speak, and he spoke, That "something big" would partake; That a truth would emerge "next week". Some of those watching the mountain from afar Came to consider, at the end, - That, looking back, we have a weak narrative. - We have a weak narrative.

33. Scattered among the nations- waste-spaces. Some say a prediction of entropy is as the general theory Of a safe bet. What may be looked upon from within The tent of meaning to be a magical, Mystical voice of secret wisdom, As sayeth we needst people push'd unto an inflection point, Where that they pick up a stone, find another and thither lay hands- That, as a weird snake, goeth crazy and kill Itself, Aaron became spokesperson for a fish oil supplement Made up of sophisticated spies who spoke foreign languages and travelled, Which, when filled, if pulled and scrubbed of reference to a golden calf, Could descry my covenant of such that We're determined not to be, By our psychological nor pathogenic ends, But by the primary given of our socio-political twin-set, As ever, we, ridiculous, replacement and necessarily, Can go pound sand.

34. It's all about sevens, in sabbaths- I warned you, you owe me a desolation, Old saying, “Spy one, ring one, leave one.” For a sabbath is my parle with dust. Should you push back against the notion of endings, What are you thinking to be, as thus pushed back against? What are you claiming when you say, No, no it isn't ending?

35. Desolation is rest, Even the rest of a draggyness, And like most things will be, Twas named twice- Once in ignorance And once in knowledge, Which it got not on your busy weekends, when ye dwelt, While otherwise engaged, upon it. If the Act gets signed, It’ll be today; Or tomorrow. Not a day later; Before we hang up, he mutters, - Twas a smuggler what done it, And needst be taken out In the name of Babylon;

36. For I shall send a faint unto the heart of the remainder In the lands of those jaded by you; and the sound of the driven leaf Shall give chase; so away do you flee, as one fleeth from ideas of a sword Or a satellite-controlled gun in the sky, Where no terrorists are present on the ground. And so shall fall they, when none pursueth, as by the draggyness Of where we're OK with a god watching over us, Because he might maketh protection of us, By shewing no incentive as to try and dispel, And by this, the virus hath gained Our blueprint for its future, Where Dr. Moloch just said - This is this sort of conflict now- That each epidemic amplifieth the next, From where all epidemics begin, anecdotally- In China.

37. And they shall stumble, one upon the other, And so through a very depressing time, when Everything is read about, and only of how Everyone's at loggerheads And nobody's cooperating with anybody. So hie, on Trump Time? But! That’s then, The suspected culprit, be it Hackers and their alleged paymasters, The smuggler what hath done it Or more malign actors- it's No reasonable person. No reasonable person should be found liable. No reasonable person should be found liable to believe it. - Did not convince them.

38. Here Aaron hath a parting message for those who might still be caught upon the roiling forums of this sort of carcass, as he once was, - Don’t leave your habits to chance, To be a derision among My enemies— It is not real- I did not think, until the very end, that it was necessarily for me to maketh the call On whether to blow it all; lo, Tiny Habits. Twas a wonderful opportunity to be deliberate. Easy, it is, to fall in line with peace and society and be so mindful. Where the lights returneth to the eyes, That at this moment, remaineth dormant. Perish, and I shall eat you up.

39. No, pine away; with thy fathers pine inside of a tree. There's a need here, so be ok With a god that watcheth over, because he, Before he role-played the insurrection and ransacked the seat of the tent of meaning, Said that the human condition cannot save itself, That our memories are going to be difficult to achieve, So now we're lost to workshops, listening sessions, A training in equity, inclusion and cultural awareness- As unto the host, the producers and the skeleton crew, And here the real answer Is close within The carcass of the other; The parody to the tragedy, Closer than is comfortably recorded By the ummim, the thurim, The uncomfortable fascinator- The wriggle out Did not convince. Focus on the wrong.

40. So to the Sacrifice, Which is short, and for a sacrifice of well-being, Sins of the father and of their own as, finally, confessed- - You’ve been killing yourself for the rest of your lives By going after the big calf, even in jest; I don’t think we’re meant to do a life alone, While community support can be really empounding. Then Aaron invoked the analect of What was hitherto only alluded after- Lord shew mercy o'er the soule Of poor olde Martin Elginbrod, As He would do, as He is god and You, but Martin Elginbrod. Nae, no sacrifice- god can furnish himself.

\/\/\...Major disruption expected until end of service... Someone is coming to help.../\/\/

41. If your intelligence... Doesn't move... At the speed of your lips... ... Then... That's not to say... And so ... won't be said... I suppose... It's not hard to... Overflow... U's address- - It's outrageous; who gets To claim the end? As Dr. Moloch skewered, - Where U's Without wiggle room; then Why would you release this information if it wasn't true? - It intrigues my botherance and no more.

42. There's a vacuum at the top that can always Be rendered to the service of sociopathy- So Aaron had reached the merrye age of 123 when on his back, Forking it over, he remembered the covenant; How transacting with God had always left him feeling dubious- At once on the bum-end of a raw deal and at the same time, A confidence trixter; that he was present only as a matter of course, As would allow for the whole to happen and what else? I got a shot of the obligatory handshake- it looked obligatory. I will remember the land.

43. Lo, for the land, the land as she lie Forsaken, shall late enjoy, in finding Return on her sabbaths in desolation; And they shall repay of the crime by iniquity- A draggyness, and then an emptiness, A peace and a solemnity. Oh my sabbaths, my covenant of sevens, Leave you me memories, On remember the land, How pandemics End, For they who to decide, And as go pound sand, Because, even because of thee and thy Rejecting of My ordinance, and then all souls abhorred, All lost, for The attention economy Where holes get called into question, Then provoked, Beyond their outskirts Flash.- I used to run. Leave me you memories. And the land- lyrical several hundred miles westward went we. Where failed mechanisms Are left to turn as ever Then, by the cypher, Reprise to page one, But my sky bolts- They are not regular And cannot be relied upon With your imperfectly leaky recall, Unqualified insight and inadequate processing- Tis an inapt power.

44. Still, for all that, I'm with you, yeah- Why, if I sell you a pipedream That will last you out your days; Which, smiled at, across your ashes, As with a wink, so with a nod, And then that, with a fondness, thus wains;- Will it not do? A 'freewill', as a given, unto you, As also upon the universe, Whereby bestowed Within a periodic Doubling to chaos, As might interpret the efficiency Of its instruments and Deny you the myths; Let to live among bad ones. Might.

45. The weight of a human collapse Is quite light, And leaves not a trace in the ground. I lie on the bank, benign Beneath the long, lean, slantage of the sun. So Moses disposes Of my properties from here; It's good bye to the Umim and to the Thurim. My brother writes my will best, As he once bade sacrifice of me; So smite him, for I'm still a grudgeful god, Still, mostly, I'll be thinking about Egypt, I find it my Culloden, In other words, An end can occur not because We grow tired of the mode And learn to live with the damage, But, In moping that fate should be The brighter star, Get on.

46. The cave closed behind Mose On his retreat from Aaron's bier, through the thickening air; And what of the Urim and Thummim- stripp'd When he wenteth so, as before the store? Aaron's memory was left for people who came after him, The pillar of cloud which proceeded in front of the van As god disallowed, disappeared with Aaron's death. Coincidences of events form the structures of time-space and give, In inference, to the retched conundrum Of how to respond- the 'you are the same of a different Stage in the only narrative there goes to tell' notion- Sinai. At another site gazelles were found At the feet of several burial mounds- - Why'd you bury them there? Enriquez enquired. - Has to be a reason. But a hypothesis is An implicit bias to begin; Hard as it be To set off without one; a return to the rushes, To the brushes- Been moiled among words For a little too long. The angel's death march On the day of revelation; the path of obsolescence To an end of ministration; god actively bows, And then obliterates the lot of them.

Why bow? He ponders. Ponders? Never. Sorry.

[ayatosmlktea]

𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆

A/N: wow after two thousand years I’ve finally written a second chapter! After posting the first one I got really discouraged becauseeeee I waited too long to write down my ideas and lost ALL of them SO here we are. It’s going to stick pretty close with the themes in supernatural but I’m going to add my own twists here and there because I can. I also haven’t watched supernatural in like...5 years so I mostly going off things from like season 1-7. For those of you who are still interested in this, thank you for your support! It means a lot to me. If you would like to be tagged in this series leave it in the comments! I hope you enjoy this next chapter :)

Tag list: @angelanimedesaray, @regalillegal

Previous Chapter

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 2

♡    ♡    ♡ 

“You’re weak Y/N” Grisha’s words ring loudly in her ears, repeating over and over like an endless broken record. Slowly they mix in with Eren’s voice, taunting her for being so useless.

“You’re pathetic, You should have kept her safe! I’m ashamed to call you my daughter” Y/N covers her ears with her palms squeezing her eyes shut.

“Shut up!” she yells but their voices only grow louder, new unfamiliar ones danced around her head but she refused to open her eyes. The air was becoming increasingly hot, and the longer she stayed there unmoving the more her skin began to burn unbearably. Turning her body away from the distorted image of her father, she wills her eyes to open and runs from the trail of flames that were inching closer to her body with every second she remained unmoving.

 The sounds of blood curdling screams makes her blood run cold, bodies littered the corner of her vision but Y/N couldn’t bear to look. The smell of burnt flesh and blood was enough to make her throat burn with bile but she forced herself not to vomit. It was the same story every time, she would run until her legs were so stiff she couldn’t move anymore. The bright light calling out to her like a siren always just out of her grasp, the exit was so close but she always lost. Her lungs burned for oxygen, the muscles in her legs aching with the need for rest. Distant barking makes her heart jump into her throat, she couldn’t stop now. If the hellhounds caught up to her it would be futile.

“Better hurry up sweetheart” an all too familiar sickly sweet voice drawled, he felt too close to her body and Y/N could practically feel his breath at the back of her neck. The hellhounds were going to catch up to her, there was nothing else she could do anymore. Her mind was screaming relentlessly to get up, keep going. Her body collapsed onto the dirty wet ground, chest heaving as she gasped for air. Zeke’s smile was anything but warm, his eyes always twinkling with the same sadistic expression he always wore. It made all the hairs on her arms stand up, no matter how many times she experienced this nightmare Y/N still couldn’t fight the trembling that overtook her body.

“Such a shame doll, I really thought you were gonna make it this time” his sinister smile made her want to punch him in the throat. Crouching down to her level his hands tilt her chin up.

“Time is ticking Y/N. I suggest you hurry up, I’m not a patient man” She can see the hounds of the corner of her eye, the sheer size of them alone made her freeze up. It was a losing fight, she was nothing more than a weak mortal and Zeke didn’t have to use a quarter of his strength to easily overpower her.

“I’m thinking tonight we take it a little slower, what do you think? My hounds aren’t patient either but I think we’ll all enjoy watching you bleed out.” Her body suddenly feels as though it’s being weighed down by an anchor. The tightening pressure against her chest is agonizing and causes her to draw in uneven gasps of air.

“Be a good girl and let me hear those screams yeah?” Y/N squeezes her eyes shut bracing herself for the feeling of dagger like teeth digging into her skin but it never comes. 

Cold pellets of rain beat down on her skin as her body is slammed unceremoniously onto muddy grass. The pressure that was there moments ago finally released, the rain a welcome sensation against her reddened skin. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, the heavy downpour making it difficult to see anything more than a few feet away. A flash of lightning illuminates a figure standing in front of her. His pale grey eyes quickly captured her attention. His presence didn’t make Y/N anxious, in fact it was comforting and almost...familiar.

Crouching down to her level his hand brushes wet hair from her forehead.

“What am I going to do with you Y/N?” He asks, the smooth baritone of his voice gliding over her senses like silk.

“Who are you? What the hell is going on?” The rawness of her throat makes her voice painfully raspy. His touch is gone as quickly as it had come, her skin already missing his touch. The man leans forward, his lips just barely grazing her ear lobe.

“Time is running out. Now wake up and find me”

 ♡    ♡    ♡ 

“Y/N! Wake up goddammit!” Her eyes shoot open, Mike’s concerned eyes are the first thing she sees. Her head felt like it was swimming, her body was shivering uncontrollably under her drenched clothes.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” Mike’s firm voice helps bring her consciousness back to reality.

“Huh?” Blinking slowly she realizes that she’s standing in the middle of  an open field, her bare feet are covered in mud. Grabbing her arm gently Mike leads her back to his truck, opening the passenger side door he helps her in, covering her with a thick blanket before sliding into the driver’s seat. The sound of rain beating against the roof of the car pulls her barely conscious mind towards sleep. Snapping his fingers in front of her face Mike forces her to look at him.

“Sorry but you can’t go to sleep yet hun.” Y/N groans through chattering teeth. Her body was shaking so hard it almost hurt.

“We’ll be home soon and then you’ll have some nice hot chocolate. How does that sound? Can you stay awake for me Y/N?” She could barely understand anything he was saying, but could make out enough to grunt in response. The promise of her favourite hot beverage gave her something to focus on as she visualized the pleasant feeling of warmth sliding down her throat. Before she knew it they were back at the house, Mike  scooped her into his arms and ran inside where Mikasa was already shuffling around the kitchen. Her head whipped around at the sound of the door slamming shut.

“Get her out of those wet clothes, I’m going to get more blankets” Mike instructs setting Y/N down in front of the fireplace. Her eyes are glued to the orange flames, the way they danced along the burnt wood captivating her attention.

“Y/N can you lift your arms for me?” Mikasa’s voice was so soft, Y/N couldn’t help but comply with her sister’s simple demand even if her arms felt like lead. The feeling of warm dry clothes made her sigh in content. The hot chocolate had tasted even better than she imagined and it wasn’t long before Y/N had fallen asleep again on the couch.

“What the fuck is going on? This is the fourth time this has happened!” Mikasa sighed, her heart felt heavy. Something was wrong with Y/N, ever since they had gotten to Mike’s after leaving the hospital she had started sleep walking. Questioning her after the fact was pointless, Y/N couldn’t remember anything that had happened after waking up.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s residual stress from your hunt.”  Mike mused, green eyes trained on her sleeping form. It had been a little over a month since the girls had shown up at his doorstep. Y/N had confessed everything the night they’d shown up after Mikasa had gone to bed, he knew about the deal she’d made to save her sister.

“Please don’t tell Mikasa! I can handle this on my own but she can’t find out that I sold my soul” Y/N pleaded with him, tears slowly streaming down her cheeks. Mike’s heart ached for them, he’d been hunting long enough to know that their lives were never destined for happy endings.

“You don’t think she’s going to notice when your ass gets dragged to hell by hounds?” He retorted harsher than intended. Y/N bites her lip nervously, of course she’d thought about it.

“I’ll...I’ll tell her in my own time. But I need your help finding Levi, whoever the fuck he is” Mike didn’t want to have to lie to the younger girl but he knew that Y/N needed all the help she could get. He’d heard of Zeke before, his status as a high level demon had made him infamous among hunters. The fact that they’d both managed to get away unscathed meant that Levi was a major player in whatever plan Zeke had in mind.

“Fine but you have to promise me you’re going to fight like hell to undo this. I don’t care how dirty you have to play, you make sure your soul stays on this goddamn Earth”

“Get some sleep kid, I’ll stay up and watch her.” Mike pats Mikasa on the shoulder before settling in the armchair in the corner of the living room. Mikasa curls up on the sofa next to Y/N, the fear of constantly waking up to find her sister missing was making her increasingly paranoid about leaving her side. Losing Eren had been hard enough but she refused to lose Y/N too.

Mike waited until he was sure the younger girl was sleeping before pulling out his cell phone to make a call.

“Yeah Hange, it’s Mike. I’m gonna be calling in that favour now.”

Masterlist

[aaronmaurer]

Music I Liked in 2020

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

I can’t say I discovered a lot of new artists in 2020, but I did find a lot of solace in new records by familiar voices. During days of intense isolation and lonesomeness, music provided support, hope and the occasional semblance of peace. I’m especially grateful for the musicians who found new ways to perform live from their home studios, once the entire touring industry completely shut down. I’m sure we all found our own rabbit holes, but live-streamed sets from the likes of Ben Gibbard, Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Atkins, Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin, Geographer’s Michael Deni and Ben Folds kept me sane during April, May and beyond. As did all of these albums, which I highly recommend.

15. Serpentine Prison – Matt Berninger

The National frontman’s first solo record is a slow-burn that may not reach the heights of his work with his main group (or sideproject El Vy), but still has signature moments of poetic beauty. The title track is a clear standout (and when it gets stuck in your head, you can have fun brainstorming your own alternate non-sequitur couplets; examples: “Tripping on Molly / Salvador Dalí”, “Praying to Jesus / Ramona and Beezus” / “Sell it on Etsy / Heavens to betsy” / “Patio tables / Anne of Green Gables” It’s fun! Try it out!)

14. Local Honey – Brian Fallon

Speaking of Matt Berninger (and solo projects from alt-rock frontmen), I hear a lot of his influence on the latest from Gasoline Anthem’s Brian Fallon. This largely stripped-down affair has quiet splendor to spare and provided a balm in the early days of the pandemic.

13. Gigaton – Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam’s latest record finds the band operating in a variety of different modes – head-on rockers, balladeers, experimentalists – yet doesn’t quite gel into a whole the way their very best work does. That said, it’s an energetic album with many songs I look forward to hearing live, someday…

12. George Clanton & Nick Hexum – George Clanton & Nick Hexum

A vaporwave collaboration between electronic artist George Clanton and 311’s Nick Hexum? Really? Somehow it works, and its chill vibes were a perfect backdrop for lonely summer malaise this year.

11. Petals For Armor – Hayley Williams

Paramore’s Williams branched out on her first solo record this year, allowing her to operate in a variety of styles without losing her powerful voice. Moments of slinkily seething electronica (“Simmer”) share space with pop smarts (“Dead Horse”), quietly pretty harmonies (“Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”) and all points in between.

10. Mordechai and Texas Sun EP (with Leon Bridges) – Khruangbin

Houston psych-rock trio Khruangbin did double duty this year, first releasing a collaborative EP with Leon Bridges then following it up with a new full-length a couple months later. Both records hang in the air like hazy, languid summer heat, in the best possible way.

  9. RTJ4 – Run the Jewels

RTJ4 is just as rollicking and propulsive as Killer Mike and El-P’s previous collabs, but with a greater sense of socially conscious urgency and righteous anger, giving it an even rawer power. Tracks like “Walking In The Snow,” “JU$T” and “a few words for the firing squad (radiation)” are just the tip of the iceberg on this incendiary record.

8. American Head – The Flaming Lips

American Head returns the Flaming Lips to the melodic soundscapes of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which is my preferred mode for the band, and thus is my favorite thing they’ve done in at least a decade. The record is a bit more dreamily melancholic than those earlier releases though, creating atmospheres of contemplative beauty.

7. Punisher – Phoebe Bridgers

Coming after collaborations with boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center, it’s hard to believe this is only Bridgers’ sophomore album. Punisher takes the winning palette of Stranger In The Alps and mixes in more colors and texture. This is an album that rewards repeat listens; tunes that I had initially dismissed have ended up becoming my favorites as they get their hooks into me. The most immediate tracks like “Kyoto” and “ICU” don’t lose any impact over time, but the likes of the quietly devastating “Chinese Satellite” sneak up on you and gradually reveal their layers.

6. Imploding the Mirage – The Killers

I was done with The Killers. My interest always ran hot and cold anyway, but after 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful, no thanks. So imagine my surprise when I gave Imploding the Mirage a shot and found I LOVE it! It may be my favorite of their records yet, at least the most consistent, where they most fully realize the confluence of their Springsteen-tinged Americana fetish and electro-rock sensibilities. Bombastic 80s arena percussion and over-the-top synth flourishes combine in the best possible way. There’s not a dud on the album for me, but I’m especially fond of “My God,” “Lightning Fields” and “Dying Breed.”

5. The Ascension – Sufjan Stevens

The Ascension hits with similar energy to 2010’s polarizing Age of Adz, but with more easily accessible songs. It’s a dark and introspective record about disillusionment with America and oneself, but also highly danceable – if a bit overlong. Standout tracks like “Goodbye to All That” and “Lamentations” provide transcendent moments of soaring beauty like calm in the storm. And the brilliant title track plays like a self-interrogating rejoinder to Adz’s pep talk “Vesuvius” in which, instead of cheering himself on, Stevens probes and calls into question his motivations and beliefs.

4. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez – Gorillaz

The latest record from Damon Albarn’s ever-evolving cartoon collective is its most engaging since Plastic Beach, with a spirit of musical exploration that reminds me much of 2001’s self-titled debut as well. The project was introduced as a series of one-off singles, so what really surprises is just how well they cohere into a full record, featuring a plethora of A-List guest artists and Albarn holding down the fort with some of his best songwriting yet.

3. 10 Songs – Travis

Travis are a band that I’ve casually enjoyed (2001’s The Invisible Band is great) but never followed all that closely. I certainly wasn’t expecting much from a latter-day record from them, but 10 Songs is one of the 2020 releases I have returned to most. The songs are the audial equivalent of a warm blanket, with a lovely wistfulness permeating through. Standouts include “The Only Thing,” “A Million Hearts” and “Kissing in the Wind,” but all ten songs are great.

2. Devastator – Phantom Planet

Phantom Planet’s first record in 12 years doesn’t miss a beat, finding a sonic middle ground between their early indie-pop leanings and their later punkier direction. The hooks are plentiful and the lyrics poignant (this is basically a breakup album about the end of frontman Alex Greenwald’s relationship with Brie Larson), with highlights including the up-tempo “Only One” and the elegiac “Time Moves On.” Return of the year.

1. folklore and evermore – Taylor Swift

Top 40 Pop Music is not really my thing and while I’ve certainly appreciated some of Taylor Swift’s work before (Red has jams!), I wouldn’t have called myself a fan. 2020’s pair of surprise release records are a different mode of songwriting for her and right in my wheelhouse, with indie-leaning production courtesy of fun./Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner. While my impressions of Swift’s past work have been navel-gazy and self-mythologizing (not a problem, but not that interesting to me), folklore and evermore broaden her storytelling to paradoxically become more specific in its universality and/or more universal in its specificity. The moments that are autobiographical (“mad woman,” “invisible string”) have an authenticity and self-assuredness that make them all the more accessible. This is romantically nostalgic poetry with the power to reopen old wounds and maybe also start rehealing them at the same time. While I still give folklore the edge (I love “august,” “exile” and mirrorball,” to name just a few), evermore is steadily growing on me with each listen.

Here’s a playlist songs from each of these records for your sampling pleasure:

Bonus! 2 Unexpected Cover EPs:

Switchfoot – Covers EP and Death Cab For Cutie – Georgia EP

As society grappled with lockdowns and concerts were uniformly cancelled the world over, many artists kept occupied with livestreams from their home studios. Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman and Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard were among those who posted daily songs or shows during the early days and their bands would each end up releasing EPs of cover songs during the year. Switchfoot take on a range of songs from the likes of Vampire Weekend, Frank Ocean and The Verve and Death Cab honor Georgia artists like R.E.M. and Neutral Milk Hotel for a Bandcamp fundraiser for voting rights. Both efforts provide some unexpected reinterpretations that elevate them above the average covers album.

[todisturbtheuniverse]

FIC: The Devil Left Him

Rating: G Fandom: Good Omens Pairing: Crowley & Jesus, Aziraphale/Crowley Tags: Friendship, Established Relationship Word Count: 2,800 Summary: Crowley showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. The Bible recorded some version of this event, but left off the walk down the mountain afterward. Hard to find the right wording for, "And then the son of God befriended a demon. Don't try this at home." Also on AO3. Notes: I was really struck by the timing for Crowley's name change, and this was what came of it. The hilarity of me, a recovered Christian, writing about a friendship between Jesus and a demon has kept me amused all day.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (Matt. 4:1-11) 

In general, the different versions of the Bible—even the printings with deliberate errors—agreed: after the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, Jesus shooed him away with clear hand gestures and admonishments that could not be misinterpreted, and the devil slithered off as angels landed on feather-light feet.

In reality, though, Crawley had already expended a lot of energy on what he'd suspected from the start to be a fruitless task. He wasn't about to slither anywhere. It took a lot of work to take a human with him when he willed himself from one place to an entirely different place, even when that human was the son of God. His bones were blessed heavy.

Maybe something of that showed on his human-but-not-quite-human face, because Jesus said, "You look weary, my friend," as if today's activities had all been an elaborate song-and-dance where they'd both played only a part, rather than themselves.

"It's not as easy as it looks," Crawley said. He seated himself on a nearby convenient rock. "I don't usually drag humans round with me."

Jesus seated himself on the ground. For unknown reasons, this made Crawley's insides squirm in discomfort.

"We should rest a while," Jesus said, "before we walk down the mountain."

"You might want to get a move on, actually," Crawley said, squinting down at him. Forty days of fasting was nothing for a demon, but it reduced a human to something horrifying, a skeletal nightmare with the skin just barely hanging on. Better not to even try to describe the hair. "Find something to eat on the way down."

"I will wait," he replied, peaceably.

So Crawley sat in resentful silence while he got his breath back, so to speak. Jesus closed his eyes and turned his face into the chill mountain wind and, for all Crawley knew, prayed. An old envy burned in his gut, an ulcer still barely sealed over. 

"I'm not going to walk down the mountain, you know," he said. In another place—no easier way to describe it than that—his wings did not ache so badly anymore.

"No?" Jesus asked, his eyes still closed. Starving and dirty and stinking, but the hint of a smile curled his mouth. "Do you not require thanks, then, for what you've shown to me? No interest in reciprocity?"

"I don't see how a walk down the mountain is reciprocity," Crawley said, more wary than sneering.

"You have seen the grander view," Jesus said. "Let me show you the smaller one."

Crawley laughed, because it was laughable. He had already seen every view, after all. He had seen the touch of both Her love and Her cruelty in a thousand, a million, big and small ways. He had seen children drown, magnificent creatures lost forever to a flood. He had more than seen his fill. As he'd displayed the kingdoms of the world, he'd looked away.

"If nothing else," Jesus said, undeterred by the vaguely hissing noise of Crawley's laugh, "it will allow you to gather your strength." 

He looked up, meeting Crawley's eyes. There was something terrible and knowing there, something depthless, that did not belong on a human face. It was a vision of agony, of endurance, of suffering. It was more than a person should rightly contain. Crawley could not look away.

"You will need it," Jesus said softly. It was not a warning or a threat; his voice, his sharp-boned face, was filled with compassion.

The breeze tipped from cool to cold, and Crawley stifled the question rising in his throat, though he wondered: What? What will I need it for? Do you know, or are you as vague and inaccessible as Her?

But when Jesus stood, Crawley followed him down the mountain, moving at the pace of the weaker human. They made meals of stringy rabbits caught in clever snares that Jesus fashioned, whatever fruits and roots they could forage from near-barren trees, handfuls of water from streams that ran too low. Crawley didn't need any of it; he left the too-bitter berries to Jesus and had only a bite of one of the rabbits. They were barely real, anyway. What sustenance existed this far up on the mountain had to be encouraged to show itself.

After one night sprawled in the too-thin grasses by the faint roadside, still practicing sleep, Crawley had the strength to leave. Jesus's feet cracked and bled, and he moved at the shuffle of a much older man, but he would make it down the mountain. Surely She wouldn't let Her son die in obscurity after being abducted by a demon. That couldn't be in the ineffable plan.

But in case it was, Crawley stayed. Occasionally he scoffed at the small wonders that Jesus offered up for his inspection—this flower blooming well past its season, that bird singing long past sunset, the pattern of those clouds descending low to the mountain—but mostly, he kept quiet, and kept his eyes open.

When they parted ways in the village at the bottom of the mountain, Jesus said, "You are welcome at my home, should you ever find yourself there."

Crawley gave him a disbelieving look, a raised eyebrow. Jesus smiled as he departed.

*

There was not much to do in Capernaum. Crawley had heard something—just a murmur—that sounded a bit like Aziraphale, and wouldn't it be fun to ruffle up those feathers again, but there were a lot of fantastical things happening now. The world folded on itself to accommodate the son of God. Could've been any old miracle. Jesus could've done it himself.

And Jesus was around and about, no mistake about that—there, by the low fountain in this tiny square, where some barefoot children occasionally splashed. He was surrounded by no less than four others, usually; Crawley had yet to see him alone again after that trek down the mountain.

But today, unlike the other days, his eyes—those terrible eyes—passed over the square and sought the shadows, and landed unerringly on Crawley.

He mastered the instinct to shrink from view and vanish. He gave a cheery little wave from within a flowing dark sleeve, a smirk paired with it, as if to say, Yes, the Temptation goes on forever; choose what I offered and all can be well.

Not likely.

But Jesus smiled his strange small smile, asked his companions to wait, and made his way over to Crawley. 

"It's good you're here," he said, with no irony at all. "We're going to repair a roof. Will you help?"

Strange man, this Jesus. Maybe the lower-downs had it wrong, and there had been some kind of mixup. Compassion and kindness was all well and good, but surely this kind of olive branch was not meant for demons. It never had been before.

"I hear that carpentry is more your area," Crawley said.

"It is simple enough to learn," Jesus replied, "for a creature as old as you." 

He beckoned, and Crawley, infinitely curious, followed.

They spent the afternoon in the hot sun, balanced by turns on the beam that would support the roof, laying in place a lattice of straw mats that were then smoothed with clay. Jesus's friends passed up materials, and Crawley mostly ferried them between points, watching. Jesus explained how to overlay the mats, where to apply the clay, how the beam at this point and this one supported the weight, and Crawley listened. He asked Crawley to smooth down one section of mat and clay and congratulated him on a job well done.

It felt like having his hands clasped around a nebula, drawing out a necklace of stardust, while She stood at his back and offered direction and encouragement. The sun shone like God had not vanished from the world—or at least, like God had not vanished from Crawley's.

But that same sun was setting by the time the roof was done, and all gathered on it for a simple meal, including the family who lived there. Some looked askance at Crawley, glances lingering on his eyes before darting away, but said nothing. It had rarely been a problem before, but he sensed a change coming. A world narrowing in some ways, widening in others. It would all come back around eventually.

Jesus came to the edge of the roof to offer him bread, which he took out of politeness more than a desire to eat the stuff. "What is your name?" Jesus asked, as if picking up a conversation they'd already been having.

Crawley opened his mouth to answer and closed it again. It seemed the depth of disgrace to give the son of God the name that had been foisted on him after his wings burned; it seemed a humiliation too great to endure. Salt rubbed in a great many wounds.

"Which would you prefer?" he said, the words biting. "The name She gave me? Or the name I answer to when my new master calls?"

Jesus chewed on the bread, swallowed, chased it with a gulp of thick wine. "Which do you prefer?" He didn't rise an inch to Crawley's tone. Crawley was beginning to think that patience was actually Hellish. It was annoying enough to be.

"Neither," Crawley said, and though it was knee-jerk, he found it to be true upon closer inspection. The old name—and he did remember, remembered like holy water had left a sizzling burn in its shape on his mutilated grace—didn't fit, now. Maybe never had.

And really. Crawley. No imagination at all, the first thing that had come to mind for a wretched snake.

"Perhaps you should fashion a new one."

"No suggestions?" Crawley said, vaguely heckling. "No offers to help me begin anew? To save my immortal soul?"

"Do you have a soul?" Jesus countered, with a trace of humor.

Crawley gave a very small, very quiet snicker of laughter. It surprised even him.

"The world is changing," Jesus said, gazing out at where the sun had vanished below the horizon.

"The world doesn't change," Crawley said, just for the sake of argument.

Jesus looked at him sidelong. "You'll have opportunity enough to begin anew. You should choose for yourself."

Crawley snorted, but Jesus only stood, no hard feelings, to return to the other humans. Crawley tried a bite of the bread and left the rest at the edge of the roof when he leapt back down to the ground.

*

"You know, my dear, I didn't know that you had any experience with carpentry."

Crowley, mouth full of screws, sizing up the shelf that had collapsed beneath another of Aziraphale's improbable stacks of books, shrugged. With an effort devoted to making sure he didn't accidentally swallow any of the bits of metal in his mouth, he said, "I helped Jesus fix a roof once."

"I'm sorry?" Aziraphale said, as if he thought he'd misheard.

"I didn't have any other plans," Crowley said, more defensively than he meant to. "And he asked."

Roofs and bookshelves were entirely different things. He shouldn't have even mentioned it; he could have pointed to any other example of a stupid human thing he'd picked up over the centuries. He could've lied.

But he and Aziraphale were trying this new thing where they were actually honest with each other, since they had the freedom to be, and his instinct was to not fuck that up. Even when he risked exposing as rotten a wound as this.

"He never asked me to help fix a roof," Aziraphale muttered.

"You weren't really up close and personal with the humans back then, were you? Did he even know who you were?" Crowley brushed away some of the sawdust created by drilling one of the screws in.

"I doubt it," Aziraphale said, and sighed the way he did when he was settling into the chair at his desk; Crowley didn't have to look around, or extend his senses, to know exactly how he looked, mug of cocoa cupped between his hands and balanced lightly on his stomach. "There were so many angels coming and going around him, I doubt that I stood out."

"You always stand out, angel."

He left it open to interpretation whether that was a good or bad thing (answer: both), but still he could feel the way Aziraphale smiled in reaction; the force of it warmed the entire back of him. Set a little more at ease by this, he returned to his work.

When the drill had gone silent permanently, and Crowley was fastening some clever little rubber stoppers over the ends to support the shelf—really, carpentry had come a long way in two thousand years, Jesus would have been impressed—Aziraphale said, "What was he like?"

Crowley considered, sliding the shelf back into place. The places where the wood had given out under the old screws was completely concealed, and the shelf was sturdy again; he started restacking the books.

"Ineffable," Crowley said, half-taunting, and Aziraphale gave a protesting little laugh at that. "No, he was...strange. Patient. I walked down the mountain with him because he asked. I helped with the roof because he asked. That was the sort of person he was. He didn't hold a grudge about the whole Tempting thing, like he thought I was just playing a part. Never had the stomach to tell him it wasn't that simple."

"Crowley," Aziraphale said, so quietly and so pained that Crowley had to steady the stack of books against the shelf for a heartbeat before continuing.

"Oh, right," he said, trying to sound indifferent, "the name change. I never mentioned it. His idea. Never got a chance to tell him what I'd settled on."

Aziraphale mulled that over quietly; Crowley fussed with the books, attempting to decipher what order they were meant to be in.

"I thought he might have been important to you," Aziraphale said. "But I never would have guessed…"

"Why would you? I never could figure it out, myself. Why he was so...nice...to a demon. Not like Upstairs at all." Crowley voiced the next almost tentatively, nearly afraid to hear Aziraphale's opinion. Not afraid enough, though. "Thought there might've been something wrong with him."

"No," Aziraphale said sadly. "There was nothing wrong with him. And they didn't learn anything at all."

"Well." This conversation was getting too maudlin for him; he stepped back from the bookshelf to admire his handiwork. "I learned something."

Aziraphale got up to look at the shelf, too; his hand slipped into Crowley's, and Crowley returned the pressure, held on tight. "You've always been more open-minded than the rest of us," Aziraphale said; the fondness in his face was too bright to look at head-on, so Crowley admired it from the side. 

"That's a low bar."

"I know," Aziraphale said, and then, more seriously, "thank you. For telling me. Now, can I treat you to dinner, as thanks for holding my bookshop together?"

"If you would just expand a bit, you'd have enough room for all the books, and this wouldn't happen," Crowley said, falling comfortably back into familiar, toothless bickering.

But over dinner, he told Aziraphale everything, everything he could remember about those brief moments two thousand years ago. Aziraphale was, as always, the perfect audience, scandalized and delighted at all the right places, and Crowley, as always, nearly liked him better scandalized than delighted.

They overindulged, as was traditional, and by the last drink, they were toasting Jesus. Crowley hoped he knew.

[davetheshady]

may I politely request ⭐dealer's choice director's commentary⭐for pretty much any part of Love is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies?

Did you mean: infodump about Chapter 5?

We start off in medias res during Pteranodon Attack-Gate from Episode 4: PTA Meeting. Since most of the fic runs parallel to WTNV’s storyline for the first ~two years, the way I narrowed down which events to feature was to read through the transcripts and take note of which ones had Carlos, which ones featured science/magic/time travel-related elements, which ones had weird discrepancies or unsolved details that could be explained by Carlos/science/magic/time travel/all of the above, and which ones I just liked a lot. 

Incidentally, Cecil issues a correction that the winged reptiles in question were actually pterodactyls, not pteranodons, which was then promptly forgotten by the showrunners lol.

"—And then Kelly pulled her hamstring while they were doing the Fixing of a Nail position. I'm trying to convince her that she and Joe should do yoga together, I think it would really cut back on minor injuries and also they both look great in yoga pants. Anything new with you, Carlos?"

"Nothing that compares to... hamstring injuries," says Carlos, from his position on top of the Sciencemobile.

"All right," says Kate, adjusting an enormous pair of mirrored aviator shades. "Then describe the Barstow formation."

Since literal character doubling was such an important part of the plot, I had a lot of fun with thematic character doubling, too. Carlos and Kate (and the other grad students) are actually pretty close in age, and here we see her willing to put herself into danger to get the job done while casually chatting with her colleagues. Also, there’s a nice dose of karma for the books in Carlos having to deal with someone else oversharing details about their relationships, compounded by the fact that unlike his all of Kate’s are actually true. (In nicer doubling news: Kate is the one who gets her degree in science, has functional romantic relationships, AND continues to work in Night Vale, which are all eventually Carlos’ hashtag life goals.) 

"Maybe it was future you," asks Julie, who does not sound appropriately concerned for the potentially diverted course of the Currents of Time. Or for the potentially diverted course of the already unlinear life of Carlos.

This is the first conversation where she’s ‘Julie’ in his mental narration. I enjoyed having her be hilariously unsympathetic to his concerns here, because her priorities are still very different, but it also sets up a baseline. She doesn’t bother worrying about hypotheticals from the weird shit, but actual hard data (like, Carlos not sleeping and having minor breakdowns in her lab) is what prompts her to share reactions besides SCIENCE! and snark.

His stomach roils at the thought of more time travel. "Some kind of illusion is more likely," he says: some person or creature temporarily assuming his form, probably for sinister purposes. He reluctantly adds those weird doubles from the sandstorm to his list of possible suspects, though his dissolved right in front of him in the middle of next March and there haven't been any sandstorms recently.

oh hey haha what’s that

One of my biggest pet peeves in fiction is when allegedly intelligent characters ignore obvious plot points so the writer can railroad the story in their chosen direction. On the other hand, it is genuinely difficult to avoid spoiling your plot twists if your main character is actively trying to figure them out. I leaned heavily on “the character has all the basic details… along with so much other information they can’t realistically narrow it down”, combined with some red herrings: an obvious one (illusion magic) and hopefully a more convincing one (time travel as the only relevant plot: it's DEFINITELY involved, but its presence is obscuring another facet of the plot altogether).

There's always a risk that astute readers will figure it out, but, like… so? That just means instead of shocking plot twist reveal, they get an “I KNEW IT!” reveal, which is equally satisfying in a different way. As long as the characters have convincing reasons for not figuring it out, it's hopefully still enjoyable to follow along with them as they wander around in the dark. 

(And just for clarification: that was Doppel-Carlos crashing the town hall meeting when he and Dr. Raith were testing out time vortices.) 

Andre hands him a copy of the Night Vale Daily Journal. “’Look your best to face the void. Smooth-chinned souls are most enjoyed’,” reads Carlos. “‘Burma-Shave.’”

"No, below the ads," says Andre.

1) ‘character reads wrong piece of information in paper’ is a classic goof (“There’s a sale at Penney’s!”) and I found it very amusing to repeatedly attribute it to Carlos, since he’s genuinely trying to locate the important information. Unfortunately for him, he lives in Night Vale and no longer has a filter for “useless nonsense”, because even the nonsense has proven relevant and/or kinda murdery before.

2) Burma-Shave! This was passed down to me as part of our Great American Roadtrip Family Lore (I come from a long line of roadtrippers) and it’s definitely the kind of kitschy 50s detail that fits so well in Night Vale.

"Oh!" says Cecil. "What were you studying?"

"Bioremediation for contaminated pit lakes via sulfur-reducing bacteria," says Carlos truthfully.

Why? Because I edited one of my friends’ papers on it, that’s why. (Birds kept landing on it and dying, which is also a very Night Vale detail.)

When he returns, he finds Cecil standing by the record player with his back against the wall, staring fixedly at Carlos’ vinyl copy of Ixnay on the Hombre.

One of the DF books (I think White Night) had a hilariously high number of characters showing up wearing band t-shirts, and Carlos’ was for The Offspring. (The original file name for this fic was Original Prankster, back when I thought it would be three chapters long.)

“It’s about a wizard stranded in a strange, uncharted desert territory,” [Cactus Judy] says serenely.

Cactus Jane! I decided to make her a recurring character because 1) she’s in a time travel episode (Episode 18: The Traveler), 2) both she and TMITJ had the detail where no one can remember their real name, which seemed significant, and 3) WTNV itself did not have very many recurring female characters at that point. She’s into Shakespeare because I personally knew a lot of relevant Shakespeare quotes, but also as a hint that’s she’s a lot older (and thus a lot more supernatural) than she seems: Shakespeare was a HUGE part of pop culture in the 19th century, particularly in the southwest. Theater companies used to make more money going on tour through states with precious metal mines than they did during their whole season in the big coastal cities, probably because jaded city folks never threw gold nuggets on stage to show their appreciation.

If life is a contest between good and evil, Cecil would be one of the people handing out stickers just for participating.

This is one of my favorite lines.

My plan is fool-proof! It's sheer elegance in its simplicity!

Look, if you enjoyed this fic, WTNV, and/or The Dresden Files, you should probably go watch The Middleman. Yes, I know it’s not streaming, do it anyway. Load up on antivenom and go rent it from your local library.

“Could you [create a time vortex]?""Oh, for sure," says Carlos. "All I'd need would be a couple years to do nothing but work on a highly illegal spell and figure out a way to steal an entire ley-line's worth of power and excise my sense of morality and self-preservation.”

And WHAT are the odds of THAT

It's not that Carlos doesn't like him. It just wouldn't be fair to lead him on when Carlos wouldn't actually—

Well, Carlos wouldn’t mind asking but he doesn’t normally go for—

Okay, Carlos could definitely make an exception for Cecil and—

And—

oh NO he accidentally used logic to make himself admit he has FEELINGS

One of the reasons I love this pairing is that you have Cecil, who is incredibly emotionally open (all the time, on public radio) as a distinct contrast to Carlos, who is so used to putting up a very specific facade that he even does it to himself and then struggles when he doesn't have it to rely on. It creates conflict, but it also means they have very different perspective they can share with each other. 

"Did the earth move for you, too?" says Cecil.

"Bwuh?" replies Carlos.

"At the monitoring station," says Cecil, because right, they're talking about science and not about how Carlos may or may not have accidentally developed a tiny, tiny crush on Cecil, who is standing right in front of him and looking extremely interested in what he's saying and will commit his words to memory and lovingly repeat them for all the world, or at least all of Night Vale and anyone else who received the same odd death curse as Carlos, to hear.

"Oh. Hmm – unh," replies Carlos, then shakes his head. Not talking, that's the way to go. That way he won't accidentally say something he doesn't mean, or worse, something he does mean but probably shouldn't say. Cecil can ask him science questions and he can shake his head yes or no, and maybe refer him wordlessly to supplementary materials, and it will all be very professional and—

"Where did you get your shirt?" asks Cecil. "It fits you so well."

"I'll look at my notes and computer models and see if I can figure out what's going on," Carlos blurts out, and practically runs from the room.

One of the reasons I started writing this fic (SEPTEMBER 2013, BABY god I feel old) was because we all knew Carlos was immensely important to Cecil, but had relatively little information about him, and ALL of it was filtered through our unreliable narrator. So… I just kind of ran with that. 

But on top of the obvious unreliability of “didn't notice Carlos was a wizard from a different series”, I wanted to do it on the smaller scale, too, and put a different spin on the touchstones of their growing relationship that everyone was already familiar with. So this interaction is now a crisis for both of them, and for dramatically/hilariously different reasons. 

“If you’re worried about going native, I’ve got bad news for you, buddy, because you do more chanting than anyone I’ve met.”

Another one of my favorite lines.

“I’ve had to hunt down people I know before, and trust me, it’s not a fun date night!”

Between Molly and fanon interpretations of Cecil, Carlos’ type is apparently 1) weird tattoos, 2) unusually-colored hair, and 3) can kill him

There's a brief hiss from the TV's speakers, and then Cecil says, in a small, forlorn voice, “I don't know if he listens to me, sometimes.”

Carlos puts his head down and laughs bitterly.

I LOVE IRONY 

But even though I wanted to subvert the surface meaning, Cecil DOES still have a point. He got a good look at Carlos’ soul when they first met and still fell in love instantly, but Carlos has a difficult time hearing that because at this point he fundamentally does not believe he’s worthy of that kind of love. In order to truly believe Cecil, he also has to start learning to love and accept himself. (It’s very much a work in progress, but nobody’s perfect.) The title isn’t just meant to refer to romantic love – self-love, friendship, familial love, and unconditional love for the humanity of his trash fire town are equally important, because they all support each other.

hmu for more dvd commentary!

[lunawings]

King of Prism SSS episode 8 commentary (Yu)

So, in my opinion, I think the episodes we’ve seen up until now could be more or less enjoyed to the fullest by newcomers and/or people who haven’t seen Rainbow Live. 

But from here on out, there is a notable change. And I really mean from here on out: Episodes 8 - 12 basically require having seen Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live to be fully understood I think. 

So if you watched this episode and thought wait.... why did they just skip over Yu’s backstory like that!?!

Two words: Rainbow Live. 

Anyway let’s get started.

I’m surprised the subber knew the correct spelling to ViviC Heart Session. That takes.... research!? ....Wait, it’s in the credits. Still, that’s some non-linear translation. 

Also I kinda wonder when and where ViviC Heart Session came from in canon. Yeah it’s the Pride the Hero ending, but there is a whole story on how they made and performed Dramatic Love for the Christmas concert, but nothing on ViviC Heart Session as far as I know. 

If you’re wondering why they’re all acting so weird, there have already been not one but TWO different story arcs in the Prism Rush Main Story about Yu ambitiously deciding to write songs and biting off way more than he could chew ahah.... 

They know. 

So this kinda dates this episode? Sort of? Despite the way it seems in episode 1, clearly the Prism One doesn’t take place right after it was announced ahah. 

The way Yu says this line makes me think it’s probably been a month or so already. 

So maybe it was announced in July-August (episode 1 takes place in “summer”), and happened in September-October, something like that?

So like literally JUST as I was thinking to myself “wow the subs have really gotten better in this episode....” THIS had to happen... How dare you translate Taiga’s “IT’S A FESTIVAL” as “party time”................

Oh well. Honestly though, aside from this, this episode has the best subs so far, BY FAR. 

Been wondering for months how they would sub MUGEN HABUUUUUU because I had no idea how I would do it myself ahah.

Although they don’t state it explicitly, it’s pretty clear this episode takes place in Okinawa. Among many other things, I think it’s the only place in Japan with habu. 

I may or may not have thought way too hard for too long about how Taiga and Kakeru ended up in this boat together. 

I mean I would like to think Taiga chose Kakeru as his partner in good faith that they could work well together. 

BUT KAKERU ISN’T EVEN ROWING COME ON 

HE’S JUST ENJOYING THE VIEW

THE VIEW BEING TAIGA IF YOU DIDN’T GET MY DRIFT

I suppose it could have been random pairs, but Shin and Leo also ended up together and that seems not random ahah. Speaking of which...

When I saw this episode for the first time I saw it as a 3-pack with Leo’s episode coming right before (the theatrical Part 3). So I had just gone though Leo’s episode for the first time and all the baggage that came with it less than 10 minutes earlier. 

And needless to say I was VERY MUCH NOT OVER IT AND EXPERIENCING VERY HIGH EMOTIONS ABOUT LEO

So during this scene I was like like

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

MY SONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

SAVE HIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It actually took me until at least my second or third viewing to catch Kakeru trying to take a selfie with Taiga in the background there and I lost my shit. 

BTW I just want to mention that ViviC Heart Session was made for this episode. Well yes I know it wasn’t literally made for this episode, but it’s always sounded tropical for me and it just could not be more perfect.

I have been wondering for months what Taiga says here and I’m still not sure. (Not that I think this subtitle is wrong, but I mean I can’t make out the Japanese he uses. I just know folks in the theater laugh about it. Or they could just be laughing at Taiga’s method of escaping from Yu.)

Me at cheering: “IT’S SHIN. PICK UP.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

I wonder if like, they all got together and tried to figure out who Yu was least likely to hang up on.

But seriously though

WHO COULD EVER HANG UP ON SHIN

YOU MONSTER 

I said once that Jin was the best voicework in SSS, but Taiga man I dunno. Taiga is up there too. This scream is just so..... BRILLIANT..........

My reaction here changes from “OMG TAIGA ARE YOU OK” to just laughing hysterically. Sometimes in the same showing. Taiga I’m sorry. 

My new desktop background.

Seriously this episode is just SO BEAUTIFUL. 

Such a simple plot, but such amazing atmosphere and visuals that really take it SO MUCH FURTHER.

If I stopped to take screenshots of everything I thought looked amazing this post would never end. So just know I’m definitely thinking it. Just goddamn. 

For a long time I wondered how and why Minato found about about this.

But then I realized it actually makes a lot of sense.

So remember in my last post when I talked about my theory that Minato and Yu probably joined Edel Rose at the same time? Well, when Yu met Leo, basically the first thing he did was brag about knowing Over the Rainbow. So he probably did the same to Minato, and/or Minato just noticed him being way too friendly with Kouji. 

Considering Minato entered Edel Rose FOR KOUJI there is no way he wouldn’t notice that and wonder about it. 

So one day he probably worked up the courage to ask Kouji about it, and.....

Oh boy. 

BTW if you’re thinking huh? Yu’s family was separated? What? 

See: The Ito/Kouji plot in Rainbow Live. (And bring tissues.)

Just the comparison of how fast he picks up here. Even though the first thing he does is complain to her it’s like.... HALF A SECOND from when he sees it’s Ito to when he answers omg..... 

So I kinda questioned this subtitle here. Because the literal Japanese is just him saying “IT’S LATE!” 

So I always thought he meant it like “Do you know what time it is!?”

But then I thought about it some more. And I remembered the Rose Party 2018 event, where the voice actors played a game where they all decided new aspects of the characters. And one of the things that were tasked with deciding (at the afternoon performance I believe) was what Yu does every night before he goes to bed. And one of the answers was “discusses life problems with Ito”. 

So, maybe Ito does call Yu every night so he had been waiting on a call from her for a while.... 

And if so, in that context this subtitle is spot on. 

You win, Crunchyroll. 

Cheering audience: “THAT WAY”

Yu was so impressive Kakeru stopped taking pictures of Taiga for a full minute. 

DID I MENTION THIS EPISODE IS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL 

But so like. As soon as they started heading up the hill. Like practically from when they called his name, I was like..... Yu’s gonna cry. 

So then it was many long, long seconds of anticipation.....

until finally this.....

And I was not disappointed. 

Of all the beautiful things in this episode, I think the most beautiful thing may just be Yu’s crying animation here. He’s such a beautiful crier. 

I love this scene so much. It brings me so much joy. Because he’s not crying because he’s hurt or sad. 

He’s crying because he realized he has friends. 

HE’S CRYING BECAUSE HE HAS FRIENDS

YU

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

You know, I didn’t even realize Taiga was hiding behind Kakeru until someone in the stream pointed it out.

Am I an asshole because this is Yu’s episode but most of my favorite moments involve Taiga/Kakeru. 

HUG HIM

HUG HIMMMMMM

OH MY GAWD I have NEVER so desperately wanted to reach through the screen and hug an anime character

Also Leo always cries when anyone else is crying. 

I spent so much time looking at Kakeru and Minato that I didn’t even realize Taiga too..... They’re BOTH sleeping on top of Minato omg.....

Also I can’t help but laugh that Leo is the big spoon on Shin. But it doesn’t surprise me. If you read Prism Rush stuff, Leo aggressively cuddling Shin in his sleep is nothing new.

Damn but. Okay so like, another way in which seeing this episode right after Leo’s influenced me is, during Leo’s episode I kept thinking about what PriPara coords were closest to the outfits that the boys were wearing and how I was totally gonna record arcade videos with them. 

And then we get to this and I was like OH MAN I can’t wait until that outfit comes out so I can put it on my character.... then I was like.... WAIT.....

And I realized this is basically the only idol anime I watch currently where I can’t have the clothes and I was like......... ahhhh.... not fair..........

Seriously though it is kind of odd. For me anyhow.

But also because they don’t have to worry about an arcade game for King of Prism, they have a lot more freedom. Like in a show like this, usually all the important coords that season will all uniformly have wings or holograms or otherwise follow some kind of a theme.

But with this it’s like... WHATEVER. Give Yu a huge floaty cross?? SURE WHY NOT!!!! ahah......

PRISM LIIIIVE

Okay so I know this animation is straight from Rainbow Live. 

But this lightning guitar here, it’s a recolor of Sara’s guitar from PriChan isn’t it?

And if it is, this’s the first/only specifically PriChan (not PriPara) reference I know of in SSS.

So I guess the Prism System doesn’t score Prism Lives for boys yet, huh....?

So one Prism Live + one jump = this. 

But I suppose you could also argue that although Yu’s show was super personal and meaningful to him, he really didn’t do much for the audience did he? (The in-universe audience I mean, as it did plenty for me haha.) It was a rather street-style show in that aspect when you think about it. 

Oh well, I guess no matter what someone has to be last................................

Ah man anyway this episode.

So when I saw it for the first time, it actually didn’t leave that much of an impression on me. But that’s because it was a bit overshadowed by how EXTREMELY EMOTIONALLY DISTRAUGHT I was from Leo’s episode, and then I ended up leaving the theater thinking about the um, surprise that’s gonna happen next week in Alexander’s episode. So this episode kinda fell by the wayside. 

I was actually kinda jealous of how much you guys in the stream were freaking out about it. It really made me wish I had the chance to see it independently without the influence of Leo and Alexander. There are definitely advantages to watching these week-to-week instead of in odd bunches. 

Because the more I watched it, the more I really REALLY liked it, and now I think it’s probably my third favorite character episode after Taiga’s and Leo’s. (Or maybe even second. I keep flip-flopping.)

I was also a bit blindsided by how this episode didn’t really follow the normal formula. Since they skipped over Yu’s backstory, they had time for other things. They had time for, dare I say it... “filler”? By that I mean, time to focus on just the boys being boys. Although it’s something we get a lot of on Prism Rush, I realized it’s something we have been severely lacking in the movies and anime. Another big difference between this series and typical Pretty Series/Aikatsu-type anime (other than not being able to have the coords......) is the lack of filler, and I realized how truly valuable it can be. This episode is just such a jewel. 

So in between last week and this week I picked up a magazine (spoon 2Di vol. 50) with director commentary, and this was the last episode he commented on. 

He said this episode is about Yu going through his “rebellious phase”, which he never had the chance to have when he was younger since his family split up during such an important part of his childhood and he felt he had to be strong for his mom and all that. 

So instead he goes through it with his Edel Rose family.

GAAAAAH

Probably my favorite thing about Yu is how we’re able to see him gradually grow and change more than any other character I think. 

Who would have though that little boy we met in Hokkaido would get this far......

So next up is Alexander’s episode and um....

You may have noticed me talking significantly less about that episode that I have about others. And there’s a reason for that. And it’s not because I have nothing to say about it......

The events in Alexander’s episode basically set off a continuity train until the end of the series. IMHO it doesn’t matter what order you watch episodes 2-8 in, but from here on out it’s definitely all connected. 

So basically what I’m trying to get at is.... um.... g..... get emotionally ready for some future cliffhangers. I’m sorry. 

Also, your last chance to properly prepare by watching Rainbow Live.... you won’t be disappointed, I promise....... 

[emuftw]

Dreamboy Fan theory (Part 1)

TW: mentions of physical abuse, animal abuse and depression

Quick intro! - So with the next episode being the season 1 finale, I thought it would be a good time to share my theory of what is going on at PepperHights. I wanted to share now before the finale comes around and totally proves me wrong but for once I oddly don’t mind. It also goes without saying it is just a fan-theory and it’s not meant to be taken too seriously. With that being said however, I do talk about the themes as tagged so be mindful whilst reading. One key note, going forward when I use “Dane” I will be referring to character Dane in the show. When talking about the real Dane, I will be referring to him as “Producer Dane” when talking about all things outside of the podcast.

Also, this is LONG! When I started this I was hoping for a post similar length to my transcription of the Instagram live. As I keep typing however I realise that to make this flow easier I have split this into two parts. Part 1 will talk about the general theme of “what’s going on” and my guess at how Season 1 will end. Part 2 will carry on with the key points that were mentioned before, but with focus on the characters and how it all links together along with their individual theory’s.

Dreamboy has been an amazing podcast from start to finish. From the music, Character Danes sex drive to the sheer horror which is woven in every episode, it is clear you can see why it was picked up but Night Vale Presents. However, after seven and a half episodes (and a holiday special) there is still a lot of mystery of “what” is going on in the show. As fans we know that there has been a build up to something big happening and with hints of Aliens, magic and the super natural taking place in most episodes. For me though, there seems to be one clear overriding theme that is taking place and that ISNT the idea of there being a giant fish, the fear of giant family corporations going to Jupiter and finding something, the dreams of death or even the sharing of dreams between two strangers.

It’s the horror that comes with mundane life and everyday people itself. For more clarity, I don’t think there is anything supernatural, Syfi or horror going on. Instead, I think this is a tale of people and the hardships of life and how it is perceived via tone which I am hoping to break down in this fan theory! Key themes here are things I have picked up though my own life experiences, what has been said on and off podcast, livestreams, and assumptions from what took place in the original off Broadway production/BTS episode and people who work on the podcast.

At the start of the podcast we are introduced to a morbid way of thinking with Dane’s idea of a supermarket is just one giant morgue of animals and dead plants. This creepy tone is continued throughout the whole story. It’s captivating, it’s engaging and its part of what makes the podcast great but there isn’t something that would count as a big “horror” or “bad guy”. Instead, it’s how Character Dane talks about the supermarket which makes it scary.

This use of Tone and description is used a lot to make us the listener gripped in the moment along with how we imagine and perceive what is being described to us, however, we havn’t yet seem to encounter one key thing which is actually “evidence” of something paranormal. Instead, a lot of what is happening can be put down as as the struggles of life and its affect on ones own personal mental health and personal life experiences that come with getting older as well as how we cope with the events around us. These can be seen in all our “main” characters Dane talks to such as Dane himself, Luke and Critch, all of whom I will talk about more in Part 2. (Note:  I don’t include Characters such as Carol and Dan in this as whilst our leads have spoken to them, unfortunately they don’t seem to have a big impact on the story outside of the episodes they are featured in.)

A good example however, of how Danes descriptions of characters and tone can be seen as “something supernatural is going on” is how we perceive Jennifer and the Non-Girl Scouts. When we first meet Jennifer, Dane describes her as a “child who looks like she has been raised by her grandparents”. She is also later described as a “girl scout” and is frequently referred to as a “child”/ “kid”. In a cultural context, when talking about girl scouts, being from England I associated them with our equivalent, who are ages from 7-10 and when she mentions that she and the other two had a “slumber party” it furthers this idea of a young girl. This tone/description sets us up to believe she is very young, which is even more jarring once she opens her mouth and speaks about complex issues such as feminism and equality in their complexity but sophisticated manor. All these Ideas, and Tone, leads us to think that she is “creepy” and “up to something big” in a supernatural sence. However in episode 7 our perception of how we view Jenifer changes.

In the episode Dane asks “what is she twelve?” to which she corrects him and tell us she is actually 13. This greatly surprised me when she told us this, and yet at the same time, for the first time made her human. At 13, we instantly gain between 3-7 years of life experience, meaning by now she is starting to form her own personality and ideology, which is something we expect from a teenager. A teenager talking about toxic masculinity is less jarring than a child talking about it. Whilst people would perceive her as a “child” still, there is a big difference in maturity level and complexity thinking, which means we no longer have a “creepy child girl scout” on our hands, but rather a “young teenager who is making their own choices though understanding social situations”. In this episode have a very human moment of a teenager asking for help as well as frustration break down when Dane won’t give her the keys as he “knows” they won’t open the door. I get the impression this is not easy to do for her,  and from the live stream we know she doesn’t like to be messed around. For the first time we have a very human moment where we see her struggles and vulnerability, rather than the creepy tone which has been set by Dane and his narrative.

So with the Idea set that we are dealing with real life instead of a big horror taking place, I would like to also address one of the key areas this applies to as well as what I believe is taking place. I would like to talk about Zoe the Zebra and what has actually happened.

For me personally, I believe that Zoe is already dead, but not for the reason you believe. Early on, in the first episode, we are told that Zoe is an old Zebra who is the Zoos start attraction. A bit of Basic googling shows us that in the wildlife, a zebra can realistically live for 10 years whilst in captivity they can live up to 40 years on record. If we assume that Zoe has never seen the wildlife and was bred in captivity, we can assume she was born into the Zoo around 1990 at the EARLIEST, meaning she’s a pretty old Zebra nearing 30 if Dreamboy is set in 2019. With the Zoo being popular but struggling for funds, and based off the other animals such as the monkey who needs to listen to opera to sleep, we can assume that Zoe did not have a suitable enclosure for her. An unsuitable environment along with being the “star” of the Zoo, it means she was also frequently surrounded by load noises, no enrichments/toys and could have been alone despite being a heard animal. These factors are all key contributors to animals developing some form of Stereotypical behaviour during her time at PepperHights.

(Quick definition break: Stereotypic behaviour is defined as a repetitive, invariant behaviour pattern with no obvious goal or function. Stereotypic behaviour is not seen in animals in the wild and is understood to be abnormal and is therefore a negative factor in conservation captive breeding. Common Stereotypical behaviour includes habits of repartition such as noise making, pacing in the same location and self-mutilation as a result of over grooming AKA not nice!).

Based on what I learned in my time working with animals, this behaviour can also lead to aggression when behaviour patterns are interrupted or the animal is dealing with something they are not familiar with (such as someone breaking into their cage late at night). This sadly what is likely lead to the death of Ian. Whilst in the story it has been said that Zoe’s fate is still to be decided via the judge later in the week, I  believe Zoe is actually already dead due to Zoo’s protocol’s that occur in these situations. It is very common when there is an active risk of the safety of the members of public in regards to wild animals, whether they have activity hurt a member of public or not, is too shoot the animal dead on the scene.

I have seen this happen when animals have killed members of staff in Zoo’s, to just lynx’s escaping from enclosures and going into the country side with no interactions with the public at all. If we are to assume that the person who reported Ian’s death also knew the Zoo’s procedures, we can assume that Zoe, who in in a scare fit killed Ian on accident, was shot on the scene to prevent anyone else being harmed. It is also worth noting that currently we do not know if we have seen Zoe since the incident, only that we have heard her cries which could have easily been recorded and played over the speaker system. It is also easy to believe as since Critch has requested no one to be present at her death, Zoe is already dead but Critch wishes to hide that so that people still visits the Zoo to see Zoe one last time before she goes as so many people love’s her. As well as this, it would also explain why there is such a big push for the lost ocean, as their main attraction is already dead.

Going back to the original discussion of theme, This idea of an animal who is kept in a poor enclosure, driven crazy by the noise and consistent lack of respect to then only be added on with her death on the scene is obvious a lot more realistic than the “murderous Zebra” or even the “drag Queen Zebra” which is frequently used to describe the situation. Its sadness of the situation, from an animal never being kept in its natural environment which lead to a young persons death, to the fact that there is no formal closure for this animals death, which leads to the finale being less of a supernatural horror to more of a real life situation which we as society become numb to as we exist day to day.

---

For now, this is all I have for part 1. The idea of nothing supernatural going on is something which seems to be something which is only slightly touched on with the “plot” of Dreamboy. In Part 2, the idea of personal hardships, challenges and how these can link to a more telling story is what I am hoping to cover as well as my own personal theories.

Will hopefully get part 2 up within the next couple of days but till then stay groovy!

[ohtheseskaters]

Here’s Evegnia Medvedeva’s interview from here that I translated.

Zhenya, did you and your mom manage to find an apartment?

Yes, of course, online. How can you come to another country not having a place to live in?

So the owner of this apartment will meet you in the airport?

No, Jason Brown will. He’ll bring mom and I to our new home. And starting June 18th I have a detailed training schedule.

For almost 3 years you were competing and winning almost everything. Now you’re starting from scratch: new coach, new life circumstances, no clear point of how long will it take to adapt and what the result will be. Are you worried about possible losses?

You know, I’m a realist. I’ll be sad about my result when I realize that could’ve done better but didn’t do it. I can confess to myself in unpleasant things. If I realize that yes, it’s my limit and I cannot do better at the moment, then I say to myself I got the place I deserve.

I clearly understand now that a new life is starting for me now. I never lived abroad, was never trained by foreign coaches, never ate unusual food longer than 2-3 weeks. So everything’s changing, it’s a new page for me.

Is it scary?

No, I cannot wait for it. Honestly, right now I don’t even want to think I may lose to someone. I’m trying to look a couple of years ahead. First of all, it’s important to stay healthy. This is my main goal. But this goal shouldn’t interfere with the result – I need to find the right balance in exercise, nutrition, mental state, physical shape.

Before Pyeongchang your life was limited by ice rink borders – you either trained, slept, or prepared to train.

Yes, that’s how it was for all these years!

Now it’s obvious that you sort of let yourself go in a way some time ago. You had free time, you had an opportunity to try a new life and not come to the rink every day after leaving your coach. How did you feel about that new life?

I didn’t really let myself go. I opened my eyes and look around. Yes, I had the goal – the Olympics. I was working for it, only caring about competing there and nothing else. I basically had no friends, no interests even though I think if myself as a many-sided person. I didn’t meet new people, or didn’t keep in touch because of the lack of time and sometimes desire. There were just practices. But I guess something kept growing inside me.

This winter, when I was injured and couldn’t skate, I thought: will I finish my skating career not having friends, other skills personal life – anything? So when after the Olympics I opened my eyes, so to speak, my life changed, became fuller, like a stream that became a river. I got friends, a lot of new interests, even pre-requisites for a future change of profession that I might like or might change 150 times.

Can you say no to this life? Limit yourself again, train again, be motivated by a new goal? Do you even want to do it?

I do want to. I think I can leave absolutely everything behind for a goal. The main thing is to be realistic, don’t do anything that might hurt you or your family. I often think that my mom and grandma sacrificed a lot so I could fulfill myself as a skater. So if I feel I don’t meet their expectations… I don’t want to feel that.

So sometimes you feel guilty in regards to your family?

Very seldom. My parents are also realistic and they know the main thing is to keep working. No result – keep working. Good result? Great – keep working. But if I for some reason don’t perform my duties, then I feel guilty.

How long did it take to recover after the Olympics?

It’d been a long process. Actually my body and my mind allow me to recover quickly, but after the Olympics it took time. I can’t even say I mentally recovered by now.

I heard the version you wanted to go to Canada not to train and keep competing but to have new opportunities for performing in shows.

I’ll tell you a secret: I have no shortage of invitations to perform in shows.

Was Brian Orser your only candidature for a coach?

Yes.

Why him?

Because of Yu-na Kim. That was my first thought when I started thinking of switching coaches: Yu-na won the OGM at 19, and at 23 became 2nd in Sochi. At Beijing Olympics I’ll be 22. It’s not only about her, of course, Orser had a lot of athletes who competed at more than 1 OG and had long careers.

Are you bothered by the fact that Brian Orser accepted many new athletes this summer?

Not at all. All my life I’ve been growing and training with many rivals, so I’m not bothered. Besides, first of all, majority of Orser’s group is boys. And second of all, Orser has an individual approach to every skater, he talks about it himself. So he has time and attention for everybody. And I like to train among many top-level athletes, it can give me more than I had before.

How did you manage to keep in shape without a place to train [after the Olympics]?

The shape I had during the Olympics is impossible to maintain, and there’s no need to. I was pretty washed out at the OG – was preparing myself to peak in the LP. So I had the minimum weight and maximum morale. That’s why the recovery took a long time.

I gained weight but not much. I have an exerciser at home that helps me keep muscles in shape. As for a functional state, no athletes can maintain it without regular full-time training. That’s why I’m going to Canada.

Did Orser express any wishes [for a training process before coming to Canada]?

No. I think when we spoke in Korea he understood I’d be training due to my opportunities. If I have ice in Moscow – I’ll train on ice (I didn’t). Couple of hours before going to Japan for shows we got an opportunity to skate so I worked on some jumps. Been wanting to do it for a while.

Haven’t jumped for a while?

Yes. I felt very satisfied when they came back.

I always wanted to know, by the way: do you have time to think about something during the jump?

About everything! A thousand things come to mind. And I can see everything that’s going on around. I try to control everything.

Did you discuss new programs?

Not yet, I want to hear different opinions about it. Not just Brian’s, but Tracy Wilson’s, David Wilson’s who’ll be my choreographer.

Do you know them?

I know David, Tracy – not so much. I know their students much better – Yuzuru, Javi, Jason.

And what do you want yourself?

If we’re talking about the season, I’m not going to miss any starts. No open test skates in Russia, no GPs. I’d like to change my style – I changed as a person so I can’t stay the same on the ice. I view life and the world differently now.

I’m sure when I come to Canada everything in my head will be upside down again. I’d like to try a new image on ice. There are many I haven’t tried.

What jumps do you want to perform?

I have thoughts about it but don’t want to talk about it now.

In this regard you probably have to be ‘inspired’ by the new changes in rules that limit the number of jumps in the 2nd part of the program.

These changes became the base for my work, let’s say that. If we were told we had to do all jumps in the 2nd part of the program, I’d go and do it without saying a word.

Did you like all your competitive programs?

I loved my first senior program where I portrayed a deaf girl. I liked ‘Karenina’ very much. But that program I won my second Worlds with – I didn’t like it at all at first. Only by the end I got into it. I skated it well, I broke the world record with it, and I liked it as a tool that helps you to achieve what you want. But with ‘Karenina’ I was head over hills in love. Especially after those ‘January stars’ where there was only a nice dress [that first LP they scrapped]. I was all into ‘Karenina’.

Oksana Baiul’s coach once said if an athlete goes into the triple jump too much in character, he lands the jump on his back. Do what degree do you allow yourself to break character for elements?

“Karenina” allowed me not to do it. When I skated it at the Olympics, I just let my body do the work and stayed in character completely. I didn’t even try to interrupt myself or visualize like you sometimes do when you skate a LP in practice. I had a maddening inner freedom. If you only knew what was going through my mind when the step sequence started.

And what was that?

I was asking myself: ‘Do you realize it’s the Olympics? That millions of people are looking at you now (maybe even a billion)? And that if you do a smallest mistake now everything will go to hell?’ And I replied to myself: ‘Yeah, I get it’. ‘Is it cool?’ – ‘Yeah, it is. Let’s keep enjoying it’. And there was no pressure at all.

Did you ever ask yourself why almost all previous Olympic women champions didn’t want to or didn’t manage to go to the 2nd Oympics? Baiul, Lipinski, Sotnikova?

Most likely it’s because of fear of losing everything you’ve been working on for years. The desire to keep skating is always there, I think, it’s just you get an opportunity to try a new life and you get sucked in. Not everyone gets to understand that sport and normal life aren’t always combinable.

I knew a wrestler who after winning the OG at 23 retired, saying ‘I don’t want to miss my life while I practice’. Do you know this feeling?

No, I don’t. I had a normal childhood .I played games – not on the street but in the gym, but I had fun. I don’t think I’m missing my life now. I finished school, got into university.

When did you learn English?

I didn’t learn it purposefully; I just knew I didn’t have a choice.

What do you mean?

I saw athletes my age from other countries chat between competitions all the time, and I was thinking: I’d love to talk to you but I don’t know how. So I tried once, then I tried again.

During one trip I learnt 3 words, during the other – 5. Read somewhere on the internet how to build a phrase, learnt some slang. And didn’t even notice how I became able not just to speak but to give interviews. It’s not perfect, I sometimes stumble and sometimes use the grammar wrong. But I’m understood, and people understand me.

Is it difficult for you to admit you don’t know something?

Not at all! I don’t know many things, I can’t do many things. I’m not ashamed to admit it because it’s true.

How long can you stay without skating till it gets uncomfortable?

Not long at all. I can’t sit still, motionless – my muscles start to hurt and I even get physically uncomfortable. When you don’t skate for a while, you feel the same, your legs hurt. Also when I have a free day and have no ice, I get a headache! There’s probably something in the ice I can’t live without. Besides, it’s emotionally difficult for me to just stay in place.

How fast the skills get lost when you’re not practicing.

Very fast. You stop feeling the blades. You skate and it feels in your head like you’re doing everything automatically but your legs don’t cooperate with your brain. You want one thing but you end up in entirely different place. All the most ridiculous falls happened to me because of it.

Coming back to your move to Canada: you couldn’t not think about the funds your new life will require.

My mom was thinking about it. It was her task to think whether we’re ready for it.

And when your mom said you’re ready…

I realized it’s time to grab my skates and go to Canada.

Did anyone try to talk you out of it?

Honestly? Didn’t even try.

[roykent6]

for the unpopular (or popular) opinion, 1. rent live was not as good as everyone said it was (this is more popular in my school), In Trousers is an extremely underappreciated musical and every production that is on youtube has shitty staging which makes it harder for people to love, 3. Plays would probably end up being more popular than musicals if Broadway and other theatres companies would actually record performances and put them online on some streaming service

1. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

overall, I enjoyed Rent Live, but I do have criticisms of it. some of the casting didn’t do it for me, and I think the decision to show the dress rehearsal footage instead of the concert that the in-person audience got to see was a huge miss. I give the cast’s apparent lack of energy a pass, because it makes sense that they’d be saving their full energy for the real show. I also bumped on a lot of the changes they made, especially to the Seasons of Love staging. the changed lines due to making things appropriate for tv were annoying, but obviously you can’t say certain things on network tv (though the fact that they took out the words piss and dildo but kept in “faggots, lezzies, dykes” really didn’t sit well with me). but other than that, I thought the set was cool and most of the cast did a really good job. and the finale with the original cast was beautiful and definitely had me crying. I just wish we could have seen it actually live.

2. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

I’ll be real, I’ve never actually watched a production on youtube. I’ve listened to the recording plenty though, and it’s absolutely super underrated. it gives a lot of insight into Marvin’s character that you don’t get from Falsettos, and the songs are some of Bill Finn’s finest. it takes a couple listenings to really come to appreciate it, but it’s great. I think about “the thing about explorers is: they discover things that are already there.” at least once a day, it’s so good.

3. not at all | eh idk | neutral | yeah definitely | the most accurate statement ever

there’s tons of benefits to professionally filming theatre productions and releasing them in movie theatres and streaming platforms. it makes these shows more accessible to people who’d never have the chance to see them, and it gives people the opportunity to relive a piece of theatre that they’d only get to see once. that being said, there’s so much work that goes into professionally recording a production, and a lot of hoops that have to be jumped through just to get the green light to record it. that being said, I really don’t know whether or not professional recordings of plays would make them more popular than musicals. for me, plays and musicals almost exist as separate entities of theatre, because there are things about both that are unique and special. that being said, I know lots of people who aren’t into the song and dance aspects of musicals, so maybe having access to proshots of plays would help them to find a new appreciation for theatre as a whole.