#very unlike me to be this impressed with my own art usually I just kinda hate it:))

[bees-of-chaos]

/Revivedbur wip/

I'm actually so insane for this???

I dont usually post wips but this one is just so??!?? <33

[incorrect-arknightsquotes]

Okay I am feeling kinda insane so I have to spell everything out

I have a theory about Lappland

First of all I'm sure she has connection to Laterano and that's why.

1) Skin

So her skin from Bloodline of Combat "Refined Horrormare". The one in which description written "The outfit Lappland wore at the Laterano Apostolic Knights' Funeral Memorial Hall.

Even two years ago , I was confused about what Lappy to do with Laterano. Why does she visit the Funeral of Apostolic Knight?

The thing about BoC skins is that they have usually heavy lore. Mountain leaving RI, Beagle dying, Executor tracking down Artoria, and past of a lot of operators. Right?

So about Lappland's skin. We see her wearing this clothes in IL Siracusana, and a lot of people, especially wiki-writers think that it is that big moment skin's introduction written about. BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

First of all it's nowhere near Laterano and other skins if they have a very direct connection with place and event.

Also quotes in this skin

" Collect the debts, and pay the price."

And

"Is that all? That's all our lives are worth. I told you, everything you've taken from me, I'll have you repay. In full." - is quote from Lappland and people(on wiki) think that she says it to her father, BUT BUT she didn't try to take a revenge on him in event. Maybe in the future, but unlikely. She stated that she doesn't want any connection with Siracusa and said goodbye to him, not trying to hurt. Hardly counts as repaing, right?

Also also in whole even she never showed as much hostility or better say vengefulness? Even her fight with Texas felt more like friendly rematch.

And I don't think anyone or anything in Siracusa could cause her such emotions if she leaves it so easily.

BUT WHAT IF THERE IS SOMEONE IN LATERANO WHO CAN CAUSE THEM?!

So I am sure we will have Lappland in Laterano

Okay sorry moving on.

2) Her belt

Her belt has number "1911" on it and IT is a year when last Newfoundland Wolf was killed, but in contrast with Texas her family is fine. So kinda weird isn't it?

So maybe this number has a double meaning

And you know what else happened in 1911?

M1911 was designed.

And I mean Sankta's and their guns, right?

3) Sweets

It's almost nothing, but second thing Laterano is known for is their sweets and Lappland kinda mentions sweets a lot?

Her notorious voiceline with mentioning of mille feuille and which she given to Exusiai and tried to give to Texas. Her keeping chocolate (of course it's maybe more about Texas). This stickers

Kinda suspicious isn't it?

So like she has connection to Laterano definitely. But what is this connection?

Well my theory is that her mother was Sankta.

And my arguments, I do have arguments!

1) Sankta's offsprings with other races don't bear any physical similarities with their divine parents, so her being Lupo doesn't contradict this theory

2) She is one of only two Lupo operators who deal Arts damage, and she was stated to not have any training with it, using Arts with just raw talent alone in her file. And Sanktas are well known for their impressive Arts controlling abilities

3) Also the end of her file

For a long time we thought it was Texas about Lappland and about her family. But now after Siracusano we can see that we mistaken a lot. First of all she lost her family not because they are dead, but because they threw her away. Also she didn't forced Doctor to choose anything yet. Doctor even wasn't present in Siracusana. Also know I'm even doubting if it was written by Texas, because we seen them interacting in Siracusana and they are fine. Weird as fuck and deadly to each other, but fine. If Texas truly believed she is that dangerous she would try to keep PL as far away from her as possible. But she isn't

So whatever this file states it going to happen in future.

And I think she will revenge for her mother.

It is a very weak theory I know, but I can't stop think about it.

So if you have your own theory about Lappland's connection to Laterano, please, I am begging, tell me.

[smoothielenny]

Bearly see any Norm or Max and seeing artists reader got me thinking of this

Unlike Spider in some ways Reader respect the people of the tribe and not try to be liked them but try to understand them ( like Steve Erwin on how he respects the animals and people) and they went to a solo adventure to draw more plants that haven't even documented in her art book and one day she came back kinda late and they holding something and it's few jars of bry dyes, and when asked where they got it she just said " I meet a small group of Na'vi in my adventure and they seem to liked drawing so we trade one of my art book with these "

Turns out they meet different type of Na'vi who wears a type of skull mask due to the high altitude they travel with their large flight companions ( bigger then the banshees ) that been traveling, and they seem to be very friendly as they view reader as a just a child despite being a sky demon, apparently these Na'vis are very allusive and private individuals but willing to learn of things that Pandora have to offer with a open mind

Dora, Dora, Dora, The Explorer

I couldn’t think of better title lol.

“Norm! Where is (y/n)!?” Max yelled. Max and Norm is like your parents, they deeply care for you. Max is mostly the worried one while Norm is more focused f that chill dad. Norm scratched his head responding with ‘I don’t know’ Max just sighed and face palmed himself.

“I’m sure she’s around, you know how she is, always on adventures.” Norm calmed Max, but he wasn’t having it. What if you accidentally went to the enemy’s territory? And got kidnapped by them? What if this time you got lost? These ‘what ifs’ is messing with Max mind and it’s making him crazy.

While you ‘dad’ is having a panic attack, you were walking around the jungle, actually opposite where the enemies territory are, so basically you are safe. While walking you saw through wood some Na’vi, you thought it would be some Omatikaya who is in hunting, but no, they look different. The clothing seems a bit similar, but they were wearing a mask. A mask that looks like a skeleton (luckily not a human skeleton). You walk further to them make a crisp noise from stepping at a dried leaves. They all look at you way, they took their arrow and bow and on their defensive mode. You gasped and put your hands up causing to drop your sketch book and pencil. Your breathing started to go faster. Nervousness is crawling up to you head.

“I…I’m not a threat I swear.” You said in Na’vi. They were shocked that a human knows their language though they didn’t back down yet.

“I’m a friend, not an enemy.” You said slowly. They all look at each other and finally lowered their weapons. You sigh in relief from this, but now feel intimidated, you don’t know what to do after, but you just asked, “are you part of Omatikaya?” They said no and answered with ‘We are not, We are mountain people.’ You nodded. They were about to leave, but you said something along the lines with, “Will you let me follow you? I want to know more about you.”

You are now in the air riding with one of them on a big ikran, well at least like an ikran, it is bigger that an actual ikran. They all landed on the top of a mountain. It is different from the Hellelujah mountain, it has its own type of plants and habitats. You were intrigued by it and starts drawing it. One of them got curious and gets close to know what you are doing. They saw you vastly sketch out a plant, they were impressed. You started asking them about everything you could find and taking notes of it, they happily answered you. Talking to a human who has an interest in their clan and place makes them happy. They told you about their tradition, their food, animals, and their own spirit tree.

Night has come and Max is extra stress. He still couldn’t find you and Norm is now also worried. You usually go back afternoon and now it’s night. You now probably got lost.

“Norm that’s it, I’m going out—“ his arms is grabbed by Norm, again trying to calm Max.

“Hey, hey. It’s already night, why don’t you relax and I’ll find her with my avatar bo—“ his words interrupted by a bang of a door opening. It was you.

“(y/n)! Where were you!?” Max exclaimed. You have a lot of thing to tell him.

[strangewiggles]

pathologic furry designs because im a nerd

(aglaya, rubin, and lara, *ft artemy)

i usually dont post uncolored drawings/doodles but i plan on making a few of these

HUGE thanks to my buddies for help/input on these..both are huge brained and awesome at art follow them now

heres the thought process (spoiler free, mostly based on patho 2)

me and my buddies were in a call for all of these and we had a very intellectual conversation about all of them. when looking for furry designs i usually think of personality, mannerisms, and likeness.

Aglaya, Shoebill

both of the friends i asked havent played the game past day 5 (one of them is on day 2) so i asked “what animal would she be” with just a picture of her model. i was interested to see what 2 people who’ve only seen her once (in the intro) would think of her purely on vibes and brief dialogue. the first suggestion was “some kinda bird” and that seemed to stick.

a bit tall, a bit intimidating. so we threw out Herons, Ostriches, Peacocks…

Shoebill seemed to fit. I wanted a bird that was either grey or black, some kinda desaturated color but also one that was tall and a bit scary. Shoebills are definitely considered pretty scary. theyre also super tall and i remember saying in the call "these things are huge if i saw them flying i would cry." when it comes to shoebills, i imagine them towering over most other animals, especially with that neck and beak! they're also ambush predators i believe. shoebills fit Aglaya's first impressions perfectly.

i almost made her a Dalmatian... im glad i didnt...

Rubin, Skinny Pig

I wasn't even going to initially draw Rubin here... it started by me asking "who'd be a naked mole rat?" and the immediate answer was "Rubin..." which made me remember that he was bald LMAO. I figured that fit a little, and the original drawing was him as a naked mole rat. a few things werent quite right though.

first, digging. i cant imagine Rubin as an animal who's entire thing is digging around and being dirty, he's a doctor and, other than blood, i can't imagine he'd wanna be dirty...

second, social groups. as far as i know, naked mole rats are very social within their own circles? just from the early game (as early as the first 3 days?) he's pretty antisocial and seems to have a distaste for the Kin, even if influenced by grief(the emotion not the person). he even seems reluctant to be close to close friends.

and, of course, moles have to be saved for someone else... we'll get there. WINK

..i dont remember how Skinny Pigs came up, i think i was just googling them and thought they were funny since i have a friend who owns some.. i did a bit of googlin and asking my buddy in the call about skinny pig mannerisms.. theyre pretty...territorial? at least males to other males, theyre pretty aggressive as far as i know. this definitely fit Rubin. the OTHER reason for any kind of guinea pig was considered was because of the concept of "test guinea pigs" and not in a literal sense, but just the concept, because of Rubin's connection to Isidor. i will say i felt like the smartest person on earth when i thought of that.

also the cute ears absolutely influenced the decision.

Lara, Generic Ass Wolf

Lara was genuinely so difficult... unlike the other two, there were literally no suggestions being thrown out. my description was something like "maybe something small, cute, short tempered, but social?" and, for some reason, that was a tall order. my first guess was a mouse, but that wasnt perfect... we thought we'd have to turn to bugs and fish, though a lot of bugs and fish are hard to find personalities for.. at a surface level at least. we decided to save bugs and fish for other people...

and then, the suggestion of "wolf" came up, albeit reluctantly. when it comes to furry-fying characters, wolves and dogs are definitely...up there, in terms of "most used/obvious".. but really, think about it.

Believe it or not, wolves can be a little anxious, if not in a way that presents itself as anger/defense. this is also how i described Lara, "anxious in a way that presents as anger." also, wolves, while sometimes being a little solitary, are commonly in packs. which is...Lara's, like, Whole Thing. a house for the living etc etc..

I don't think i need to explain wolves too much either way. theyre The Furry Animal. whatever you know about wolves is probably true for Lara. it seems low-effort but trust me this decision took forever LMAO

and i mean...look at her. she looks like a wolf

*Artemy here is a bull because... yeah. that's the most obvious one. as #1 artemy fan i couldn't in good conscious make him anything other than a bull even if it's low effort idgaf... ill look at types of bulls for him later.

hope you liked my rambles..

[awkwardnoob]

hi yes hello i would like to hear you talk about the parallels between Alfyn and Darius please

O_O I never expected an ask like this, so it kind of sucker punched me and I'm in shock. I was expecting anon hate or something because that's what usually happens when I get asks out of the blue. Thank you anon you're so sweet!

Warning: Possible Spoilers

Okay, so first off, the best part: A lot of this has a decent chance of being entirely intentional because of how Octopath handles its storytelling, which I'll get to later.

Also, getting the most obvious parallel out of the way: They both wear green. Which seems silly and like a coincidence, but when you look at the other stuff it becomes suspiciousTM.

The biggest thing, obviously, is their personalities and relationship to Therion. Even if you don't believe Therion's relationship with either is shippy and are entirely platonic, Therion is still a key component of why they parallel. (Speaking of, Therion also parallels Miguel a little bit, which is some minor evidence to why this whole thing was intentional)

Darius doesn't trust anyone, he's shady, he's dishonest, disloyal, and he threw Therion off a cliff after acting like they were brothers for years. Anytime Darius opens his mouth and seems friendly, he's just trying to use that person. When they're no longer useful, or something better comes along, he throws people away. He's greedy to the 10th power and beyond.

Alfyn though? He doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body. Anytime someone mentions that he could get more by taking advantage, or hell, even just doing the bare minimum and making all his patients pay him, he just goes "but why tho" like this is some foreign concept to him. Even the customers he does charge (which he does occasionally, when they're not poor), he still undercharges them. He attaches himself to people like the most clingy of puppies and people happily accept him with open arms. That's how his 'inquire' skill works. Even having Therion tell Alfyn during his chap 1 all about his plans to rob Ravus is justified, because Alfyn can inquire shady criminals too! Cyrus' works kinda like he's being sneaky with his questions and interrogating people into spilling the beans, but Alfyn's is literally just 'I'm nice and lovable, answer all my questions'. Alfyn's 'worst' behavior was just pricking Venessa with slumber thorn and giving her horrible guilt induced nightmares, which is just mildly mischievous compared to her crime of knowingly almost murdering several people including children, or Darius' crime of getting close to Therion (for years!) only to throw him off a cliff for money.

Also, here is the thing: Most of the travelers have dialogue in their travel banters with Therion that denounce his life as a thief in some way. The ones who don't are A) Primrose, who is out to murder some fuckers and would be a hypocrite, and B) Alfyn. He's wholesome and supportive to Therion in every damn banter. He tells Therion he has his back in both Therion's chap 3 and 4 banters. Unlike Darius, he means it. Even in Therion's chapter 2, Alfyn is impressed by Therion and trying to crack into that prickly, chestnut like exterior, not denouncing his occupation (and in chap 3 Alfyn says Therion/Therion's job has a time and place in the world too, while Darius told Therion he wasn't useful and was meant to be thrown away)

Now we get into how I know all of this shit is likely entirely intentional: Octopath puts passive character behavior into fucking everything. Have Olberic challenge most of the people in his starting town, and instead of reacting in terror or being confused, they know who Olberic is and most are like "sure dude let's tussle". Cyrus believes knowledge is to be shared. His special ability has him figure out an enemies weakness because he's such a smarty, and what does he do? He immediately shares this knowledge with the party.

So what does that have to do with Darius and Alfyn? Easy, Darius' weaknesses as a boss. Darius is weak to both Axes and Ice, the things Alfyn can use without subclassing. Sure, Cyrus can use ice and H'aanit can use axes, but neither have both unless they subclass.

But we're not done with that yet! Because his OTHER weaknesses are spears and wind. Tressa's natural abilities. The other natural parallel to thieves are merchants (so Tressa parallels both Therion and Darius). Why choose Alfyn's natural weakness exploits if Tressa was the only parallel? Because Alfyn is a parallel too! To Darius specifically. Alfyn has been supporting Therion this whole time, being exactly the kind of honest and loyal person Therion needs after being betrayed. You think it was Cordelia and Heathcote doing that? Fuck no, they interacted like 6 times tops for 5 minutes his entire story. It was Alfyn and the other travelers who defrosted Therion, and Alfyn being a natural counter to Darius in the boss fight, plus all this other shit, tells me Alfyn had a lot to do with it. If they just wanted you to bring a healer, they could have had Darius be weak to staves and/or light too, but no, they picked both weakness exploits of the healer who already has parallels him. You're meant to bring Alfyn.

They also get paired up often in outside material. They're together as a spirit in smash bros, white day had Therion comforting Alfyn, there is an entire novel with side stories that group up the travelers into 2s, and Alfyn and Therion are their own group, in a chapter titled 'trust and betrayal' with an illustration to boot, and there is a group art where Alfyn has his arm around Therion and Therion seems to passively accept this rather than being angry or trying to shove him off. Outside material stresses their bond with each other, and the other person Therion was shown to have a strong bond with (tho unknowingly one sided) was Darius. It's all clearly very intentional that Darius and Alfyn are meant to parallel each other, even if they don't properly interact in game.

Hopefully this pleases you anon. I tried to remember everything.

[peaceoutofthepieces]

Sink Or Swim

tag list: @cleocc @feeling-kinda-so-so @hopelessromanticvirgo @dreamy-slytherin @adora8 @lockerfivethreefive @painfully-oblivious @poeticinemaa @jjustonemorething @saraben00 @wedarkacademia @coolguyssyndrome @hischbabe @suckerforsobbe @tayspots @starmansander @theah0lt @zoenneforever @invisibleme @chibibanane @odi-et-amo85

~^~

Thursday, 18:02

Song: Daði Freyr - Think About Things

Lucas finds himself pleased at how easy it is to pick Sander out from a crowd. If the white hair doesn’t give it away, the jacket does; if the jacket isn’t enough, the laughter is; and if that fails, the boyfriend is always a good confirmation.

Robbe is the one who spots Lucas first, wrapped up in his usual brown coat and then Sander, who whispers something in Robbe’s ear that makes him roll his eyes. Lucas’s heart clenches. Fondness and jealousy war inside him and tangle into a tight knot. A thin thread of fear completes it. He always marvels at them, at the openness of their affection, and yet he still finds himself casting his gaze around for the onlookers who don’t hold the same respect. Seeing them so free of any guards only makes Lucas’s heighten.

Especially when Sander turns to look at him, smile wide and eyes bright, but with faint shadows lingering underneath. He holds his hand out when Lucas is a few feet away and Lucas clasps it in greeting, allowing Sander to tug him forward into a half hug. “Hey.”

His tone is cheerful, light, and still Lucas does a discreet examination, noticing the tousled hair and drooped shoulders and worrying, until he catches sight of the faint bruise not quite tucked away under his collar. He moves his gaze to Robbe, who hasn’t unwound his arm from the other’s waist and holds a blush high in his cheeks, but seems pleased and unbothered, and he understands. He extends the same greeting to Robbe as he internally berates himself, remembering how his mother would react under the same scrutiny. Sander is the only one capable of knowing what he feels and what he’s up for, and it isn’t Lucas’s place to play doctor. Clearly, even the blonde’s boyfriend has learned that.

“So, why exactly have I been invited to third wheel for the day?” Lucas asks.

Robbe huffs a laugh. “I think that’ll actually be me today. I’m not exactly part of this plan.”

“You’re always part of my plan,” Sander dismisses easily, ignorant to the blush he earns in response as he grins excitedly at Lucas. “How do you feel about an actual lesson in art, protégé?”

“Wait, seriously?” Lucas raises a brow. He’d assumed, when Sander had reached out to him, that it was art-themed. But even now, he isn’t sure what exactly to expect.

“That is assuming you don’t already know what you’re doing,” Robbe amends. “How much practice have you had with graffiti?”

Lucas’s eyes almost bulge out of his head. “Really?”

Sander purses his lips, amused, as Robbe raises his brows. “Is that a lot, or…?”

“None. I haven’t done any. Yet.”

“Ahh,” Sander rubs his hands together, beaming. “Then today’s your lucky day. Come.”

Lucas doesn’t need to be told twice. He follows them closely down the sidewalk, the two in constant contact but never excluding, always trying to invite Lucas in. Lucas laughs at their teasing and nods at their explanations and listens raptly to their tales and only feels his excitement grow. Art is something he’s been neglecting, recently, aside from a few flurries of rushed sketches, but the passion has seemed to revive full force by just being in Sander’s presence. His love for the subject is obvious in every exaggerated word and extravagant gesture of hands, and Lucas is effectively entranced. Graffiti was never a medium he’d considered seriously, but he’s always admired. He’s more than aware of Sander’s talent for it, and admits that a lesson from such a person is not a bad way to start off.

It also makes him feel that bit more insufficient. He can’t possibly match up to either of these boys, be it in bravery or talent or both. It dims his excitement, just slightly.

But his spirits are quickly revived as they finally make it to their destination. Sander hands him a mask made from black cloth from his pocket and waits as he and Robbe tuck them over their ears. Only then does he don his own with a wink before rapping his knuckles rhythmically on the garage door.

The inside space is much bigger than Lucas expects, opening up to reveal rows of large containers, all decorated with at least one piece of art. Sander guides Lucas and Robbe through them, indicating artists he ‘knows’, complete pieces he’s captured while they were still in progress, and a few small things of his own tucked away behind new layers.

“Take a good look around,” Sander says, turning to wink at Robbe. Lucas only has a few seconds to be confused before he adds, “You might find the love of your life here.”

Lucas raises his brows. “This is where the two of you met?”

“Met is a strong word,” Robbe says, rolling his eyes at Sander. “I didn’t even see him.”

“No, he was too focused on his girlfriend at the time,” Sander agrees lightly.

“But he claims he saw me and it was love at first sight.” Robbe reaches up to pinch his boyfriend’s cheek, and Lucas allows a small laugh. “Even though he could barely see my face.”

“Didn’t need to,” Sander shrugs. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

Robbe comes to a halt and tugs at Sander’s hand, drawing him around to face him. He pulls down Sander’s mask after tugging away his own, leaning in for a short kiss. It takes Lucas longer than it should to avert his gaze. He just doesn’t think he can ever get used to it.

While actually watching them, he doesn’t think he could ever do that. He doesn’t think he could ever be that.

But he wants to.

When he looks away, his gaze catches on a bright patch hidden amongst a cloud of grayscale. His feet carry him towards it on their own accord, and it takes a few moments for him to realise what it is. It’s a patchwork rainbow of colours, blended together but with dark, specific lines cutting through and outlining it to form a heart, in its scientific detail. Lucas would scoff, if there wasn’t something about it that had ridden him speechless in awe, hand reaching out to brush over the dried paint.

He doesn’t notice Sander until he’s right at his shoulder, then he jumps when he speaks.

“Huh?” Lucas twists to look at him.

“Nice piece,” Sander repeats. “I don’t actually remember seeing it before.”

“You don’t know who did it, then?”

“No. Even the style isn’t familiar.”

Lucas nods and lets his hand fall away, following when Sander sets off in a new direction. He’s led to a blank spot on one of the containers, with a crate of spray paint already waiting at the top of the short steps. Excitement bubbles back up in him as he jogs up after Sander, only to turn back in confusion when he realises Robbe hasn’t followed. He catches sight of him fist-bumping another guy in greeting, over a head taller than him and built like a wall. Sander follows his gaze and snorts at the picture, giving a little wave when Robbe turns his gaze on him suspiciously.

Then Sander turns back to the space and rubs his hands together. “Okay. Have you ever done any spray-painting before?”

“I haven’t even held a can.”

Sander immediately picks a can out and smacks it into his hand. “Then today is really your lucky day. We’re gonna start with a neutral layer then, just to get you used to how it feels. You can try with some vague shapes just to practice lines?”

Lucas nods, trying not to appear too lost already. Sander smiles slightly, anyway, and picks up a can of his own, giving it a vigorous shake as he finally tugs his mask back up over his face. Lucas copies him, getting used to the hold of it, adjusting his grip a few times until he feels more comfortable. When Sander uncaps his Lucas does the same. Then he watches as Sander sprays a quick, messy wave downwards in example.

When Lucas moves to copy him, Sander quickly catches his hand. “Woah, woah. First lesson—always make sure the nozzle is pointing the right way, yeah? We don’t want you losing an eye. Jens will never like me.”

Lucas flushes, turns the can around the right way, and hesitantly presses down when Sander nods. White covers gray in a sudden, heavy stream, and he carefully moves his hand in a small circle. He’s shading this in under Sander’s mildly impressed—but still watchful—gaze before the end of his words sink in.

“What has Jens got to do with spray-painting?”

Sander glances at him, then shrugs, raising his own can again and looping a circle through Lucas’s. “Not the painting, just you. You’re his new favourite, aren’t you? And he already didn’t seem impressed that we knew each other. Last thing I ever want to do is prove Jens right.”

“You don’t get along?” Lucas asks carefully.

“Oh no, we do. We just also like the healthy sort of competition we have going on. He acts like he’s annoyed and I annoy him a little more. It’s nice. Works well.”

Lucas smiles in mild confusion. “Why, though? You’re both really cool, you probably have a few obscure things in common. Wouldn’t you rather be closer?”

Another shrug. “It’s not completely up to me. I don’t know that Jens is acting, all the time.”

“What, you think you annoy him?”

Sander examines the little symbol they’ve created as he searches for a response. “I think I’m always worthy of concern, in his eyes. He’s very protective of Robbe, and I respect that,” he settles on.

It doesn’t entirely satisfy Lucas. “He doesn’t need to protect Robbe from you.”

Sander turns towards him and offers, from the new curve of his cheeks, what Lucas assumes is a smile. “No?”

Lucas shakes his head. “No one loves Robbe more than you. It’s not possible.”

That seems to brighten the other boy, slightly, and Lucas wonders if Jens is even aware of this doubt in their relationship. It seems unlikely. If he knew the way it weighed on the blonde, Lucas is sure he’d quickly set him right. It saddens Lucas, to see the tightly-drawn curl of Sander’s shoulders as he ducks down to collect a new can and doesn’t quite meet his eye as he rises again. He’s sure Jens wouldn’t like it, either.

“Robbe told you, right? About my…”

The reason for the tension suddenly becomes more clear. Lucas hates that the other boy can’t even say it. “Yeah. I’m sorry if you didn’t want me to know, I wasn’t meaning to pry—“

“No,” Sander cuts him off, raising his free hand and giving a small shake of his head. “I told Robbe it was okay. I’m sorry that I couldn’t explain it myself. It’s usually...not an issue so quickly after I meet someone.”

“It isn’t an issue,” Lucas says softly, simply.

Sander shakes the new can and watches his own movements closely. “I would have just liked you to get to know me first. I understand if you—if it changes how you see me.”

Lucas tilts his head and sets a gentle hand on Sander’s arm, waiting until the other boy looks at him. There is, Lucas realises, a vulnerability in him that he hadn’t noticed in any of their previous meetings. A dull, contained sadness behind the eccentric persona. It strikes a chord more familiar in Lucas’s chest than the initial one, the one that had seen an outsider and an extravagant and an artist. Now he sees more clearly—a struggler and a fighter and a savior.

The only thing that has changed, in Lucas’s opinion of Sander, is that he’s ten times more interesting than he’d originally thought. Lucas views him as more of a kindred spirit now than before.

“How I see you,” Lucas muses. “You mean as the scarily talented, intimidatingly cool, older guy who is literally teaching me one of the most awesome art-forms ever right now? Yeah, Sander, it’s real disappointing.”

He shakes his head, disbelieving, and is gratified at the small laugh Sander lets out in response.

“Wait,” Sander teases, “do I have my first fanboy?”

Lucas scoffs, then nods his head behind them. “I doubt I’m the first.”

The mask works at hiding his cheeks, but Lucas still sees his neck reddening as he looks over his shoulder at Robbe. His eyes seem to brighten and soften at once when he finally catches sight of him. Lucas realises then how deep their affection actually goes. It throws him, how clear it is suddenly, how little Sander does to hide it, how easily Robbe feels his eyes and turns to reciprocate even though there shouldn’t be any way for him to know. They are that in tune, that in sync, that it baffles Lucas to watch them. He can’t imagine anyone ever looking at him like that.

Aren’t you lonely?

Lucas shakes the memory way and finds himself admitting, “My mom is bipolar, too.”

Sander looks back at him instantly.

“No one else here knows that, so. You’re the first,” he continues, awkwardly, pointlessly, stupidly. Where is he going with this?

It doesn’t matter. He just needed to say it.

“Oh,” Sander says. Then his tone softens. “Is that why you moved here?”

Lucas averts his gaze and gives a small, jerky nod. “My dad...he made us. He couldn’t—no, he wouldn’t stay. I miss her. Everyday. It doesn’t make me love her any less. I just miss my mother.”

Sander’s shoulders slump, but before he can say anything else Robbe is climbing the steps and joining them. “How’s it going?”

Sander shifts his gaze to his boyfriend and Lucas feels the tension holding his spine seep away. Robbe and Sander pull their masks down again in tandem, sharing nothing more than a quick peck. It’s just enough of a distraction for Lucas to make himself look busy, as he sprays the hasty shape of a designer-heart on the container, next to their circles. Then he does a careful ‘R + S’ inside.

Robbe makes a small noise that may be a cheer as Sander snorts. “We have a natural here. I think he might even have something to teach me.”

Lucas turns to him with a retort ready on his tongue and stops when he sees Sander’s serious, but warm gaze. He realises that it isn’t about the painting.

He reaches out and knocks Sander’s shoulder fondly, smiling to himself when Sander squeezes his in response.

[thebibliomancer]

Shadows of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 15

Shadows of the Dark Crystal by J. M. Lee because urVa is a delight.

Last times on book: Naia is on a journey to Ha’rar with Kylan to clear brother Gurjin’s name and warn the All-Maudra about all these dark crystals. Their journey took them through the Dark Woods where Naia dreamfasted with a tree and made the forest less spooky. Then urVa burst out of a tree and invited the Gelfling for a cryptic soup dinner.

Chapter 17

urVa teaches Naia about archery but mostly says a lot of cryptic stuff that Naia and Kylan can’t make sense of. That’s how it be.

Naia has a flying dream.

I swear, this has to be building up to something.

When she wakes up, Kylan is already up staring at the mysterious writing again because darnit he wants to know.

Naia ponders some more whether urVa is truly alone in this dirt hovel.

From the limited belongings he kept, it was hard for Naia to believe he was completely solitary. Life in Sog was very different, with every family keeping their own stock of meat and preserves, ranging gear and ceremonial garments, spears and bola, trinkets and family treasure. The Spriton had lived in communion with one another, too, each village hut full of material evidence of life and family and the village as a whole. Even the Podling burrow they’d found had had that same proof... but should urVa one day pass away, or leave for another place, the only thing left of him would be the bare walls with the writing Naia couldn’t read. And even then, it wouldn’t take long for the wild and the elements to eat away those as well, and then there would be no record he had existed at all.

Somewhere, the Skeksis have just broken out into a cold sweat.

urVa interrupts her melancholy to offer her some ta, which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. Since it has red steam once the water hits the herbs, which I’ve never personally seen tea do. But as a name, ta still has the feel of caf or choc where writers don’t want to be just so mundane as to have coffee or chocolate in their fantastical world.

Cough Star Wars Cough

Despite his size and dragging tail, he was surprisingly stealthy and was already halfway across the small den’s space, heading toward the kettle. As he walked, his spine snaked in a liquid motion from his head to his bulk.

This. This is some good description.

urVa makes a comment about having all three suns in the sky at the same time which makes me wonder if there’s a time when that doesn’t happen and what that does to day and night.

Ta apparently tastes tangy and like alfen fruit. Fascinating.

Naia asks for directions from the Black River and urVa just gets up and gets his stuff and sets out. He’s a show, don’t tell kinda guy, I guess.

The Dark Woods is some whole other animal after Naia healed it. Full of life and joy and new growth. They’re going to need a new name for it, probably.

When the group stops for lunch, Naia asks about the corded staff and feathered spears urVa carries and he explains that they’re bow and arrows and asks if she wants to see.

They leave Kylan to rest his feet and go to a ledge where urVa can demonstrate.

“Bow -- two ends connected by a single string. Arrow -- head and tail connected by a single shaft.”

“For hunting? They look like spears.”

“Bow and arrow do not hunt; a hunter hunts. I am not a hunter.”

Naia be like ‘doubt’ but she’s impressed when he fires an arrow.

urVa hands her the bow and she tries to use it but the thing is nearly as tall as she is and the bowstring is bowstrung with the expectation of a Mystic’s bulk and four arms. She doesn’t really have success pulling back the bowstring, even without an arrow.

He helps her pull back the string and she manages to shoot an arrow, although it goes bouncing off everything because she didn’t so much shoot it as lose her grip on the bowstring.

Neech wants to go chase the arrow because that’s what he do but Naia settles him down.

urVa chuckled. “We need a Gelfling-size bow.”

Oh there’s a really cool picture of Naia and urVa on the ledge. The art in this book is so good.

Naia shoots off a few more arrows, getting better at it. She also takes the time to examine the bow and how the string is notched, the amount of curve and the type of wood. She looks at all his different arrows too.

Each was unique, with a different engraving or colorful adornment. Some had glittering sea-green scales along the sides, some had feathers or barbed orange leaves. The arrowheads were an array of hard materials, from stones and claws to bone and ancient wood. One even appeared to be made of a tooth. Every arrow was different, made with painstaking care and detail.

I wonder if Naia takes and spreads this knowledge and that’s how archery among Gelfling becomes so widespread that Toolah in Beneath the Dark Crystal can use arrows to solve every problem.

I’d like to think so.

Naia offers to go retrieve the arrows she had fired but urVa just tells her he’ll make more.

She gets really antsy about this because of the craftsmanship of the arrows and how the tradition in the Sog is to retrieve your bola. It makes her feel a little like shit that such good arrows will be lost forever just so she could see how archery works. She goes to climb down anyway but urVa pulls her back gently.

“Ah, Gelfling, little Gelfling,” he said. “Let them go. They were made of Thra and have returned to Thra. Now that my quiver is nearly empty, I have room for new arrows.”

So there was a thing I saw in a magazine profile of urVa that said he was so good at archery because he knows when to let things go and it simultaneously annoyed and impressed me because I hadn’t quite reconciled archery with how the urRu usually are but the explanation made perfect sense and was also kind of wordplay.

But it really works here and it really works as a dynamic against which Naia can butt her head.

She considers sneaking down to retreive them anyway but he just keeps staring at her so she gives it up.

“A stone in each hand leaves no room for a fifth... Mm, or in case of Gelfling, a third. Holding on to things too tightly will prevent you from moving forward.”

He’s just super good at letting things go.

But this also doesn’t sit right with Naia and tries to argue the point that if you let go of the things you care about there’s no point in trying and that there are things that are more important than stones.

urVa didn’t argue, simply bobbing his head from side to side. Though she hadn’t really expected to change his mind, Naia felt a pinch of frustration when he didn’t reply at all, but she kept it to herself. It was fine to disagree, after all, so long as neither of them held the feeling in contempt.

Naia: ‘i came her for an argument!’

At least its not getting hit on the head lessons.

But, the more urVa the more I like urVa. People could learn a lesson from how chill he is.

Naia asks urVa whether the visions and phantoms the Cradle-Tree showed her were just illusions and echoes of her fears.

“Hmmm,” urVa murmured. “Yes and no.”

“Yes and no are opposites,” Naia said, though it pained her to state the obvious.

urVa’s point though is that the Cradle-Tree is a tree and can only show what’s already there. “If you heard it, someone said it. If you saw it, someone did it” but context is key.

This doesn’t really answer the question of whether it was real for Naia but I think she’s getting used to that at this point.

While on the arrow quest, Kylan has been dream-etching the words he saw in urVa’s hovel into his book.

“Smart one, this one,” urVa said with a chuckle ... “What words are for, you know. Passing along a message from one place to another, even when the original dreamer has, himself, passed along and gone.”

The group sets off again and they pass under where the broken bridge was. And nice scenery building, the broken bridge was actually a branch of the Cradle-Tree, broken due to its darkening. Nice. I like that it ties together.

But urVa draws their attention to a figure traveling along the ridge and tells the Gelfling that its looking for them and then shrugs when they ask how he knows.

“An archer knows the path of an arrow from either end.”

Another way of saying a hunter knows when he’s being hunted, Naia thought. At least sometimes his riddles made sense to her.

Naia doesn’t worry about their maybe stalker because there’s nothing she can do about it until the pursuer catches up except pick up the pace which she does do.

They arrive at a stream that urVa tells Naia and Kylan will lead them to the Black River.

“Thank you, urVa. And for showing us the way to the river.”

“May we meet again,” urVa replied. “Even be it in a different form.”

Uhhhhhhm I mean, I like the sentiment here but I have a sinking feeling that he is going to meet them in a different form and its not going to be as pleasant.

Cough the Hunter cough.

Naia: “He seems very wise, but what good is wisdom when it can’t be understood? I didn’t understand half of what he told us this entire time.”

That’s the Mystic experience for you, Naia.

Alas, I’d like more time with urVa but he has other plot to attend to and really he’s like a super high leveled guest party member. He’s a tension breaker. For the good of the story, he has to go shoot arrows to annoy Aughra.

Bye urVa. You were a delight.

[dailytomlinson]

You'd be hard pressed to find evidence of Louis Tomlinson at a party rubbing shoulders with A-listers in the glamorous Hollywood Hills. Instead, the Doncaster, England-born musician usually chooses to spend his time with his hometown friends who have known him since he was a kid.

It's impressive to say the least that after almost a decade in the spotlight, he's stayed grounded and has yet to lose sight of himself. In the same respect that he's unapologetically himself in life, despite his millions of loyal fans (and dollars), the same can be said for his honest and emotional lyrics on his debut album, Walls, — out January 31, 2020.

Ahead of the release of Walls, the 27-year-old stopped by iHeartRadio HQ to discuss his music, his songwriting, and what fans can expect on his trek around the globe on his first solo tour — which sees many dates already sold out despite not launching until next spring.

After his band One Direction took a hiatus in 2015, Tomlinson — like the other members (Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Liam Payne) — ventured into a solo career. But unlike his counterparts, Tomlinson spent a few years developing his sound, writing dozens of songs, and figuring out exactly how he wanted to portray himself as a solo star. And trust us, it was worth the wait.

If one thing's for sure, Tomlinson is creating music and releasing it in his own time and on his own terms instead of obsessing over topping charts or chasing trends. It's authenticity and honesty that matters most to him and it's safe to say he's nailed it judging by his newly released song “Don't Let It Break Your Heart” as well as the handful of other songs he's shared with fans.

To find out more about what Louis had to say about his album check out our Q&A with him below!

Your debut album, Walls, was recently announced. Can you give more detail about the sound and what we can expect from the album?

I always try to operate as a writer, lyrically it's honest and it's real. At times, blunt. Musically, it's it's just live and as organic as I possibly could make it, and there's plenty of guitars on there, so I'm really happy with the way the record sounds.

Is there a meaning behind the name Walls?

Walls one of the songs on the album. It's one of my favorite songs on the album. I just thought it was a kind of thought-provoking title.

You recently mentioned that you kinda fell out of love a little bit with music. Did these past few years trying to get the album together help you fall back in love with music?

A combination of that and being disciplined in myself that I needed to discover music on my own. I often talk about when I grew up in the town that I grew up in, I relied on pop radio to give me new music. But the way that pop radio, sonically, has changed, I now have to go and search for, you know, these kinds of songs myself. I think once I found some really great albums that were new and modern, it gave me, kind of revitalized.

From “Two Of Us” to “We Made It,” one thing that's clear about your songs is that they're always so honest. You're always so authentic in everything you do. How much does authenticity mean to you in your music?

I think it's vital. I think it's vital for any artist, you know, or any kind of art, really, you know. Authenticity, especially these days, people can see through it, so I think, you know, you're better off just being honest and real, take me or leave me kinda thing.

Were there any songs you were nervous about putting on the record that maybe you thought were too honest?

My writing style is very autobiographical. I think I often go into a session and feel like by the time I've left, I've been a bit too honest there. I think, just naturally, through my upbringing and the kinda place that I grew up, I don't really struggle to kinda speak about myself.

What song, even if you can't say the song name, are you most excited for fans to hear on the album?

Well, before it came out, I was most excited about “Kill My Mind.” I think, musically, it really represents what I wanna do and, again, kind of is a good advert for the live show. But, in terms of my favorite song, and favorite song that fans haven't heard, is probably “Walls,” the title track. It's just a really honest song, the lyrics, I think, is really beautiful. We've got live strings on it as well, which really kind of adds to the atmosphere.

Fans can expect to see you on tour next summer for your first solo tour; which is so exciting. What are you looking forward to most?

Just the actual fact of getting out there and playing to everyone. You know, I had the luxury of being in One Direction and every single year we did, you know, literally hundreds of tour dates. Going from that to then not touring at all, it was quite drastic. That's the real moment as an artist where you get direct feedback from the audience of the stuff that you've been making. So, I'm really looking forward to that moment!

Fans can pre-order Walls on Louis' site as well as grab tickets to his 2020 tour!

[gfriend-daily]

[LINEBLOG] About GFRIEND’s Korean Comeback🦋✨

We asked about the Korean comeback🦋✨ Hi BUDDY！

Thanks for always supporting GFRIEND‼️🌈 Now, have Japanese BUDDY already listened to GFRIEND's latest Korean comeback songs「Crossroads」and「Labyrinth」❓🦋✨

So for today's LINE blog, we prepared a ton of questions for GFRIEND regarding their Korean comeback songs‼️🎶✨

For BUDDY who haven't watched the MV, as well as those who have watched it many times, I'm sure you'll want to watch it again after reading this blog…✨

Clear your ears…focus your eyes…feel GFRIEND with your heart……💖🦋🌈📚✨

https://youtu.be/kx5TWKPE5sU

【 Regarding「Crossroads」 】

🍀Please tell us your impression of「Crossroads」as well as any points you want BUDDY to take note of！🍀

SOWON：This song has a lot of story built into it so please focus on the lyrics when you listen！

YERIN：During performances there's a part in the choreography where we show off the crossroads part. Don't miss it.

EUNHA：It's a song where you can really empathize with the feelings of a confused girl. Please pay attention to the delicate voices of the members！

YUJU：For my initial impression, the song caught me right from the start. They let us listen to it in the meeting room at first and my first thought was that I wanna do this song right away！Both the lyrics and the choreography are very impactful in my opinion.

SINB：From the very first time I listened to Crossroads I felt that it was the kind of song that makes you want to listen to it over and over again. As for what to pay attention to, I want you guys to focus on Yuju's final part！

UMJI：The more you listen to the song the more you appreciate its charm, I feel. The final guitar solo really gets me as well.

🍀「Crossroads」MV was shot like a drama, was there any interesting episodes during filming, please let us know！

SOWON：When we were filming for the fireworks it was really cold that day so our managers prepared heaters for us. But one of the heaters actually managed to burn Yuju's pants！It was so shocking that there wasn't anything to do but laugh.

YERIN：During the scene when I submerged myself underwater, I had these green hair extensions on, so when I went underwater the dye sort of turned the clear water in the tub green as well. We had to really rush filming that part before it turned even greener.

EUNHA：There's a part where they film me at various points in the timeline where the room is destroyed around me, and I had to keep my eyes wide open and stand there without moving while this was going on. But with all the stuff breaking and falling behind me, I couldn't help but blink at some point and I felt really bad for the staff because we had to redo itㅠ🥺

YUJU：During the aquarium filming, there was this one fish that kept staying in that one specific spot without moving away. I thought it was really cute so I took a photo of it.

SINB：During the first filming session for the music video, I had to film my solo angle shot on top of a roof. It rained all night until morning that day, so it was freezing and the wind was so strong that it kept blowing my hair into my face so it couldn't be seen. I tried my best to not express how cold it was, and thankfully on the final cut it worked out pretty well.

UMJI：During the campfire scene with the members, I was worried about the cold at first but the campfire was so nice and warm that we were able to finish filming that scene without feeling like we were freezing.

https://youtu.be/GehwcGWC-H8

🍀It's been 5 years since your debut, please tell us which moment it was that felt like a major crossroads decision for your life！

SOWON：Before I joined this company, that time I spent worrying about what to do with my life was my crossroads moment I think. I was in an acting focused agency and they tried casting me about 3 or 4 times. I did consider working towards an acting career but even after the agency called me into a meeting to decide my future, I was unable to fully let go of my dream to become a singer.

YERIN：When I had to decide on my high school path, I was torn between going to a performing arts focused school or just going to a regular high school, but I figured that if I didn't at least try it out I'd regret it, so I went for the performing arts school. Thankfully I was accepted to the school of my choice as well.

EUNHA：Probably during my high school days. I had a choice between staying a student and figuring out what else I wanted to do with my life after that, or enter this agency and prepare for debut. But now I feel like I really chose well back then!

YUJU：It was right before I joined this agency I think. There was a point where I wanted to give up on being an idol and branch into songwriting instead, but then I heard about the auditions for this agency and I really spent a long time thinking about which path to take before making my decision.

SINB：Umm… Actually isn't life itself a kind of crossroads? Whether it's when you're deciding on what to eat, whether or not to eat it, isn't that a kind of crossroads moment all the time？（lol）

UMJI：When I had to decide whether or not to enter this agency as a trainee！

【 Regarding「Labyrinth」】

https://youtu.be/lSK9kQObdLc

🍀For Labyrinth's dance you had a bunch of backup dancers participating as well, please tell us how that felt！

SOWON：When we first heard the song I felt like it wasn't our usual style at all. But it was the kind of tune I like personally so I was interested already, and when the choreography for it came out I felt like it made the song even more perfect.

YERIN：It wasn't a song about your personal ego and it was interesting trying to process the many conflicting feelings within the song. Having this many dancers on stage with us made it very crowded but I feel like it brought out the GFRIEND charm even more during the performance.

EUNHA：It was a song with a lot of backup dancers, so you really have to watch the performance instead of just listening to the song on its own！ This might actually be the most powerful GFRIEND performance among our songs k feel. I really love it🥰

YUJU：When I first saw the choreography video, I had a moment of 「Wow, how am I going to dance to that？」because it left such a strong impression. But with every practice, the more I studied the choreography, the more interesting it got. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dancers who filled the stage with us as well.

SINB：When I was listening to the song, I really hoped that the choreography would look cool as well, and it turned out to be something amazing and quite unlike the usual GFRIEND style. You'll definitely fall in love with the song even more after watching the performance.

UMJI：This performance is where you see GFRIEND at their most powerful I think. The expressions of the members were even cooler than I imagined on stage, and I think we did really well expressing the essence of the song. It's really a song that allows you to discover a different side of GFRIEND.

https://youtu.be/Cluo9eJZi5I

(The questions below are in relation to the MV and other contents！)

［🍀🦊To Sowon］ ① At the beginning part of Crossroads, the part where Sowon had her eyes closed really made her look like a goddess！When you saw this part of the choreo, did you think「This could be a new charm point！」？

⇒Nope！Actually because I'm so tall, I kinda felt bad because I was totally kind of covering SinB who was behind me. I spent a lot of time worrying about the pose. Since I had my eyes closed I had to wonder if I lowered myself enough？But I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

② In the MV, the car scene sparked a lot of comments that you looked like a movie star. How do you personally feel about this, were you satisfied by your acting and the atmosphere of the scene？

⇒ For my character, the stylists went with a darker style to express the atmosphere and it was really refreshing for me, I really liked it！ During the filming, the car wasn't all that big but we still had to fit the camera in there somehow, and I wasn't sure if the camera would be able to film me at my best angle, but I'm glad that in the final cut I turned out looking great.

［🍀🐥To Yerin］ ① You had to go underwater for the MV in one scene, are you good at submerging yourself like that？ ⇒I learned how to swim from a young age, so going underwater wasn't hard at all, but the problem here was that I had to submerge myself while lying down in the tub, so lots of water kept entering my nose and it was kinda hard.

② The green hair extensions really left an impression, and you also wore a beret as well. But there were also performances where you didn't wear a beret, which did you prefer, with or without it？ ⇒If I really had to choose I honestly prefer the performances where I had the beret on. I'm really happy I got to show different sides of myself though！

［🍀🐰To Eunha］ ① We were all surprised by your change in hair colour. How did you feel when you heard that you had to dye your hair pink this time？

⇒ Dyeing your hair is troublesome…that was my first thought！But I really like this colour and now I kinda don't want to change it to other colours now😭

② Among the fans there are comments that your hair colour and styling in this MV makes you look even more like the protagonist of a manga or anime, do you feel that way too？And if you were really a manga protagonist what genre would you be？

⇒ Personally I feel like I'd be the protagonist of a magical girl story. To defeat evil as a pink haired heroine..😎

［🍀🐶 To Yuju］ ① You had to run around a lot in the video, please tell us how you felt then！

⇒ Not all of it was actually included in the final cut of the music video but I totally ran way more than was shown. The director kept telling me to run faster so I really ran with all my heart！

② Also, the parts in the choreography where you cover your face with your hand, as well as the part where your hands were trembling, everyone realized it really added to the emotions of the song and the fans all went crazy for it！Is there anything else we should pay attention to in the dance as well？

⇒ Actually I didn't even realize it myself at first. It was only when I was checking the replay in the monitor that I realized my hands were shaking then. I was really focused on the lyrics in my part so it just came out naturally like that. I was really surprised that the fans were able to catch such a tiny detail as well！I'll definitely continue focusing hard on the lyrics in the future for all other performances as well！

［🍀🐱 To SinB］ ① There was a parrot in the MV with you guys. As a dog owner, do you like birds too？ ⇒ I'm not actually good with birds. Bugs, reptiles, birds, I'm kinda scared of them so I can't really deal with them…

② There's a lot of difficult dance moves this time round！Which one was the most difficult according to main dancer SinB？ ⇒ To be honest Crossroads was probably the most difficult choreography to express correctly so far in my life. It'd be way too easy to mess up on the choreo if I wasn't careful enough, so I really worried about how best to dance to it.

［🍀🐹 To Umji］ ① In the MV you and Yuju were on bad terms. You guys are normally really good friends, was it hard to act out this part？ ⇒ Thankfully the music was always playing in the background so I just had to focus on「the conflict」. But the moment the director yelled Cut! both of us would just end up bursting out laughing.

② Everyone was talking about how Umji's outfits for Crossroads really made you look like a princess！Which one was your favourite though？

⇒ I really liked the dress I wore for the jacket shooting, and I really like wearing a jacket over a shirt like that！！I also thought the white blouse with navy stripe outfit was really good！！

https://youtu.be/wvcJKFGv5kc

All you BUDDY who loves GFRIEND！How did you like this？Thanks for reading today's LINE blog！✨ https://youtu.be/gqxd7J0xHno

The limitations imposed by the current virus outbreak is hard on all of us, but both the GFRIEND members and staff all hope that BUDDY will be safe and happy in your everyday lives.

Please continue sending questions and messages to GFRIEND‼️✨🦋🌈

Translation: GFRIENDaily - Estrea

Source: https://lineblog.me/gfriend_japan/

[yusuke-of-valla]

Demon Fam Fic: Yusuke’s birthday.

[A/n] this was @askmarietheapprentice‘s suggestion! I meant to get it out earlier but it ended up kinda getting away from me. Anyway enjoy some babies in Hell

“Happy birthday Yusuke!”

After 3 months in Hell, they’ve all gotten used to Ren’s sudden entrances, but usually he’s kind enough to appear when it isn’t the middle of the night.

“What time is it?” Haru asks, shielding her eyes from the blue flames that Ren brought to light up their shared bedroom.

“4:28 and 32 seconds, Pacific Time! The exact moment Yusuke was born.” Ren says.

“How do you know that?” Yusuke asks.

“Father owns your souls.”

“Wait, so it’s actually your birthday?” Goro asks. 

“Well, yes.” Yusuke says.

“And you didn’t tell us?” Haru gasps. “We would’ve put something together like you guys did for me!”

“I don’t really want anything.” Yusuke says. “I was just going to make my favorite dinner and some cake.”

“Well, we could’ve done that for you, at least.”

“I like making my own dinner and cake.”

“So we know what we’re doing for dinner.” Ren says, picking up Yusuke. “But there’s another 12  to 14 hours before that, and until then I’ve got the perfect plan for a birthday trip.”

“Can we sleep in a little longer?” Yusuke groans. 

“Nope! It’s very time sensitive! You’re lucky, waking up at the exact moment you were born means you have enough time for breakfast!”

~

After a hearty breakfast of birthday pancakes and tea, they’ve all gathered on Kidd’s ship. There’s a thick fog in the area, that cills to the bone.

“We’re here!” Ren announces as the fog parts, and a giant glacier comes into view.

“Drop anchor!” Kidd orders, and the ship comes to a stop. “Alright, so what’s the plan.”

“We’re going to the top for a bit, and then back down.” 

“You goin’ like that?” 

Ren tilts his head. “Like wha- oh right.” 

With a poof, Ren turns into a cat and lands in Yusuke’s arms. “Now we’re good.”

“Why do you have to be a cat?” Haru asks.

“Oh, Goemon’s definitely going to attack us if he finds out I’m here,” Ren explains, “and I kind of suck at fighting in places where it’s cold.” 

“For my birthday you took us somewhere we're going to get attacked?” Yusuke asks.

“What’s the first thing I taught you?” 

Yusuke sighs. “Everything is going to attack you.”

“Right! And that’s why you brought your weapons. And besides, his grudge is with me, even if he did notice something as tiny as you three, he’s not the type to get revenge by proxy.”

“See you soon, Captain!” Haru waves as they get on one of the smaller ships to get to shore.

“Have fun! Don't die!"

On the shore of the glacier, there’s a raging snow storm.

“K-kind of wish we’d gotten goggles.” Goro says, shivering.

“We’ll add t-that to the shopping list.” Haru agrees.

“F-follow me g-guys.” Ren’s black body stands out in stark contrast to the snow. They all hold hands, and follow Ren until they come across a door.

“S-someone with hands, open it.” Ren says.

“I got it.” Yusuke yanks on the door as hard as he can, and it slowly opens enough for everyone to squeeze through.

“Alright. So now we just have to climb up all these stairs and get to the top, preferably without Goemon seeing us!” Ren says.

Yusuke, Goro, and Haru stare at the giant, winding staircase and then at each other.

“Why do demons have to be so damn big?” Goro mutters as he lifts himself onto the first step and Haru and Yusuke follow suit.

As they climb, Yusuke keeps stopping to admire the art pieces on the wall. There’s watercolors, acrylics, and careful sketches lining the walls.  “Hey, Ren, did Goemon make these?” 

“Yeah, I mean, this is his workshop.”

“Amazing!” Yusuke gasps. “The way he blends colors together to portray the different emotions, it’s beautiful. I hope to be this good some day, thank you for bringing us here.”

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I wanted to show you.” Ren says, “but I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

They come to a larger platform, where intricately crafted ice sculptures are on display. 

“Woah. I didn’t even think you could get ice to do this,” Goro says examining a sculpture of a woman who looked as though she was wearing actual fabric.

Yusuke wanders over to a group of statues contorted into various abstract shapes. While on their own, the intricate patterns were impressive, taken together...

“These are about the war with Yalbadoath!” Yusuke realizes.

“How can you tell?” Ren asks. 

“Ok, so start here. This one is rigid, uniform all the way to the top, and then this one, it’s rigid in a similar way but there’s a tiny flaw right there. And in this piece the flaws are bigger. Then this one, any sort of structure is gone, and it’s sharp and chaotic. Then in the final one there are two clear sections, one that has that ordered pattern from the first, but only on the top half while the bottom half is still chaos." Yusuke explains. "They represent the world under Yalbadoath's rule, Satanael's rebellion, and the wars in Hell afterwards!"

"Oh, that's so cool." Goro says.

"Not bad, small one." A voice says. A large demon holding a pipe rises from the ground behind them. "Although I would encourage you to consider how the artist feels about the event, and what they might be trying to say about similar circumstances through his piece."

Yusuke nods. "Ummm… the artist feels…" Yusuke stares at the sculptures, trying to decipher their secrets.

"You seem rather young, how old are you?" The demon asks.

"Seven." Yusuke says.

"Seven…" Goemon laughs. "Oh, I've forgotten how short lived you humans are. Do not be upset if you can't figure it out, you've barely lived a decade!"

“Excuse me, are you Goemon?" Haru asks.

"I am. And I take it you three are Satanael's human children?"

"That depends." Goro says. "What would you do if we were?"

Goemon laughs again. "Such bold children! I have no problems with humans, or Satanael. Were Arsene here, I would freeze him in the heart of this glacier for stealing from me, but I have no quarrel with you three."

"Oh thank goodness." Haru sighs in relief. "I'm Haru, this is Goro, and Yusuke." Haru's eyes fall on Ren on Goro's shoulder. "...and our completely normal cat… Akira! Akira the cat from the human world and who is just a cat."

"Meow." Ren says.

"It's nice to meet you. Now, what brings you 

 here? Usually Zorro would come if your father had a message."

"Well, it's my birthday so we're here to see something at the top of the glacier." Yusuke explains.

Goemon lifts his gigantic pipe to his mouth and colored puffs of smoke float out. "How often do you humans celebrate your birth?"

"Every year." Yusuke says.

"Ah! We demons do celebrate our birth, but only once every century or so. A year is barely a blink of an eye to someone who lives for eternity. To be so short lived you celebrate every year. Fascinating." Goemon nods to himself. "Yes, I do believe you three have given me an idea for an art piece."

"You're welcome." Goro says. "Do you think you could give us a ride to the top? We're told it's time sensitive."

"But of course!" Goemon taps the ground with his pipe, and suddenly everything rushes past them and they're at the top of the glacier.

The air is still here, unlike the lower parts, and looking down, Yusuke can see the snowstorm raging below.

From the top of the glacier, the ocean spreads out for miles, and he can also make out Captain Kidd's ship.

"I do believe it's time. Look up children."

The sky's dark one second, and then suddenly it's awash with colors. Blues flow into greens flow into purples flow into pinks, all dancing across the sky.

"It's beautiful." Yusuke says in awe.

"I've never seen anything like this." Goro says.

Haru nods. "I think I might cry."

"The lights only appear here every 500 years or so." Goemon says. "You are quite lucky, children and cat."

Yusuke makes a frame with his fingers and looks around, finally settling on Haru, Ren, and Goro back lit by the lights.

"Yusuke, what are you doing?" Haru asks.

"I want to capture this moment in a painting." Yusuke smiles. "My first birthday with my new family."

"Awww." Haru starts to walk over to him

"Don't move!" Yusuke snaps before pulling out his sketchbook. "This should only take a few minutes."

Once he's finished with the sketch, Goemon takes them all down to the bottom of the glacier.

"Thank you so much!" Yusuke says.

"Thank you for providing me with inspiration. In fact, here's a gift. From one artist to another." Goemon snaps his fingers and two lobsters appear in Yusuke's hands.

"They're beautiful, thank you." Yusuke says.

"I hope you'll let me see your piece when it is finished."

Yusuke nods. "I will."

"Goodbye children and cat! Enjoy your tragically short lifespans!" Goemon says as they make their way to where the boat was. "And feel free to return any time without Arsene."

"Thank you so much!" Yusuke waves back. 

"So, did I plan a great birthday trip or what?" Ren asks, once their a ways from shore.

"I loved it." Yusuke says. "Goemon's nice too. What did you do to make him hate you?"

Ren rolls his eyes. "He's still mad I stole from him."

"Why'd you steal from him?"

"Like I said, I'm bad in the cold, so I like to practice my thievery in places where it's cold. And he's still mad about it like, 500 years later!"

"I'm kinda on Goemon's side here." Goro says. 

"What?"

"I mean you did steal from him."

"It's not like I took anything important!"

"You'd hate it too if someone stole from you."

"No one's good enough to steal from me."

"You're missing the point!"

Haru sighs and turns to Yusuke. "So what were you thinking about for that cake?"

[hlupdate]

You'd be hard pressed to find evidence of Louis Tomlinson at a party rubbing shoulders with A-listers in the glamorous Hollywood Hills. Instead, the Doncaster, England-born musician usually chooses to spend his time with his hometown friends who have known him since he was a kid.

It's impressive to say the least that after almost a decade in the spotlight, he's stayed grounded and has yet to lose sight of himself. In the same respect that he's unapologetically himself in life, despite his millions of loyal fans (and dollars), the same can be said for his honest and emotional lyrics on his debut album, Walls, — out January 31, 2020.

Ahead of the release of Walls, the 27-year-old stopped by iHeartRadio HQ to discuss his music, his songwriting, and what fans can expect on his trek around the globe on his first solo tour — which sees many dates already sold out despite not launching until next spring.

After his band One Direction took a hiatus in 2015, Tomlinson — like the other members (Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Liam Payne) — ventured into a solo career. But unlike his counterparts, Tomlinson spent a few years developing his sound, writing dozens of songs, and figuring out exactly how he wanted to portray himself as a solo star. And trust us, it was worth the wait.

If one thing's for sure, Tomlinson is creating music and releasing it in his own time and on his own terms instead of obsessing over topping charts or chasing trends. It's authenticity and honesty that matters most to him and it's safe to say he's nailed it judging by his newly released song “Don't Let It Break Your Heart” as well as the handful of other songs he's shared with fans.

To find out more about what Louis had to say about his album check out our Q&A with him below!

Your debut album, Walls, was recently announced. Can you give more detail about the sound and what we can expect from the album?

I always try to operate as a writer, lyrically it's honest and it's real. At times, blunt. Musically, it's it's just live and as organic as I possibly could make it, and there's plenty of guitars on there, so I'm really happy with the way the record sounds.

Is there a meaning behind the name Walls?

Walls one of the songs on the album. It's one of my favorite songs on the album. I just thought it was a kind of thought-provoking title.

You recently mentioned that you kinda fell out of love a little bit with music. Did these past few years trying to get the album together help you fall back in love with music?

A combination of that and being disciplined in myself that I needed to discover music on my own. I often talk about when I grew up in the town that I grew up in, I relied on pop radio to give me new music. But the way that pop radio, sonically, has changed, I now have to go and search for, you know, these kinds of songs myself. I think once I found some really great albums that were new and modern, it gave me, kind of revitalized.

From “Two Of Us” to “We Made It,” one thing that's clear about your songs is that they're always so honest. You're always so authentic in everything you do. How much does authenticity mean to you in your music?

I think it's vital. I think it's vital for any artist, you know, or any kind of art, really, you know. Authenticity, especially these days, people can see through it, so I think, you know, you're better off just being honest and real, take me or leave me kinda thing.

Were there any songs you were nervous about putting on the record that maybe you thought were too honest?

My writing style is very autobiographical. I think I often go into a session and feel like by the time I've left, I've been a bit too honest there. I think, just naturally, through my upbringing and the kinda place that I grew up, I don't really struggle to kinda speak about myself.

What song, even if you can't say the song name, are you most excited for fans to hear on the album?

Well, before it came out, I was most excited about “Kill My Mind.” I think, musically, it really represents what I wanna do and, again, kind of is a good advert for the live show. But, in terms of my favorite song, and favorite song that fans haven't heard, is probably “Walls,” the title track. It's just a really honest song, the lyrics, I think, is really beautiful. We've got live strings on it as well, which really kind of adds to the atmosphere.

Fans can expect to see you on tour next summer for your first solo tour; which is so exciting. What are you looking forward to most?

Just the actual fact of getting out there and playing to everyone. You know, I had the luxury of being in One Direction and every single year we did, you know, literally hundreds of tour dates. Going from that to then not touring at all, it was quite drastic. That's the real moment as an artist where you get direct feedback from the audience of the stuff that you've been making. So, I'm really looking forward to that moment!

Fans can pre-order Walls on Louis' site as well as grab tickets to his 2020 tour!

[mobius-prime]

159. Sonic Super Special #15

Welcome to the final Sonic Super Special ever! Here's my opinion on it. Past Super Specials have ranged from okay to amazing, depending on the writer and the subject matter, and their long length has usually, if you ask me, worked in their favor, as it meant more time and space to tell a compelling story. This is not true of this one. Unfortunately, the last super special of the comic is utterly awful, with two stories that do absolutely nothing to grip my attention, one of which ends in a status quo with a net gain of absolutely nothing, and the other of which is cringeworthy and isn't even very clear on when, where or how it takes place. Let's just get this over with, shall we?

Naugus Games

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Many Hands Colors: Josh and Aimeee Ray

This first story is far, far longer than it has any right to be - it really feels like they were trying to find ways to pad it out it to take up the full 48 pages of the special. Furthermore, you might notice some oddities about the credits above. First of all, Aimee's name is misspelled with three E's for both stories for some reason, indicating some lazy copy-and-pasting as well as a lack of care from the editors. Even more frustratingly, no one is actually credited directly for the pencils (or inks), with the art instead just being credited to "many hands." Remember how I said the comic was getting annoyingly bad about properly crediting people? Now, in case you're confused, there's not just some artist out there literally named Many Hands; instead, that's the comic's way of sidestepping actually bothering to credit any individuals for their work. It just means "eh, a lot of people worked on this I guess, but we don't care enough to actually tell you who." Unfortunately, unlike a few issues ago where the art style was immediately recognizable as Steven Butler's, the art style for this story is foreign to me, suggesting they got some people who weren't their usual artists to work on this one, so I can't even take an educated guess here. All I know is that both the art style in general and the quality of the inks are very poor, and as we'll see, the art gets unforgivably lazy at times. Perhaps best of all, this story was later retconned into a much more interesting and concise version of itself at a later date, with better storytelling and artwork to boot. The only reason, then, that I'm covering it at all, is honestly as a demonstration of just how lazy the comic could get at times, as well as due to the fact that this is the first appearance of "Many Hands," who later pencilled one other issue for the comic that was of equally poor quality.

So this story takes place at an unspecified time in the recent past. It seems to be sometime after Eggman's return, judging by some of the lines of dialogue within the story, but the actual timeframe is pretty vague. Sonic has returned to the Southern Tundra to pay his respects to Eddy, recalling how Eddy sacrificed himself when he, Tails, and Nate all fought Naugus here some time ago. He's brought a single rose to lay on the site of the wreckage, but the ground isn't quite stable…

And here we have the first instance of a truly terrible art decision. Sonic falls into a pitch black cave system, but instead of representing this with maybe one page max of blackness or darker lighting, we're treated to nearly four pages straight of nothing but this:

He blindly stumbles around for a while, informing us of this fact through dialogue bubbles because everyone knows that telling is better than showing in fiction, right? He finally hits a wall and sees a glow through a crack in it, so he tunnels his way into the next room only to find it full of glowing rings - apparently, either he, Tails and Naugus somehow didn't use up all the rings when they fought, or these one have just auto-generated themselves somehow down here. Sonic recalls memories of the previous battle when Nate sealed Naugus away with a wish from a ring, and then decides to try to use one to get out of the cave system.

Wonderful! Apparently, a "wish" as defined by the magic of the rings just means that you think of someone's name while touching a ring, and so with a flash, Naugus is back from his imprisonment in the zone that Nate sealed him into! But how is this possible?

That explanation makes… basically no sense, dude. Naugus was definitely sealed away in another zone, he didn't just get turned into a pile of telepathic rings. But whatever. He and Sonic start battling it out, and somehow make it outside, where Naugus conjures up a snowstorm that consistently stays centered on Sonic no matter where he runs. Time for the second awful art choice of the issue - now instead of four pages of pure blackness, we get six whole pages of this:

I think the best thing about this is that the blizzard backgrounds are clearly not even hand drawn like the rest of the comic is - there's only two types of snowflakes up there, and they're consistently just copied and pasted in that same repetitive swirl pattern on every single page. I get that drawing for a big story in a super special like this can be long and tedious work, but this is why you don't try to find a way to artificially elongate a story like this which could easily be told in the span of a normal issue length. It just ends up making the audience feel like their time is being wasted. Anyway, the blizzard finally ends when Sonic pulls out a ring from his jacket and wishes for Naugus to be sealed away in his previous zone once more, and thus, Naugus is out of our hair again, with absolutely nothing to show for it. Man, if it's this easy to defeat people in this universe, why hasn't anyone tried this on Eggman yet?

Sonic then leaves back for home, thinking one last time of Eddy, who is shown looking down on him from the heavens above. And thank god that story is over.

Sonic Spin City

Writer/Pencils: Michael Gallagher Colors: Josh and Aimeee Ray

Michael Gallagher, over the course of the comics, has gone from one of the series' main writers to basically a guest writer who's brought on every once in a while for special occasions. In this case, he even makes his return as a penciller! Unfortunately, his goofy writing style has begun to clash with the much more serious plots of these later issues, and this story is no exception. It's entirely unclear about whether we're supposed to take this story as actual canon, as a story from an alternate zone, or as just a silly joke story that doesn’t mean anything - and while I tend to try to avoid looking at non-canon materials in this review series (I've already skipped a few stories and issues for exactly this reason), the ambiguity of this one forces me to cover it. In addition, I don't even know why Josh and "Aimeee" were credited as colorists for this story, considering the entire thing is black and white with no color to be found.

Much like the first story of StH#52, this story has the flair of an old detective serial. Sonic is wandering the streets on a rainy night when two swatbots ambush him. Of course, two swatbots are no match.

What does a swatbot need matches for? Eh, whatever. Sonic races over to Rusty's, a hangout for abandoned badniks, and orders himself a "chili dog float," which in addition to sounding absolutely disgusting doesn't even seem like something a bar for robots would serve in the first place. As he takes his seat, the lights go out, and… this abomination emerges onto the stage.

Yes. The badniks are going wild for a swatbot with tits dancing seductively on a stage for them. What is she gonna do, plug them into a wall outlet? They even start screaming out for "the stretch," and appear to get even hornier as she massively elongates her legs for them. I mean, just, what? I swear, Michael, if we get one more weird borderline-sex thing like this from you in this comic, my eyes are gonna pop out of my head like Natsuki. A bot grabs the dancer's ankle, and she's thrown off balance and crashes down, with the head popping off to reveal that underneath, it's Bunnie in disguise.

You know, after her claim all those issues back that she's a "sax cymbal," I'm not even gonna contest the idea that she'd do a sexy dance during infiltration for a mission. Hell, I get the impression she'd do one anyway just for fun back in Knothole if she got the chance. You might also notice her arm is the arm from her old design, and that coupled with Sonic's own design seems to indicate that if this took place at all in actual canon, it was before Eggman's return, though I'm immensely skeptical that this is supposed to be canon at all. Sonic and Bunnie take out the rest of Rusty's customer base, and then evacuate before the last swatbot activates its self-destruct chip, blowing the place sky high. Congratulations, nothing important was accomplished in this issue and nobody cares!

It's kinda sad that the final Sonic Super Special turned out to be so low-quality, honestly. However, this marks a bit of a turning point in the comic. For the first time in its entire run, from now on, there are no more special issues, no sister series, no miniseries, nothing. From the next issue, all the way to almost the 200th, with one exception in the form of a Free Comic Book Day issue, there are absolutely no interruptions from issue to issue. While this may not seem too notable at first, since we've just been reading everything in mostly-chronological order anyway, keep in mind that as far as the comic is concerned we're still in the year 2000, with a mere seven years having passed from the beginning of the comic all the way to now over the course of 159 issues. Over the course of the next 106 issues, we're going to blaze through nine years of comic history, meaning that the story is going to flow a lot faster, with more plot points being covered in a shorter amount of time. While this does make the order of issues a lot easier to follow, since there's no questions about which issue fits in where or anything, I am sad to see all the special issues go, as I quite enjoyed how they served to break up the flow of the comic as a whole with special stories and side content. Though we're still in the middle of our current plot era, we're entering into a new era of the comic as a whole, where we've got a straight shot through the next hundred issues. So I say - let's do it to it!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Kasumi/Hamuko Parallel post

I mean I’m not saying Kasumi is Hamuko reincarnated in Minato’s timeline, but I feel like it’s a very good possibility (considering MT’s lore and as well as possibly Persona’s). I mean again, it’d be REALLY SEXY if I was proven wrong with Adult!Hamuko showing up in P5S! REALLY SEXY ATLUS! ;w; (just watch and see me be right with both P5R and P5S, let’s hope not cause that’s giving me a headache just thinking about it haha ;w;). Anyway, this is mostly going to be a parallel post between Kasumi and Hamuko, both really freaking shallow to “hey those are some key character traits!” kinda stuff. I’ll organize it from newest release/info to oldest. So starting with PQ2 (prior to that I will open to why it’s perfect timing out of universe) and then P3P (during which I’ll talk about why the timing in universe is perfect too).

There will be spoilers of P5R BUT ONLY ones from a stream, which showed the first like 10 min of the game (the spoiler is that it confirms when a specific scene happens in game). There will be PQ2 spoilers tho so like....yeah 8U

(lowkey been trying to finish this since Cinderella’s announcement but better late than never and I wanted to at least get most of it done before P5S’ possible trailer tonight 8U)

Under the cut cause length and pics~!

So before with start with PQ2, I should say why this is perfect timing out of universe. PQ2 has just released, Hamuko is in the public’s head. Not only that but she was as important to the game as the main-main case (aka P5). Now would be the perfect time to release a new character who looks the same and has the same importance. I mean this wouldn’t be the first time they did it, they first did it with Arena-PQ1-Ultimax, with PQ1 having secret answers to Arena, and Ultimax later reaffirming these answers (I’ll keep it vague for those who have yet to play the, as I like to call it, “The Yasogami Labyrinth Trilogy.”) It could be that PQ2 was actually our Arena in a possible trilogy (with P5R being the PQ1 and P5S being our Ultimax, that’s just a theory tho, it could just be that this is a duology too 8U). But yeah this is why it feels like perfect timing if they wanted to make this twist. Now onto PQ2

PQ2 (might add more later):

Were to start is the real question, I’m kinda just going to list of things with pictures showing them. I’ll try to keep everything numbered to make it easier.

1) Both apparently first appear in the first arc which stars Kamoshida (Kasumi is stated to not introduce herself during that time, but we can still find her). Kasumi is around for Kamoshida, Hamuko is around with Kamoshidaaaaaman.

      a) Coincidentally enough, there is a little girl that appears in Kamoshidaaaaman’s trailer that looks A LOT like Kasumi. (which I dunno might also symbolize Hamuko, speculation on my end but I felt the female dinosaur kind of symbolized Yosukesaurus that we actually see in the movie so maybe it’s a parallel maybe not but I wanted to throw it out there), also if Kasumi’s life is anything like Cinderella (and trailer girl’s dad is dead from that impact), that means Hamu/Kasumi/Trailer girl both have their dads possibly not being around anymore:

2) Both technically have a magical girl connection, Kasumi mostly from her transformation and what the devs said....but Hamuko said something really interesting concerning the PT and Magical Girls:

3) (P5R first 10 min stream spoiler) Both are introduced into these two games via showing off how great fighters they are (even tho that’s not Kasumi’s chronological introduction to the audience because of the cold open, but it’s the first time we see her and it’s our first impression of her). 

4) I don’t care if I’ll repeat this below in the P3P thing, but yet again but PQ2 hinted at Hamuko’s big appitite again:

5) Hamuko’s Ult Persona, both in P3P (tho it’s not shown in the credits) and in PQ2 is Messiah. Considering she’s a savior, and Kasumi’s relationship with magical girls (who usually are the “saviors”).....shallow I know but there. 8U

6) A big one, PQ2 actually hints at reincarnation, it’s just a throwaway line but....it’s not the first time Persona’s had a throwaway line and then it ends up coming true (sometimes it’s happenstance and sometimes it’s on purpose). (I should also note, reincarnation is a big part of MT, it’s even in the title, so it’s def not something that’s off the table). And the reason I’m including this is because, it kinda hints that even if Hamuko is reincarnated Kasumi, they’d kinda still have their own identity and be a different person. 

7) Lastly (for now probably), Hamuko and Kasumi both end up “joining”/working with the PT at some point. I mean so does the rest of P3/4, but they really try to make Hamuko feel included, and she feels extra gung-ho about the whole thief thing. It’s a shallow/small one but I should include it anyway.

(the reason I might add more later is because I’m re-going through PQ2 to see if I pick up anything else, anyway onto P3P~!)

P3P:

Before listing their similarities, I want to explain what I meant by the timing being perfect for in-universe. The reason being, if Hamuko died around 1999, she’d probably be reincarnated into someone who was born around 2000, and people roughly in 2000 (minus the first 4 months) are....guess what? 1st years during P5 (Futaba and Yusuke have late birthdays fun fact). And considering Kasumi is a first year~! Yeah it’s perfect timing if they wanted to pull a reincarnation card. 

1) They.....they have the same face..... I’M NOT JOKING THEY HAVE THE SAME FACE! It’s not the hair style it’s the face man! ;w; Rough same eye shape and face shape (sadly their portraits usually have their faces not being the same portfolio but this is the closest we have):

2) The both have red eyes (which also look brown in some lighting). (I know some people want to say Hamuko has auburn hair for some gd reason even tho it’s pretty brown in a lot of artwork, but since that’s close to red and Kasumi has red hair like bonus points it seems if auburn is also a correct answer XP)

3) Both of their portraits like to have their eyes looking to the left (their perspective)/right (our perspective) area (the angle of their face differs tho):

4) Both have been said to be big eaters. Like Atlus is freaking advertising this about Kasumi like crazy man, but Hamuko has food and her big appetite tied to a loooooot of different events with P3P. Like Hamu being a hungry girl and loving her food is a very iconic trait to her (ironically it’s not really done to death in PQ2 unlike Chie’s meat or Aki’s protein klfjsadl;fja). 

5) Both have red as a main theme (like red eyes, red ribbon, red shoes/headphones 8U). It’s shallow but important!

6) Shallow but interesting thing I notice, there’s a lot of key design similarities between Fem!Orpheus and Kasumi’s PT outfit and Cinderella. The biggest being the vine embroidery and the same heart design. There’s also the fact Fem!Orpheus Picaro also has red hair and a black headpiece similar to Kasumi who has red hair (all the time) but a black ribbon, also both have a similar flower connected to them (red gloves and black fingers, former for Kasumi and the latter for Cindy, but I don’t think it’s as important as the heart/vine/flower similarity). 8U Other than that I’ll just show it in the picture below:

7) This one is part of a popular theory with Kasumi, and will possibly be debunked after P5R’s release but I do want to throw it out there. If the theory that Kasumi gets hit by a car in the rain (possibly during the fireworks festival), well..... That means they both have ties to car accidents. Just described what  might be Kasumi’s. Hamuko survived one 10 years prior to P3, and there’s two that happen in two separate events (she saves Yukari from a crazy driver almost hitting them), and I iirc Theo saves Hamu from a crazy driver). 

8) They have similar designed shoes (tho the promo art of Kasumi her shoes are different from the teaser so I dunno if it still counts) But it’s worth  mentioning since Atlus went out of their way to keep Yusuke’s shoes as a reference to the past Persona game school he was supposed to be a part of before they made Kosei (god I’m so sorry for that word salad, no I won’t fix it at least not now)...btw Yusuke’s are stated to be in reference to P3 it’s stated in the art book:

9) Kasumi’s maid outfit is much closer to P3′s(and P4) than it is to P5′s (aka the traditional black and white as opposed to P5′s red and white), it’s just odd that it’s not also red 8U:

10) Uhhhh this (I don’t care we’re look for the smallest details! >:D DX ;w; also I’m ok really I’m ok 8U ;w; orz):

11) Last thing, but interestingly enough they both are known to jump really high. It’s not stated as a big thing for Hamuko, you just see it in her critical and that’s pretty much it. But it is a big defining moment for Kasumi (remember she jumps high to get a kid’s balloon). They also both like to twist and twirl in the air (tho Hamu is just designated to her critical). Shallow I know but I want to throw it out there. 8U:

Seriously look at that air time!

I might add more to this section, because I feel like I’m forgetting something but flksdajf;akf I want to get this out. Before I end it I do want to add a few not completely related Hamu parallels (but I can still loop back around cause my mental gymnastics are top notch! Probably even better than Kasumi’s! 8U). First is Minato parallels, which via PQ2 we find out that he and Hamu are “basically the same person.” The similarities is that he and Kasumi both have the same type of sword, and both of their Personas have the same skin (I think Male!Orpheus’ face is the only “real part” and thus both have the same kind of skin), and OT and Cindy technically both have blue eyes. 8U Small but I wanted to mention those 3 things. The other is Mitsuru, fun fact between Hamu/Minty/Mitsuru/Kasumi they all seem to be honor students (or can be, Hamu/Minty it’s up to the player). But I now a lot of people think Kasumi’s red hair and it also being wavy remind them of Mitsuru more, almost like a sister? Kinda like:

RIP to Hamuko, the cockblock sister zone destroyed us all that day. We stand with you girl. 😔✊✊

So yeah I dunno how else to end it. They just have a lot of similarities ok? And some of them are very distinct design features. Of course, again, it’d be really sexy of you to prove me wrong with Adult!Hamuko in P5S Atlus. ;) Be really sexy of you to stop ignoring Hammy and P1/2 characters~! Oh it’d be such a shame if I was proven wrong and those two things happened instead. Oh whatever shall I do~! 8U

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #250

"you’re so pretty, dripping sin.”

Do you plan on having children in the future? No. How big is your house? It's very small. Two bedroom, one bathroom. Do you believe that the world will actually end? Humanity, yes. The planet being inhabitable, probably at some point. The universe itself, life itself, won't, though. Describe your handwriting: Very fancy/fluid, a weird mix of cursive and print. Can you speak any other languages than your first language? Some German, but not a lot by now. I've lost a lot of memory of it. If you could speak another, which would it be? I wanna be fluent in German, but it's not something I pursue 'cuz I guess like... why. I don't think I'll ever really apply it to my life, nor is it something I'm DYING to do, so paying for classes just seems. Idk. What is one trend you think is stupid? I don't care. Let people enjoy things. Do you ever watch any soap operas? No. Do you ever get goodnight or good morning texts from people? Not usually. If I do, it's only ever Sara. When did you last go to the doctor and what for? I'm assuming you mean a general doctor, in which case, I think it was just a regular check-up a month or so back. Are you socially awkward? To a painful degree that I'm incredibly sick of. Can't be in a social situation and not feel uncomfortable even if it saved my ass. Would you rather watch a comedy movie or horror movie? It would depend on my mood, but horror would usually win. Do you know where your family came from? Europe. If you could choose to be any mythical character, which would you choose? Realistically, probably like, an elf or something 'cuz they're pretty unlike me so it'd be a nice change. :^) Where are both of your parents right at this moment? Mom's at church, and Dad is probably at home 'cuz it's Sunday. Have you ever seen a movie so ridiculous you couldn’t watch the rest? Yep. Does it make you angry when people text short messages back? If I'm seriously trying to have a conversation, it doesn't make me *angry*, just aggravated. What is your favorite animal and why? Meerkats. I could write a damn essay on why, but I'm not up for it, so basically, they are just extremely interesting animals with serious fire in a foot-tall body. Are you satisfied with your gender? Yeah. Have you ever kept a successful diary before? Not really. Well, I guess for short periods of time. I'd call them just "journals," though. It was something to do every time I stayed in the hospital, a good, insightful thing even, and just really at my lowest times, it helped me, but I never stuck to it. Are you good at admitting your problems? I think I'm very honest about them, really. Have you ever had a hangover? No. What is something you’re looking for in the next three months? I don't know. What’s something you normally cannot spell on your own? I have trouble with certain words where "e" or "a" could both easily be used (ex., "independEnce"), so I rely on spellcheck with words like those a lot. Looks or personality? Which is more important to you? Personality. Do you know any strippers? I don’t think so. How many times have you dyed your hair? Holy fuck idk. What is something that reminds you of your childhood? Cranium games. Do you think you eat healthy? I think I eat decently. Since I started paying attention to calories, I improved a lot. How would you describe your style of speech? Are you a fast/slow speaker? Do you stutter often? Generally, I think I speak quietly (but sometimes actually too loud, according to Mom) at a pretty normal pace, sometimes kinda fast, but I stutter a lot. When was the last time you’ve visited a family member’s house? What was the occasion? I haven't been to anyone's in a while... I think the last time was when I went to Ashley's to babysit my nephew a few months ago. Have you ever tried to construct a language? How do you feel about fictional languages (such as Dothraki and Klingon)? Not really. One of my old RP friends and I kinda-sorta had this "ancient meerkat language," but it was faaaar from developed. I don't feel any particular way about fake languages. Were you born and raised into a certain religion? What was it and have you changed your religion? Yes, Roman Catholicism. I've changed my religion quite a few times... Well, I don't like "changed." It just developed away from what was instilled in my head as a little kid. How do you usually feel when one of your favorite television or book series end? This doesn't apply to me really, because I haven't been involved in those things for a long time. The only one that I really cared about/was watching when it was current content was Meerkat Manor. I was sooooo so bummed out. That show had such, such, SUCH a colossal impact on my life. What do you like most about your town or neighborhood? Nothing. Well, it's small. Are you looking forward to any upcoming events? I'm obviously anticipating Mom starting chemo this week, but also very nervous. I don't want to see the physical toll it takes on her. What were your first impressions on your current best or closest friend? Lmao it's still funny to this day to me, our start... I just didn't like her. I thought she was over-dramatic and attention-crazed. What would you do if you knew a person that you were not fond of or even disliked, but they considered you as a friend? Would you confront them, avoid them, etc.? "I wouldn’t confront them unless something happened that made it come to a head. I’d try to be civil yet non-committal. It would also depend how I knew them and how much I had to interact with them." <<<< This. It doesn't seem necessary to just randomly walk up to this person and be like "hey you know you're not my friend, right?" Just leave it be unless something occurs where it seems more relevant. What are some things that you do to make you feel relaxed? Listen to music, nap... How often to do go to concerts? What was your favorite experience so far? Not even nearly enough because 1.) I'm not in a position where I can afford tickets and 2.) NO good bands like, ever come here. We only ever have country bands. The only concert I've been to was Alice Cooper, which was great. What is your newest and/or current passion? Newest, uhhhh. Idk man. I have a lot of current passions, but none surpass the Blazing Inferno of Love in my heart for Mark Edward Fischbach. Do you still have a fear that you had held since childhood? If not, how did you overcome one or more of your childhood fears? Yes, dolls. It's really mild now, but still, I really don't like porcelain dolls. What is your favorite type of weather? In general, a moderate snow. To actually be in, ohhhh man, gimme that cool, crisp fall air with a partly cloudy sky, very little to no breeze, depending on how cool it is. Do you watch documentaries? If so, do you have a particular favorite? I love animals docs. Meerkat Manor is of course my favorite. Is there a particular sentence or line from a book that carries a deep meaning to you? What is that sentence/line and why does it speak to you? I'm sure there is, but none immediately come to mind. When's the last time you ate bread? A couple days back for a sandwich. What's the last movie you watched on your own? UHHHHHHHH I think it was The Shining. Great movie, so glad I finally watched it. What about the last movie you watched with another person? Now this I'm unsure about, but I want to say The Lion King (live action) with Dad. What about the last movie you saw at the cinema? Was it good? ^ It was fucking great. I mean maybe I'm biased because it's my favorite movie, but either way, the hate it got shocked me. I know people were upset about like "oh they looked so emotionless" but like... they're animals made in the most realistic portrayal possible. I thought that was very cool. Do you attend school, college, or uni? I'm a college student. What do you study, wherever you study? Photography. What industry do you want to be a part of when you’re older? At least SOMETHING with art, or even animal rescue and conservation. How many girls can you trust? Like, two. What about guys? Also probably two, maybe three. How do you earn your keep? I don't. I don't/can't work (at least right now) and my disability case was just denied for the second time, so, y'know, I'm basically a leech. If you could speak three different languages fluently, what would they be? Not including English? German, Japanese, and Spanish, for convenience's sake. Who do you usually text the most? My mom or Sara. Baths or showers? Showers; baths gross me out. Cheese or tomato? Noooot a tomato fan, so. At least I like some cheese. Shaved legs or shaved arms? ??? I mean I think shaving your legs is more noticeable, but I don't care. I'd only ever shave my legs (I mean unless I had a good reason to shave my arms?), but shave whatever you want, dude. How many coats do you own? One winter coat. What about shoes? A handful, though I only ever wear my sneakers or flip-flops, lol. One word to describe your most recent ex? A soldier. Fried, poached, boiled or scrambled eggs? I will only ever fully eat scrambled eggs. Boiled, I'll only eat the whites. Fuck yolk, shit's gross. Have you ever been surprised with breakfast in bed? No. Where, in your current cournty, would you like to live, other than where you do now? Western NC, in the mountains. It's beautiful. Where wouldn’t you want to live? Several places, like North Korea. Do you like snow? I'm a kid when it comes to snow, I love it. Have you always got good grades? Up until college, I did... Do you like sheer clothing? With something under it, yes. List four things about your facial appearance: 1.) It's this really weird mix of dry as hell and oily; 2.) I have blue/gray eyes; 3.) I wear large, black-rimmed glasses; and 4.) I have a vertical labret in my bottom lip. List four things about your general appearance: 1.) I'm fat even though I've worked my fucking ass off to keep losing weight for two years now :^); 2.) I have some but certainly not enough tattoos and piercings; 3.) I'm very pale; and 4.) I have very short, brown hair that needs to be dyed immediately. List four things you like about yourself: 1.) I'm extremely empathetic; 2.) I care a fucking LOT about the people I love; 3.) I'd say I let myself fall kinda easily, yet I'm resilient as shit and will always get back up; and 4.) I'm extremely open-minded and capable of considering a whole lot. List four things you dislike about yourself: 1.) MY GOTDAMN WEIGHT; 2.) my teeth are too yellow for my liking (I've been exceptionally self-conscious of that lately as I've used whitening strips); 3.) I'm extremely impulsive with what I say and do when I'm seriously upset; and 4.) I will, without fail, jump to the worst possible conclusion in any and all situations. List four of your favorite TV programs: 1.) Meerkat Manor; 2.) That '70s Show; 3.) Fullmetal Alchemist (+Brotherhood); and 4.) Deadman Wonderland. List four of your favorite foods/drinks: 1.) Mountain Dew Voltage is my absolute worst enemy; 2.) I will ANNIHILATE the spicy shrimp fritas from Olive Garden; 3.) the shrimp & cheese quesadillas from Mexican restaurants are not safe either; and 4.) pizza is, of course, rather gucci. Cats or dogs? Idk, I really like both. Have you ever seen anyone famous in the street? Hunty I live in NC, that doesn't happen here. Are you hungry right now? No. What do you think of couples who have entire albums just for them, with pictures of them just randomly at home, doing nothing that really requires a photo? Dude, I love that. Cherish every moment with each other. Make memories, freeze them in pictures. Can you work the microwave? Well, considering it's the only thing I cook in and we've had the same one my entire life (ours is extremely old/can't be bought anymore and is SERIOUSLY durable with time, apparently, as it works perfectly), I know it well. Can you work the washing machine? Heh. Not really... embarrassing as that is. My mom does both of our laundry together, so... but I should seriously still know. She's shown me a few times, but with how abominably horrid my memory is, I forget again and again. There's too many options. Do you like your photo being taken? NO. Have you ever got into a club, whilst being underage? Never been to a club period. How many magazines do you buy a month? None. How many of them are car-related? "If I did, they certainly wouldn’t be car related. That doesn’t interest me at all." <<<< Big same. What about fashion? Well, I'd like ones that offered alternative clothing choices that you could order. Any celeb gossip ones? Ew. What pets do you have? We're about to have only two: my snake Venus and cat Roman. With Mom's cancer diagnosis and both chemo and surgery coming along, she simply can't handle our dumb dog anymore. He's needed to go for a LONG time, so we're trying to find a new home for him. Last gig you went to? Still Alice Cooper. Next gig your going to? Should Ozzy still have his concerts like he wants to after his treatments in Sweden or wherever it is, most likely him. Mom and I planned to, and we will absolutely go if he reinstates them. I'm completely understanding if this doesn't happen though; he has to take care of himself, the poor 'ole man. Bless him. Life's a cruel bitch, giving a legendary singer Parkinson's (it's going to disable him from singing with time). Favorite color? Pink! o: Are you regularly tired? Only always, my friend. Are you excited to live on your own? Completely alone, no. I know it would be extremely unhealthy for me with depression and becoming so easily lonely and unmotivated without encouragement and companionship of some sort. I'll have to live with a spouse. Even then, I'm nervous about it. Living with Jason and our friends in that apartment was both a good and very bad experience; it taught me a good deal of independence, but I still found it very stressful. When do you plan on moving out? When I've been in a long-term, healthy relationship. Do you daydream? Only all the time. Do you dream at night? More like have nightmares/terrors almost nightly. BUT! They've actually chilled some the past few days!! I don't recall what the dream was (but I'm 90% sure Mark was in it, A SHOCKER), but I woke up laughing hysterically recently, Mom told me. So that could only be a good sign. When you’re sick, do you like to be pampered, or left alone? A mix, but mostly the former honestly. Halp pls. But I also want my time to sleep. Are you superstitious? Nope. How many pictures are in your wallet? Ohhh I'm actually not sure. I know I have a handful of my nieces and nephews. I need one of Emerson now. If someone cries while watching a sad movie..do you laugh at them? ???? That is so insensitive???? No???? How often do you change your sheets? I'm... not sure, actually? I know at LEAST once a month (which probably isn't enough), but possibly another time? Idk, I don't pay attention. I just do when I feel it's time to. Is you bedroom upstairs or down? We only have one floor. Is it true blood is thicker than water? Nope. If you could wish someone out of your life... who would it be? Well, he's not *literally* a part of it, but Jason, as far as in my head. Remembering him, sudden memories, flashback prompts, all that jazz are very much daily events. Truly, it doesn't *really* affect me much anymore, it's just so "normal," but it would certainly be grand if he wasn't the most staple person in my head. If you could be with anyone in the world..famous or not..who would it be? HUNNY SWEET CHILD- Are you high maintenance? Nope. If you could change one thing in the world... what would it be? PEACE. JUST PEACE. No war, no violence in general, just. Handle shit like mature adults. If you could star in any movie... which would it be? None. I'm too self-conscious of myself to be in a movie, and I'm a horrible and extremely awkward actress. If you could live in a fairy tale..which would it be? "Alice in Wonderland." <<<< 100% 100% 100%. If you could live in the past..where would it be? The '80s, baby!! If you could see only one person right now..who would it be? Ugh, Sara. I've missed her to death and desperately wanna hang out. Do you wear shoes in the house? No sir. Do you dream in color or black and white? YO! I only recently learned this is a thing with some people, but I dream in color. What is your favorite accent? British. Do you write poetry/songs/stories? Poetry, occasionally. Stories, well, you could easily consider RP that, as we're all collaboratively writing many. Do you wear socks with sandals? gtfo of here with that shit Would you marry for money? HA, no. Do you have any “in the mood” music you like to listen to? AHAHA YES I'M SORRY. Would you vote for a woman president? "If she was a good candidate in my own personal opinion, yeah." <<<< "This. I want to vote for someone who I feel can do the best job. Their gender has nothing to do with it." <<<< Ditto. Are looks/appearances really important? For me personally, not really. Like yes, it's nice to feel physical attraction towards your love interest, but it's a very, very little factor for me, if at all. When you die, do you want to be cremated or buried? Please just cremate me. I really don't wanna be buried. Just taking up space. Do you like to play video games? Yeah, but not as much as I used to, though I wish I did... I think I've watched way too many let's plays to where I can enjoy just fine watching YTers I like experience the game, and I do secondhand while getting some good laughs. Do you like Final Fantasy? Which one do you prefer of all? Oh my god, I wish I was more involved in that series, as I know how madly beloved it is. I used to be obsessed with the demo for FFVIII; my sister, brother, and I would play it like mad, but only Bobby could beat it. The final spider-like boss of the demo was fuckin impossible. I did play a lot of FFVII, which I adored, it was just... so long and by maybe over halfway through, I just drifted from it. I need to watch a playthrough of it, honestly, because the story was so captivating and I genuinely would love to witness how it ends. Have you ever caught on fire? WOW no thank fuck. Do you have a YouTube channel? Yeah, but I don't really make stuff anymore. I don't have Vegas on this computer and honestly I'm just not motivated to really make videos. Do you ever go to video game arcades? No. :( Do you care what people think of you? In most cases, VERY MUCH. Not always, though, but it STRICTLY depends on the situation, big time. Like, I'll walk into Wal-Mart in my pj's np, but there are just a lot of things where I will seriously care too much. Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? No. I had one teacher that ALL the girls thought was super attractive, but I definitely didn't have a crush on him... and then later he got fired for sexual relations with one of the students. OOF. Do you like Lady Gaga? I don't mind her, usually. She's got some good jams. "Bad Romance" is legendary. Do you think you have been in love before? Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadly in love, friends. Do you like Edgar Allan Poe? Love him! Have you ever gotten hit on by some creeper? Oh god yeah and it was awful. Do you bless random people when they sneeze? Yep. Do you have a short temper? No. Have you ever had a yard sale? Yes. Do you go to Barnes and Noble for books, the library or someplace else? I go to Books-A-Million. Do you have an iPad? Nope. Are you scared to die? Yes and no. It's the unknown of what comes after that makes me apprehensive. Do you go to church every Sunday? I never go. Do you think you draw well? I honestly think I draw decently. Have you ever wanted to be a meteorologist? No. Do you like Taylor Swift? Not really, and DEFINITELY not newer stuff, but I will rock hardcore to "Picture To Burn," "Safe and Sound" is positively beautiful, and "Love Story" used to be my favorite song at one point.

[dreamings-free]

🏳️‍🌈 Pride Radio / iHeart Radio Nov 23th 2019

You'd be hard pressed to find evidence of Louis Tomlinson at a party rubbing shoulders with A-listers in the glamorous Hollywood Hills. Instead, the Doncaster, England-born musician usually chooses to spend his time with his hometown friends who have known him since he was a kid.

It's impressive to say the least that after almost a decade in the spotlight, he's stayed grounded and has yet to lose sight of himself. In the same respect that he's unapologetically himself in life, despite his millions of loyal fans (and dollars), the same can be said for his honest and emotional lyrics on his debut album, Walls, — out January 31, 2020.

Ahead of the release of Walls, the 27-year-old stopped by iHeartRadio HQ to discuss his music, his songwriting, and what fans can expect on his trek around the globe on his first solo tour — which sees many dates already sold out despite not launching until next spring.

full article | tweet

After his band One Direction took a hiatus in 2015, Tomlinson — like the other members (Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Liam Payne) — ventured into a solo career. But unlike his counterparts, Tomlinson spent a few years developing his sound, writing dozens of songs, and figuring out exactly how he wanted to portray himself as a solo star. And trust us, it was worth the wait.

If one thing's for sure, Tomlinson is creating music and releasing it in his own time and on his own terms instead of obsessing over topping charts or chasing trends. It's authenticity and honesty that matters most to him and it's safe to say he's nailed it judging by his newly released song “Don't Let It Break Your Heart” as well as the handful of other songs he's shared with fans.

To find out more about what Louis had to say about his album check out our Q&A with him below!

Your debut album, Walls, was recently announced. Can you give more detail about the sound and what we can expect from the album?

I always try to operate as a writer, lyrically it's honest and it's real. At times, blunt. Musically, it's it's just live and as organic as I possibly could make it, and there's plenty of guitars on there, so I'm really happy with the way the record sounds.

Is there a meaning behind the name Walls?

Walls one of the songs on the album. It's one of my favorite songs on the album. I just thought it was a kind of thought-provoking title.

You recently mentioned that you kinda fell out of love a little bit with music. Did these past few years trying to get the album together help you fall back in love with music?

A combination of that and being disciplined in myself that I needed to discover music on my own. I often talk about when I grew up in the town that I grew up in, I relied on pop radio to give me new music. But the way that pop radio, sonically, has changed, I now have to go and search for, you know, these kinds of songs myself. I think once I found some really great albums that were new and modern, it gave me, kind of revitalized.

From “Two Of Us” to “We Made It,” one thing that's clear about your songs is that they're always so honest. You're always so authentic in everything you do. How much does authenticity mean to you in your music?

I think it's vital. I think it's vital for any artist, you know, or any kind of art, really, you know. Authenticity, especially these days, people can see through it, so I think, you know, you're better off just being honest and real, take me or leave me kinda thing.

Were there any songs you were nervous about putting on the record that maybe you thought were too honest?

My writing style is very autobiographical. I think I often go into a session and feel like by the time I've left, I've been a bit too honest there. I think, just naturally, through my upbringing and the kinda place that I grew up, I don't really struggle to kinda speak about myself.

What song, even if you can't say the song name, are you most excited for fans to hear on the album?

Well, before it came out, I was most excited about “Kill My Mind.” I think, musically, it really represents what I wanna do and, again, kind of is a good advert for the live show. But, in terms of my favorite song, and favorite song that fans haven't heard, is probably “Walls,” the title track. It's just a really honest song, the lyrics, I think, is really beautiful. We've got live strings on it as well, which really kind of adds to the atmosphere.

Fans can expect to see you on tour next summer for your first solo tour; which is so exciting. What are you looking forward to most?

Just the actual fact of getting out there and playing to everyone. You know, I had the luxury of being in One Direction and every single year we did, you know, literally hundreds of tour dates. Going from that to then not touring at all, it was quite drastic. That's the real moment as an artist where you get direct feedback from the audience of the stuff that you've been making. So, I'm really looking forward to that moment!

Fans can pre-order Walls on Louis' site as well as grab tickets to his 2020 tour!

[gavillain]

Maleficent

I guess I kinda like this one? ;)

Lol, jk, Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty/Kingdom Hearts) is my favorite fictional character of all time. I love literally everything about her. All of this is on my villains’ list entry on my profile, but I’ll copy and paste it here so I can get my praise for her out there.

So oftentimes when I set out to explain why Maleficent is my favorite villain, I struggle a bit. Usually in villain list entries I just go over the elements to them that I like with a bit of analysis and personal narrative mixed in for good measure, and I'm certainly going to do a bit of that here. However, that's not really the big picture. Maleficent is more than the sum of her parts, more than whatever interesting analysis I could pin on her, more than some childhood story I can relate back to you. She's literally a villain I could go on for a paragraph gushing about how excited I get by the back of her head, I love her so much. She just transcends explanation; she is villainous perfection incarnate. She is the perfect model who all my other favorite villains are in some form or fashion a reaction to. She is fundamental.

Though really, when you get down to it, there's not really some big huge secret to why Maleficent is simply the best. She's just the perfect blending of elements to create a whole that never could have been achieved if anything was handled slightly differently. No other villain is quite that same perfect balance of threatening, regal, powerful, charismatic, entertaining, visually stunning, and intriguing all put into a single package. And because all of these facets to her are there, they create a solid entirety that can only truly be described as a masterpiece. 

So let's actually get into some of those parts that make Maleficent the greatest Disney villain of all time and my personal favorite villain period. First there's her name. The word "maleficent" is a Latin derived adjective meaning "doing evil or harm." Her very name describes the evil that she inflicts upon others. Yet, though "maleficent" is an English adjective, it's not one with widespread popular use. However, even to a casual viewer who might not know that "maleficent" is anything other than the character's name, the meaning behind her name still gives the same impression because it phonetically sounds like a blending of the more commonly used words "malevolent" and "magnificent." Her evil and regality both are phonetically ingrained within her very name, yet unlike the ridiculously derivative names that you may see crop up in bad fanfictions or pretentious fantasy novels, it still very much sounds like a name. It rolls off the tongue beautifully, yet it's not complex, and from the moment you hear it spoken, you know she's not someone to be trifled with.

The next big element to Maleficent that warrants discussion is, of course, her magnificent character design. And Disney is of course known for their incredible artistic vision, but, from where I'm standing, Maleficent is one of those figures where that vision is most apparent. Sleeping Beauty on the whole is designed to emulate the style of medieval tapestry, so for Maleficent to blend, she had to become essentially a meeting ground between the demonic religious symbolism apparent in pre-renaissance art as well as a believable human female form. She couldn't be too monstrous or the climax with the dragon wouldn't have the same emotional resonance, and she couldn't be too human or they'd risk her just looking like the Evil Queen again and clashing with the stylized and intentionally different look of the rest of the film. And if you look at the concept art for her, you'll see that it took a while to get to just the right design.

So why is this one of the great Disney villain designs to the point where it's pretty much the gold standard that all of the villains in the 90s were in some way looking to duplicate? Well, first of all, there's those medieval demonic elements that crept in. The horned headdress (yes, it's a hat) is the most obvious detail, clearly meant to invoke the idea of the Devil, later complimented by her vocally invoking all the powers of Hell. From these horns we know she's an inhuman force of evil and sin before she even speaks a line. Her dress has a motif of flames in the sleeves and train, again, invoking the notion of Hell fire, and the collar of the dress is based on bat wings. And not only does all of this character design shorthand her evil, it harmonizes together beautifully thanks to the purple, black, and green color scheme that is applied in just the right way. Not to mention, of course, that the entire design foreshadows her dragon transformation in the climax (put a pin in the dragon for now).

This design is one that honestly never fails to make me gush in awe. It's such an artistic masterpiece that flows so elegantly and powerfully that I by and large credit it's incredible design for getting me to love villains in the first place. When I said earlier that I could gush about the back of her head, I genuinely meant that. A lot of people scoff at character design being used as a metric for liking a character, but in the realm of animated film, character design and animation is job number one. And here's the truth of the matter: Maleficent would still be on a pedestal among Disney villains even if she was just this magnificent character design. But she's not. She's more than just this magnificent, unparalleled design.

When a design as beautiful as Maleficent's, finding a voice that can breathe life into it in a way that harmonizes and accentuates the quality of the design is not an easy task. A poor voice casting could have killed Maleficent right where she stood. Thankfully, Walt personally suggested that they bring back Eleanor Audley, who had previously worked with them on Lady Tremaine. Audley of course blended so well with the animation because she was such a talented actress and because Maleficent's facial expressions were modeled on Audley's own. But Audley in general turned in the greatest performance as a villain that I have ever seen. Her delivery is just melodic, and she brings a great degree of power, control, and arrogance to the role simply through voice. It's absolutely stunning.

Of course, Audley's not working alone on that front. The actual dialogue writing on Maleficent is top tier stuff as well. These two elements working in perfect harmony helps gives Maleficent one of the most subtle yet charismatic personalities in all of Disney. She's stern, powerful, and she inspires fear in all who encounter, yet she's not just some domineering bully. She also has a delicious little playful quality to her, such as when she pretends like she's embarrassed about showing up unwanted and pretending to leave without causing a scene directly before cursing Aurora. She's coy, and she uses that to play with her enemies' emotions. But if you test her, she'll explode in violent storming rage. She's this beautiful blend of powerful regality, playful coyness, and loud wrathfulness – a perfect evil personality.

Her role in the story isn't especially complex. She's a fairytale villain, and she fulfills that role nicely. She's not complex or deep with a tragic backstory; she doesn't need to be. She's a fantasy evil incarnate, and she does it marvelously. Every bit of misfortunate that befalls the characters in Sleeping Beauty is directly attributable to her. She allows her minions to do some of the dirty work, but most of the time she's right there taking action for herself. She curses Aurora, causing King Stefan and Queen Leah to miss out on raising their daughter, and she later kidnaps Prince Phillip and plans to keep him locked away until he's an old man so that when he awakens Aurora, he'll be old and she'll be young. She uses time as a weapon to inflict suffering and misery. For all that she hurls lightning, her modus operandi is almost always to cause internal pain and strife, and I love that quality to her.

A lot of people tend to oversimplify and misrepresent her motivation as her just being upset that she wasn't invited to a birthday party, and, honestly, that's such a blatant oversimplification that it barely deserves to be dignified. Maleficent is a villain entirely motivated by her arrogance and desire for respect. Any act of disrespect to her is an act of war, no matter how insignificant it might seem. She lets no affront to her go unpunished, and that's why she's so terrifying. Though also, what's nice about how her motivations aren't spoon-fed to the audience is that it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. We're left with a lot of questions about why Maleficent cares so much about disrespect, and every possible answer makes her more interesting. She's a perfect example of how effective "less is more" can be in storytelling.

And of course, it all culminates in the best finale ever put into a Disney film: the final battle against the dragon. Actually, there's no dragon anywhere in the original Sleeping Beauty fairytale, but because Sleeping Beauty was striving to be a grand medieval fairytale fantasy epic unlike anything the studio had ever produced, and because having Prince Phillip throw a sword into a human looking Maleficent would be unseemly for a family film, they decided to put the cherry on top with the most recognizable medieval fantasy creature to face against the brave knight in shining armor. And it really is the perfect climax to the story. Prince Phillip, who is wielding the Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue and fighting on behalf of true love, clashes against Maleficent, who invokes all the powers of Hell to become a Satanic creature motivated by hate and pain. It is the ultimate symbolic battle of good triumphing over evil, and the fact that Maleficent so perfectly incarnates that evil makes it all come together.

So, naturally, it is already very apparent that I greatly admire and enjoy Maleficent and think she's an incredible villain. Yet, the question still remains: why is she the number one spot? Why was she the villain who clicked with me on such a profound level that I can write an over four thousand word essay on how much I like her purely recreationally? The answer is honestly pretty simple: consistency. Maleficent is the one villain who, no matter where I am in my life, she's always to some extent at play. 

She was my favorite villain when I was a kid whose movie's tape I wore out rewatching. She was my favorite villain to drag my parents to the Disney store and start my collection of villain merchandise I have to this day. She was my favorite villain at the Disney parks when I'd visit and watch her in the shows. She was my favorite video game villain when I got into Kingdom Hearts as I got older. She was my roleplay character who I played on the side while playing Hades. She was my favorite villain to edit with when doing the villain tournaments. She’s my favorite villain who I write for on a consistent basis with my fanfic. And she's my favorite villain now with all of that looking back and still having the same enthusiasm for her as the first time I watched the movie.

In a kind of bizarre way, Maleficent has been one of the biggest constants in my life. No matter how things have changed, no matter where I've gone or what I've become, she's always been right there, holding my hand through all of it. Other villains and characters, love them though I do, come and go in phases. Maleficent never does. She's always there, and in some way, every single villain who I love has some element that links them back to her. She's that inescapable bedrock to everything fictional that I love and hold dear.

She's the Mistress of All Evil, one of the greatest villains of all time, the single most important fictional character in my life, and my absolute personal favorite. Long may she reign!