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tomeltinto · 1 year ago

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For us to be ourselves (2023/12/06 Interview)

The Novembers released “At the Beginning” in the first half of 2020, while the new coronavirus was just starting to exert its fury. In the same year we fell into a situation where concerts with a live audience could not be held, but starting from 2021 they held one-man concerts in Usen Studio Coast and Zepp Haneda (Tokyo), appeared in large-scale festival Fuji Rock Festival, and in addition to that each member has intensified their own solo activities and kept moving widely. Then, after 3 years and a half from their latest work, they completed the ninth full album, “the Novembers.”

The name of the band was crowned as the album title, and it is about 16 years after their debut album of 2007, “THE NOVEMBERS”. Members explained the reason as “We wanted you to feel that the Novembers of now are this”, and revealed that it is a “rock album where the us of now are condensed”. At Ongaku Natalie, we are celebrating the release of this work with an interview to Kobayashi Yūsuke. Looking back to “At the Beginning”, he's talking to us about the background in which they created this rock album, “the Novembers”.

──The period of the creation of the previous work “At the Beginning” was just the period when the new coronavirus was spreading around, and back then you [Kobayashi-san] talked about how, along with the state of the world, the composition of an album would change as well.

Back then we had scheduled a tour not just in Japan, but in Asia as well, and that period ended with many activities related to “At the Beginning” that could not be executed properly. So, honestly, it became a work where many regrets and feelings linger. It became introspective as in “what can we do now?”, because of several activities that we had to cease.

──“At the Beginning” was a strong album with a dark mood, also because it came after 2019’s “Angels”. At first “Rainbow”, that depicts in a majestic way a “beginning”, was supposed to be the last song, but you were saying that with the spreading of the virus, you decided that “if it hasn’t yet begun, it’s already too late”, so you decided to move the song order at the top.

The air of the moment of creation and the zeitgeist flow into every album, and since we changed the song order and the arrangement, matching “At the Beginning” to the state of society, maybe it was more in real-time than anything we had ever done. We were constantly trying to think “That’s good”, and as we continued doing this in the album, and it was not like only in this particular moment we thought “let’s do this in this mood”. However, I feel like there were many moments when we were looking for both parts oozing out of ourselves and the most self-conscious parts. The result of working on what kind of band we are, so, became the style of that album.

──In 2020 the Novembers temporarily halted concerts with a live audience, but starting from 2021 you gradually restored them, and continued one-man (shows) in large venues like Usen Studio Coast and Zepp Haneda (Tōkyō). And also, in 2022 you appeared in Fuji Rock Festival, so it seems like you had a favourable new start.

Looking back, large-scale concerts continued then.

──On the one side, when you held the one-man show at the Liquid room, in november 2022, you said “I’m writing new songs, but I didn’t give them to my bandmates yet, and only the songs I didn’t show anyone have increased”, and “what I want to do with this band, it’s become something that weighs heavily on me”. Was this disquieting state somewhere [then]? What was the situation like in the band back then?

My words at the time worried the fans and I apologized for that. Starting from 2020, all the members tested each their own strengths in activities outside of the Novembers, me with the Spellbound, Takamatsu started working with Petit Brabancon.

──Even outside of music, Kengo worked in many collaborations and Yoshiki [Ryōsuke] even opened a clothing brand. That’s quite vast.

Obviously, both Kengo and Yoshiki kept making music, they also started being support members for other bands. All of us have experienced new methods, aesthetics, philosophies from other places, different from the Novembers.

──About the individual activities of the members, did you set in advance until what point to undertake them?

Not particularly. Each one of us had a positive experience in their own field, and since we wanted to have a good communication once we would meet again, there were no restrictions. On the one hand I was fretting about not neglecting the activities with the Novembers, but I also felt frustrated about not making an album.

──Were there different parts, points where you made use of the activities outside of the Novembers, during the making of the album and in live performances?

I think there definitely were, but it wasn’t like we were talking about it like “let’s change this” or “let’s make use of this action from that one time”. We do not talk about it, but I feel like it shows from the performance, from the sound.

The meaning of the Novembers being the Novembers.

──At Natalie, we asked you a few times to talk about the activities with the Spellbound, and one of those times you said that “[you]’d like to use with the Novembers what I got from the Spellbound”. As with the Spellbound as well you’ve worked tirelessly on the creation of an album, concerts and large-scale festival performances throughout several dates, I imagine this has been for you a valuable experience.

It’s been only three years since I’ve started working with the Spellbound, and I’ve spent such an intense time that it doesn’t feel so short. So I end up inevitably comparing music by both the Novembers and the Spellbound. Before I started working with the Spellbound, I was creating with a feeling like “I will only make the songs I want to make”., and I realized that that’s something that makes me self-sufficient, for better or for worse.

──Working with Nakano Masayuki, (The Spellbound, Boom Boom Satellites), your way to confront music has changed quite a lot.

Nakano-san always thinks earnestly like “how can I change the world with music?”. I think that seeing this scene before my very eyes, I understood why I was so attracted by Boom Boom Satellites and why they’ve been driving my life. At the same time, I understood how serious and hard it could be to guide people and the times in a positive direction.

──So, also the attitude and music you were looking for in the Novembers changed as well.

The hurdle of a standard of value entered in me all at once, so I could no longer be satisfied saying “That’s a pretty good song”. I kept thinking about what it was that could make someone happier, something cooler, and time passed while I was working. So because of that, rather than saying that I fell into a slump, it would be a nuance close to being conflicted with all my heart, so as to make a better work. To make an example with food, I was fermenting. (Laughs)

──Fermentation (laughs). Did the other members know that you were so conflicted while writing?

Honestly, after falling into the Corona outbreak, we didn’t meet much with the other members. We’ve been friends since our 10’s, so if we had united it would have been like always, but I was convinced like “I have to settle this matter all by myself”. Obviously, it’s important to have time alone to think, but thinking along with someone else is important too. And with that, we weren’t able to share daily things like “I want to make this come true, now and in this situation” and grow together.

──Because they’re long-time friends, there are things it’s hard to talk about.

On the contrary, there are things I have to tell them because they’re friends. However, there are times where I prioritized too much getting along and harmony, and I ended up not having a meaningful contact. For a band, if you throw even a pebble, there’s the possibility that that harmony could crumble. But more than settling “let’s continue this band the four of us”, we had to think together about what it means for the Novembers to be the Novembers.

──About “Kanashimi ga kawaitara”, released this April, you commented this: “we’re taking back ourselves” and “we’re ascertaining the meaning of being the Novembers and the meaning in our meeting”. So there was this background.

Yes. We’ve also had the time to deeply consider how to keep going with the band from now on, with this meaning.

Creating an instant when we come into contact with new music.

──Before the general distribution of the new album “the Novembers”, it was put on pre-sale in each venue of the one-man tour, and even tickets where the members would be handing over the CD were arranged.

Just releasing an album, and only then carrying out a tour would be dull. Now the distribution became the main point, and the span between it and presenting the new songs becomes shorter, so we wanted to deliver it more carefully and thoroughly. So by presenting the new songs of the album with a tour before the general distribution, we made the very first moment of contact with the new music into a live concert. Also the CD conveys directly the feeling that “This is us now”.

──Even naming the album after the band name was due to “I want you to feel the very band itself”. We could say it’s like you returned to the early days of your activities in a way, with an act close to having someone taking into their hands the sound source at the venue, going to see the concert without including prior information, buying (the album) in a direct sale if they like the songs.

In addition, since in case of purchase of a ticket including the album, we were making people decide in advance whether to buy or not the album without having listened to even one of the new songs, it becomes even more of a hurdle. Since there were many people who bought that ticket including the album, I was grateful and also very tense. Because it conveyed not only the desire to support our activities, but also the thought that they believe that the new work of the Novembers is something good.

──You went and personally handed over the albums to the audience, how was it?

There were many people from whom I felt that they really looked forward to this, and there were many people that thanked me like “I’ve been following you for nearly fifteen years, but it’s the first time I’ve spoken to the members” or “Thank you for always been so close to me”. We also receive messages on social media, but I was happy that we could let them express their feelings in front of us.

──So far, you as a band have always been treasuring the act of giving something to someone, the letter and the flower seeds enclosed in “zeitgeist”, the formula of the “share-CD” in the single “kyō mo ikitane”, where you included 2 CDs with the same contents, the delivery of the “Tour 2022 - Kangiten” after the end of every performance, the paper with the lyrics of the songs you’ve just performed at concerts. The very personal delivery of this album, we feel what you want to convey in that stance.

From the personal delivery words and feelings are born, and since the energy you can’t see comes and goes, we can say that it’s a truly intimate communication. When you think that it’s not only a thing, but also every conversation and gesture is a gift, the appearance of your everyday life, and the way you grasp the facial expression and aura of your partner change as well. Precisely because I live with someone, I am regularly becoming more aware of a feeling like “I want to increase the happy moments”.

If we don’t express all we have now, the baton of energy won’t stay.

──As the comments you made when the release date of the new album “the Novembers” was announced, like “a rock album where the us of now are condensed”, and “after all it’s really cool to be in a rock band. It’s that kind of album”, this was an album where you condensed the charm of rock that you [the Novembers] have pursued until now. From the first song “BOY”, you demonstrate your will to plunge forward with lyrics like “Please don’t stand in our way, if we destroy everything”, “We are reborn, pressing on the accelerator”, and it feels like you divided the songs into two, the first half that emphasises guitar sounds from you and Kengo, and the second half, from the sixth song “GAME”, that emphasises the rhythm elements from Takamatsu and Yoshiki. How did you decide the whole composition or concept?

This time I wrote all the song at pretty much the same time, and in that I could see a connected story. And from that eventually I came out with the theme of a “rock album” and it was kind of like the flow.

──So in the first half you express frankly a sound like “The Novembers is this kind of band” with “BOY”, and after that “Seaside” is new wave, “Daremo shiranai” is hard and alternative, and songs that shake free from every genre that you have taken as a motif follow.

To be honest I didn’t realise the idea of musical taste and genre. It’s not like we especially discussed “BOY” being the first song. More than calculation and deliberateness, the mood and aura of the band that we can’t express with words became the criteria for the musical composition and the song order. Somehow it was more of a feeling like the fighting spirit, in a way, of “let’s express everything we have now”, “the baton of energy we’re giving the listener, it won’t linger if we don’t do our best”.

──It’s the feeling, and the individuality of each song has stood out.

Also I think that the idea of every member like “I want to be like this” or “I want to develop like this” is dwelling in each song. The songs grow in the same way as watering flowers, it’s a natural and healthy way of creating.

──The ballad in the middle “Katachi aru mono, Bokura wo tabanete” while incorporating a mood similar to “Saikin Anata no Kurashi wa dō” and “kyō mo ikitane”, is a challenging song that also features the sound of saxophone.

We played this at Shindaita Fever, at the celebration for the 15th debut anniversary, and thanks to that we completed it. Not only at the exhibition, but I also participated at a talk event with tobird, who has been handling our artworks for a long time, and while we were looking back at the activities until now, I realised that we have many accomplishments, like treasures. And I wanted to turn those memories into a song.

──This talk event was focused on looking back to all of your activities from the early days up to now, there were many valuable topics.

There are also parts where you reflect when you look back on past events, but I also understand things I finally realised now and that I treasure. I often daydream if I’d look glittering if the me of the past saw the me of today, and if I’d be a person who could inspire [that past me]. On one hand there were moments when I thought “I was good back then”, and I feel like I’ve lost something important. But through the past (I’ve) accumulated, I want to keep being the best now.

Not to get closer to the ideals, but to keep working while feeling

──One more song in the middle of the record, “November”, precisely because it recalls the name of the band, does it quote elements from the past songs, does it give a new interpretation?

“November” is a song I’ve developed from some lines I wrote back in 2010, so it’s not like I wanted to collect and reinterpret the motifs of old songs. In my case, the more what I want to express with a song is concrete, the more its explosive power grows dull. Picturing the blueprint and creating by getting closer to that ideal, it’s just not my thing. Most of the time I complete things touching the songs, working all the time while feeling with all my heart.

──So what’s the reason you gave it the title “November”?

At the stage of the rough sketch of songwriting, without parts of the song composition like A-melody, B-melody, the hook, being clearly defined, it just kept on flowing like a road movie, and it was good. Only at a later time it started to sound like it was a symbol of our band and existence itself.

──In the second half follow “GAME” which showcases Yoshiki’s powerful drumming, “Cashmere” where Takamatsu’s complex bass becomes intertwined with ethnic tunes, “Morning Sun” which abundantly uses step recording vaguely resemblant to the 1980s synthpop, songs with a characteristic way to use rhythm. It’s also something that the Novembers challenged in recent years, and developed ideas of new sounds.

With “GAME” using only one type of riff I wondered what kind of song could come out, and it was ready with the rehearsals in studio sessions. Normally I try to make sounds accurately with the effector board, but I just tried to perform with the amp and guitar in the studio. For how long the time I couldn’t make songs along with the other members, I feel like we genuinely rejoiced at being able to perform the 4 of us together. I completed “Morning Sun”, like “November”, based on an idea I’ve had for a long time.

──Like “November” and “Morning Sun”, there’s also the pattern of developing ideas conceived several years ago.

But instead of dragging them out, it was like thinking unintentionally “Let’s do this song once more”. Truthfully, this year we’ve encountered some trouble with the hard disk where we had been safekeeping the original tracks, and we lost all the songs we’d made and stored during the corona.

──You also talked about it during the talk event. Yoshiki, who was sitting there too, said that “We were absolutely depressed.”

Especially if we’re counting the number of songs, there were enough to make three albums, and they all disappeared. But we broke through it, and while making use of some ideas left in my head, reflecting also the ideas of each member, as a result we used this as a chance to make fresh songs, and it tied us together.

The power of words “Dakiau yō ni” unleashed

──Then, the last song “Dakiau yō ni” is the song that probably symbolises not only the album, but the Novembers from now on. In an interview with The Spellbound, you said about lyrics “the form when transcribed, the type to be fixated on the world view that is expressed in the lines”, but hearing those words, I realised that the Novembers’ lyrics have, to a certain extent, many long lines.

I see.

──Also, regarding that, “Dakiau yō ni” accumulates short and kind lyrics like “Even if I forget the fun things, let’s walk just a bit” and “Even if I forget the happy things, we will walk”, and it feels like the whole song enhances the power of words.

This is also something my activity with the Spellbound has had a huge influence on. I think earnestly about something I want to convey, I understand how closely I can examine it, and it paid off with the result that a better standard has been raised.

──This feature of your poetry is also shown in the single “Kanashimi ga kawaitara”, and I suppose that it was further defined in “Dakiau yō ni”. Furthermore, with “I’m gradually coming undone, breaking, when I can’t understand anything anymore, reassure me”, and the influence generated by the Novembers, with “I’m gradually coming undone, even if I break, because you make me remember my shape” you’re making the fans that have been following you feel a sense of trust. Precisely because every word is so sincere, it’s like a persuasive power has born.

I’m glad. It was worth to value so much which words I should use.

──By the same token, aside from the songs that could, for example, cheer someone up, if the words employed are too dark the persuasive power fades as well, if the tone is too strong an uncomfortable feeling arises, as if you were being forced. This balance is very difficult, but how do you think about the lyrics while also paying attention to all that?

Lyrics are very mysterious, when I looked at them as characters, when I read them aloud, when I talked about them, when I sang them on the melody, the way they are transmitted changes in each moment. Even the simple “Fine”, the impression changes completely if it indicates a specific someone, or if it doesn’t necessarily indicate it. It happens that the energy of the singer yields the persuasiveness of those words, and the opposite happens as well. It’s hard to quantify it and to explain it, but because the deep emotion of music is born from vibes and feelings impossible to analyse. When I value that, it sparks joy in me too, and I’m able to share that feeling for the first time to the listener. It resonates.

──Also, it’s a case-by-case thing, but there are also cases where discrepancies arise between the original artist’s intention and the listener’s interpretation.

Yeah, that’s unavoidable… there are people who are deeply moved seeing the hard work, and there are others that may have a negative reaction. But if the feeling of “I want to make something good making something” is true, what is transmitted by the work could change. The old me would be making music with a feeling like “I like this kind of music” or “I like this beautiful thing”, happy just by looking at those things. I jumped out of that extent of self-absorption, and I started thinking “I want to create for someone who also includes myself”, and then the moment I’d feel like I maybe I’ve actually delivered it, I’ve started thinking that that was good.

Rock changes the “here” you are into “somewhere”

──There are people who claim that due to many musicians being on the scene for a long time, and the number of listeners increasing, they gradually could no longer understand who to make music for, or that they could no longer write lyrics. You [seem to] address your songs to the right person, how do you gain that consciousness?

I’m that kind of person who worries about the lyrics all the time too. But maybe that’s normal, and the fact itself that both I and the listener could think that the words and melody I came up with are good, it’s a miracle. Maybe it’s about wondering if the thought of “I want to share it even if it’s painful” will prevail. Also, I think it can coexist with the wish for both the people close to us and the world to be happy. It’s important to write lyrics as if we were writing about the meaning of our existence in the world in a letter, and I feel like that kind of songs will keep being heard forever.

──Another one, this album is, again, a work where you’ve been searching what rock is, and rock is violence and beauty, and it’s sinister, you can express it with many images. What do you think rock is?

Yeah… I believe rock changes the “here” you are into a “somewhere”. The rock bands that changed my life are all like that, they made me feel like the place where I am now has changed into a completely different world. To put it in other words, it changes something in a person to the point their world view changes. They’ve been driving my life, and that energy still remains inside me. That’s why I’m doing it too. To me, that’s rock.

──Indeed in this album, with words like “start walking” and “fly”, it’s depicted a state where you tap into a different world. Going even further, in the line “we’ve flown beautifully to the other side of the rainbow” in “Dakiau yō ni”, is charged with the desire to go in the same direction of “Rainbow”, that was supposed to be the last one of your previous album, and, differently from “ANGELS” and “At the Beginning”, the whole album is wrapped in a bright atmosphere, and it’s like finally it’s showing in a very Novembers-manner the words you’ve been saying for a long time during the MC speeches, “Let’s meet in a bright future”.

I have the actual feeling that we made a good album. But there’s also the feeling of “we can make an even better one”.

──It’s also important what appears in the vision of what comes next.

Yes. More than vision, it’s about premonition and hope. Rather, without those it’s very tough (laughs). From now on too, we’ll keep having this feeling like “let’s make an even better one”. So if with the last work of my life I’ll feel like “I did it!”, it will be the best.

#the novembers #kobayashi yusuke #takamatsu hirofumi #kengo matsumoto #yoshiki ryosuke #2023 #the novembers (2023)#interview

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turbourbo · 2 years ago

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Re: That One TUA S1 Draft That Wasn’t Filmed:

In case you didn’t know, there’s a script of a TUA S1 episode floating around here that must have made it pretty far on the chopping block.

Probably most important, the episode confirms that Reggie knew the world would end in April of 2019. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know the exact day, but he know something was up. Honestly, I thought Reg was bullshitting Klaus in the afterlife when he explained why he killed himself. So I was kinda surprised to learn this.

Most of the script takes place on October 1, 2012, on the brellies’ 23rd birthday. The script opens with two news anchors joking about the Mayan calendar ending in December. Reg and Pogo see this and Reg says something about how the Mayans were only a few years off.

We see Luther living at the academy and running solo missions for Reg. He encounters someone who resembles one of the original comic villains and accidentally ruins a birthday party and emotionally scars some children. It’s hinted at the end of the episode that he’s just left on the mission that will leave him permanently deformed. Also, he watches Allison’s movies and periodically calls her in California.

Diego’s living with Patch. They’re both at the police academy. Diego’s “Number Two” complex results in him getting kicked out and Patch breaking up with him. Diego gives Grace a bracelet he meant for Patch, and Grace gives him the cross-stitch of the domino mask we see in his apartment in 2019.

Also Diego is SUCH a marshmallow, he visits Grace every week and puts money in Klaus’s commissary. And it makes sense why Klaus only asked Diego for rides in S1.

Allison uses her powers constantly. For one day, she tries to NOT use them, and she’s just. So close to losing it. Constantly. Girl can’t wait for coffee, drive in traffic, etc. It’s actually sad how dependent she is on them.

Klaus is in prison. Doesn’t say what he did but it doesn’t surprise me at all. What’s interesting is that he seemed to have received some preferential treatment at first. While he’s transferred to a new block, the guard complains about Klaus getting put with the “white collars” because of his dad. He can’t get drugs and someone puts a hit on him.

Also, we see Klaus engaging in actual, effective self-defense. Like he accidentally kills an inmate. It’s wild. I’m trying to comprehend how he goes from That to jumping on people’s backs and flopping like a fish in seven years. I don’t think he’s forgotten his training. All I can think is that substance abuse has severely fucked him up. Not just loss of muscle mass, but maybe he’s screwed up the way his brain and body coordinate, so even if he knows what to do, he physically can’t. Idk, someone else explain why Klaus can’t fight.

Five is Old Man Five and working for the Commission. To mess with him, the Handler sends him to the brellies’ city in 2012 to see if Five will blow his cover. He does. He yells at Diego but Diego doesn’t recognize him.

BEN BEN BEN. This was probably the biggest change from the show. In S2, Klaus conjures Ben after Ben’s funeral. And Ben’s followed him ever since. HERE though, Ben appears while Klaus is in prison, because this is the first time since he died that Klaus has been sober enough to see him. And he’s actually PISSED that the brellies “let” him die. The episode also acknowledges that for whatever reason, when Klaus gets high again, the other ghosts go away but Ben stays.

Last Viktor, who was written as Vanya in this script. Viktor has recently published his book, and everyone’s furious about it, except Klaus. Viktor also has a girlfriend, who he catches cheating on him, forcing them to break up. So Viktor, unsure what else to do, visits Klaus in prison. They talk about Viktor’s book, and Klaus asks if he included the bit where Grace announced over breakfast that Diego just had his first wet dream. YES, that’s in there. Klaus is the only sibling who supports Viktor and asks for a copy to read in prison.

Oh, and Klaus is delighted to learn that Viktor (then Vanya) has/had a girlfriend. There’s this “yay, gay” kind of moment between them that we never saw in the show, where Klaus refers to himself and Viktor as fruits. Maybe this is why no one bats an eye about Viktor and Sissy in S2. He’s already out.

#the umbrella academy #tua #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #viktor hargreeves

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freddie-weaselbee · 3 years ago

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Grade A Business//F.W.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Brief semi-nudity, slight language, two suggestive comments, y/n drools on fred but like in a cute way

Summary: As one businessman makes a trip across the ocean to talk to new investors, he meets his new partner, someone a lot more familiar than he was expecting.

Prompts: Only One Bed with dialogue prompts “if we get caught, I’m blaming you” and “I don't want to be alone”

Word Count: 4.5k

A/N: Day 2 of @theweasleyslut‘s 2k writing challenge

Fred had never gotten used to traveling on Muggle airplanes. He never had a need to before, not with everything being a train ride, floo network, or apparition away. But as he and George progressed into adulthood, and the businessman life no less, they found themselves constantly on the move and needing a fast and easy way to travel without drawing suspicion. Except for the one time that Fred’s magical briefcase set off every airport security system imaginable, but he’d learned from that mistake.

He was relieved to be exiting the JFK airport in New York City, clutching his luggage and thanking Merlin that his feet could now touch solid ground. Being in one of those huge steel contraptions was nothing like flying in a broom. He had no control over anything and it drove him absolutely insane. Luckily, he was safe now, and one step closer to being done with this awful business trip.

At the beginning of their business endeavors, Fred and George would travel together, trying to pick up business at other locations for Weasleys’ Wizards Wheezes. But as the shop grew and the locations became more and more foreign (so far having shops in Paris, Cairo, and Madrid) the brothers realized that the operations would have to be solo missions to allow for the other to run the shop for longer periods of time. Usually Fred didn’t mind taking the trips by himself. In fact, he rather enjoyed the alone time and flexibility in schedule. But this meeting was supposed to be a big one, and he was feeling quite nervous about having to tackle it himself.

Big investors located in the states were meeting with him to discuss opening a joint operation in New York City, combining his shop with another renowned wizard business that they deemed would be most profitable. Fred groaned internally just thinking about it. He didn’t want to have to share this new shop with anyone, no matter what the new investors thought. What if the other co-owner was a horrible person? Or worse, what if they had no sense of humor? They’d ruin the Weasley reputation and make it some boring book store. Or puzzle shop? Honestly Fred didn’t know much about the other business, just that he already didn’t like it.

Hailing a cab, a trick his sister-in-law Hermione had shown him years ago, Fred lugged all of his prototypes--skillfully hidden from Muggle eyes and detection systems by layers of spells--into the trunk before hopping in, giving the address of the hotel the investors had booked for him. He was about to shut the door when a panting scream startled him enough to make him stop.

“Wait! Hold the cab!”

Doing as he was told, Fred kept the door open and allowed the stranger to climb in, suitcase and all.

“Thanks,” you said, Fred noting your distinct British accent and strikingly familiar features. “I really need to get to my hotel, I appreciate it--”

“Y/N?”

Shocked, you finally looked at your ride partner’s face for the first time. Soft brown eyes. Freckled face. Bright ginger hair.

“Fred?! Fred Weasley?” You knew for a fact you weren’t mistaken, this was definitely the Fred you remembered. Or maybe it could have been George? It had been so long since you had seen either of them. Since Hogwarts, in fact.

Luckily, Fred nodded, confirming your belief that this was the older Weasley twin and saving yourself from heaps of embarrassment. “Y/N L/N, what are you doing here?”

Fred and you both wore matching grins, stretching from ear to ear. What an insane coincidence. What were the chances that you two would be in the same cab, in the same city, in the same foreign country?

“I’m actually here for business,” you said. “After Hogwarts I opened my own shop--”

“Excuse me,” the cab driver interrupted, wasting no time with politeness nor formalities. “But I have cars lined up behind me and I don’t know where you wanna go little lady. So let’s get on with it, if you will.”

“Oh, yeah of course. It’s, umm, oh shit which hotel was it? It’s on 53rd and 10th, I know that…” You trailed off, trying to remember what your hotel was called. You dug around in your purse, hoping to find a piece of paper with the name on it. “I think it was called--”

“Lotus Hotel.”

It was Fred who had interrupted you, once again, and once again you were just as bewildered as before.

“That’s right,” you said after a few seconds of confused silence. “Yes, yes the Lotus Hotel please,” you told the driver with confidence. Turning back to Fred you tried in earnest to understand what was happening.

“So same location?” the driver asked, to which Fred confirmed before you were speeding off down the crowded streets of the city.

“Oh, I get it,” you said in understanding. “Same hotel as me?”

“That is correct, love. What are the odds?” He wiggled his eyebrows in a half suggestive half just plain goofy manner, awkwardly shuffling so that his long legs had room amongst your many bags.

“That is quite a coincidence,” you agreed. “Funny thing is, I didn’t even choose the location. I have a business meeting in the morning with possible investors and they set everything up for the stay.”

Fred’s mouth practically dropped open at what you had said. “You’re kidding. These investors don’t happen to be Robbie Goldstein and Rachel McMillan, do they?”

“Ok, you need to stop doing that,” you said, officially freaked. “That’s the third time you’ve predicted something and it’s starting to creep me out. You never were very good at legilimency.”

He hushed you quickly, hoping the cab driver hadn’t caught onto the magical term you just used. Thankfully, he was too focused on the roads to notice.

“Ok, Y/N, one last question.”

“And then you’ll explain how you know all this?”

Fred ignored your question and continued with his own. “You said you opened a business. Are you perhaps meeting with another business owner to discuss a collaboration on a new store opening in the city?”

“Yes!” you said, eager to know how Fred could have known that. Was this another one of his pranks? Did he have hidden cameras in the cab somewhere? “How do you know all this?”

He only laughed, a joyous and very relieved grin overtaking his face. Sticking out his right hand, he grabbed yours and shook it eagerly. “Well, Miss L/N, it’s a pleasure to be reacquainted. I’m Frederick Weasley, your new potential partner.”

------------------------------

“You know, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“Oh thank Godric, I was worried you’d think I was grown up and mature now.”

You laughed heartily as you dragged your bags out of the cab, thanking the driver before he grunted annoyedly and drove off. Your drive from the airport had gone faster than expected, mostly due to the fact that you and Fred had so much to catch up on.

After he and George had left Hogwarts in their grand exit, they’d created the shop they’d always dreamed of, parking it right in the middle of Diagon Alley. You, on the other hand, went about creating your success in a much more conventional way. After finishing your last year of school, you started working full time at Zonko’s at Hogsmeade, trying to save up enough money to start your own business.

Many long hours and tiring days later, you opened up your little place, a toy store and puzzle shop. It was a similar setup to what the Weasleys did, but as you described it, “my toys don’t blow up in the user's face.”

You were now very excited for tomorrow’s meeting, the one you had been dreading beforehand. Your business was much smaller than Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and this would be your first international location. You were afraid that the owner you would be forced to work with would be some stuck up rich big whig who wouldn’t allow you to keep any of your small business charm in the new location. But learning that you would be working with Fred, well that was a relief for many reasons.

Fred rang the hotel desk bell, chatting happily about ideas for the shared shop and new products that fit with what both of you wanted to do.

“Hello there,” said the hotel receptionist, coming around the corner. “What can I do for you today?”

“Two night stay for Frederick Weasley,” said Fred. “Should’ve been booked by Robbie Goldstein.”

The young man typed quickly into his computer before offering Fred a hotel key card. “Here you are Mr. Weasley, room 504. We serve complimentary breakfast from 6 to 9 every morning down in our west hall. If you need anything don’t be afraid to call down and we’ll assist you in any way we can.”

Fred nodded at the man. “Thank you, I appreciate it.” He turned to leave before you grabbed his shirt sleeve and pulled him back.

“Wait for me,” you said. “I’m not finished talking to you yet.”

Fred smiled and waited behind you as you took your turn at the desk.

“Y/N L/N, also booked by Robbie Goldstein.”

He clicked away again but paused for a few seconds, seemingly confused. “You said Y/N L/N?”

Starting to get nervous, you nodded. “Yes, that’s me. Is the reservation not there?” You didn’t want to think about having to find somewhere else to stay, especially because it was getting so late.

“Oh no,” the man replied. “It’s here all right.” Ignoring the confused looks you and Fred were giving each other, the receptionist handed you a hotel key card and gestured to the elevator. “Thank you for choosing to stay with us. You’ll be staying for two nights in room 504. Don’t forget to enjoy our complimentary breakfast from 6--”

“I’m sorry,” Fred interrupted. “But that’s my room. You did say 504, right?”

“Yes sir,” he replied, not bothering to try to understand the predicament. “Mr. Goldstein booked one room for the both of you.”

Your eyes widened and you looked at Fred, silently asking him to help you figure this out. But instead, Fred just broke out laughing, having to brace himself on the front desk.

“I guess that’s what you expect when you let two investors who specialize in pranking shops make the room accommodations.”

“This isn’t funny Fred,” you said, although you had to give Robbie and Rachel credit for this joke. Turning to the receptionist, you sighed and ran your hands through your hair. “There’s at least two separate beds, right?”

He glanced down at his computer screen before looking back up at you with a guilty smile. “Well, about that…”

------------------------------

“Alright, I’ll take the couch, I’m sure it’s a pullout, it has to be.”

Fred stood in the doorway watching you mumble mostly to yourself. As tired as he was and as much as he wanted to just lie down and sleep, somehow watching you freak out about the sleeping arrangements was a much better use of his time.

He watched as you threw the pillows and cushions off of the couch and felt around for a lever, something, anything that would allow you a place to rest. Your face lit up as you felt a small impression and yanked with all your might, only causing you to thump backwards onto your butt on the hotel room floor.

Kicking off his shoes, Fred jumped onto the bed, sighing as he let his body relax. “Come on in darling, there’s plenty of room for the both of us.”

He opened one eye slightly, just enough to see your reaction. You were trying again to make the couch open, although you both knew that it wasn’t a pullout. Nevertheless, you kept pulling at every spot you thought could make a difference.

It reminded Fred of the good old days, back at Hogwarts when you two were so close. You were always so stubborn, and he didn’t realize just how much he had missed having you in his life. He always wondered what happened to you after he and George left, but with the shop opening up and the war around the corner, he never had the thought to write you or track you down. He hoped this time after you two parted ways you would still remain in touch.

You groaned loudly, slapping the couch with one of the pillows you had thrown earlier. Nothing was going as planned and you couldn’t be more annoyed.

“Fine,” you huffed. “I’ll just sleep on the couch, no need for a pullout.” You stomped over to the bed and angrily pulled the blanket from off of him.

“Hey!” he shouted, trying to grab it back but you were too quick. “That’s not fair, it’s cold!”

“If you get the bed,” you said, wrapping yourself up, “then I get to stay warm. Now go to sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”

He couldn’t help but giggle at the small bundle of you wrapped up in the hotel quilt, looking like an angry little burrito. Standing, he unbuttoned his shirt and threw it in the corner, followed next by his undershirt before he unbuckled his belt. He turned to face you slowly, feeling your eyes on him as they peeked out of your wrapping.

You quickly turned your gaze and glared at the floor. “What are you doing?” you said, hoping Fred didn’t see the blush rising to your cheeks. He did.

He continued to undress, leaving him only in a pair of red boxers that left little to the imagination. “Going to bed, as you said,” he replied nonchalantly. He grabbed a toothbrush from his suitcase and made his way to the bathroom, making sure to walk extra slowly and give you a longer show.

“This is so unprofessional!” you yelled after him.

“We’re not business partners until tomorrow, love,” Fred said with a mouthful of toothpaste. “As far as I see it we can do anything we want tonight.”

Rolling your eyes, you shed the large blanket and grabbed an oversized t-shirt from your bag, hoping you’d be able to change before Fred finished in the bathroom. As he emerged, he saw the tail end of you throwing the shirt on, flashing your thighs and part of your panties for half a second. He averted his eyes out of respect, but that didn’t stop his imagination from running away with what he just saw.

You shuffled past him, taking your turn in the bathroom. How in the world had this happened? How had a nice catch-up with a friend turned into an awkward back and forth the night before the most important business meeting of your life?

All you wanted to do was fall asleep, go through with whatever tomorrow brought you, and pretend like this never happened. But as you came out of the bathroom, you saw that Fred had taken the blanket back, leaving you with nothing except your t-shirt and an uncomfortable couch.

“Fred, let me have it,” you said, trying to yank it from his grip.

“No,” he mumbled, voice muffled by one of the many pillows he was cuddled with.

“Frederick Gideon Weasley, give me the blanket now or so help me…”

Instead of responding, he just reached out and patted you on the top of your head before rolling over and pretending to snore. He was infuriating.

You sulked back to the couch, accepting your defeat. You pulled out all of the clothes in your bag, hoping they could form as some sort of makeshift blanket. But after a few minutes of shivering and curling into the smallest ball possible, you realized that you’d never manage to sleep like this. Fred was staring at you, partially amused and partially concerned. You looked away.

“You can always share with me, you know,” he said, patting the bed next to him.

You scoffed and turned away. “Like I said, Fred, we’re soon-to-be business partners. Imagine how that would look! I’m fine right here, thank you.”

After a few seconds of silence you snuck another look at him. He hadn’t moved an inch, and was instead looking more concerned than before. “You’re going to freeze to death over there.”

“Well maybe that’s because someone stole my blanket.”

“The blanket comes with the bed, and the bed comes with me. Take it or leave it.”

It took everything in you not to scream. You wanted that warm, soft, comfortable bed more than anything at the moment. You needed it. Oh but it would send such a bad message if anyone ever found out…

“If we get caught I’m blaming you,” you relented, trudging over to the bed and crawling underneath the covers, ripping the blanket from a very amused Fred.

“Who’s gonna catch us, Robbie and Rachel? They’re the ones that set this up! Trust me, nothing’s going to happen.”

“It better not,” you said. “And make sure you stay on your side of the bed, I mean it! No touching.”

“Oh come on, Y/N,” Fred said, rolling slightly closer to you. “You act as if we’ve never done this before. We’ve slept with each other dozens of times.”

Your face went red at his words, wishing he would have phrased it a different way.

“You know what I mean,” he said quickly, hearing how his words came across. “But the amount of times we’ve cuddled up in the Gryffindor common room or up stargazing in the astronomy tower. It’s just me, there’s nothing to be scared of.”

“We were also 17 and a lot closer back then,” you retorted, remembering the fond memories you had from your high school days.

Fred huffed and returned to his side. “I’m not saying we weren’t. I just wish you weren’t acting so different now. It’s like we’re barely friends anymore…” His voice drifted off, wishing that he could go back and change the past. It had been 8 years since he last saw you. 8 whole years. Maybe things would’ve been different if he had tried to stay in touch. You’d never even visited his shop in those 8 years, never seen everything he was so proud of. He was stupid to think that one reunion was going to bring back a friendship that was practically already dead. He was even more stupid to think that maybe, just maybe, fate was giving him one last chance to shoot his shot, close to a decade later. What a right idiot he was.

On the other side of the bed, less than a meter away, similar thoughts raced through your mind. 8 years. Why hadn’t you, in 8 years, made one trip to visit their shop. Sure, there was a war going on and you were busy starting your own shop, but things had been fairly calm the last few years. Why had you never reached out? Almost subconsciously, you reached out physically for Fred. Your hand brushed up against his back before you tensed and drew back. You both stilled for a few moments, before Fred rolled over, facing you.

The two of you just stared at each other, both playing mental images of what your lives could have looked like the last 8 years if just one of you had done something.

“You’re not seeing anyone, are you?” Fred asked, breaking the silence. You shook your head. He moved closer.

“Are you?” you asked. He shook his head. You moved closer.

Your faces were now about a foot apart. You moved your hand to rest it between your face and the pillow. Fred copied your actions. You laughed softly, the movement causing a strand of hair to fall into your face.

Fred reached his hand out to move it before hesitating. “Can I?” His voice was so soft, so full of care. His hand hesitated in the air for a second before you nodded. He brushed the strands behind your ear, fingertips so gentle that you got chills up and down your spine. He let his hand linger before it moved to cup your face. “I’ve missed you.”

You smiled and leaned into his touch. “I’ve missed you too, Freddie.”

His hand left your face and moved down to your waist, eyes not leaving yours in case you ever grew uncomfortable. He wrapped his arm around you, pulling you closer to him just like you used to do all those years ago. You buried your face in the crook of his neck and hummed contently, before both of you slowly drifted off to sleep.

------------------------------

“Freddie, Y/N! How are ya!”

Robbie Goldstein, a plump man with fading hair ran up to greet you and Fred in the lobby of his and his partner’s office, shaking both of your hands fervently.

“Hey Robbie,” said Fred, slapping the man on the back. “I’m glad to be here.”

“Same with me,” you said, glad you could finally meet the man with whom you’d been discussing business through letters in person.

Robbie looked between the two of you, sly grin on his face. “Ah, so I see you’ve already met them. Wouldn’t happen to be because of a little mishap at the hotel last night, would it?”

You groaned internally, hating that someone else knew about the previous night, but Fred only laughed and wrapped an arm around your shoulders.

“A great prank, I must admit, but Y/N and I actually go way back. I’ve known her since I was 11 years old, so nice try. I couldn’t imagine how that would’ve gone if we were complete strangers.”

Robbie’s face fell a little before he shrugged and nodded his head in defeat. “Well, what are the odds of that?”

“Astronomical,” you said, giving Fred a subtle tap with your foot.

Robbie gestured for the two of you to follow him into the conference room where discussions about the new business would commence. “Well, I’m glad that you two seem to get along then, this is going to make things a lot easier. Oh, and don’t worry about arrangements tonight, I’ve decided not to let my joke stretch on and I booked another room for one of you for your last night in town.”

You breathed a sigh of relief, one that didn’t go unnoticed by Fred, and stepped into the conference room. “Thanks Robbie, that makes things a lot easier.”

“Yeah,” said Fred hesitantly, “thanks for that.”

He shut the door behind you and straightened up. There was no place for personal feelings in this business negotiation. He needed to do what was best for his company and yours, no distractions. No thoughts of crushed hope that suddenly plagued his mind.

------------------------------

Fred hated the bed he was sleeping on. Granted, it was the same bed as the night before, but this time it felt different. It felt like it was mocking him. You had been the one to offer to change rooms and it seemed like you couldn’t wait to get out of there and to your own bedroom, free of any Weasleys. It made Fred sick to think about.

He had just gotten used to the idea of something happening between the two of you. Last night, it all seemed perfect. You had cuddled the same way you had before, talked like nothing had changed. Hell, he even woke up with you lying sprawled out on top of him, a little trickle of drool falling onto his chest. He didn’t mind.

But now, everything that happened the night before seemed like a dream.

Fred knew he’d at least get to see you sporadically from now on. Your business negotiations with Robbie and Rachel went great, and the two of you, three counting George, were going to be combining forces and opening a joke and toy shop in the city sometime within the next year. It went exactly how Fred had wanted it to go, and yet so horribly wrong at the same time.

He didn’t want to only interact with you as a business partner and casual friend. He wanted so much more than you were willing to give him, and having to see you and write you and work with you was going to be torture for him. He buried his face in the pillows, gripping the large blanket to his chest, wishing it was you instead. Stupid Robbie and his stupid pranks and stupid business and--

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Fred lifted his head to check the clock. It was 2 in the morning. Who in the world would be knocking this late at night? Fred slowly got out of bed, too tired to bother putting anything more decent on. He looked through the peephole of the door but his eyes were too blurry to make anything out. Groaning, he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Standing in front of him, clothed in the oversized t-shirt from last night and a pair of booty shorts, was you, looking nervous and embarrassed. Fred hadn’t noticed the previous day, but the shirt you had been wearing was one of his old Quidditch practice jerseys, all beat up and way too huge on you. He remembered the day he gave that to you, or rather when you stole it from him because you complained about it being too cold. Fred had to hold back a laugh at the irony.

“I, umm,” you started, not knowing what to say to him. How were you supposed to explain that you missed him so much that spending one night away from him was too much for you to bear? How last night had been the best sleep you had in years because of how content and at peace he made you feel. How could you convey all of your feelings to him at this very moment?

“I don’t want to be alone.”

Fred wasted no time in picking you up, laughing as you screamed and kicked your legs around. “Fred Weasley, you put me down!”

He did as he was told and threw you onto the bed before jumping, arms and legs spread out, and landing straight on top of you. “I’m so glad you're here,” he said, peppering your cheeks with kisses. He pushed himself up, scanning your face to make sure what he did was ok, but you grabbed his face in your cheeks and pulled him down into a long kiss. Fred smiled through the kiss, almost laughing at how everything was working out. Maybe fate did have something to do with it after all.

Fred pulled away from the kiss, resting his forehead against yours. “So,” he said, mischief glinting in his eyes, “how about we put this bed to good use?”

Tag List: @famdomhideout @amourtentiaa

#theweasleyslut's 2k writing challenge #fredweasleyimagine #fredweasley #fred #fred x reader #fred weasley x reader #fredweasleyfluff #only one bed

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imagineyourworld · 3 years ago

Text

How the Star Wars characters would take care of you when you’re on your period

Gender not specified (only mentioned that reader has periods)

Warnings: Mentions of menstruation (obviously)

Masterlist

Prequel

Anakin Skywalker

Since Anakin grew up with a single mother I believe he’d know quite a bit about periods, but the second your period sets in he starts panicking every single time

Runs to the nearest store to get you any snacks/medicine you might need or want

His top priority is getting you comfortable, so he’d put as many pillows and blankets on the bed/couch as possible

Anakin knows he has his duty as a Jedi, but if you look at him with puppy eyes he would gladly stay with you

The two of you fall asleep cuddling and watching a movie

Obi-Wan Kenobi

This man is organized, he’d probably know your cycle better than you do

Constantly reminds you to take care of yourself when he knows your period is coming soon

Obi-Wan’s conscious of your health and makes sure you eat just as much fruit as chocolate (not that you’re complaining, for some reason he always finds the juiciest fruits)

Makes sure you always have a cup of hot mint tea nearby (seriously, it helps with cramps!)

If he can’t be with you he tries to check how you’re doing as often as possible

Padmé Amidala

Padmé knows that periods can be a pain in the ass, but she also knows that you’re tough and can make it through

That doesn’t mean that she’s not caring! She tries her best to make the most of your time of the month

When you tell her your period has arrived she often surprises you by working from home (if you live together) or anywhere near you for the day

Brings the most high-end snacks with her

Padmé always treats you like royalty, but when you’re on your period even more so. I’m talking expensive face masks, massages and shopping sprees (if your’re up for it)

Original

Luke Skywalker

Luke’s the sweetest! Doesn’t really understand what you’re going through, but tries his best to be understanding

Definitely gets tips from Leia on what to do, but also has a few ideas of his own

Since he grew up on a desert planet the best way to treat you he can think of is a nice warm bath, filled with a bathbomb, flower petals and scented candles

If you don’t feel good Luke will try to make you laugh or smile (laughter is the best medicine after all). Your favourite is when he reenacts arguments between Leia and Han or Han and Chewie, imitating voices and all.

Leia Organa

This queen princess has the perfect plan to help you deal with your period: Distraction

Sometimes it’s helping her to plan the next attack or supply run, sometimes it’s preparing speeches together, sometimes it’s just talking about everything and nothing. The important thing is that you’re not alone.

If you’re in too much pain to do anything Leia makes sure that no one says anything disrespectful. You work hard any other day, so she makes sure you get your well deserved rest when you need it.

When she has time Leia gets somehow manages to get you a hot chocolate and a comfy blanket to go stargazing together. It might be too hot, cold or rainy on whatever planet you’re on, but she makes sure you’re as comfortable as possible.

Han Solo

Han is a smuggler through and through, he always manages to get you a special tea or fancy chocolate. He keeps a box on the Millenium Falcon and gets you something whenever you start your period.

Not the most understanding, but he tries and he’s improving. He’s simply not used to periods after spending most of his time with Chewie.

If you need alone time he’ll let you stay in the Falcon and make sure no one bothers you, but if you want him to be with you he’ll sometimes take you to space, just to fly around and look at new planets from afar.

Sequels

Rey Skywalker

Since Rey grew up on Jakku she never really learned about period cravings, but once she realizes that you crave a certain food (and she is able to give it to you) she’ll make sure you have more snacks than you can eat.

One time she even tried to cook you your favourite comfort meal, but she ended up with a messy kitchen and burned food. Though once you scrapped the burned parts off it actually tasted pretty good.

If you can’t get comfortable Rey would softly sing to you, usually just a few verses of a song she once heard and can’t remember all of, but she also made an effort to learn some of your favourite songs.

Plays with your hair while cuddling.

Finn

The first time you got your period he pretty much freaked out, it’s not like they teach biology to storm troopers. But after Rey or Rose explained the basics he’s much calmer.

Finn constantly asks if you need anything, and even if you decline he’ll show up a few minutes later with a glass of water or your favourite snack. He just wants to make sure you have everything you need.

If you’re in too much pain to leave your room he’ll get you flowers. Sometimes they’re gorgeous exotic flowers, sometimes they die after a few hours because it had been raining too much, but you’re just happy he cares enough to pick any flowers for you, so you treasure them all.

If he has time the two of you would just lie in bed while Finn plays with your hair and you tell each other about your day.

Poe Dameron

One word: Cuddles. Poe believes that there is no better way to make sure you’re comfortable than right next to him with your head on his shoulder and his arms around you.

He’ll tell you the most extravagant stories while cuddling. Sometimes he swears they’re all true, sometimes he makes you guess which parts he only told to make you laugh.

Your day to day life doesn’t often allow for rest, so when you had work to do throughout the day Poe wants to make sure that you’re at least getting a good night’s sleep and massages all the tension from your shoulders before bed.

He searches the entire base for the tea his mother always drank when she had cramps. Turns out Leia keeps a big box of it for anyone who needs it and Poe brews you more cups than you can drink.

-------

This was actually so fun to write! Though I some characters were more difficult than others I think I did ok.

Let me know what you think and which character you’d want to take care of you when you’re on your period!

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stareyeds · 3 years ago

Text

so... nobody ever thought of a star wars AU with vader & luke based on cruella (2021)? because I do.

luke skywalker as stella/cruela;

luke skywalker or just luke, is an orphan boy, who used to live in the quiet town of tatooine with his uncles, unfortunately they were killed and luke ended up leaving tatooine after that, never knowing the reason for their death, luke ends up in the city from coruscant, living on the street for a certain period of time before meeting the rascally teenager, han solo and his huge furry dog, chewie

luke is extremely skillful and ends up helping han solo in his daily thefts, soon living with him in the abandoned building, he is fast and small and his youthful appearance is extremely helpful when distracting

but luke has inherited a talent for fashion and sewing, they have a great sense of style and sew the prettiest pieces for the robberies and go unnoticed because of that, posing as rich city kids

he ends up developing a huge passion for sewing and clothing and has the dream of working at Empire, a powerful and extravagant clothing line, under the iron command of Lord Vader, unfortunately, for his life of theft he has no way and only longs for by far, although one day in his 21-year-old, han he gives him a role that is the contract to work in one of the Empire stores, it's the happiest day of his life

it's a janitor job which turns him off a bit but he works hard constantly and tries his best to get his boss to take a look at his drawings it never happens but luke skywalker is not an easy give up

one day, he ends up trying his rock-bottom moment and ends up drinking a whole bottle of liqueur, taken from his hidden boss's liquor cabinet, luke was drunk, and ends up remodeling some pieces, such as the store's main window

luke just didn't know that the next day lord vader would have a meeting with his boss and would end up taking an interest in his work, claiming that 'that window was one of the best things he had seen in over 10 years', it's no surprise when he ends up getting a card and lord vader's assistant piett whispers to him to be in lord vader's shop and office at 5 o'clock in the morning sharp.

darth vader as the baroness;

before taking on a new mantle and legacy, anakin skywalker was a renowned stylist and a loving husband, who designed the most beautiful and elegant clothes just for his wife, model padmé amidala

the couple were expecting their child, excited and eager for the new addition to their little family (with their two pets, the theerapio golden retriever and their white cat artoo), unfortunately, fate had other plans

padmé amidala mysteriously ends up dying in a car accident, her husband was not present, currently in a meeting with his mentor, sheev palpatine. both the child and the woman were presumed dead.

anakin skywalker blames himself for the event, as well as developing an immense hatred for everything, blaming the papparazi and his closest friend for the tragedy, obi-wan, claiming that he was the one who planned padmé's trip, ending in his death. vader, no longer anakin, shuts down completely and becomes obsessed with wiping out Jedi shops as well as his reputation, in just a few years he's already in charge of the Empire shows, and later inherits the fortune of Palpatine, a fierce stylist and with a thirst for revenge, who creates the most stylish clothes to kill

vader is a stern and suffocating boss, firing all those who annoy him or fail him, the only person who is still under his command after years is piett, the stressed and anxious middle-aged man who cares about his boss but hasn't. courage to say it out loud for fear of being fired

vader's runway shows are always the most critically acclaimed and in his next collection, he plans to put an end to the Jedi brand as well as obi-wan's career.

but the clothes his stylists show him are predictable and uncreative, not a single innovation, leaving him in a constant bad mood for these flaws.

one day, he has a meeting with one of his managers, and when he arrives, a crowd in the window, curious, he decides to observe whatever is causing this mess, and he has no regrets; it's a disorganized and wonderfully creative shop window, used newspapers for clothing and a dress that once should have been hideous, is now a creative and insane work of art, and when his gaze lowers an inch he sees who made this mess; a boy passed out on the floor, a bottle of liquor beside him, and vader already knows what he should do

in what follows, it is an unexpected but highly efficient duo: luke becomes vader's protégé, even under his authoritative command, designing and creating the most elaborate and wonderful pieces for vader, and vader is confident with his new collection, and it ends. enjoying having the boy around, reminding him strangely of him in his youth

luke is ambitious and creative, and ends up learning some things from vader in that time, strangely, a loyalty and mutual respect form between the two

palpatine's manipulations are endless and soon come to the fore — luke ends up meeting obi-wan and learning more about vader and, because of 'a certain point of view', discovers that his father was a stylist and friend of vader, but who had his career destroyed and killed for vader. luke, he was never a vindictive person but the betrayal he feels at that moment is surreal, and he just wants to end his career as a vader on the other side, vader is very familiar and even attached to the boy and orders piett to find out more about him, something telling him to do that; vader has no words to describe how surprised, sad, angry, nervous and happy he feels to know that the boy is his son

vader doesn't tell luke at first, feeling conflicted and keeps it to himself, now luke starts sabotaging vader's clothes and plans, barely noticing that his boss and current secret arch enemy is no longer interested in the parade and seems distracted

at the fundraiser organized by Empire, everything comes to the fore; the secret of Vader's identity, the kinship between luke and vader and the crimes committed by palpatine all while a parade is taking place and sabotage with the alleged crime of vader killing anakin skywalker — and dammit, luke is so confused and scared — and the police are coming and luke has only 20 minutes to reverse everything and not let his father go arrested while his so-called father and kenobi fight at the party as anakin discovers that it was obi-wan who took luke to tatooine

the disaster that was the show will always be remembered in fashion magazines

#luke skywalker #darth vader #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #star wars au #luke and vader #cruella 2021 au #my ideas #star wars

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shihalyfie · 3 years ago

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Comparing the original Best Partner character song series and the new one, and what that says about the 02 cast

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So if you haven’t heard yet, a new series of 02 (it’s actually Kizuna) character songs dropped! Allegedly intended as a slightly delayed 20th anniversary project, the series is a callback to the original “Best Partner” character song album series that released during 02′s actual airing.

If you know anything about the original Best Partner series, it’s one that sets an insanely high bar, even for Digimon standards (and that’s saying something, given the deep associations this franchise has with music). The series of character songs before it, Adventure’s “Character Song + Mini Drama” series, has a…kind of questionable amount of relevance to each character; it’s not like they’re super amazingly out of character, but they don’t really tell you a lot about each character beyond some gloss details (this is probably best demonstrated in how Mimi’s song is blatantly just an AiM single disguised as a Mimi song). Best Partner, on the other hand, very intimately goes into each character’s head and their relationships with their respective partners, even putting in direct words what wasn’t stated explicitly in the series.

So does the new series live up to the high bar its predecessor sets? Answer: on top of some abnormal attention to detail on the covers, it is very obvious that the new series not only has a lot of the depth of the 02 characters in mind, but also is made in direct response to the original series itself. Moreover, putting the original Best Partner series and this one side by side reveals a lot about each of the 02 characters and what they got out of 02′s story, in a surprisingly neat summary.

Let’s go into how!

Since this is something that has a deep relationship with all of these characters in regards to the series, this particular meta would not have been possible without input from multiple people who know these characters better than I could ever hope to by myself. Thank you for all of your help.

A bit of historical context

The original Best Partner series consisted of a set of albums, one representing each pair of partners in 02. Notably, even though nowadays there’s a specific order of the Adventure/02 characters that’s used in modern media, not only does the original series not follow that ordering (as it hadn’t been set in stone at the time), it also leads with the original Adventure characters and not the 02 ones, which is pretty unusual for a series that’s ostensibly supposed to be for 02 (modern lineups will usually favor leading with whichever group the relevant product is branded with).

A lot of this probably makes more sense when you realize that the original Best Partner series was released during the first half of 02’s airing. The final album was released on August 23, 2000, four days before the fateful 02 episode 21 (yes, that means the third track on Ken and Wormmon’s album is actually a spoiler). So in other words, while the original Best Partner series accurately reflects the older Adventure group’s character development and what problems they were able to sufficiently overcome, the 02 group does not have anything about their character development from 02′s second half reflected in it at all.

That’s actually a really huge disparity, when you think about it, especially because a lot happened with the 02 group in that second half – that second half was where the emotional payoff and the results of everything that had been building up over that first half came together. So in comparison to the Adventure group, composed of people confidently talking about what they’ve decided for themselves from now on, you still have the 02 group drenched pretty deeply in insecurity. Watch 02 to the end and listen to those songs again, and you might even think “wait, this is supposed to represent these characters?” So, in essence, the new Best Partner series serves to address that gap, and what the 02 group gained and learned out of 02′s second half.

Best Partner (and its successor series for Tamers, Best Tamers) follows a uniform format: a solo song for the human partner, a solo song for the Digimon partner, and a duet between the two. (Given that, the original Best Partner series was really huge, at a whole 36 songs.) Recalling that, in the Adventure universe, a Digimon partner reflects the human’s inner self and psyche, it’s pretty extensive coverage: what the human has to say about themself, what place their Digimon partner is in relative to that, and what the nature of their relationship is due to that.

Let’s go into each pair of partners in detail!

Daisuke and V-mon

For those who love 02 and love Daisuke in particular, when you ask “what kind of character is Daisuke like?” or “what’s Daisuke’s best quality?”, you’re probably going to get answers like “forward-thinking” or “positive” or “good at uplifting others” – basically everything to do with how Daisuke is an encouraging presence who doesn’t give in easily and has a strong mentality of moving forward in the face of despair. Someone who appreciates and understands others’ best qualities, and loves them for everything they are. So when you look at his original Best Partner solo song, Goggle Boy…

But more than just saving the world I really don’t want to lose, you know

…Uh…

These goggles are my proof Given by a certain someone to me The precious thing he handed over It’s just like his Crest, you know Aren’t they cool?

…Well, that’s nowhere to be found.

This is the kind of song that might make you think “wait, this is supposed to be Daisuke’s representative song?!” (It’s possibly because of this that Daisuke’s song from The Bridge to Dreams, Tomorrow, generally tended to be far more favored among Daisuke fans, although it’s more relevant to 02 as a whole than it is to Daisuke in particular.) if you listen to Goggle Boy knowing about what Daisuke’s best qualities should be, this is almost a little frustrating, because this is the kind of thing he really shouldn’t be pigeonholed as – basically, begging for others’ approval and praise and focusing on idolizing others. Even his most insightful moments in this song come from his appreciation of something that came from someone else (Taichi), not from himself.

Well, the thing is, that was Daisuke’s character for most of the first half of 02. Of course, even in early episodes, there were many times where Daisuke’s potential for positivity and forward-thinkingness were starting to poke through, but most of the time he was rolling over trying to please others and chasing after his seniors. The real period of time he started to grow into his own about this was 02 episode 24 and its aftermath – when his time spent with his friends started to fill the void in his life and his need for validation, and the escalating situation, especially with Ken, led him to have a proper grasp of what was properly important and what needed to be done.

So when we get to his new solo, RUNNING MAN…

I’ll keep on running far ahead Let’s bring everyone along with me, today, too Really, always, thank you, Thank you so much Riding the wind, going past the sky Grasping your hands and flying I’m even starting to see beyond my dreams

Even in only one section, you can get an instant image of the Motomiya Daisuke we all know and love – someone who appreciates his friends’ role in his life, loves their company, and moves positively towards the future. Because, again, after the events of 02, and after being able to bond further with his friends and gaining his own strengths in leading everyone forward, he became able to more properly express his love for everything instead of constantly vying for others’ attention. Even the title reflects the change, from a “boy” who’s flashing the symbol of courage he got from someone else, to a “man” who’s positively running forward on his own merits.

(Interestingly, RUNNING MAN is composed by Ohta Michihiko, a legendary composer who’s made many of some of the most important songs in the franchise, and also composed many of the original Best Partner songs, including Goggle Boy. It’s interesting how RUNNING MAN is the one most like the original songs in atmosphere as a result – possibly representing how Daisuke is a simple-minded person who ostensibly doesn’t change drastically in disposition – yet has lyrical content that’s so starkly different.)

As a result, this is subtly reflected in the other two songs in each album as well – remember that V-mon is one of the partners who most “matches” his own partner in terms of disposition and mentality. So as Daisuke shifted his own priorities, V-mon did too; we go from Go Ahead! being about taking a stand and fighting, whereas Beyond the Future is about a similar forward-thinking mentality to Daisuke’s.

Likewise, the duets have different priorities as well; 2-TOP was composed of Daisuke and V-mon bickering for the most of it, and the most substantial point you could get about it was that despite their bickering, they made it work, whereas HEY-rasshai! has them almost entirely in sync (with one minor moment of deviance). It’s also interesting to see the topics covered in each; 2-TOP is about soccer, which ultimately is revealed to be a fairly incidental hobby for Daisuke, whereas HEY-rasshai! is about ramen making, which, while comical, also has a very strong tie to “Daisuke’s dream for the future, and his willingness to single-mindedly dedicate himself to something when it’s something he truly wants”. In other words, while Daisuke knew what he wanted since elementary school, it says a lot that he’s at a point where he and V-mon are now taking proactive steps to have that dream achieved, now that they’re able.

Ken and Wormmon

Like with his position in 02 itself, Ken’s is probably the easiest to see the contrast without trying too hard, but there’s still quite a lot to unpack!

When you think about it, in the modern era, it’s actually surprisingly hard to find stuff too relevant to Ken’s time as the Kaiser. The reason is, simply, that the series itself discourages this – Ken himself had an obvious aversion to dwelling too much on it, and the entire series itself has a strong theme of “moving on”. It’s not to say that the Kaiser doesn’t have a fanbase (I’m sorry if you’re reading this and find that I might be implying too hard that you don’t exist), but rather that there’s a franchise and fanart tendency to focus more on “Ken-chan” than “the Kaiser” these days, and old merch from the first half of the series will all too often get responses of “it’s really sad Ken-chan can’t be there…” Of course, 02 itself was also about accepting one’s mistakes, not pretending they never happened, so it’d be foolhardy to deny Ken’s dark history entirely, but it’s retroactively interesting to see such a prominent and persistent piece of merch like Ken and Wormmon’s original Best Partner album focus so largely on Ken’s time as the Kaiser when most of the franchise ended up trying to move on.

Starting with Ken’s solo songs, and his first one, ONLY ONE:

I’ve lived without showing my true feelings, wearing this mask

Well, this was easy to tell from the series itself, but the point driven home is that Ken didn’t want to expose his true self to others, putting on a front of “strength” and smashing his true feelings into the corner so that he could become more of the “perfect” person he thought he was supposed to be. There’s also another interesting line that one should pay attention to:

I polished the knife in my heart and put my belief in infinite power

Basically, putting up a defensive front to prevent anything from approaching his weaknesses.

Anyway, moving onto his new song, Never Ending:

If I want to be proud of tomorrow’s version of myself I wonder, what can I do? Never Give-up I’ll keep fighting, even doing someone else’s part No, I won’t be afraid anymore

First of all, the main theme of the song is about putting conscious thought into understanding how to stay true to himself – basically, understanding what it is he really wants to do and become, instead of putting on fronts and hiding it from others. Not only that, we see traces of what exactly he gained over the course of the second half of 02 – because so much of it involved constantly trying to blame himself for everything, this song is about what he came to learn in terms of proactively making it up and actively fighting forward. He’s working hard!

We also have this part:

The knife that’s pointed at someone, or at myself If it’s been let go of

Two things going on here: firstly, we have an explicit reference to the metaphorical “knife” Ken referred to putting up in ONLY ONE, talking about finally letting it go instead of bothering with this kind of front. He also points out that, in a sense, the knife was pointed at himself too, either in the sense of actually having hurt himself through this entire ideal, or in the sense that he constantly was trying to blame and punish himself for everything. None of that should be necessary anymore. Moreover, Never Ending contains a lot of references to “daily life” and the happiness that comes with the simplicity of just being alive – because that was indeed what Ken gained through his experiences, the ability to treasure living life in itself instead of aspiring to an impossible standard.

Another interesting thing about Never Ending is that it’s technically in a similar rock genre to ONLY ONE instead of being “soft”, like Ken’s personality is often thought to be. This was a surprise to a lot of people who commented on how surprisingly “cool” the song was, but this is actually completely in line with Ken arguably being one of the most openly assertive people in this group even after his reformation. Note that it’s very difficult to call this song purely angsty – it’s definitely positive and forward-thinking, and the chorus itself is partially in major key – but it has the vibe of someone who’s fully aware of everything that’s happened, is putting proper thought into it, and is pushing on despite everything. Remember, the intensity the Kaiser had originally came from somewhere; Ichijouji Ken is the same person, in the end.

In regards to Wormmon’s song, the contrast is also obvious: The Future You Dreamed of, the Future I Dreamed Of. is of course about Wormmon’s tormented feelings during the Kaiser’s abusive relationship with him, whereas can change it! is about its aftermath and how they made up (including copious references to the events of 02 episode 23). Even then, there’s a certain “forward-thinking” attitude that marks this song as being representative of being after 02’s events and not during – see the line “The mistake we made that day/is exactly the reason we’ll never let it happen again”, instead of the self-punishment and shame Stingmon expressed in 02 episode 26).

On top of that, the duet song Forever Adolescence also marks a subtle progression from the point they were at from True Strength – remembering that Best Partner 12 was released at a time when True Strength was actually a bit of a spoiler, while Ken and Wormmon obviously had made up by that point, the key line in it is still “everything truly begins from here”. So what, exactly, happened after that? According to Forever Adolescence, the decision made was to keep moving forward, and, moreover, to stay “the way they are”, especially with the nuance that it means it’s okay to not force oneself into the role of an adult and stay “young at heart”. This is really, really important in light of the events of Kizuna, the 02 group’s unusual role in it and its relevance to 02′s themes (more on this below), and how Spring 2003 referred to the pressure placed on Osamu as him being “forced to grow up too quickly” – in essence, Ken and Wormmon have firmly resolved to actively move away from that kind of pressure.

Miyako and Hawkmon

I’ve pointed out several times on this blog that the actual complex Miyako was going through in 02 was that she hated herself more than anyone else in the group would be willing to criticize her – and if you don’t believe me, it’s put in a pretty heavy-handed manner in her original song, Crash and Bingo!:

Fussing about it won’t get anything done But my selfishness and problems and panic keep coming out

…and even more viciously in her own and Hawkmon’s duet, Fly High:

I can’t do anything right, besides playing around with computers

Everyone would be still be fine if I weren’t there

If you thought it was subtle in the main series, it certainly isn’t here: Miyako considered herself good for absolutely nothing and unable to be accepted by others for being too useless – in these songs, despite Hawkmon’s attempts to uplift her, she criticizes her own messy tendencies and considers herself a burden. Best Partner is a positive series, so it still has the attitude of “we’ll try anyway”, but it’s clear that Miyako really didn’t have the highest opinion of herself at all. Hence, Fly High also shows off the worst of Hawkmon having to deal with the fallout – with Miyako flailing around in panic and considering herself good for nothing, he’s forced to carry her around.

But come Miyako’s new solo, From Spain with Love!, we see a huge contrast all over the place:

I, who have evolved into an adult make everyone do a double-take at me when I walk by!

Exhibit A: actual confidence in herself and ability to consider herself worth something;

If I can always, always be honest with myself Even if I don’t put together some program, even if I keep screwing up Ah, you understand me

Exhibit B: understanding that she’s worth something to others besides her utility abilities, and knowing that she has friends who’ll support her despite her flaws (which is very true);

When things are feeling hard, the first thing you should do is call me, okay? I’ll take the wings of love and purity, spread them, and get there as fast as I can Ah, I’ll open up any gate I need to

Exhibit C: indulging in her capacity for helping and supporting others;

Al mal tiempo, buena cara We laugh exactly when things are hard

Exhibit D: understanding the strength to get through hard times, instead of emotionally crumbling under the pressure.

Yep, that’s exactly what her character arc in 02 was about; 02 episode 31 was a huge turning point for her because, in the depths of her berating herself for her messiness and expecting Hikari to be secretly judging her the whole time, Hikari revealed that she was outright jealous of Miyako being able to speak her mind, and Miyako shortly after ended up showing her true capacity for reaching others who needed her help and supporting them, a role she ended up growing into for the rest of the series. Note that, other than the casual remark of confidence at the beginning, Miyako hasn’t necessarily become arrogant or anything – it’s just that, by focusing her energies into how much she loves everyone and turning her “nosiness” and “sticking herself into others’ business” tendencies into positive energy to help everyone, she gained more confidence in her ability to be loved and accepted by others.

This is reflected as well in her new duet with Hawkmon, where, instead of Hawkmon dragging her around everywhere, their differences and mismatched personalities are outright celebrated, and while Miyako still has awareness of her messy tendencies, she’s no longer letting it emotionally rip her apart and has confidence that Hawkmon can be by her side to help her through it. Perhaps reflecting that, Hawkmon himself goes from the over-the-top, dramatic, high-strung Knight of Love to the more calm and straightforward Gentle Tornado, perhaps because his own partner isn’t constantly bouncing off the walls recklessly nearly as much anymore.

Incidentally, it’s not like all of this is without nuance, either; even if Miyako’s become more of a confident person, she’s not all put-together. Considering that the entire song has her gushing about how she’d be willing to drop anything to go see her friends (which was pushed forward in Kizuna itself, what with her willingly taking the same request she’d refused to do earlier just because her friends were involved, and even inventing D-3 gate exploitation just to go see them), when you get to the end, and her gushing about her fun in Spain suddenly derails into reminiscing about the events of 02 episode 42, the implication is clear: for as much as she wants to be wholeheartedly enjoying this fun trip abroad for what it is, she can’t help but let her thoughts float back to memories and friends she cares about, and her bonus conversation with Hawkmon drives it in further that, ultimately, she dearly misses them too much.

Iori and Armadimon

Iori also went through some drastic changes in character over the course of 02, so when you look at My Conclusion, it’s basically Iori at his “worst” point of black-and-white morality:

Everyone, I will be speaking my conclusion Evil will not be tolerated Even evil in itself will be defeated by justice That will always be a certainty in the end

I mean, let’s even consider the fact that the song is called “My Conclusion” in the first place. Iori’s slamming this all down like this is the end-all of everything, and you can’t change his mind! He does briefly admit that there are certain things reason itself won’t change, but it’s more like he’s on the verge of having an out, because in the end, really…

Everyone, I will be speaking my conclusion Our enemies are beyond reason Again and again, to the very end They will certainly use cowardly means to come and attack us

Rationality. No feelings involved. Evil is evil, and justice is justice. No takebacks. Life exists by rules, and nothing else.

Message to the Future is possibly one of the most interesting songs in the original Best Partner collection, because it does actually provide hints about where Iori should be going in the future, and also has a lot of things that retroactively hit a lot harder from the meta perspective. The song fully fleshes out Iori’s feelings and concerns about how to grow up into a proper adult (which was hinted to be his real motivation as to why he was so strict with himself in 02), and that, most of all, what he wants is for his “feelings” to never change no matter what happens. Iori expresses concerns about how he might change as an adult to Armadimon, and Armadimon assures him that he’ll still be “Iori”, no matter what.

So, come the new character song collection, Iori’s new solo song is aptly titled “Things That Won’t Change” – because, in the end, despite everything that changed, his feelings did not. He says it himself: the important parts that he really wanted, the desire to do the right thing and to protect others, never changed a bit at all since “back then”. What did change, however, was his way of going about it.

Rather than what someone else has decided I’ve chosen my own future now

and again:

Rather than imitating someone else This is to shout out my own future

The emphasis on this being Iori’s own choice is important because Iori has finally decided not to live by strict rules imposed on him nor by imitating others (remember, part of the reason he kept doing what he did back in 02 was because he had such a strong belief “my father would have done this”). Others had been encouraging him to “make his own decisions” from the get-go – even Hida Chikara himself had told him that he was the one who needed to decide what to do in any moment in 02 episode 5 – and after dealing with a violation of his own morals in having to kill a Digimon in 02 episode 44, one episode later, in discussing with Takeru, Iori has to come to terms with the decision to continue fighting because “this is what I have decided myself”, because it’s not about whether he has an obligation to keep fighting for the sake of justice, but because he, himself, wants to protect others, and will do what it takes to do so. There’s no more of these strict rules of “because it must be this way” or the black-and-white morality that caused him to be so initially hostile towards Ken and Oikawa, but an understanding that these things need to be decided from the heart.

Moreover, unlike My Conclusion, Things That Won’t Change isn’t written like Iori’s turning in some school essay, but rather, more than half the song is in casual-form Japanese (which was associated with Iori when he became more emotional and wasn’t keeping himself in check anymore), and is more of a thoughtful reflection of his own feelings rather than trying to pass itself off as following rules because he must.

Thus, while the duet Choo Choo Tryin’ isn’t as heavy-handed as Message to the Future, Iori and Armadimon acknowledge that they need to be forward-thinking and keep going (generally tied to the message of 02 in itself), and Iori outright discusses the potential pitfalls of becoming too stiff. Furthermore, the song has copious rap portions, which seems rather unfitting for Iori on its face – until you realize that not only was Iori sometimes willing to indulge in more fun even back during 02 (just because he was strict with himself didn’t mean he was a complete killjoy), Iori’s also just a lot more flexible-minded in general, and has a penchant for wanting to do things right when he’s given a task. (His delivery of the rap in the song isn’t monotonous nor overly emotional, but has the nuance of someone who’s trying to recite all of it with caution.)

The part that’s particularly striking from the meta perspective is that Iori and Armadimon are no longer voiced by the same voice actress; Message to the Future was essentially Urawa Megumi talking to herself. So now, Iori has a new voice actor, and in many ways has become very different from Armadimon – but because Armadimon sounds a little like Iori, you could say he’s helping preserve the childish side of Iori that’s more important than ever to hold onto, especially since Iori himself worried about changing too much. And so, Iori’s still willing to indulge in a sort of “fun” song like this, and in the end, despite everything, you understand that they haven’t drifted apart at all in the slightest.

That’s not to say that Armadimon himself hasn’t changed either – in fact, he’s changed himself in response to how much Iori has. His original solo song had a lot of easygoingness to it, and some constant reminders for Iori to please, please chill – but his new one has a much stronger sense of resolve and forward-thinking attitude, reflecting that, while Iori himself technically had to learn to embrace more emotional uncertainty through the events of 02, it was also able to give him much stronger resolve that this was something he was doing because he was emotionally prepared for it, not out of some sense of moral obligation.

Takeru and Patamon

I’ve already covered Takeru’s original Best Partner song Focus and how it’s probably not about shipping as much as the fanbase tends to pin it as, but in any case, the operative part is here:

Before I knew it, I was watching over you Still standing at a skewed angle from behind The focus of your heart I wonder, is it on me, or… No, I can’t ask

Takeru couldn’t bring himself to ask sensitive questions or be straightforward about his emotions – which is basically what was Takeru’s lingering problem over Adventure and 02, that he kept swerving around or even lying about sensitive topics and holding everything inside, until one of his triggers was hit and everything exploded. Therefore, even when an important question about someone else comes up, he “can’t ask”. Moreover, for all Takeru is known as a lighthearted and kind person, Focus is a really turbulent song with a really harsh arrangement, and it’s a pretty accurate view of all the complicated and sometimes even negative emotions that Takeru was (badly) coping with over the course of 02.

This was the whole issue with Takeru and Iori’s Jogress arc in 02 episodes 34-36 – that Iori felt he couldn’t understand nor communicate well with Takeru, and had to eventually take matters into his own hands in order to properly understand his feelings. Takeru’s further interactions with Iori were significantly more straightforward for the rest of the series, and the experience also led to Takeru being able to more openly communicate with Ken as well, since the two had been on awkward speaking terms for most of the third quarter of the series.

So when we get to Step High Step…

You lament, you don’t have confidence in yourself I’m saying this to you as I’ve been watching you You’re amazing at all times

The song features Takeru being fairly straightforward about his feelings and opinions instead of just dodging it and going for an “everything’s okay” keeping-the-peace attitude, and not only that, he’s commenting on someone else, something that he probably would have refrained from in 02 for being intrusive. Of course, Takeru was always a nice person, but he wasn’t exactly straightforward about being nice back then – and yet here we are.

Since Focus is probably about his relationship with Patamon and how he kind of wasn’t exactly straightforward about his worries with him either (see 02 episode 34), it’s also interesting to compare Takeru and Patamon’s duet songs as well. Steppin’ out does portray a progression from Adventure in that they’ve accepted they can “do things over” again after things crash down (presumably referring to Angemon’s death and rebirth), but you’ll notice there isn’t much in the way of actual communciation between the two – something that’s not only present in Le Lien, but also portrays them as outright in-sync to the point of “telepathy”. We’re talking about a pair where the fanbase has historically had doubts about how similar they were back in 02 because of how “mismatched” they seemed!

Which, incidentally, they weren’t actually – you can see Patamon pretending he’s not about to cry in his original Best Partner song Don’t Stop Pata-Pata, much like how Takeru would cover up his own emotions, and gritting his teeth and resolving to fight harder. Meanwhile, while Ring of Smiles ostensibly continues to have Patamon be “sweet and cute”, it contains a lot of important nuances of “appreciating daily life with friends”, even if Patamon himself can’t quite find words for it – in other words, it’s actually some rather insightful and thoughtful sentiments from Patamon about the importance of being with and connecting with others, mirroring what Takeru himself learned in connecting with the others around him, especially Iori.

Hikari and Tailmon

Remember, Hikari has two lines (one in Adventure and one in 02) that basically summarize the main “issue” she was dealing with in both series: she was selfless to unhealthy levels, and would prioritize others’ welfare over herself to the point of self-destruction. So in her original solo Best Partner song, Gentle Rain, she puts it pretty explicitly:

I want to always be wearing nothing but smiles But I can’t be cheerful all of the time

or:

So that I can become a greater version of myself Please give me strength

All things considered, Gentle Rain is full of Hikari’s own insecurities, and her belief that she doesn’t have enough strength to do anything for herself. She makes references to being pulled to the Dark Ocean, mainly because – as she says – she doesn’t want to go there, but she doesn’t have enough strength or willpower to resist it. In fact, Best Partner 11 is full of a lot of angst; Gentle Rain is Hikari angsting about her own weakness and inability to do much for herself, Getting up is Tailmon angsting about her painful past and everything to do with it, and Shining Star is basically a plea for both of them to be able to do anything despite all the pain. It’s all pretty severely heavy content, despite the initial sparkly-looking sentiment of it all.

Considering the circumstances, it’s not really all that surprising. Hikari spent her time in Adventure and the first half of 02 very “emotionally isolated” from the others, to the point very few people could understand what she was thinking, and while she’d never hesitate to put herself out for other people, anything to do with herself, like getting pulled to the Dark Ocean, would result in resignation “it’s over” and “I can’t do anything about it”. Tailmon came from the background of being effectively raised by the abusive Vamdemon, so 02 was really only part of the earliest portion of her moving on with her life and being able to spend happier moments with Hikari. But, of course, the real turning point was 02 episode 31, when Miyako finally managed to break through to her and convince her to not accept the inevitability of things happening to herself, to accept help with the support of others, and to not take things happening to her as a sign she’s doomed.

So when we reach Hikari’s new solo song, Tomorrow’s Blue…

I want to chase after my dreams and hopes, it’s fine even if they’re incomplete I won’t lose, I won’t stop, I’ll do this to stay true to myself

The most striking thing about the song is that it features Hikari assertively talking about her own desires and feelings, when back in 02 she basically tried to kick them out of the picture for the sake of everyone else (and, really, even in Tailmon’s new solo song, Tender tale, she outright calls Hikari out for still prioritizing other people over herself). It’s not demeaning herself, it’s not resigning herself to anything, it may have a slight admission that she’s not super-confident about everything yet, but it’s still her looking forward and choosing to pursue what he wants. It’s a big deal!

And instead of the constant angst that permeated Best Partner 11, the new album is about Hikari and Tailmon talking about their feelings towards each other – something that neither of them really verbalized that well over either Adventure and 02 – and contextualizing their importance to each other over the course of their “story”. Hikari talks about Tailmon’s role of assertiveness in helping her break out of her shell, and Tailmon generally provides an extremely accurate description of Hikari in a nutshell – that she’s a bit mysterious, that she’s emotionally sensitive, that she’s cheerful and lifts others’ spirits. What’s more, Tailmon makes a reference to the same kind of “pain” and “losing things” she referred to in Getting up, but instead of angsting about it, she positively accepts it as something that may happen in the process of protecting others. (Oh, and it and the new duet A Tale of the Light also make reference to Hikari’s photography hobby in 02, contextualizing it as something Hikari did to chronicle their precious memories.)

So in summary, Hikari and Tailmon have both been able to accept 02′s philosophy of becoming forward-thinking, positive, and accepting the help of others in order to move forward. Not bad!

Conclusion and digression

Despite how these songs are almost polar opposite in portraying their before-and-after development of the 02 kids, nobody’s really argued that any of them are out of character! In the end, it’s a pretty succinct depiction of what these kids were dealing with and what they grew into by the end of the series. Seriously, I never, ever want to hear that these kids were underdeveloped nor that they didn’t go through any significant development over the course of 02 ever again. That’s just not true at all, and this simply happens to be one of the many illustrations of how.

Moreover, the songs themselves and the “conversations” that came with the new albums solidify firmly that the 02 group has extremely tight relations with their partners even at this time – with Daisuke actively consulting V-mon for help, Miyako, Takeru, and Hikari actively dragging their partners everywhere with them, Ken having Wormmon be his effective alarm clock, and Iori being so close with Armadimon that his Nagoya dialect is rubbing off on him. Daisuke, Miyako and Hikari have a huge point made that, regardless of the rather easygoing way they’re going at it, they’re very aware of what they want to do from this point out and are following it with gusto (and while it’s not stated in words, Iori carrying a huge textbook, presumably a law one, with note markers all over it drives the point home that this applies to him, too). It’s a really, really huge contrast to what was going on with the directionless Taichi, Yamato, and Sora effectively neglecting their own partners back in Kizuna – and further reinforces the reason the 02 group was in such an unusually favorable position during the movie.

#digimon #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #shihameta

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natromanxoff · 3 years ago

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Queen live at Forest National in Brussels, Belgium - August 24, 1984

Some parts of the Hammer To Fall promo video were filmed during this show - the camera was filming the audience reactions during TYMD, Radio Ga Ga and Hammer To Fall. On the next day 20 fans from the Dutch fan club were invited to come again to the filming of the promo video.

At the gig, the band asked the audience to return the following day for the shoot. However, most likely assuming it was all a joke, the vast majority stayed away; in fact only a dozen fans turned up. Undeterred, the shoot went ahead anyway, with the band's performance that day interspersed with footage shot the previous night.

(x)

This is the first show of The Works tour.

According to the July '89 issue of Record Collector, Queen ran through about 40 songs during rehearsals. This list of songs rehearsed that didn't end up in the setlist comes from someone who worked on the tour:

Great King Rat (longer version), Brighton Rock (full song), I'm In Love With My Car, Sweet Lady, White Man, We Will Rock You (fast), Play The Game, Need Your Loving Tonight, Put Out The Fire, Las Palabras de Amor, Life Is Real (both Freddie solo piano and Freddie/Brian acoustic duet versions)

The keyboardist for this tour (and also the '86 Magic tour) is session musician Spike Edney. He would also lend some vocals to many songs and play rhythm guitar in Hammer To Fall. He and Roger Taylor would form a band called "The Cross" in 1987 which spawned three albums, and he would return to Queen in the 21st century to play on the tours with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert.

Spike was recruited in a very informal way by a Queen associate. He went to Munich for their first rehearsal in early August, wound up partying for most of the first night, and missed the first day's rehearsal. It later transpired that everyone else had. He recalls, "The next day, we all managed to get to it eventually, to the first rehearsal, and all the gear was set up. The stage was huge, and I thought "Oh well, here we go then" and we got to the first song , and what I'd forgotten was that they hadn't actually played together for two years. So they said, OK, let's try one of the new songs, I think it was Radio Ga Ga, and we started playing it, and course, I knew it, I'd been studying it for weeks. You know, 1,2,3,4 and we start and we get about a minute into the song and the whole thing collapses. And they all look at each other, you know, very sheepishly, and they say, "Anyone know how it goes?" and I say "well, actually, I know. I know how it goes" and they said "Ah". And so I started showing them the chords and everything and Fred looked at me and said "You don't know the words, do you?" and "Well, yeah I do actually" so then they all came round the piano and we spent the whole day just going through songs, and I thought, "I'm gonna be all right here, this'll be OK"!"

The show started very late, as the band were still doing soundcheck when they were supposed to go on. Apparently over the previous week there were few occasions when all four band members actually showed up for rehearsal. Many songs (likely those listed above) never made the setlist, and soundcheck was an extensive cramming session, particularly for the older material that they hadn't played in years.

Roger Taylor later reflected that this European tour was one of his favourites, and many fans cite the early Works setlist as their favourite ever played by the band. Three medleys are now played, two of which have revived many old songs: Killer Queen, Seven Seas Of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, Stone Cold Crazy and Great King Rat. Staying Power from Hot Space returns to the set, as does Sheer Heart Attack from News Of The World. Only half of Staying Power is played, and it runs into Dragon Attack, followed by an improvisation running into a more compact version of Now I'm Here compared to previous tours.

Many people who attended shows on this tour recall Queen having a very heavy sound, especially on songs like Liar and Stone Cold Crazy. By 1984 they had gained a reputation as being one of the best live rock acts in the business.

Six songs from The Works are performed each night, and the introduction tape is from the album track "Machines". After the heavy G chords are heard on the tape twice, the band walk on stage in the darkness to play the chords the third time, which leads into the brand new "Tear It Up". This is yet another effective opening to a Queen show, something they would perfect time and time again.

I Want To Break Free is performed each night in 1984-85 as the first encore, with Freddie coming on stage sporting a pair of huge plastic breasts under a pink shirt. Part way through the song, he would remove the breasts and twirl them around for a while before finally throwing them into the audience. Some souvenir! As a result of this gag, Another One Bites The Dust has been moved from the encore to be earlier in the set.

This tour showcases an incredible lighting rig and an overall setup mimics the movie Metropolis, from which scenes were used for the promo video of Radio Ga Ga last year. The huge wheels behind the stage (modelled after the ones on The Works album cover) rotate at mostly random times - usually because they are turned manually by various crew members such as Roger's tech Chris "Crystal" Taylor whenever they have a free moment (Freddie Mercury's assistant Peter Freestone told the tale in 2021):

“Yeah, I mean Rio was… amazing. The feeling from that crowd… you know, something like 350,000 people. Oh, you can’t beat that. And when you’re flying in a helicopter over that crowd, it was stunning. But the thing is, I know this sounds really, really stupid but [laughs]… one thing I will always, always remember from that tour was, remember, in the back of the stage you had these wheels that turned every now and then, not constantly but just every now and then. That was because there was… the guy looking after Roger’s drums and me who actually turned those wheels. And there was no set cue or anything that, “Oh, it has to start on this bar, on this song.” No, it was when he wasn’t doing anything and I wasn’t doing anything, we’d say “Ok, let’s go and do it.” And we turned the wheels for a couple of minutes and then left them alone. He had then to do something for Roger and I would just sit there like I always did. And then you’d go back and you’d turn the wheels, like a hamster. We were like hamsters…”

However, a crew member who worked on the tour recalls otherwise: "I do know local crew members were used on the UK shows and certainly (a number of) European gigs. The other thing is that Radio Ga Ga had a set piece with the cogs and lighting, using low ambient lighting and strobes to emphasise mechanical motion of the cogs during the instrumental break. Would Roger Taylor be happy with no one covering him/his kit during a show? Possibly Peter Freestone is remembering production rehearsals when any spare bodies might have been asked to operate the cogs?"

During vocal improvisations on this tour, Freddie would often include bits of "Foolin' Around" and "Living On My Own" from his pending first solo album, which he had been working on during this period.

Freddie now plays a Telecaster for Crazy Little Thing Called Love. It would remain like this through the Magic tour.

The band no longer bring a gong with them on the road. Roger now does a cymbal roll at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody.

A fan recalls hearing the band running through Tear It Up whilst queuing up to enter the venue.

Freddie's voice is in superb shape for this show, but it will quickly weaken as the tour progresses. As incredible as Freddie Mercury was, he certainly did not take care of his voice at times, especially in the mid-80s. After a couple years of heavy smoking, Freddie's voice now sounds a lot deeper and raspier overall.

Before It's A Hard Life, Freddie says, "I think tonight we're gonna do songs from just about every album that we've ever made. You heard some very early stuff from the first album. Right now I think we're gonna do something very new, and we'll see what you think of it."

Freddie does a vocal exchange with the audience before Staying Power, singing "Get Down Make Love" and "Gimme Some Lovin" a few times. The band would improvise bits of the latter a couple times in 1986.

This is the only show on the entire Works tour where Roger plays regular acoustic drums on Another One Bites The Dust (before which Freddie teases the audience with a bit of Mustapha). For the rest of the tour, he'd play electronic drums. He'd also integrate the electronic drum kit into a few other songs, like at the beginning of Hammer To Fall, where one might argue that his sounds don't appropriately complement the guitar to create the intense, heavy sound.

The band sound very tight on this opening night of the tour, with the only exception being the rough transition from Stone Cold Crazy to Great King Rat. The keyboard and guitar solos are integrated together for the first few shows of the tour, during which Brian plays a few bits from Machines. Spike Edney uses his vocoder (a Roland VP-330) for the "machines" and "back to humans" lines heard throughout the tour during this spot (he would use his vocoder for the "radio" lines in Radio Ga Ga as well). After this segment, Brian then gets a few minutes to play on his own as usual.

Parts of the promo video for Hammer To Fall were filmed during this show. Claims from some (even official) sources state that Freddie invited the audience back for (what would actually be "additional") filming the following day aren't true. Here is all that Freddie had to say before the song: "This next song we're gonna use in our next video. So everybody just go mad and maybe later you'll see one of you guys inside the video one day. Oh, just go crazy, take your clothes off. It's called Hammer To Fall." After the song, he simply says, "Good night, you guys!" as that was the last song of the set.

Here is a fan's recollection: "On the night of the gig, there was a camera mounted on an arm that would swing over the front rows of the audience during a few songs. These audience shots were taken during Tie Your Mother Down, Radio Ga Ga, and Hammer To Fall itself. I guess they also had a camera up in the box at the back of the hall [as there are a few shots of both the audience and the band]. I don't remember any cameras onstage during the gig - just the one mounted on the arm."

The Dutch fan club invited only about twenty of its members to attend the video shoot the next day. They were instructed by a roadie to sit quietly on a chair and not to move or approach the band members. After a few hours, Brian came over and had a chat with them, checking to see if they were enjoying themselves and if they were hungry. He then promptly ordered them some take-out!

A minute of Tie Your Mother Down from this show was later broadcast on the Belgian TV station "RTBF" (x) (x). An audience-shot video allegedly exists as well, containing five songs.

After years of speculation, the existence of more footage from this show was proven when bits of it were included in the promo video for Let Me In Your Heart Again in 2014. About 30 seconds of Somebody To Love (largely crowd shots) were seen. There is, however, no accompanying audio. (x)

The first photo is from the autumn 1984 Queen fan club magazine. Brian is seen with a watchful eye over the proceedings. Tour manager Gerry Stickells and his wife are also in the shot.

Pics 2 through 6 were submitted by Alessio Rizzitelli, and the seventh pic was taken by Dave Matkin.

(x)

#queen #queen band #roger taylor #freddie mercury #brian may #john deacon #queen concerts

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fabdante · 4 years ago

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Not to keep on with this but right so I made a post about Vergil and Bernini and in that post I mentioned what art works and pieces I think represent the other parts of the DmC trio, Kat and Dante. And I just wanted to follow up on that with more focused posts because yall have no idea, I’m very into this whole thing.

First up: Dante

So Dante I go into a good deal in the Baroque essay already so some of this is a rehashing but I just wanted to go more in depth about Dante and Caravaggio’s Davids.

(David and Goliath, 1599)

(David with the Head of Goliath, 1607)

(David with the Head of Goliath, 1610)

More about Dante, Caravaggio, and especially that last David under the cut! This one got a little long.

Ok so first things first, like discussed in the Baroque essay, Dante is Baroque and the game is based around Caravaggio’s Baroque to a point where many of his paintings are directly referenced. That last David in particular is referenced directly in the game. See below:

so I’m not really saying anything the game hasn’t really done itself here. Dante is the main character, he is represented by Baroque and Caravaggio. That’s his vibe, that’s the parallel. And it’s a very intentional one I mean in Talexi’s art book he discusses picking Caravaggio as an influence and the overlap between Dante’s whole deal and Caravaggio’s own. But I’m like really into Caravaggio’s David’s and want to talk about that and the neat way this plays with Dante’s whole deal so, let’s do it.

To quickly summarize Caravaggio and the background of his last David: Caravaggio was an angry guy who worked in Rome during the Baroque period until he killed a guy for Reasons (probably a bet, possibly a woman, possibly a tennis match or something, probably the bet). He gets kicked out of Rome, does some stuff (joins a knighthood? at some point then leaves the knighthood?), gets word that the pope wants to pardon him. He goes back to Rome with some art but dies on the way at the ripe age of 38. One of the paintings with him that makes it on this trip is the last David.

What I like about Caravaggio’s David’s is how different they are then other David’s that come up in the art history canon. Just for comparison I’ll share the famous David but also Bernini’s David from the same time period.

(The David, Michelangelo)

(David, Benini. Pain to get a photo of s2g)

The first key difference is I mean, all three of Caravaggio’s David’s are wearing clothes which I think is neat in that I imagine he would be wearing those given the situation. But beyond that, what strikes me about Caravaggio’s David’s is their youth. In the biblical story, David is more the age Caravaggio consistently depicts him at. Which is about approximately preteen or teenage. The second thing that strikes me is the confidence and power displayed in Bernini and Michelangelo’s David’s evoke. But Caravaggio’s are not confident, not the way these one’s are. And especially that last one.

Caravaggio’s David is unsure. He’s just done this thing, killed this man, but he doesn’t seem to have quite processed it in the first two. But in the third, he is processing it. And he’s not processing it well. This is a David who is unsure. This is a David who seems to pity the man who’s head he now holds by the hair. This is a David who is not strong and unwavering and confident and elegant, this is a child who just killed a man. This echo’s in the games interpretation of the scene, that same worry echoing in Dante’s brow that’s in Caravaggio’s. It’s a sympathetic David in that he seems to be unsure if this choice was worth the personal toll but also in the sense that the viewer is sympathetic to him, they feel bad for this child who has just been forced to make this choice.

Reboot Dante’s life is not one about choice, it’s not really something he seems to be able to do often. Sparda put him into the orphanage and the orphanage put Dante into the foster care system. And ever since then Dante has had to fight. Not by choice, but by necessity. It show’s in his combat style, in his clearly untrained movements focused on power and strength rather then tactics. Vergil, if you watch him fight, he’s much more elegant, his style reflecting practice and technique. Dante, though, throws everything into his movements to kill as fast as possible. That if he just swings hard enough, this’ll all be over faster. He even stumbles in his combat because he’s put so much power into his swings, it’s my favorite little detail.

In the game, it’s mentioned that Dante’s first recorded demon kill was when he was eight years old. It was one of the ‘caretakers’ at the facility he was in. I often wonder if that’s the moment that they were trying to depict in this image, the moment after that. I'm not really sold that he looks eight here but I mean you be the judge of that but bare with me. It’s the mood, that moment right after he’s been forced to enter his new reality for the first time. That he is going to have to fight like this the rest of his life. That bewilderment and regret and just general disbelief that he’s done this, that he’s just killed something. That sorrow for the Dante he was before, like that sorrow that David must be feeling for who he was before as well.

But there’s a second layer here I haven’t gotten to yet. And that’s how Caravaggio’s David is also thought to be a self portrait. No, he’s not David. Caravaggio has painted himself as Goliath. A portrait of Caravaggio for reference:

(Caravaggio as depicted by Ottavio Leoni in 1621)

Usually this is read as a tongue and cheek thing to the pope, like Caravaggio is offering himself in the ultimate repentance for his crimes. He’s sorry, here’s his head on a platter. But there’s something about it being a self portrait coupled with David’s pity for this Goliath that feels kinda...sad in a way.

Further context to this is Caravaggio, on the run or not, did not have a studio. He was a solo artist, which is a bit odd for the period at his level. He did not take students, so his techniques died with him. No one else worked on his paintings, they’re all by his hand. This in particular David was not commissioned either, it was done as a gift. So this was a deliberate thing entirely thought through by him, painting himself as Golith, painting David so full of pity and grief.

It’s sort of this idea of pity for the monster when you yourself are the monster as well as a sort of self hatred. Which reboot Dante is familiar with. Either Dante, preboot or reboot, kind of has this arc about trying to cope with being half demon while hating being half demon. It’s not a part of himself that he likes. The reboot goes further with this though because he doesn’t even have the solace of being half human, he’s also half angel. Reboot Dante goes from seeing himself as a human being to being told no, your not, your the things that you hate and it’s your job to protect people anyway. You are both the out of control monster and a threat, but also their protector.

In either reboot or preboot this isn’t like the most explicit character beat, though it does come up. In the reboot we see it peak through in moments like Dante’s interactions with Phineas. The ‘my father was a demon and I’m nothing like him’ mentality. The reboot makes this more pressing to in that like, the reboot makes it clear that demons are not a hive mind. While they seem to vary in intelligence and free will and all that, the game does not imply that Phineas and Sparda are alone in their grievances where as the preboot paints demons like Sparda and Trish as complete oddities. But part of either Dante’s rejection of Sparda is always rooted in ‘Sparda is a demon, and I’m nothing like the demons.’

This is interesting in the reboot because, unlike Vergil, reboot Dante is always visually contrasted with demon imagery. His world is very red. His color is red. The colors on him, even the blacks and grays, are warm tones. His devil trigger is designed in such a way that the abundance of reds in it are even more prominent then his initial design. The only time he’s not is the scene with the graffiti where he’s positioned on the side with the angels. But visually it’s still made clear. Dante is the demonic twin, Vergil more angelic. On top of that, characters in the reboot love to point out how Dante reminds them of Sparda. Phineas does it and Mundus really does it (the ‘just like your father, too big for your fucking boots’ line). Which further puts Dante at odds with his identity. As much as he thinks he is nothing like Sparda, he’s his fathers son. He’s the demon half of this twin relationship.

I think to like Caravaggio’s David’s just...they don’t want to do this. They’re just kids. They don’t want to kill their Goliaths. But they have to. Which is the spot we see reboot Dante in. He doesn’t want to save the world. He doesn’t want to fight for his life as often as he does. He doesn’t want this. But he has to do it. He might say he doesn’t give a shit, but what’s his choice? When has he ever had a choice? He’s the unwilling savior.

This runs through the game to. Dante doesn’t really want to be here. He makes that clear a lot. And his bravado is constantly a cover to keep him from being too vulnerable, too exposed. But it’s that last fight with Vergil where it all falls apart. He did this because Vergil asked him to, and Vergil didn’t even tell him the truth. And just like everything else, Dante doesn’t want to kill Vergil. He doesn’t want to fight him. But he’s provoked him anyway and got himself in this fight and he can’t let Vergil take the throne. David can’t just let Goliath go.

It’s the end of the game where we finally have Dante completely free of his walls and completely bare and entirely unaware of who he is and what he’s supposed to do next. It’s the same sort of vulnerability that I feel is abundant in that last David. Who is he now after all of this? Does he like this person? What’s he to do now that he knows what he’s capable of, knows what he’s done?

What makes him any different then this head in his hands?

#dmc devil may cry #dmc reboot #devil may cry reboot #dmc reboot dante #devil may cry reboot dante #reboot dante #fab talks meta

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fettsvette · 3 years ago

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Never Worn White (Part One)

Cloud City, Bespin. Boba Fett is on the hunt for a casual fuck before he cashes in on Han Solo’s bounty. You’re a naïve virgin, saving yourself for an adolescent fantasy… and it just so happens that he’s in town. Upon encountering the object of your infatuation though, you didn’t expect he’d be so willing to help you out.

Pairing: Boba Fett x Reader Words: 2.1k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Loss of virginity and unprotected sex

Can be found on Archive of Our Own here.

Boba Fett was in town.

There had been rumblings around the city for the past several days. Something big was happening, but nobody seemed to be sure of exactly what. You’d overheard people at the Shadow Market saying there was a beautiful woman who matched the description of Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan - well, formerly of Alderaan, now - staying in the guest quarters of the Administrator’s Palace, with a motley crew of attendants that included, of all creatures, a Wookiee. There were whispers of the famous spice smuggler, Han Solo, having been sighted as well, and even quieter mumblings concerning something called a ‘Skywalker’ (whatever that meant). An Imperial Garrison had been installed earlier in the week with no sign of leaving anytime soon, and the Baron Administrator himself, Lando Calrissian, had allegedly been seen meeting with Darth Vader himself.

Or so your roommate claimed.

“That big scary guy who works for the Emperor? The one with the magic powers who sounds like he breathes through a gas-processing vane?” You had asked skeptically when they’d burst into your shared flat with the news, the normally relaxed Aruzan acting infuriatingly bubbly at finally having gotten hold of the hot gossip in the neighborhood before you had.

The very same, they insisted; and the Baron hadn’t looked too pleased to be hosting such a powerful representative of the Empire, either.

They hadn’t seen anything themself, no - they’d heard it from one of their coworkers at Pair O’ Dice, who’d claimed their cousin’s friend’s uncle had seen them together, walking across the Apex Overlook with a squadron of armed stormtroopers trailing behind them… the amount of parties involved in this city-wide game of Comlink Operator seemed to go on and on and on. You couldn’t decipher what was true, and what was just garbled rumors and hearsay. And you couldn’t make sense why such a varied amalgamation of the galaxy’s most well-known creatures would choose to congregate at a mining colony so far away in the Outer Rim.

There was one thing you were absolutely certain of, however.

Boba Fett was here, in Cloud City.

You’d never been so sure of anything in your life. You knew it was true.

Because you’d seen his ship yourself.

It had been two days ago. You hadn’t been able to sleep, even after a long night waiting tables at K’cri’s Café, and you’d decided to take a walk down by the landing platforms in the wee hours of the morning, dawn still only a pinkish-orange smudge barely visible above the thick clouds. Whatever the time of day or night, there was always some action going on there - ships arriving constantly, bringing tourists from all over the galaxy looking to try their luck at one of Cloud City’s various casinos. You enjoyed watching the multitudes of different creatures disembarking off their various means of transportation - sub-aquatic Mon Calamari, blue-hued Chiss, reptilian Trandoshans; you’d even seen some gargantuan Hutts a few months ago, with their retinues of slaves and hangers-on, making their sluggish way across the concourse towards Yarith Bespin. It sometimes seemed that this city never truly slept.

You’d been about to finally call it a night, still not particularly tired but knowing that you should attempt to go home, draw your curtains against the burgeoning light of the sun, and get some shut-eye before your next shift the following evening, when a bizarre sound from above snapped you out of your reverie.

You’d heard the Slave I long before you’d seen it.

The ship’s engine gave out a strange whining noise, unlike anything you’d ever heard in a transport. It reminded you of a gigantic buzz-bug, and you resisted the urge to swat at the air around your ears out of habit, squinting your eyes against the hazy morning light to see what kind of damned contraption could be making such a racket.

The ship came into view as it banked around the clouds, beginning a slow descent towards one of the nearby docks, and you felt your heart give a walloping jolt from the shock of what you were witnessing.

‘No… it can’t be… not here…’

The ship was an ugly, mottled thing - a retired Firespray model of Old Republic make, the paint faded red and greenish-grey, much of it scraped away and adorned with deep gouges and obvious carbon scoring from firefights over the years. It had seemed to glide almost effortlessly through the air as it swept towards the docks, and as the transport grew closer and its image became more clear, your eyes widened, your blood screaming in your ears, your heart threatening to jump up out of your throat and flee from your frozen form. Its strangely vertical craft had suddenly rotated horizontally in the air, hanging momentarily as if suspended by a fine thread, and sank down to settle on one of the nearby landing pads, steam from the thrusters billowing around its now motionless form.

You knew the ship well, although you’d never actually seen it in real life. It was all over the HoloNet almost every time a huge sum of credits were posted on a well-known fugitive’s head, their eventual capture usually accompanied by footage of that very same transport leaving the scene. It was called the Slave I , and was owned by a man who wore a ragged suit of Mandalorian armor, and who made his living by hunting down and - sometimes killing - those who found themselves on the wrong end of a particularly influential creature’s business dealings.

Rooted to the spot, trembling from excitement, you’d stood on your toes and craned your neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the pilot as they exited the durasteel behemoth. When the boarding ramp had finally extended, however, you’d turned and ran back to your apartment, a wave of anxiety at possibly seeing the owner - and them seeing you - having overcome your senses. And there you’d hid for the rest of the day, pacing the floor of your living quarters and periodically peeking out the window, expecting to see the old Firespray taking off into open space from the vicinity of the dockyards across the city. But as far as you knew, it was still there. You could feel in your guts that it was.

That was how you’d discovered that Boba Fett had come to Cloud City.

The deadliest and most effective bounty hunter in the entire galaxy, in your town.

And you wanted to meet him. You needed to meet him.

It sounded almost dirty, to acknowledge that maybe you had a bit of a crush on Boba Fett. Although merely calling it a ‘crush’ was quite an understatement.

You were infatuated with him.

You’d followed his career almost obsessively since your early teenage years, when he’d first erupted onto the bounty hunting scene and began making headlines thanks to the clean, efficient work he’d make of marks who’d been unfortunate enough to cross his path. He was highly dangerous and had a nasty reputation for being a ruthless killer, focused only on bringing pain to the creatures that could earn him as many credits as possible. On top of that, he had exclusive hunting contracts with both the Empire and the Hutts, which didn’t garner much support from communities sympathetic to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, such as your own. Much of the galaxy considered bounty hunters to be the lowest of scum, on the same level as the criminals and other dregs and vestiges of the civilized universe that they were famous for capturing. It was difficult to admit that it wasn’t the gorgeous Falleen who lived down the hall that you fantasized about sweeping off your feet and charming the Corellian hells out of you, but Boba Fett.

You couldn’t fully explain it, even to yourself let alone your exasperated and befuddled friends, but there was just something downright sexy about him. You felt weak in the knees whenever you saw his visage broadcast on the holocaster in the café, and your ears always tingled and burned when you caught his name being mentioned in a snatch of overheard conversation. You spent hours scrolling and typing on your holopad, searching for any and all information you could discover on this enigmatic figure who wore the regalia of an ancient warrior race. You’d made it a point to haunt the local nightclubs and bars on your nights off, always seeking out information on Boba Fett’s whereabouts in the galaxy, his latest jobs, encounters that the creatures constantly flowing in and out of the local entertainment establishments may have had with him during their travels. You’d heard how good of a lay - and a generous tipper - he supposedly was from several of the go-go dancers who worked at the Zero-G Club, and the idea of Boba Fett himself getting a lap dance in a seedy topless bar always sent liquid heat pooling to your core. One of your most prized sources of intelligence concerning Boba Fett was Rystáll Sant , the half-Theelian backup singer for the Max Rebo Band, whose frequent sets at the Blue Petal Bar you never missed for this express reason. Lyn Me and Greeata Jendowanian had their own Fett stories, but Sant in particular became very talkative about her famous conquests while touring the galaxy - always after a couple spotchkas, which you were more than happy to share with her.

Rystáll Sant was adamant that she’d had a casual physical relationship with Fett for years, and that he was, without question, the best fuck of her life. She hadn’t seen, let alone hooked up with him, in several months, no, but the band had a long-term residency at Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine coming up, and she was looking forward to finally reuniting with him there. He was one of Jabba’s favorite hired guns, after all. You always came away from your conversations with Rystáll feeling flushed and woozy, in a way that had nothing to do with the copious amounts of alcohol you both consumed while chatting. You’d always been too shy to grill her on any of the specifics of her dalliance with Fett, even though you knew she’d be happy to give them to you - what kind of a lover he was, if he was gentle or rough or a delicious mixture of the two, what he sounded like when he moaned, what he looked like both underneath his Mandalorian helmet and that mysteriously dented codpiece - but those unasked questions haunted you endlessly. You wanted to learn the answers yourself, somehow.

In short, you were helplessly drawn to Boba Fett, and found everything about him to be intoxicating - from the danger associated with his chosen career, to the mystery of what dashing good looks he had to be hiding behind that black-visored helmet… and the fact that he was experienced.

Because you’d never been with a man before.

Ever.

You were a virgin in every sense of the word.

You didn’t consider yourself a prude, or anything close - you just felt you’d never met the right person who you’d want to share that part of yourself with. Your virginity was something sacred in your eyes, something you wanted to give to someone special, not to just waste on a drunken, spiced out tryst after a night partying. Your prospective admirers on Bespin bored you to tears, and you found yourself constantly daydreaming of being whisked away off-world by a masked man in a shining suit of armor; one who would take you on exciting adventures and carry you bridal-style back to his ship afterwards for a romantic, passionate night together.

You’d never admit it to anyone, knew you’d be laughed out of the social circles you’d managed to cultivate during your years living and working in Cloud City, but Boba Fett’s was the only name that ever came to your lips as you laid in bed, your hands between your legs, bringing yourself to climax twice, sometimes three times during one of your nightly sessions. Just the mere thought of him drove you wild in a way that no other person ever had, and you constantly fantasized about him claiming your innocence for his own, leaving you trembling and mewling underneath him.

And now, like a bolt out of the blue, he was actually here , located in Cloud City on some unknown business, possibly entangled in whatever Imperial affairs that’d had the entire colony holding its collective breath over the previous days.

It almost seemed as if it were meant to happen, that you were supposed to seduce and sleep with him, despite your initial panic at his unprecedented arrival. You knew how it sounded. If anyone found out about what you were planning, discovered the details of your deepest fantasy, the one thing you truly wanted above all else, they’d have you admitted to the psychiatric medcenter at Cloud City Central.

It was true.

You were saving yourself for Boba Fett.

You were on a mission to fulfill that adolescent promise to yourself, consequences be damned, and you had no idea what you were getting yourself into.

#boba fett #boba fett fanfiction #boba fett x reader

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ateezaligned · 4 years ago

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How OnlyOneOf portrayed queer relationships and dynamics in libidO, w a hint of good ol’ yearning

(disclaimer: this strictly about the mv and in no way I’m implying these dynamics are translated to real life and their friendships if u suggest that ill kick you, don’t ship real ppl romantically pls)

The storyline of Instinct pt. 1 tell us this album is focused on self-discovery and how young people repress their “urges”, but the way all three subplots play with this concept is super fascinating!

The KB/Yoojung situation (which is my favorite subplot!!): From my point of view, Yoojung and KB show a relationship that is just blossoming. The song starts with tying up Yoojung’s hands, he is being contained, and his lyrics are literally “I’m attracted for no reason”, now I looked up other translations besides the original and it also has to do with being ‘pulled’, like Yoojung is being pulled into this relationship for ‘no reason’, he thinks he needs one to fall in love with another man. Rationalizing your feelings is a way to separate yourself from them. Therefore, Yoojung plays the more hesitant part, he overthinks, his super ego policing strongly what he feels.

On the other hand, KB is seen initiating most of the physical contact between them, and he does it in a way that makes it easy for Yoojung to pull back if he doesn’t want it. KB is also always at least an arm away, inside a comfortable space for Yoojung to reach for him if he wants to. In their first scene of close contact, Yoojung is the one laying his head on KB’s shoulder, and he keeps control of their closeness throughout the whole video, despite KB breaking it with the soft touches we see, such as fixing Yoojung’s hair or putting his hand on his shoulder in the beach scene. And all this gentle-ness contrasts so well, bc we also see KB’s character initiating contact with others! He pulls Junji for a hug when both of them are shirtless and he does it so nonchalantly! It’s obvious he is okay with /more/, but he respects Yoojung’s boundaries and never pushes.

The scooter scene is great, bc we can see Yoojung hugging and pressing their thighs and putting his hands in the air, he feels more carefree, he was able to get past his own inhibitions and it’s so great to see.

So Yoojung and KB's is like a first relationship: you are stepping on eggshells, you don’t know what you’re doing or looking for. A lot of queer people start dating into adulthood, and even with previous ‘straight’ dating experience, everything is so incredibly new! And it’s great but also anxiety inducing and frustrating.

Then, there’s Rie and Junji. A thing I found incredibly interesting is that in every scene of them (except two) they’re already in contact. In the car they’re holding hands, and when they’re hugging and eating lollipops, and back to back in the basketball court, we don’t know who started it, but it doesn’t matter because Junji and Rie are equals and stand on the same ground of mutual love, respect and experience, they’re having fun and smiling at one another, even when they’re playing basketball face to face, their eyes are on each other and its playful and great. Rie has one of the best lyrics in the song that is “I trust youand I accept it”. Junji and Rie don’t need to fight their instincts, really, because they know everything is reciprocated and their libido (not as in sexual drive but as in life energy) is matched in the other, they have trust over everything else, and this can also be shown in the only scene where Rie lays his head on Junji’s back, he’s supporting himself on his partner and Junji accepts it because relationships aren’t only fun but also healing and giving someone a place to rest. And Junji does his part and bandages Rie’s wounds, which @henlex pointed out as a Achilles and Patroclus reference, being these basically the top tier of gay love and companionship, when Patroclus died (represented by Rie), Achilles dies avenging him, asking for their ashes to be mixed so they could be forever one. So yeah, let’s yearn for something like this gays.

Finally, the trio. They’re the first ones to have their solo scenes, and you can see Love in the bathtub, he is naked and exposed, playing with some rosemary leaves (yeah I went to someone and asked them if they recognised the plant leave me alone). Rosemary used to be given to Aphrodite bc it was used as an aphrodisiac. It also represents fidelity. Yeah. So Love is playing with fidelity, basically. Many thoughts were thought.

Then, Nine and Mill are a continuous contrast throughout the mv. While Nine is inside and laying on the floor, cozy and reading, Mill stands outside in the garden looking at the window. I’ve said it before but I think it’s really important the way Mill’s character portrays one of the harsher parts of queerness that is that “other-ness”. You’re just an observant, and you want in and to be yourself with your friends and participate in those rituals, but something inside you doesn’t allow you to. In here, though, is not just ‘I want to identify with my straight friends’ but ‘I want to be free like these other gays, why can’t I do it?’.

Nine and Love’s relationship doesn’t really show a lot of romantic moments, in fact, I can’t really think about something between them that was, intimate and sensual? yes, but not romantic. Which is completely okay. Sex is not something bad, and gay sex is constantly demonized. Casual sex is okay and sex with friends and whatever, as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, sex is okay. So to me, Love and Nine are friends, the arm around the neck seemed casual and natural, they’re comfortable with each other, and they’re also comfortable with mill, as shown in the creek scene. They didn’t mind the audience (yeah this sounds kinky ik), both nine and love are pushing the boundaries, unlike kb. But pushing isn’t always wrong, per se.

Nine starts with the lyrics “leave it, libido, we’re like roots (…) mixing together with no rules”, while Love sings “don’t suppress it just accept it”. Both nine and love are clear with their intentions and instincts, their subconscious is not their enemy in any way, since both of them accept the relationship they have.

Meanwhile, Mill battles with his libido, but it’s not like Yoojung who has a partner that actually loves him, if Mill takes the chance and jumps, he doesn’t know where he is going to land. In the whole video, not even once Mill touches someone else, even if he desperately wants to (Yongsoo did a great acting work I’m still so amazed!!). The yearning and pining over Love, who pulls him in and gazes at him, is such a good concept, because even if Love is giving him all the signals that there is (he is with another boy openly, allows close contact and shows himself in front of mill), Mill will still doubt himself and what he is doing. Hesitation and all, he takes a leap of faith in that one scene where he approaches Nine and Love, and keeps eye contact.

Now here is where the controversial crotch grabbing scene comes, and both Love and Nine sing. They say they’re walking over shallow water, so it’s not risky, they’re not gonna drown, and there’s no one around and they just “keep walking”. They do their thing with no care of what others may think. But also, Nine asks “what you need?” And “why can’t you see the light over there?” now, maybe after the whole no compromises he did catch feelings for Love, but Love, playing with fidelity as previously stated, answers “I’m gonna go where I feel like going”.

And then we have Mill’s rap. He talks about how this ‘experience’ can’t be compared to anything else but it’s an experiment. Now I know a thing or two about downplaying queer experiences, it isn’t unusual for gay ppl to look at things our younger selves did and think ‘how did I even passed as straight?’. Mill, even after saying it was just this experiment, says “you’re already putting a period, that doesn’t end things”. So, my guess, since after that we don’t see them directly interacting unlike the other couples, is that it all fell apart. Love, having the upper hand in the whole dynamic, didn’t have actual romantic feelings for any of the other boys, and he left them hanging.

While a bit heartbreaking, I think it’s important to point out that queer relationships are just like straight ones, and sometimes they end up in ruins, and it’s okay and its part of growing and discovering oneself!

So yeah, that’s my interpretation. This is like 1500 words. A whole essay. Hyperfixation is a bitch. I need a girlfriend.

#onlyoneof #long post #isi rants #as always excuse my bad english #oh to have a gf so i didnt have to torture my followers w my babbling #if someone wants to give me their opinion and talk to me i will love them forever!!

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pinencurls · 4 years ago

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Kiss In The Kitchen

hiii okay so I have a couple one shots hidden away in drafts that I’m not 100% in love with but i enjoyed writing at the time so I thought I might as well share them :) Here’s the first...

You couldn’t be prouder of Fine Line and all you want to do is support and congratulate him, even if it means ignoring the insecurities one song strikes in you.

4k Words

At first, you listened to it (almost) alone, Harry's large headphones covering your ears as his new album played for you - you'd heard bits and pieces of it over the last year but never every song in it's finalised form. The second time you listened to the album you quickly adored was at its release party; a contrast setting to the quiet of the Saturday sun sneaking into your bedroom with Harry's earnest gaze set on you as you spoil yourself in his words - you could almost forget the album was written entirely about the woman Harry devoted all his love to before you'd met, it felt so private between the two of you. You'd visited the studio several times, lending your own advice when Harry met droughts of no inspiration and begged for your musical experience; You'd been in several small bands in your formative years, playing bass or drums, but had paused that particular pastime to focus on the reality of your career - writing took time in this industry, supporting yourself whilst avoiding the well of tabloid work was tricky, so far you'd managed to find little nuggets of gold in genuine, thought-provoking magazines and had begun to make a name for yourself, something you'd doubted possible in the harder of times.

You'd chosen to keep your lyrical advice to yourself when Harry called to you for help, however. You knew who this album was about, it was clear it wasn't you and that was fine. You didn't expect Harry to dedicate a whole album about you after 11 months together, all of which dating after he began writing it.

In private, sat on your bed and grinning up at him as his music played to you and you only - you were proud. You'd accepted the difficulties that might come with listening to your partner's rawest emotions for a past lover and had come to the conclusion that you'd appreciate his work simply because of how much he'd put into it and how well it'd all come together.

That was easy in private. It's slightly harder to remind yourself to separate the songs playing loudly all around you in the busy L.A club from all the not so hidden meanings behind them. Everyone Harry had met within the last few years of his solo career and long before that had come to celebrate with him. Busting bodies filled the large room, many already taking advantage of the bar. Almost everyone found themselves, slightly slurring, by Harry's side at one point of the night to tell him how beautiful Fine Line was, and the topics of each song didn't seem to go unnoticed either.

As you made your own rounds, you overheard the loud discussions about the mix of provocative, solemn and affectionate themes. Some of the group were apparently too drunk to see Harry's current girlfriend standing by as they cheered on his yearning and passion for his previous one.

It only got worse with press. You were still unbelievably proud of course, but Harry had to do a lot of press. Each interviewer cut straight to the elephant in the album. Camille was discussed, if not named by Harry, at length. You adored hearing Harry speak about his own personal growth and becoming comfortable in himself - but for every question about identity and fashion, came three about the clear sexual undertones and soulmate ideologies.

You were rational in your discomfort. You listened to Adore You and your other stand out favourites when you wrote, you understood and trusted that Harry had moved on, you'd been together for almost a year and he's told you weeks before then when you were just new friends that he knew he was ready again after months of working on himself.

You just couldn't deal with one song.

Breaking up and having sex you could deal with, you could enjoy the final work. They were normal things that people went through and wrote about. But the first sign of love? The sweet, endearing start of a relationship that he was so clearly ardent about - as if his feeling were a lot fresher than you'd imagine for a relationship that started and ended months ago.

Sunflower Vol.6 was beautiful, but as hard as you tried, you couldn't just see it objectively. You felt it so concentrated, and it hurt like fucking hell.

- - -

"Do we have any mango?" Harry calls from the kitchen, the click of the fridge opening quietly behind him. "Never mind found it!"

You smile at his domestic charm as you work on you most recent piece; it's been taking up a lot of time, creeping into your weekend which hadn't gone unnoticed by Harry as he had returned from the morning run you usually went on as a couple. A few moments later, after the loud whirring of the blender stopped, a pinky-orange smoothie is placed beside you and kiss pressed to the side of your head.

"When're you gon'a be done?" He murmurs against your ear, curls flopping down onto your own.

He's just finished his last week of press, ending with Howard Stern who seemed eager to remind Harry, constantly, of all the women he could have. You weren't particularly public yet so you couldn't really blame him for assuming Harry would be starting a new relationship soon. It just added to the frustration you'd been careful not to disclose over the long period of promo for the album.

"I wanna finish this today so we're both free after we fly back, I'jus need a little time alone, yeah?" A low grumble and a "yeah" was the only response he gave and he removes himself to the other side of the big living room to lay down on the sofa and slurp his breakfast.

Your deadline is Monday but tomorrow morning you're flying back to London and driving up to Holmes Chapel to spend time with Harry's family before he was away on tour for months so you were eager to be free from work.

Hours tick by, you're stuck in the spiral of the final edit. There were a few words that you couldn't quite tweak how you wanted them, as always. You got up to make lunch.

As you pass through the living room you expect to see Harry's body sprawled across the sofa napping, but only a bundle of throw blankets lay where he had been. His journal sits abandoned on the side table, propped open by a loose pen. You can see the scribbling of new song ideas and the beginnings of a poem, smiling to yourself you walk through to the kitchen - still no Harry.

Humming to yourself you open the fridge door, moving your hips slightly as you retrieve all the ingredients of a sandwich for you and Harry. Domestic moments like these were hard to come by in the midst of album releases and pre-tour prep, but you're looking forwards to the month ahead of you. No doubt you'll need some alone time after a week at his mother's house so you're being careful not to take any assignments for the rest of the month to make room for as many simple moments like this as possible once you're back in your London home.

Over the rustle of the bread packet and the crunch the lettuce made as you slice it, you can hear Harry's voice approaching from down the hall.

"Well thanks, mate-yeah..yeah we've gotta get drinks sometime it's been too long." He has the smile on his face that tells you it was another old friend calling to congratulate him on his album, probably a fellow musician from the early days.

Harry makes his way to your side, watching as you layer food into your sandwiches and steals a shred of lettuce. You can hear the other voice now - a clear English drawl you recognise as Ed. You've met a couple times and he's one of the most genuine men you've met, you much prefer him over some of the industry people Harry has to mingle with.

"Oh, dude and the mushrooms!" You giggle as you hear Ed laugh down the line at Harry. "I can't say I didn't guess something was up."

"Thanks, man - like what?" Harry chuckles back, sneaking more sandwich scraps as you slice a knife through them and dish them up.

"Um, the whole end of sunflower - are you really gonna do that live?" At the mention of the song, you feel your shoulders tense slightly. You're really trying to be a good girlfriend and support Harry - but that song just hits different, you trust Harry's love but you can't help but wonder if he has any feelings left over for Camille...

"If I have to!" Harry continues to joke, not noticing your discomfort or at least not mentioning it."Look, Ed, I gotta go but it was great talking to you"...

Harry's voice drones into the background as you take your plate and make your way back to your laptop, huffing as you're reminded of your own frustrations with yourself; he told you months ago that he's moved on, why can't you just believe him?

You can hear a quiet goodbye from Harry as he sets his phone down on the sofa and sits across from you at the table. Your laptop is still acting as a barrier between the two of you. You type at the keys, trying to look busy as you write and rewrite the same line over and over, sighing - you save and close the file and set your laptop aside.

"Not going how you want?" Harry asks.

"No, it is just...there's a bit I can't get to work. I just want to get this over with already." Harry thinks about what you've said for a moment before getting up and leaving the room - he comes back a moment later, setting a glass of water bedside your lunch and kissing your temple.

"Take a break love, you've been working all week you deserve it." He hums against your hair. "And thank you for lunch."

He's so sweet and chipper, smiling at you as he takes his plate out to the kitchen and returns to perch across the table from you, hand wavering over his journal as you finish your lunch.

He worries about you a lot. Normally over you working too much and not taking time for yourself or the amount of pressure, you put on yourself being overwhelming. It was in his nature to worry you remind yourself, you're trying hard to push past the hurt you can't quite let go of and the last thing you'd ever want was for him to feel bad about what he'd written so you'd managed to keep it under wraps. There was no need for him to be suspicious.

- - -

Your alarm goes off at 5am. Your flight is in 3 hours.

"Turn it off." You grumble, burying your head deeper into your pillow. The mattress dips underneath you when Harry turns, the duvet shifts as he slips his hand under and wraps his arms around you. "S'too early."

"I know." You love how Harry's voice sounds in the morning - rough with a soft edge. It's one of the first things you fell in love with; the extra degree or two the morning adds to his embrace, he's always quick to loop his arms around your middle if they've come undone in the night. His untamed and often tangled curls bristle against the back of your neck and there'll be a few moments of warm even breaths against your ear before he bounces up. He's very much a morning person.

"I'm getting in the shower y/n, I'll be out in a sec - get up yeah?" You mumble a slightly coherent response as he leaves the room, a towel draped over his bare shoulder.

Following a few moments of deliberation, you sit up. Unplugging your phone from where it lay on your bedside table, you check your notifications. Sure you'll be up in time, you open twitter.

Unsurprisingly, nothing much is happening. You scroll through a few messages from the day before until you come across a video of Harry being interviewed, he's wearing the thick red cardigan he recently bought so it must've been from this week.

You click play to see him smiling tiredly at the interviewer - you remember this day, you'd stayed up later than planned watching old toy story reruns then he'd been running around frantically getting ready the next morning. You lazily watch him answer a few frequently repeated questions until he's asked about the stages of romantic relationships that inspired certain songs. You expect the usual questions about songs like Adore You and Watermelon Sugar but instead, the interviewer takes a turn and seemingly voices all the concerns floating around your head;

"And one of my personal favourites: Sunflower vol.6, really captures the first realisation of love in a relationship, what lead you to write that song in particular, did you write from experience?"

"Thank you, yeah..I think that first really overpowering part of a relationship when two people are just starting to have these intimate, lovestruck moments together stuck with me and I-" You turn your phone off sharply. Your mind is spiralling with insecurities enough on its own without Harry himself describing how he first felt about his ex-girlfriend.

You sit against the headboard, mulling over the topic that has clouded your mind the past few days. You don't hear the shower turn off down the hall as you let out an angry grumble - it feels so shit and mean of you to be this way and you just want the clarity you had before this all happened.

"What's wrong love?" You look up to see Harry standing at the end of the bed. His hair is dripping onto his shoulders and he's wrapped a light pink towel around his waist loosely, concern contoured his face as he peers down at your huddled form.

"Jus' tired." You crawl forwards to climb out of bed, kissing Harry's cheek lightly as he stood unconvinced before heading to your wardrobe. "Honestly, I'm good."

"Okay..what's the time?"

"Uhhum-" You mutter as you riffle through a pile of sweaters. "5.30ish I think..check my phone"

You slip on a comfy pair of jeans and socks before you walk into the hall on your way to make you both coffee, there's a long pause from the bedroom before Harry calls down to you - 5.42am.

- - -

By the time the plane takes off, you're almost asleep again.

- - -

It's 7pm LA time when you step out the taxi delivering you home to your London house. It's almost 2 am here so despite your lack of tiredness you shuffle through the door behind Harry.

All your heavy luggage is left in the entryway as you climb the stairs up to your bedroom, eager to be done with jet lag and normal again by the morning.

You've made the mistake of sleeping the first 3 hours of the flight and now find yourself wide awake under the soft covers of you and Harry's bed. He always falls asleep as soon as he hits the pillow, and with how quiet he's been all day you assume he's already tired. Between your early napping and him being engrossed in the book he was currently reading - there hadn't been much conversation between you on the flight over. As you snuggle further into the covers you realise things have been a little different these past few days, maybe being so caught up in your own head with work and worries of your own you haven't noticed but there's definitely been a...distance. You're just not sure which of it is creating it.

The next morning you wake to the radio playing from a few rooms away. Sitting up you look around the room; your suitcases are still downstairs by the look of it and Harry's side of the bed has been slept in and now deserted.

"Harry?" You call out. There's some kind of foggy sadness seeping around you as you hear no reply. Maybe you're just tired but you feel you might start sobbing any minute - it's a desperate feeling that you're not quite sure how to quench.

"Harry.." You call again as you climb out the bed, slipping a large jumper on over your head, pulling the braids you'd plaited for the flight that had come undone and frizzy with sleep, over your shoulders. "Love?"

There's still no response and you're now on the final step of the long staircase. You walk quickly through the house towards a quiet humming you can just about make out. You must have gathered speed in your anxious mission to find Harry because as you enter the kitchen you slam hard into the doorway as you reach out to balance yourself.

The movement in his peripheral makes Harry turn his head, slipping the bulky headphones off his ears and slipping his phone into his pocket. He'd previously been slumped against the kitchen counter, lost in thought as he skimmed through his phone, forgetting the kettle as it boiled beside him.

"Love- oh, careful." He chuckles slightly before he takes in your expression. You must have started crying by now because he rushes quickly towards you. "Woah- woah what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself?"

The arm that had taken the full brunt of the doorway was now being carefully examined by Harry as his eyes scan you, searching for any harm. His hand comes to wipe at the few glossy tears on your cheek before he gently asks his question again.

"No I-I was calling for you..." You reply, equally confused as him by the whole situation.

"I didn't hear you love I'm sorry, what happened?" He's placed your arm back by your side now although his hands lingers around yours.

"...Nothing."

"Y/n, please just tell me. What's wrong?" He persists.

"No, I mean - nothing happened I just..." You mumble, how were you supposed to explain that when you woke up you felt terrifyingly alone and just needed to find him...to remind yourself that everything you'd let conspire in your head wasn't really happening.

"Y/n, I know something's up..the last week has been really busy I know but if something's wrong please just tell me, okay?" You think about it for a second before blurting out-

"Would you tell me if you still loved her?"

This doesn't seem to be at he was expecting, or you for that matter. The situation was uncomfortable - hearing your boyfriend sing about how intensely he loved Camille and how badly losing her broke him, but it was just music. You don't realise until you ask him the awkward question, just how much it had been bothering, or scaring you.

"What?"

"I just mean...Okay shit I don't mean that at all I'm just tired and I woke up and you weren't there and I just needed to find you I-"

"Is this what's been upsetting you?" His words aren't spoken forcefully, more...sadly. "T-this is what the phone call and the yesterday morning and...oh God the whole fucking flight! That's what you were thinking?"

"What phone call, what do you mean?" You don't know if he's angry at you or not, his hands are in his hair and he's got the mad look in his eyes that tells you he's either about to shout or cry.

"With Ed. As soon as he mentioned the album you left the room and, and! Yesterday, you were angry about something and then I checked the time and your phone opened on some video about the album and come on...you can't say everything was okay on the flight...we barely talked...we've barely talked at all this week." You're decided that the crying is a lot worse than the shouting. There's something cathartic that comes from shouting back at someone who's just as angry as you - but crying back at someone who's just as confused and upset? It makes you feel all twisted and uncomfortable.

"No..no Harry that's not it-"

"Y/n don't lie I-"

"It's not. I love your album and I'm so, so proud of you, and of everything you did to make it and I understand the importance of your relationship with Camille," Harry's huffing now, his fingers are tangled further in his hair and he's leaned up against the door frame close opposite you. "-This album is all about that time in your life and that's fine...Harry I love it, honestly, the album isn't anything to do with anything-"

"You just asked me if I still loved her!" He exclaims, staring wide-eyed back at you. "I don't give a shit about the album right now, you can hate it, okay? That's okay? But you asked me if I still love her...Y/n look at me."

Your eyes, tightly fixed on the kitchen tiles, tilt up to see his face. His eyes are red and splotchy and his hands reach out to hold you as he speaks again.

"I don't love her, I haven't in a long, long time. I had the ideas for all the songs about her before I even met you, you okay..you're the person I love and...I thought you knew that?" He sighs, hesitant before he starts again. "I thought you trusted me."

There's another pause between you as you mull your next thoughts over.

"I do."

He shakes his head, teary and angry.

"No you don't, if you did you wouldn't have asked-"

"It's just that fucking song!" You snap, you take a sharp breath in and swallow the lump in your throat - "I know that you don't love her, I know it but, when I listen to you sing - and talk, telling people about this wonderful honeymoon romance that even after years you remember so vividly and, and that means so much to you,I..."

"Track 9?" Harry questions, seemingly understanding everything you've just rambled. "Sun- oh baby no it's not..."

"I'm sorry I...It's a great song I just, whenever I hear it I'm reminded of how much you must have felt for her and, and remembered all this time to write about...what?" Harry's smiling now, he seems to be relived for some reason. His eyes are brighter, clearing slightly and he chuckles slightly.

"It's all my fault, I'm so sorry lovie I should have told you.." He scrambles. "I, I was embarrassed when I wrote it because we'd only just started dating and then you heard it a couple weeks later and it was too soon to tell you and then I just...didn't. I thought maybe you'd figured it out."

"What do you mean?"

"It's about...us."

"You told me you didn't write any about me though..."

"No, I said I hadn't written any you were going to see anytime soon...and that was, awhile ago." He smiles slightly, squeezing your hand in his. "There's another one about you actually too,"

"Harry you, you wrote it about us.." Harry hums a confirmation, bowing his head to press a kiss to your cheek. "I thought...what else did you write!"

Harry laughs now, catching your lips with his as you both feel each other relax - the tension and discomfort seeping away as you realise the reality of everything you'd worried yourself over in the last week.

You pull away, one hand on his chest and the other fiddling with the curls at the back of his head.

"Seriously what else did you write-"

"I'm not telling." He beams, leaning down against the firm push you send to his chest.

"I swear if you wrote a song about our sex life I-"

"Shhhh!" He presses a mocking finger to your lips to quiet you. "We better be going, don't wanna be late."

With that, he leaves the kitchen, you can hear his heavy steps rushing up the stairs and soon the house is quiet and the air around you is settled again.

There's a subtle hum of the shower upstairs that intrudes but nonetheless, the clarity's back.

#harry styles one shot #harry styles fic #harry styles fine line #fine line fic #harry styles #harry styles sunflower vol.6 #harry styles writing #idk what to tag i haven't been on here in YEARS #oop #well i guess that's it

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mrthomasdoherty · 4 years ago

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Favorite Kurt? Rank Season 1,2,3,4,5, or 6? And why?

Hi! Oh boy. Easy!

Season 4 is my favorite Kurt. He FINALLY got out of Ohio! He's THRIVING at Vogue. THAT HAIR?! That WARDROBE?! He wins fair and square against Rachel fucking Berry in a SING OFF?????? But not before SLAPPING HER DOWN WITH THE HAND OF GOD ABOUT DEFYING GRAVITY SOPHOMORE YEAR. Befriending Santana and making pacts with her?! Going through his first heart break and rising above it while forgiving and remaining friends with Blaine?! And also finding the courage to ask a guy out FOR THE FIRST TIME! My guy! THAT SELF-CONFIDENCE GROWTH IS JUST, MMMM!!! More of this please. More, more, more! Also good for him for getting into NYADA? They didn't deserve him, but he's happy so that's all that matters.

Then we have season 5 Kurt. His confidence continues to grow but he's also proving that he has faults during his growth period still (assuming Elliott is going against him for one thing - Kurt please, not everyone is out to get you). But he's still proving he's still not a helpless lamb who mindlessly goes along with things gladly like some people portray him as. He has dudes fawning over him (and me, I'm right there with them) so he's getting the hot damn recognition he's been owed for a while. He gets challenged with his relationship, and we actually get to see how he (and Blaine) handle it and CHEFS KISS. GIVE ME THAT ANGST AND GROWTH WITH FURTHERING THOSE STEPS AFTERWARDS, DUDE. YES.

Season 2 Kurt. Not AS sassy as season 1, but still proving he is stronger than he looks and can dish it well. Goes through hell to whole new extents of his bullying, but rises above in the end and is FINALLY HAPPY! He got to go to New York and fly on a plane for the first time! He got his first boyfriend finally! He got a new step-mom & step-brother! Good for him! And he discovers different hair styles that don't make him look as cherub, my boy is growing up into a MAN. Also, kurtcedes reigning supreme still.

Season 1! It's the sass for me. The comebacks. The 'I'm better than you, move' attitude that gets him through the day. The angst is beautiful as well. Also, CHEERIO KURT & FOOTBALL PLAYER KURT IN THE SAME SEASON. Also all the Kurtcedes. All of it.

Season 6 Kurt! HE. WENT. TO. THERAPY. He got his happy ending. He got a kid. He got married (not in a barn officially tho no fuck you glee writers, unacceptable. Where the marriage licence at? No where. It didn't happen officially here. Literally how the law works. Next). He's successful. He's winning at life. (Except with the hairstyle of the middle part and just Kurt no, that's why he's bumped down this low - that damn middle part. Kurt please). Could care less about returning to Ohio (though he is a better teacher than Rachel as he offers actual advice to Jane and Mason, instead of immediate validation which I am into). Walter exists, Kurt Hummel has a sugar daddy confirmed though so, good for him. Make him buy you all the things, dude. You deserve it.

Season 3. This isn't Kurt's fault. This is the writers fault for deciding he can't have anything this season. No lead in the play. No acceptance into college. No school presidency for you! Oh and someone is going to try and come for your man and belittle you constantly about how you're not good enough for him because you look like an old woman who dresses like a woman because lol original insults are original - did you guys know Kurt looks and sounds like a woman???? Also, your attempt at being supportive and encouraging is going to be shot down over a rendition of a straight guy singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! And you know the guy that sexually assaulted you, caused you terror, and gave you PTSD your entire sophomore/junior year while also threatening to kill you? Well, because you're a good person, he has decided he's in love with you now because you've shown him kindness like a human being. Then he's going to get upset when you reject him - because how dare you don't leave your boyfriend who just had eye surgery for HIM?? Ugh, Kurt, you're terrible! Let's make you feel MORE terrible by making YOU feel the guilt of your past bullies attempt at taking his life after you rejected him!! YAY! BOUNDARIES?! What boundaries?! Fuck boundaries! YOU SHOULDVE BEEN CONSIDERATE TO HIS FEELINGS, even if he hasn't been considerate of yours clearly up til this point. Not to mention - Kurtcedes who?! No, no, that doesn't exist this season. You're Rachel Berry's best gay this season and you only matter if it involves her now, okay? Okay. By the way, everyone needs to be reminded that you're GAY. Did you guys know he's GAY?! So gay, look at all the rainbows and unicorns. So gay Rachel wants to see her best gay in a bridesmaids dress too because he's GAY GUYS! He's soooo jealous that she's getting married her senior year of high school and he isn't because ugh he totes could get married in Ohio at that time right?! Besties4life!!! He has no other purpose except to be Rachel's BEST GAY!!!! Oh yeah, and he has a boyfriend but eh we won't focus on them too much - maybe...three episodes total. AND ONE OF THEM INCLUDES FIGHTING! Yes. Good. Only good thing to come out of this - you getting to be a lead vocalist in one competition! YAY! About time! Yep. That's all season 3 Kurt is. But he still looks good and has amazing performances as it's the season with my favorite Kurt solo. He's just background footage majority of this season if it doesn't involve Rachel so, there isn't much growth just pain. What a good senior year for him. Wow. I hate it. Return it, try again.

#Kurt Hummel #anti hummelberry #answered #I'm just really against season 3 - I went all the way off I JUST KEPT REMEMBERING HOW BAD IT WAS FOR HIM #just ew season 3

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nopperabounet · 4 years ago

Text

In celebration of a lovely drummer, on his birthday~!

May he get his wish, and continue to astound us for years to come!

~♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

音楽と人- PHY vol.15 February 2020 Personal Interview with Yagami Toll Text by Kanemitsu Hirofumi Translation by Lola

The year has closed with "THE DAY IN QUESTION". The final performance was a first at Yoyogi National Stadium, so how did you find that?

Shall I speak plainly? I haven't screwed up like that in a long time. Even I was surprised at myself. Like, "Woah! I'm so nervous!" *smiles*

Because it was your first time playing there?

Yeah. It being the first time, and I felt super pressured by the seat arrangement.

Those who are furthest back are rather far from the stage aren't they?

I could barely even see those in the back. I was worried about the acoustics too given the oblong shape of the hall. But you know Acchan's voice sounded great. I know because I had the ear monitor, right. Usually I always have the sound balanced the same way but, this time I had them reduce the vocals for me. Once they did that I kept thinking, "Oh, wow~ what perfect pitch."

Regarding the choice of songs, what sort of image were you going for?

I picked "Aku no Hana" and "Jonathan Jet Coaster" this time. I wanted to do songs with this fast sort of tempo while I can *smiles*.

You mean as a drummer?

Yes. Because I wanted to check if I could, so I put them on the list, practiced them, and was like looks like I can still manage these I guess. But when I look at old footage of "Aku no Hana" the tempo was super fast you know, even though we never used clicks back then. [1]

Now clicks are always used no matter the song, right.

The only song I don't use it for is "Speed". I seem to recall Imai feeling uncomfortable with the fact that I play it so perfectly. Like with the concluding outro[2] of "Aku no Hana" too, if I match the clicks too well it ends up sounding off. So at the very end, I just take my cue from listening to Imai instead. We've come to have each other's body language completely ingrained from the old days you know.

I see. It was a great live though.

It was. Even if I screwed up *smiles*.

And yet at the after party you were the one in the best mood *smiles*.

I don't really remember though. I think I drank until like 10 am the next morning *smiles*. Because I had all this adrenalin after the live, and once it was over I could get it all out, and just ended up acting like an idiot I'm sure. Because on top of it being the end of a live, it was also the end of the year right *smiles*.

What sort of year was 2019 for you?

We didn't do too many lives but, for one reason or another I was constantly practicing. There was also my solo, and recording after September, so it's not like I had much time to be idle. Which I'm glad for.

Because as a drummer it's bad if you don't continually stay in form right.

Yeah. I even talked about this in our autobiography, how in the old days, there was this period of inactivity due to being on house arrest because there were so many paparazzi we couldn't leave the house, and I went half a year without being able to play the drums which really made me become bad at it. Maybe if you're incredibly gifted then you'll be fine without practicing but, for a mediocre drummer like me it's not like that, I have to keep at it. So I begged for help. Now my drumming style has changed because I was taught by Kamiryō-kun (Kamiryō Wataru).

You weren't held back by your pride then, as a sempai humbling himself before his kouhai asking to be taught?[3]

Not at all. Because asking is one moment of embarrassment, but not asking would have meant a lifetime of shame. It's like how Bunta-kun from TOTALFAT can play 9 note tuplets, and even though he's like thirty years younger than me, I asked him to teach me how on the Vdrum[4]. I watched him so intently *smiles*. When I'm absorbed like that it's because I want to take it all in you know.

That's because you have a great drive to work hard isn't it.

I think we're all like that. Even space aliens like Imai *smiles*.

Ha ha ha ha. So what did you think about your new song "Datenshi" when you first heard it?

When I first heard the demo, I thought it sounded incredibly European you know. Because of the simple beat. But as I kept listening, I realized it was kinda off.

The bass is different than usual, like the beat placement is left out at times.

I thinks it's such an interesting approach isn't it? But if you don't have a flair for that sort of hollow feeling then it can turn out terribly. And yet it's something Imai ends up able to do all the time. Like with the demo of "Datenshi" I thought once again, "I knew it, this guy's no ordinary man." Like the song is hollow and yet it strikes with such impact.

That sort of beat is super fresh too isn't it.

It makes me happy as a drummer. I had a rough time with "Luna Park". Because it's dainty so I used my 1910 era snare. Made with real leather to boot.

Yours is vintage isn't it?

I used it in the past for "Tight Rope", and during one take I tore it. That's the thing when you use real leather, it can tear so easily. So when I used it this time I was nervous and careful with it *smiles*.

Did you think Imai-san was doing something new with "Datenshi"?

I mean, when I first got Imai's demo I didn't really get why it sounded European-ish right *smiles*. Then Acchan sings, and it's like oh I get it now, that's why it's like that, that's pretty good.

I see.

It's a good balance. We also recorded three songs, there's "Datenshi", and then another really nice medium tempo song, and then "Luna Park." Which is good because it's one of Hide's songs. Because even with age my kouhai are never stubborn or bumping heads either. I'm guessing it was the same even when Hide and Imai were classmates. Even their personalities, they've never been egotistical.

You're right. I mean it's what makes them so well cut-out for being in a band making music together.

It's why no matter what kind of song they do, you can say it's BUCK-TICK, and that's because we've come to do things honestly, and without conceit. I don't think it'd work between us otherwise.

Why do you personally think that you are able to keep doing things without being conceited, Yagami-san?

Because they won't let me *smiles*. If I start bragging they smack me!

If you let your nose get too high they're liable to break it *smiles*.

There've been times when I felt I was on the brink too you know. But that was during a time when I was in a slump, and I was worried about how everyone else was feeling, that they had to put up with me, that they had to support me, and when you're feeling like that, there's no way you can brag about it you know. I was going through a terrible period, I had all these things going on in my private life, and it damaged me a lot, mentally speaking. Like I had no strength left, and I felt terrible emotionally, so I think I was having a rather hard time living with myself back then.

The band wasn't a positive thing for you during that time then.

It was not, no. I wasn't motivated, and I was even completely unsatisfied with how I was playing to the point where I thought the band would be better off without me. It's why I was scared of going on stage from my early to mid forties, for real. I was truly terrified.

You're talking about during "Mona Lisa OVERDRIVE"?

Yes. Those were harsh times you know. I told myself that now was a good time to quit. Yuuta and our manager would have none of that though *smiles*, so that's when I started going to the gym, my form changed, and I even changed the kind of sticks I use, I tried out a variety of things. Stuff that I could do in my twenties and thirties I couldn't do anymore the moment I hit forty. I thought it must be an unlucky year for me *smiles*.

But you were able to recover.

Yeah. Because even though I felt like I must be such a terrible person, the other members were there for me, and so bit by bit those wicked thoughts of mine went away. Maybe with age too right. I don't grumble about it anymore because I've already come so close to quitting once *smiles*.

Now that you mention it, it feels like you have gotten way more calm during your drum solos as well.

Yes. I think it shows if you can look back at old footage, like in the past I didn't play the cymbal with my bare hands you know. But because John Bonham (of Led Zeppelin) had done it I thought it might be tacky if I did it too. But since I liked it, I dared to do it. If I think about what's influenced me, there's been a lot of things you know, so I started to think it's actually better when I can showcase that. Because that's what I want to see if I'm a spectator, not all my weird hang ups. So yeah, that's how I came to have my current drumming style. It's hard to end something without ever showing that.

It appears to be the same for the rest of the band as well, the five of you are aware of the end approaching as you do things, and I feel like it's that bond between you that continues to make you stronger.

That's what happens when you become old men together *smiles*. Like my father died at 70 so when I think about that, and how I'll be turning 58 this year, it's like I've only got twelve years left after that. When I think about the time I have left like that, it makes each live, every time I'm recording, and each and every moment I have that much more precious so rather than sweat the small stuff, I wonder what would be better for me to do for the band, what should I be showing others, and what should I be doing to make others happy, because I've come realize that's the only way to be.

It's the same for Sakurai-san, although his way of grasping it was a little different, he spoke to me about aging as well.

I think it's the same for all of us, so like if even one of us can't do this anymore, then we can't continue.

Not to be too relieved, but I did think of Led Zeppelin.

It's because BUCK-TICK is not a business you know *smiles*. Like Zeppelin put out "Coda" as a farewell album because it was something they could do even with someone missing.

I see.

That's the thing about being in a rock band right, you've got people with differences in skill. To put it clearly, we're the ultimate amateurs. But it's this nuance that means that should even one of us be eclipsed then we can't put out more. Just look at how Imai plays guitar, like where in the world would you ever find anyone else like that?

You're right, there's no one else like him *smiles*.

So it is often said, right? Even though Imai-san as a guitarist has been prolific, do you know why I call him a genius? To me, it's because he's unique. It's because no one else can imitate him, and the individuality he possesses.

You're right, there's really no one else alive with that kind of quirkiness.

There's plenty of people in this world who can keep time properly and play with a metronome. But how many are like, what even is time? *smiles* That's BUCK-TICK's groove though. We talked about this in the beginning right? How like with "Speed" and "Aku no Hana" there's this certain nuance that without Imai, without the kind of band member he is we wouldn't be able to create these things. I understand this now. It makes me so glad I didn't leave *smiles*.

Please, for my sake, tell that to the many bandsmen who are worrying *smiles*.

It is absolutely prohibited to leave this band! *smiles* And to think it's all because originally it was a punk band that got all these amazing guys together. So if we keep on going, it is because of who we are as individuals!

That's the power of persuasion *smiles*.

But I think that applies to anything, not just being in a band. It'd suck otherwise as a way of thinking.

Speaking of theories, now you guys offer a subscription service on YouTube so that people can listen to you on there, and you have snippets of song intros, but without the guitar solos, I wonder if it'll work in gaining popularity.

Even if that's true, maybe it will work to gain popularity so, wouldn't it be interesting to at least try it out?

Right.

I guess it's like they say, where there's a will there's a way so no matter what you do in life there's a mix of motivation and inferiority complex, and I think it's all about who you work with. That's how it is for us anyway. The five of us wanted to do this together but during our debut days we were utterly disparaged. And even though I thought things might be pointless, the other members were there for me you know. It's thanks to them that I'm able to be humble as well, and why I haven't become conceited.

Right. When I heard the tribute album, I felt that played a part in it because with other types of bands that sort of thing doesn't show.

Honestly, I just wanted them all to crush it. At first, I was just grateful for their participation but, when it comes to what I wanted, it was for them to crush it because I wanted to make them not worry about how much they respected us you know. So that's what I advised them. Otherwise it's like old karaoke right, there's no drive in it you know. Because it would be like a studio musician playing the drums. When I hear a song with that kind of nuance, it sounds like a complete rip-off to me *smiles*.

That is in part due to your being humble. And it makes the difference in why you will not be denied.

But it's also because of how we do things too, like isn't it also because we've come to study and learn? I thought it's because BUCK-TICK's way of making music has changed in style, because of course if we couldn't be transformative then it'd be bad right. At least that's what I think as the drummer.

As for you Yagami-san, what sorts of things would you like to do with BUCK-TICK from here, and where would you like to go with them do you think?

I'd like to be a feisty old grandpa.

A feisty old grandpa *smiles*.

And to be admired by the youngins *smiles*. I want them to see me and be like, damn he's old but he's incredible!

In order for that to happen you need to put your health first.

Yeah, no, lately I haven't being going for check-ups *smiles*.

Go, please!

But I haven't even had symptoms of anything! *smiles* Well, 'cept my drinking till 10am.

And that is hardly a problem.

Gotcha *smiles*.

[1]To use a click in music is to use a digital metronome to help musicians keep time with the tempo.

[2] The concluding section of a piece of music.

[3] Sempai and kouhai are terms that mean upper classman and lower classman respectively. A little bit like senior and junior in English, but the nuance is not quite the same. The dynamic between older and younger students varies greatly in high schools across the globe, but in Japan it is a relationship of respect and a sort of admiration in the way a kouhai would normally look up to their sempai. It's virtually unthinkable for a sempai to ask a kouhai for advice, which makes Toll's request a profoundly significant one in Japanese culture.

[4] Used for electronic percussion.

#buck tick #buck-tick #yagami toll #Toll Yagami

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artsandpoppy · 4 years ago

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Get to know POPPY PINK who’s THIRTY years old and works as the OWNER OF OUT OF THE BOX CRAFT STORE in town. She is from FLORIDA and is often times mistaken for ANNA KENDRICK while others say she reminds them of POPPY from TROLLS.

about:

death cw, cannibalism cw, depression cw, pregnancy cw, miscarriage cw

when poppy was still only just a few months old her mother was killed by a serial killer cannibal on a night out with her friends. the killer was caught a few towns over three weeks later and has been in jail ever since. because of this she was raised by a single father - peter “peppy” pink, the longstanding mayor of their small town trollsville, florida.

even though she grew up with only one parent poppy never felt unloved or neglected. the entire town practically pitched in to help raise her - she was always bouncing around from “aunties” and “uncles” places while her father was busy with work.

peppy pink is the absolute greatest man as far as poppy is concerned. she loves her father to death and always dreamed of one day becoming just like him. which is why she planned for the longest time to follow in his footsteps and become a politician. when college rolled around she majored in political science and double minored in business and arts - figuring that was a good balance of things she loved to do as well as practical studies.

in high school as well as college she was a bit of a party animal, out almost every night with friends - even for just small get togethers - and disappearing from home completely on the weekends, unless mayor peppy had an event he needed poppy to attend. in high school she was fairly calm in comparison to a bunch of her friends and fellow party-goers, usually only drinking maybe one or two drinks per party. but once college rolled around she started drinking more and occasionally doing drugs on special nights, like big concerts or raves, etc.

her junior year of college was when she met creek and her entire life changed. she’d had past relationships before, but none of them compared to how quickly and hard she fell for him. within just a few months of dating she knew he was the one.

and for a long time things were great, after graduating they got engaged but decided to wait to be officially married until his yoga studio was stable and her own political career had started to take off. she was working with her father and learning the ropes of being a small town mayor while her father still technically held the title. but even though they had decided to wait a few years, poppy still dreamed about the wedding everyday. she had scrapbooks planned and after a year of being engaged stumbled upon her dream dress and bought it without any hesitation.

about 2 years after graduation is when poppy found herself pregnant for the first time. it was the best news she’d ever received in her life and she and creek were over the moon (or like with everything else with creek - that’s at least what she thought) only for her to miscarry a few weeks after finding out.

that was hard on her and the first time poppy experienced one of her bad depressive episodes. throughout high school and college she’d had times were she’d get down and struggle for a day or two - but nothing as serious as what happened this time around. she was in bed for two weeks and struggled to even leave her room, much less the house. thankfully since she worked primarily with her father and other people she considered to be family, they all understood and she faced no repressions or setbacks at work.

there were a few pregnancy “scares” over the next year but nothing more than just a late period. each time it upset poppy, but nothing that lasted more than a day or two.

until it finally stuck and she found herself pregnant again. this time she made it through the whole first trimester and a month into the second, even found out it was going to be a girl and it was just when she and creek started thinking about names that she miscarried again. it was even harder than the last time, a surprise considering she had been told she was likely in the clear since most miscarriages are more common to happen during the first trimester.

this was absolutely one of the lowest points of her life. she took a complete leave of absence from work and didn’t leave the house for a month. none of her friends could find ways to cheer her up and she pretty much shut them out anyway. only wanting to be by herself or with creek.

after about a month she started to slowly recover, gained her energy and her appetite back. it was during this time that she completely re-evaluated her life and realized she wasn’t as truly happy as she thought. sure, she had her crafts, her friends, and creek... but was being the future mayor really what she wanted? or was it just her following along in what was always expected of her? with these doubts she decided to wait a bit before going back to work - choosing to focus on music instead

she became a local musician, playing at coffee shops and such whenever she could. the yoga studio was doing good plus she always had the trust fund her mother left her to fall back on, so poppy wasn’t worried financially.

it was great for her mental health and after a few months she decided it was what she wanted to do full time. a choice that she really had thought would make her life better, but instead brought it crumbling to the ground. because apparently that wasn’t what creek had signed up for. he had planned on marrying the future mayor, wanting to be the elite of the town himself, and when poppy gave that up it changed things for him - changed it so much in fact that he dumped her. called off the engagement and ended the relationship entirely.

the breakup was messy. real messy. the fact that he had cheated on her multiple times over the year was revealed, they both said horrible things to each other, and poppy went so far as one night destroying his yoga studio in a drunken rage with a baseball bat. it was the one time she actually got in trouble with the law, spending a night in jail but having the charges eventually dropped

to this day poppy still isn’t sure if he ever even loved her at all. it’s fucked her mentally a lot when it comes to relationships. she’s constantly doubting the other person’s feeling despite how hard she tries not to. it’s the reason why most of her relationships post-creek have ended. with her getting stuck in her head and overwhelmed and ending things out of fear and insecurities. even if she still loves the person, which she always does.

when poppy falls in love, she’s in love for good. even with creek, as much as she hates and despises him for what he did and how badly he hurt her, there’s still a part of her that will always love him. when you picture your forever with someone that isn’t something that just goes away.

speaking of falling in love - poppy falls super fucking easily. she has a small crush on almost everyone she meets. she’s at any given time harboring active feelings for at least one or two people.

but anyway - after the break up with creek, poppy started going out even more than before. partying or clubbing every night. it was during this time that she got closer to her high school rival barb - a girl she’d always secretly had feelings for but never acted on because of the rivalry that was between them. this party phase lasted about a year before she got a little tired of it. around that same time was when corona opened and she decided to make the move.

her childhood best friend, branch, who has been there by her side through every up and down of her life was against the idea of her leaving at first. but once poppy sets her mind to something there’s no turning it back, so he gave in and decided to move along with her. the two got a townhouse together on the island and each opened their own business - for branch it was a sports and camping goods store and she started up an arts and crafts one.

the arts and craft store has a whole area in the back with a few comfy chairs and two tables for people to work on anything they want! she also has a little stand with a “mini business” run by bubbles (it’s a pet psychic stand)

moving to corona is the best thing she’s ever done. it’s helped her so much, she’s met so many amazing people - some of the best people she’s known her whole life.

she still struggles with her depression at times, but she’s getting a better hold on it. she still also hella overworks herself, but that’s just in her nature and is likely something that will never change. about once every other month she has a crash day or two, where she does nothing but sleep and lay in bed - it’s a mixture of the exhaustion and sometimes the depression playing in, but most people close enough to her to know about her mental health struggles are aware that this is sort of her normal routine now

she has a girl band with barb and also occasionally performs at open mic nights solo - a part of her stubbornly refusing to give up performing out of spite against creek

a big stress baker as well as just a big baker in general - at least once every few month goes around to all the local businesses and gives the owners little treats because she likes to stay in touch with all of them

scrapbooking and kitting are her favorite crafty past-times, but she also paints and draws and does all sorts of artsy stuff

favorite colors are pink and purple. tho she loves a good blue too

pop is her top genre of music, but over the time of meeting people like barb and hickory she’s come to enjoy all types. but pop will always be her favorite.

she has the power of glowing. a guide to which can be found HERE

she has a bunch of minimalist tattoos which can be found HERE

#my ball of sunshine and love and music #with lil a sadness as a treat #intro

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