#those mashups were insane

[isupportkaylor]

I am shooketh.

[priestfrommidnightmass]

all of this ai discussion… ai is only good for ONE thing and that is making god awful mashups between random songs

[olderthannetfic]

Sending this to you specifically because I feel like you're the only normal brained person about this series.

I read Captive Prince a couple of years ago and liked it fine, as someone who doesn't have a strong preference for or against m/m and therefore isn't well-versed enough in its clichés to notice whether it reads like something full of cliché fanfic tropes. I really liked the use of language, some of the historical/political stuff, some of the ways that the characters are made complicated or unreliable.

The problem is, I've since coincidentally read most of the books that were Pacat's inspiration and. Well. Like 80-90% of the stuff in there has direct parallels in one of those. I'm not sure if there are more than three original thoughts in there.

I am not joking, if you read 1. The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolò by Dorothy Dunnett; 2. The Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling and 3. The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, you will find that some of the scenes were ripped off beat for beat, many jokes were taken and just lazily reworded, a lot of the character beats and arcs are at best a mashup of 2 or maximum 3 things from those books with the serial numbers filed off really poorly. There's a scene where some characters discover a suicide victim whose structure and descriptions are completely ripped off from another series, except Pacat fails to see what made the original scene so impactful. A lot of the pretty use of language is also directly copied from those, including some really really specific descriptors. It's so blatant!

And I don't see how people are okay with this! I know people who are fans of several of these works and they're totally cool with it! And honestly if it were some rando's unpublished original project I'd be cool with it too, but as a published beloved worldwide phenomenon with rabid fans? C'mon.

And another thing is, all of the other series mentioned above are balls to the wall insane. She just... she just made it bland. She took off most of the edge and reshuffled the elements into a fairly straightforward MLM love story with some light kink thrown in. It's not a BAD series, but I feel like I'm disappointed that someone read all my favourite books and THAT was their takeaway?

--

I started reading, got to the name of the series and burst out laughing.

And, wow, you brought up something totally new that I hadn't thought about! I'm impressed. Genuinely. Usually, I rant about all the reasons I hate the series while debunking the standard anti talking points.

--

I've read the Vampire Chronicles, but that was in the 90s and I read Captive Prince in like 2016 or after. I had zero recollection of common points. I haven't read The Lymond Chronicles despite years of hurt/comfort fans bugging me to do so, and I think I got like a chapter into the Nightrunner series before getting distracted...

The reason I found Captive Prince annoying and derivative is that it also reads exactly like the original m/m that was available when it was first being written, most notably the work of P.L. Nunn who was extremely famous for horny fan art but who also wrote some original m/m fantasy novels. The scene where they finally bone reminds me heavily of the one from... uh... what's the P.L. Nunn one where the prince creeps on that archer dude and he gets raped because of course and then the prince has to be ~patient~ and it's peak boring 2000s rape recovery tropes?

The rape backstory is not only lifted from Fushigi Yuugi (the author's fandom at the time) but is shared with basically 100% of original m/m from that era. It's sometimes the uncle, sometimes the stepfather. One single time that I can think of, it was the foster brother, but mostly it's that "funny uncle" type. Unless it's gang rape from a bad Gundam Wing fic. That was also everywhere.

Once somebody told me the author had previously shipped Tamahome/Nakago, I realized that they'd taken what would be a kind of unusual anime ship and made it a thousand times more boring by dumbing down the scary, tall general with the tragic backstory into an uke-appropriate waif.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there may be some inspiration you aren't familiar with, but it's the same story as what you said above: this is the blander remix.

--

As for why people are okay with this... honestly, most of the people who really adore the series whom I've talked to point to how it encapsulates the exact tropes and tone they loved in anime fic circa 2000.

As a fellow weeb, I loathed the tone of said anime fic circa 2000 and could not wait for tastes to change, so Captive Prince is a hideous blast from an unlamented past for me.

I think most people who love the series aren't familiar with its inspirations. Those that are may have consumed them quite a while ago and don't realize quite how direct the parallels are. Or, for the inspirations that aren't overtly canon m/m, the lure of it being Exactly Right may overshadow other things.

(They also mostly haven't read 90s fantasy doorstops that actually contain political intrigue, tactics and strategy. Captive Prince is a piss poor entry into this genre and should be recced for m/m, not this other stuff people constantly think is in there. None of these characters can reason their way out of a paper bag.)

More than any of that, there's a lot of love left over from when the series was a serialized original story on Livejournal in an era when we had vanishingly few original m/m works, especially long ones in a fantasy alternate world.

I think that is what gets it a pass when a new m/m novel presented as "m/m romance" or posted on one of the webnovel sites would be mocked for unoriginality. Many Captive Prince fans aren't (or weren't when they read it) all that familiar with the smorgasbord of original m/m available today. Many are unfamiliar with anime fanfic circa 2000, so this feels adjacent to the fic they've read but a little fresher... instead of like the week-old sardine tin I found it to be.

[joltiion14]

II episode 18 spoilers, BUT HERE'S A HUUUUUGE RAMBLE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

PAYJAY IS CANON PAYJAY IS CANON I'M FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT YAOI WHEN CAN I HAVE WHAT THEY HAVE

ahem anyways

episode 18 had me and my sister at the edge of our seats HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS EPISODE... KNIFE X MEPHONE4S GUYS GUYS WHO'S WITH ME... ALSO KNIFE'S SACRIFICE TO SAVE MARSHMALLOW CAME FROM SOME FUCKING PEAK CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. THEY COULD NOT HAVE KILLED KNIFE OFF IN A BETTER WAY THAN THAT. SPEAKING OF SACRIFICES, my boy mepad... MY BOY MEPAD AHAHGSHSHAGHH rest in peace I LOVE YOU MEPAD....

I wanna quickly point out how emotional I got when cobs started threatening and beating mephone4, as a victim of child abuse this hit haaard. they did great writing the dynamic with those two, it felt realistic even in a fictional world. I FELT SO BAD FOR MEPHONE THAT ENTIRE TIME I JUST WANTED TO HUG HIM FUCK YOU COBS.

also I may or may not be a box kinnie now. I GOT SPOILED THANKS TO A THUMBNAIL I SAW OF A LEAKED II18 VIDEO, SO I KNEW BOX WAS GONNA BE IMPORTANT, but holy shit I did not expect them to be one of the most relatable characters the SECOND they came on screen and started explaining their story.

I might get blocked by multiple people for saying this, but since the last 2 episodes, I've been shipping tacophone. HEAR ME OUT. microphone and taco talked things out some, mic forgave taco and understood her and gave her a chance to improve, and so she did, thanks to microphone willingly giving her a chance even after everything. sure, a relationship between the two would be toxic in the previous episodes, and I fully agree. But toxic or unhealthy relationships CAN be fixed if both partners are willing to try and repair their relationship. AND PLUS, THOSE TWO ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER I JUST AAAGHHHH.... I can't get over the fact that soap pulled the "if you hurt her, I will hurt you" kinda thing on taco, once microphone introduced soap to her. I developed a headcanon that mic and soap are like sisters about a year ago and I guess that goes to show some more now

anyways, I CANNOT leave out the fact that SUITCASE FUCKING WON. I FULLY EXPECTED NEITHER OF THEM TO WIN, BUT OH MY GOD DID SHE DESERVE IT. Her and knife both deserved it actually. It's hard to truly decide LMAO

anyways, mephone4 in that episode... I love him your honor he's my new son FUCK YOU COBS. anyways, just like mic and taco, he tried to fix his mistakes with everybody. he apologized to... EVERYONE. Even toilet , who genuinely was someone mephone4 didn't deserve as an assistant considering how much of an ass he was towards him in the earlier season. Even then, toilet stayed with him to the bitter end, and stayed loyal to mephone. And in the end, he got to see mephone4 turn into a better person. Even bad people with the worst backgrounds or childhoods can become better, and that's what Mephone4 did. he apologized, then made the decision to stay away from everybody and give them space after what he did to all of them, and I think that was amazing on his part. He didn't tell them what to do next, and let them all know that they were free, they always were. AND THEN WE GOT THE MASHUP BETWEEN ALL OF THE SONGS IN THE SHOW YEAAAAAAAAA

overall, id rate this episode AND THE ENTIRE SEASON AS A 49/40 (reference heh). Inanimate insanity has been my favorite show for many, many years and I'm so glad it got an ending as good as this one. I will forever be grateful for the show Adam, Brian, Justin and all the rest of the cast managed to create for us. Thank you. PLUS ALL OF MY DREAMS CAME TRUE

except for the fact that lightbulb and paintbrush didn't kiss when can we have that

[spade-riddles]

teamahwol asked:

Hey spade! Holyyground here again 😆 I’m in SHOCK after those surprise songs tonight, that was insane. I can’t believe she finally did Cassandra x mad woman.

I was watching the show and the piano mashup in particular really caught my eye. I’ve seen lots of conversation about Cassandra being about gaylors, which I agree with, but also it made me think of all the times gaylors have gotten surprise song requests, especially the time we had someone get a song request in August, and Taylor even wore a LOT of the same outfits she wore that night on August 17th (lover, folkmore, TTPD and 1989)!!

LINK

Thinking about that show sent me down a going anon rabbit hole and made me realize that we got this before the august 17th show

This one the other day:

And then THIS was the tweet TaylorNation posted right as the show was starting today:

All with the 🫵🏻 emoji!! She also sang IDSB tonight which was also a song she sang on August 17th. I can’t help but think the outfit choices tonight were on purpose, especially paired with Cassandra. I think it’s Taylor’s way of telling us that she sees us. 🥹

[ladyamanda123]

Okay…..I forgive the outfit repeats!

Those mashups were insane!

The implications of ILYIS x Last Kiss

If it’s looked at as a message to the fans, this being the second to last show…..if she does undeniably come out tomorrow, then tonight IS the Last Kiss. This is the last Taylor TM show. The last performance artlor surprise songs. The last message to the mainstream fans before she burns the thing to the ground.

🎶 I love you, I’m sorry, I never thought we’d have a last kiss, never imagined we’d end like this….

And then straight into TTPD x Maroon!!!!! When she paused in the TTPD and was moments away from revealing the mashup I yelled at my tv “Oh PLEASE be Maroon!!!!”

TTPD screams Kaylor to me and Maroon obviously does as well. Putting those together sent a message and I am here for it!!!

@taylorswift @taylornation We are ready! We will stay! Be free!!!!

🌈🌈🌈

[eerna]

Wait okay omg I would love to hear your thoughts about the Broadway Mulan Rouge because I also have many feelings about it, most of them disappointment unfortunately lol. It could've been amazing!! But I just!! I don't feel it like I felt it in the movie idk man

Yeah, I am the same... I was SO hyped when I heard that they were turning it into a musical, but in retrospect it is pretty clear it was never gonna be what I wanted it to be :(

THE MUSIC. To me, MR! has this very recognizable music style where it is a jukebox musical, but every song is rewritten and its accompaniment changed so that they all fit together with the soundtrack of the film. It's percussion heavy, it's piano heavy, very jazzy/mid century film music? If you know the songs and try to sing along, you will fail, because they're just that different. That's why it doesn't suffer from the jukebox musical curse, in my opinion. However, BMR! totally removed those stylistic changes and turned them all into pretty standard musical theater arrangements of pop songs, and they all overstay their welcome because they aren't even shortened. NOW it suffers from the jukebox musical curse, bc how am I supposed to take's Christine's "I want" song seriously if it's FIREWORK by KATY PERRY. The worst example of this is what they did to El Tango de Roxanne, the most iconic part of the movie. In MR!, it's a mashup of Roxanne by The Police (representing the Argentinian's tale) and Tanguera by Mariano Mores with original lyrics (representing Christian's angst over Satine). Both songs take turns and overlap, pointing out the parallels, rising in intensity until everyone starts screaming and crying. Absolute insanity. I don't know a single person who wasn't floored by this song when they first saw the scene. In BMR!, it's Christian's solo, which means no parallels, most of the song is Roxanne and the iconic Tanguera melody shows up for like 40 seconds in the beginning and in the end just so they can say they put it into the show. There is no rising tension, there is no overlaps, no development, it's just. There. Like yes you put it into the show, but pretty much all of its symbolism and memorable aspects are gone. And the jukebox issues are stabbing you in the eyes. WHY IS CHRISTIAN SINGING ABOUT A WOMAN NAMED ROXANNE. WHO IS ROXANNE. IT MAKES SENSE IF ROXANNE IS THE NAME OF THE WOMAN FROM THE ARGENTINIAN'S STORY, BUT IT MAKES NO SENSE THAT CHRISTIAN IS THE ONE SINGING ABOUT HER. God.

THE WEIRDNESS. MR!'s aesthetic is super interesting to me because it represents its aura of sex appeal and hedonism through the lenses of grotesque. It would have been super easy to put the sex workers into sexy outfits and glam up their faces and make them sing seductive songs on beautiful stages, but no. Their outfits are eye stabbing, their makeup is garish, and they're screeching and throwing themselves around violently on stages that are dark, kitchy, claustrophobic, and loud, while the camera switches every 2 seconds and your brain feels like it's running on fumes. AND IT IS SO FUN. The club looks SO nasty and SO fun and I wanna go there. However, BMR! doesn't want to alienate anyone, so they did... Exactly what I said. Everyone is universally attractive, the stage is very clean-cut and open, the appeal of the club is played completely straight. This is best shown in the production Christian writes for the club. I know that the play from the movie is not very PC so I totally get why they would change some of it, but... They turned it from a vibrant, oversaturated opera with enormous musical numbers that lends itself perfectly to the big dramatic finale taking place during its premiere into a THREE CHARACTER CHAMBER DRAMA. Like who tf signed off on this change. WHO. LET ME SEE. WHO SAID THAT THE FINALE OF THE ENTIRE STORY WILL BE SET IN A STAGE IMITATION OF A LIVING ROOM. GOD I AM SO UPSET.

THE ROMANCE. MR! works because Christian is a naiive, innocent, idealistic poet with grand ideas of love. THAT'S why Satine falls for him - he is completely different from other men, and he makes her believe love can be more than what she'd been given throughout her life. Also, he's never been in love, so everything feels much more real and intense for him. In BMR! he is a completely different character, an overconfident seductive sexyman. Why would he be any different than all the other men in Satine's life??? Because he can write good??????? She has met many writers before, as we know, so what makes this guy different????? And not only are we less forgiving of his bad actions because he is older and experienced, HE IS SO MUCH WORSE IN THE SHOW. In MR! he sells his typerwriter to buy a ticket for Satine's premiere to go see her one last time and scream at how horrible she is - bad, and horrible to watch. In BMR!, he sells his typewriter to BUY A GUN and goes to Satine's premiere SO HE CAN KILL HER OR HIMSELF ONSTAGE - absolutely insane and horrible and how tf did we get here. AND LET ME REMIND YOU that this version of the story DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE STORY CONTEXT OF EL TANGO DE ROXANNE, in which Roxanne's lover kills her, SO THEY REMOVED THE ONE BIT OF FORESHADOWING THAT COULD HAVE MADE IT MAKE SENSE.

THE REST OF THE WRITING. BMR! tried to give depth to side characters and their relationship with Satine, but that means they totally sidelined that Satine is a deeply unhappy person in a very unhealthy situation. They tried to make it look like she is choosing to marry the Duke (YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION, THE DUKE IS A SEXY SEXY GUY WHO WANTS TO MARRY HER IN THIS VERSION) without any pressure put onto her by the club, but that makes it all so much more boring. MR! is far from a deep analysis of Satine's friendships, but I thought that the little bits and pieces we saw were delightfully complex. Satine is going to become the Duke's mistress because he will sponsor the club, and everyone employed there will live a better life. Ziegler is her father figure, but he is also her pimp who is pushing her into the relationship. He feels sorry for her and obviously cares for her outside of their business relationship, but he is so deep in the "underworld life" that he no longer sees a way out for anyone. But when it becomes apparent that Satine can no longer withstand the pressure, that the life they are all living is something she can't deal with, everyone just. Helps her out. They bail her out of the tower, they threaten the Duke, they stand with her, it's not verbal, it's all in the actions. It's why we can have a grand finale where everyone sings and dances while the Duke is crying in the background. BMR! has the girls telling Satine they care about her and her telling them she will protect them, but they are completely useless in the plot. No one comes for her in the tower, and the play is a THREE PERSON DRAMA so Christian is the only one there to stand with her in the end.

THE PLAY. I already said most of my issues with it but just to point it out once more. There is nothing more annoying to me than a piece of media that's about a piece of media being written, and then that piece of media ends up unseen. Throughout MR! we see the play being written, we see many scenes being added, hear a ton of songs from it, the issue of the plot resolution is a big dramatic point, and the finale of the movie is also the final scene from the play. In BMR! we see one scene, the show's end, that keeps being repeated over and over again.

SATINE'S WHITE DRESS. It deserved its own point bc what the hell is this.

This is already super long, but this show annoys me so much I could legit keep going lol. Everything is worse. Everything is toothless and clawless. It's such wasted potential.

[pardonmydelays]

clancy tour (watching a livestream) essay 🙏

anon, this question made me so unbelievably happy omg. i just can't get around to the eras tour essay, however, i do feel the need to write, so we're doing this instead.

for the context: i woke up at 5:30 today to watch the livestream of clancy LA show. no, i wasn't there in person. but mentally i was.

please, listen to this incredible playlist while you read my essay (no one's gonna read, it mark my words):

i have decided we will just go through the entire setlist. i don't want to make this too long but i wanna talk about EVERY. SINGLE. SONG. let's fucking go.

OVERCOMPENSATE

so this is when i started crying. who the fuck cries on overcompensate, you would ask... well, me, apparently. i honestly think this is the best opener for both, an album and a show. this song gives me so much serotonin i can't even explain it. i'm always worried about tyler tho because his entrance looks dangerous (the jump, the jump, I AM TALKING ABOUT THE JUMP!). nothing bad happened tho, thankfully. i also noticed he was wearing the other version of clancy jacket today, the one with the hood. not that it's important, but it kinda is. for me at least.

HOLDING ON TO YOU

ok, so if you know me you probably know this is my ultimate favourite twenty one pilots song. and the live performance is even better with the crowd stand at the beginning (i swear to god, it's so incredible to me how much trust tyler has for the clique), clancy mask and lightbulb mic (you can tell tyler has a lot of fun with it), and my favourite part - josh's piano backflip during the bridge of the song. fucking iconic. what's not to love.

VIGNETTE

first thing i want to talk about is the insane transition from holding on to you to vignette. honestly, all transitions are so fucking amazing on clancy tour, it's impressive. now, tyler's little dance during this song is one of the most adorable things i've ever seen (he is such a cat omg) and and and! NEIL BANGING OUT THE TUNES!!! i'll be honest with you, because of this part vignette became one of my favourite songs from clancy and definitely one of my faves from this tour.

CAR RADIO

another one of my favourites. car radio will always hold a very special place in my heart, it's so relatable to me. it makes me so happy that we have a chance to see it being performed in clancy costume (and clancy mask!!!). and when tyler teleports at the end! (also i think he's wearing a totally different jacket in this clip which probably means he has three different clancy jackets, i have no proof tho so i'm just gonna shut up. the video is from LA night one tho. not my show). here's another clip, you can see how he teleported here.

THE JUDGE

ok, so for those who don't know, right before every show the fans in their incredible outfits are being filmed while singing the judge together and every night they show a different video of them singing first verse + chorus and then after that tyler comes out with his ukulele to finish the song. it makes me cry for no reason at all. yes, i cried today too (it just makes me so happy to see all the clikkies singing together and they all look so beautiful always). so what happened today? content warning glitch happened during fan video, you can watch it here, then blurryface tweeted this:

i am losing my goddamn mind over this, people on the livestream were losing their shit when this happened, I STARTED CRYING LIKE A GODDAMN FOOL BECAUSE I'M SO FUCKING EMOTIONAL ABOUT EVERYTHING THIS BAND IS DOING. ugh. i was so right to watch today's livestream. something's gonna happen soon guys. they are warning us.

(i added CUT MY LIP to the playlist but technically it's the judge/cut my lip mashup so there's really not much to say about it)

THE CRAVING + TEAR IN MY HEART

the transition. the goddamn transition!!! it's honestly so fucking cool and probably one of my favourite parts of the tour. i absolutely love all jenna's songs and everyone who says they should not be on the setlist, fuck you forever. in this house we stan all jenna's songs. i usually cry on the craving and tyler is being so silly during tear in my heart - this is my favourite thing in the world. plus, do you really hate the sound of ukulele???

BACKSLIDE

ok, i actually started crying as soon as i realized we're singing backslide now. i love this song so goddamn much, it means the world to me. at one point it was my favourite song from clancy. the chorus breaks my poor little heart every single time and live performance of this song is so emotional... especially at the end when tyler is on his knees (the video is not from tonight's show but it's my favourite one from backslide, please watch it, his vocals here are INSANE). it's like crying for help. i wanna kill myself now. i relate to this song so much. also, backslide is the reason i decided to buy clancy tour tickets, so there's that.

SHY AWAY

oh, thank god this one is on the setlist. you know how much i love scaled and icy and i think out of all the songs from this album shy away is the best one to put on the setlist because the live performance is always so fun!!! don't you shy aWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! the scream is absolutely fucking everything oh my god. actually, i just love when tyler screams. but don't we all.

HEATHENS + NEXT SEMESTER

ok, now don't hate me, please, but i was never the biggest fan of heathens (i don't hate the song, i like it, just not as much as the others. i probably wouldn't cry if it wasn't on the setlist). however, the transition (again!!!) from heathens to next semester is the best goddamn thing in the entire world and i am losing my mind every single time i come across any clip of this moment. please, watch it, this is everything!!! one question tho: i know tyler was playing bass on the platform for next semester and he didn't do that today, did he just stop doing this recently or is it because of what happened yesterday during the show? (not during this song tho, or at least i know nothing about it, but it seems like LA fans absolutely cannot behave and he was definitely being more careful today, more about it later tho).

ROUTINES IN THE NIGHT

oh boy, this is my vigilante shit for real. remember vigilante shit performance from the eras tour and how everyone was losing their shit when they saw taylor doing the choreography with this motherfucking chair? yes. it's basically that except tyler is fully dressed. which is even worse maybe (y'all know how i feel about his clothes for some reason). one of my favourite songs from the album, but after seeing the live performance for the first time i became absolutely obsessed with the song. i was genuinely scared today because this is basically what happened last night in LA (i swear to god people are acting like fucking animals) and i noticed that tyler was being much more careful this time: he wasn't coming so close to people, and honestly good for him. he didn't even let them touch him during this part. i can't blame him. i feel so bad for what happened. hope he's ok.

ADDICT WITH A PEN + MIGRAINE + FOREST + FALL AWAY

my favourite mashup in the entire fucking world. but before we get into it, please this is so fucking funny and adorable. so basically, before playing the mashup, tyler sat by the piano and he said "currently i'm temperature hot. so i would want to take my jacket off, i promise not to turn on all the dads tonight" and then this happened. poor guy didn't know what to do LMAO. he's such a cutie, please watch the video, he's so adorable i can't. he's also the funniest person on earth. back to the topic, the mashup... i am such a slut for their old songs and this mashup is absolutely fucking insane. the song i love the most out of those is, of course, forest. according to tyler, this song is so old it basically doesn't exist. fuck you, tyler joseph. i can't believe i'm going to hear it live tho, holy shit. i will be fucking SOBBING during this part, i just know that.

MULBERRY STREET

this is such a fun song to play live and one of my favourite moments. you can tell how much fun tyler has each time they play it, also this! this is everything!!! he's always so happy when this happens, he trained us well hahaha. it's so fun omg. can't wait to be a part of it. this has always been one of my favourite songs from scaled and icy so i'm glad they decided to keep it on the setlist.

NAVIGATING

get in, losers. we are entering the lore now. ok, honestly, this part of the tour is absolutely everything to me. torchbearer with his torch? and clancy jacket?? coming to pick him up so they can perform while dema is burning??? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA. oh my GODD. also, navigating is so special to me (i picked this url for a reason) and live performance of this song is fucking fire. watch it. watch the clip. just watch the goddamn clip, will you? we all know this song is on the setlist because of josh, so everybody say thank you josh. also you can tell tyler is very emotional about this song and i just wanna give him a hug. oh my god. i can't wait to hear it live. this will fix me (it will probably make me worse).

NICO AND THE NINERS + HEAVYDIRTYSOUL

the MOTHERFUCKING transition!!! i know i say this a lot but i am such a slut for all the transitions on this tour, oh my god. they are so good. also i absolutely fucking love how we're still in the lore and also, the visuals are absolutely incredible, and also, nico and the niners is one of my favourite songs (the one that got me into their music actually) and also heavydirtysoul live is INSANE and also-

MY BLOOD

ok, i'm sorry, i keep forgetting that this song is on the setlist. it's not one of my favourites (don't fucking hate me, i like it, it's just not my fave). i will be very much singing it at the concert tho cause it's so good live. not much to say about it tho.

OLDIES STATION

boy, here we go. so i started crying at the very beginning of the song and honestly i have no idea how i'm going to handle this live. i am so very normal about this song. it means everything to me. the worst part of it tho was when during the song tyler said "thank you so much for using our music. you've saved us in ways you'll never know". OH MY GOD. i started weeping even more. it's like... their music saved US but we also saved THEM and i need 3-5 business days to recover after that. good lord. listen, i love slowtown and i'm sad that it's not part of the setlist anymore, but i love oldies station a hundred times more and that was a good change me thinks.

FAKE YOU OUT + GUNS FOR HANDS

putting those two together just because i can and i will. vessel is such a great album and it makes me so happy that those two are on the setlist. screaming "our brains are sick but that's okay" with the entire arena is going to fix me, for sure. also, here's the clip of tyler messing up the lyrics (he basically went kjbufbfkkjejkebfkjk after that lmao). can't blame him. the rap part is so fast. i died tho. he's so funny, please.

LAVISH

i can't even begin to explain how happy i am to have this one on the setlist. it's the funniest moment on tour and i love watching them being stupid on stage. also, jOsH iS sHiRtLeSs. the walk, THE WALK LMAO. the best choreography you've ever seen. i just love seeing them so silly and happy and this is everything. i paid a lot of money to see this live. i'm definitely not gonna regret this.

RIDE

so the thing i love about this tour is that every single night while performing this song tyler brings a different kid to sing the chorus with him (it's the equivalent of giving the hat during 22 on the eras tour i would say). tonight we had an adorable girl named callie (if i'm correct). she did so well! also i was giggling so much when tyler said she's cute (he was giggling too hdshfbhekj). i just love watching him with kids, it's so sweet!!! also she had a great beanie with band's logo, i want one too. please watch the clip of them singing together!

PALADIN STRAIT

i was crying. i was crying so much, i love this song and the live performance is so emotional. i put the song bandito on the playlist, because there's this moment in the song where tyler is singing the bridge of paladin strait and josh is singing bandito at the same time and OH MY GOD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR THE LORE??? THIS IS SO CLEVER AND I AM LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND EVERY SINGLE TIME I THINK ABOUT IT. please, watch. this is sick as fuck. you don't understand. do you even understand? OR AM I THE ONLY ONE I KNOW???? i'm sorry i just can't i can't i am defeated i am absolutely insane about this part. also, the ending when they are showing the clip of paladin strait music video combined with other clips which looks like a flashback from clancy's life and his never ending battle with nico? the fuck??? and then we go straight to...

JUMPSUIT

the motherfucking coat. not gonna say anything else. just. the coat. oh dear lord. now i am temperature hot.

MIDWEST INDIGO

now my favourite part of midwest indigo is tyler taking off his coat very slowly. because he fucking knows what he's doing. but also, this song is so special to me. i know he wrote it as a love letter to ohio and i'm not even american but somehow this song always makes me think about my hometown. the live performance is so great. the beginning with the bass! he's adorable!

STRESSED OUT

"i don't want stressed out on the setlist it's so overplayed" kill yourself. i love stressed out because i have good taste. it's fun. it's a great song with great lyrics and you fuckers hate it only because it's popular. just shut up. shut the fuck up. in this house we actually enjoy listening to good songs. i personally want it to be on every setlist. if stressed out has no fans it means i killed myself. i'm dead. i'm gone. stressed out defender forever and always. also clancy tour version is incredible. just watch it and shut the fuck up.

TREES

again, i was so scared about my boys because of what happened yesterday in LA. people are fucking animals. i'm so glad, because tyler actually decided to call them out for this and seems like it was much better today. but still. guys please, behave, cause if you're not gonna start acting responsible they are going to stop performing like this. it's still insane compared to the opening night of clancy tour where people didn't even come closer until tyler told them to. i also just noticed now that tyler's t-shirt had black font today (the previous one had red font) for the first time. i think i was just too tired to notice this before. there's not much i can tell you about trees, because you just simply have to be there to understand. it's a perfect song to end the show (for those who don't know: they always close their shows with this one), it's something i experienced live once before and i can't even compare it to anything. i wasn't even crying. my soul literally just left my body. trust me, there's absolutely nothing like trees live. i can show you thousands of clips and it will never be enough. nobody does it like them. seriously. this is the moment. the moment of all moments. i am in fact crying now...

TO SUM IT UP:

great show. 10/10. would recommend. i'm going to see them live in 223 days. this is the thing that makes me want to stay alive. yes. i need to stay alive for this. whoever sent me this ask, thank you. it means the world to me. i need to talk about them because it's the only joy in my life now. they are the reason i want to push on through. also, if you made it this far, thank you. i love you. and i'm sorry.

[cosmiischillin]

Twilight Town: The Bad Luck Banshee

The bad luck magnet herself is Misery, no really, it’s her name. She’s probably the most popular character in the show aside from Ruby (and probably Frank and Len). She definetly represented the goth girl of the show rather than Ruby who was different between the show and her original character.

Misery was drawn a lot before I got to working more of Twilight Town. Hell, she had a portrait and profile done before everyone else. So I am excited to talk about her and my plans for her in the AU (and the sound of me laughing getting cut off)

The Fairy Woman

In my long long looooooooooooong research of monsters, Banshees might have been my favorite. Banshees are said to be “fairy women” in Irish and are female spirits whose screams were meant to signal that death was close. It’s never confirmed in the show but the fanon pretty much consider Misery to be a banshee (same goes for the rest of her family). I decided to add those original folklore elements to her in Twilight Town like her pale eyes that looks like they’re staring off to the distance or someone’s soul. I definitely want to go into more of her abilities or even other powers such as her ability to sense misfortune before it happens and even her insane pain resistance.

As for her family, I might expand on it more as her family being female folklore figures would be a lot of fun to look at. Looking back on it now, I’m really disappointed that most of misery’s family members are reused models of her or of other ancestors (And I don’t like thinking about Mildew’s portrayal as an extremely racist mashup of East Asian culture) As a kid I used to fixate on Yo Kai (Kuchisake Onna, Futakuchi Onna, and Yuki Onna being my favorites), La Llorna, Bloody Mary, Sirens, and Baba Yaga (I guess I was super into monster stuff even before Ruby Gloom). Though I want to do my proper research before I portray folklore figures from cultures I’m not apart of.

Design

To be honest, I never figured out why I made Misery Black Irish. Maybe it’s because when I first drew her, I gave her black features unintentionally so I kept that in. Or that in the show there were pretty much no BIPOC characters (and the shows portrayal of Romani and Chinese was…bad). When I posted her new look, people actually liked this version of her so yeah, I kept it!

As for shipping her with Iris. I wanted to do something besides shipping them with the twins (I was guilty of this as a kid). I found their dynamic cute and it was something different. Misery’s bad luck would have made it impossible to be with people but when there’s Iris, who wouldn’t even give a thought before putting themselves in danger, it’s sorta sweet.

I imagine Misery to be the one who warns the group before something that can end in disaster even if it ends up being a small inconvenience. I was heavily inspired by trad goth for her hence why her clothes are a bit more modern than her dress as a kid.

Origin and Background

Misery is a magic monster under the umbrella term Faerie, a type of monster most humans treat like cute mischief makers, except for a certain type of Fae, a Banshee. Misery’s whole family are shrouded in bad luck, being known as harbingers of disasters. Although in the past banshees could be seen as warnings or giving their grief to families in need, time passed to where banshees were feared and rumored to kill with their screams. They couldn’t hide away due to the forces of bad luck they bring.

Misery moved to Twilight Town when she was 8 as her family got ran out of another place by an angry mob. Misery soon moved to Ruby’s mansion when her family decided to move again and allowed her to choose if she wanted to leave or not. Despite her bad luck being, well, that, Ruby seemed to not mind. Almost like her cheerfulness and optimism made the bad luck seem almost sufferable.

Look at how silly she is.

Next Up: The Frankenstein Twins

[streets-in-paradise]

Why were Achilles and Briseis written the way they were?

The following meta is a contextual analysis of the movie, not necesarily a ship defense post.

In this opportunity i am going to present my personal interpretation on a few factors that I believe can help explain what remains to this day the most controversial point of the film: the romance of Achilles and Briseis. Keeping it short and simple, my arguments here will be mostly linked to the conventionalities of the film genre and the specific time period in which the movie was created.

In this case, not to simply shrug shoulders and confortably claim " those were other times" and dismiss the problematic aspect, but to list a few sensical reasons I find behind the choice regardless of how potentially problematic it was.

The purpose of this analysis is understanding the movie in context, not changing anybody's mind in what comes to the moral sanction in its reception. The reader's approbal or dissaprobal of the film doesn't affect it, because the intention is to merely provide a contextualized explanation.

That being said, let's begin:

-The historical/epic films that served as inspiration for Troy often include a precise formula that the pairing emulates in a synthetical way.

As pointed out before, the list of epic films inspiring Troy (2004) is endless. From subtle references in the scenery and costume design to direct copy in the use of tropes or character archetypes, this movie is like a summary of the whole genre. However, the particular historical context in its release made three particular titles the core influencies of the film.

These are Gladiator, Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Listing every single aspect in which Troy nurtured trying to replicate their success is worthy of an entire different meta, but here I will take one precise element to examinate.

In all cases, there is a warrior lead hero and a woman of nobility that find themselves tangled in political intrigue/war and have (or have had) some form of forbbiden love. Both Lucilla and Isabella find themselves contextually in between the movie's hero and villian, walking the thin lines of negociation while wishing for the insane emperor/asshole king's demise.

In Gladiator it's mostly a political alliance with a mere romantic undertone that comes from the fact that they had a past together, while in Braveheart the meeting through political matters is a gateway for romance. In contrast, Arwen's conflict comes from having to choose between her family and Aragorn in the middle of a war that has her kind leaving Middle Earth.

The Briseis of Troy is like an abreviated and more simplified synthesis for all of these. Outside conflict begins as soon as she is in the middle of Achilles and Agamemnon, the fighter-hero and ruler-villian that she equally challenges through their argument scene. Later, her inner conflict comes from having to choose between her family in Troy and her growing feelings for Achilles.

So subtle, yet so powerfull, the influence is so evident that we can even see a gender reverse of the Evenstar necklace moment.

The seashell necklace is a gift of his mother, who is rumoured to be a goddess. It's purpose on this scene is slightly similar yet very different as in lotr. Achilles is giving to Briseis a gift of possibly godly origins that represents him as he tries to compensate her for the pain that his vengeance has caused her. It's also an act of love, the last one they can share because he is allowing her to choose her family and leave to be with them.

This simple example ilustrates too well how far the similarities went in the strange mashup of formulas.

At the same time, one can point out that the principal deviation Troy took was having Briseis as the only woman arround. In both Gladiator and Braveheart a dead wife haunts the narrative and motivates the hero to seek revenge against the cruel ruler. In the case of lotr, the side love interest is the one that the context encourages in contrast to the one forbidden for the hero. The men of Rohan already respect Aragorn and Theoden shows himself supportive of a possible union between him and the obviously infatuated Eowyn.

Instead of a hero that oscilates between two women, the dead wife and the princess or the adequated love vs the impossible one, Troy presents the enemies to lovers dynamic product of Briseis' war captive status making her conflcted feelings oscilate through the story.

-The Sheik meets Titanic: iconic romances and sex symbols.

The casting of Brad Pitt in the role of Achilles was definitely an influence for the tone the romance adquired. If I had to describe the Achilles x Briseis romance without listing the influences I mentioned before, I would say " it's a bit like The Sheik with a Titanic ending" and I feel this is not entirely casual.

( Most evident paralel that can be made is that the Josh Groban song " Remember" feels pretty much like reverse" My Heart Will Go On". James Horner worked on both films, so maybe that played a part in this particular aspect but I am merely speculating.)

Valentino and Di Caprio were iconic in their romance performances, they made history in their roles, and both shared with Pitt the fame of being actors super popular with female audiences. I can't blame Troy for wanting to evoke a bit of that magic when the man doing the job is Brad Pitt. Back in the day, people used to popularly claim he was the most handsome guy in the world. His name is a synonym of male beauty.

I feel his Achilles does a good job balancing two contradictory goals the movie has for him: being the embodiment of an epic hero and seducing the audience through the romance scenes. In this point I want to add that the basic structure on the dynamic for the abduction romance is very similar to the one in The Sheik: civilized and outspoken lady that represents modern viewpoints gets kidnapped by a seductive man of savage ways. In a good kidnapper/bad kidnapper game with the antagonist, she discovers that she has fallen in love. In Troy it works as a sort of reactualization for this basic premise adquiring a different flavor when mixed with other elements of the film.

And here is when the most iconic moment makes so much sense:

This was the one part of the movie that made history. Not only the quote is beautifull, here is also where you get the distinctive flavor that is also a byproduct of the general themes in the film permeating the romance. Achilles proves himself to her above the mere act of rescuing her from someone worse.

While this is the response of Briseis.

She keeps challenging him because she was made aware that he can do better. Sure, she later sleeps with him anyways because that's almost an ineludible part of the charm in that scenario. In both cases, it is used as a sort of indulgent fantasy for the eyes of a (straight) fem audience expected to go crazy for the actor. Unlike in the 1920's, by the time troy came out spicy scenes are already a standard and I can distinctively point out those tend to be particularly prevalent on media about ancient greece and rome.

For tumblr censorship reasons I won't show a picture for the following claim, but the scene itself doesn't expose her as much as him. It's all focused on the beauty of Brad Pitt, in his seductive ways and how the girl slowly gives in to him. His naked body covers her from the camera, all we see its a glimpse of her legs and stomach as the lense follows the way of his hands undressing her. It's the same dangerous seduction feeling that turns the strong woman defenseless applied in an film age where you can show it on a love making scene.

Despite sticking to the basics, that oldass concept adquires a more unique modern feeling.

-For Plot Reasons: they work as a parallel with Helen x Paris.

From the beggining of the film, forbbiden love is the big topic of the film when it comes to romance. I know I have written in previous analysis that Achilles and Paris, through their selfish and romantic driven choices, become a parallel of each other. Helen, the willing runaway, and Briseis, the captive, are also made a parallel.

However, I want to go back a second on the specific way the behavior of Achilles directly mimics Paris triggering the war: he seduces the girl, sleeps with her, and decides he is ready to abandon his countrymen for her. While Odysseus tries to convince him out the rational way, the recriminations of Patroclus evoke the angry Hector who had just discovered the spartan queen in his ship. Fighting the war due to the reckless choices of their relatives, they die. At the end Achilles and Paris are on their own.

The trojan prince leaves Helen behind to fight and, when he gets the chance, avenge his brother, while the greek warrior is there for only love and remorse. Dreams of glory are behind him, he got inside the trojan horse seeking to rescue the woman of his affections.

It's a fascinating role reversal where, motivation-wise, Paris becomes Achilles and Achilles becomes Paris. This conclussion comes as evolution of the romances written parallelistically as side plots of the big family tragedy.

[atrwriting]

chapter six: the wolf and the dragon — gangleader!aemond x you

i need season two because i’m RUNNING out of aemond gifs

as always, warnings: no smut (it’s coming!!!!!!!) drinking, violence

your instagram was gaining some success, but not much. you didn’t think too much of it as you were a small town bar, already did fine, and you weren’t in the market to grow. your fliers for bands did gain some attention, which made you grow excited. you’d at least have the chance to grow your current crowd and that was what you were hoping for.

unfortunately… aemond’s nephew’s band did express interest in playing.

and they were good.

so fucking good.

jace had emailed you a live recording from the time they played at his mother’s club. a mashup of mary jane’s last dance, dani california, and sweet emotion. you didn’t even understand how they could perfectly mend not two, but those three songs so perfectly together. you listened to the recording three times because it was just that damn good.

“could you turn that off?!” aemond barked from his end of the bar.

you rolled your eyes. you just wanted to listen to music at the end of the work day. you were closing again, letting your employee go home early out of fear of their own safety. you hadn’t had any unwanted visitors during the work hours, but aemond and aegon kept up their after hours business and we’re coming in earlier and earlier. you were fearful for their safety, and fearful for your own privacy. plus, closing alone gave you time to think.

and listen to prospective bands.

“not a fan?” you asked, hoping he wouldn’t recognize that it was his nephew’s band.

“jace and his band play that song fucking everywhere and i can’t stand it,” he spat.

“it is jace’s band,” you remarked. “i want to allow them to play here… but i’m worried about what you said.”

“i knew it was his band from that first fucking chord,” aemond spat, slamming a hand on the bar top. “allow them to play if you want. i won’t be here if they come. i’ll send aegon.”

“if you don’t want them to play here, i won’t have them play here,” you tried to settle softly.

he smacked his hand once more on the tabletop. “did i say that?!”

you were clutching the broomstick tightly in your hand, taken back by his reaction. his one eye had flames selling within it, all directed at you. his teeth were almost gritted, his nose was scrunched, and his jaw was clenched so hard you thought it would break. he was a predator, ready to attack.

and you were done. absolutely, one hundred percent done.

the bar was clean enough, you decided. you placed the broom against the bar, and immediately left the area to the kitchen. as you passed by him, you mumbled “moody fuck,” and left.

he didn’t follow.

thank the gods.

aemond’s attitude lately had stuck an insane thorn in your side. for a man who was in charge of so much, you would think he would have the ability to handle it more. then, you realized… he had way too much on his plate.

you kept your business and your house small because you realized wanting less meant less problems. you had the luxury of keeping your lifestyle minimalistic — in comparison to the rest of your family’s lifestyle, that is — because you chose to step away from them. it wasn’t easy to step away from them, but no one needed your attention anymore. your grandfather was dead, and your youngest cousins were all grown and off reaping the benefits of whatever the City of Westeros had to offer kids their age and of their name… you had the luxury of only caring about yourself.

aemond? never. his brother was probably a worse thorn in aemond’s side than aemond was in your side, but nothing would be a worse thorn in aemond’s side than his own bouts of pride and loyalty. aemond doesn’t lash out unless he’s angry or stressed, or both…

but it wasn’t your duty to care.

no. it wasn’t.

you went out of your way to make him food. you went out of your way to tell him about jace. and you went out of your way to tell him jace didn’t have to play at your bar.

you can only go out of your way so much when someone won’t get out of their own way.

you thought a shower would clear your thoughts, but it didn’t. you scrubbed furiously at your scalp, arms, legs — everything, but there was no amount of soap that would rid you of the uncomfortable weight on your mind. you left the shower with a sigh and a towel wrapped around you, and exited the bathroom.

and there was aemond. in your living room. staring at the wall.

“seven hells!” you cried, grabbing at the towel to keep it on.

“keep your voice down,” he mumbled, turning his head to face you.

you would’ve thrown your hands up in disbelief if you weren’t clutching a towel around you. “what do you want, aemond?”

“i was hoping you were watching bad sitcoms again.”

you stared at him as he stared at you. “you broke into my apartment because you want to watch sitcoms?”

“technically it was open,” he stated.

you rolled your eyes and retreated to the bedroom to get dressed. you threw on a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt and came back into the living area. aemond was already flipping through channels, so you decided on making dinner.

you left your spot on the couch and retreated into the kitchen. you fished around for ingredients, settling on steak and leftover pierogis. sometime during the short course of ruffling through the contents of the fridge, aemond had parked himself at the bar of your countertop. once you had placed the ingredients on the countertop, you looked at aemond and gave him an eye.

“i was going to offer take out,” he stated. then, reluctantly, he mumbled, “a peace offering.”

you rolled your eyes at his comment. “you’re shit at apologies.”

you didn’t wait for his response. you turn around and fished another steak out of the fridge.

you started on dinner. getting off of work early meant you had a little more time and energy to actually nourish yourself, and you weren’t going to waste it. the second steak was reserved for another night of dinner this week, but you had little to no energy left in the tank when aemond was in a bad mood.

after a half hour, you plated yours and aemond’s food and set it down in the coffee table. you sat cross-legged with your plate in your lap and ate silently next to him. he hummed along to things he found funny, but otherwise he didn’t make a sound as he ate.

“how’s the rat poison? i thought it complimented the onions in the pierogis,” you asked jokingly.

he hummed again, a small twitch in the corner of his mouth. “divine.”

“did you just smile?” you asked, laughing slightly. “i didn’t know grumpy could do that.”

he scoffed. “i’ve never seen snow white.”

“speaking of snow white,” you began, “where’s your other half?”

“my drunker half?” he scoffed. “nose deep in some broad, most likely.”

it was your turn to scoff. “your brother’s sexual escapades sours my food.”

“you asked.”

“fair.”

you had finished half of your food, setting down the rest of the food on the table. you would’ve offered it to aemond, but he was still munching on his.

“not to sour your food, but are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”

“i didn’t plan on it.”

“cryptic,” you quipped. “but i’ll let it go. you’re in a… good?… mood — now, at least — and i don’t intend on wasting it.”

“smart.”

you hummed in agreement and leaned back against the arm rest of the couch and curled into a ball on your side.

“don’t dogs curl up like that?” he quipped. “a stark after all.”

“shut up, grumpy,” you yawned, too tired fight him.

it would’ve been smart to stay awake, yes, but in your position… rarely ever getting sleep… you’d risk waking up to a knife to your throat if it meant a good night’s rest.

so you fell asleep.

near the scariest man you had ever met on the planet, who was also eating and watching television on your couch next to you.

it would be some time before you woke up. the man actually had some manners, believe it or not. he sat quietly and peacefully next to you, on the other end of the couch, and didn’t try to annoy you or wake you up as you slept. little did you know he probably also considered you grumpy, so if you benefitted from a nap, then he did, too. purely selfish aemond, as always.

that wasn’t to say his brother was as respectful.

the other targaryen came crashing into your apartment.

your eyes drifted open as the drunk blonde, clutching a vodka bottle, stumbled into your living area and stood next to the television. he glanced at chandler bing before his gaze rested on the two of you, your food, and then back at you.

“are you two on a date?” he slurred, grin wide.

“i’m going to kill you for waking me up,” you grunted. “i’m worse than aemond when i’m tired.”

“we know,” aegon laughed, sitting down in one of your chairs. “is there any food left?”

“eat mine, and let me sleep,” you grunted.

he grabbed the plate and set it in his lap. “i actually have something important to tell the both of you,” he said, shoveling food into his mouth.

“what is it?” aemond asked, already annoyed.

“you two weren’t the only two people of stark and targaryen blood i saw together this evening,” he began, mischief in his voice. “i spotted jace and y/n’s younger cousin very close at the club.”

you opened one eye. “which one?”

“the brunette one…” he began. “elia?”

“seven hells,” you grumbled. “i thought she had a boyfriend.”

“a new one,” aegon snickered.

“we knew they broke up,” aemond began. “how did you not?”

“i’m not venting unless you do, grumpy,” you grumbled.

and with that, you fell back asleep.

* * *

the next night would be the night that jace and his band played.

should you be worried? yes. were you worried? also yes.

but aemond gave you the go ahead, more than once, and you hoped him and his brother would be on their best behavior.

little did you know almost all of the targaryen clan would be there that night.

that included daemon and rhaenyra.

supporting their oldest… or some bullshit.

the band had pulled a huge crowd, you had to admit. the music was even better in person. jacaerys was a fantastic guitar player, and his abilities as a lead were undeniable.

…to everyone but aemond, that was.

his knuckles were stretched white over every beer bottle he held.

and he was slamming them back.

over and over.

he didn’t appear drunk, but he did appear more angry with every passing note from his nephew.

“i told you he didn’t have to play here,” you curtly reminded as you leaned over the bar, taking his empty.

“and i told you it was fine,” he quipped.

“do you need a time out upstairs?” you rolled your eyes, turning away to fish out another for him.

too late, unfortunately.

the man had left his seat at the bar and found his brother and sister in a booth, along with their mother and grandfather who came out for the event.

you figured it wasn’t to show jacaerys support, no, but aegon and aemond.

you didn’t know much about the pair, but no one could deny their loyalty. it would almost be heartwarming, if they weren’t scary as ever.

you could tell a lot about a person from the type of drink they ordered.

otto hightower promptly approached you after seating his daughter and family. he asked you what kind of scotch you had and looked at you as if he was looking through you. you answered you always kept a bottle of chevus handy in support of your grandfather, and he smiled. when he tried to pay, you told him it was on the house. he lifted his glass to you, and left.

from that… you could devise he was a man who esteemed himself on the fact that he enjoyed the finer things, even though you swore it tasted like molten chocolate. scotch: the drink of old sophisticate men who wanted to look sophisticated. who was going to tell him that he was at a dive bar?

later, he asked for a glass of rose. you could see alicent looking on your interaction out of the corner of your eye, and you assumed it was for her. you respected a woman that liked rose. light like white, but bitter like red. maybe it was your own bias, because you also favored rose, but there was just something admirable about a woman who fancied white wine, no matter how many snobs turn their noses up at it because it’s not red.

that was also on the house, which otto barely thanked you for.

that was expected of scotch drinkers.

soon, the set had ended and you began cleaning up behind the bar. your wait staff had done a great job of cleaning up as the night went on, so you didn’t really have a use for them once the customers had all left. the event had produced a generous tip out, and they all left with smiles on their faces.

you just hoped you would, too.

but the targaryens liked to linger.

and so began your anxiety.

you were wiping down the bar top when the famous guitar player finally approached you. he sat down at a stool, and turned towards you.

“what did you think?” he asked.

“better than the video you sent,” you admitted. “i don’t think i’ll ever get tired of that three song mash-up.”

“thanks.” he smiled. “i hope it drew the crowd you were hoping for.”

“definitely. i have your band to thank for that,” you replied. “can i get you something to eat? you must be starving. drink?”

“is your grill still on?” he asked

“yes, what can i get you?” lie, but you’d let him slide.

“can you make two double bacon cheeseburgers?” he asked. “my brother should be showing up soon.”

“coming right up,” you said with a smile, ducking behind the counter.

when you had returned with the burgers, you met eyes with jacaerys as he was standing next to a younger man with similar features. you smiled at the two before setting down the food.

“smells so good,” the younger one stated before he began chowing down.

behind him stood his mother. she patted his head warmly, and then lifted her head to look upon you.

you forced a smile. “mrs. targaryen.”

“rhaenyra, please,” she spoke. “thank you for letting my son play tonight.”

you shook your head with a smile. “i’m thankful he wanted to play here. the band was great. he’s a fantastic player.”

she nodded in thanks. “daemon told me of his visit with you the other day.”

your smile threatened to fall. “the samples were great.”

her eyes lit up. “i do hope you like them. i also hope we are still in business together.”

you smiled. for real this time. “never doubted it. can i get you anything to eat?”

“no, thank you, though,” she spoke softly. “and thank you for feeding my boys. if luke doesn’t immediately eat after work, his attitude is horrendous.”

you laughed when the younger boy scowled at his mother. you continued making small talk with the targaryen matriarch when you saw jacaerys and lucerys snickering at their food, making a comment about bacon. aemond, who wasn’t that far away from the pair, as he spoke with aegon, both looked upon this interaction. you saw jace and luke look towards their uncles, and the snickering continued.

harmless kids, you rolled your eyes. you went back to rhaenyra, but aemond had made his appearance. he clapped a heavy hand on jacearys’ shoulder, demanding his attention.

“great job, nephew,” he spoke, an unnatural cheer in his voice. “great show as always.”

jace cleared his throat as rhaenyra stiffened next to luke. “thank you… uncle.”

daemon targaryen, the snake he was, could be seen edging closer to the situation as aemond continued. however, he did not intrude as aemond continued, “i’m sure your father would be proud if he could be here today.”

jace’s lips pursed as he nodded sharply, hoping to return to his burger.

luke looked on sharply at this interaction, and suddenly you realized it wasn’t harmless anymore.

“aemond, can i get you something to eat?” you tried to interject, hoping to diffuse the situation, no matter how rude you might have seemed.

rhaenyra cleared her throat, joining in, “yes, you should-“

but she was interrupted.

“no, sister,” aemond bit, but with a smile on his face. he slapped a heavy hand on luke’s shoulder as well, his grip tight. “i am simply telling your sons how strong they are after the loss of their father.”

jace immediately whirled from aemond’s grip and pushed himself to stand in front of his uncle, with only a few feet separating them. luke was up as well, running to a nearby table to grab something, but aegon had grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him against the table top and held him down. helaena, the sister, could only watch in horror as her nephew lay face down on a table at the hands of her brother.

“aemond,” you warned. “stop. now. you should eat.”

“y/n, you’re being quite rude,” he laughed with an edge to his tone, turning to face you. “i am simply telling my nephews how proud of them i am. for some reason, they’re not proud of how strong they are.”

“i dare you to say that again!” yelled jace, balling his fists at his side.

“were you not taught respect?” aemond laughed once more. “being called strong is a compliment, nephew.”

jace lunged for aemond, but aemond didn’t move. he let jace strike him across the cheek, and still he barely moved. he looked upon his nephew with a wicked, small smile, and shoved him to the ground before he could stand over him. the look of fire was once more present in aemond’s eyes, but all of the targaryens had that fire.

including daemon targaryen.

“wait, wait…” daemon approached the space between aemond and jace.

daemon sighed, and gave his infamous look of boredom as he stared at his nephew. his glare never wavered, nor did he blink — he simply stood there, over his step-son, in the line of fire with aemond looking as if he was ready to pounce. daemon lazily clasped his hands together at his midsection, and looked upon his nephew: a dare.

aemond, usually the predator, looked upon daemon with weariness. the calculations behind aemond’s glare startled you, as you had never seen aemond look upon someone as if they were an equal — as if they could best him. he was turned to the side, instead of baring his whole chest to daemon like daemon did to him.

aemond was in defense mode.

aemond was afraid of daemon.

rhaenyra had ushered her sons outside sometime during the stare down, but all time seemed to fade as you waited for the next brawl to take place.

to your surprise, it didn’t.

for once, aemond did what you needed him to do.

he turned, and stalked out of the bar’s back entrance.

- - -

tag list:

@hopebaker @iiamthehybrid @chainsawangel

[thetreestumptherapist]

Why the flood is so terrifying

Here is the flood terror post I promised yall.

I was going to include a star wars - halo mashup post in this one, but I feel that would make it too long.

Also, this is the post that I made the "accidental deletions" post about. I am still in pain...

The Flood is a zombie. But, it's a different type of zombie and in my opinion the best and most terrifying zombie to this day. If you have any suggestions for a more terrifying zombie after reading this post, please do let me know.

Lets start with it's infection style. It has 4 main forms, the infection forms, the combat forms, the growth pod forms (idk what those ones are officially called), and the Gravemind. The infections forms literally eat their way into the chest cavity and corrupt from the inside out, growing mass so fast that the unfortunate victim's head pops off and sticks out the side, and the infection form takes its place. That alone is terrifying. Canonically marines have killed themselves so they didn't have to deal with this thing. The flood corrupts you like a cancer, and it corrupts at ungodly speeds. If you are infected, there is no cure. You are gone in seconds, turned into a hive-minded killing machine. In some cases the flood won't immediately take its host's mind, but will instead slowly infect their mind while digging through it for information, essentially absorbing the victim's mind into it's own. Also, Graveminds are able to store information at an external source, so if it gets destroyed, and another one gets made, it will have all the information from the previous Graveminds. This thing has decades to centuries of information on humans and the other species.

Now let's move to its attack patterns:

On little battlegrounds, it overwhelms you. The flood is a numbers game. It throws hordes of infection forms at you, and uses combat forms to disable/occupy you so the infection forms can take over your body. On the larger scale though, the flood is terrifyingly smart. It goes for utilities, governments, etc. It takes out the electricity and moves around in the dark. It takes out figures of power, causing disorder and mass chaos, leaving the people confused, scared, and easier to attack.

(This is the point I had to retype from because I accidentally highlighted and deleted like 2 paragraphs (-_-) also I'm not gonna get the same wording I had before which annoys me immensely)

I once saw a youtube short where a person said the flood could take over the earth in just 7 days. 7. Days. one week. over 8 billion people. With each infection adding to the Flood's army, spreading faster and faster. Eventually forming a Gravemind, and corrupting the Earth itself. Probably forming a super flood capable of slip-space travel on it's own. (I had to look this up on the flood wiki to make sure I had some facts right, and found out that there are sub-forms as well. And I couldn't find much on the super flood form, other than the fact that this form is actually only theoretical) (Also, having read some of the wiki, that's some super fascinating and morbid information on that page. If I'm not careful I'll end up in a wiki deep dive and forget to finish this post. Highly recommend reading it) It is insanely lucky that Chief and Thel were there when the flood attacked because earth wouldn't have stood a chance without them there at the moment of infection. In the words of Rtas 'Vadum "One single flood spore can wipe out an entire species."

(This is where I had written to, before the deletion. From this point its all new stuff) (I can't remember what I was going to say after this point either and I'm really mad)

Rtas was ready to glass the entire earth to make sure the flood didn't spread. Honestly, i can't blame him and fully understand why he would do that. The flood took over High Charity in a matter of hours. And took only a few days to make a hive out of the city. The flood took over an entire Covenant city in HOURS.

I think it's important to mention that the Flood is one of the only things to ever make Chief feel truly scared. I don't remember where I read/saw it. It may have been in a skimming of the flood book (I want to read it but haven't had time), but I read that the Chief wasn't scared of much at all, but the flood, it scared him. Like, he was genuinely afraid of it.

Flood Fun fact: the flood is actually caused by corrupted Precursor dust which caused madness and mutations in those that came into contact with it. I thought it infected a fungus first and then spread to animals and humans, but I guess not because I can't find anything about that. I did find that the humans actually experimented on animals with the dust, and then went mad themselves. I guess I have a lot of reading to do.

Speed summary on the background of the precursors and the dust: they got in a war with the forerunners and almost got wiped out so they became dust that was supposed to reincarnate them later but it got corrupted and started infecting people and eventually became the flood we know today

The articles I have done my best to research and fact check with for this post:

Look at how similar the flood looks to the precursors.

I have exhausted my words for this post. I can't think of anything else to say without giving the ENTIRE history of the flood and while I'm sure most of you wouldn't mind that, I feel that would be too much so I included the links to the wiki pages in this post. The flood is the most terrifying enemy I can think of from a realistic point of view. Like, if we had to fight this thing irl, we're all screwed. We could handle possessed animatronics, we could handle jedi and sith, we could even handle the covenant, (barely, but I think we could do it). But, the flood? We're toast.

[suddenly-stickmin]

I saw you answered my ask, and I totally will reblog it (planning a little something), but I just want to ask, I’ve been listening to the Creaks OST, and I love it! Do you have any more video game OST recommendations?

RARRRGHHGGHHG IM SO HAPPY TO HEAR YOURE LOVIN THE CREAKS OST!!!!! Seriously I think it's one of my top favorite OSTs to listen to whenever I need some music while I draw/write, or if I need inspiration for a very specific tone. It's just oogoughughugh soooo phenomenal. As for other recommendations!! I'll suggest some that immediately popped into my head when I first read this question! Night In The Woods - This game has a wonderful soundtrack, it's also another game where I'll put on the complete OST as background sound. But my two favorite songs out of them all have to be: Astral Alley & Astral Coal , specifically these two versions [which I've provided through the links!] where the creator mixed and matched different instrument tracks to see how they'd sound & what emotions they'd evoke. Honestly I think they accomplished their mission perfectly, I swear this is the only version of these songs I listen to and there's certain segments throughout them that just go insanely hard.

Super Paper Mario - Another fantastic game with an equally fantastic soundtrack. Honestly I need to give it another listen cause it's been a little while, but some of my favorites that came into my mind instantly were: The Ultimate Show, The Woah Zone [especially 1:30 and beyond, something about that repetitive 'falling' sound is just so perfect to me], and Memory [a very very beautiful mashup of multiple songs throughout the game]. THIS VERY SPECIFIC SONIC SONG --> Solaris Phase 2 ITS LITERALLY SO PERFECT FOR IMAGINING AN INTENSE FAST FIGHT SCENE BETWEEN TWO OR MORE CHARACTERSSSS RAAARRGHHGH NIGHTS JOURNEY OF DREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!! PROBABLY ONE OF MY OTHER FAVORITE OST TO LISTEN TOOOOOOOOOO ESPECIALLY THE BOSS MUSIC Some of my personal favorites: Drifting Donbalon [something about those voices that come n go throughout this song is just sooooooo fantastic], Queen Bella's Ball [SUCH A BANGER SUCH A BANGER I could listen to this one for eons], and NiGHTS and Reala [Specifically from 1:25 to the very end, it brings such an ecstatic and freeing feeling it's just rhaogughurhgsdjgjfddg melts its so awesome]

Definitely recommend giving any of these bad boys a listen! Thanks so much for askin!!!

[queennai714]

Random hcs I have because I may be cringe but I'm free part 27 (Ninjago)

More platonic oppo (but still mostly Kai centric) because their friendship has infected my brain (strap in, it's a long one)

Ok so this one is kind of a mashup of 3 different headcannons, the Chinese Kai hc, the "oppo are best friends" hc, and the one im gonna talk about here that possessed me to write this in the first place, but hear me out-

(Tbh, this could take place at pretty much any point in the series but I usually imagine it somewhere between seasons 4 and 8)

Just take a second to imagine, Kai peacefully going about his life as his proudly bilingual self, until he realizes: outside of Ignacia, its insanely rare to find someone who speaks Mandarin.

This, in turn, sparks two more revelations: One, that just makes the fact that he was born and raised speaking Mandarin all the more cool, and two, that he would have virtually no chance to use/show off his first language with someone other than Nya or Zane, and he would only ever get to use Ninjargon.

This motivates Kai (desperate to keep his spot as one of the most cultured on the team) to learn THREE more languages, those being French, Italian, and Spanish (as any reasonable person would do)

The only person he ever outright tells is Wu (seeing as he's fluent in like every language ever so he's great to practice with) and he mostly keeps it a secret from the others so that he can keep surprising/impressing them by pulling another random language out of nowhere whenever its needed.

What he didn't expect however, was how Zane would react.

Turns out, being a total bookworm and a literal walking computer means that not only does deciphering other languages come easy to Zane, he also absolutely adores studying languages in all their forms. So, when he heard from his friends that the criminal they were supposed to go question didn't know any Ninjargon and that Kai had managed to hold the rather intense interrogation entirely in French, he was beyond delighted. Once he had finished cleaning up after dinner he practically ran to Kai's room to talk, and of course, he immediately insisted Kai do all his explaining in French for the rest of the night.

From that day on, anytime the two of them wanted to have a private conversation and couldn't just pull the other to the side (or, more commonly, if they just randomly felt like it) they would simply start talking in one of the four languages and fall into easy conversation with the other as if they hadn't just simultaneously stopped making sense to anybody else around them.

TL;DR (and the simple seed from which this essay of a hc was born)

Kai talks shit about people to Zane in different languages

[library-child]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

Thanks for the tag, @thefinaljediknight

How many works do you have on AO3?

Four

What's your total AO3 word count?

10,370

What fandoms do you write for?

A Series of Unfortunate Events/All the Wrong Questions by Lemony Snicket and The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Associates (A Series of Unfortunate Events/All the Wrong Questions)

Without Shedding a Tear (The Secret Series)

Unsafe Territory (All the Wrong Questions)

Places (A Series of Unfortunate Events/All the Wrong Questions)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I usually do in order to show my gratitude that someone took the time to leave a comment.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's either Places or Without Shedding a Tear. I can't quite decide which one oozes out more misery.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Associates. Well, to be fair, it's been my only fic with a happy ending thus far.

Do you get hate on fics?

Fortunately not.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't write crossovers, but did imagine some insane mashups of basically all the media I ever consumed as a kid. And sometimes, I scribbled them down. Those were dark times.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. Is that a thing?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

I don't ship. Romance isn't my genre.

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I am lucky enough to no longer have such a thing.

What are your writing strengths?

Definitely dialogue. Give me two arguing characters, and I'm happy. Conflict, story, it's all there.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions. They're the curse of my existence.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This one is tricky. I haven't written dialogue in a different language from the rest of the fic before, but I'm not an English native speaker, so you might say I'm writing dialogue in another language all the time. Thoughts? Dialogue is the easy part.

First fandom you wrote for?

Depends on how you define writing. Technically, it was a children's book called Peter and Anneli's Journey to the Moon, for which I scribbled down my ideas for a sequel when I was six. (Again, dark times.) The first fandom I actually published for was The Secret Series.

Favorite fic you've ever written?

What a cruel question! How can you expect anyone to choose between their babies?! If I absolutely had to choose, I'd probably pick Without Shedding a Tear, because it was the first fic I published, the one that ignited the spark. And because the Secret Series fandom is so tiny it needs some extra sympathy.

Tagging (no pressure), @volunteerfelinedetectives, @dragoneyes618, @acacia-may, @jacobsnicket, @accidentallylita, @cleverqueencommander, @tangentiallly, @sianitha-snicket, and whoever else wants to play!

[eurekq]

movie review time again

Blade Runner 2049 (2017): Mixed thoughts on this one. Sets and backgrounds were gorgeous, but there was a certain quality lacking in the lighting that made it feel like the characters weren't fully in those sets. Would have liked to see more bounce lighting and neons actually reflected on the characters. Also: can we talk about how weird this film is about women? list of major female characters that i remember in this movie:

AI housewife whos first scene is literally her cooking dinner and then she dies and then he stares at a giant naked copy of her

Handler who is vaguely antagonistic but then takes his side because shes in love (?) With him and then dies

Pet sexbot of the ceo creep. Dies at the end from agent k literally holding her down beneath him to drown

That naked lady who Jared Leto pets creepily and then murders while commenting on her lack of reproductive capabilities making her useless

Prostitute who gets in a snippy jealousy convo with ai housewife and does one (1) plot action

Harrison Ford's dead wife whos extra special cool and awesome because she could give birth

Harrison Ford's plot device daughter who gets to actually talk like twice

I hated Joi I'm sorry. I think she probably came off differently in 2017 when AI girlfriends weren't actually a real thing yet, but in 2024 it's just. Deeply pathetic. Also that sex scene with Joi, Mariette, and Agent K was just weird. Not because of the body mashup thing, that was cool, more the fact that we didn't get to see him take any clothes off at all. If I can see both of those women getting sexy with it I deserve some Gosling ogling.

I very much did not like the main plot revolving around reproductive capacity as a qualifier for humanity. It could have worked if it was framed differently imo but in its actual state its just. strange (I have a version of this movie in my mind where the replicant sex workers get more focus, Wallace is a woman, and Luv is a man; Mariette would be the love interest as K realizes over time that Joi is literally a corporate product who is hitting the limits of her programming. but don't get me started) On a completely different note so much of this movies runtime is just Ryan Gosling staring with dead fish eyes at the camera making no particular expression. These go on far too long and force you to confront just how obviously asymmetrical his eyes are, which you will never be able to become unaware of again. Overall plot was cool though I guess. Good movie for background noise, lights, and colors to leave on during a party. 4/10.

Also, hey, uh. Why did this movie have a black man named fucking Mr. Cotton who was using (mostly white) orphan children on masse for free slave labor. what was up with that. i felt insane.

Duck Soup (1933): I'd never seen a marx brothers film before this one, but both my roommates grew up on them and i was deliriously tired so I agreed to watch. And now I understand them on a deeper level because now I know they were raised on comedy where the basis is just fucking with people for no reason. Genuinely solid comedy, points docked for one completely out of left fucking field racist joke. Requires a very specific type of audience if you're going to put it on for other people. 7/10.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): One of the rare movies that I just haven't been able to bring myself to finish. Got pretty far into it because my boyfriend really likes it and wanted me to watch it, but guys. I hate this movie so god damn much. Jim Carrey is the worst fucking romantic lead ever. He has zero charisma and comes off as just awkward, not in like a cutesy way, but in a genuinely pathetic kind of way. Kate Winslet is trying her best to make the god awful character of Clementine work but she just comes off as the worst person you've ever met. Every moment they tried to show me of those two being together I would turn to my bf and be like "why the fuck would I be rooting for them these people are terrible" and not even terrible in a fun way. Like I don't like Jim Carrey's character but literally he was in the right to be mad about someone crashing his car while drunk, like what the fuck? Why did the film act like he was crazy. There is only one character in this movie who's actually any fun to watch and that is Elijah Wood being a little freak with hilariously bad facial hair. I loved watching that little gremlin. i hear the ending is quite good but i just couldn't make it there I'm sorry. 2/10. at least there was a little shitty guy.

Life of Brian (1979): It's Monty Python. Not a lot more to say. Girls with bush rep in this movie though, so awesome. Was curious what Jewish people think of this movie and on the whole it seems to be positive, with some people saying their rabbis regularly quote it, so I don't feel as iffy about it as I might've otherwise. Some pretty funny pastiches of leftist infighting. More coherent than Holy Grail, which I love, but less funny overall, but the bits that I did really like topped a lot of Holy Grail's bits. My personal faves were the Latin grammar one and just the entire ending, which has to be one of the funniest endings I've ever seen to a movie. 7/10, one point removed for really obvious brownface at the start of the movie. Come on guys

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024): I wanted to watch this one for the set design, which aimed for a faithful recreation of Kowloon Walled City, and I wasn't disappointed. The plot in general is kind of bizarre though; the first, like, 75% feels like a pretty grounded historical crime drama with your standard amount of martial arts movie cgi flips and twist punches and stuff. The last quarter though. In a setting entirely removed from magic. One guy randomly has spirit powers. This becomes the focus of the action for the entire ending of the movie. The guy with powers isn't even personally involved in the beef between the leaders of the triad and the main character, which was the main emotional stakes for a lot of the movie. Genuinely kind of bizarre. The powers are pretty par for the course for these movies, it just... was so absent for so much of it that I wasn't expecting it when it happened. I kept turning to Seb and going "WHY DOES HE HAVE SPIRIT SHIELD. WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS" anyways now I'm sad again that KWC was torn down rather than preserved as a historical site. Visually stunning movie with incredible set design and great costuming with a pretty good plot that goes off the rails in the last act. Still a boatload of fun and a good one to put on for friends that like martial arts movies. 8.5/10