#there was also an ep called 'jakes story' which i thought would give us more details on his backstory or some shit.. and then 💀

[koschei-the-ginger]

the other show david duchovny was filming simultaneously with the x files was always like "sad, broken man (35) will pay to read about your experiences with love and betrayal". The flashback sequence begins, and it's just straight-up porn about a woman screwing her tennis teacher or smth. Sometimes, it cuts off midway back to David, sitting on a bench all alone, looking like a sad wet dog, as he reads a letter. Once the porn sequence ends, he mutters to himself, "she had fun. But alas, I am destined to die alone." and he stares into the distance. It went on for 5 seasons.

I'm starting to think maybe flying to LA between the x files takes only to sit on a bench alone for hours could be the reason why his Mulder constantly seemed so touch starved he'd die if he couldn't invade someone's personal space for 5 minutes.

[gunterfan1992]

Episode Review: ‘Together Again’ (Distant Lands, Ep. 3)

Airdate: May 20, 2021

Story by: Jack Pendarvis, Kate Tsang, Hanna K. Nyström, Christina Catucci, Jesse Moynihan, Adam Muto

Storyboarded by: Hanna K. Nyström, Anna Syvertsson, Iggy Craig, Maya Petersen, Serena Wu

Directed by: Miki Brewster (supervising), Sandra Lee (art)

Across Adventure Time’s ten season run, the show explored a bevy of “mature” themes and story ideas—topics, like love, sexuality, depression, and grieving. The show also touched upon death, but the emphasis was usually placed on the emotional toll of a loved one dying, not really what happens when you die. We knew there were Dead Worlds and Death. We knew that there was reincarnation. But how does it all fit together? What does it mean? How does it work?

With “Together Again,” we finally have many of the answers.

This special opens with a marvelous fake-out episode simply called “Finn & Jake,” that sees the two steal a magical cartoon of 50-flavor ice cream before rescuing Turtle Princess and LSP from the clutches of the villainous Ice King. This is all deliberately anachronistic and over the top. Ice King is back to his season one ways, Finn has both arms, and he is still wielding his golden sword that he lost in season two’s “The Real You.” There’s lolrandom dialogue and silly monsters; it’s like a parody of seasons 1-2. But then, this adventure starts to get all wonky, and in time Finn realizes that he is in a some sort of trance or illusion: one that ends with Jake being buried in the ground. Suddenly, Finn awakens from his reverie. He’s an old man. And he’s dead. We’re then presented with a new title card that lets us know the episode is actually called “Finn & Jake Are Dead.”

Holy Glob! They actually went there.

Turns out Jake died years before Finn, so naturally Finn is super excited to see his best bud. But something’s wrong—he cannot find Jake!! They planned to spend eternity together. But all that Finn can find is his very own psychopomp, Mr. Fox (voiced by Tom Herpich, whose purposefully stilted line readings are the epitome of delightful). Finn rightfully assumes that Jake is in a different Dead World, and so, being the ball of spunk and energy that he is, he demands to meet with Death, only to discover that there’s a New Death in town (voiced by Chris Fleming). The episode eventually explains that New Death was the son of Death and Life, and after New Death killed his father, he became the sovereign of the afterlife. New Death hates his job and decides to just blow up all the Dead Worlds so he doesn’t have to deal with it all. (I won’t get too much into the details here, because there would be a lot of story to parse out.)

Finn soon learns that Jake has reached nirvana in the 50th Dead World, where there is nothing but peace and serenity. Finn nevertheless tracks down Jake, pulls him from paradise, but in doing so, accidentally lets New Death in, who promptly obliterates Elysium, sending all the enlightened souls—including those from different levels of the afterlife—to the 1st Dead World. This gronks up the afterlife, temporarily halting the reincarnation process.

Well, Finn and Jake are rightfully ticked, and so they haunt the material plane looking for Princess Bubblegum. She’s not home (more on that later), but Peppermint Butler is! After Ghost Finn and Ghost Jake explain the situation, Peppermint Butler tells them what to do: They need to find Life and explain the situation. The duo manage just that, and Life is rightfully angry that her kid has stopped the transmigration of souls. After Life gives Finn a McGuffin sword that can hurt Death, Finn and Jake return to his abode. A brawl ensues wherein we learn that New Death has been possessed… by none other than that spirit of the Lich.

That’s right, it’s the Lich! He’s back, and boy is he evil.

The Lich explains that by possessing Death, he can destroy the afterlife, thereby destroying a key aspect of reality. Naturally, Finn and Jake are not cool with this, and they engage in combat. After Mr. Fox grabs the McGuffin sword and uses it to annihilate the Lich and New Death, he is proclaimed the New New Death and sets everything right. Finn is slated to be reincarnated, and Jake is slated to return to the 50th Dead World where he and Finn will one day be reunited. As Finn is pulled into the wheel of souls, Jake suddenly decides to go back with Finn, too, “Just for fun.” The episode ends with a card letting us know that the episode is neither called “Finn & Jake” nor “Finn & Jake Are Dead.” Instead, it is “Finn and Jake Are Together Again.”

As they say, “And there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”

If you were to tell me several years ago that the last episode to star Finn and Jake would revolve around them dying, I think I would’ve been upset. Not simply sad, but rather frustrated because “they all died” can feel like a cheap ending. But with “Together Again,” it all works. And a large reason that it works is because the show goes all in with their ideas. Finn and Jake don’t magically leap back into their old life (no, no, they very much do bite the dust). Instead, the special emphasizes the cyclical nature of life through the transmigration of souls. The episode ends with a beautiful scene of Finn and Jake, bound together as soul-brothers, being reborn into a new, mysterious (possibly Ooo 1000+?) world. It’s both aesthetically and emotionally pleasing; it doesn’t feel off the way over finales might. This is right. This is the way life works. “Round and round as nature goes,” and all that jazz.

I loved the series explanation of how death works. It seems that souls land in a specific Dead World, where they ‘marinate’ for a bit, presumably being rewarded or punished based on their life in our meat reality. After a time, they are then reborn. This process repeats, with each soul reaching higher and higher levels of enlightenment until they hit nirvana, which is the 50th Dead World. So in a sense, Adventure Time has a roughly Buddhist cosmology with a dash of Greco-Roman mythos thrown in for flavor. (As to what happens after a soul stays in the 50th Dead World for a long period is anyone’s guess, but I’d speculate that when all the souls in the multiverse have been purified and land in the 50th Dead World, they will all collapse into one another and form one perfect Monad. Perhaps this is the sphere of perfection that the beings who merged into Matthew thought they were connecting to? Who knows! It’s anyone’s guess!) I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see who Death, Prismo, Life, etc.’s boss was, but perhaps that’s a mystery better left up to the imagination!

One minor thing that I loved about this special was the number of characters who made cameos as well as all the callbacks that were made to previous episodes. Regarding the former: Finn and Jake’s canine family show up (including the oft-forgotten Jermaine!), as do Tree Trunks and her myriad husbands. Tiffany plays a major role in all these shenanigans as a ���death cop” of all things. There is a delightful rogues gallery stuck in the 1st Dead World (including, among others, Maja, Sharon from “The Gut Grinder,” and Wyatt). In the 50th we find Ghost Princess and Clarence happily at peace next to Booshy, the weird spirit mentioned in the Pen Ward classic “High Strangeness.” As far as callbacks go, perhaps my favorite is the clap (from “James Baxter the Horse”) that Jake taught to Finn in case they ever do get separated in the afterlife. And of course, there are myriad references made to “Death in Bloom,” the episode that planted the seed for what this would grow into.

Going into the special suspecting that it would involve Death, I was curious how they were going to handle Miguel Ferrer’s character. (In case a reader is not aware, Ferrer played Death in episodes like “Death in Bloom” and “Betty,” but he sadly passed away a few years ago). The producers’ choice to feature him in a non-speaking cameo—despite playing a relatively significant role in the story—was wise; I’m not sure if I can articulate the exact reasons, but something about his role felt appropriate and not gross, as some post-mortem memorials can be. Speaking of which, the wonderful, lovely Polly Lou Livingston was featured for the last time in this episode as Tree Trunks, happily in heaven with her literal harem of husbands. It was funny, it really was, and I’m sure that Polly Lou would’ve gotten a kick out of seeing it on screen. (Also, this is a pro-Tree Trunks safe space. Any Tree Trunks haters will be chucked into the 1st Dead World with Wyatt.)

The biggest mystery in this whole thing, for me at least, is the question of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline. Several years ago, I wrote an essay about what could’ve happened to them in the Ooo 1000+ universe. I speculated that they peaced out and left Ooo behind. In this special, neither Bubblegum nor Marceline are to be found in the Candy Kingdom—Peppermint Butler seems to be the one in charge, given that he is now wearing Bubblegum’s crown. Likewise, the duo aren’t anywhere in the Dead Worlds either. Maybe the two of them skipped town and got a duplex in the Nightosphere? Who knows… I just want my favorite gals to be OK!

All things considered, “Together Again” was a marvel: An episode that managed to feel like a series finale even more than “Come Along with Me” already did without taking away from the series itself. An episode that managed to make the idea of dying funny. An episode that brought back the Lich in a way that wasn’t forced. An episode that made Mr. Fox the New New Death. An episode that gave us a beautiful ending to Finn and Jake’s story… as well as the beautiful beginning to a new one. I said it on Twitter, and I’ll say it again here: “Together Again” was the end of a sentence in a book with infinite pages. Truly, the fun will never end.

Mushroom War evidence: Everything takes place in the Dead Worlds, so not really. Perhaps a more eagle-eyed viewer can inform us...

Final Grade: That’s right, I’m gonna do it...

Post-script, I actually messaged Jesse Moynihan to ask about his writing credit. He told me that it was for an unused story idea that he had developed. I’m not certain, but I’ll bet it was a part of the cancelled TV movie they were trying to make during season 5, since that would’ve seen Finn and Orgalorg journey to the various Dead Worlds.

[incorrectnessduskwood]

🚨🚨 SPOILER WARNING!!! 🚨🚨

Okay, let's see if I can put my thoughts in order to write what I thought about the ep:

1. I'm very happy we started the ep telling everyone about the call and not just Jake

2. The mood in the group seems good, especially with MC. The whole talk with Thomas after he messes with Hannah's phone made me pretty happy and it was good seeing another side of him (also, I almost cried when he said we deserve to be part of the group)

3. The talks with Jake were good but painful. I think the thing with Hannah is really starting to get to him and he doesn't want to show it, not to us nor to himself

4. When Thomas asks about if we would tell our partner if we ever did something terrible, I immediately thought of Jake and of what he did for the government to be after him, and I love the fact Everbyte put us talking to Jake right after

5. I spent the whole ep waiting for something to go wrong because I was so sure it would. Also, I did not expect to just having a gun in the house, though I think it's good for protection

6. Jake seemed to be pulling away from MC a little, as if trying to protect us or himself, not sure which one

7. I enjoyed having Dan back in the group and seeing him live

8. I LOVED everyone together, it made it so wholesome and it made it seem so real. my heart actually aches for not being able to with them

9. Using Hannah's phone? It was great to have a glimpse of her, to get to know her some more

10. Also, the messages with the killer? Holy crap, I loved the answers we could give

11. Dan saying he's more afraid of us than of MWAF? It was great and entirely true haha

I'm probably forgetting things but I still haven't been able to think straight about the ep. I mean, I'm shaking still and I'm so scared for the next ep, which will be the last one. My heart's already broken about it and I just wanna curl up and cry about it

But, maybe good news, the ep inspired me to write something so maybe y'all will get a story this week/the next

[hacked-by-jake]

hey!! I saw that ask of the anon talking about fighting/arguing with Jake and

I really REALLY think is something that will happen, and if happens I think it would be really cool for the story

like richy was attacked right before mcs eyes, which of course would let to them in panic (even thought I think he's the mwaf let's just imagine that mc doesn't suspect him lol)

Mc not knowing what to do would 1- talk with Jake or/and 2- ask for help to the group

which I believe would let do a conversation with Jake about the attack

and I think we would have a option to say something about going to Duskwood

like I don't think they would put this dialogue automatic, probably it would be a choice thing

but it would let to mc talking thing like "I can't just stay here while all of my friends are being attacked! IT'S BECAUSE OF ME, JAKE!" (I believe mc is feeling really guilty about everything that's happening with the group so yeah, they probably would blame themself)

and Jake kind of made mc promise to not go to duskwood in chapter 7 if I remember correctly, I mean it was a choice thing, so probably if you choose that option he will remember that

SO, Jake would try to calm down mc and tell them that it's not safe

which I believe it would led to another option thing, where we could calm down or freak out even more with him

AND I really think it would have something to do with cleo

like saying something like "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SAYING THIS?! YOU SAID EVERITHING WAS GOING TO BE OK WHEN IT HAPPENED THE FIRST TIME WITH CLEO, BUT THEN LILLY WAS ATTACKED"

and then mc would just ignore everything Jake's would be saying and just telling him they would go to duskwood

and Jake would get mad because he's trying to protect them and remember the promise

and and it would be angst and

God I think mc would even block him, can you imagine????

sorry I got excited lol

Yes!!! I can absolutely imagine it! I also think it will have something to do with Richy’s attack.

Maybe we’ll also get the chance to say that now is the point where it’s too terrible for us, and Jake won’t be happy about it because without MC he won’t find Hannah.

In episode 7 we can ask him if he doesn’t wonder if we’re going too far. And Jake answers, 'How far is too far when it comes to a human life?" and we can choose, 'When other lives are in danger"

And at the end of the episode, that’s exactly what happened: our friends are in danger, and maybe someone is dying.

Of course, I want us to find Hannah and make sure she’s okay, but we don’t know Hannah personally, but we know the others. They have become our friends and now something bad has happened.

So I can well imagine that we might even be able to say that we want to stop, that we don’t want to continue, and Jake will say that we can’t give up. But since we’re so shocked by the call with Richy, maybe we’ll start arguing with him.

I love Jake, really, but let’s face it, he’s hiding something, and he’s always been a bit weird before. He started a lot of things but didn’t finish and I think we can tell him in the fight that he needs to talk to us. Because as he said at the beginning, he saw Hannah kidnapping, but he never said exactly how and what happened.

I believe that we can make good use of the dispute and that it will only result in greater cohesion.

Besides, as you said, it would be really exciting for the story. Plus, I really want to know how Jake’s gonna react to a fight.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me/us. I really enjoyed reading that.😁

I just can’t wait any longer, I want to know what’s going to happen. Because I think that ep 8 will overtrump all episodes and will be crazier than all the others together.🤯

[skyeofloxlay]

DUSKWOOD EP.8!

Okay, it's been a long time since I posted here. I wish I had come back sooner, but the school has taken up any time I have, and unfortunately, I also didn't know what exactly to post here (And I had also stayed away from any social media for my own mental health.) But episode 8 of Duskwood gave me some excitement, and maybe I'll write some stuff here. (Or maybe I'll just do this post myself and be gone for a while longer until a new episode of Duskwood comes out ._.)

Needless to say, this post will be FULL of spoilers, but even so, it's good to warn unsuspecting people. Anyway everything will be below the cut, so prevent anyone from seeing it by accident.

(Sorry if it have something confused, or with English mistakes)

BUT LET'S GO WITH IT BECAUSE THERE IS A LOT, BUT A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS EPISODE.

For me this was one of the episodes with the most stuff, at least in my opinion, or maybe I think that because I've played so much the other eps. that nothing in eps. past surprises me. But anyway, let's start at the beginning. (I just hope I took a screenshot of everything, I'll be very frustrated if I forgot something)

Remembering that this is all from the choices I made during the ep, and maybe some things vary. I'm not sure, as I've only played it once I can't tell you where each question leads, and honestly, even though I really want to redo the game, it becomes more and more tiring, it took me 3 days to reach ep 8 (due to the fact that my game crashed when I was going to start ep 5, I had to uninstall the game and lost the progress of the game. End of story.) So, tell me what you think of the ep. I would love to know :)

(Sorry, I'm stalling again, it's inevitable.)

*Almost whenever I mention us/we, I mean MC.

Richy's death. This is where ep 7 ended.

We texted him, and obviously he didn't respond.

Thomas and Cleo call us saying they went to the pawn shop, they say Phil was the one who left the bracelet there.

We talked in the group about Richy.

Thomas wants to go search the forest, but we stop him.

Lilly calls the police.

Jessy says she's in the junkyard along with three policemen, she says she wants to talk to Richy's father, but she can't contact him.

She tells about the fish prank Richy did, and they made it a ritual/tradition(?)

One of the cops arrives with Richy's bloodied cap.

Jake talks to us.

He says he knows what happened and he's sorry.

We talked to Jake about Richy's death.

Jake tries to comfort us.

Jake confesses that he already thought about giving up, taking us and leaving it all behind, but he knew that sooner or later the consequences of that action would catch up with us.

We continued our investigations, telling Jake that Richy heard screams in the forest and so he went there.

We ask why Richy would be attacked, and Jake replies that the MWAF takes people marked, but they are taken in the new moon, but as he says, Richy wasn't attacked on the first new moon of the year, and we remember that it wasn't even night either when he was attacked.

Duskwood police call us. But Jake hangs up midway through the call. He says that talking to the police would not be a suitable move at the moment, as any information can make us the focus of investigations.

Jake tells us not to answer Alan if he calls again.

We commented to Jake that the killer didn't show himself this time, Jake says maybe we should focus on Richy.

Jake changes the subject and says he thought Phil would be our most important lead, but now that he's in jail, we've been forced to drop that theory.

We say Phil was the one who left the bracelet at the pawnshop, and that should be proof, and play a big part in all of this. And that was because of that fact that Hannah wanted to talk to Phil.

There is still a lot to be done: Ted Madruga, Amy, and now we know the right name for Jennifer (Hanson).

Jake says he's going to see which of these clues is going to be more productive.

If we ask Jake if he's purposely leaving us out, he says yes and says he wants us to rest. If we say that we don't want that, he says that we have a lot to do, and if we have to testify, we just have to ignore it, and that we must face the unknown with a clear head.

We say goodbye.

Lilly asks how we are going to proceed now. Whether or not they should go to the cabin.

We ask if anyone knows where the cabin is, and Cleo replies that she does.

They decide not to go.

Cleo says that we and Jake must reveal everything we know. And that we should add Jake to the group.

We talk to Jake, he accepts with the condition that we remove Richy from the group, because now the kidnapper must have his cell phone, and can see all the messages.

Dan says he was in the bathroom because the hospital food was hurting him.

Before we start talking about everything we have, Dan asks Jake how he knew Hannah was missing. He replies that Hannah had gone to get help from him, and he had a video call with her.

We ask if there's anyone close to Hannah, and Jake says from the angle the cell phone was on he couldn't see very well, but he doesn't think so. So we asked if it was like anyone could have seen Jake, and he said no. We ask how Hannah was attacked, but he doesn't know.

Jessy asks to wait because she wants to go home.

Dan talks to us and says he still doesn't trust Jake.

We tell the group to speak up when they have a question, join the conversation, etc.

We started talking about our MWAF clue and how/why we started to follow that.

We sent Hannah's photo of the crow. We ask about an incident Hannah could be involved in, but no one knows anything.

We talk about Hannah's notes. We said that she suffered from depression, no one believed it, even showing the medical prescription. Nobody knew what she was going through.

We show Hannah's psychiatrist's recording. We said that Hannah thought she was being followed, and that it was linked to her past.

We show the security camera recording.

We talk about the Jennifer incident, Jake asks who was asked about Jennifer, and (in my case) it was Richy. So... ._.

Jake talks about Jennifer's real last name (Hanson)

Jessy says she went to Hannah's car and went to the GPS location.

Thomas is confused by this information and says Hannah's car was not there before.

Dan asks for a break.

Lilly says she went to her parents' house to find out more about Amy, and says she couldn't even look at her father's face.

Lilly decides to send a letter to Ted.

Jake and Lilly finally talk.

We and Jake helped Lilly write the letter.

Lilly talks to Jake. (I found their conversation very cute, I have to admit)

Dan says he took a nap, Cleo said that too.

We resume the conversation.

Jessy says she met Iris. And that Jennifer was supposed to have been hit by a car, and the author of this was never found. Hannah was being followed by Jennifer's alleged killer.

We send the second note.

We talk about the bracelet.

Thomas talks about the bracelet, which he thought was proof that Hannah was cheating on him, so he went to the apartment to get it. Jessy says she saw it at the pawnshop, which led Thomas and Cleo there, where they found out that Phil was the one who left it there.

We said that Hannah should also know about this and that's why she wanted to talk to Phil.

We talked about the phone book. And about each one that was there. Rogers Garage because of Hannah's car in there, Alan because Hannah probably wanted something from the police, Phil because of the bracelet, Thomas and then the unknown number, where we thought it was Jake's, but then he reveals that it wasn't his, and that he had taken his number off the list before. And this is something we have yet to discover.

Jake then shows the stone it had in the place where Amy was found, said Jennifer Hanson. We concluded that it must mean something to the killer in some way that we don't know yet, but that everything is intertwined.

We talked about Ted Madruga in the group.

The group decides that it's better if no one leaves the house from now on.

We ask Jake how he feels, and he says he doesn't know, and asks how we feel.

Jake then finds a post from Amy on a forum. (Dark Mystery Forum)

Jake says we should check it out ourselves, but you can only log in with an account. Jake gives his account, Nymos and an impossible password. (I said it was a great password, that our account would be safe, mainly from me xD )

He asks if he wants to change the password for us, so we can choose the password.

(and damn, I picked cake when it was the perfect opportunity to put Jake as the password, I really wanted to know if anything would happen if we put him as our password, please, did anyone think about that? Could you tell me if something happens or not?)

We entered the forum, and there are 9 posts there, at least the ones accessible to us, some have nothing important, they are just stories that people post there, or interact to make a story, with each user saying a sentence, and so on. One has several pictures of ghosts. And well, on some posts we can interact (well, I know I didn't know, but as I read the posts, I saw that at the end of some posts there were some sentences and a button, but the button was in German, and I was too lazy to look up the translation, so in the post where each one posted a sentence to form a horror story, I clicked this button, and then I realized what that was, in this case, the sentence I accidentally put was that the gravedigger tripped on the phone cord, and fell in the middle of the room xD)

Definitely one topic that caught my attention was predicting the future, and I love it when it comes to games, because as much as I don't believe in real life, in games it always means something. I don't know if anyone else did, or if all the answers are the same, but mine said: LadyLotus "I see your pain Nymos. I share it with you. My prediction is stronger and clearer than ever. In your future, I see a king's golden crown. (I really don't know what that crown might mean.) Sadly, you're about to face tough times. But you won't go through this alone. There is one person in your life that you are very important to (I assume it is Jake) But something unsaid is still with you two. (I wonder what it is, but I have a feeling it's a very bad thing) And if something is offered to you soon, you must refuse. (I think this must be in relation to the Duskwood Police? Can't be sure)

Anyway, I thought it was really cool to be able to interact on the forum and predict our future. I loved the forum mechanics and hope we can use the forum more in the next ep :)

(I saw it Everbyte, and honestly I don't know how I feel about it xP)

We talked to Darkness, and found out Amy's number, which was the unknown number on Hannah's list. (Hello darkness my old friend was a tempting answer, but I didn't click, if someone chose that answer could you tell me what it answers?)

(I know at that time Jake sent a message, and I was scared xD, the scariest thing was in the dialogue I could say I got a fright ._. Everbyte, since when did you guys develop a mind reader in programming?)

We talked to Jake about the number.

I got another fright at Jake's notification, and what can I say, I wasn't really expecting this conversation, but it sure made me very happy. :D

Jake asks us if we like Chinese food. (I said yes, but to be honest, I've never eaten Chinese food, and I can't say whether I like it or not, but I said yes, I didn't want to say no to Jake. If someone said no, what happens? I'm curious.)

He says he has a restaurant in front of the hotel where he is staying. And he says he was thinking about us, and that it would be rude to invite us to a restaurant we don't like. We ask him if he keeps thinking about things like that, and he replies that he thinks a lot. We said that we thought about him too, and that it was good to think. Jake asks if we'd like to talk about it. (And my god Everbyte, I can't believe you turned my thoughts into reality, I mean "reality" as this unfortunately isn't real ._.) We have several answer options, and maybe I'll talk about it in another one post.

Jake says that thought is very good, and that he would like to make it a reality. (Everbyte, why do you do this with my heart? Why do I have to fall so hard for a guy who doesn't even really exist? TT_TT)

Phil calls us in prison, I can't remember his exact words, but he comments about Michael Hanson, that he's in jail because of Phil's connection to him, and that we should prove Phil's innocence.

Jake gets jealous. (I admit it was cute to see him like that xD)

We ask if there's any chance the police know that Phil called us, Jake asks if we were scared of the police, and then reassures us that we don't need to fear the police. We say that we can feel that Jake is hiding something from us, he replies that he still has a card up his sleeve, but that we would understand when the right time came (ah, he hasn't said that for a while, I don't even know why I'm still surprised xD )

Jake discovers an audio of an interrogation of Michael Hanson. We found out that Michael was the former owner of the bar Aurora, and that the day of the Pine Glades Festival was the day Jennifer disappeared/died, and that he didn't notice until the next day when he saw she wasn't in her room. The police suspected Michael was to blame for Jennifer's death.

We show the audio in the group.

Alan sends us one more message.

We found out that Phil took over the bar about a year ago, Phil changed everything there, and before that the bar was geared towards an older group. Thomas said that was where he met the group.

We know that Michael left Duskwood suddenly.

Thomas and Jessy go to the address that belonged to Michael.

We talked to Cleo and Dan in the meantime.

When Thomas and Jessy arrive at the house, (actually the mansion, because that's huge) everything was apparently abandoned. The two begin to explore, and even find a bunker, which was empty.

Lilly says she sent the letter and we say we found out the last number was from Amy.

At some point, Lilly says she remembers walking with her grandfather there a long time ago.

Thomas calls us, they find something inside the house, it was a room with lots of pictures and investigative stuff apparently.

Thomas and Jessy split up to find something. In the meantime the MWAF enters the house, Thomas and Jessy manage to escape in time.

MWAF then calls us asking if killing the mechanic wasn't enough for us? He then says that he's going to kill them all, one by one, that we'll have to watch them all die, and that he's finally going to come after us.

Phew, this took a long time to write, because a lot happened in this ep, I tried to put as much information as possible, but I may have left something out, and I also had no precision about what was said in the calls (and I was with too lazy to research, sorry.) Hope this post might be useful in some way? I kind of just wanted to comment on everything that happened in this ep. Maybe I'll comment on other things about this ep, and I also want to talk about Richy, all his suspicious stuff, and whether or not he's MWAF. (Of course, so far there's no way to know precisely, they're just theories, but I want to talk about it :) )

Oh well, and I also wanted to say, are we reaching the end of Duskwood? It would be ep. 10 the last one? One thing I noticed in the ep trailer was a puzzle, does that mean we're almost at the end of the mystery? Well, we'll have to wait and find out.

See you in the next post. And oh! Tell me what you think of this ep, and your theories :)

(In advance, this was one of the best eps for me, or maybe it is because I've played the other eps so much that I don't see it with the same eyes, but anyway.)

Restarting is tempting, but going through all 8 eps again, I don't think I can do that, especially as I would restart now, play a little bit, drop it, go into duskwood again just in the new ep, and have to spend another 3 whole days playing just to start the new ep. So... better not xD

[dotthings]

Heavily cluttered, as many Bucklemming eps are, but worth the trip. There was a lot of goodness in 15.08 and there were two moments where I shrieked out loud.

My two out loud-shriek moments, let’s get that out of the way: 

Queen Rowena. Caaaaalled it.

Dean and Cas are going back??? To???? Purgatory???? Together?????? And Bobo???? Is???? Writing the episode???????????? *SHRIEKING AND FLAILING*

Okay more orderly and sedate now. Eileen is so damn fierce. She’s a very physical fighter, she’s smart but seems to use a blunt fighting skill. She can punch HARD. I love watching that so so much. I would enjoy female characters on SPN like this regardless, but the fact that this is a hero character with a disability and it’s never a big deal is deeply refreshing and SPN did something really really right bringing her back, amen.

Protective Sam shows up and Eileen is happy to see him but literally pushes him aside so she can make the kill. She doesn’t need his protection, but she also values him as a hunting partner as the ep shows. Also they’re trying to build a relationship here. Eileen seems used to hunting solo and Sam wants to offer backup, and he got worried. 

So the plan is to lock up Chuck like Chuck locked up Amara. The sweet irony of this delights me. He tried to shut away the divine feminine rather than actually stepping up to deal with his sister as, well, a person (well, a divine deity, but still, a being with feelings and thoughts and complexities). Chuck, the arrogant and narcissistic toxic masculinity God, maybe to be locked up now instead as his hubris and his lack of empathy and his petulance is exposed. What if Amara was the more competent deity all along? 

There is no way Dean doesn’t know what an Achilles’ heel is. The random WTF of this is so much it’s not even angering it’s just so bizarre. LOL what even. Look I am really enjoying S15 but I hope the butterfly net tightens on stopping this kind of thing because honestly. I’ll just pretend that scene isn’t there. Luckily I enjoyed the episode overall a lot.

Team Free Will in research mode together in the bunker just really makes me happy. Cas is where he belongs.

Donatello!Chuck threatening Jody, Donna, Eileen, “pretty much everyone on your speed dial” as a deterrent to Sam and Dean is bearing out again my impressions of how Chuck views these characters. I’m still not 100% sure what he thinks of Cas who is right in the room but Chuck doesn’t seem to acknowledge him, except as some sort of right arm to Sam and Dean, as I’ve said in other posts, I think Chuck regards him as a nuisance now, and a deterrent to his miserable endings, and a pawn. Just like Donna, Jody, and Eileen, to him, they’re just pawns. They’re all people Sam and Dean care about, and Chuck will use them to keep his two favorites in line.

See what I did there?

Yeah. Chuck doesn’t care about the characters as people. Everyone except Sam and Dean are expendable and tools to be used so he can control Sam and Dean and that’s it. He’ll destroy them with a snap of his fingers and won’t care. Look at that. Familiar attitude, isn’t it. How interesting.

“If you want to stay here, stay here.” Dean’s gone back to not!listening to Cas I see. While Cas is Dean-avoidant and trying not to look at him throughout the episode. But both of them are thawing just a little.

Like when Cas heals Dean’s cut palm and the way it’s staged looks like he’s going to take Dean’s hand to do it which I don’t think is an accident. That moment was meant to be soft.  Dean didn’t ask. Cas offered. And Dean didn’t jerk his hand away or say no. Then there’s the fact that Cas is going to go with Sam and Dean into Hell despite all his misgivings about Michael and this entire plan. 

Team Free Will, getting all researchy together, and then getting all BAMFY together with their angel blades going into Hell.

We didn’t get any kind of nod back to Dean and Cas’s last visit together to Hell and that’s the second time they have been back to Hell (well the last time was some sort of Hell ante-room, the cage was brought up iirc) and SPN failed to nod to it, WHY AM I CONTINUALLY DENIED THIS.

“Hello, boys.” There it is. My actual shriek of delight. I hope it didn’t alarm the neighbors.

“I took it.”  Yes you did, my red-headed goddess queen of the underworld. You sure did. GET IT ROWENA. Rowena won the game of thrones. Boom.

She’s a little flirty with Sam, still has a soft spot for him I think. 

And then starts playing marriage counselor for Dean and Cas. “What am I picking up with you two? A wee tiff?....So fix it.” Someone called this, I’m fairly certain, that if Rowena saw Dean and Cas again during their divorce she’d size that situation up and down and comment on it. FIX IT. So say we all.

“Family sucks.” Jake Abel did such a fantastic job in this. tbh I didn’t give much thought to Adam all these years, it seemed like SPN was never going back there. I liked Jake’s performances in S5, but it just seemed like a story that was over. But Jake Abel, man. He comes back after all this time and owns the dual roles and made me care. With a performance that was alternately fearsome and vulnerable. 

“That’s adorable.” Dean is SO happy about Sam and Eileen, he looked so soft, and still a bit not okay because his chosen other half is barely looking at him, but mostly Dean’s rooting for Sam to have some happiness. “If it was to work, she gets it, she gets us, she gets the life.” It’s a retreated on Sam’s speech back during “Baby” about someone...something...who understands the life. And Sam has found that with Eileen.

Meanwhile Cas is right there, with Dean, with this great big chasm still open between them but...he’s there. And all the arrows point towards him for Dean. 

Dean and Cas are being magnets again. Not like in S14 where every time there is a crisis they stand very close together and are drawn together, now they’re like magnets that are trying not to feel the pull but they cannot escape each other’s pull nor do they really want to, but they can’t quite figure out how to cross the distance. 

There’s more than one scene where Dean or Cas is out of focus and the other in focus, as if to emphasize how they’re both there but not in phase with each other. Not yet.

I so enjoyed the Cas and Michael stuff. Cas’s prayer to Michael, Michael’s mad on for Cas. “Oh, I didn’t come to beg.” And there’s the ruthless strategic angel.

There’s also something really...fitting about Sam and Dean and Cas all being the ones standing outside the ring of holy fire together to trap an archangel who they effectively hope to bring in from the cold, to their side, in a post S6 era of the show. 

“To paraphrase a friend you had an entire oak tree shoved up your ass.” I see Cas is still quoting Dean, having Dean as a compass point or a North star. Even if he can barely look at Dean right now.

Cas telling Michael his unimportance to God and keeping the upper hand is just...so satisfying. Cas has grown so much. I keep thinking about S5 Cas and how despite how powerful Cas was back then, radiating power in ways he doesn’t quite do the same way now, Cas always seemed so...smol next to the archangels. Punching above his weight class. But now he faces down Michael and tells Michael rawly how it is with their dad Chuck. And when Michael tries to choke him, he fights past it and goes into Michael’s mind to show him everything, to help him see the truth. Cas has grown so much, this felt a lot like a little brother constantly picked on leaves home, grows, and comes back to find big, big brother isn’t quite as big and intimidating as he remembers. 

Which in fact he isn’t, because Michael is capable of insight and change and feelings too. He’s not his father. Despite being the favorite. Despite clinging still to his hero-worship. But Cas worked past that with Chuck long ago.

When Eileen’s friend needs help on a hunt, and Eileen goes to Sam, Sam goes with her, no doubts. Tells Dean he’s going, as Dean recounts to Cas, and Dean seems cool with it. 

Sam and Eileen seem to be growing closer and closer, and while there is something tentative about Sam, he definitely is drawn to her and cares. That tentativeness is from past hurt and loss and maybe he’s scared to enter into this kind of relationship. But they’ve got their own magnetic pull together, they fit. 

Dean and Cas facing each other in that bunker kitchen, the lighting darker and colder than usual. They’re facing each other, and each shift in and out of camera focus, not looking at each other much. Cas can’t look at Dean at all in this scene, while Dean keeps sneaking glances at Cas. In other scenes, Cas does sneak looks at Dean. They are ridiculous and my heart hurts. The blocking here is them facing each other only not--they are a few feet off, so looking past each other.

Cas sitting at that table, hands folded, staring straight ahead and working very hard obviously to Not Look at Dean. 

Dean’s reaction on Cas reporting the words Michael said, “I want you dead, get out.” The things Dean has said to Cas are coming back to haunt him, coming from the words of their once mortal enemy, that’s gotta sting.

Both Dean and Cas have some work to do here, but Dean definitely is already very aware his own words went too far, and has been for a while. 

“God lied to me. I loved him.” Oh wow that hurt, I didn’t expect these feelings. 

A thing about Adam and Michael, both feeling so abandoned by their families, and losing everyone. They offered support to each other. They worked out a time-share in Adam’s body. We’ve seen genuine vessel and angel bonds form before (in Lily Sunder). There’s also a S7 episode by Ben Edlund about the bond between a human and the demon who possessed him. Not sure how healthy Adam and Michael are, but they seem weirdly functional, and don’t despise each other and I kind of have some feelings about Adam and Michael bonding the way they did in The Cage. Perhaps Michael shielded Adam from the worst of it. It’s how Adam is coherent after being down there for so long. Maybe Adam made Michael less lonely. Did I ASK for feelings about Adam and Michael, no I did nOT and yet here we are.

Then there’s Adam. It was interesting that scene where Sam acknowledges maybe they gave up too easily. Because Sam and Dean refuse to accept it when it’s each other they lose, and have gone way over the line to get the other one back. Here Sam is admitting that it shouldn’t be just for them. That Adam was worth saving. Even though they don’t know him well, he still didn’t deserve what happened (as Dean acknowledges at the end of the ep). And Sam and Dean never mentioning him again or giving him another thought apparently, all these seasons...well, that kind of made me assume that was that. Just because someone is blood, doesn’t make you family and they barely knew Adam. 

But if it’s someone who could potentially earn that? Someone basically good? And they just...forgot about him and left him to his torment in Hell? So this did need addressing. There’s not much time to develop a relationship with Adam and TFW this late in the game but there was a start here. 

Dean likewise offers his apology to Adam at the end. “You’re a good man. You didn’t deserve that.”

Right when I was thinking, so many of them don’t get what they deserve, they just keep getting Hell heaped on their heads, Adam says “Since when do we get what we deserve.”

There’s a subtle thing there where Adam looks at Cas, Cas very pointedly still tries to be not looking at Dean, and after Adam leaves Dean turns to Cas looking so...sorrowful for a moment. I keep saying, Dean and Cas deserve each other, and right now they can’t figure how to have each other. 

But Michael left them a strange gift. The Leviathan flower, to seal away Chuck, but the gift has a double meaning (unintentionally on Michael’s part). It’s not just the tool to shut away the villain, Michael opens a door to Purgatory and boom just like that, opens up a whole doorway on Dean and Cas’s story because of the emotional significance of Purgatory for them. What they had there. What happened there. The way that place broke loose some of their feelings. I’m not sure what’s going to happen now, if they both go, as the promo glimpses seem to suggest, does one return and the other gets trapped? Is Dean’s prayer to Cas going to be inside Purgatory, is Cas also still in Purgatory and they get separated? Is being thrown together back into that environment going to help them heal? Or will they be torn apart again but that provides another route to reconciliation?

[doomedandstoned]

Chrome Ghost Give Emphatic Close to the Decade with ‘The Diving Bell’

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

There's always been something endearing to me about the sound of Roseville, California's CHROME GHOST. Their last two EPs are decades-long favorites of mine, chiefly due to the bittersweet comingling of earnest vocal harmonies with punishing low-end. Each of their releases has brought unique and unforgettable moments and I've long contended that they would stand up well as openers for the likes of Alice in Chains or Tool, Yob or Bell Witch, in terms of how they compliment and contrast elements of both bands.

'The Diving Bell' (2019) opens in classic Chrome Ghost fashion, with a steadily unwinding ballad with a Lovecraftian twist. "Waltz in the Shadow of the Hillside" will hook you for the long haul. It definitely passed the "hum test" for me, in any event, as I've been thrumming the main vocal theme for days now. "Halo" follows this by unleashing a torrent of pent-up tremors, followed by a calming mantra accompanied shortly by an ascendant guitar lead.

"The Diving Bell" presents a solitude and stillness that is rare, even in genres like depressive and funeral doom. Sadly serene, the song is like the calm leading into a storm, for minutes in a march-like rhythm and growling vocals announce the approach of something awful. Then like intermittent patches of downfall, the storm clears and gives way to a warm, confident stride with dreamlike lyricism. I dare say you don’t need to know the words (at least not on first hearing) to get the full effect of this 14-minute wonder, for on a sonic plane it taps into that mysteriously intuitive musical language we all seem to relate to emotionally. On a compositional level, I’m quite impressed (and satisfied) by how the band has developed to this point in their career. Like I said, deserving of much more mainstream attention.

From ascendant to transcendent, the record closes with the cavernous "Visions." There's something about it that reminds me of Gregorian Chant. Certainly the layer-upon-layer effect of the complementing vocal harmonies aids in its sacred vibe. Unexpectedly, the tempo quickens towards the end of the song, as though a great window to the heavens had opened and Jacob's dream of angels ascending and descending like an escalator is before us.

Regardless of how you interpret it, revelations abound in The Diving Bell, which releases this Saturday, November 30th (pre-order here). And now, Doomed & Stoned is pleased to present the worldwide exclusive debut of Chrome Ghost's most accomplished effort to date. A triumph.

Give ear...

The Diving Bell by chrome ghost

A Listener's Guide to 'The Diving Bell'

We're grateful for the opportunity to visit with Jake Kilgore (guitar, vox), Jake Hurst (drums), and Joe Cooper (bass) of Chrome Ghost, who recently gave us the low-down on their most accomplished effort to date, taking us on a tour from the inside-out.

Art

The cover art was painted by Sacramento artist Molly Devlin (@devlinmolly on Instagram) She has an incredibly sensitivity to her work, and the way she works with elements of nature and organic stuff blew my mind. We are extremely lucky that she was into the idea, and honestly the album cover influenced the way I felt about the whole process. I like to have art done before the recordings are done for that exact reason.

Recording Process

The Diving Bell was recorded in May 2019 by Patrick Hills at Earthtone in Sacramento, California. Patrick has recorded all Chrome Ghost releases to date, as well as CHRCH, King Woman, Tera Melos, and more. We have developed an extremely strong working relationship with Pat, and we tend to understand each other with minimal discussion. Half the time we’re not recording, we are getting through the day by watching stupid youtube videos while files are rendering.

The album tracking was spread out over three days, drums, bass, and guitar, with vocals tracked at home. No click tracks were used throughout the process in an attempt to give the record a more organic feel, and to give us the ability to push and pull the tempo as needed. It goes without saying that this method is way harder, and we definitely punished ourselves with long work days trying to get things right.

We were originally slated to track the album in February 2019, but I (Jake Kilgore) ended up breaking my wrist right before we were meant to go into the studio. The injury not only delayed our plans, but sent me into a spiral. Unable to work, I spent most days on the couch, feebly trying to find positions to hold my guitar so I could keep practicing. In some ways, this benefitted the band by really narrowing our focus. We would rehearse with no guitar, only bass, drums, and vocals. I’d stand there and sing the guitar parts when necessary and it became something of a thought exercise for all of us to stay in sync while only imagining what we were supposed to hear.

General Themes

This record was meant to be personal and introspective, but I also wanted to incorporate more classic gothic themes. Instead of being as blatantly autobiographical as Chrome Ghost has been in the past, I got a little more abstract and started to incorporate images and moods that resonated with me in some way.

Jacob and I share a fear of deep water, and I couldn’t shake the image of a primitive Diving Bell from my mind for months. The idea of being totally submerged, surrounded by a small pocket of air, was so claustrophobic yet serene, and it helped direct the mood of the album quite a bit. Always contrasting the heavier and suffocating music we make with the lighter, more reflective stuff.

Photo by Kevin Carpio

"Waltz in the Shadow of the Hillside"

The opener was inspired by a Lovecraft story called Whisperer In The Darkness, which starts off with reports of massive floods sweeping away strange alien bodies. I was struck by the thought of bodies washing through floodwaters, and it sparked from there. That idea met with this mantra I'd had cycling in my head; Wild Rose, Dog’s Blood. Something beautiful and something terrible, side by side. That sense of duality might be cliché at this point, but it seemed to fit very well in the sense that the water in this song is an element of destruction, but obviously water is an element of life.

We built this song around that clean fingerpicking guitar part after the heavy intro, which I originally wrote while I was still in high school. Everything else was added to accent those voicings and melodies present in that sequence. Exploring that very primitive and repetitive 3/4 rhythm, and twisting it around in different contexts, was a lot of fun to figure out. The droning, experimental part in the middle is probably my favorite because we got to use a bunch of studio tricks on the drums, and I got to use some rad guitar pedals to get those washy reverse guitar parts.

LYRICS

night falls shadows bloom rise slow dance in the hillside

shifting earth hums below outstretched arms drag through the water

soft glow of eyes that shine dark cold shrouds all who wander

obscured shapes draw near long black hair drags through the water

hark! now comes the flood slow rain crushes the hillside

pray they will rest well see them all dragged by the water

wild rose dog’s blood pray all rest well

all that once was is gone from here whispered laments fall on deaf ears

washed clean of all but memory swollen in death and revery

wild rose dog’s blood pray all rest well

"Halo"

Halo was a strange one to write, because the lyrics kinda just came to me in a flurry and I wasn’t aware of what they meant until after the record was made. I sometimes suffer from debilitating panic attacks, and Halo ultimately became an ode to my wife, who in these moments has shown compassion and cared for me to the best of her ability. The song is about that paralyzing feeling of sickness that can render you temporarily dead to the world, but more importantly it’s about the debt that we owe to those who are there for us.

This is our attempt at a pop song. It’s the only song on the record with a chorus that repeats, and it loosely follows a verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula. Other than that, we got to stretch our limits a little bit by making this the fastest song we’ve written.

LYRICS

healer weakened by the dark

wild rose cloven from the torn gently as the wind had blown resting high upon your crown

frail in your arms aching from the warmth bound to remain here suffer evermore

suspended in this moment of loss every nerve severed and raw the door’s nailed shut chained to the bed i’m so tired my eyes shut again

halo

"The Diving Bell"

The mantra Breathe Deep anchors this song, returning multiple times to reinforce that claustrophobia. This song explores the peak of a true panic episode, catatonia, helplessness, etc. The feeling of being out-of-body, and calling out into the void for help.

Obviously this track is a sort of centerpiece for the album, musically. There are repeating phrases and motifs that let you feel like you’re hearing something new, but in actuality you’re just hearing a different version of something from earlier in the song. This track was meant to showcase the most extreme distance between the heavy and light elements of the band.

Pat Hills also did the dual guitar lead part with us, and that is one of my favorite things we’ve ever recorded.

LYRICS

breathe deep the only way out espaces me

sinking lower in a slow dive

lay here motionless alone

breathe deep in waters of purity lungfuls of what is to be

sinking in waters of purity lungfuls of what is to be

lay here in waters of purity lungfuls of what is to be

quiet weightless catatonic eyes unblinking mute and empty bury me in silt

the pain comes in distant waves echoes of what once were hidden wounds voices cast out through still air listen for me calling home

breathe deep

"Visions"

The lyrics to Visions were meant to give it finality, as the end of the album. It’s about accepting death, and the darkness that follows some of us throughout life. It’s also about holding on, even in our final moments. Asking to be “buried slowly”, to let us all have time to think and work through some shit before we have to call it a day.

This track is a sort of mashup between a spindly clean riff that King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard might use, and a powerful seasick drone that a band like Yob might use. Visions has a very chant-like, almost Gregorian element to the vocals, and when that’s laid over almost tribal drums, we knew we had something interesting on our hands. That sorta didgeridoo-like sound during the choruses is an electric bass with two strings being played with a bow. That was 100% Jacob’s idea and he executed it perfectly.

LYRICS

sickness floating in the eye of all men

fallen tears in the well poison the crumbling earth rose in bloom thorned red and gold baby��s breath like cancer, grows

fading light casts a glow over my face alone when I go bury me slowly when I go bury me slowly

visions

Shallows by chrome ghost

Reflection Pool by chrome ghost

Choir of the Low Spirits by chrome ghost

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[chrisodonline]

While I’m waiting on the ep and GoT, I’m going to type up some thoughts I’ve been sitting on for a while.

This will come as a surprise to absolutely no one whatsoever in the whole universe among multiple timelines and dimensions: I have a lot of G Callen feels.  I love Bartels, and I trust him, but I’m weary about the upcoming plot developments. (Now’s a good time to say this post will contain some spoilers.) 

I’m fully acknowledging my preferences are just that: my preferences. Again, I’m trying to be optimistic about stuff here. If all else, I know Bartels will give us some good moments and he knows how to write for the whole team and not lose a character (or two or three or four, etc.) to some OOC for convenience’s sake. It’s been lovely to watch him grow as a writer on this show, and I’ll probably be looking for his name in the future on any show he moves to when LA is over.  

I also know that storylines are not always a single-person decision. So, again, I’m not slighting anyone with this post.

When it comes to G Callen’s current story arcs or at least the plots that connect to him, I just keep feeling like they’re missing soooo many opportunities here. It seems the drama/tension is coming from getting lost in cycles and repeats -- no dad, now a dad, then maybe iffy dad presence, less iffy dad presence, okay, dad is gone, again! Same with the additional family and love life, which I’m not delving into. (And now with the potential addition -- a character whose last name is Reznikov and is played by an actor only 8 years’ COD’s junior, I mean. We’ll see,  but I think we’re all thinking the same thing, right?)

G getting to know his dad could have provided its own drama, outside of familial addition (though Jake is adorable!) -- or even with it. But we didn’t even see them together that much or hear about it until he was being taken away again. Didn’t even get a second Christmas mention or anything. (He got one the first year, though. But still. Made it more confusing.) I need to move on, I know.

I feel like the current POV on G’s backstory and character is getting less and less deep and more tunnel-vision-y. Yes, he never knew his name or family growing up, and it created an obsession in him.  But since S5 (and some implied moments in S7), one of the very obvious reasons for why it was an obsession is continually glossed over.  He didn’t just move from home to home. (We’re ignoring pre-”Rage” cannon here. Let me ignore it, please.) He had these horrible and traumatic experiences there. He didn’t get put in a basket and sent to live with royalty or a nice family. He had scarring experiences that permanently affected him. The name/family had to be a source of comfort and hope -- an answer that would get him out of his dire situation. He repressed the memory of his mother. He repressed losing Amy when they were separated. He went through hell, but he’s doing his damndest. (He also still very much has issues with touch and space, that is still there. See the interaction with Ochoa for a recent example.)

Nikita did what he thought was right. They all did. But it had horrible consequences for G. He should know what those consequences are. I get G’s not wanting to open up at that level with this person he just met. However, at some point (maybe in the living together storyline they dropped), I would have liked to see him address that with him. With anyone. G’s current arcs get him taking hit after hit of blame for things he has no control over. But he never really calls out the people who hurt him -- and, yes, abandoning in one way or another is what Nikita did and that’s a big hurt. He calls out Garrison a little here and there, but usually when other people are involved: he was involved in a case with a dying woman, G thought the right thing to do was to tell Alex the truth, G thought Garrison shouldn’t be putting exes in trunks and pretending to be a dad at a distance -- for Alex’s sake, etc. 

There was room for some conflict and tension without having to involve the evil Russians so soon. (Though, trust me, the scene of G’s trying to get him through the trapdoor and to freedom while saying “Dammit, Dad!” still breaks my heart to think about.)  It would have been something to also get Janvier back with. But I don’t think we’re going to get it, or anything close to it. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I’m getting a “rinse, repeat” vibe from the upcoming eps, as good as they might be. The storyline that was one of the biggest cruxes for so long deserves to have more, serious character payoffs. 

[sinceileftyoublog]

Supermilk Interview: Less Spikes, More Curves

Photo by Julie Ernie

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Jake Popyura’s used to doing things himself. The drummer and vocalist of supremely underrated British indie rock band Doe, who split up in 2019, records as Supermilk, a project initially intended to be a studio-only side project, albeit one rooted in Popyura’s longtime experience self-recording. A 2017 and 2019 EP were followed by a full-length, last March’s Death Is The Best Thing for You Now, which he finally planned to tour, adopting his bedroom approach to a band on stage. We all know what happened last March. For Popyura, the cancellation of live music for the foreseeable future, the still-recent dissolution of Doe, and a dry well of freelance web development projects (his day gig) could have combined to form a full-blown existential crisis. Yes, who am I to assume that didn’t happen, but from an outsider’s point of view, Popyura simply did what a lot of artists did with lockdown: write some songs.

Four by Three, Supermilk’s second LP (and first for Specialist Subject) marks a new path for Popyura both in context of Doe and Supermilk. Though there are still buzzing tunes with grim subject matter, Popyura took the opportunity to dive deep within himself. The album’s bookended with two lilting, personal tracks, first single and closer “Used to It” and vulnerable opener “Unsafe”. The latter as well as “Lifesaver” allow him to showcase his expressive, open vocals, giving more space than ever to his lyrics. Yes, some of the album’s best songs could have fit on previous, murder-oriented releases, like choppy, Heaven’s Gate-inspired burner “Swim” and a fuzz rock sequel to Death’s serial killer tale “Agony Anne”. But Four by Three has the most variety of any Supermilk or even Doe release, exemplary of Popyura’s ability to channel different corners of his mind.

I spoke with Popyura over Zoom in May from London, where he’s “currently living, trying not to go insane.” In addition to the record, he spoke about his love for horror films, craft beer, and VHS collecting, why he chooses to be open about his day job, and when he’ll start thinking about restarting the live incarnation of Supermilk. Read the conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: With either Doe or Supermilk, had you been used to the idea of putting out an album, touring it, and having that road-testing experience influence the process of the next one? Was the process for Four by Three different, having written and recorded it immediately after putting out Death Is The Best Thing for You Now?

Jake Popyura: I guess with Doe, that was the way they would usually work, in terms of touring it for as long as we could before getting started on another one. Naturally, the way you evolve as a band is through playing and touring relentlessly, and the adventures you have together influence the way you work together and impact subsequent releases. With Supermilk, I’ve been doing my own kind of “one man band” things for a long time. I’m an only child and started playing music really early, and my dad taught me to record music by myself on his four-track when I was quite young. Supermilk’s sort of another version of that one-man band thing. I’ve never really played live as a solo thing. Not having any outside influence, just doing it myself without having road testing, is something I’m used to, so it didn’t make much of a difference to the writing and recording of the new record.

The last record, my first full-length with Supermilk, we were working on a live band incarnation of it, which we were gonna tour and do some shows with. That had to be completely canceled because of COVID. That was the only hint of doing live stuff solo. It’s always been a self-contained thing, writing and recording on my own. The only difference this time is my friend Rich [Mandell] produced, mixed, and mastered Four by Three. So sadly, no road testing for Supermilk yet. Hopefully at some point in the future when we can stand shoulder to shoulder and people can be on stage again.

There was a period of time last year where I didn’t work, because I was previously freelance as a day job. I finished my last freelance contract just before COVID kicked off, and all the work dried up, and there were four months I couldn’t work or couldn’t find any work. It was all a bit dicey. So I thought, “I guess I’ll start [making a record.]” I was playing guitar a lot more and was indoors a lot more. It was a way to pass the time and naturally grew into intelligent songs. Towards the end of the year, I thought, “There might be a second record in this. I like all the stuff I’m doing, and there’s probably enough ideas in here for me to start forming it into a second album.” So it was almost accidentally born out of the situation.

SILY: How would you say it’s distinct from the first record?

JP: I’d say the first record is a lot more agitated, if that makes sense. It had a theme where a lot of the songs were about death and entitlement and the combination of death as a result of entitlement. Even though there were a lot of pop songs on it, it was bleak, angry, and fidgety. The fact that I recorded it by myself made it rough around the edges. This second one ended up being gentler, in a way, which was not intentional at all. But maybe it was because I was in a slightly different place from when I wrote the first one. 

I have a wide rage of influences. I grew up listening to a lot of punk and hardcore and still have a love of heavy, fast music and post-punk. Stuff like Devo, B-52s. There’s also a lot of gentle, ambient stuff that I love, and I don’t get a chance to or think to write in that style. Naturally, I ended up writing quite a few more personal, gentle, acoustic songs as well. The first time I’ve really kind of used acoustic [guitar] on any Supermilk stuff.

Nicola [Leel] from Doe, I’m looking after her acoustic guitar while she’s living in the States, and I ended up writing a lot of the songs on that, which helped me play around with full open chords that were jammy and gentle, instead of playing through fuzz pedals all the time. It’s got less spikes and more curves. A bit smoother around the edges. And the lyrics are a lot more personal too, referencing things going on in my life over the last year and a bit.

SILY: You still find room for both the gentler/more personal and the more raw. The former is immediately apparent on the opening track, “Unsafe”, but you still have sharp barbs of guitar on the second and third track, and “Fears” is really fuzzy. Then “Lifesaver” goes back to gentle. Did you try to sequence the album in a way that goes back and forth between different levels of noise?

JP: I’m always quite fussy about the track sequencing. Not so much anymore, but I used to have a thing where I couldn’t have songs together that were the exact same tempo or key. Then I realized that sometimes works against you, because it’s sometimes nice to have two songs in the same key that flow into each other. I used to be way more anal about that. I never write an album in sequence, but ones the songs are mixed, I spend a while putting them into different orders.

SILY: The song “Used To It” is a great closer, but you rarely see the closer issued as the first single. Why did you release it as the first taste of the record?

JP: The first single was really “Pelican Pete”, but we put it out with Specialist Subject before we announced the record because we were keen to get something out there. But with “Used To It”, it’s the most different compared to what I’ve done before. I really liked the idea of putting out a track that wasn’t entirely consistent with what I had done before. It’s one of the more personal songs on the record, too. It weaves a bit of a story and hits a few different places and notes than singles I had put out previously. It’s more chill and gentle. The most downtempo thing I’ve done. I thought it would be interesting instead of releasing the standard guitar ones to let people know, “Here’s something from the record you might not like, just to give you a heads up.”

SILY: Who or what is Pelican Pete?

JP: There’s a song on the first record called “Agony Anne”, a loose story of a serial killer called Anne who meets her victims through Tinder, or “insert name of dating app here.” The story is from the perspective of her soon-to-be victim, and in an attempt to spare their life, they say, “Hang on a second: You must be very lonely doing all this killing on your own. Maybe I can be the person to do this with you. You can spare my life and we can do this together and form a partnership.” “Pelican Pete” is the sequel to that song, and Pete is the person from “Agony Anne”. “Pelican Pete” is from the perspective of Anne, her saying, “This was a bad idea. You’ve gone rogue and are not abiding by my code. You’re gonna get us caught. I’m gonna have to kill you.”

SILY: That’s not a personal story, is it?

JP: I hope not, unless it’s channeling some sort of other life. On the whole, this album is a lot more personal and gentler than the first one, but there are still a few songs on here dealing with death. It would be unusual if there weren’t any songs like that on here, especially considering the time in which I wrote it, where there was a lot of death around us and gnarly shit happening. Also, I’m a big horror fan and have always been fascinated with the slightly more macabre side of things and weird interpersonal relationships that tie into those things as well. Especially when you have a pair of serial killers. It’s interesting to me, this love affair and bond can be tied up in such a sadistic way.

There’s a song on here loosely based on the Heaven’s Gate cult, which I’m also quite fascinated with. So I’d never allow myself to write a completely gentle album, even though it’s more gentle on the whole and definitely shows a softer side. But a big component of my personality remains in the uncomfortable, slightly infatuated with death arena, so it felt right to include those in there too.

SILY: You repeat “You will not be safe” on the first track. Does that go along with the macabre themes?

JP: Not really, actually. One through-line in a lot of the stuff I’ve written is about mental health and my own struggles with mental illness. That song’s more about the fear I have that all of my friends are one day gonna get up and say, “Why have we been friends with this person for so long?” When I actually speak to my other friends or people in general who suffer from generalized anxiety that comes with several different types of mental illness, that kind of fear that someone wakes up and realizes I’m a terrible person, is a common feeling that a lot of people have. “You will not be safe” and the line before that, “Some day you’ll believe me / Some day you’ll release me,” it’s some day you’ll believe me when I keep telling you I’m a piece of shit and not worth it. “You will not be safe” is like, “I’ll still be there--the stain of our friendship will still be on your life.” 

It sounds bleak, but I find this stuff quite funny as well. You’ve got to laugh about your own mental peculiarities. I find them amusing when talking to someone else about them. They’re just floating in my head, so me talking out loud about them is funny. [laughs]

SILY: What’s the purpose of the interlude, “Hale Bopp”, within the narrative of the record?

JP: That’s a portion of a song I made 10-11 years ago. I made a chiptune-esque project that was Nintendo-style bleeps and bloops, emulating a rock band sound made entirely in the computer. It’s a portion of that, been fucked with a little bit, pitch shifted and reversed. “The Skin”, the song I mentioned about Heaven’s Gate, is almost a fictionalized version of it from the point of view of the two last people standing in a suicide cult/pact, looking back over the events that have led up to that point and realizing they’ve got a choice to make. Hale-Bopp was the comet they believed [would transport them] if they took their own lives, if they timed it right and left their own “vehicles”, which is how they referred to their human bodies, that they’d be able to ride the comet back to their alien origins and join the people they left previously. [The song] sounds a bit spacey, and you can listen to that and imagine a bunch of people jumping to a comet and riding back to where they think they come from. Because of the way it’s been reversed and pitch-shifted, it feels melodic and hopeful but sad and tragic at the same time, which is fitting with the themes.

SILY: Are you a fan of contemporary horror films?

JP: I’m a fan of horror all across the decades. I usually reference 80′s horror because the style of it--when effects were starting to be used a lot more and there wasn’t quite as much CGI yet, so there was a gritty feel to the stuff that was happening even thought it was fake, because it was happening in the studio in frame with the actors. Including the gore or creature effects. It forced people to get creative. There’s something special and magical about watching that happen and how it’s captured by the filmmakers. But I’m a big fan of the genre on the whole.

SILY: You’ve shared in your bio that you’re also interested in craft brewing and that you have a day job as a web developer. I normally don’t see bands or band members including that in conjunction with information about the album. Why did you choose to share these things about yourself, whether they pertain to the music or not?

JP: I feel like the vast majority of my friends are musicians, or if not musicians, are involved in the arts in some way. I know one or two people who do music as their job. The eternal struggle, trying to find that right balance--especially if you’re doing music on a small indie level--you can have a fan base and people buying your music and big sold out shows and be established--but there’s still a good chance it’s not gonna be your living. Almost everyone I know subsidizes it with a day job. I thought it would be a nice thing to throw in there because it’s something to be proud of, too. The way most people I know do music, it’s essentially a job even though they don’t get paid for it. They dedicate just as much time to it and put just as much effort into it and care just as much about it than any other job, if not more so. Sometimes I feel like people are ashamed to say they don’t do music full time and can’t call it their job if not making a full-time living from it. It’s nice to get rid of that stigma and say, “We’re all in this together.” We all have to take other jobs we don’t like 100%. It’s good to be honest about it.

The homebrewing was just something to amuse myself. It made me laugh. It read almost like a dating profile or something. [laughs] I actually had another line in there I chose to take out, which is, “His best feature is his butt.” I don’t need to rub the fact that I’ve got a fantastic butt in people’s faces. They’ll figure that out.

SILY: What style of beer do you brew?

JP: I’m actually drinking one right now. I’ve just brewed a very nice stout, about 5.5%. Some nice chocolate, licoricey notes. Chocolate malt and roasted barley. I didn’t actually start brewing that long ago, but...I feel comfortable building my own recipes, putting in different yeasts, etc. There are a couple recipes I go to now that are my own that I can brew very quickly.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album title?

JP: I’m a VHS collector, which is supremely nerdy and very uncool. It’s funny, because in the VHS collecting community, there’s a running joke that hipsters are ruining the hobby because they’re making them too cool. Everybody just wants to buy these rare tapes and take pictures of them just to show off. It’s full of grumpy old guys. It’s such an uncool thing and clunky, redundant bit of technology that any self-respecting hipster probably wouldn’t be caught dead with VHS tapes. Regardless, I’m a big fan, and it lends itself to horror as a genre. They go hand in hand with the way a lot of people discovered horror for the first time, renting movies when they were kids. There’s something about the low-grade, crappy standard definition that lends itself to the grubby, slightly seedy nature of watching an old school horror movie, with scan lines and flickers and dodgy special effects. As a horror fan, it’s a match made in heaven. A lot of the tapes I have, there’s a series of movies colloquially known as the “video nasties.” In the 80′s, they were banned because the conservative government at the time whipped up a big moral panic about violent video tapes corrupting our nation’s youth. Evil Dead, and I Spit On Your Grave. Quite revered movies. Blood Feast. They ended up prosecuted in the UK. Video dealers were raided and their videos confiscated and burned. I’ve got some of the original tapes, and they’re highly sought after now.

This is a very long-winded tangent, but Four by Three is the aspect ratio of VHS. I called it that to loosely describe what the album was about in a nutshell to someone. Mostly from a personal place that follows my journey through the last year of things that have happened to me through the backdrop of the pandemic. The story follows a bit of a timeline, of the pandemic breaking out. One thing that kept me on the sane side at times was shutting myself away and getting very nerdy about this hobby. I had these online friendships to get nerdy about this specific thing, trading tapes and such. It helped take my mind off the absolute shitshow happening around us all. Gave me something to be excited and passionate about. That’s why the record [cover] is a video with tape being loaded into it.

SILY: Do you have any plans to play live?

JP: Not at the moment. I’ve got a lot of friends who have started booking shows already. Doe split up just prior to the pandemic, but if we were still a band, we’d probably be cautiously booking shows. But since Supermilk was never really a band, even though we formed something and had intentions of playing and touring, because it never came to proper fruition, it seems like there’s not as much pressure. It still is my thing, since I call the shots and play all the instruments. If you just want to write music and don’t fancy playing live, there’s not yet the expectation of you that you have to do that. Even though it’s very frustrating we can’t play music yet, and people have been put in a really difficult position and lost their livelihoods, it’s also been refreshing to know that people are able to create music without feeling the need to tour behind a record.

I think it will happen at some point, but I’m not making plans for now. I’m gonna enjoy the record coming out knowing I don’t need to worry too much about playing live for a little bit. When things are even more stable than they are at the moment...I think I want to stand back and watch from afar for a bit, and see what shows look like. Definitely at some point in the next 15 years.

SILY: Anything else next for you in the short or long term?

JP: I’m probably gonna watch some Netflix in a bit. Go to sleep, maybe. Eat a sandwich. Not at the same time.

I’m always writing songs. Whether those go into a pile I’ll use at some point, or whether I feel like I need to record a full-blown demo, I’ll never not be doing that, even if just purely for my own enjoyment and satisfaction. The fact that a few people might hear it is a bonus on top of that.

Continuing to be grateful I get to make music and that I’m alive.

SILY: Anything in particular you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately?

JP: There are two records in particular that came out this year that I really love that I’m finding any opportunity to plug. There’s a band called Fake Fruit that put out a self-titled record earlier this year. They’re from Oakland. They’re snarky post-punk. Every track on it is an absolute banger, exactly the kind of album I wanted to hear this year. There are bits and pieces of it that remind me of Bodega a bit, and that kind of end of post-punk with wry humor and slight wink-wink-nudge-nudge lyrics. The other record is Mr. Goblin’s Four People in an Elevator and One of Them is the Devil.  

I just started watching the Son of Sam documentary on Netflix [The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness], which is very good. Since I’ve been a small child, I’ve been a true crime, morbid weirdness fan. The only thing I’m annoyed about now is that it’s cool and a commodity. It’s widely accepted and great, but I miss telling people I’m into it and them looking at me in disgust. Gory horror movies still have that edge, where people say, “What’s wrong with you?”

[nanyoky]

hey gang guess who’s sick in bed and therefore not drinking but is definitely getting Fever Weird which is the next best thing really

No it’s not i’m sick as a dog and fucking miserable and probably not going to be as much fun as usual, full disclosure. Instead of sushi and cider like my usual wednesdays, i’m having tang and saltines so.... cheers.

also i want you all to know there were no working links so i had to wait for the official cw stream to go up like a pauper come on team it’s 2018 we’re better than this

mayor mac and the lodges are still in cahoots and now v knows why but you know who doesn’t yet? ME THAT’S WHO

oh wow so that’s penelope’s deal now

this is- in a darkly hilarious way- the photo negative of season one keller boys “no cruising guys today kiddo” “good GAWD dad”. “i may be a widow but i can still fucking PULL” “good GAWD mom”

i should not be laughing but oh my god CHERYL’S FACE jesus h christ

it’s veronica’s job to keep next gen riverdale chill “when the news breaks” ruh-roh

did archie say he’s going to start a band “of redheads”? so just- him on guitar and cheryl screaming into the mic like a kraken? that’s the only possibility i can envision

“are you upset?” “upset? ronnie, i’m crazy about you” that is a suburban white mom level of non-answer, archie- stop hanging out with alice cooper

RED ALERT KEVIN READS CLIVE BARKER NOVELS AND MY LOVE FOR HIM GROWS EVEN MORE

awkward betty and archie eye contact is almost as obvious as veronica’s stilted forced “we should probably all stay calm....” to the room at large

((the saltines went over pretty well so i think i’mma try some chicken nuggest pray for me team))

“my home is a dickensian nightmare- i won’t have my school turn into one too!” there is just... so much here. short version: cheryl’s origin story is that of the classic highschool bully: not in control of her home life, so enacts violent control over her school. in this way she has not changed. also jesus christ she’s so fucking dramatic i love her like this is in any way her problem but she’s automatically FURIOUS about it. but also just: wow cheryl hates poor people.

“of course. we’re fine.” kevin’s skeptical face (tm) is mint. top shelf. the good shit.

“jones- this is very lovecraftian, which i’m sure was the intention.” toni has jughead Figured Out, and i’m not sure he’s comfortable with that. 

*jake peralta voice* toni- first off your insinuating voice is way too high you sound like meryl streep in mama mia

oh my god sweetpea and fangs are just so dumb. so pretty and so dumb. just because you two wear leather jackets and flannel doesn’t mean you’re not dumb jocks. i’m calling it: sweetpea/reggie. can you imagine the angry makeouts???? so much angry repressed sexuality.

toni’s face of “oh god why are you morons celebrating” is some of the best we’ve seen of her so far my hopes are high for next gen serpent characterization with this plotline

WHAT DOES HIRAM NEED ALL THIS LAND FOR?!?!?!?!?!

POLLY MY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh wow yeah actress must have gotten a better gig or something and is only available for a cameo or two if a show as drama loving as RIVERDALE is keeping the birth of twins offscreen

THE LEADERS OF THE FARM?????? NO. NO. UNACCEPTABLE.

“juniper and dagwood” *betty face*

also yes polly you are in a cult get your babies and LEAVE. go hang out with smithers and joaquin whom i command are safe and happy and healthy wherever they are

“that’s mine by the way” FUCKIN COLD.

FINALLY someone other than the sheriff’s office is getting involved in how fucking SHADY this “small” town is

“is this even legal, what you’re asking me to do?” SMART, REASONABLE ARCHIE IS HERE TO STAY I LOVE SMART, REASONABLE ARCHIE WHO HAS LEARNED NOT TO JUST ACCEPT EVERYTHING ADULTS TELL HIM AT FACE VALUE

oh nevermind one seed of doubt and he’s back. poor boy. sweet boy. dumb boy.

oh nooooo freddddd

fp in his adorkable pop’s uniform smugly nudging about betty is a great moment everyone deserves an in-law that loves them like fp loves betty

please tell me “doctor beeker” is their actual science teacher’s name

we all know that finding the lost cooper brother is going to do ANYTHING but make alice a happier, more stable person right this is not going to end well

i mean even if he wasn’t a minor and using him to get information from a dangerous criminal was a profoundly shitty thing to do, the fbi could have picked literally anyone in town that would have been a better double agent because this is.... not a subtle conversation.

GREAT SONG CHOICE FOR THE SERPENTS’ INTRO TO RHS ((my mom had a tape with this song on it that she’d play to get me pumped for kindergarten))

okay i’m only going to say this once and then probably once more in the scorecard but: how much better would this mixed school plot have been if JOAQUIN WAS STILL IN TOWN?!?!?! the joy and comedy if he and kevin got back together?? the ANGST IF THEY DIDN’T?!?!?!?!?! i am CHEATED. LAID LOW. BITCHSLAPPED.

THAT BEING SAID: this is so good already. serpents swaggering in. veronica’s stepford forced cheer. cheryl and reggie STRUTTING to create conflict.

toni’s face upon gazing at cheryl once more is just so very gay. angry gay. furious that she has to see those mile long legs again.

“no one invited facist barbie to the party” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "ragamuffins” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh archie. so pure. so ineffective. as always.

did jughead just sidehug sweetpea away from conflict are they there now

i haven’t been paying enough attention to outfits so far but the placement of cheryl’s iconic spider broach not over her heart like a normal broach, but ON HER SHOULDER LIKE IT’S CRAWLING was a topnotch choice by wardrobe

again this is some classic response to sexual assault in the category of “well that’s unfortunate” until it’s about someone close to you come on archie you’re better than this.

which of course reinforces cheryl’s “me against the world” attitude because NO ONE SEEMS TO FUCKING CARE that she was attacked except veronica and the cats

“of the park avenue lodges” juggie. not helping. although i’d like to think jughead has mentioned veronica enough that toni knows this is just mild teasing between unlikely friends

josie’s awkward “now just... josie...” BROKE MY HEART

“joaquin and i used to hang out. talked about you all the time” OF COURSE HE FUCKING DID THAT POOR BOY WAS *ELIZA SCHUYLER VOICE* HELPLLLLLEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS. also i’m so happy joaquin has FRIENDS that hopefully still keep in touch please just someone check on him i miss my gay biker leo

godfuckingdammit reggie

“no more serpent jackets” okay- okay- i really need to ask the writers to go to a real high school just once. once. in what world would they have not made this a rule already???? i got in trouble in middleschool for wearing a bandana okay and i was a weird horse girl and LOOKED IT.

is josie hanging out with the core four+kevin because cheryl’s weirdness was scaring her off and the cats have cut all ties? has she lost her entire support network??? i’m worried about alpha kitty guys include her in stuff

jughead is #worked up and toni is having none of it thank god for toni

“i just need to borrow one of jason’s blazers” thank GOD they haven’t abandoned creepy ties between jason and archie. please someone share my half baked conspiracy theory that they were switched at birth and archie is the real blossom twin

juggie. i love you. i genuinely do. but you are being a prime fucking asshole right now. 

i was rolling my eyes so hard at jughead’s bullshit i almost missed sweetpea’s turtleneck which would have been a TRAGEDY

this separation between jughead’s attitude and the rest of the serpents is finally bringing to light what has bothered me about his plot this season so far. he’s so fucking desperate to fit into his role as the heir apparent to the gang but he doesn’t actually know shit about being in a gang and being in danger all the time. for all he grew up poor his has this really privileged attitude and i can’t wait for toni and co. to just tell him to sit down and shut up because believe it or not his actions have consequences

OH MY GOD VERONICA’S SOLUTION IS MAKEOVERS BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS

i was going to say “what they didn’t call ahead???” but of course not. cooper women do not call ahead

i mean we all knew this wasn’t going to go well and i think a lot of us thought it might be a possibility but...... umm.... heavens.... golly.... that.... that uh... looks like.... ayoungblondskeetulrich. .....jinkies.

oh god why do we have two prostitution plotlines in one episode why why is this a thing in riverdale now

on a lighter note they are hitting into my nostalgia funny bone hard this ep with the game in the whyte wurm being mortal combat ii it’s been years since i’ve gazed on those pixilated icons of my childhood

fp giving you advice on doing the smart thing instead of your kneejerk reaction to a shit situation is a real lowpoint i hope you realize that juggie

again, as heavy as it is, i’m glad they don’t shy away from the dreaded “R” bomb with this nick plotline. like characters seem hesitant to say it in a realistic way, but they do use it which keeps it from feeling like the creators trying to write around controversy

i like that they’re acknowledging it’s pretty shitty of archie to not care until it’s about veronica it feels like brewing #character development

BAHAHAHA TONI AND SWEETPEA LOOK ADORABLY HORRIBLE THIS PLOTLINE IS BLESSED

I mean don’t get me wrong, i love seeing nick get beat up as much as anyone else, but archie should have def talked to veronica before all that and she’s right to be upset

yess betty goin to rescue her bro and showing up in the suspiciously convenient nick of time i love it

archie being a good boy and clearing the air about the kiss before things get out of hand but also.... not mentioning the fbi agent after her dad is such a very riverdale thing to do

omg they’re making a d&d cover group i lied i’m bringing it up again HOW DARE THEY NOT HAVE JOAQUIN HERE FOR THIS WHEN HIS BOYFRIEND IS A CERTIFIED D&D NERD CAN YOU FUCKING IMAGINE THE BANTER

BLOSSOMS JESUS H CHRIST

god this poor lost cooper boy this is the most awkward situation ever because you know alice and hal are not going to handle this well and you know betty is going to try too hard to make it work and you know chic is probably involved in some stuff that will be Plot (tm) later on and this is just A Lot

archie.....

chic..... (we’re supposed to find this threatening, but psych, chic is noticing all the suspiciously different features they have almost like they might be half siblings instead of full siblings.....)

Episode Scorecard:

# of Sick Beat Drop Editing Sequences: None

Do I Still Miss Joaquin: Do i have to fucking elaborate YES okay goddammit someone better be working on a “joaquin never left” au to fit in with this serpents at rhs plot as we speak or i will be MOST CROSS.

Episode Hair MVP: Toni’s was looking particularly nice today

Episode Outfit MVP: sweetpea’s turtleneck. hands down. but with a close second being the placement of cheryl’s spider.

Episode Cast/Crew Shoutout: soundtrack was better than it has been this season- good choices there.

[vexmagarchive-blog]

Thrill Touch continues to produce music that is original and trendless in a town that was very much only for the hardcore and ska scene. To explain why we at Vex undoubtedly enjoy Thrill Touch from the guitar riffs to the album artwork to the performances the band members put on for us, would be difficult for me to cover all in this one article, but we’re going to try.

First let me introduce them to you; Bianca (Bee) Ascencio on drums, the only girl in the group who keeps you on your feet during a performance as she quickly throws her percussion mallets into the air and switches them for drumsticks in the course of a half-second, Michael Gross doing vocals and guitar all while delivering the songs very theatrically with one hand to the sky – sometimes his whole body vibrating with the music, and Jake Irvin playing the bass while bowing his head, occasionally exchanging instruments, (I’ve honestly never seen multitasking look so easy) as he rhythmically jams out to the art him and his friends have created. They also include the keys and the glockenspiel, and I’ve seen them all take a go at these instruments. I think my favorite part of their shows is seeing them interact with each other, the chemistry they all share is undeniably charming and genuine. Thrill Touch hits a sweet spot of feminine and masculine energy without even trying to do so.

Their music fits no genre except maybe ‘alternative rock’, but only by the exact definition. They have an edgier and unique sound than most music today without being completely unusual. They’re eccentric in the best way possible. In 2014 they came out with the album ‘Thrill Touch’ with eight original songs. I could sit here and explain to you why each song individually is a piece of art, but that would consist of eight long paragraphs of me breaking down and dissecting them and saying things like why it was genius for them to bounce between borderline harsh noise with drum and guitar in the back to a calmer jazzier beat in track 6 ‘Harshness of the Sun’. So instead the standout tracks where ‘Freeway Overpass’, ‘Dancer for the Prey’, and ‘Trauma’ in that order. Trauma would have definitely been at the top spot in this album if it was longer and had lyrics.

Thrill Touch is the product of three friends who are extremely talented as they are ambitious, that love each other, art, and music. They themselves and the music they produce is unlike anything else. We got to sit down with the three of them and ask about their journey and what’s next for them as a group.

How did the current lineup of Thrill Touch come to be?

“There was a show my friend Brian Santizo was putting on, it was Festizo 2011 …” Michael starts, “And he needed bands, so he told me to put together a band … so I got together a band. I put out a Facebook status … I got Kevin Miller and his friend Tabitha Misso …. Bee responded. I had initially thought of asking her … I’m glad she responded to the status.” “It was like a craigslist advertisement,” Bee laughs. Tabitha Misso ended up not working out as a bassist, however the band continued with two guitarist (Michael and Kevin) and a drummer (Bee). Michael doesn’t recall at what point they decided that they really did need a basisst, “… once Jake came on it was pretty magical.” The band sent Jake really bad recordings they had done with a label called ‘Turbo Chicken’. After, Jake had fully written bass lines for each of the songs for their first practice together. “I wanted to be ready!” Jake smiles. Michael notes that it showed him that Jake was not only excited to join, but also serious about being part of the band. “Was that the practice were we all wore pajamas?” Bee thinks back. “Yeah it was pajama jam!” Jake chimes. They recall the funny story about Jake being hesitant to wear pajamas to his first Thrill Touch practice in fear of being hazed. Eventually Kevin Miller also stopped playing in Thrill Touch, and then there were three.

How would you say that your sound is evolving?

“Well,” Jake starts in, “It’s really nice just to have us three.” They agree that it’s easier to concentrate on what they’re good at and what they need to fill in. With just three people they have an easier time deciding which direction the song will take. “Our sound evolving is really based on just deciding that three people is enough … because then you don’t have all the colors of the rainbow you have to work with.” Michael mentions how they’ve only been back together making music for about a year, so the question is still a little vague to them. “We don’t restrict ourselves,” Bee says, “And we’re not afraid to explore sounds.” They agree that their sound has a lot to do with trusting each other. They mention one way they began exploring is that they’re dropping their usual instruments for others they don’t normally play.

If 2011 TT met 2017 TT would they get along?

“I think I wouldn’t like me,” Michael laughs a little, “But that’s personal.” Bee thinks that they’d get along, “We still play songs from 2011 … we still listen to the same type of music.”

“I think if we saw them we’d be like ‘aw they’re cute’,” Jake says.

 And if they had their younger perspective meeting the present them? “I’d be like ‘ANOTHER GIRL DRUMMER?!’” Bee says. Jake says that he’d be impressed with how loud only three people could be. Michael says that he probably would have thought that his lyrics were corny, but that he might always think his lyrics are corny.

What is each of your favorite songs off of the new EP and why?

Quickly Bee and Jake agree on ‘On a Boat to carry us Home’. Michael says his is ‘Right’. Jake and Bee like ‘On a Boat to carry us Home’ because of the upbeat energy of the song. Michael shares that he believes ‘Right’ carries the same energy, but a little more subtly. He talks about Jake’s bass playing in the song and how he managed to squeeze in every subtle change of notes while playing.

Which songs are your favorite songs to perform and why?

“It always changes for me,” Jake says. He mentions that he liked playing ‘Oscillations’ when he came back from New York. He explains that it has a lot to do with the memories the songs bring him like writing his bass lines with Michael. “A lot of nostalgia is involved,” Jake says, “But it changes … there are other songs that I like playing more now.” “I can give a definite answer,” Michael says, “…it’s ‘Right’.” He explains how the guitar can be heavy – metaphorically! He says that he never thought the guitar was that interesting and that he never had the intent of playing the guitar. So with ‘Right’ he can interact more with the crowd and he enjoys playing the keyboard. “…my musicality isn’t in an instrument,” Michael says. Bee without hesitation answers, ’Harshness of the Sun’, and Jake agrees. She explains how her way of playing the drums was one way before that song and how that song challenged her to play five different ways. “I felt like at that moment I was like ‘this is how I’m going to drum for now on and forever,” she smiles, “… no matter what I write it has to be as dynamic and different as I did for ‘Harshness’.”  

Trauma l and ll are both written for your friend John, do you guys have any other songs that are written for or about friends?

Michael explains that no songs are directly written for anyone in My God Is Nothing To Run Away From, but that in the past he has written songs for his best friend Carlos. He said that he wanted to express a lot of tender feelings he had for him and a lot of anger at points. ‘Oscillations’ was written for him and the difficulties he and Michael went through because of a boyfriend Carlos was dating at the time. “It goes ‘Been here so long, pardon my intrusion’ – it’s sort of a sarcastic song …” Michael starts explaining the lyrics, “ … when you’re friends with someone and they find someone in their life to sort of …not replace you, but to get the sort of thing that they’re not getting from you it’s kind of a big deal, you know?”  He explains that as young people it’s something we have to deal with; people finding other things in people that they can’t get from you. “It sounds like I’m in love with guy, but I am,” Michael laughs. The remainder of the songs he says are just general observations of people and society.

Can you walk us through a typical Thrill Touch practice?

“Lotta smoke breaks,” Jake laughs. “Show up to my house,” Bee says, “Hug and kiss each other.” “That takes twenty minutes,” Michael adds. “I usually show them stuff, like if I cleaned the garage I’m like ‘Look at this clean garage, guys!’ … and then we’re like ‘Do we want to eat first and then set up or set up first and then eat?’ And then we’re like ‘We should set up first.” “And then we grudgingly set up,” Jake says, “… and then we’re like ‘good job guys’.” “Taco Bell break!” Bee sings. “If Taco Bell wants to sponsor us now is the time,” Jake says. And then they jam for SEVEN HOURS – with small smoke breaks in between. They will practice a certain part of a song for twenty minutes, the entire band claiming that their phones are filled with loop recordings. “A lot of times those parts will just end up being a small part of the song,” Michael says.

Do you see touring in the near future?

“I want to,” Jake says with stars in his eyes. Michael with the same starry eyes, “I want to, too…. But honestly probably not.” They agree that touring won’t be happening anytime soon, but that they will eventually. They talk about how they have a lot going on, but then Michael says, “Well maybe we can just pile it on a weekend.” “Maybe next summer,” Bee says. She explains how time and funds are just not on their side.

You have been described as beautifully orchestrated chaos, would you say that’s true?

They all become joyfully confused and demand to know who said that. “That’s such a nice compliment,” Jake says. “That’s awesome,” Bee agrees. “That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to say,” Michael smiles. Bee explains how it is a compliment because she’s always being described as a heavy drummer though she doesn’t listen to heavy music herself. In her heart and in her mind she feels as though her music is chaos.

All photography by Hannah Rosabal and interview conducted by Morning Roman. 

[clippedwingsmusic]

Interview with La Bouquet

We had the honor of speaking with Bryan Sammis from La Bouquet about their latest single, ‘Loser Baby’ and their upcoming album!

What made you decide to keep ‘Loser Baby’ from your previous project (Olivver the Kid)?

‘Loser Baby’ is a song that we’ve had for a long time that we never put out, but would play at every Olivver the Kid show. If you could kind of trace back to the start of La Bouquet, it was probably when we wrote that song, even though we wrote that song before any Olivver the Kid songs. That was really the first time that Jake and I really collaborated heavy on a song since high school. We had jammed in high school and tried to make songs, but fast forward 5 or 6 years and we made that song and just really loved it. Jake is so good at guitar and writes really good riffs that he would send me, so he sent me this riff and it was super long. I just said ‘Hey, what if we cut this in half and put some drums over it.’. We always wanted to release it, and it’s kind of a blessing that we didn’t finish it before because it would’ve come out as an Olivver the Kid song and we wouldn’t have been able to play it now. I think ‘Loser Baby’ is really symbolic of where La Bouquet started. The 2 songs that are out right now, ‘Loser Baby’ was the first song that we’d ever written, and ‘Loveless’ is the second to last that we wrote for our first album. It was important to keep that song to kind of show where it all started. It’s cool for the fans that have been there through Olivver the Kid because the song is so much better now. Every night when we would play it, the lyrics would change. They were never solidified, so during the 2nd verse every night I was kind of winging it. Now, I’m really glad that we took our time with it because the lyrics, production, song structure, everything is so much better. The whole pre-chorus used to be ‘I’ve been saved’ over and over again and one day i just thought ‘Wow what a cop out. I could say so much more here that’s more important to the message of the song.’

Did you keep the same instrumentation/set up from your last project? Why/why not?

Not really. The instrumentation in Olivver the Kid jumped around with DJ’s, guitars, 4 people, 6 people, etc. Now we have Jake and Guy on guitar, Justin bass, keyboard, and trumpet, Garrett who plays drums, and me who plays guitar, has a soundboard, and sings. I don’t have 2 mics anymore, most of the reason why I had 2 mics during Olivver the Kid was because I needed to have a mic I could walk around with because it was a pop show. But with La Bouquet that’s not really the vibe. I think eventually when we’re playing headlining sets and have longer sets to play, it would be cool. For now I have 1 mic and I just keep it in place- which is a little more classic to me. I was watching old videos of The Cure and Robert Smith has his mic in place and just stands there, and I think that just fits our vibe more. That was part of why we changed the project too, I couldn’t picture myself being 60 years old doing a pop show. It needed to change so I could be able to like this music when I was 6 and like it when I was 60.

The general vibes of your released music so far are kind of somber, is that the mindset that you’re in when you write? Or is that kind of feel just going to be what we hear in your upcoming album?

My main lyrical idols are Morrissey and Jesse Lacey, and their general vibes are kind of on the somber side. And for me, I don’t get any sort of catharsis from writing happy songs and happy lyrics and just acting like my whole life is great. Music is like another person for me, it’s like my therapist. Music helps me get over stuff, so once I put something on a song, I can leave it there and I don’t have to carry it with me anymore. A lot of our record is upbeat and dance-y in terms of instrumentation but the lyrical content is somewhere else. The first track on the album, called ‘Heavenly’, actually picks up from the last song on the last Olivver the Kid EP, ‘Hell’. It’s the antithesis of the past track, and talks about how both of us are better off without each other. That track isn’t too somber, but the feel of the album as a whole is pretty sad. We already have songs for the next album, and those are a little less sad and a little more story-telling. Making this first album, that was just kind of the headspace that we were in. And the artists that we identify with aren’t generally happy either, like Bon Iver, Father John Misty, and Iron & Wine.

In your residency that just wrapped up, you shared the stage with your friends Rad Horror, Dark Waves, and Field Medic. Is there possibly a tour in the works with any of those artists?

Yeah, we’d love to! I personally hand-picked all of the bands that we played with during our residency and everyone that I picked are friends of mine, but all made an amazing show. Field Medic, into Rad Horror, into La Bouquet is a very eclectic show, and that’s what ties us all together. And the same could be said with all of the nights of the residency. If tomorrow someone asked us to do a headline tour, I would definitely ask those bands to be on it, we just all aren’t at that point right now.

What made you want to release ‘Loveless’ and ‘Loser Baby’ on a 7”? How has/does vinyl fit into your life as both a creator and consumer?

We wanted to do this because as we were thinking about merch, we wanted to make something cool that you could have forever. For our type of music it just kind of fits the vibe more than hats or pins. And we all listen to vinyl a lot, our music sounds good on vinyl, and it’s just a really cool thing to have. I have a collection of records from the 60s and 70s and I still have them and listen to them. To think that someone might have our vinyl in their house for that long is pretty sweet. We have 500 of them, and we’ll hopefully be getting them online soon since we don’t have a lot of shows coming up.

What is 1 thing that fans can expect from your forthcoming album, and 1 thing (can be song or otherwise) that they should keep an eye out for?

It has a little bit of everything in it, just like how I didn’t box Olivver the Kid into a certain genre. A big part of the album for me is the sequencing; how the songs flow into each other and writing songs to fill a gap or a vibe that the album didn’t have. It starts out energetic in the first 4 songs, then goes into a more somber part of the record, then in the latter half we have 3 more bangers in a row, and end it with 2 more somber songs. It takes you everywhere, from ‘Loveless’, to ‘Loser Baby’, to the last track which is acoustic. Daniel Bronstein and I produced the album, but we also co-wrote songs with Dark Waves and Michael Keenan, so we have influences from all genres. Those are the kind of things that everyone can expect and lookout for.

Your music video for ‘Loveless’ is a fairly simple setup but has you and Jake imposed in multiple outfits and playing different instruments. are you going to keep going with the simpler videos, or possibly revert back to the more intricate and thought provoking videos that you’ve done in the past?

Definitely! We wanted this first one to be simple. We’d never done a performance video, and with the change from the last project, we wanted to set the vibe. We wanted people to understand the aesthetic of the project from this first video. It’s a little more new wave-y, so we wanted ‘Loveless’ to be an introduction to that. We have a video that we’re working on right now, and the idea of it is more along the lines of Olivver the Kid stuff. For all of the Olivver the Kid videos, they were my ideas, but now with La Bouquet I want to start co-directing the videos. The song that the video will be for will probably be the main single for the album once we have set plans of when it’ll be put out. Unfortunately, unless you’re a big artist, music videos won’t really get you anywhere. They won’t really have an impact. They mean a lot to me creatively, and they’re amazing things to have and look back on, but for smaller artists, you’re not going to be propelled forward in your career by a music video. I don’t think there was any sort of gain from me making a music video for ‘Loveless’. The impact was very low because everyone who saw it was probably already a fan.

Fans have coined you and Jake as the ‘Dads of Sad’, so give us your best dad advice for fans who are going to start living their lives out to La Bouquet.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! That’s a very dad thing to say, right? But honestly, expect to fail. Failure is a good thing. The people who have only had success are the ones that explode when things start to go wrong. I’ve been making music for a while now and I’ve seen a lot of good things happen, but I’ve also been through a lot of bad things too. It kind of hardens you and helps you move forward with whatever you’re passionate about. When I split with my old band, it sucked, but I could take it 1 of 2 ways. A lot of people would’ve just given up, gotten a new job, and called it a day, but I took what I learned and applied it towards something else. After that, ending Olivver the Kid was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make, but I had to do it because I knew that I wouldn’t feel fulfilled in 40 years from just doing the same thing. Be comfortable with the idea of failure, and be your biggest supporter.

https://rosesinthegraveyard.com/

Written by Ashton Carr

[iris-sistibly]

4R’s: Encantadia Season 2 (Feb. 14, 2017 episode review)

Episode 152

Recap:

The beginning of a new terror

Ether took Avria and Andorra back to the Etherian palace, in addition to that, Ether summoned back Amarro, Asval and Lila Sari whom Ether had put to “sleep” for many years. The three swore loyalty to Avria and was ready to follow her orders. Avria knew soon their enemies will discover Etheria thus they have to act now, for their first task, Avria ordered the three and Andorra to form an army by gathering encantados who will fight on their side. The four immediately went on their way, Amarro noticed how different Lila Sari was from before, Amarro guessed that Lila Sari must have gotten over the loss of her daughter. To his surprise Lila Sari no longer remembers having a daughter and had no idea what Amarro was talking. When Lila Sari left, Andorra revealed that Ether must have wiped out Lila Sari’s past and changed her completely, the reason why she can’t remember her daughter. Along the way, they met a group of bandidos. The encantados have no idea who they were and fought Lila Sari’s group. Using Andorra’s power to control the mind of anyone, they have successfully turned the bandidos to their side, Etherians are indeed much worse than Hathors.

In search for answers

Luna went back to their tribe and told everyone about the encantadas who look just like her, upon suspecting that these encantadas might be diwatas, Helgad scolded Luna for leaving without her knowledge and forbid her to go anywhere for the mean time, she was relieved though that Luna didn’t show up to the encantadas and ran away instead. Helgad warned her about the dangers they could possibly encounter from meeting other encantados which is why it is much safer to stick with their fellow nymfas. That night, the nymfas noticed the Algonas being wide awake and restless, Luna became worried and wanted to investigate but Helgad forbid her, if there is really something wrong then the more they shouldn’t leave the mountains, Helgad told everyone including Gilas to go home. Being young, impulsive, and curious just like a typical diwani, Luna couldn’t shake off the many questions in her mind, Helgad let her ask what she wants to know but only one question a day. First thing she wanted to know was the truth about herself, Luna knew she wasn’t a nymfa, it was obvious from the way she looks. She asked Helgad who she really was and what race she truly belongs to, still, Helgad refused to answer her. Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Luna decided to sneak out but was caught by Gilas, Luna asked him not to tell anyone especially her mother, Gilas won’t tell unless she lets him tag along, refusing to take “no” for an answer, Luna had no choice but to leave with Gilas.

A warning from pashneas

The loud howling and cries of the pashneas were heard in all of Encantadia, Ybrahim noticed the strange occurrence and ordered a group of Sapirian soldiers to investigate. The pashneas were also heard even in Lireo, Lira became worried and decided to investigate, Mira was initially hesitant, but her curiosity was just as strong as Lira’s so they decided to leave together. Along the way, Lira and Mira came across a group of Sapirian guards and informed the young sang’gres about the pashneas. They saw Awoo who was been very anxious, Lira calmed him down and asked him what was going on. Thanks to Lira’s Sapirian heritage, she has learned to use another innate ability of hers to communicate with animals like Alena and Danaya. Awoo told Lira that the animals were sensing danger, that’s why they were all afraid. They couldn’t tell what kind of danger it was, but it was something the sang’gres should heed and immediately tell the elders. Lira and Mira hurriedly went back to Lireo were they were welcomed by their Ashti Hara Danaya and Pirena who were obviously unhappy about the youngsters leaving without permission. Mira and Lira apologized and explained the reason why they decided to investigate on their own and revealed Awoo’s warning. Aquil came and proved that the young sang’gres were telling the truth and revealed what he discovered, while he was out in the woods to hunt, he noticed that the pashneas were uneasy and decided to find out the reason why, and then he found the answer, in the north was a newly built palace, a palace he has never seen before, and it seemed like it rose from the earth. Pirena and Danaya decided to go there with Aquil, Mira and Lira wanted to go as well but the elders did not allow them despite of Mira’s reasoning that it would be a learning experience for them, Pirena bluffed and told them that she and Lira should stay behind and guard the palace in case anyone tries to invade. An argument with Pirena was pointless, the youngsters had no choice but to stay, Pirena, Danaya and Aquil went on their way. Aquil took them to the place, Danaya and Pirena were petrified at the sight of the palace, the sisters knew something was indeed stirring and they have a feeling that it was not good.

Raves: 💎 I can’t really consider this as a rave but I wouldn’t call this a rant either so…whatever! I don’t know about you guys but Etheria’s rise is the only thing that excites me this week, like I know this arc focuses on Etheria but…no other interesting sub plots? I find Deshna’s side story too cliché to look forward to—and I mean the part of her self discovery although I am really curious of the role she’s going to play in this season. Same old, same old pabebe romance between Inah and Jake, and although it’s not bad, it’s just that it’s nothing new to me which is why I’m not really into their love team as of now.

👻 Wow! I must say Alfred and Diana still really has IT. Their scene together reminds me so much of DanQuil 2005 and my fan girl heart couldn’t be more happier rn. LilaTano what? Chos! Hahahahaha! Honestly I don’t mind, I have decided to multiship Lila Sari with Hitano and Amarro just because 😂

Rants: 🙄 This isn’t related to tonight’s episode but I am definitely NOT looking forward for the next ep after seeing the teaser, like dude, I know GabRu has chemistry outside Encantadia and I admit they look cute together, but GabRu as AleBarro is just one hell of a big NO. The so-called AleBarro reunion might be a way to make Odessa’s ivtre possessing Alena’s body become more sensible (assuming my suspicion is correct) but I am NOT liking it, it was hinted in the previous episode that Avria is going to use the sisters’ “fatal flaws” to win against them but I am just not looking forward to it, I hate that Alena 1.0 made a come back and I don’t care of what’s the whole purpose of this, when I don’t like it, I don’t like it regardless of the reasons. Please lang maawa kayo kay Alena, stop making her seem like she can’t live without romance, she’s so much more than that. Or I would rather go for Odessa possessing Alena, yaman din lamang na this arc seems to be a sanib-serye, and let Alena fight Odessa head to head, Alena will win against Odessa, and then she’ll come to realize that she no longer feel the same for Ybrahim in the end. The problem with Alena is that she’s too drawn in the past, she’s the type that when she gets hurt especially by someone she loves, she’ll remember that forever which leads to the theory that she hasn’t really forgiven Ybrahim, she’s in denial that she can’t let go of the past even if they already had a closure a long time ago. Otherwise, if she has really forgiven Ybrahim, then all the pain should have been gone, and that she’s not afraid of facing her ex-lover right? Here we thought Alena has finally leveled up, but surprise surprise, Alena 2.0 is “half-cooked,” so are Danaya and Pirena and the rest of the characters, except Lira and Mira (hopefully) who will be the keys to bring out the real 2.0 versions of their parents and Ashtis.

🤔 Is it just me or are they giving us a set of average and not-so-eventful set of episodes this week?

Best performers for this episode: Solenn Heussaff ⚜ Alfred Vargas ⛓ Diana Zubiri 🕷

Rating: 7 out of 10💎s (I’m sorry but this episode is so-so)

Photo credits: From Twitter: @GMAEncantadia (Encantadia 2016-2017 official twitter acct) @gmanetwork (GMA network); official website: gmanetwork.com @GMADrama (GMA Drama)

From Facebook: Encantadia 2016

Video credits: GMA Network via YouTube & dailymotion

[onestowatch]

Songs For Girls, John Mayer, & Fan Stories: A Q&A With LANY Before They Hit The Road

Pictured: Jake, Paul, Les in our studio office

Los Angeles-based trio LANY is following up their rookie years with some major moves this 2017. Friends Paul Jason Klein (lead vocals), Les Priest (keyboard and guitar) and Jake Goss (drums) will hit the road with John Mayer for seven arena shows in April, followed by a headlining U.S.  tour through the end of May. The tour begins on April 24 in Sacramento, CA, and finds the band hitting markets outside of your typical big cities. 

The trio has also announced their eagerly-awaited debut album, LANY, set for a June 30 release. If the band’s EPs are any indication, the album should be stellar. Fans who pre-order the album will be treated to the brand new song "Good Girls,” a catchy synth-driven track that offers some serious dreamy disco vibes. Pre-order the LANY record here.

When we sat down to interview LANY, we were happily surprised to discover just how humble the guys are, considering their massively growing and highly devoted fan base. Read below to get the scoop on the trio’s background, their life on tour, and what we can expect when they hit the stage on the second leg of the kinda tour. Tickets are available here.

OTW: Do you remember a specific moment when you had a lightbulb moment that music was your calling?

LANY (Paul): My mom put me in piano lessons at the age of 5, so I was classically trained all the way through high school for like 13 years. I didn’t want to do music because classical piano was not that fun--it was like a rule in the house. But then I got into high school, and I started writing songs about this girl I really liked, and I think that that was kind of when I realized, “Oh this is fun to write my own stuff.”

(Jake): For me it was that movie, That Thing You Do. When I was younger, I took piano lessons for a few years with my brother, but I stopped, but then I saw That Thing You Do, and I wanted to play drums and just be in bands. That kind of jumpstarted everything for me, that movie.

(Les): For me, I grew up in a very musical family but I never knew what my place was going to be in music. I knew I wanted to do something musical, but when I went to college, I was trying to do commercial voice and the school that we went to, Belmont, was like “You know, I don’t know if commercial voice is your thing, maybe you should try music production,” [Laughs] And I was like, alright.

OTW: You guys have toured with a bunch of people in the past--Troye Sivan, Halsey, about to go with John Mayer. How is the transition between being the opener and being the main act?

LANY (Paul): We spent like a year being a support act, and you kind of want to go out there and, you know, give it to them. Yeah! But then there’s no expectations when you’re a supporting act, so it’s kind of easy in that sense. You’re just like, “Let’s just go”--you’ve got nothing to lose almost. 

And then you’re like “Oh, people spent money to see us, that’s a thing.” It changes the game; it changes the way of what you’re doing. You get way more thoughtful about your performance and even your production and how things feel when someone comes to a LANY show.

OTW: Do you think it’s given you more confidence on stage?

LANY (Paul): I don’t know if confidence is the word. It’s just a challenge, you know? And when you’re challenged, you grow and you become better. We brought three 6’x6’ LED screens to the last tour. That was awesome. Now it’s like, not necessarily like how can we top that but like, let’s do something different. How do we change it and evolve and bring something fun to this tour? It’s a very thought-provoking and challenging thing.

(Les): That’s the thing about headlining, there’s so many parts to it, and it is more work and all that and it’s a fun challenge. Opening is just like, “Okay we’ve got 30 minutes, let’s just go crush it.” But the headline stuff’s fun because there’s just so much that goes into it.

OTW: Can you give us a little visual description of what someone standing in the crowd will see on this next tour?

LANY (Paul): I can’t because we are in rehearsals right now, and we just loaded the lights into the rehearsal space yesterday to kind of figure out what we’re going to do. I do want there to be a little bit more mystery to the show, so when you’re playing in front of an 18-foot LED wall divided in three, it kind of illuminates everything and everyone, and it’s very much like, “Oh wow.” But now, I want there to be more shadows and more of a mysterious vibe.

OTW: Have you guys met John Mayer yet?

LANY (Paul): I mean I have, but not. It was a while ago and has absolutely nothing to do with this situation [laughs].

OTW: How do you imagine he’ll be like?

LANY (Paul): Jake has this funny joke that I am obsessed and in love with John Mayer but I also love Pino [Palladino] and his band. We are huge fans of everybody that’s going to be on that stage, so we joke about like if Steve walks by Jake and is like …[to Jake] you do it, it’s funnier!

(Jake): Steve’s the drummer. He’s one of the best drummers in the world. I’m going into it expecting that they’re never going to speak to me; they don’t have to. But I imagine if he comes up to me, and he’s like, “I just want you to know, find a new line of work. Because you suck.” And then I’ll just be like, “Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak to me.”

OTW: [Laughs] You’re preparing for that?

LANY (Jake): That’s pretty much it. Yeah, that’s how stoked we are to be there. Just being able to watch that level of talent.

(Paul): Being surrounded by that, I hope that we just pick up on stuff that we don’t even realize, even the way they walk and talk. I’m dead serious--these guys are the greatest to ever do it. I mean John Mayer is the best guitar player in pop music.

(Jake): I think we’ll be a different band after these 7 shows. It’s going to be crazy.

(Paul): So just to see how they talk and interact with each other and walk on stage, off stage, backstage, that kind of swagger--I hope that just rubs off on us, and we can learn and rise. You always rise or fall to what you’re surrounded by, so we’re going to be the worst in the room, and it’s going to be awesome! 

OTW: Any funny or particular tour antics that each of you have? You can talk about each other.  

LANY (Paul): Jake’s the comedian of the band.

(Paul): We don’t have anything that we do that regular dudes don’t. We’re funny. Oh yeah, we have a guy named Steve who kind of oversees our merch on tour, and he’s got this Google document that gives us every coffee shop pretty much in the world. So he’ll open it up, and we’ll be in like Oslo, Norway, and he’s like, “Alright, here are the top 5 coffee shops.”

(Les): Well, we’re all still asleep, but he’s texting us and he’s like, “When you guys wake up…”

(Paul): Like, I’m bringing my tennis racket on tour, and he likes to play tennis, so I’m like, “Do you have a tennis doc? So you can find the courts?”

OTW: [Laughs] Wow, amazing. In general, what would you say each band member’s role is--not musically, but in the group dynamic?

LANY (Paul): Jake’s the comedian.

(Jake): I just try to keep the smiles going. Keep the vibe high.

(Les): I probably worry the most, and stress the most; he will level me out.

(Paul): Les will level us out too. Les is really quiet.

(Jake): We also get sucked into passion and vision, and Les is just like, our wisdom grandfather.

OTW:  Good balance!

LANY (Paul): He can also fix everything.

(Jake): if there’s anything wrong, we’re just like, go to Les, and he can handle it. We tried to unpack the van once without Les, and it was like we had to get four bands together, because we didn’t know how to do Tetris.

OTW: What has been the craziest fan experience you’ve had (on tour or in general)?

LANY (Jake): Last tour we’ve had people starting to jump on stage.

(Les): When we played Salt Lake this last time, we had some people take time lapse videos of people like rushing into the venue. I thought that was pretty wild; they were just like running over each other.

(Paul): It was fun man--we have some fun people that come to our shows. There is no trying to be pretentious or too cool for school. People just lose their minds at our shows. And it’s fun. Because we’re losing our minds with them, you know? Like we feed off each other.

(Jake): I remember one show, it was in Minneapolis, when Halsey came out, but…was there a barricade at that one?

(Paul): No, there wasn’t a barricade, and we’re playing on like a 2-foot stage. I would be playing “Made in Hollywood,” and people would just be ripping out their hair, like it was just…

(Jake): I remember we were playing “Made in Hollywood,” and this girl was just getting squashed, and she was crying. I was trying to get one of the security guards, and I was like “Can you help this girl?” Because she was hurting, and I stopped playing. It’s just crazy people are rushing the stage and people are getting hurt. It’s been wild.

OTW: Crazy teenage girls right?

LANY (Jake): No, these were like moms…

OTW: Really? [Laughs] Your debut album is coming out SOON--is it going to follow a certain theme or sound?

LANY (Paul): There’s no real theme--we didn’t set out and say, “Alright, here’s the concept and here’s chapter 1,” but it still all feels super cohesive. It’s pretty much like if you were just to open up a journal. If I were to have recorded a bunch of life experiences and emotions and ups and downs, that's what it would be.

OTW: Nice! Last question, which artists are on your Ones To Watch list?

LANY (Jake): There’s a band from L.A. called the Vulfpeck. A lot of is like soul, but they’re younger guys, just amazing musicians. We actually saw a few of them open for John Mayer at the Hotel Café. We’re just always excited when they release stuff.

(Paul): It’s funny because I feel like we’re Ones To Watch and I don’t know who I listen to that’s smaller than us. I love this kid named Matt DiMona. He remixed “Bad Bad Bad,” and he put out an EP last year that I just listened to death. Other that I just listen to these giants, like Frank Ocean, I love Bon Iver… oh yeah Jorja Smith. Who else? I love MUNA!  We saw them play at The Teragram Ballroom.

[lagroupie]

Interview : Vacations

Vacations on the lakeside in Nyon through my Olympus Trip, right before going to the restaurant.

A few weeks ago, I went to Nyon to meet an Australian band called Vacations. I was very happy to be there to witness the band’s first concert in Switzerland, and as usual I took my Olympus camera with me. Many people had come out to watch them play, and they sounded great. After the concert, we ended up going to Nyon’s old town, climbing a pointy fence - even I ended up doing it, although with zero coordination - and going to our local “beach”, which made the band laugh a lot. I mean, Léman lake doesn’t really have any waves!

Besides their music, what I liked about Vacations was their honesty and their accent full of Australian sunshine - which was more than welcome, as we had had a pretty cold week. I like to think that they brought the warm weather with them, because it was gone as soon as they left!

Before the concert, I had a little conversation with Campbell about the band’s new album Changes, his life in Newcastle and the local scene, and his newly-found celebrity. Many thanks to Vacations, Ben and Joren for their kindness!

To get to know you better, I wanted to know what your life was like in Newcastle when you’re not touring.

Campbell Burns: Hmm… when I’m not touring, I try to take it very easy and just relax – no pun intended to the song! (laughs) Because I don’t actually have a job outside of Vacations and my other band Fritz, I’m solely just a musician, I just write and record. So if I’m not touring, I’ll be doing that. Or I’ll be hanging out with friends, and I’ll be helping manage my collective No-Fi back home, who put on events. It’s a group of artists and musicians who work together and boost each other up.

Yeah, I was going to ask you about it too! And for some reason I thought No-Fi was also a label?

Yeah, we started out as a record label and then we tried to put out music consistently. And it worked out for a little bit, but we started when most of us were… 18, 19. Because we just wanted to help each other out. But then it got to a point where it’s like, “we’re not really a record label, we don’t know what we’re doing. So let’s just put on really big parties and events instead, and try and boost the profiles of ourselves, the musicians of Newcastle, and also nationally by trying to bring in other bands and musicians to Newcastle. Trying to foster the creative scene in Newcastle. Because it’s a small coastal city. A lot of bands will just… pass over it you know. They will play Sidney and they will go to Wollongong, but they won’t come to Newcastle. It’s like- what about Newcastle, what about this city? So through what all the musicians and the artists do independently, and also together as a collective, we try to put on these really big events and try to get people to recognize Newcastle as a city of cultural significance.

That’s great! We should try and do the same here. We have a small scene, and people try to lift each other up, but perhaps we’re missing a collective like yours. We just… do things, I guess? (laughs)

When you’re starting out, it can seem really daunting. When I was 18 or 19, putting out EPs I would ask myself “wow, where do I play? Who do I talk to? What about backline? Who do I get for support?”. But you talk and mingle with other musicians of the area, and they’re all in the same position as well. And it’s like “hey, why don’t we all just work together and try and put these things forward?” Because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and that’s something we recognize with No-Fi. So by banding together, we can take those steps forward a lot more easier. And make the process more possible.

Campbell in Nyon

From what I’ve understood, it’s your first time in Europe right?

Yes! First time in Europe as a band. I’m having a great time. It’s a huge tour- the biggest tour I’ve ever done. I got hit up by Joren from The Lullabye Factory. He sent me an email and came through with a few offers. He said he’d heard the EPs Vibes and Days on YouTube, and he wanted to book a European tour. I was initially a bit sketchy on it, I thought it might have been spam or something! (laughs) But he came with a few really good offers, and then started to book more and more shows. I thought “ok, this is a very legit thing”. I told the band “guys, we can go to Europe. There’s guarantees, we should be okay and able to make this work out.” And here we are! It’s been a lot of fun so far. This is four shows in to our tour, and I think we have another 20 dates or so. It’s really hard to keep track, we’re in a different country every single day.

Haha! I guess you must be like “wait, where am I? What language do they speak here?”

Yeah, the language barrier has been kind of interesting as well. I know just a tiny bit of French, like “Bonjour” or “merci”! Just basic phrases. I’m just trying to incorporate it into our banter. Because we get up on stage and we’re like “what do we say?” (laughs) We don’t really know if they’re going to understand what we’re saying. So we’ve been speaking a bit of French the past couple of shows, and it’s been well received!

I also wanted to talk about Changes. I’ve read in a few interviews that the lyrics were inspired by your personal experiences…

Definitely. It’s kind of an introspective record, and I wanted to be very blunt with the title as well. I didn’t want to give it some fancy word. I wanted it to be like “ok, this album is about changes; you know what you’re getting into”. It documents the last year or so in my life, and all the movements that I went through- with songs like Moving Out, that’s about myself, Jake and my old housemate and good friend John. Moving out of home for the first time, and the experience that came with that. Another song, Club Social, is dealing with the online reception that Vibes got and how that affected us personally. Just getting messages every single day from fans saying “come to this country!”, “this song affected my life, you’ve helped me get through this moment” or “can I have the tabs to this?”. It’s really crazy receiving that, because that only came out last year or something. So much has happened so quickly, and it’s been a lot to take in.

Vacations at La Parenthèse

…So, when you write lyrics, would you say that you mostly get inspired from your own life?

Yeah. Some singers-songwriters can craft stories- they can make up that sort of thing. But I can’t- I could do that, but I don’t find it as interesting. I like to write based off my personal experiences, or experiences that I’ve lived vicariously through friends. If someone is going through a hard time, or if they had something cool happen to them, I might try and base something off that.

That’s interesting! I interviewed Stu from King Gizzard a while ago-

Wow King Gizzard? Huge!

Yeah, I still don’t know how it happened, they’re so nice! (laughs) So, I was asking him about that song he wrote that’s inspired from that book, The Day of The Triffids (ndlr: Cold Cadaver). He basically said: how come when someone writes a book, nobody automatically thinks that it’s about the author’s personal experiences, whereas it’s the opposite in music. We tend to think the songs’ lyrics are talking about what the singer is going through.

Which I find interesting.

Sorry, I don’t know why I said that!

No, it’s true! I do feel that a lot of the audience will always hear a song by a musician or an artist, and think “it obviously must be about them”. And that’s not always the case- in my own case it is about myself, but I recognize other singers-songwriters try and craft stories, like King Gizzard- where they’ve got a whole universe of songs supposedly! But… yeah! (laughs)

I also wanted to talk about my favorite song from the album, Be There. I really like the lyrics and the rhythm-

Yeah, the 6/8 drumming pattern! That’s a fun song. That’s actually a song me and Nate wrote together. It’s the only song on the album that got re-done, it was on an old EP called Friends, which came out a year or two ago. We were looking at the album and at the tracklisting and thinking, “this needs to change up, all the songs are in 4/4. We need some funky, dancy song”. It was always part of our live set, and always got received really well. So we looked at that song and thought about how we could make it a little bit better, and how we could revisit it and make it sound a bit more fresh. So we took that, re-recorded it and added some extra parts to it. I added a lot more vocal harmonies to it as well. I think it’s a lot nicer, it flows really well.

Finally, if you had to drink one thing for the rest of your life, what would you choose between tomato juice and red wine?

Hmm… Honestly I think I would die if I just drank red wine every day! But I probably say red wine anyway. It sounds really nice! (laughs) Tomato juice just doesn’t sound pleasant. I think I’d be very healthy with tomato juice, but red wine sounds a bit more fun!

Ndlr: A group of young girls passes by. They recognize Campbell.

Please join us! (laughs) That’s so great! You have a lot of fans!

That’s weird- imagine having fans in all these countries, it’s just bizarre! Like, when we were playing in Paris at Olympic Café, third song in, a guy in the background yells “Moving Out!” and we were like “oh my God that’s the next song that we’re gonna play!” and then that guy is singing all the lyrics and dancing around! And I’m like “this is wild, I’m on the other side of the world and people are just into it!” That’s crazy, it feels like a dream. But it’s real. It’s really sweet.

https://www.facebook.com/vacationsfanclub/

[suaine]

Yuletide letter 2017

*cracks knuckles* Alright, let's get this party started. At first, there are a few things to know about me, none of them very important:

I will read almost anything if you write it with passion and kindness. That doesn't mean it has to be fluffy and happy all the time, though I do prefer a general trajectory toward happiness. If you can, I would like you to write this story because you believe in it, not because you want to please me. I'm usually easily pleased, and there aren't a lot of things that will turn me off.

That said, please avoid writing about death or rape, graphically or just their impact and aftermath. Both things are hard for me to deal with and even if it's canon I'd rather not have to be exposed to it during the already super emotionally taxing holiday season.

Generally I love all self-indulgent tropes. There is nothing too cliché, no path too well-trodden. I love adcenture stories and cracky fun slices of life and everything in between. I'm equally into swords and sorcery as well as space ships. There isn't a well-crafted AU I don't love if the characters stay true to themselves. Feel free to go a little bit wild.

Fandom: Star Wars: Aftermath - Chuck Wendig

I didn't expect to be able to sign up so I couldn't nominate everyone else on the team, but feel free to include them all or any of them in combination. I just want to hear more stories about these idiots, Sinjir most of all. After Rogue One, I'm full up on tragic heroes, so if you can find hopeful, loving paths to put them on, please do.

Oh, my relationship with this canon is a difficult one. I still haven't dared to read the last book and I'm trying to get to a place where I can forgive fate and Chuck Wendig for personally giving me hope for my fave pairing (Jom/Sinjir) and crushing it under the bootheels of miscommunication. (Basically, we tweeted, he was vague, I misunderstood, I thought Jom/Sinjir was gonna happen, and it really hurt when it didn't) But! I'm absolutely 100% in favor of Sinjir getting a happy ending EVERY WHICH WAY possible, including but not limited to any pairings you might enjoy, and I'm more than happy for you to sell me on them.

I love the team so much, every single damn one of them. I love the snarky bits and the hopeless bits and the resilient bits. I love that this is not the happy ending we expected from Return of the Jedi and I love Rae Sloane.

I honestly don't know what kind of prompt I should give you. I've enjoyed stories of Sinjir showing up in TFA times, I love alternate universes where things played out differently, I love introspective pieces and action-y bits. I love the humor that is always inherent in Wendig's writing.

Fandom: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

I absolutely love and adore this game and I found my perfect route only to realize that in the scope of the game it couldn't happen - Robert needs to take care of himself for a while, a year isn't nearly enough to put him back together. But we can try. The player character can absolutely try. In many, many ways. Also, I love any and all iterations of Amanda and Val interacting and maybe more.

I absolutely enjoy every route in this game, though some characters resonate more with me than others. Robert is the one that I feel closest to, maybe because he's quite damaged in very specific ways. Maybe it's because if you play your cards right you get to fix his relationship with his daughter and I actually have two fathers who will never be as big a person as that.

The core aspect of the game for me is giving Amanda every happiness she desires, she deserves to be loved and appreciated and she deserves to grow into exactly the woman she wants to be. Val and her interaction were my favorite amazing surprise.

I'm actually quite invested in a future where Robert gets better and realizes that the player character (let's call him Jake) has always been there. I'd like to see that recovery, soft, playful, unassuming friend dates, supportive moments, nighttime monster-hunting adventures.

Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF

The last few months I've fallen into an awesome hole: catching up on a 100+ episode webseries that has 4+ hours of footage per. It. Was. Ridiculous. And amazing. And I accidentally once read a comment (on youtube) about how Matt separated Marisha and Taliesin because jealousy. I adore Marisha and Taliesin's friendship but also I can't help but go extra defensive when I read stupid stuff like this: so, tell me about the many ways that Matt and Taliesin love each other, all the bonding, whether bromance or romance. The three of them once went to party in the desert together for a few days. Also, I loved the team playing themselves but d&d style during Liam's one shot - why not put them all into Exandria, but as themselves (and adult)? Adventures!

I mean, what is there to say? I'm really invested in the entire group's happiness and love. It's pretty obvious that they're close and I love that so very, very much. I've been crying like a baby at the latest episode (114) and how much they care about each other and their characters, and the last few minutes of ep 113 were really intense after Laura realized what was happening. I love how sometimes the lines between character and actor get a little bit blurred.

I don't really have a lot to add to the optional details, maybe all I need to say is this: feel free to go anywhere your heart takes you.

Fandom: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic  

I adore Theron Shan and his ridiculous squib/secret agent/mama issue plot. He's everything I ever wanted from a Republic character - pragmatic and still idealistic, hopeful and sarcastic, complex as the force itself. I love stories about his tech abilities, about his smarts and his work ethic, and how deep down he is much more like his mother - and Revan - then he would ever admit. (OMG the Revan connection is such a narrative kink for me. Revan (girl Revan for me, incidentally) is such an influence on how I see the character - grey, but still undeniably good.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that means more to me in TOR than Theron in love with my lightside male Sith Warrior. Obviously, you're in no way obligated to include my player character, but whatever you want to write I would ask you to consider that fact your canon for the story - please don't break them up or write him with other people. You don't have to include this in particular, but please don't negate it.

I haven't played the newest chapters because of time constraints and I don't know a whole lot of spoilers except that... something happens... with betrayal and Theron? I honestly didn't want to read up on it because often experiencing it makes it very different to whatever might show up on a twitter rant. Here's the thing: betrayal and the sith warrior. Theron being a double agent to save the love of his life by breaking his heart. Just saying. That makes one hell of a story.

If you want to write something romance free, how about the early days of Lana and Theron's partnership? The minituae of running the alliance? Theron doing his job because he's a competent, sarcastic assholes. Theron making peace with his mom. Theron making peace with the force.

Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery

I love everything Star Trek and this new thing feels very much in line with everything before even where it's completely out of left field (I mean, the hairless klingons take some getting used to for sure). Michael Burnham is the best, but I would literally love any story about any of the characters, as long as it feels like Star Trek. I missed this world and this universe and this SPACE so much. Tell me everything, anything, DISCOVER.

Okay so obviously this is a developing fandom that's going to fucking explode. This is an amazing thing to be at the start of. I love everything Star Trek and as of today which is just a few days after ep 4, I love everyone on that boat except Lorca who I very much love to loathe.

Michael is amazing. My gay mushroom man is amazing. Tall gangly alien is amazing. Twitchy redhead is amazing. The klingons are super weird cannibals. I want to see exactly where Discovery is going – all the weird alien planets they can explore. There's a war, sure, but that's not a warship, it's a science vessel. Let it do science.

I personally love all the tropes Trek ever gave us and there's basically so many to choose from that it would be too hard to list them all. You want to give an old episode plot a new coat? Go for it! You want to explore some cute character moments? Be my guest! You want to write cute ship fic about mushroom man and doctor snarkadoodle? Please, please do.

Fandom: Folgers "Home for the Holidays" Commercial

Folgers is a yuletide fandom if I've ever seen one. Pretty much all the stories are yuletide stories and I've read them all. I think it's obvious why we're both here and neither of us can pretend that this is wholesome and pure. But here's the thing: just because something is problematic doesn't mean it can't be fun and happy. I mentioned in another request that I'm full up on tragedy, so here's the deal: a Folgers story where they get what they so obviously want and figure out a way to be happy.

Two things: yes, porn is totally acceptable though obviously not required. You can, but you don't gotta. And AUs are also a perfectly lovely way to explore this kinky as hell prompt. I think we're both here for the kink – if not, I'm not sure why you offered this fandom at all and this is your get out of jail free card: just dump this request in a dark hole and never think about it again. Some of my other requests have quite accessible canons and I won't be offended if I show up on the pinch hit list. I've been there, it's not a terrible place to be ;)

If you want to go AU, please keep the delicious and terrible fact that they're siblings who so very obviously want to bone. I'm with you, friend. We're both in this kinky hole together. I'm not into this fandom for realism – angst, sure, that's what makes it great, but that doesn't mean we can't have a totally unrealistic romantic comedy style happy ending. Think Do Começo ao Fim.