#what keeps coming to mind is a les friction line

[anneapocalypse]

My shipping headcanons are just making the messy Scion dynamic out here better (read: worse) because since Ariane arrived, she and Urianger cannot stop smiling uncontrollably every time they look at each other, and Thancred and Y'shtola have to stand there and see that and not gag.

[theworldoffandoming]

😭 I started this, but lost most of it. tumblr didn't save my draft... Wahhhh.

Welp. I guess we'll take it from the top... The first one is part of the draft so I'm just gonna expand on that. Second song is what I remember getting after it and none of that got saved, wahh. And then I'll randomize for the next ones after that. I remember I got a good one for the third one but I can't remember what it was :< I have a theory of what it might've been or what I might have gotten trying to reattempt after getting sidetracked? But I'll shuffle again just to be sure. I might've even gotten two songs after that but... anyways.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy

Six Feet Under by PhaseOne

This is a Korosa song that's largely about the vibe. Genre-wise it works well with the story because it has a lot of sci-fi-esque sounds to it. Its album art is space-themed so that's another checkmark in the box. It's fast-pasted, which is fitting for Korosa who's always on the run, specifically from death, so the song title and theme of the song play into that fear. It has a lot of back and forth to it in which I can imagine him kinda skidding to a halt as he turns a corner and keeps running with lasers firing after him, like that one pic of him I really gotta redraw... Oh, I have another pic with the song title on it but yeah, think I'd like to flesh that out a bit more sometime...

2. Losing my Mind - Mystery Skulls

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

Okay this one is a Tsuname song I remember I wrote a TON about this one but all of it's gone so lemme see if I can try to recapture the vibes...

So this one also has some sci-fi flavor to it that fits in with the story as a whole.

Looking at the lyrics, I can imagine the first part is about him feeling like Boss is watching him. 'Someone' being Boss and 'they' being Boss and his minions.

"Feels like a dream of me all of the time" is an interesting line since in Tsuname's worst moments it's just his fight mode taking over and it almost is like he's in a dream-like state that he wakes up from.

I don't if it's just me but some of the bass slaps sound kinda like waves a bit? so the juxtaposition of that and the robotic voices really captures the vibe of the split between his two worlds. Especially as we get into a little more of that sci-fi sound towards the end.

Okay well I think I got another good one for you guys despite all the chaos that has been trying to put this post together.

3. World on Fire - Les Friction

This is one that's a double but I'll go with the one that's not a spoiler. I really doesn't get going until the chorus, but then it's definitely about the destruction of Erinine. Though... I think it also fits another destructive event in the story more than that, but y'know. Really it's that chorus "You know there's something coming down from the sky above / World on fire with a smoking sun / Stops everything and everyone / Brace yourself for all will pay" Is help on the way though? I think that's fitting for the later story event...

4. Scent of Night - Myuu

*checks notes* Okay this one has multiple interpretations. I commonly associate it with Naru. It technically could also be Shiido arc 3. I'd written it down as a possibility for Tsuname in a later part of the story too. But uh. For Naru I think it's her having to reflect when she's imprisoned in arc 3. Which is why it works well for Shiido too. For Tsuname it works because it has those darker reflective tones for when his beliefs about Sh'zkai and his island's mythos are challenged. "Scent of Night" I think is literal for him, since it's a reflective scene at night. For Naru and Shiido it's more of an artificial darkness from when they each get trapped in these dark void bubbles by Prometheus. Naru suffers the worst from that...

5. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Josh Groban

Ah, nice. One of the original playlist songs. This one is also about Tsuname. In some ways it's him telling his younger self to be more careful about Sh'zkai. Possibly also [redacted] trying to advise him in his own awkward way, but I think a lot of it is Tsuname reflecting on the good times but also the bad. I think "see her as she flies golden sails across the sky" reminds me of how Wotrens can glide across the surface of the sea with their wings. They usually need a boost from water manipulation to get up very high, or they just jump and coast. I don't think Sh'zkai does that often when she's older, but she probably enjoyed it more when she was young.

OH. Star mention! Sh'zkai is often compared to a star, so "I tripped and I missed my star" is very apt. Both of the Wotren sisters have some celestial symbolism with them, so this is 👌 In some ways this might be about how Sz'nami can't be his either, but more about Sh'zkai than her. Made me think of that since Sz'nami has more moon symbolism tied to her but this song is more about Sh'zkai.

...next two are about spoilers so redacted! I could mention what they are but... nah.

6. So Far Away and So Near - Erutan

Okay, this one has one spoiler interpretation and one not, so let's go with that.

It might be Sz'nami and Tsunne... Tsunne is Tsuname's older brother and he was married to Sz'nami but perished in the invasion. So it might be Sz'nami reflecting on their relationship. "So Far Away," he's gone now, "So Near," she still remembers him.

... I forgot to tag people!!

@iggyfing @the-kirbe-anon @tzarina-alexandra @enjoliquej @toothpaste-dragon @larissa-the-scribe

Tag game

Shuffle your story playlist and write down the first six songs and then explain why they work with your story. Then tag six people who should try it!

Tagging @quill-driver08 @eruanna1875 @artist-at-play @meadow-roses @katiethedane12 @larissa-the-scribe

[f-117-nighthawk]

I’m in a Playlist Mood

I was scrolling through my dark matter tag looking for something I made a while ago to reference in the next chapter of Carry Me Home and ran across my last playlist explanation post. It put me in the mood to think about this again, and I’ve added...a lot. The playlist might’ve actually doubled in length since then (Thank You Abyss) and I’ve moved some stuff around in order. So, more playlist meta under the cut (it’s LONG)

So first thing: I’ve actually created two new playlists (well, one new one and actually made the third playlist have more than two tracks) since that post jhadsfljd. Working forwards in time (kinda), we have:

Dark Matter: The Road to Ruin

The Road to Ruin is the Main Playlist, the thing I use to write to, the thing I lie in bed and listen to to think up new things, and half the thing that keeps the timeline in place (it’s actually more updated than World Anvil rn whoops). Here we have overarching plot hooks, character development, and the story of six Paladins and their friends trying to save the universe.

Turn the Lights Out I sort of explained in the last post and I can’t think of too much more to add. The TLDR is it’s about the Lions (and, well, technically [REDACTED] too....) and sort of why I refer to a fully-melded Lion-Paladin duo as Spirits.

(I was here/Will you welcome and recognize me/I'll be there/I was here/Will you dread me, will you despise me/I'll be there/For the last living thing)

Remnants of Stars is again about Galran philosophy and the actual process of the quintessence nurseries filtering quintessence back into the universe. But the bit about giving in to know the truth becomes important much, MUCH later.

(As children of space/With stardust in our veins/We will give in to know the truth/We are the remnants of stars)

Your World Will Fail, Dark Matter, and Eater of Worlds are about [REDACTED], about what happens between that instant between the first plank time and the next. They’re an overarching theme, but also the event that everything else builds from, whether that be interpreted as the beginning of the universe or the Voltron comet crashing into Daibazaal.

(Your world will fail my love/It’s far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)

(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)

(Can’t imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I’m looking for someone to feed me)

Apocalypse 1992 is actually the main story of Through Apocalypse Skies, although its framing story is shortly after String Theory. It happens between parts of Awakenings, detailing the rise of [REDACTED] and the final hours before the destruction of everything sentient species knew beforehand.

(Fly high through apocalypse skies/Fight for the world we must save/Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain/Chaos will triumph this day)

You Keep What You Kill covers the slow degeneration of the Empire between The Fall and the Battle of Arus. The knowledge harshly taught by the Thuanial War is forgotten under the influence of Zarkon, Haggar, and [REDACTED]. Marzin and Galraasa quickly rise the ranks as the Empire’s left and right hands, like omens of destruction before them. The four are the ‘holy half-dead,’ the ones who shape the devouring of the universe before them.

(Defying dimensions/These ruthless creatures will steal your soul/Breaking away from the chains of mortality/They won't be taken down/Bow now to the holy half dead/The master to death mongers calls)

The Seven Sisters is about Keith, mostly, and connected to Closure via its influence on Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) and also to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met

(I cast my hope upon The Pleiades/The Seven Sisters who would come for me/They'd fall to Earth to grant a child's dream/But I'm still waiting)

Starlight is the newly added Adashi song. Here, it’s the sad part, based around the time that the SFSS Genesis launches for Kerberos. It also is sort of about Shiro’s thoughts throughout the war as he watches ‘from distant skies’ (and influences String Theory kinda)

(At night the earth will rise/And I'll think of you each time I watch from distant skies/Whenever stars go down and galaxies ignite/I'll think of you each time they wash me in their light/And I'll fall in love with you again)

Abyss is Awakenings again. It’s specifically the Red Lion waking up on Sendak’s ship to her new Paladin, but also sort of the rest of the Lions as they find new Paladins for the first time since The Fall

(Open my eyes in a daze/How long has it been? Am I so out of place?/Warmth I can no longer feel/My mountain is gone, I'm surrounded by steel/The strangest of structures arises ahead/Seems to be held up by nothing/Where have I gone, do I dream?/How can the stars be all I can see?)

Who Will Save You Now is about the Paladins in First Contact. It’s the video messages they send to their families, the warning that Something Is Out Here that they need to prepare for. It’s a declaration of protection for Earth, but a recognition that the Paladins may not be able to do what they say.

(I will not take from you and you will not owe/I will protect you from the fire below/It's not in my mind/It's here at my side/Go tell the world that I'm still alive)

The End of the Beginning and Nobody Gets Left Behind are the aftermath of the Battle of the Sarnan Nebula, the end of season two. The End of the Beginning hasn’t been posted yet, but it’s also the second of the four Closure fics. The End of the Beginning also has influence on String Theory. 

(Every night I die just a little/All this time, I'm caught in the middle/All your life, you fought with no winning/This is just the end of the beginning)

(Don't even try to pretend/That you're rough and just as tough/As when you're missing a friend/Attack and take him back/Cause when the team isn't whole/You've got a hole in your soul)

A Simple Plan is sort of part of The End of the Beginning, but really takes place after it. It’s the newly shuffled Team Voltron attempting to track down Lotor as Haggar tries to keep him under her control, and the new Black Paladin’s slow shift away from the things that he was pushed into and to the Blade. (And... guess what... it has influence on String Theory!) Fun fact I found out recently: The Spiritual Machines are by and large also the people behind Les Friction, which explains so much.

(What is this space we’re climbing/What is this place we’re stuck in/Why do we feel we’re sinking/How do we get out – get out of this) 

Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met skips all the way over Naxzela and to the Mission to the Baaria Shipyards, the first major offensive that isn’t somehow connected to canon (even if only a very very small part of it is actually at the shipyards lol). This is also the song that solidified Keith’s very queer identity in Dark Matter.

(In this lonely place, bathed in silence and thoughts of you/I can't see your face but I'm trying to envision you/So are you really out there? Are you awake with memories/Of a boy you haven't met yet who's wished upon the Pleiades?)

TRIALS (reimagine) and String Theory are.... hoh boy. [REDACTED], [spoilers], and the turning point for a lot of things, which is why it has the honor of being the separating fic between my two main Dark Matter folders. TRIALS being on here is a fun story, because I associate that song very heavily with my main Star Wars fics, since that’s where the series title comes from, but the reimagine version of it gave me such strong Dark Matter vibes, it ended up here. It has heavy influence on the first part of String Theory, and is what I’ve been using for general pacing of the first half. String Theory itself isn’t the weirdest song on the playlist, but it’s really hard to find the connections to it without several layers of abstraction and backstory on [REDACTED]. String Theory is also weaved into a good chunk of fics before it.

(The ending won't be forgotten/It's written in the stars and the hieroglyphs/Sending the lionhearted/The stones break bones, but we're venomous)

(You don't believe in space/You don't believe in light/You don't believe that anything is well beyond your might/We walk across the sky and beneath the ocean floor/We're never going anywhere we've never been before)

House on Fire is the aftermath of String Theory, and a large vibe of We ARE Struggling Together! (Rise Against says it’s about parenting???? lol fuck that) (okay but actually, switch the parental love part to sibling love/general familial love and that’s a pretty good description....)

(So I'll just hold you like a hand grenade/You touch me like a razor blade/I wish there was some other way right now/Like a house on fire we're up in flames/I'd burn here if that's what it takes/To let you know I won't let go of you)

Belgrade is the klance song! It is a) bop b) always stuck in my head because it is That Good. The line in the chorus about ‘sweet songs of seduction’ is eternally funny to be bc a)they’re both ace and b)QPR’s don’t usually involve seduction as far as I know. Belgrade also leads almost directly into...

(We pretend in the darkness/We pretend the night won’t steal our youth/Singing me the sweet songs of seduction/Let me be the fool, fool, fool/Who will live and die for you)

Here to Save You is about Sam. Mostly. It’s also about Pidge. And Zaivorge cannons.

(A slave for humankind/I made sure I would survive/To stay alive/Now it's time to move on/When there's nothing left to prove/I'm coming to get you)

Iron is what eventually replaced Ten Thousand Against One. The plot has actually changed a lot since it was that song like. two years ago (three?) at this point. It has more of a focus on Keith knowing what’s going on due to [spoilers] and coming to accept parts of himself that are suddenly very obvious (kiiiinda the third closure fic?)

(You can't live without the fire/It's the heat that makes you strong/'Cause you're born to live/And fight it all the way/You can't hide what lies inside you/It's the only thing you know/You're embracing that, never walk away)

Birthright and Firewall are not exactly a direct result of Iron, but they wouldn’t happen how they do without it. They’re actually largely about Lotor, but then [REDACTED] swings back into the fray and things learned in String Theory/the framing story for Through Apocalypse Skies hit in full force.

(The voices in my head have all begun to sing/(The voices in your head have all begun to sing)/And they sure as hell hope I am listening/(I sure as hell hope you are listening!))

(They come to your dreams with illusion/They come to bring shape to your mind/You know how to stop the intrusion/We all have to fight for our lives)

and then, The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Here Comes the Reign doesn’t come into full effect until several months after Birthright/Firewall after Galraasa meets their fate, but starts with The Day the Earth Collapsed. It’s largely about Haggar and [REDACTED]

(You made something they can't take away/Now bring the fire of the burning sun on everyone)

Closure is placed where the fourth of its fics is. Closure in general is a lot of Keith’s character development and some of the struggles he goes through to accept his place in the universe and the fact that yes, he does have people that care about him. The last fic is me shining a brighter light on Closure’s chorus and taking a ‘last goodbye’ as never needing to say it again

(I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye)

Ember and Soulbound are two closely related missions involving both Voltron and the Blade (specifically the Dark Whispers) in which [REDACTED] comes in with a vengeance, and some revelations about certain people’s fates are had. Soulbound is actually sort of from Krolia’s perspective.

(Dark matter falling from the sky/Dancing flames reflecting in your eyes as you watch them burn/Watching all your riches witches burn)

(Soulbound, endlessly forever/Locked between the darkness and the light/Don't drown in the swarming, blackened rising/Hold on to humanity and fight)

Darker Matter and Other Worlds Than These are. Well. [REDACTED] and [spoilers] and String Theory’s revelations rearing their ugly head once again, but this time with extra context and just a little bit of [spoiler]

(Dream yourself away/The pull of you shredding time and space)

(There are monsters in the sky/There are demons in the sea/I have seen them with my eyes/I've seen what you won't see/Pull the wool out from your eyes/It won't shade your frail belief/In the end we cannot hide/There are other worlds than these)

Godhunter is a fun one. The combined effects of String Theory, Soulbound, and Darker Matter/Other Worlds Than These come to a head and Team Voltron goes, well, hunting.

(She's been watching for a century/With hatred, and with scorn/If you know the hunter's coming/Then you hide or keep on running/'Cause she's slain the gods before)

My Darkest Hour is revenge for Godhunter, as well as a distraction from it, although Godhunter continues all the way to Louder than Words. 

(When the sun comes crashing down/When the world is spinning round and round/I will face what must be my darkest hour)

Faster Than Light is almost direct aftermath of My Darkest Hour, and sort of the inverse of Godhunter, where now Team Voltron are the hunted, even as they attempt to continue hunting. Oh and, Marzin and [REDACTED] are big parts

(Once more we're flying fast as light/Dark matter passing in the night/Pursued by a force we can't outrun/As we hurtle towards a dying sun/We maneuver through the remnants of a moon/On the solar winds of supernovas/There is not a place to hide, the Matriarch is close behind/It's plain to see she's coming for us all)

The Reckoning, This is a Call, World on Fire, The Wind that Shapes the Land, and Louder Than Words are the finale, what everything has been building towards. Earth’s faction, Haggar, [REDACTED], Voltron, the Empire, and the Coalition, all clash together in a final desperate bid to finish or prevent the final result of Your World Will Fail/Dark Matter/Eater of Worlds.

(I see your face, find peace of mind/Between the madness and the sadness and the fire burning/The end of war, the great divine/We'll see the day of reckoning)

(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)

(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)

(Search within/Uncover the will to win/Turn against the tide that washes o'er/Find the strength to fall and rise again/Open up the gates, unleash the force/I am the wind that shapes the land/Old as time and twice as strong/Oceans arise at my command/I alone can carry on)

(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)

Dystopian Fiction

Dystopian Fiction is focused on what happens on Earth during the main playlist. I split it out because putting stuff like Cross the Line on the main playlist was getting clunky, and I figure Adam and Veronica (and the rest of the Paladins’ families, but mostly those two) deserve a chance for their story to shine on its own.

Dark Matter is on here because title track, but also it does end up with effects.

(Don't stop, don't think/Move up, don't blink now/On your knees pray for rain/Don't breathe when you take your aim)

Codebreaker is Adam’s song! I have him primarily as a cryptologist for the Garrison, teaching on the side and as a reserve pilot. Aviators says Codebreaker is actually about Cyperpunk 2077 but uhhh Fuck That it’s about Adam being The Best and dealing with...

(Codebreaker can't you find/Can you read between the lines of code?/Tell me all that you know/How far down the hole does it all go)

Cross the Line is the Éskhayklos’ image song. They’re a neo-luddite movement turned terrorist group that are upset with the way the Sol Federation is trying to fix Earth, stating that humans are the one that pushed it into this state, they should leave it to die and die along with it. Akane Shirogane was their worst nightmare. Cross the Line fits because, well, they crossed the line when [spoiler beep] and they were happy about it. (And “human cause” comes into play later when they pick up anti-alien leanings)

(Cross the line, redefine, break away unbent, unafraid/Together we stand in the dark/Seeking the light and what is right, together we cross the line/Our journey will come to an end and then our human cause will be/Justified)

Who Will Save You Now here is about Sam, and the aftermath of Here to Save You, in addition to its referenced role in the main playlist

(Alone with this vision/Alone and blind/Go tell the world I'm still alive)

The Day the Earth Collapsed is exactly what it says on the tin.

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Dystopian Fiction is the title track for this part. With the events of The Day the Earth Collapsed, the Garrison and our heroes on Earth are at their lowest point. It really is a piece of dystopian fiction, between [spoiler] and [spoiler]. And also: “Nobody can shoot me down, not just yet” is about Adam bc Fuck Canon

(I'm a dead man/In the wasteland/I'm a soldier fighting for superstition/Under search lights/In the long nights/We've been written like dystopian fiction)

The Reckoning is the only one of its little subset that made it over here, because it’s the only one that references events from before its eponymous fic (both verses are Very Earth)

(We're all alone, walking in twilight/The night has been long and so many have fallen/Feel no remorse, light will be breaking/Our freedom is worth it all)

Filaments

Filaments is the least complete, mostly because it’s the ‘sequel series’ of sorts. I have ideas for it, but I still haven’t posted most of the major story beats from the main portion of Dark Matter, so I’ve been purposefully putting it on the backburner. I do have enough to write Carry Me Home and put some foreshadowing in other fics.

Dark Matter is here because, well. A) Title track, B) yes, it still has effects. It’s the overarching theme, after all. Filaments sort of has a subtitle itself, which is ‘The Undoing,’ after the other part of the lyric that the subtitle of the main playlist comes from. It’s about undoing a past mistake (that wasn’t obviously a mistake until much later) and reconciling the events of Your World Will Fail.

(I am the keeper/I am the secret/I am the answer/I am the end)

Filaments is the title track of this part. It’s... a little hard to explain why without giving away the entire plot (what little I have planned lol) but it’s about the connections between different parts of the universe, and some fall-out of Darker Matter/Other Worlds Than These.

(These glowing filaments/Conducting this enchanting/Sarcophagus that's holding us)

Starlight is, again, Adashi song, and this time the happy part

(Don't leave me lost here forever/I need your starlight and pull me through/Bring me back to you)

Carry Me Home is what I’m in the process of writing right now, and it’s about the aftermath of the Quintessence War, specifically about how Shiro decides to settle down on Earth and what he does to build himself a home.

(Carry me home to the morning light/carry me home before you wave me goodbye/Oh, carry me home...)

[darling-young-drabbles]

Birthday Boy

Hi don’t let the title fool you, this is actually a really angsty story... Some triggers there is going to be gruesome death in this so watch out before you read. If that stuff does not bother you then go ahead and keep reading! This one is Elliott’s most traumatic event of his life.

“Alright kids! Come on let’s pack up in the car!” Mother called from the front door, father stood right beside her as he helped her coat onto her shoulders.

Jeff and Jayda ran down the stairs, giggling along the way as they raced to see who would be first. Elliott followed suit behind the twins, making sure his suit jacket had no lint or hair on it. He had been wearing his special black suit jacket with matching slacks and a white button-up shirt. Dad wore something similar, but his jacket and slacks were gray with an addition of a purple tie while Jeff only wore the back slacks and a light purple button-up instead of white. Both girls wore dresses, Jayda wore a white dress with a purple fringe and bow around the waist while mom wore her favorite fancy purple dress that she only wore for special occasions.

She gave a kind smile as the kids stood in front of her, “Good job, kids. You two got ready all by yourselves! You make your old mother so proud.” She spoke, leaning down to kiss both children’s cheeks. “And Elliott.” She smiled, happily hugging the boy to her chest, “There’s my special birthday boy. I can’t believe you’re already fourteen, ugh you make me feel so old!” She kissed his forehead softly as she hugged the adolescent close.

“Mom you’re really squeezing me. I wanna make it to fifteen.” He spoke with a light chuckle, hugging her back before pulling away, his chestnut brown eyes looking up to meet hers. Everyone always said he looked just like his mom.

“Anita, dear, if you want to get that picture you wanted and still make the reservations on time, I suggest we do this now.” Dad told her, ruffling the oldest child’s hair with a light hum.

Mom took a quick look at her watch, letting out a small squeak as she started to nudge the kids to stand at the door, “Ah! Maurice why didn’t you tell me? Kids line up! Mommy wants to get a quick picture of all of us before we go!” She spoke, placing the camera on the stairs and setting the timer before she quickly joined the rest of the family. “Everyone say cheese!”

“Cheese!” The whole family cried as they all smiled for the photo. With a click and a flash, the camera took the picture.

Mom was quick to hug the kids as she looked at the picture on the camera, “Oh now let’s see… It looks good kids! My pretty little Jayda and all my handsome boys!” She grinned, putting the camera on the counter. “Oh we’re going to have to frame this one! It’s so cute!”

“Alright kids, mom, we should probably pack into the car… If we go now we’ll be able to make it on time.” Dad spoke, nudging the children out towards the door. Mom followed right after, closing and locking the door behind them.

Everyone had packed into the blue Chrysler Pacifica, nicknamed “Carly” by his father when they had first gotten it. Elliott moving in the middle seat with the younger children on either side of them. Mom sat in the passenger’s seat while dad was in the driver’s seat. The now fourteen year old was excited of course, this was his favorite tradition. Every year on his birthday, the whole family would go to their favorite restaurant where they would always give him a free dessert and the whole staff would sing happy birthday to them. This has been the norm since he was young and it has carried on throughout all fourteen years of his life. It was a bit of a drive, it took about forty minutes to go down and another forty on the way back. Though no one minded at all, it was a fun family outing that everyone enjoyed annually. It was the same each and every year.

But that year was different.

Elliott had his earbuds in, listening to some music quietly as he stared out the right window, looking over Jayda’s head. He admires the colors of autumn, the reds, yellows and oranges was intriguing to him, it was almost calming. While at this point, trees were starting to go bare as winter threatened to come rolling in, it was not quite an ugly, dead-looking brown color yet. Everything was completely peaceful, just a calming car ride with his family. It was all of a second when everything changed. Out the window he saw it, a car that was turning into the road, but they didn’t dare to stop or let alone even slow down in the slightest. His eyes blew wide, opening his mouth to speak but it was already too late. The sound of glass shattering towards them, the side of the car crunching in on them, and the sound of the family’s screams is all that could be heard as they suddenly were thrown off the road, rolling a few feet into the grass before they had stopped flipped onto its left side.

The teen had been thrown from his seat, having hit the left side of the car. He felt horrible pain as he managed to open his eyes. “W-wha…?” He whimpered, looking around his surroundings. Though his confusion was soon replaced with horror. In front of him was mom, her head was hanging off the side, her arm hanging limply downward. He could see the blood dripping off of her forehead and down her arm. Dad had not even been in the car anymore, he had flown through the windshield and laid on the ground a few feet from the car. “ D-dad..? M-Mom?!” He spoke, fear starting to eat at him. His breath started to pick up tears starting to pour as he suddenly screamed out in horror. He attempted to crawl out but soon found himself not able to move. His head turned to his arm and almost immediately he started to scream again. His arm was crushed under the side of the car, completely destroyed under the weight of the vehicle. He screamed as loud as he could, trying his best to call out for help.

“E-Elli..?” Came a small pained voice, “I-Is that… Y-you..?” The youngest boy asked, his body laying against the side of car, he could see a few gashes across his skin from the glass, but it didn’t look too horrible. “I-I… I can’t… I-I hurt… I-I-I can’t move…” he whimpered pathetically.

“J-Jeff?! Y-yeah buddy… It’s… It’s me…” He spoke pained, trying his best to crawl out further to him, but failing miserably, he couldn’t inch his body all that much closer. “J-just… I’m gonna… G-gonna get you…” He managed to reach up and unbuckle his seatbelt. Though he was terrified to see his brother’s body fall limply onto the ground, not moving at all. The only reason he knew he was still alive was the child’s frantic cries. He was quick, pulling his body close to his as he held him close to his chest. “O-oh god.. Jeff?! Jeff just… I-I’m here…” He tried calming him down but to no avail, he sobbed and screamed into his chest, unable to move his body in the slightest. That was when Elliott saw it. The child’s spine was shattered, paralyzing his whole body from the neck down, his whole body limp and dead against his body. But what horrified him the most was the back of his head. His skull had been cracked open, blood spilling heavily from the open wound. The adolescence had to cover his mouth to muffle his sobs.

Jeff was no better in the situation, screaming in fear and pain, wanting to cling onto his brother but not being able to move to do so. “Mommy! Where’s mommy?!” The child screamed, not even able to look around for himself, “D-Daddy?! JJ?! Wh-where are th-they?!” He called out, unaware of what had happened to all of them. Elliott frowned when he mentioned Jayda, realizing he hadn’t looked yet looked at her, he turned his head and almost vomited at the sight. His sister’s body hung above them, the seatbelt having been wrapped around her broken, lifeless neck. She must have tried to unbuckle and escape when the car first was hit, but when it had rolled, the belt was swift to end her instantly.

In his own horror, he had failed to answer Jeff’s cries, having to keep himself from losing his lunch and his mind. Then he noticed, Jeff wasn’t crying anymore, rather instead he was silent. “J-Jeff..? Jeff..?” He spoke, fearful to even look. When he moved him slightly to see his face, he found that he wasn’t breathing with a lifeless look to his eyes. His heart stopped in his chest, “Jeff! Jeff! No! No, no, no!” He cried, trying to shake him awake in any way he could. Though he realized the horrible truth, he was gone, so was Jayda and mom and dad. He lightly put him down as he covered his own face, harsh sobs ripping through his body at the trauma. He attempted to pull his arm out from under the car again, tugging roughly as he tried to pull himself from out underneath the car siding. He tugged roughly feeling scraps of metal moving as he did so, scraping against the rocky ditch underneath the car.

However, what Elliott had failed to notice was the sparks. The continuous tugging on his arm caused the scraps of metal to create sparks to shoot out from the friction. He thought nothing of it, focused on trying to get out and away from his nightmare. He was pulled out of his thoughts when the light had started beside him, hot light. His eyes widened, fire, fire that was bright and hot and too close for comfort. “N-no… No please…” He whimpered, tugging more frantically, as he saw the flames grow closer to him. The adolescent's whole body was filled with terror as he attempted to pull himself out from the wreckage, the fire growing closer as it started to grow onto his body. He screamed out, continuously trying to pull away, fire and pain shooting to his left side.

Another unexpected event however ensued, as he attempted to pull away, more sparks had shot from the attempts and rather than causing more small fires, a large one broke out. The fire that connected with the gased up car caused it, an explosion. Elliott wasn’t sure if it was another tragic event or a moment of luck as he was blasted back from underneath the car, skidding out onto the road. His whole body was filled with pain, his left side had aches and burned from the mix of the burns and the explosion. He felt weak, he felt as if he couldn’t move, nor did he really want to. At least his arm was free, he slowly opened his eyes looking at what was left of his arm in front of him, making tears of horror come to his eyes. From the elbow down, it was gone, blood oozing out of the stump, only making the child shriek again, a mix of hard sobs and screaming coming out of his mouth. This was it, it had to be it, his whole body and mind felt as if it were shutting down. Was he dying? Was this what it was like? The boy simply closed his eyes, crying loudly as he laid limp out in the middle of the street, simply waiting for his body to give out and he could find peace. Apparently though the world didn’t want that for him, he could hear a car approaching and slowing down in front of him as he lost consciousness.

Suddenly, he woke up with a gasp, eyes looking around frantically to see what was going on. He wasn’t in the road anymore, where was he? White walls, a weird smell, a sense of dread in his stomach. Hospital. He wasn’t dead, which was the most shocking thing to him. He couldn’t move well at all, his body felt weak and heavy, he could feel constrained as well, especially his face. He looked down at his body, he had been wearing the normal hospital gown, and he could see that he had bandaged applied to practically his whole left side, he assumed it was due to the burns. His right arm had the IV Bag attached to it while his left… Oh god his left. He didn’t see the grotesque amputation any more, now being heavily wrapped in gauze and bandages, but the image was still clear in his mind. All of the gory imagery had bee still crystal clear in his eyes. Slowly, he raised his right arm, moving to touch his face. He didn’t feel his skin, rather he felt the bandages wrapped around his head, only leaving space for his eyes and his mouth. He couldn’t help himself as all the memories flooded back to him, along with the tears that poured from his eyes. He yelled and screamed, a mix of grief, fear and pain all shooting through his brain. He couldn’t be calmed down, nurses and doctors came in frantically, trying their damndest to relax the traumatized child, all to no avail.

Months had passed at this point and the pain was not any more bearable. He was walked up to the stand, keeping his eyes down as he knew all eyes had been on him. Elliott no longer needed bandages though he wish he still had them to simply hide his face. He knew he looked disgusting at this point, it was horrible to the point he hated looking at mirrors. It scared him as much as it scared the others around him. He had to do the standard actions, putting his hand on a bible and swearing to tell the truth. He felt dead inside, emotionless as he had to speak of his family. His eyes focused on the man as he answered the questions. The lawyers showed him a picture of the car that had hit them, asking if it looked familiar and if he had recognized it at all. He answered yes of course. This ordeal hurt more than his injuries, he didn’t want to think of them, of everything he had seen and experienced, but if he wanted this man to go away, he knew he had to. Elliott wanted the man to suffer the way that he did.

Ugh, he hated lawyers. He knew it was their job to do this, but it put a sick feeling in his mouth when the defendant lawyer tried seeing if his father had been to blame. He had to tell them repeatedly that his father was always a careful driver, always stayed within the speed limit. In Elliott’s experience, his father had only sped once, and that had been when he had broken his arm when he was a child. “The arm that is now gone…” The teen added in a spiteful tone. After an hour more or so, the verdict was decided.

“After the evidence provided, we find the defendant guilty on the charge of manslaughter. We recommend six years jail time.” The jury had spoken as everyone looked to the judge.

The older man nodded, preparing to bang the gavel and finish this case, “Done. Court dismi-“

“What?!” Elliott yelled, standing up from his seat. “Only six years?! That’s all he gets! My entire family is dead!” He cried out, a mix of anger and pain clear in his voice, “M-my brother and sister were only eight! They never got a life!” He spoke, tears coming to his eyes, “They’re all gone! And you ruined me! Look at me!” He screamed at the man responsible.

The man looked guilty, he felt bad for what he had done, but Elliott didn’t care. “I-I’m sorry! I never meant to!”

“Sorry?!” Elliott glared, shakily wiping his tears, “Sorry doesn’t bring them back! Give me my arm back! You deserve the death penalty for what you did!” He shouted, going to run at the man but being stopped by the police officer.

The judge banged his gavel, “Order! Order in the court! Mr.Rivers I am sorry for your loss, but the law is the law. Involuntary manslaughter is different than murder. This is all we can do. Officer, please escort Mr.Rivers out of the courtroom.”

With a nod, the cop started to pull Elliott out of the court room. The teen struggled the whole way, shouting at the man the whole way, “Murderer!” He called out in choked cries. He saw the man start to cry and simply growled, “You’re crying! Yeah cry you monster!” He called before he was pushed out of the courtroom, the doors slamming behind him. Elliott frowned, looking at the doors a moment before he completely let go. He fell to his knees, the sobs starting up again as he screamed into his hand. That was it, he was alone with a gaping hole in his heart, no one to comfort him anymore.

[littlenightma]

Heyhey if you write m/m could I request something involving Marlow and a male human that he becomes infatuated/obsessed with so he convinces him to let him be his sire? I dont mind whether it's headcanons or a oneshot. Ty!

Author’s Note: Hell fucking yeah, my first Marlow request. I was hoping someone would request him eventually. And yes, I write m/m, but I am not too experienced with writing them so I may be a bit rusty. I hope that’s okay ^_^

Fandom: 30 Days of Night (movie)

Title: Will You So Kindly Be Mine?

Gif Owner: thefirstmover

Word Count: 3k+

Warnings: Nsfwish content. This turned out longer than I had intentionally planned. I did not run this through Grammarly because I was so eager to get this out so mistakes could very well be present.

Will You So Kindly Be Mine?

It had been several hours since the daylight had gone and the night was at its peak when the shadow of a tall figure slinked through the thick brush of a small, rural town. Six other followed suit the first, speeding past the vacant streets. Every once in a while, a working street lamp would catch a glimpse of their unearthly forms.

The leader, Marlow, had just fed on a human man of about thirty-five, small stature, and a repugnant body odor. No one would miss the sorry excuse of a man, not that Marlow would have cared anyway. His blood was fortunately ately the complete opposite to the man’s rancidity. Abeit, no matter how filling the man’s blood had been, it was nothing compared to that of his human’s.

Reaching his designation, Marlow told the others to stay close, but were free to roam if they so pleased. Happy that they were not condemned in, they eagerly raced away. All except one who chose to stay near his leader.

Approaching the house, he climbed up the side to the second story roof, peeking his head into the bedroom window to see if his human was still awake.

The lights were off signaling that the boy was already in bed. Marlow opened the window quietly, letting himself in with ease. The boy was sleeping soundly. Good.

The dark blue sheets wrapped around his body were snug tight around his body, showing off the outline perfectly in the moonlight.

Marlow had never smelled a human’s blood that held such a sweetness to it that it could rival melted chocolate on a hot summer’s day. He stumbled upon this human one night whilst hunting. He never believed in fate, considering it a fool’s blinded path. Consider him that very fool.

Marlow licked his lips, the urge to sink his cock deep into the boy was immense, but he had to keep himself in check. His sexual desire, for the first time in years, was outdoing any of his vampiric urges to the point where he found himself eager to sate them.

Marlow bowed his head to the boy’s ear, his cold breath sending chills down his spine. In response, the boy bucked his hips upwards, his body recieving a wave of goosebumps all while his eyes remained unopened.

You sense me, don’t you, young one?

“Marlow?” the boy asked sleepily.

“Hello, my prince.”

The boy felt his insides warm and his belly coil at the familiar accented voice caressing his ears. Marlow nuzzled the boy’s hand that reached to grasp the lapels of his suit, pulling him closer.

“I was worried you wouldn’t come tonight. You’re late.” the boy frowned, distinctly eyeing his clock once the haze of drowsiness wore off.

“Forgive me, I had some things to handle, but am here now.” Marlow nuzzled the hand to his face reassuringly, letting the human’s warmth heat his pale cheek. Marlow’s chest constricted in pain the more he spoke. Still, after weeks of speaking the human tongue, his words were still slow to pronounce and his voice was forced like exhaling compressed air.

The boy understood what these particular things were. Marlow fed himself and his clan before visiting him so his hunger wouldn’t drive him insane. A life was taken so his wouldn’t be. The small droplets of blood on Marlow’s usuaully white shirt told just as much.

“I have an offer to make to you, an agreement you could say,” Marlow smiled, masking his anxiety.

“What is it?”

A few moments ticked by as Marlow went over on how to explain his next question without shocking the boy. Earnestly, Marlow was experiencing trepidation at the thought of being rejected. He did not take rejection well, particularly from those he had his sights on.

“Do you know what a sire bond is?” he questioned finally.

The confusion was evident on the boy’s face as he shook his head. Marlow chuckled amusingly at this when he explained.

“It’s a bond between two supernatural beings, one who has just been turned. You see, when one is turned in a specific way, they become bonded to the one who created them. That bond makes it where the sire is compelled to do whatever their maker wishes them to. The creator deals a strong claim in return.”

The boy understood where this was going regardless of being unsure about the whole process. He had wondered what Marlow was going to do with him after so much had went by. He’d get older and die or worse, Marlow could get bored and leave him all alone. This, however, seemed more complicated than just a simple bite. It was more intimate.

“So...I’ll be one of you then?” he asked.

“In order for the bond to occur, yes.” Marlow replied simply while he internally hoped that the boy would accept his offer and most importantly, himself.

“What if I don’t want the bond? Just a vampire? Is that possible?” the boy asked, testing the water of his choices.

“It is possible...you do not need to bond to become a vampire,” Marlow said slowly, slightly allowing the disappointment to filter.

The boy was silent. “Can I say no?”

Marlow sucked in a breath. “You may. Is that what you want?”

His answer took the boy back. He figured the vampire would have given a final ‘no’, not ask him what he wanted, but it did give him a sense of control over a situation he clearly had no control over, even for a few decieving moments.

The boy cocked his head, “I am not sure, honestly. But you want me to choose the first option, right? Why?”

He’s teasing me. His eyes tell all.

Marlow smirked. He ran a long fingernail up the boy’s leg, inching closer and closer to the member resting on the boy’s thigh making him suck in his breath.

“I’d not dare deny such a delicacy.”

“Hey, stop that! I am being serious,” the boy grumbled, lightly smacking away Marlow’s hand that was trailing along his leg.

Marlow seized his movements. “As am I. Your blood called to me the second I smelled it in the air all those months ago and I don’t want to lose that,” he replied deadly serious. He walked over to the window and crossed his arms behind his back, deep in thought.

“I’d be like I was killed all over again if I were to lose you.”

“You can’t really mean that,” the boy said sheepishly.

Marlow turned sharply, his black eyes like steel. “I do not lie. You mean more to me than I had anticipated. I had originally planned on killing you with time, but obviously that has changed.”

“Will it hurt?” he whispered.

Marlow’s eyes softened. “Yes, excruciatingly so. Do you trust me?”

The question was not as simple as it had been relayed. The logical, most morally sane answer would have been “hell no!” It was easy enough to say, but he could barely get a single word past his lips. He knew the right answer. That answer was not the the one he chose.

“Yes.”

With the swiftness and agility of a feline, Marlow climbed on top of the boy, unintentionally lining his hips with the younger man’s. He could feel the present bulge in his boxers. This only made Marlow’s lust heighten. Alas, if he lost control, he could potentially hurt his human and his plans for a claim would be spoiled.

Marlow bent his head, nuzzling the boy’s neck. He could hear the blood rushing and the vein in his jugular pulsating rapidly. How easily he could sink his fangs all the way through, tearing skin and muscle to drink the delectable red liquid until he busted.

“Will you so kindly be mine?”

The boy inhaled deeply and exhaled loudly. “Make me yours, Marlow.”

Placing a large hand on the underside of the boy’s jaw to keep him from moving, Marlow moved his mouth to his neck, taking a long and deep inhale in a mental preparation for the bite. If he bit too long or too deep, the damage could be fatal.

His fangs elongated a few centimeters to allow easier access to the jugular vein. They narrowed towards the end so the knick would feel like that of a needle.

He then angled his jaw upwards more. Taking the boy’s shaking hand into his, Marlow whispered soothing words into his ear just as his fangs sunk into the skin, breaking both the mental and physical barriers.

The boy’s eyes rolled in the back of his head, his mouth opening in a soundless scream. The pain was unbearable and the pleasure was both unfathomable and unexpected. His cock felt heavy and he wanted nothing more than to feel any sort of friction to rid himself of it. Marlow noticed the growing bulge in his peripheral. Taking advantage and feeling more possessive than usual, his ice cold hand slipped into the boy’s boxers to wrap around his hot member, flicking his wrist to jerk him suddenly.

Overcome with overstimulation, the young man’s screams of pleasure were heard by the whole brood from outside, including those that were miles far. Some assumed Marlow had finally killed the human, while the one who stayed close remembered what the screams of ecstasy sounded like in his human years and smirked to himself.

Good for you, Marlow

Fully bonded and the venom taking it’s sweet time, Marlow retracted his fangs, licking the sweet blood that dribbled down from his chin. His other hand released the softening member, bringing his fingers up to his mouth to mix the boy’s essence with the blood in a strangely erotic combination, not wasting a single drop.

He began to get up from the bed when he felt his wrist being tugged at. “Ma-Marlow. Don’t, ah, le-leave me please.”

“Do not fret, I am not leaving. Your body needs to rest as it adjusts to the change as it will become more painful. Now sleep.” Marlow commanded softly.

Falling under the bond’s influence, he held onto Marlow’s wrist until his eyes finally closed from exhaustion.

Marlow went to the window and whistled where his most faithful met him quickly. He explained that he had successfully acquired a new member to the clan so they will be staying near the house for a few weeks before his sire was healthy enough to leave with them. Nodding, the vampire sped off into the night to inform the others.

Marlow climbed into bed next to his newborn, curling his body around him to feel him when he were to stir from the pain. Settled, he set watch, his heart feeling the fullness of love after so many decades of succumbing to the emptyness.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

The unofficial “Change, In All Things, Is Inevitable” playlist.

Here’s some of the music I listened to while working on this fic, plus a few key lyrics and some commentary about each song:

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

Gladiator – Zayde Wolf

Imma give you a second just to catch your breath / 'Cause I can see that your heart is jumpin' out your chest / I know you gave it all 'cause I've already seen your best, and it’s time you accepted this 

Let me tell ya / I've got every reason to fight

This song is great because it pumps me up and then 1 minute and 50 seconds into it, the tone does a complete 180 and gives me serious chills. It reminds me of current Megatron vs. past Megatron, and his initial motivation for starting the Decepticon revolution in the first place. I think he lost his guiding principles along the way, but his anger and gladiator might hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s a perfect Megatron song for obvious (and not so obvious) reasons.

Church – Fall Out Boy

Megatron: Take the pain / Make it billboard big then swallow it for me / Time-capsule for the future / Trust me, that's what I will be Soundwave: Oh, the things that you do in the name of what you love Orion Pax: I love the world but I just don't love the way it makes me feel

Church makes me think of the early days of the revolution when Orion, Soundwave, and Megatronus were all working together towards the same goal. The chorus is fitting for all of them; their friendship was a sanctuary of sorts, and it gave them the kind of support / relationship none of them ever had before (at least in Megatron’s case). Friendship was a novel, strange, but wonderful thing. Pity it didn’t last long :’I

If I’m being completely honest, Toastyhat’s animatic for this song definitely influenced my associations, what with the gladiator ring and all that, haha. It’s a fantastic animation, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

Meet Me on the Battlefield – Svrcina

We carry on through the storm / Tired soldiers in this war / Remember what we're fighting for Our tainted history, is playing on repeat / But we could change it if we stand up strong and take the lead When I was younger, I was named / A generation unafraid / For heirs to come, be brave

This melancholic song is a perfect fit for the tone of the war, and Optimus’ feelings on it. Poor guy never expressed interest in being a Prime, but he never really got a say in the matter. The best he can do is keep moving forward hoping it’ll one day come to an end.

(Side note: someone’s done a TFP AMV with this song! Go check it out.)

Run to You – Pentatonix

I've been settling scores, I've been fighting so long / But I've lost your war and our kingdom is gone I will break down the gates of heaven / A thousand angels stand waiting for me

Very much a melancholic unrequited Soundwave --> Megatron song. I don’t care how many times I listen to this; my heart always aches for poor Soundwave and the ending he got in TFP. He would’ve gone to hell and back for Megatron (and I suppose, in a way, he did).

Battle Cry – Imagine Dragons

Stars are only visible in darkness / Fear is ever-changing and evolving Nobody can save you now / The only sound is the battle cry

Another great song for Megatron! He reveled in his fights as a gladiator, and war is no different. It’s his challenge to Optimus and anyone else who'd dare oppose him. In essence, I see it as Megatron’s “If you’re not with me, then you’re against me, and you’d better be damn well prepared to be treated like an enemy” song.

The “stars are only visible in darkness” line also reminds me of Optimus and Megatron’s conversation in IDW’s “The Transformers” #22 comic, where Megatron goads Optimus, saying he would’ve been no one and nothing without him / the war:

Also: I genuinely had no idea this was a Bayverse song until recently so sHHH LET ME LIVE

Chains – Radical Face

I thought I had control, that I could always walk away if things turned bad / We were thick as thieves 'til I became the one who always went too far / And I couldn't hear you  In the end I'm lost / And I'll drag you down yeah, that's my cost / But I'm glad you were my friend 

Finally, the song that helped inspire this fic! Definitely gives me strong MegaOp vibes. Despite everything that wound up happened, Megatron and Optimus were each other’s biggest influences for a loooong time. That’s not the kind of thing that can be forgotten easily! I think Megatron was briefly reminded of the friendship they once had at the end of Predacon Rising. Megatron doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who has regrets, but I still wonder if anything akin to it crossed his mind before the end.

A few bonus lighthearted joke songs: A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles This song came up on my playlist while I was editing some early chapters where Megatron / Orion / Soundwave were still buddies, which I thought was ironic, sweet, and a little bit sad. Take A Chance On Me – ABBA  An example of a song I associated with a character as a joke, then thought about WAY too much to the point where it’s no longer a joke. Anyways, please imagine Soundwave playing this every time Megatron passes him up in favor of the Decepticon’s latest traitorous and/or knuckleheaded senior officer. (Seriously though, why on EARTH do you have your most loyal officer as your third in command, Megatron??? Stability and competence clearly mean nothing to you).

Strawberry Blond – Mitski

All I need, darling, is a life in your shape / I picture it, soft, and I ache

This song is perhaps a little bit too wistful / lighthearted for the TFP continuity, but the tone (and the topic of unrequited love) reminded me of a young love-struck Orion Pax. (This was supposed to be a fun addition to this list but the more I think about it, the sadder I get :’I I’m so sorry your life sucked so much, Orion).

Songs reminding me of other TF continuities that nonetheless influenced this fic: Firewall – Les Friction

Deep beneath the light / A spark will now ignite You will see me now / This is my world now

A great G1 / IDW song that’s particularly good for Megatron and Optimus. I could dissect every single line of this song and create an entire MV to it, but I’ll spare you the 10 page essay. Just listen to the song and let your imagination run wild! So many lines are perfect!!! Alright I lied, here’s a few good corresponding lines: Megatron: Fear is a device / So quiet and precise / It's not what I allow / Not in my world now Rodimus / the Matrix: This force is in love with you / It wants you safe / It wants you well Shockwave / empurata: This force knows what you can do / And what you can make / With your tattered shell Optimus / the Matrix: Faith in your device / So quiet and precise / Just when, not how / You can feel it now The Autobots: Deep beneath the light / A spark will now ignite The Decepticons: You will see me now / This is our world now

Dangerous Man – Little Dume  An absolutely PERFECT IDW Megatron song! Great for Megatron post- his change of heart. I actually am determined to make an MV with him for this song because it’s just that perfect.

Silhouettes – Of Monsters and Men

There's nothing that I'd take back / But it's hard to say there's nothing I regret. 

Not necessarily a perfect song for TF, but these two lines from it reminded me so strongly of Megatron / Optimus I figured it was worth making note of.

[iknowthekoolaidflavor]

Waking Up in Vegas

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9 Epilogue

Pairing: Daveed x Reader

Word Count: 4.8k

Tagging: @toomanyfandoms109  @drugsdiggs  @serkewen12  @shy-and-awkward-daveed  @nadialinett14  @miightymiighty   @kayleebrynnnn  @pixeledpeople  @olivelongnprosper  @ninatheotter  @twentyonehamiltrash  @lunaaugurium  @jantales  @luna1350  @arii-the-future @juliaguliaa  @tallish-hobbit  @le-sejour @hollyjollyiain @rydellingtonfanfiction @whovianayesha @lafayeetsgunsandships1757 

Warning: Smut y’all

A/N: Surprise! I actually finished earlier than I thought! I hope y’all have enjoyed WUiV so far. I have had so much fun writing this! I sad that it is almost over. Pretty soon I will write the epilogue and it will officially be over. Enjoy!

Day 25

My fingers gripped the sheets as Daveed slowly swiped his tongue against my clit. His hands were anchoring my waist to the bed, gripping tighter every time I tried to grind against him for more friction.

“(Y/N), if you keep at it I might have to stop all together. Is that what you want?”, he grinned

“N...no”, I groaned

He gently sucks my clit, humming in approval as I finally keep my hips still. It takes everything in me to do so. We’ve been playing around since early this morning before he revealed that he wanted to eat me out.

For most of the weekend, we kept our distance. That was until Sunday night.

Daveed left to get more food for the house. Thinking he would be away for an hour or so, I lay in my bed, legs spread with my mind stuck on riding him. Before I could reach my climax, my bedroom door popped open. His eyes were immediately on my dripping core. We were both aware of the line we weren’t supposed to cross. He groaned softly as he left, waiting for me to finish in the living room. Later that night, I heard him quietly moaning my name while he was in the shower. The second I woke up, he was kissing my neck and rubbing my thighs, asking to eat me out.

I softly moaned his name, feeling myself nearing the edge. He slipped two fingers in as he sucked my clit even harder. As he pressed into my g spot, my orgasm hit me harder than expected. My vision went white as my body continued to shake. He continued eating me out and kissing my inner thighs until I came down from my high.

“You have to get ready for work”, he mentioned quietly as he kissed my shoulder and neck

“No”, I pouted

“No? You have to go to work baby. You just got a promotion”

He placed more kisses on my neck and cheek until I spoke again.

“And we just got together”, I countered

His expression softened as he took in what I said.

“How about I come back here when we finish with work or I could meet you at your job if I finish early?”

I nodded before kissing then got up to get in the shower. The last thing on my mind was work. I hadn’t thought about Jeremy or what happened last week at all. I was too wrapped up in Daveed. I had no intention on seeing Jeremy again.

I strolled into the office thirty minutes late, greeting everyone with a smile on my face. Jeremy sees me at the end of the hall, but keeps it moving. Good.

Gina is waiting by my office door when I finally arrive.

“Where the hell have you been?”

“Did I miss anything?”

“No, but you’re always early for work. What happened? Why are you smiling so hard?”

She grinned because she already knew.

“Did you see Daveed?”, she gasped, “It snowed all week. You got snowed in with your husband, didn’t you?”

I giggled as I unlocked my office and let her in. The second she said his name, all the events from Thursday until this morning flooded my memory.

“Don’t spill anything yet. Ava is on her way”

We talked about how they spent the weekend until Ava excitedly ran into my office and shut the door.

“Tell us everything”

I started from me hurting Daveed to ignoring each other to Jeremy, then to the weekend we spent together and this morning. By the time I finished, both Gina and Ava were blushing.

“So that’s why you’re glowing”, Ava laughed

“Yeah and if he gave her that dick this morning, she would have came in here glowing as bright as the damn sun”, Gina smirked

I nearly spit my coffee out and Ava fell over in her chair.

“You’re right though”, I said as my laughter died down, “Everything feels different with him now. After it’s all said and done, I want to work on having a relationship with him. Even if it’s long distance”

Ava and Gina smiled, knowing that I was finally happy after everything that happened in the past month. When my office door opened slowly, their smiles disappeared.

Jeremy peaked his head through nervously as his eyes landed on me. He tried to puff out his chest to make himself appear sizable compared to us.

“Good morning (Y/N). Ava. Gina”

Gina rolled her eyes, mumbling something under her breath, undoubtably cursing him out. Ava remained still, showing no expression at all.

“I need the notes from the meeting that you printed out last week”

“You mean last week when you harassed her until she had a panic attack?”, Ava scolded

His eyes widened as he looked between the three of us, “Tell me Jeremy, what would you have done to (Y/N) if her husband hadn’t stepped in?”

“First of all, he put in hands on m--”

“First of all you harassing a fellow employee who happened to be his wife. His actions were justified and yours were not”, she chastised

“But--”

“There’s no need to discuss this any further, you’ll be hearing from HR very shortly and I doubt you’ll still have a job after the stunt you pulled last week.”

He turned to me, eyes stone cold, ready to say something.

“Please get out my office”, I affirmed, shocking all of them, “If you somehow are still employed after last week, then we can discuss boundaries and proper etiquette when it comes to dealing with coworkers. Until then, I don’t see any point of you being anywhere near me or my office because it isn’t helping your case. Have a nice day Mr. Davis”

He looked at me, stunned, frozen in place.

“You heard her. Get out”, Gine reiterated

With that being said, he left my office with his head down, shutting the door behind him.

“The nerve of him coming in here, acting like he wasn’t tormenting you last week. Daveed should’ve torn him to shreds. I would have helped”, Gina professed

“Are you alright with him being here for the time being?”, Ava asked as the room grew silent

“I’ll be fine. I’m not afraid of him”

They both smiled as they left my office and I got back to work.

For the next few hours, I actually got my work done with no distractions. I didn’t feel as stressed as I normally did. As I logged out of my computer, I longed to get outside to get a breath of fresh air. Just as I grabbed my purse, my phone vibrated.

Daveed 5:30 pm

Are you getting off on time today?

Me 5:31 pm

Surprisingly, yes

Daveed 5:31 pm

Okay. I’ll see you in a few.

I stepped outside to see Daveed standing near the front door with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve realized our relationship is out of order. We had sex, then realized we were married, became friends, stopped being friends, now we’re sort of dating?”

I laughed at his description. He hit the nail right on the head. Our relationship was far from normal.

“I also realized that we’ve never been on a date”

I stopped smiling as it dawned on me, “No, we haven’t”

“Let’s change that. (Y/N) will go out on a date with me tonight?”

“Nah”, I stated as his smile faltered a little, “I’m actually waiting for my husband to arrive”

“Oh, you’re married? He must be pretty amazing to end up with someone like you”, he grinned

“Eh, he’s alright”, I giggled

His smile faltered again as he began to laugh, “Why did I even marry you?”

“Because we were drunk out of our minds?”

He handed me the flowers as he kissed me. He intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled me away from my office and we made our way into the city. For as long I lived here, I knew the possibilities were endless for the places he could take me.

My heart filled with joy as we reached the Gershwin theater.

“We...we’re going to see…”

“Surprise”, he boasted as we reached the poster for Wicked

“How did you know?”

“I might have done a little snooping”

“Ava?”, he shook his head, “Gina”, he shook his head again

“Well not entirely. I was looking at your records and the Wicked record had the most wear and tear. I did ask and they confirmed”

This was one of the sweetest gestures anyone has done for me. I pulled him in wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him in the middle of the sidewalk. He grabbed my waist and happily responded.

Before we could go in, a few people stopped for autographs and pictures. Many of them asked if we were dating and he awkwardly tried to answer their questions without giving away too much. I laughed at his response, but when they directed their questions to me, I responded in the same awkward fashion.

“It’s like you two were made for each other”, a woman said as she prepared to leave with her friends. They smiled as he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the theater.

As the final act ended, I was a ball of nerves and excitement.

“This was my first time seeing it live”, I said quietly as we made our way to the next destination

“Really? I would have thought you’ve seen it at least twice with the way you lip synced all the songs”

“You saw that?”

“I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you. You looked like you were having a lot of fun”, he confessed

“I was. Thank you for taking me”

“Anything for you”, he grinned as he kissed my cheek

I couldn’t understand why I was still a blushing mess around him. After everything we’ve been through, he still gave me butterflies.

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a grocery store down the street from your house”

“Oooo fancy”

He smirked, “I figured since it’s so cold out and it’s getting late, I could make you dinner at your place and I’ll go back to my hotel after”

“What did I do to deserve you?”

“You sort of stole something in Vegas”, he chuckled as he stepped closer

“If you say you’re heart, I might puke”

“Wow, way to ruin the moment (Y/N)”, he said, taking a step back

“Thank you. Thank you. I’m here all week”, I smiled back as I took a small bow, “Let’s get to the grocery store and back inside where it’s warm”

We made our way back to my apartment and dumped the ingredients on the counter.

“I might not be a great chef, but I can make a mean---”

“Macaroni and cheese?”

He glared at me as a smirk spread across me face, “What? That was funny”

“I will do anything to get you to stay away from Tumblr”, he groaned

“It’s too late. I’ve had it for a week and I think I have a problem”

He began to smile at me once again as I covered my blush.

“All this time we’ve spent together and you’re still blushing around me?”

Daveed stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me. His face was buried in my neck, placing soft kisses wherever he could.

“Yo...you still give me butterflies...from time to time”, I managed to get out

He grinned against my skin, “I still get butterflies around you too. You’re smart. Beautiful. Funny.”, he murmured, driving each point with a kiss to my neck and cheek

I giggled as he made his way to my lips and wrapped my arms around him. He pushed my back against the fridge and kissed all over my face until my stomach began to growl. He pulled away slowly, even as I pouted.

“Dinner won’t take long. Change into something warm”, he reassured as he kissed my forehead

I made no attempt to cover my blushed this time as I made my way to my room to change my clothes. I rushed to change into that same over sized onesie he wore his first night here. From my spot on the couch, I could see him busy in the kitchen and still see the TV. He hummed softly as he cooked, the corner of his lips turned upwards. The TV played in the background and I couldn’t even focus on what was actually playing. He looked up to see me staring at him, there was a smile on my face that mirrored his. Daveed winked, then went back to cooking.

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting in front of the TV with empty plates, smiles still on our faces.

“For a first date, this was pretty nice”

“Pretty nice?”

“Okay”, I laughed, “It was a great first date. I’m glad you took me out tonight”

I get up to clean the kitchen and half way through, I realize Daveed is asleep on the couch. He was trying to stay awake, but eventually sleep too over. By the time I finished, his snores were drowning out the Sound of Music.

“Daveed”, I called as I shook his shoulder

He stretched, realizing where he was and stood up, “Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow”

“Stay here”

He paused before he could put his coat on, “Are you inviting me to stay again?”

“Only because it’s late and cold. Can’t have you outside by yourself”, I said as I stepped closer

“Is that so?”, he grinned as our noses touched

We kissed again in the middle of my living room with nothing stopping us.

“Let’s get to bed (Y/N). You have work tomorrow”

I squealed as he picked me up bridal style and carried me to my room. Daveed pulled me close as soon as we got in bed. It didn’t take me long to doze off in his arms and he followed suit.

Day 27

We sat in the lobby of Dr. Harris’ office. Our last session was in ten minutes and in three days we would no longer be married.

“Nervous?”, Daveed asked

“Just a little. You think she’ll be mad about me lying to get out of our session?”

“She already knew”, he laughed as he took my hand, “It was pretty obvious with me ignoring you and all. She said you needed time”

“Did she tell you to talk to me?”

He paused for a moment, “She told me that we were in a difficult situation and the more we talk about it, the more we’ll understand where the other was coming from”

“Dr. Harris wasn’t wrong”, I mused

“(Y/N) and Daveed”, she called as we entered her office

She smiled warmly as we sat down, still holding hands.

“This is big difference from our last session. What happened after you left Daveed?”, she asked trying to hide her grin

“We talked and everything worked out”

“Oh”, she gasped, “You’re going to have to give me a little more than that. What happened (Y/N)? We missed you”

I knew she didn’t mean any harm by her statement. We always felt comfortable being in her office.

“I may have lied about not being able to come with Daveed ignoring me in all. Not that it was his fault for that. I would have reacted the same way”

“And I told her my behav--”, he started

“Daveed, I know you say that me reacting the way I did was justified, but I know it isn’t. You forgave me because you’re still interested in me. Any other person looking in from the outside of this relationship would agree.”

I paused before she nodded, wanting me to continue.

“I decided to stay late at work and Jeremy, my coworker, started harassing me. I felt myself starting to panic, but he wouldn’t stop. He enjoyed it. Before he could get any further, I heard someone say ‘Get away from my wife’. Daveed scared the hell out of him. He’s probably going to get fired now that Ava knows”

“Good. He deserves it and far more”, he scoffed

“What? You plan on finding out where he lives now?”

“After what he did to you, I definitely would”, he said as he kissed the palm of my hand and inner wrist

My heart stopped at his actions. He slowly removed his lips from my wrist, face flush with embarrassment. He caught my gaze as he rubbed his thumb against my hand. With a wink and a smirk, he popped our little bubble.

“You have to continue your story”, he said softly

I stuttered momentarily, trying to figure out where I left off. Dr. Harris smiled at our actions.

“Daveed ended up bringing me home and I didn’t want to be alone, so I asked him to stay the night”

“Did you two share a bed?”, she inquired

“No he slept on the couch. The next day, was the snowstorm so we were trapped for a couple of days and he decided to stay once the snow was cleared from the streets. I told him that I wanted to be with him and regretted everything I did to him. He told me how he felt and we...we kissed”

“Did you now?”, she prodded, “What else happened after this kiss?”

“We didn’t go any further than that”, Daveed laughed at her expression, “We just confessed our feelings and decided to take our time. The day after we played games and the next morning we…”

Dr. Harris raised an eyebrow, expecting him to continue.

“We didn’t actually have sex. We both wanted to, but we decided to...umm…”

I giggled as Daveed danced around the subject. His eyes screamed help me to the tenth degree.

“The term he’s looking for is dry humping”, I simply stated

“Okay. Did it go any further than that? You don’t have to give me all the details”

“Just oral”

She went over her notes in silence before she turned to a clean page.

“Do you plan on staying married after your thirty days are over?”

“No”

“Not a chance”

“You’re both on the same page now. That’s a lot of progress from the first few meetings. I’m happy to see where this takes the two of you”, she smiled again, “What changed your mind Daveed?”

“In the end, I still get to be with (Y/N). We’ve decided to take our time and see where this takes us. We went on our first date a few days ago”

“That’s good to hear. How do you feel about everything coming to an end (Y/N)?”

“I’m glad that it’ll be over. It pushed us out of our comfort zones, which was new to me. We’ll take our time from now on because I want to see where this goes”

She took her final notes as Daveed kissed my cheek, making me giggle.

Daveed walked me to my door after our session, still holding my hand. He was quiet the entire way here, avoiding all eye contact with me.

“Are you alright?”, I asked as I reached for my keys, “You’ve been awfully quiet”

The moment I looked up, my back was pressed against the door and his fingers were in my hair. His lips touched mine hesitantly until I kissed back. There we stood in the middle of the hall, engulfed in a fervent kiss. I moaned as his tongue slipped in my mouth. His soft lips, the scent of his cologne, and his hands gripping my waist were the prime reason for my heart nearly beating out of my chest. He pressed himself against me, caging me in. My arms wrapped around his neck.

Anyone could’ve walked down the hall to see us making out like teenagers, but we never cared. I groaned as he kissed down my neck and finally pulled away from me. Trying to catch his breath.

“What was that for?”, I gasped

“I’m not sure, but I’ve wanted to do it all day.”, he beamed, “I’ll see you tomorrow (Y/N)”

His kissed me again and gave me a shy smile. For a moment, I forgot how to speak. When I opened my mouth, nothing came out, much to his amusement.

“Bye Daveed”, I sang, “Let me know that you got to your hotel”

“Of course”, he mimicked my tone as he leaned in to kiss my cheek then my forehead

“What is making you so affectionate today?”

“I’m just...happy”, he said as his eyes softened

“I’m happy too”

He pulled me close, squeezing me tight before he made his way to his hotel. That night, being with Daveed was the only thing on my mind.

Day 30 

“Should we be celebrating?”, Gina asked as we reached the courthouse

“A part of me feels like we should. You’ve both been through a lot in the past month and you managed to get through it. Both of you seem happier than before, so yeah, we should celebrate”, Ava reasoned

“Without getting drunk because you might wake up married again and if that’s the case y’all might as well stay married”

I glared at Gina before we stepped inside. Daveed was talking to Rafa when he saw us making our way towards him.

“Wow, you’re late again. Do you not like this courthouse?”, Daveed smirked

“Not at all. This place is the worst”

“It can’t be that bad”, he winked, “After all it--”

“Mr. and Mrs. Diggs”, Mr. Morgan called, waving us over, “I haven’t seen you in about thirty days”

He laughed, but none of us joined in, “Sorry. Please follow me. We just started the video call with Judge Nelson”

We sat in the same room where we first heard we would have to stay married. Dr. Harris was sitting on the same side as Mr. Morgan with the laptop facing us.

“Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Diggs”, Judge Nelson chirped

I groaned, rolling my eyes. Daveed and Dr. Harris laughed. I didn’t see myself getting used to that name any time soon.

“How have the past thirty days been treating you?”

Daveed and I both looked at each other, a hint of a smile on our faces. He took my hand like he always did and spoke to Judge Nelson.

“The past thirty days have been a living hell”

“Daveed”, I chastised

“Here me out”, he smirked, “We were terrible at communicating and we hurt each other in ways that I couldn’t imagine. It put us through a lot for two people who only met a month ago, but at the same time I’m glad it happened”

I squeezed his hand, “If this didn’t happen, then we would have never gotten our second chance. It started off rocky, but whatever we have at the moment is stronger than ever”

“Dr. Harris was telling me that. She said you both missed separate sessions”

“Yeah, we did. At some point, we couldn’t stand being near each other. I started ignoring her completely, not understanding why she reacted the way she did in the beginning”

“And I somehow thought that hurting him was the best way to keep him away from me, even though I knew I had feelings him”, I chimed in

Judge Nelson took a moment, eyeing the both of us quietly, “The annulment is up to you. You have made plenty of progress. Would you like to stay mar--”

“No”, we said in unison

Dr. Harris covered her mouth, trying to hide her laughter.

“Okay. I’ll grant you you’re annulment. It will take three weeks to be processed and finalized. Good luck Mr. and Mrs...Mr. Diggs and Ms. (Y/N)”, Judge Nelson finished

We all said our goodbyes after finishing with the paperwork. It shouldn’t take too long, given that we never had any shared assets.

Soon we were sitting in my apartment with our friends. Ever since we left the courthouse, they tried not to hound us with questions, but currently, they were failing miserably.

“So you’re staying in a relationship?”, Gina asked

“It’s not really a relationship at the moment”, I started

“But whatever it is we’re working on it”, he smiled

“We have to go back to California in a few days. What are you going to do about that?”, Rafa questioned as he eyed us expectantly

“We’re still working on it. It’s a lot to take in at the moment”, I responded

They all agreed and watched us with smiles on their faces. Daveed and I had a habit of creating our own bubble no matter where we were. As long as he was there, it was all I needed. He smiled down at me, moving in to kiss my cheek when Rafa and Gina groaned.

“Oh my God. We don’t need a recap of Vegas”

“Get a room”

“Well y’all are in my apartment”

“Fair enough”, Ava giggled, “Let’s leave the future divorcees to themselves...make sure you take the liquor”

We laughed as they filed out of my home, leaving Daveed and I to ourselves. My head rested on his shoulder, while he barely focused on the TV.

“I’m going to miss you, you know?”, he said softly

“You act like you’ll never see or hear from me again”

“I know. It’s just that I’ve enjoyed spending this month with you, especially the past couple of weeks”

“I did too, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stay in touch. I told you before, I really want to see where this is headed. I’m sure I have vacation time coming up in a few months. I can come see in California. I’ve never been there before”, I mused

“You’ve never been to California?”

“Vegas was the first time I left the east coast”

“You’re joking”, he said in a mock hurt tone, “Well when you come I’ll give you the grand tour”

“I’ll hold you to it”

He held my face and kissed me softly. I laid on his chest as he leaned back on the couch. Daveed ran his fingers through my hair, smiling into the kiss.

“I do regret it, but not entirely”, he said breaking the silence

“Regret what?”

“Vegas. Look at where we are now”

“Making out on my couch?”, I grinned

“No”, he laughed, “Think about how this could have turned out a month ago. We could have been at each other’s throats this whole time, but here we are. We have a second chance and we can take all the time we need with this, no sense in rushing anything”

No sense in rushing, given that we just got our marriage annulled. Daveed and I had an interesting start to our friendship, but somehow it brought us closer. If we made it out of unexpectedly being married for thirty days, we could manage to get over being on other sides of the country.

I rest my head on his shoulder as he kissed my forehead, content with how peaceful this moment turned out to be. I began to smile as I thought of where we could possibly be headed. This was the first time I’ve been happy in a while. As I replayed how everything turned out between us, Daveed looked down at me and shared a very familiar grin.

“Why are you smiling?”, he asked

“Because I’m happy. You make me very happy”

Daveed kissed the back of my hand before giving it a squeeze, “Things may get a little tough given that we’ll be a bit of distance between us, but we’ll get through it. As long as I can be with you in the end, that’s all that matters...Who knows we might get married again”

“No, too soon Daveed. Too soon”, I groaned

He laughed as I buried my face in the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my forehead as the TV played in the background. We sat in a comfortable silence as his warmth and steady heartbeat lulled me to sleep.

This was the moment I always look back on, realizing that in the short time that we had known each other, he was somehow the one for me. Laying in his embrace was the only place, I ever wanted to be. Even if the distance would separate us, we always knew that we would find a way back to each other.

Maybe that trip to Vegas wasn’t as big as a mistake as I thought it was.

[that-curly-haired-lesbian]

Can I have a queer analysis of Treacherous? I know it's low-hanging fruit but it's my current favorite Taylor song.

Wow, I’m clearly ahuge pushover when it comes to personal deadlines! In all seriousness though, thelast few days have been insane! I apologize to anon and everyone else who’sbeen waiting for this; but yes buddy, you can absolutely have an analysis of Treacherous. After all it’s a great songand imo it’s one of Taylor’s gayest!

All interoperation ofthe lyrics are my own and everyone else is free to view it as they personallysee fit, this is merely a suggestion for how to read the song.

AZLyrics provided thelyrics for this as always, so cred to them.

–

Put your lips close to mine

As long as they don’t touch

Out of focus, eye to eye

Till the gravity’s too much

–

Opening lines make something pretty clear, this is asexy song. It’s a song about temptation and lust and most of all it’s a songabout giving in to those things.

So we’re talking about a kiss here or perhaps moreaccurately, the moment just beforeyou kiss someone, when your lips are very close to theirs but not yet touching.How everything else sort of goes out of focus when you’re physically that closeto another person and how all you can see are their eyes and perhaps moreimportantly in this context, their lips. Then finally in the last line gravitypulls the two lovers together and they close the small distance left betweentheir lips and kiss.

“But, Theo!” You all shriek in alarm, “You haven’ttalked about any gay stuff yet, what makes these lines specifically gay?” Well,the pronoun of the lover is kept unspecified for one and the lines could be talking about how as closetedgay lovers you’re constantly tiptoeing that line of what is the appropriatedegree of affection to show in public. You can’t kiss, but is putting your lipsclose together and looking deeply into each other’s eyes, letting the rest ofthe world go out of focus okay? Yes, as long as your lips don’t touch you couldget away with it says Taylor. It’s a risk though, because sometimes the gravitybecomes too much and pulls you in when you’re that close together so the safe betis to only do stuff like that when alone with your secret gay lover, but thenagain nothing safe is worth the drive, is it? Nope, that’s what this whole songis about.

–

And I’ll do anything you say

If you say it with your hands

And I’d be smart to walk away

But you’re quicksand

–

The first time I heard this song I was actually quite surprisedat how racy this was for a Taylor song (of course this was before both 1989 and Reputation)

This is about sex in case anyone was confused and thehands-line immediately brings lesbian sex to mind so that’s um…gayyyyyyyy! 🌈🌈

+ the fact thatTaylor will do anything her lover asks her to (in the bedroom and maybe evenout of it, but we’ll get to that later) as long as she “says it with her hands”also implies that said lover is really, really good at the whole sex thing. So,um, eh, good going, Dianna! …I guess��Tay, this was almost TMI for someone who’sbeen listening to you since you were 16! Seriously, every time Taylor alludesto something sexual in her songs my first thought is always: “Oh my god, stopit Taylor, you’re twelve!”

Kidding, kidding; please keep writing explicitly aboutgay sex, we need more songs about that and I’m proud of you for letting yourlyrics grow up with you!  

Anyway, after the whole sex thing Taylor informs usthat the smart thing to do would be to walk away from her lover and theirrelationship, but she’s in too deep already and her relentless unforgivingattraction (physical as well as emotional) to this woman just keeps pulling herdeeper still, as if she was stuck in quicksand unable to move.

–

This slope is treacherous

This path is reckless

This slope is treacherous

And I, I, I like it

–

We’ve previously talked about Taylor using “dangerous”or “reckless” as a word for exploring or indulging in one’s same-sex attraction(similar to how she sometimes uses “princess” for heterosexual girls and otherwords associated with royalty/fairy-tales for her career-motivated, publichetero-image) and this song is the ultimate example of this.

She’s saying she knows that acting on her attraction tothis woman is a dangerous, reckless thing to do, but she’s also saying that shelikes it, she likes the element of danger, she likes being attracted to womenand to this one in particular. Being in lesbian relationships is a treacherousthing when you’re closeted and famous, for this same reason it’s also not asmart thing (career-wise) for her to do, II’s a slippery slope towards beingcaught in a compromising gay moment and having to come out. She knows all thisand yet she doesn’t care, because she wants the relationship, the love and thepreviously stated hella good sex.  (“We need love, but all we want is danger”)

–

I can’t decide if it’s a choice

Getting swept away

I hear the sound of my own voice

Asking you to stay

–

So Taylor knows that acting on these gay desires ofhers are not to recommend and yet she finds herself asking the girl to say withher to try and make the relationship work, because just as Taylor can’t controlher attraction to women (because, ya know, being gay is in no way a choice)“getting swept away” and falling for someone isn’t a choice either. Despitewhat Taylor says about now being able to tell if she’s chosen this predicamentfor herself by encouraging the ill-advised relationship to go on, we in fact donot control when and how we fall in love.

Being with Dianna may not be the smartest thing forwhatever reason, be it the gay thing or other aspects of thismaybe-not-entirely-healthy relationship. As Taylor herself has admitted therelationship most of the songs on Red areabout was in fact toxic in some ways. (x)

All that be damned though, Taylor is in love and wantsher girlfriend to stay despite it all.

–

And all we are is skin and bone

Trained to get along

Forever going with the flow

But you’re friction

–

To me the “skin and bones”-line could indicate that much ofthe relationship is sexual at this point, Like their chemistry and connection is now mostly sexual…I guess that this could also betalking about beards though, oddly enough…Hear me out here. So, Taylor and herbeards are in a sense trained to get along, Taylor (presumably) not beingattracted to men has to pretend to be all the time, not just in music videos orwhen she uses male pronoun in a song, but also to her beards and since she’ssupposedly dating this guy their chemistry has to look natural. Skin and boneprobably refers to a body right and my first impulse was to relate it to bodiesin literal, (gay) sexual context since like I’ve said this song is prettysexual, but what if she just means that she’s trained to get along with themale body out in public (just as her gay beards have to pretend to be attractedto girls and the female body in order to make them look convincing as acouple.)  Since their chemistry has tolook real and couple-y Taylor tends to just “go with the flow” and do whatlooks natural when in public with le beard (mostly just hold his hand)

This is whatshe’s been “trained” (by PR-team and publicists) to be able to do with males inorder to be “straight-passing”, but going with the flow and acting natural withyour “boyfriend” when you have a relationship with your secret girlfriendbecomes hard. Taylor often refers to herself as an “actress” in the context ofbearding and acting becomes harder when you have something real to compare itto. There are such contrasts between how Taylor acts with her beards and withher actual girlfriend that the real relationship becomes a force pushing Tayloraway from the beards and stopping any chemistry she might’ve been able toforce, blocking her “straight-passing”-ability with real and natural chemistrythat now makes whatever she does with the beards look stiff and forced incomparison (because it is….)

As we know friction is a force that slows down anobject’s movement, in this case, Taylor is the object and the girlfriend is theforce blocking her ability to seem or act straight.

Bonus fact: the “friction”-line is also very coolsince the verses before it follow an ABAB rhyme scheme, but this line goesagainst that just like friction goes against the direction of movement. THE LINE IS LITERALLY FRICTION AND TAYLORALISON SWIFT IS A LYRICAL GENIUS!!

…Sorryfor being such a lit student for a second, moving on now.

–

(Chorus)

–

Two headlights shine through the sleepless night

And I will get you a—get you alone

Your name has echoed through my mind

And I just think you should, think you should know

That nothing safe is worth the drive

–

On 1989 somethingthat seems to come up a lot in the songs that I personally assume to be aboutDianna is cars or driving. That seems to have gotten its start on Red in this song as well as in thetitular song, Red (“Loving her was like driving a new Maseratidown a dead-end street”) in this song we see the car theme yet again. To methe image being painted by this line is always two lovers going home togetherthrough the night, but with no plans of sleeping (😏) hence the sleeplessnight.

“To get someone alone” is a phrase Taylor uses quite alot in her songs and I think it refers to when her and her current girlfriendare not in public and thus can actually act like a couple as opposed tootherwise when they have to pretend to be merely friends. So basically they’redriving home together and away from the heteronormative public.

“Your name has echoed through my mind” or somevariant thereof is also a choice of words Taylor has used in more than one songand it seems to signify that she’s deeply in love or infatuated with someone. Sobasically what she’s saying is that while in public pretending to be platonicwith her girl all she’s actually thought of is how in love she is and how niceit’ll be to be alone and get to be romantic away from flashing cameras andprying eyes.

Here she’s letting the girlfriend know that while she’saware their relationship is “dangerous” (translation: gay) she doesn’t wantanything else, she doesn’t want “safe” (translation: straight) because that’s notreal (a straight relationship couldn’t be real for Taylor since she’s y’know, gay)and therefore wouldn’t be worth the effort, or “the drive” to keep with the cartheme.

–

And I would follow you, follow you home

I’ll follow you, follow you home

–

So, at first glance this seems creepily stalkerish, doesn’tit? *laugh* but I’m pretty sure that what it means is Taylor and Dianna couldn’tleave some sort of public event together. Why? Well, that’d indicate that theywere going home together (which theyobviously were but das gay, shhhhh) so instead Taylor simply left a while afterDianna and proceeded to follow her home in a separate car so they could meet upthere instead of leaving together. The lines simply refer to details you haveto keep in mind when your relationship is secret, such as not publicly goinghome together.

–

This hope is treacherous

This daydream is dangerous

This hope is treacherous

I, I, I… I, I, I… I, I, I…

–

Remember before when I said that maybe the “I’ll doanything you say”-line wasn’t solely applicable in a sexual situation? Yeah,maybe this relationship had gotten Taylor hoping and perhaps even daydreamingabout a possible come out someday. I know there has been Swiftgron speculationabout how Dianna wanted to come out, well maybe Taylor was starting toseriously contemplating doing that for/with her? She still knew however that having hope for thatblissful someday where they could befree to love openly was probably gonna lead to disappointment, it was unwise and daydreaming about it was downright dangerous since that’d feed that littleflicker of hope. Yet Taylor doesn’t seem to be able to help herself here. There’shopefulness in the very way she sings these lines if you ask me.

–

(Chorus)

–

This slope is treacherous

I, I, I like it

–

Speaking of hope, to me it seems like the song ends inquite a hopeful way too, Taylor reminds us again that she’s aware that the pathshe’s headed down may be dangerous and unwise, treacherous if you will, butthen lastly she reminds us again that she actually doesn’t care because shelikes that danger. Remind me, in Taylor’s songs what is described as either “dangerous”or “reckless” (or both) most of the time? That’s right people, Taylor Swift likes being a giant lesbian because G IR L S !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That’s the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard tbh)

Oh god, Treacherousreally is a gay mess of a song, huh? I,I, I like it…though!

–

Thanks for reading asalways and I hope you enjoyed!

Next song is The Way I Loved You and I will try to have it up tomorrow though we’vealready established I’m not the best with deadlines, but rest assured I am getting to all of my analysis requestssooner or later, that I promise!

Don’t hesitate tosend me asks if you have suggestions for more songs to analyze from a queerperspective or if you just want to talk or have questions! 😊

[thedogsled]

QOTD - reference

Pre-season 13

The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn’t even think to ask – Jeff Johnson

Forget what we became, what matters is what we’ve become, and our potentials to overcome - Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel

Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved – WJ Bryan

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings – Lao Tzu

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing – Elbert Hubbard

Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured – Mark Twain

Education is the kindling of a flame not the filling of a vessel - Socrates

Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide – Marva Collins

13.01 - Lost & Found

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone – Harriet Beacher Stowe

Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life – Bertolt Brechy

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve – George Bernard Shaw

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end – Seneca

We must travel in the direction of our fear – John Berryman

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope – Epictetus

A traveler is really not someone who crosses ground so much as someone who is always hungry for the next challenge and adventure – Pico Iyer

13.02 - The Rising Son

Cease endlessly striving for what you want to do and learn to love what must be done – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning – Sam Shepard

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun – APJ Abdul Kalan

History is a vast early warning system – Norman Cousins

I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell. You see, I have friends in both places – Mark Twain

To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone – Reba McEntire

13.03 - Patience

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age – Jeanne Moreau

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams – Ralph Waldo Emerson

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wears you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe – Mohammed Ali

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste death but once – William Shakespeare

Indifference and neglect often do more damage than outright dislike – JK Rowling

Too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing – Oscar Wilde

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!” – Hunter S Thompson

13.04 - The Big Empty

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious – Oscar Wilde

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned to momentum – Frances Willard

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward – CS Lewis

Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul – Victor Hugo

One can never creep when one feels an impulse to soar – Hellen Keller

In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to have a positive impact – Les Brown

13.05 - Advanced Thanatology

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny – Christopher Markus

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them – Henry David Thoreau

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope – Dr. Seuss

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm – Willa Cather

The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It’s about what you’re made of, not the circumstances – Unknown

The hardest thing in life is to learn which bridge to cross and which to burn – David Russel

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower – Alexander Den Heijer

Bravery never goes out of fashion – William Makepeace Thackray

13.06 - Tombstone

Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly – Morticia Addams

A ship is safe in harbour, but that’s not what ships are for – William G T Shedd

The roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference – Robert Frost

Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway – John Wayne

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future – Oscar Wilde

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that – Martin Luther King

13.07 - War of the Worlds

Remember that just because you hit rock bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there – Robert Downey Jr

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on – Franklin D Roosevelt

Never love anybody who treats you like you’re ordinary – Oscar Wilde

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision – Helen Keller

To thrive in life you need three bones – A wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone – Reba McEntire

We build too many walls and not enough bridges – Isaac Newton

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds – Albery Einstein

13.08

Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality – Lewis Carroll

Practice like you’ve never won. Perform like you’ve never lost.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us – Charles Bukowski

Life has a way of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once – Paulo Coelho

13.09/13.10 - The Bad Place/Wayward Sisters

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow – Helen Keller

Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all deadly sins – Edith Wharton

You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them – Shanda Rhimes

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back – Maya Angelou

Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials . You need something scary to overcome – Maragaret Atwood

I would rather wait with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light – Helen Keller

The further we’ve gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we’ve come to need Halloween – Pata Guran

I desire the things which will destroy me in the end – Sylvia Plath

I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself – Chimomanda Ngazi Cidichie

Maybe who we are isn’t so much about what we do, but rather what we’re capable of when we least expect it – Jodi Picoult

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are – Anaois Nin

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to pick up the pieces when it’s all over – Octavia Butler

If your dream is only about you, it’s too small – Ava DuVerney

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any – Alice Walker 

[ao3bronte]

Smutember: Multiple Partners

Masquerade on AO3

9: Multiple Partners

They're three days into their school district's spring break when it happens.

Le Papillon, for all his ups and downs, could certainly deliver when he wanted to. Marinette almost wondered if he created silly and easily defeatable akuma from time to time just to lull them into a false sense of security, because this?

This one was a doozy.

He's never been known for having more than one akuma on the go but Le Papillon has certainly outdone himself this time. On top of Le Tireur and last week's La Pharmacienne, the corrupt Miraculous wielder has somehow managed to keep those two going whilst simultaneously akumatizing a pair of twins at once.

"We are Gemini!" They shriek in tandem, mirroring each other's incantation as they made about sixteen copies of themselves. Marinette exchanges a glance with Chat and wishes she had the power to do the same.

"How on earth are we going to manage this one?” she asks, fiddling with the yoyo in her hands, “Two against thirty plus…not the best odds.”

“We’ll do as we’ve always done M’Lady,” he replies, taking one of her hands in his and offering a squeeze, “Achieve the impossible.”

Well, when he puts it like that…

Marinette grins and returns the squeeze, setting her sights back on the growing crowd of akumatised copies. With yoyo and baton in hand, the two of them jump in guns a-blazing and knock out a fair few of them before getting overwhelmed.

“How many do you think there are?” she pants, taking one down with a swift kick to the solar plexus.

“Too many,” he grunts back, spinning his baton and striking two copies at once, “We’ve got to come up with a better plan.”

“Sounds good to me,” she replies, ducking beneath his basic sweep so she could wrap a hand around his waist. She flings her yoyo out towards the nearest balcony and wrenches them upwards, getting them out of harms way for the moment.

“What’s Plan B then?” he says, dropping out of her grasp. They watch as the twin in pink presses the butts of her palms together and aims a burst of energy at the other, effectively replicating the opposite twin. The twin in blue repeats the motion and Marinette suddenly has an idea.

“They can replicate each other but not themselves,” she muses, tapping her chin in thought, “If one of us can get close enough to them, maybe we can intercept the blast and—”

“I love this plan!” Chat claps his hands together, eyes alight, “I have always wanted a clone.”

Marinette raises a brow, “Is that so?”

“Mmhmm,” he replies, “Think of all the things you can get done with a clone! I mean, the clone could go to work and school and then I could be Chat Noir all the time!”

“I can think of other things I’d rather do…” Marinette says before she can stop herself. Chat stares at her agog for a moment before she brushes him off and points back down at the mass of akuma down below, “Come on, let’s get moving.”

“M’Lady,” he breathes, still looking at her as if she holds all the world’s secrets. Marinette just rolls her eyes and pushes him closer to the edge.

“Whoever gets close first takes the hit. It shouldn’t be to difficult if we make enough of a fuss. Let’s go!”

The two of them quickly go careening off the building and into the pile of vicious twins with a bone to pick, doing their best to fight their way over to the original set. Their pace is painstaking slow to be sure, but with the two of them working together as well as they do, their tandem attacks seem to eventually hit the spot. She’s volleying a series of punches when she sees an opening and juts her chin at Chat, signalling his chance.

“Go!” she cries, and Chat doesn’t need to be told twice. He dives into the line of fire and suddenly…

…there are three Chats.

Marinette pauses and thankfully the rest of the clones do the same, although not for the same reasons. While the twins scream in anguish at being played by their own fiddle, Marinette is trying not to imagine the possibilities of having two Chats under her influence, let alone three of them.

They make quick work of the twins after that, the three seemingly indomitable pack of Chat Noirs obliterating the rest of the clones so that Marinette can focus on the twins themselves. She backs them up in a corner and manages to get one of their toques off their heads, ripping the hat in two and releasing the butterfly within. She captures and purifies the creature before setting her sights on the other, all too aware of her Miraculous beeping incessantly in her ear.

“M'Lady.”

She spins and takes in the sight of them.

One is leaning against the railing of the staircase, smiling impishly at her. The other idly spins his baton in his hand before holstering it, winking and licking his lips. The third bites his tongue and eyes her top to bottom, his gaze exposing every filthy thing running through his mind.

Putain de ta race.

“Chat?” Marinette’s felt arousal before but never quite as sudden and intense as this, “I have to recharge before I can capture the other akuma.”

“Of course M’Lady,” all three of them respond in chorus, prowling towards her, “Shall we save this one for later?”

Marinette gulps as she turns her attention back to the remaining akuma, throwing her yoyo and effectively binding it within the unbreakable string. Ignoring the unmistakable pounding between her thighs, she looks down at the purified twin holding his head and places her hand on his shoulder, “Are you all right?”

The man groans, “What happened?”

“You were akumatised,” she replies simply, desperately trying not to pay attention the three Chats standing behind her, “Your sister is still akumatised but I can’t purify her until I can recharge my power.”

The twin nods and stumbles upright, “What can I do?”

“I’ll stay here and keep them company,” one of the Chats volunteers, smiling easily at Marinette and the male twin, “I’m sure Ladybug won’t keep us waiting too long.”

Marinette glances at the two Chats standing behind her and then back at the twin and his struggling sister, “Are you sure?”

“We’ll ménage just fine M’Lady. Off you go.”

Marinette gulps.

"I'll be back as soon as I'm finished," she assures the man, watching as he tries to shake away the drowsiness. She gives the Chat clone a hard look for the pun before leaping onto the nearest rooftop balcony that’s hidden from sight, confident that the two remaining Chats would be following close behind.

She stops and leans against the balcony's railing and tries to ignore the giant lounging cushion littering the deck and its possibilities, “Which one of you is the real one?”

"Me,” the one on the left responds, running his fingers through his hair. The other sneaks in behind her and begins suckling on the exposed skin of her neck, leaving tiny marks to pepper her skin, “What do you say Ladybug? Just you and me and Chat, up here on the rooftops. Think of all the possibilities.”

“Yes,” she breathes hoarsely, throwing her head back, “Close your eyes so I can detransform.”

“As you wish,” the two of them say at once and Marinette’s never released her form so quickly in her life, thankful that she’s remembered her mask this time. She tosses her purse to the side, stuffed to the brim with cookies baked earlier this afternoon, and slips the mask over her ponytails. She lets him know she’s covered before affording him the same courtesy and when she opens her eyes, the real Chat has transformed back to his civilian self while the clone remains in his Miraculous form, standing side by side.

“Fuck me.” Yeesh.

Chat turns to his doppelganger and grins, “Shall we?”

They advance on her, the clone making quick work of her jeans while the real one captures her lips and kisses her, scraping his nails against her spine. She squirms as the clone pushes her jeans down her thighs and guides her feet out of the fabric pooling beneath her, freeing them completely.

“What do you think M’Lady?” Chat purrs against her skin, “Should he fuck you while I kiss you senseless? The decision is yours.”

Marinette can’t help the way her hands make their way to her core, skimming against the cotton and lace, “I want you two to kiss.”

The real Chat’s eyes widen behind the toy mask, his mouth parting to make the perfect O. He looks down at his clone and makes eye contact briefly before staring back at Marinette, “What?”

Marinette feels emboldened by his surprise, happily gaining the upper hand, “Kiss each other. I want to watch.”

Chat considers for a moment, his expression uncertain.

“Please?”

That word seems to break his resolve, shaking him out of his reverie. His clone gets back to his feet and Chat closes the gap between them, taking a deep breath before pressing his lips to his. Marinette collapses down onto the mattress sized cushion and thanks every deity in the sky for giving her this moment to fuel her dreams for the next twenty years. She slips her fingers beneath the waistband of her panties and presses her fingers against her clit, entirely unsurprised to find herself sopping wet.

She moans and the sound seems to spur them, egging on their performance further, the two boys pressing ever closer. Their kiss gains an aggressive edge, all teeth and claws and hard angles as they begin to devour each other, their fingers and tongues waging war. The real Chat reaches down and grinds against his counterpart, relishing in the sweet friction against their thighs.

“Chat!”

Marinette's orgasm comes out of nowhere and she falls back against the cushion, her body and legs contorted in ecstasy. The Chats break apart to watch her and the real Chat wastes no time in stripping his clothes off as she quivers around her fingers, milking the last waves of her orgasm. He comes up behind her then just as the clone crawls between her legs, their lips wet and swollen and eager to please.

Beckoning her to her knees, the clone strips her of her top and panties as the real Chat caresses the planes of her abdomen from behind her, latching onto the hollow behind her jaw. He sucks and nibbles her to a frenzy as she tries to get her bearings, thighs still wobbly from what would have to go down as the fastest orgasm in her personal history. The Chat in front of her unclips her bra and immediately goes to town on her chest, pinching and lapping and tugging ever so gently with his teeth, watching her face all the while.

The Chat behind her grips her hips and tugs her hair, enticing her body to arch as much as possible, her head and ass jutting backwards in a perfect curve. She grits her teeth in anticipation as he rubs his cock against her folds, seeking entrance and when he slowly languidly finally sinks into her it feels incredible.

“Yes…” she hisses as he pulls out, teasing her with his tip before thrusting hard, ramming her forward into Chat’s waiting mouth. He skims her stomach and sides with his fingernails as he continues to tease her nipples and reaches down between her legs, tracing her lips and scraping her thighs. Every thrust drives another moan through her lips, his rhythm eager and consistent, decadently unrestrained.

The Chat in front of her grazes her clit and the pressure pulls her body taut, overwhelming her senses. Keeping his hand between her thighs, he uses the other to pull her hair back, capturing her lips in a sloppy embrace. The one behind captures her breasts with his palms and kneads them, clipping her nipples between the pads of his fingers with every thrust and god, it fells like she’s being consumed, like she can’t tell where one Chat ends and where the other begins, sandwiched between them in some hedonistic ritual that’s driving her crazy and oh, oh, oh…!

He swallows her screams with his mouth and she tampers his screams with her shoulder and at least two of the three of them reach a crescendo of pleasure together, glorious and with abandon, and she feels him come inside of her and she feels him tweak her clit and fuck, fuck! she’s coming again and it’s even more powerful than before, knocking her right out of her body and into some celestial headspace because fuck, it feels like she’s gone and died in the best way possible, floating and quaking and ah!

Some minutes later the three of them attempt to come to, sprawled and sated on the cushion like some Renaissance painting, self indulgent and utterly debauched. It’s only when a tiny voice makes itself known somewhere to their left that Marinette tries to sit up and take it all in.

“Ladybug, if uh…if you’re about done now, I’m ready to transform!”

Marinette nods and blinks owlishly, looking back down at the two Chats still slouched against the cushion, smirking in unison.

Akuma or no, this was by far the best day of her life.

[thesteveyates]

The second part of my new anchoring arrangements on WABI”’

Many of my regular visitors will have ploughed through (sorry…deliberate anchor pun) the long post about my new anchoring experiments with WABI”’ . Astute observers will have noted that the boat looks a bit different from the photographs i used in that post and, as with the Friday 5 minute blog, now sports a little bowsprit out front.

As i write, and once again i am writing a couple of weeks ahead of post scheduling, the little bowsprit : Le Petit Prod, is on but will have come off for it’s second or third stage modifications but it has been built, fitted and used.

The bowsprit itself.

I realised today that the photograph above is just about the best one of the bowsprit itself because the overall shape and concept is visible.  It looks very odd to the eye because the working (outboard) end is to the left and the inboard end to the right.  That makes it almost the complete opposite of a standard bowsprit, most of which is outside the boat. In this case the long ‘tail’ attaches to the mast in this little fitting below which i had fabricated recently.  My plywood pattern is on the right here and the complete piece on the left.  Just for reference this was fabricated by Pheonix 316 in Plymouth and they have done a nice job with it.  Just as an aside they also modified the lid of my charcoal heater such that i can use it to boil a kettle on the stove.

The purpose and function of the bowsprit is twofold : to mount the anchoring and mooring rollers/fairleads and secondly at some time to carry a small free-flying jib for light upwind sailing.  I have been advised via the owners association that the Liberty can be improved upwind in light weather by flying a small jib…..it sounds as though the jib off a National 18 racing dinghy will do the job……however.

The actual timber sprit i made from a useful looking length of very close grained pine that i heaved out of the timber rack down at Stax reclamation yard just outside Saltash. At first i thought the piece i found was way too big and it was pretty old and nasty looking with some serious iron nails poking out of it.  I initially bought the piece for just a few pounds with a different project in mind but when i got it on the bench i realised that what i had would work very well once planed down a lot and shaped.

The iron nails/spikes took a lot of time and ingenuity to hoik out of the pine but the wood itself is much higher quality than modern, commercially available timber.  It’s dense and close grained and of course significantly lighter now that iv’e had at it with the power planer.  Below….that’s my first attempt at making mounting chocks to sit on the floor of the bow well, clunky and way too heavy, the stainless steel mast bracket is so much neater and lighter…..even Al might pass that one !

The working end,

I have always liked the idea of taking an anchor warp down through the bowsprit itself rather than having cheek mounted anchor rollers.  On the Liberty the bowsprit will sit in the broad groove/channel through the bow molding and if i kept the bowsprit base at maximum dimension there i would have enough ‘meat’ on the timber to bore out a slot to take a couple of sheaves within the bowsprit itself.  I roughed-out sketches of different sheave arrangements and therefore the slot shape and size and what looked best was a pair of wide but small diameter sheaves rather than one large diameter sheave which would have meant taking a lot more timber away.

In the final build iv’e actually ended up experimenting with 3 different sheave sizes so far and currently just a wide stainless steel bush acting as the bottom roller….that’s got at least one more stage to go as i narrow down on the exact sheave size and get them made locally as well.   The actual arrangement for anchoring is that the warp will run over the 2 sheaves through the bowsprit and will then run to, and along the side deck to the anchoring cleat just ahead of the cockpit.  This is similar to the old closed fairlead except that there should be much less friction in the system.

The sheaves and sheave slot should reasonably take a 12mm dia rope which is still over-spec for the job.  I think that because i come from much bigger boats that i still look at some gear for the Liberty and think of it as being too light.  Most information points to 10mm line as being perfectly adequate mainly because WABI”’ is actually a very light boat…only about a ton and a half fully loaded.  The 6 kg Rocna is completely adequate for my everyday needs and the 7 kg Manson is over-spec although it was a very good anchor for the similar length but twice as heavy Inanda. 

The current sticking point in the job is the fastening at the bow.  My original plan was to cut an access hole in the narrow forward face of the bow well, drill and pass a bolt up through the bow channel molding and fasten the bowsprit down using an eye nut over the bolt head ….obviously on the top face of the sprit.  I cut an access hole as planned but it’s small size and the angle of the actual bow didn’t then allow me to pass the long (160mm) bolt up through the molding.  The temporary solution was to pass the bolt down through the bowsprit and through the deck groove and attach a nut from below…..with extreme difficulty i may add.

That means i would currently have the warp running over the flats of the bolt head so i have temporarily lashed a large , low friction eye there as a smooth fairlead.  The next stage will be to take the bowsprit off again, enlarge the access hole and get the bolt in from below if it is at all possible.  The access hole will then need a little cover making for it.  The other part of the job will be to drop the stick again and do the modifications on the mast itself to get rid of the 2 lazy-jack fittings and add a jib attachment point.

The other kit on the bowsprit is an eyebolt/eye-nut combination that act as fairlead/keepers for the mooring lines or strops that i tend to use.  While Chris’s moorings (and many others round here) have a heavy pick-up and mooring warp that is too large to go through an eye, they also have a top swivel and shackle so i carry a custom made mooring strop for long term mooring and a simple plain line for everyday use when i ‘borrow’ a mooring in the river…..i .don’t do that often but it’s useful once in a while.

Marilyn…..set up for Inanda

So : line and sinker.

I know this keeps changing but my current version of ‘anchor for the use of’ is Rocky Rocna, 10 metres of 7mm chain and temporarily on a length of 10mm polyester line as the warp although that’s about to change when the new line arrives this week hopefully so lets talk about anchor warps.

As with most sailors i have nearly always used nylon warp for my rode as is standard, except that for most of the time that iv’e had WABI”’ i haven’t done that at all, in fact for  years i have been anchoring on weighted polyester braid and it’s been completely successful.  Only recently did i briefly use my old 14mm spare anchor warp from my  Frances 26 simply because i still had it.  I have always kept the 75 metre warp on board because i firmly believe in having one very long warp on board and it has served that purpose.  It’s only been used once when i walked the spare anchor out on it that one time in St Aubyn bay when i set a haul-off kedge anchor out to seaward of the boat.

The 14mm octoplait is very over-spec for WABI”’ as is the similar 14mm weighted polyester line that i have been using this last 3 years.  The weighted warp is the commercially available one that comes with , i guess, a line of small weights inside the last part of the core.  They are advertised as RIB/small boat anchoring lines, the idea being, i believe, is that the weighted warp acts more like chain than rope but is much nicer to handle.  My one came as a useful 40 metre length in a neat bag and as i say has been in continuous use for  years.  That line still looks to be in perfect condition so it’s now stowed below with ‘Marilyn’ (Manson) and 15 metres of chain…..all shackled up and ready to use.

My temporary anchor warp is a length (about 30 metres) of 10mm mid-quality polyester braid that has seen frequent use as my camping tarp ridge-line but that is all it’s ever been used for : i think it was a fairly cheap reel end from the local chandler when they were selling off rope ends one time.   Anchoring on polyester isn’t standard approved practice but to be honest it makes damn-all difference in everyday use and perhaps only comes into a problem in severe anchoring conditions and to be honest i just don’t anchor in exposed situations in my little boat.  Just for reference the polyester line is rated at around 2900 lbs or more correctly 12.9 Kn (kilo-Newtons)

Now, this is going to get a bit rope-geek but as an ex climber and rigger i have to know my way around ropes a bit so i just want to add a bit of rope geekery here.

Right now, aboard WABI”’ i have several different types of modern rope in use which come directly from the riggers shop and they would be instantly recognised as everyday sailing rope.  Mainly i use bog standard but better quality braid on braid polyester….i happen to like Marlowbraid as i have always found it reliable although other manufacturers make equally good line.               For halyards i am currently on ‘cruising’ Dyneema which has a Dyneema core with a braided polyester sheath although i do have some pure Dyneema hanging up in the workshop.  I couldn’t tell you today which version of Dyneema it is although it was eye-watering expensive so it’s a good one.  That line will replace the cruising Dyneema as and when i get around to the job.

Some readers will know that i like to lash and lace rather than using shackles to mount blocks so i use loads of small diameter and very high quality Dyneema line for that task and i keep plenty spare on the boat.

Where i differ with most sailors is that i look to climbing and caving/arborists rope for other uses.  The rope i have just sourced, new but old stock, is what is called semi-static line which is commonly used for abseiling, caving and rope access work. It is similar to climbers ‘dynamic’ line except that it has much lower stretch and as a climber you wouldn’t want to take a high factor leader fall on it as it wouldn’t ‘give’ (stretch) enough .

Semi-static rope is a lower stretch version of climbers ‘Kernmantel’ and as i say above is more commonly used as a descent and ascent line, often in caving and abseiling.   If you see ‘LSK’ mentioned then that i believe is low stretch kernmantel.  It often has a very high strength rating : the one i have sourced is rated at over 6,000 lbs and near to 30 kn force rating.   There is no way that i could apply that much force manually or i think during normal anchoring.   If  anything like that force was somehow applied on the gear i suspect all the fittings and cleats would just rip out of the deck !.   I think that it might be a surprisingly good rope to use as small boat anchor warp and at 10 mm will be small in volume and large enough to handle.

I will give a link below to one website that sets out some of the basic information on static, semi-static and dynamic rope as used by climbers, cavers, arborists and rope access techs.*

Handling and stowage.

Aft, i am working on the anchor stowage and the anchor recovery aspect.  At sea the anchor shown below.   When motoring it will move to just forward of the motor.  Here, what’s happening is that i’m about to fit the teak deck slats that will allow the anchor stowage box to drain properly….except that i’m not because i have completely run out of Sikaflex and can’t be bothered to drive the 40 mile round trip just to buy one tube.

The retrieval roller is fitted but it will make a lot more sense to do a quick video when everything is complete and working…..then i’ll capture some footage of just anchoring and retrieving/stowing the anchor.   By then i’ll have probably changed my mind again and Marilyn will be back in the number one spot…..i rather like Marilyn.

Fitting the drainage slats and the temporary rope/chain bin.

*Rope talk.

I realised when i was writing the rope-talk section above that not everyone here will be familiar with rope techniques and rope technology from other disciplines outside of sailing.

So, climbing first.  I’m most familiar with climbing practice having done that myself for several years.    Rock climbing as i knew it is now referred to as ‘trad‘ or traditional climbing and today there are other specialties, for example ‘sport’, big wall and of course ‘free‘ or unroped climbing.

In trad climbing what happens is something like this : the leader, ties one end of the rope into his or her climbing harness and their ‘second’ ties into the other end.  Nowadays it can be a bit more complex as what iv’e just said refers to the use of a single rope…even in my later climbing years we often climbed on ‘double’ ropes….2 ropes but thinner which allowed ‘protection’ placement to the side of the actual ‘line’.

As the leader proceeds elegantly, or not in my case, up the route, he or she places ‘pro’ (protection) in the form of chocks, nuts and cams, into features in the rock. The climbing rope or one of the ropes is then clipped in to that with a ‘crab’ (carabiner).

The idea being that if the leader takes a fall they only fall twice the distance they are above their last piece of protection and assuming that the second is awake enough to arrest the fall.   A long leader fall puts an enormous shock load on the rope and ultimately on the climber…..which is why a climbers rope is designed and made to be ‘dynamic’ ie stretchy.   A climbing rope is only rated for a number of falls with a high load (fall) factor and even one very long fall can result in the rope being binned afterwards.  Old climbing ropes make very good mooring lines by the way.

The second use of a climbing rope is to initially access the route when the climbers first have to abseil to the start of the climb.  That is typical of many routes that i did on sea cliffs : places like the Holyhead stacks and many places on the Gower peninsular. For my best ever day on the rock we had to abseil some 55 metres into Wen Zawn at Holyhead’s south stack onto a block of rock about the size as my garden bench…..some 50 metres below us and just awash at that state of the tide……the punch line here is that we then had to pull our ropes down on top of us to start the climb.

‘A dream of white horses’  (Gogarth) Ed Drummond photograph i think.     Me and 2 mates did this route way back when i lived just down the road in ……wait for it…….Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch…..yes, i actually lived there.                 After i had led off on the first pitch i noticed that my 2 mates were chatting with another couple of climbers that had roped down as well.   That only turned out to be none other than THE Joe Brown himself .

Static and semi-static ropes.

Having never been a caver or arborist i don’t have any practical experience with static and semi-static ropes (LSK).  Static ropes, by the way usually aren’t nylon at all but often polyester for arborists and cavers and then aramid for military ‘fast-roping’ techniques.  I did at one time have several friends working in the rope access world : doing abseil inspections off tall  block of flats mainly, and i got some knowledge from them.  It seems that in caving, tree work and rope access work a less stretchy rope is desirable and that ‘leader’ falls are much less likely.                  Where a ‘dynamic’ rope is designed to have considerable stretch or bounce a semi-static rope isn’t….they will still have much more stretch than say Dyneema or Aramid lines though.  I had to take a quick look around the world of semi-static ropes for this project and managed to source some unsold but old stock line.

The rope i have bought does feel very dense so it should be high modulus….it seems to handle nicely although it is stiffer than ‘floppy’ nylon 8 plait but then it is higher rated. In it’s uncut state (about 50 metres) it does look a bit over-long for the job as i rarely have run out much more than 20 metres of warp after the chain…..i might back up a bit on this one and keep the long length of semi-static line as my kedge warp in place of the 14mm octoplait.

  For information on static and semi-static ropes take a look at this link as it lays out current practice far better than i can .

http://www.abacus-ise.co.uk/semi_static_low_stretch_abseil_rope.htm

Hook, line and sinker. The second part of my new anchoring arrangements on WABI''' Many of my regular visitors will have ploughed through (sorry...deliberate anchor pun) the long post about my new anchoring experiments with…

[whittlebaggett8]

15 products we rely on to turn bad hair days around — from $7 serums to $160 styling tools, Defence Online

Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

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Wave Break Media / Shutterstock

Frizzy, greasy, flat, matted – no matter what your version of a bad hair day looks like, it probably doesn’t look great.

There are countless of products out there promising to help your hair on days when your locks have a mind of its own, but it can be hard to know what’s actually worth trying.

That’s why I asked my co-workers to share their bad hair day hacks – products, tools, and accessories they actually use to manage those seemingly unmanageable locks.

Below you’ll find 15 products we actually use to deal with our locks on bad hair days.

We’ve all had our fair share of bad hair days – and if you haven’t, please share your secrets. For most of us, it’s unusual to wake up every single morning with naturally shiny, healthy hair. Some days, our locks look a little more “bed head” than “beach wave.” Plus, on busy mornings, dealing with our hair isn’t usually on the top of the priorities list.

Luckily, there are so many products out there promising to tame frizz, absorb grease, add texture and volume – it’s just a matter of finding the ones that are actually worth spending your money on. As a team of reviewers, we’ve all tried plenty of products, including ones for our hair. That’s why I asked my co-workers to share their own bad hair day hacks – the products, tools, and accessories they rely on to tame their own hair when it’s at its most unruly. When you feel like there’s no way you can manage your next bad hair day, hopefully one of these products can help you out.

Keep reading for 15 products, tools, and accessories we count on to make our bad hair days better:

A spiral-shaped hair tie that adds volume to your ponytails

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Invisibobble Instagram

Invisibobble Slim Hair Ring, $8, available at Sephora

This hair tie has come to the rescue when my hair is not so worth of being out in public. I only wash my hair once every few days because it doesn’t get greasy, but I run into the issue of flat hair when I don’t rinse it for a while. This hair tie has been an awesome solution to lack of volume because the coils separate individual sections of your hair while it’s in the hair tie, making your ponytail look larger and more voluminous. – Megan Foster, intern

A teasing brush that adds some extra oomph

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Drybar

Drybar Texas Tease Brush, $18, available at Sephora

When I have a “bad hair day” it typically stems from a lack of volume. Since approximately the seventh grade, my go-to for this issue has been using a teasing brush to introduce volume back into my hair. This one from DryBar works wonders when you use it to tease the hair closest to your scalp. After teasing, I smooth down the top layer with the same comb and it gives my hair a just-washed look. – Megan Foster, intern

A thick styling paste that adds texture and body to dull hair

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Amazon

Redken Rewind Style Paste, $13.64, available at Amazon

The Rewind 06 has a more glue-like consistency than most hair pastes for men, but I love that a little goes a long way. I simply place a small dab on my hand, rub it to activate, and just massage it into my thick, straight hair (which stands up in all manner of ways when I don’t put anything in it) and play with it. What I like is that it lets me create either a messy look for play or something more subdued for work. – Les Shu, editor

A sea-salt mist that turns bad hair days into beach hair days

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Amazon

OGX Sea Salt Spray, $7.22, available at Amazon

Before I use any product, I relax my hair with a salt-based spray. While I love the more expensive Surf Spray from Bumble & Bumble, my everyday go-to is the Sea Salt Spray from OGX because it doesn’t have an obnoxious scent, is relatively inexpensive, and is available at most stores and online. – Les Shu, editor

A translucent dry shampoo that helps you extend the time between your washes

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Nordstrom

Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo, $22 – $46, available at Nordstrom

As I train my hair and scalp not to degrade into a lank, greasy mess by not washing it every night, this dry shampoo has been an effective way to make the transition look less bad. It doesn’t leave any residue that tells everyone I used dry shampoo today, and it re-pumps my hair with natural-looking volume and lift. – Connie Chen, reporter

A lightweight spray that helps create beachy waves that’ll hold all day

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Sephora

Ouai Wave Spray, $26, available at Sephora

Every day is kind of a bad hair day for me unless I heat-style my naturally wonky waves into something that looks somewhat decent. But when I don’t have time to heat-style, I scrunch the IGK coconut oil gel all over my hair, twist for definition, hit it with this wave spray, and air dry. – Jada Wong, editor

A frizz-taming oil that’s lightweight enough for all hair types

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Organix

OGX Renewing Argan Oil, $7.99, available at Ulta

This oil is lightweight so it can be used on most hair types. I have thick, curly hair that does whatever it wants. This Argan oil leaves my hair feeling light and smooth, and tames my frizz. – Francesca Rea, content producer

A water-resistant cream that minimizes frizz even in serious humidity

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Sephora

IGK Blocked Water-Resistant Hair Shield, $29, available at Sephora

I bought this after wandering into a Sephora on a muggy summer day with baby hairs so long they looked like TV antennas. Before I’d finished asking, an employee was bee-lining it to this: a “swim cap for your hair” that can thwart frizz even in swamp-like conditions.

Now, I use it to minimize frizz, lock in moisture, make hair “waterproof” on drizzly days and to slick down stubborn baby hairs for sleek ponytails. It works best if you put an inch-wide strip of this on the skin immediately before your hairline and push it back into the hair with your fingers, like you’re putting your hair up into a ponytail. Follow up with a fine-toothed comb to drag the rest of the product through to the middle of your head. – Mara Leighton, reporter

A styling tool that gives hair the look of a professional blow-out

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T3 Micro Facebook

T3 BodyWaver Professional Ceramic Styling Tool, $160, available at Sephora

If I wake up with bad hair, I usually give up and put it in a bun. But, if I have the time, I use this hot tool for 30 minutes for the look of a round brush blow-out at home without the effort. Check out a picture comparison of this versus a salon blowout here. – Mara Leighton, reporter

A silk pillowcase that helps prevent bad hair days in the first place

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Amazon

Celestial Silk Pillowcase, $35.99, available at Amazon

I know, I know – this is proactive rather than reactive, but I think it’s worth mentioning how much of a difference sleeping on a silk pillowcase has made for my mass of habitually frizzy hair. I’d say it has cut my bad hair days by 70%. Less friction, a softer material, and better moisture retention makes for happy hair. – Mara Leighton, reporter

A texturizing salt spray that prevents matted locks

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Nordstrom

Captain Blankenship Mermaid Sea Salt Hair Spray, $24, available at Nordstrom

My hair is (almost) humorously non-complacent some days. I have exactly 14 cowlicks that are downright unmanageable unless I go for the full-on crop-top or the full-length Yanni mane – I’ve tried wearing both over the years, but neither is up for debate at this juncture, thank you very much.

In these moments, on my way out the door, under great duress and distress, I reach for something like Captain Blankenship’s Mer[man] Sea Salt Hair Spray. It doesn’t tame my cowlicks; it accentuates them. This way, no one section of my scalp goes too flat or matted. – Owen Burke, reporter

A styling cream that slicks hair back without looking greasy

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Sephora

Bumble and Bumble Styling Creme, $26, available at Sephora

And if, for one reason or another, I’m headed somewhere formal and a messy, if consistent head of hair might be unacceptable (societal norms and whatnot), Bumble & Bumble’s Styling Cream works to slick my hair back without feeling too greasy or shellack-y. – Owen Burke, reporter

A beanie that hides a bad hair day altogether

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Neff Instagram

NEFF Daily Beanie, $14.40, available at Amazon

Waking up to messy hair on a rushed morning is less than ideal. When I don’t have time to try to fix my hair by experimenting with different products, I’ll just throw a hat on it and hide the bad hair day altogether. Unfortunately, this method is pretty much only useful during the winter, or whenever it’s cold enough to warrant wearing a knit beanie. When it’s too hot for a hat in the summer, I’ll quickly tie my hair up into french braids instead – the style does a great job of masking grease and frizz. – Remi Rosmarin, reporter

A lightweight oil that protects against heat and smooths out frizz

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Sephora

Kérastase Elixir Ultime Oil Serum, $50, available at Sephora

Whether I let my hair dry naturally or dry it with heat, it’s bound to get frizzy at some point in the day. I’ve tried an absurd amount of frizz creams and serums, but this is my favorite thus far. Since my hair gets greasy very quickly, I’m always a little hesitant of putting straight oil into it, but this lightweight formula adds shine without that greasy look. You can use it to protect hair against heat before a blow dry or to smooth your locks and minimize frizz on dry hair. Plus, it smells delightful.

I have naturally thin, wavy hair, but my waves can get pretty wonky, especially with humidity. If I wake up to a mess of these wonky, misshapen waves, I’ll wet my dry hair from root to tip, run a few spritzes of this oil through it, and let it air dry – it takes a few more minutes than throwing on a hat, but it gives that just-hopped-out-of-the-shower look. – Remi Rosmarin, reporter

An all-natural baby powder that sops up grease

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Jet.com

Burt’s Bees Baby Powder, $7.19, available at Jet

There are plenty of dry shampoos out there that are meant to extend the life of your washes, but I’ve found the best solution to be a classic you probably already have in the cupboard: baby powder. The powder works wonders for sopping up grease – just give your roots a light dusting and brush through. If hair seems flat, tousling it with your fingers will help add some volume and further disperse the product.

If you’re planning on using this to get rid of grease, give yourself some time for the powder to absorb – otherwise you may be left with some white residue along your roots. I haven’t found this to be an issue, but I’d recommend taking a quick look in the mirror before you head out to check for yourself. – Remi Rosmarin, reporter

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[strangegatewaysbeckon]

Adam Zaars and Jonathan Hultén interview with Invisible Oranges

According to the informal readers poll at the end of my Top Albums of 2015 list, Tribulation’s Children of the Night is the best album of last year according to Invisible Oranges readers. It’s a solid choice. The Stockholm four-piece has done more to return classic rock-style melody and songwriting to extreme metal, so much so that in my review I said;

“The Children of the Night offers a more fully-realized glimpse into what a modern extreme metal zeitgeist without the telltale signs of extreme metal today might look like. It is black metal without Mayhem or Darkthrone, but still with 30 years of accumulated acumen behind it.”

With that review in mind, I sat backstage with Adam Zaars and Jonathan Hultén, who play guitar in Tribulation, on the Seattle date of their 2015 tour with Deafheaven. We spoke about their love of horror, and how they make their music seem so instantly ‘classic.’

This is definitely the most hyped tour you guys have ever done in the United States. Have you noticed the difference from, I think the last time you were here you were opening for Behemoth and Cannibal Corpse?

Adam: Yeah, I mean there is a difference. I guess, the biggest difference is that, I think, most of the people who are here, haven’t seen us before. You can tell.

How?

Adam: Which is why we’re here, of course. That’s a positive thing. And they seem to like it. That’s the biggest difference, I think.

Jonathan: And it’s a different crowd than we’re used to. I mean, it’s not the typical Cannibal Corpse crowd who are going to the shows.

When I saw Ghost last night, Papa Emeritus said “we want to sound old.” But no one says “Okay. Let’s go back in time to 1980 and then forward down a different path back to 2015. And see ‘Okay, what does that sound like if history was just different?’” When I heard The Children of the Night I thought of it as an alternate history. Where was your mindset in terms of history and where you were going with making it?

Jonathan: I recognize that way of thinking. I had a similar idea a couple of years ago when we were writing the first album [The Horror] and the first Stench album as well. And I thought that it would be like picking up where the genre had been at ’90-something.

Adam: That was the case, especially with the first one. I think I actually said it in interviews as well back then, that it was sort of like going back to, I don’t know, like ’93, maybe. Before everything turned to shit in death metal, you know? And sort of trying to push it into the right track. But we’re not there anymore. I wouldn’t say we’re playing death metal at all now.

I wouldn’t, either.

Adam: No. So, I mean, we’re doing something else, still.

When you think about what you’re doing, what’s your thought pattern?

Jonathan: It’s easier to use metaphors, I think.

Use a metaphor, that’s fine.

Adam: Do you have one?

Jonathan: Yeah. You could use a word like poetry, and just say that what we’re doing is expressing ourselves. And it’s like, just, let it flow out of ourselves. And just keep pushing forward and do it with grace, if possible.

Adam: Very much so, I agree. If we’re striving for something, it’s not that we’re planning anything. It’s kind of the opposite. So if we’re striving for something, it’s striving for intuition, rather than … I don’t know. We try not to analyze what we’re doing that much. At least for us, it feels like we would end up in a different place if we did. And I’m not sure if that place is a better one, I think it’s a worse one. So I think we’re striving for some kind of seclusion. Because we try not to get too disturbed or entranced about what’s going on around us. It’s inevitable to some extent, but striving for that and intuition. Whatever happens, happens. Flow, like Jonathan said. And I think, in retrospect, we can always see what we did, but we really try to not think about that, while it happens. When we create, to just let it go.

Grace. I like that. That’s an apt self-assessment. When I started listening to extreme music, it wasn’t popular, and the new stuff was not considered good. People who are older than I was, they were very averse to melody, and they were very averse to emotion. Like, I remember I loved the Carcass’s song “No Love Lost.” I had friend of mine, sort of talk down to me and say, like, “What are you doing? It’s all melodic and they’re talking about their feelings. You suck. Throw that thing away.” I didn’t, of course. I’m glad I didn’t. But with you, I do hear those elements in the music.

Jonathan: I think it’s because of what we grew up listening to, which isn’t necessarily only extreme metal bands, that’s never been the only influence. Not even on the first one. We were inspired by movie scores, mostly horror soundtracks. Even Nintendo games. Whatever got us into the right feeling. And even when you hear the first album, it’s been a while since I listened to it, to be honest, but even when you, or we, think back to that era, it’s still a lot of feeling. A lot of striving for a certain atmosphere, rather than just… I mean, it’s a very fast, in-your-face album, but it also contains something else. You can sort of see where we were about to go afterwards, I think, in that one.

Adam: Yeah, and the form that was recorded—I mean the genre in which it took place—had been a bit limiting. And we needed to break through, to break loose.

It’s interesting that you mentioned movies. The album art for The Children of the Night is the re-issued poster for Les Vampires, the French serial. That struck me as interesting, because that’s horror but it’s not like your modern American slasher film. Even someone who considers himself or herself a horror buff may not have seen something like Les Vampires.

Adam: No. It’s not really a horror movie.

Not in the normal way but it’s horrific the way Hitchcock is. It’s dark, it’s a thriller. It’s gothic, and German expressionism. And your tour poster’s got the original Nosferatu on it, obviously. So why German expressionist cinema? Why silent cinema for a band that makes music?

Adam: That’s also been there from the beginning and I think the answer’s the same now that it was back then. It’s basically capturing a feeling, capturing an atmosphere that’s contained in … I mean, it can be a movie, but it can be a photo, a painting, whatever. And that’s it, really. It’s got to do with transferring that feeling, or that emotion, or that atmosphere into music. And, I guess, not only music, because also the imagery is always present as well. But that’s to make it whole, I guess. Even when you mention the album cover, it’s not really that we’re paying tribute to that series, to that movie. It’s rather just a perfect image for the sound of the album.

It is a fitting picture. It’s dark, and that character is feminine. And there’s a femininity to her posturing.

Adam: Grace, again.

Grace, yeah. That character is a ballerina, as I recall.

Adam: She is.

I was listening to the record with my girlfriend, she’s a big cinephile too, and she looked on the iPod and says, “‘Melancholia.’ Is that the Lars von Trier movie?” And I said, “I don’t know. I’ll ask.”

Adam: Well, no, it’s not.

It’s not, okay.

Adam: It is a good movie. But it’s not that.

But why the feeling of melancholy, as opposed to aggression, then? Because I think your music has gotten, perhaps, a bit less aggressive.

Jonathan: Oh, yeah, that’s very true. Why? Yeah, good question. I don’t know.

Adam: It feels more relevant, perhaps.

Melancholy?

Adam: That’s maybe how we express ourselves now. How we feel.

Jonathan: It’s Tribulation, I think. It’s sort of meant to be like this, actually. I think it reflects us as persons a lot better than the aggression. I mean, when we did the horror, the first one…

Adam: I think it did work.

Jonathan: Yeah, it did work. We were younger, more aggressive, I guess, in that sense. And why did we choose to do that? I don’t know. Again, it’s about that intuitive thing.

Adam: Momentum.

Jonathan: We don’t really think about why we’re doing it, which is why this is a good question, I guess. Because we just, when it comes to Tribulation, we don’t think, we act. I think.

Well, if you don’t mind me asking, here’s a question. The band’s called Tribulation, which implies sort of a struggle. And melancholy is itself sort of a struggle. What exactly are you struggling with?

Jonathan: We’re struggling with everything. We’re struggling with rules, and with everything. That’s always been a core of the band’s ideal, to break free from whatever is holding you down. Because I think it’s the only way to grow as a person. When you look at, I guess, the lyrics for the second album and for the new one, it’s got a lot to do with that, with tearing something down and building something new that’s more in line with you at the moment. And you gotta destroy something to do that. I think that’s why we’re always doing new stuff. Our albums don’t sound the same.

Adam: No, they don’t.

Jonathan: So that’s a part of the struggle.

Adam: I think of it also as a metaphor for life in general. Living itself is a struggle. And everything you do is, in some way, a struggle. It takes something to make something happen, to act. And whatever it is, holding this cup up, or doing a show tonight, is a struggle.

And that’s a good thing.

Adam: Yes.

Jonathan: I think it’s needed, to create.

Friction?

Jonathan: Yeah, that’s probably right. And I don’t really mean the stereotypical, struggling artist, as an alcoholic, or whatever. Well, not necessarily, at least. I wouldn’t say we’re depressed or anything like that. Actually, rather the opposite. But we don’t want to get cornered, I guess. And if we do, we break free of all of that. That’s what we’ve always done, I think.

That’s what initially attracted me to the genre, to this kind of music. When you’re a teenager you get frustrated. “Ugh, rules.” I feel like most people start this sort of music when they’re teenagers, but many stop afterward. I didn’t, and I still struggle with—not necessarily the law, but—rules, even into my adulthood.

Jonathan: You create your own rules as well. Your own mental rules and your own ways of thinking, your own patterns. I mean, it’s a spiritual thing as well. I mean, spirituality is exactly that, it’s an inner struggle.

Adam: Yeah, inner struggle towards refining yourself. Not always, but where the body is the alchemical tool that you’re purifying. And I think, it’s the same thing with this. It goes hand-in-hand. This is a spiritual thing, I think, what we’re doing is not necessarily about breaking the law, but it’s about finding out new ways.

Jonathan: Novelty.

Adam: Yeah, exactly. There we go.

Jonathan: Melancholy again. I think, to give you a more simple answer, We have it, in a way at least, from Sweden, and from … I don’t know if it’s in the soil or if it’s in the culture, but it’s …

Jonathan: We have the word: vemod. It’s present in our folk music and in our folklore, and in all of that. Which is an inspiration for myself and, I think, for all of us. The folklore and the folk music, especially. You can hear that in our music now. And it’s sort of melancholia. I mean, melancholy isn’t necessarily only a bad thing. It can be quite beautiful at the same time. And I think we’re doing that. I mean, we’re not a light band. I think we’re a very dark band, but I don’t think we’re ugly. I don’t think the music’s dark and ugly, it’s the opposite. I think we sort of find the gold in the mines.

Adam: I like that description of gold and mines.

I love words that don’t have an English translation. I’m half Brazilian, and there’s a word in Portuguese called “saudade,” and you can’t translate it into English. But it’s a similar sort of “pretty dark.” Nostalgia for a past that didn’t exist.

Jonathan: That’s closing in on where we’re going with the whole melancholy thing, for sure.

Here’s what I respect the most about Tribulation. It’s that the emotion of the lyrics and what is being said, and the construction of the music in a history of rock, history of heavy metal context are getting at the same idea from different ways. The container matches the contents, and a lot of bands have really struggled doing that. You almost need to stumble on it. It can’t be forced.

Jonathan: No, and again, we try not to think about that. We try to let it come to you instead, I think. Maybe that’s why it works. Or we hope that it works, at least.

Adam: Maybe if you start thinking about what you’re doing, why you’re running. If you start to be conscious about every moment that you do want to do that, you might not be able to run anymore.

Jonathan: But you’re always the best when you’re not. In sports, or whatever, when you all of a sudden you just manage to do something, you have no idea why and how. It just happens. It’s momentum, I guess.

Spontaneity maybe?

Jonathan: Maybe not.

Adam: I don’t think our music is spontaneous, in that sense, at least not the way I do it. Because the way I do it is, I collect and write, and then make songs out of it. I mean the material, melodies or beats, or whatever. You gotta have a certain period of just that, of just writing, I’d say, before we can do anything with it. So it’s not spontaneous for me, at least.

Jonathan: Collect, then you let it write itself.

Adam: We were talking about, some days ago, that these songs, they actually keep evolving while we’re playing them live. Because we start doing things that aren’t in the record because it feels right.

Jonathan: Music is live, it’s living. I don’t know if we get bored. It’s the same thing with the music. That might have something to do with the constant change, I guess. Gotta keep moving.

Adam: Yeah, I like when there’s a certain amount of improvisation, both in the music and especially live.

It seems like in metal in particular, in rock music too, but in metal in particular, not a lot of people do improvisation. But there was a time where that was a central part of the live experience. You didn’t expect Led Zeppelin to play the song how it sounded on the record. That’s sort of a new thing.

Jonathan: I think people got tired of it. I think, along with all the technological change, I think the attention span, in general, has become shorter. So I don’t think people have time to listen to a three hour jam.

Adam: At least they don’t consider themselves having time.

Jonathan: Yeah, of course, people do have time. But people would get tired of holding their phones up, filming everything.

Adam: We’re phone people too, of course.

Jonathan: It is what it is. I’m not really, necessarily saying it’s a bad thing

Source

The Children of the Night is out NOW!

[jjonassevilla]

Not Using Landing Pages in Your Ecommerce Email Marketing? Here’s Why You Should

We’ve all had it happen. You meticulously craft an ecommerce email marketing campaign that’s gonna help you sell a ton of products. You build a beautiful HTML template, write engaging copy, and A/B test your subject line. You implement an obvious and compelling call to action.

And after all that work, the landing page that your email directs folks to has a high bounce rate—or worse, a low conversion rate.

What gives?

It could be that your emails are writing checks your click-through destination can’t cash. If you send out a 15% off promotion for dog treats and link your audience to someplace with no mention of the discount, visitors are gonna be confused—and they’ll lose interest in a hurry.

Bottom line: Failing to match the messaging in your email with the copy and visuals on your landing page will hurt your conversion rate.

Maybe you already know it’s a problem, but you feel like you don’t have the resources to pair all of your offers with campaign-specific pages. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Here’s why you need to match your emails to your landing pages in your next ecommerce campaign, and how you can do it really, really well.

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Why Every Ecommerce Email Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Ecommerce Email Marketing and Landing Page Examples

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Let’s be honest. Sometimes in marketing, you can get away with doing less—and that’s a problem.

Email marketing offers some of the best ROI in the business. When you’ve already got someone’s email address, you can expect them to open 14% of the emails you send, with click-through rates just under 7% overall. Estimates suggest that there’s $44 of revenue generated for every dollar spent on email marketing.

With stats like these, you can just half-butt your ecomm email promotions and still do pretty good, right?

Not exactly. If your emails are paired with landing pages that have high bounce rates or low conversion rates, you’re not just leaving money on the table—you’re also bombarding your potential customers with marketing that just doesn’t resonate.

Here are some of the common reasons email promos underperform:

1. Your storefront product page isn’t enough

Data indicates the average bounce rate is 9%, even with load times of less than two seconds. If you’ve seen higher bounce rates on the destination page of your email promos, it might be that you’re not linking to a relevant enough page in the first place.

Your online store’s product pages are specific no-no’s for this purpose. They’re often short, lack details mentioned in your email, and don’t create a consistent experience from click to click.

2. You’ve got too many escape routes

Another problem with your online store’s product pages is that it’s too easy for customers to get distracted and leave. Think about all of the escape routes: website menus, product navigation, highlighted deals that have nothing to do with your email.

Your ecommerce landing page needs to be built as a distraction-free, conversion-optimized funnel. Always encourage your customers to go forward, not sideways.

3. You’re a victim of the paradox of choice

Even if you cut down on the escape routes, too many options can lead to fewer conversions. As Barry Schwartz explains in his book, The Paradox of Choice: “What we don’t realize is that the very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances that we will change our minds.”

The same is true for your visitors. Landing pages with just one call to action have been shown to have 2% higher conversion rates than those with five or more.

4. Your landing page is trying to do too much

When your landing pages are more specific, you can get away with using fewer words. You may also find that it’s better for your conversion rates: landing pages with less copy tend to outperform pages with too much copy at a rate of 14% to 11%.

Josh Garofolo, CRO expert at Sway Copy, explains:

A product page will never do more than an “okay” job because it needs to cater to everyone—every persona, every use case, every traffic source.

Sending subscribers to a focused landing page that leverages everything you know about them—including the context behind the link they’ve just clicked—is the most reliable way to increase conversions.

Why Every Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

To summarize some of the things we’ve already covered, here are some of the biggest reasons that you should be pairing email promotions with dedicated landing pages:

Avoid confusion and frustration. When someone clicks a CTA in your email for a specific offer, they don’t want to end up on a page that doesn’t mention that promo. They may wonder if the offer is even valid.

Target specific customer groups. More specific landing pages help you hit on more customer segments. In one example below, you’ll see how Samuraw targeted specific customer groups with unique pages for each.

Maintain purchase momentum. A customer clicking your email offers is further in the sales cycle than a customer who just discovered your product pages. Creating specific landing pages helps you target those customers who are more prepared to buy and streamlines their path to purchase.

B2B email expert Sophia Le makes the case for pairing emails with landing pages this way:

If ecommerce brands take the extra step to make a landing page, it allows them to create a consistent story arc between the email copy and the actual conversion goal.

The more seamless it is, the more likely the conversion. Plus it’s less jarring for the email subscriber when the transition from email to landing page is a smooth one.

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Here are some quick tips for creating landing pages that convert more of your email subscribers:

Be consistent in design. The first thing that visitors are going to internalize is how the landing page actually looks. When someone clicks on your CTA in the email, the last thing you want to do is surprise them. To create a seamless experience, include consistent design elements like colors, fonts, and images.

Minimize navigation. This is a landing page, not a launching page. Yet too few ecommerce marketers seem to realize that: only about 16% of landing pages are free of a navigation bar. Be sure you’re in the other 84%.

Reduce friction. Automatically fill in whatever information you can for visitors on your landing page. For example, if they clicked on a coupon code, make sure it’s already applied to their cart. This reduces the amount of clicking a customer has to do when they’re placing an order.

Make one offer per landing page. While 48% of landing pages make multiple offers, you can reinforce the specificity and consistency of your own promotion by focusing on just one offer per page.

Make sure the offers match. Don’t make the mistake of promising a discount in an email without also mentioning it on the landing page. Keep the messaging precisely matched so customers don’t have to wonder if they’re in the right place.

Val Geisler, email expert at FixMyChurn, offers this advice:

Landing pages help you be super specific with your audience, and they help your audience feel seen and heard. You can create custom landing pages for various segments of your email list and—using targeted content based on what you know about them—speak directly to their needs.

So, what should a great ecommerce email landing page look like? Let’s check out some examples.

Ecommerce Email Marketing & Landing Page Examples

Example: Codecademy

Let’s kick things off with an incredible example from Codecademy, an online learning platform with courses in programming languages like JavaScript and Python.

This email promotion offers a 25% Black Friday discount on annual memberships for Codecademy Pro, a paid subscription that unlocks all of the platform’s educational coursework. In addition to the savings, Codecademy’s pitch here is all about reaching your potential: unlock the tools, get an actionable plan, achieve your goals.

Recipients who click on Codecademy’s email call to action are directed to an attention-grabbing landing page that expands on the email offer:

Image courtesy of Codecademy. Click it to see the whole thing.

Yeah, it looks great—but this Codecademy page is also converting almost half of everyone who lands here. This is why the promotion works:

Incredible design from start to finish. Codecademy uses bold colors and layered patterns to create a promo email that jumps right out of your inbox. Those elements carry over to the landing page, delivering a seamless experience throughout.

No introduced distractions. There’s no navigation on the landing page, and none of the ideas are new—just more information about the things we saw in the email. Codecademy repeats its pitch around harnessing your potential, explains its value props, and includes a testimonial as social proof.

Focused call to action. There are three buttons on this landing page, but they all point to the same place: checkout. Codecademy uses a sticky bar to remind visitors about the email discount and keep the savings top-of-mind.

Example: Samuraw

Next is Samuraw, a multivitamin and probiotic formula that comes in two versions: one for children, one for adults. The challenge? Addressing each of those target segments with a single campaign.

Another Black Friday email marketing promotion, Samuraw starts by highlighting its holiday discount. Scrolling down, customers find two specific offers—one for each version of the formula.

When someone clicks either “Add to Cart” buttons, they’re taken to a landing page (built by Webistry) that corresponds with the selected formula.

Image courtesy of Samuraw. Click it to see the whole thing.

Pretty intuitive, huh? But that’s not the only reason this example from Samuraw is awesome. Here are some other things they’re doing right:

Consistent branding and messaging. The offer being highlighted appears above the fold in the email and on the landing page. The color schemes are the same. Even the product pictures don’t vary. It’s hard to imagine any visitor getting confused when they wind up here.

Reduced friction and streamlined checkout. The discounts offered in the email are automatically applied once someone clicks through to the landing page. Samuraw makes it simple for customers to reach the final purchase decision.

Segmented customer messaging. “Add to Cart” is a call to action that almost begs to point to a product page, but Samuraw instead links to two specific landing pages aimed at either adults or kids to close the sale. With added details, these pre-cart landing pages do a better job of selling than online store pages.

Example: Great Wolf Lodge

Next up is Great Wolf Lodge, a family of indoor water parks and resort hotels.

Over the summer, they drive bookings through an email marketing campaign that touts their Summer Camp-In event, which includes campfires, pool parties, BBQs, and all kinds of other outdoor fun—only, y’know, inside.

To spur interest, Great Wolf Lodge sent out this well-designed email campaign that highlighted some of the main activities going on, as well as lots of images showing families having an awesome time.

From here, recipients are invited to “Book Now” through the email’s CTA button, which leads to the following tailor-made landing page:

Image courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge. Click it to see the whole thing.

As they scroll down the page, the potential booker gets lots of details about what’s included during the event, sees compelling visuals that evoke positive feelings, and even gets a coupon code for a summer-themed suite.

So, well else is working well here?

Seamless look and feel. The custom graphics create a consistent experience across the two different touchpoints and generate a feeling of nostalgia with their classic 1950s look.

Strategic call to action. The booking CTA on the landing page becomes a sticky bar as the visitor scrolls, so it’s always right at the top of the page and never out of sight.

Reinforced discount offer. The coupon code offer is consistent and referenced both in the email and the landing page, helping keep the promotion top of mind.

Looking for more ecommerce landing page examples? Check out our Ultimate Ecommerce Landing Page Lookbook, which features pages from 27 of the top online retailers.

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The examples above show a few companies who understand that it’s not enough just to send a great email. Your landing page has to reflect that email if you want to convert your subscribers.

Let’s look at an example of an email and landing page mismatch. Motorsport.com recently ran a Cyber Monday email promotion that promised “better than half price” discounts for customers. Here’s a snippet:

Interesting visuals and a clear call to action make this good so far. But when you click “Subscribe Now,” you’re linked to a landing page with this pricing overview:

It’s great that the link to subscribe sends you to a subscription page. But pay attention to the subtle messaging inconsistencies:

Where’s the mention of the “better than half price” sale? Cyber Monday customers that wind up here might wonder if they’ve missed their chance. Are they receiving the discount, or not? This sort of confusion can lead them to bounce.

If a discount was applied, is it the one we were promised? Is $8.60 per month “better than half price”? Is so, there’s no indication of that here.

Why is there a different call to action? “Subscribe Now” becomes “Get the Full Story” and “Select Package.” There’s a missed opportunity here to more carefully match the messaging and imagery from email to landing page.

Visitors who wanted a unique deal might click anyway, but since the landing page doesn’t even mention the discount, lots of people are going to conclude they’re in the wrong place.

Turn Ready-Made Email Clicks Into Ecommerce Sales

Email conversion expert Laura Lupoch sums things up nicely:

To get an email subscriber to make a purchase, you need a series of touchpoints where they keep saying “yes” to you. That sets the stage for the big “yes” at the end when you ask them to buy.

Think of your landing page as another major step in that “yes” journey towards making a purchase.

If you see high click rates on your emails but not high conversion rates on your landing pages, it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the quality of your emails. It might just be that your emails have promised something your landing page failed to deliver—and that’s hard to say “yes” to.

This is where a landing page builder helps. You can quickly drag-and-drop together specific pages for each email promotion (all without a developer) and deliver a consistent purchase path from inbox to checkout.

from Marketing https://unbounce.com/email-marketing/match-ecommerce-offers-with-landing-pages/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[itsjessicaisreal]

Not Using Landing Pages in Your Ecommerce Email Marketing? Here’s Why You Should

We’ve all had it happen. You meticulously craft an ecommerce email marketing campaign that’s gonna help you sell a ton of products. You build a beautiful HTML template, write engaging copy, and A/B test your subject line. You implement an obvious and compelling call to action.

And after all that work, the landing page that your email directs folks to has a high bounce rate—or worse, a low conversion rate.

What gives?

It could be that your emails are writing checks your click-through destination can’t cash. If you send out a 15% off promotion for dog treats and link your audience to someplace with no mention of the discount, visitors are gonna be confused—and they’ll lose interest in a hurry.

Bottom line: Failing to match the messaging in your email with the copy and visuals on your landing page will hurt your conversion rate.

Maybe you already know it’s a problem, but you feel like you don’t have the resources to pair all of your offers with campaign-specific pages. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Here’s why you need to match your emails to your landing pages in your next ecommerce campaign, and how you can do it really, really well.

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Why Every Ecommerce Email Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Ecommerce Email Marketing and Landing Page Examples

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Let’s be honest. Sometimes in marketing, you can get away with doing less—and that’s a problem.

Email marketing offers some of the best ROI in the business. When you’ve already got someone’s email address, you can expect them to open 14% of the emails you send, with click-through rates just under 7% overall. Estimates suggest that there’s $44 of revenue generated for every dollar spent on email marketing.

With stats like these, you can just half-butt your ecomm email promotions and still do pretty good, right?

Not exactly. If your emails are paired with landing pages that have high bounce rates or low conversion rates, you’re not just leaving money on the table—you’re also bombarding your potential customers with marketing that just doesn’t resonate.

Here are some of the common reasons email promos underperform:

1. Your storefront product page isn’t enough

Data indicates the average bounce rate is 9%, even with load times of less than two seconds. If you’ve seen higher bounce rates on the destination page of your email promos, it might be that you’re not linking to a relevant enough page in the first place.

Your online store’s product pages are specific no-no’s for this purpose. They’re often short, lack details mentioned in your email, and don’t create a consistent experience from click to click.

2. You’ve got too many escape routes

Another problem with your online store’s product pages is that it’s too easy for customers to get distracted and leave. Think about all of the escape routes: website menus, product navigation, highlighted deals that have nothing to do with your email.

Your ecommerce landing page needs to be built as a distraction-free, conversion-optimized funnel. Always encourage your customers to go forward, not sideways.

3. You’re a victim of the paradox of choice

Even if you cut down on the escape routes, too many options can lead to fewer conversions. As Barry Schwartz explains in his book, The Paradox of Choice: “What we don’t realize is that the very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances that we will change our minds.”

The same is true for your visitors. Landing pages with just one call to action have been shown to have 2% higher conversion rates than those with five or more.

4. Your landing page is trying to do too much

When your landing pages are more specific, you can get away with using fewer words. You may also find that it’s better for your conversion rates: landing pages with less copy tend to outperform pages with too much copy at a rate of 14% to 11%.

Josh Garofolo, CRO expert at Sway Copy, explains:

A product page will never do more than an “okay” job because it needs to cater to everyone—every persona, every use case, every traffic source.

Sending subscribers to a focused landing page that leverages everything you know about them—including the context behind the link they’ve just clicked—is the most reliable way to increase conversions.

Why Every Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

To summarize some of the things we’ve already covered, here are some of the biggest reasons that you should be pairing email promotions with dedicated landing pages:

Avoid confusion and frustration. When someone clicks a CTA in your email for a specific offer, they don’t want to end up on a page that doesn’t mention that promo. They may wonder if the offer is even valid.

Target specific customer groups. More specific landing pages help you hit on more customer segments. In one example below, you’ll see how Samuraw targeted specific customer groups with unique pages for each.

Maintain purchase momentum. A customer clicking your email offers is further in the sales cycle than a customer who just discovered your product pages. Creating specific landing pages helps you target those customers who are more prepared to buy and streamlines their path to purchase.

B2B email expert Sophia Le makes the case for pairing emails with landing pages this way:

If ecommerce brands take the extra step to make a landing page, it allows them to create a consistent story arc between the email copy and the actual conversion goal.

The more seamless it is, the more likely the conversion. Plus it’s less jarring for the email subscriber when the transition from email to landing page is a smooth one.

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Here are some quick tips for creating landing pages that convert more of your email subscribers:

Be consistent in design. The first thing that visitors are going to internalize is how the landing page actually looks. When someone clicks on your CTA in the email, the last thing you want to do is surprise them. To create a seamless experience, include consistent design elements like colors, fonts, and images.

Minimize navigation. This is a landing page, not a launching page. Yet too few ecommerce marketers seem to realize that: only about 16% of landing pages are free of a navigation bar. Be sure you’re in the other 84%.

Reduce friction. Automatically fill in whatever information you can for visitors on your landing page. For example, if they clicked on a coupon code, make sure it’s already applied to their cart. This reduces the amount of clicking a customer has to do when they’re placing an order.

Make one offer per landing page. While 48% of landing pages make multiple offers, you can reinforce the specificity and consistency of your own promotion by focusing on just one offer per page.

Make sure the offers match. Don’t make the mistake of promising a discount in an email without also mentioning it on the landing page. Keep the messaging precisely matched so customers don’t have to wonder if they’re in the right place.

Val Geisler, email expert at FixMyChurn, offers this advice:

Landing pages help you be super specific with your audience, and they help your audience feel seen and heard. You can create custom landing pages for various segments of your email list and—using targeted content based on what you know about them—speak directly to their needs.

So, what should a great ecommerce email landing page look like? Let’s check out some examples.

Ecommerce Email Marketing & Landing Page Examples

Example: Codecademy

Let’s kick things off with an incredible example from Codecademy, an online learning platform with courses in programming languages like JavaScript and Python.

This email promotion offers a 25% Black Friday discount on annual memberships for Codecademy Pro, a paid subscription that unlocks all of the platform’s educational coursework. In addition to the savings, Codecademy’s pitch here is all about reaching your potential: unlock the tools, get an actionable plan, achieve your goals.

Recipients who click on Codecademy’s email call to action are directed to an attention-grabbing landing page that expands on the email offer:

Image courtesy of Codecademy. Click it to see the whole thing.

Yeah, it looks great—but this Codecademy page is also converting almost half of everyone who lands here. This is why the promotion works:

Incredible design from start to finish. Codecademy uses bold colors and layered patterns to create a promo email that jumps right out of your inbox. Those elements carry over to the landing page, delivering a seamless experience throughout.

No introduced distractions. There’s no navigation on the landing page, and none of the ideas are new—just more information about the things we saw in the email. Codecademy repeats its pitch around harnessing your potential, explains its value props, and includes a testimonial as social proof.

Focused call to action. There are three buttons on this landing page, but they all point to the same place: checkout. Codecademy uses a sticky bar to remind visitors about the email discount and keep the savings top-of-mind.

Example: Samuraw

Next is Samuraw, a multivitamin and probiotic formula that comes in two versions: one for children, one for adults. The challenge? Addressing each of those target segments with a single campaign.

Another Black Friday email marketing promotion, Samuraw starts by highlighting its holiday discount. Scrolling down, customers find two specific offers—one for each version of the formula.

When someone clicks either “Add to Cart” buttons, they’re taken to a landing page (built by Webistry) that corresponds with the selected formula.

Image courtesy of Samuraw. Click it to see the whole thing.

Pretty intuitive, huh? But that’s not the only reason this example from Samuraw is awesome. Here are some other things they’re doing right:

Consistent branding and messaging. The offer being highlighted appears above the fold in the email and on the landing page. The color schemes are the same. Even the product pictures don’t vary. It’s hard to imagine any visitor getting confused when they wind up here.

Reduced friction and streamlined checkout. The discounts offered in the email are automatically applied once someone clicks through to the landing page. Samuraw makes it simple for customers to reach the final purchase decision.

Segmented customer messaging. “Add to Cart” is a call to action that almost begs to point to a product page, but Samuraw instead links to two specific landing pages aimed at either adults or kids to close the sale. With added details, these pre-cart landing pages do a better job of selling than online store pages.

Example: Great Wolf Lodge

Next up is Great Wolf Lodge, a family of indoor water parks and resort hotels.

Over the summer, they drive bookings through an email marketing campaign that touts their Summer Camp-In event, which includes campfires, pool parties, BBQs, and all kinds of other outdoor fun—only, y’know, inside.

To spur interest, Great Wolf Lodge sent out this well-designed email campaign that highlighted some of the main activities going on, as well as lots of images showing families having an awesome time.

From here, recipients are invited to “Book Now” through the email’s CTA button, which leads to the following tailor-made landing page:

Image courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge. Click it to see the whole thing.

As they scroll down the page, the potential booker gets lots of details about what’s included during the event, sees compelling visuals that evoke positive feelings, and even gets a coupon code for a summer-themed suite.

So, well else is working well here?

Seamless look and feel. The custom graphics create a consistent experience across the two different touchpoints and generate a feeling of nostalgia with their classic 1950s look.

Strategic call to action. The booking CTA on the landing page becomes a sticky bar as the visitor scrolls, so it’s always right at the top of the page and never out of sight.

Reinforced discount offer. The coupon code offer is consistent and referenced both in the email and the landing page, helping keep the promotion top of mind.

Looking for more ecommerce landing page examples? Check out our Ultimate Ecommerce Landing Page Lookbook, which features pages from 27 of the top online retailers.

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The examples above show a few companies who understand that it’s not enough just to send a great email. Your landing page has to reflect that email if you want to convert your subscribers.

Let’s look at an example of an email and landing page mismatch. Motorsport.com recently ran a Cyber Monday email promotion that promised “better than half price” discounts for customers. Here’s a snippet:

Interesting visuals and a clear call to action make this good so far. But when you click “Subscribe Now,” you’re linked to a landing page with this pricing overview:

It’s great that the link to subscribe sends you to a subscription page. But pay attention to the subtle messaging inconsistencies:

Where’s the mention of the “better than half price” sale? Cyber Monday customers that wind up here might wonder if they’ve missed their chance. Are they receiving the discount, or not? This sort of confusion can lead them to bounce.

If a discount was applied, is it the one we were promised? Is $8.60 per month “better than half price”? Is so, there’s no indication of that here.

Why is there a different call to action? “Subscribe Now” becomes “Get the Full Story” and “Select Package.” There’s a missed opportunity here to more carefully match the messaging and imagery from email to landing page.

Visitors who wanted a unique deal might click anyway, but since the landing page doesn’t even mention the discount, lots of people are going to conclude they’re in the wrong place.

Turn Ready-Made Email Clicks Into Ecommerce Sales

Email conversion expert Laura Lupoch sums things up nicely:

To get an email subscriber to make a purchase, you need a series of touchpoints where they keep saying “yes” to you. That sets the stage for the big “yes” at the end when you ask them to buy.

Think of your landing page as another major step in that “yes” journey towards making a purchase.

If you see high click rates on your emails but not high conversion rates on your landing pages, it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the quality of your emails. It might just be that your emails have promised something your landing page failed to deliver—and that’s hard to say “yes” to.

This is where a landing page builder helps. You can quickly drag-and-drop together specific pages for each email promotion (all without a developer) and deliver a consistent purchase path from inbox to checkout.

from Marketing https://unbounce.com/email-marketing/match-ecommerce-offers-with-landing-pages/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[roypstickney]

Not Using Landing Pages in Your Ecommerce Email Marketing? Here’s Why You Should

We’ve all had it happen. You meticulously craft an ecommerce email marketing campaign that’s gonna help you sell a ton of products. You build a beautiful HTML template, write engaging copy, and A/B test your subject line. You implement an obvious and compelling call to action.

And after all that work, the landing page that your email directs folks to has a high bounce rate—or worse, a low conversion rate.

What gives?

It could be that your emails are writing checks your click-through destination can’t cash. If you send out a 15% off promotion for dog treats and link your audience to someplace with no mention of the discount, visitors are gonna be confused—and they’ll lose interest in a hurry.

Bottom line: Failing to match the messaging in your email with the copy and visuals on your landing page will hurt your conversion rate.

Maybe you already know it’s a problem, but you feel like you don’t have the resources to pair all of your offers with campaign-specific pages. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Here’s why you need to match your emails to your landing pages in your next ecommerce campaign, and how you can do it really, really well.

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Why Every Ecommerce Email Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Ecommerce Email Marketing and Landing Page Examples

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The Real Reasons Your Email Subscribers Aren’t Buying

Let’s be honest. Sometimes in marketing, you can get away with doing less—and that’s a problem.

Email marketing offers some of the best ROI in the business. When you’ve already got someone’s email address, you can expect them to open 14% of the emails you send, with click-through rates just under 7% overall. Estimates suggest that there’s $44 of revenue generated for every dollar spent on email marketing.

With stats like these, you can just half-butt your ecomm email promotions and still do pretty good, right?

Not exactly. If your emails are paired with landing pages that have high bounce rates or low conversion rates, you’re not just leaving money on the table—you’re also bombarding your potential customers with marketing that just doesn’t resonate.

Here are some of the common reasons email promos underperform:

1. Your storefront product page isn’t enough

Data indicates the average bounce rate is 9%, even with load times of less than two seconds. If you’ve seen higher bounce rates on the destination page of your email promos, it might be that you’re not linking to a relevant enough page in the first place.

Your online store’s product pages are specific no-no’s for this purpose. They’re often short, lack details mentioned in your email, and don’t create a consistent experience from click to click.

2. You’ve got too many escape routes

Another problem with your online store’s product pages is that it’s too easy for customers to get distracted and leave. Think about all of the escape routes: website menus, product navigation, highlighted deals that have nothing to do with your email.

Your ecommerce landing page needs to be built as a distraction-free, conversion-optimized funnel. Always encourage your customers to go forward, not sideways.

3. You’re a victim of the paradox of choice

Even if you cut down on the escape routes, too many options can lead to fewer conversions. As Barry Schwartz explains in his book, The Paradox of Choice: “What we don’t realize is that the very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances that we will change our minds.”

The same is true for your visitors. Landing pages with just one call to action have been shown to have 2% higher conversion rates than those with five or more.

4. Your landing page is trying to do too much

When your landing pages are more specific, you can get away with using fewer words. You may also find that it’s better for your conversion rates: landing pages with less copy tend to outperform pages with too much copy at a rate of 14% to 11%.

Josh Garofolo, CRO expert at Sway Copy, explains:

A product page will never do more than an “okay” job because it needs to cater to everyone—every persona, every use case, every traffic source.

Sending subscribers to a focused landing page that leverages everything you know about them—including the context behind the link they’ve just clicked—is the most reliable way to increase conversions.

Why Every Ecommerce Email Marketing Campaign Needs Its Own Landing Page

To summarize some of the things we’ve already covered, here are some of the biggest reasons that you should be pairing email promotions with dedicated landing pages:

Avoid confusion and frustration. When someone clicks a CTA in your email for a specific offer, they don’t want to end up on a page that doesn’t mention that promo. They may wonder if the offer is even valid.

Target specific customer groups. More specific landing pages help you hit on more customer segments. In one example below, you’ll see how Samuraw targeted specific customer groups with unique pages for each.

Maintain purchase momentum. A customer clicking your email offers is further in the sales cycle than a customer who just discovered your product pages. Creating specific landing pages helps you target those customers who are more prepared to buy and streamlines their path to purchase.

B2B email expert Sophia Le makes the case for pairing emails with landing pages this way:

If ecommerce brands take the extra step to make a landing page, it allows them to create a consistent story arc between the email copy and the actual conversion goal.

The more seamless it is, the more likely the conversion. Plus it’s less jarring for the email subscriber when the transition from email to landing page is a smooth one.

How to Match Your Emails with Your Landing Pages (& Maximize Conversions)

Here are some quick tips for creating landing pages that convert more of your email subscribers:

Be consistent in design. The first thing that visitors are going to internalize is how the landing page actually looks. When someone clicks on your CTA in the email, the last thing you want to do is surprise them. To create a seamless experience, include consistent design elements like colors, fonts, and images.

Minimize navigation. This is a landing page, not a launching page. Yet too few ecommerce marketers seem to realize that: only about 16% of landing pages are free of a navigation bar. Be sure you’re in the other 84%.

Reduce friction. Automatically fill in whatever information you can for visitors on your landing page. For example, if they clicked on a coupon code, make sure it’s already applied to their cart. This reduces the amount of clicking a customer has to do when they’re placing an order.

Make one offer per landing page. While 48% of landing pages make multiple offers, you can reinforce the specificity and consistency of your own promotion by focusing on just one offer per page.

Make sure the offers match. Don’t make the mistake of promising a discount in an email without also mentioning it on the landing page. Keep the messaging precisely matched so customers don’t have to wonder if they’re in the right place.

Val Geisler, email expert at FixMyChurn, offers this advice:

Landing pages help you be super specific with your audience, and they help your audience feel seen and heard. You can create custom landing pages for various segments of your email list and—using targeted content based on what you know about them—speak directly to their needs.

So, what should a great ecommerce email landing page look like? Let’s check out some examples.

Ecommerce Email Marketing & Landing Page Examples

Example: Codecademy

Let’s kick things off with an incredible example from Codecademy, an online learning platform with courses in programming languages like JavaScript and Python.

This email promotion offers a 25% Black Friday discount on annual memberships for Codecademy Pro, a paid subscription that unlocks all of the platform’s educational coursework. In addition to the savings, Codecademy’s pitch here is all about reaching your potential: unlock the tools, get an actionable plan, achieve your goals.

Recipients who click on Codecademy’s email call to action are directed to an attention-grabbing landing page that expands on the email offer:

Image courtesy of Codecademy. Click it to see the whole thing.

Yeah, it looks great—but this Codecademy page is also converting almost half of everyone who lands here. This is why the promotion works:

Incredible design from start to finish. Codecademy uses bold colors and layered patterns to create a promo email that jumps right out of your inbox. Those elements carry over to the landing page, delivering a seamless experience throughout.

No introduced distractions. There’s no navigation on the landing page, and none of the ideas are new—just more information about the things we saw in the email. Codecademy repeats its pitch around harnessing your potential, explains its value props, and includes a testimonial as social proof.

Focused call to action. There are three buttons on this landing page, but they all point to the same place: checkout. Codecademy uses a sticky bar to remind visitors about the email discount and keep the savings top-of-mind.

Example: Samuraw

Next is Samuraw, a multivitamin and probiotic formula that comes in two versions: one for children, one for adults. The challenge? Addressing each of those target segments with a single campaign.

Another Black Friday email marketing promotion, Samuraw starts by highlighting its holiday discount. Scrolling down, customers find two specific offers—one for each version of the formula.

When someone clicks either “Add to Cart” buttons, they’re taken to a landing page (built by Webistry) that corresponds with the selected formula.

Image courtesy of Samuraw. Click it to see the whole thing.

Pretty intuitive, huh? But that’s not the only reason this example from Samuraw is awesome. Here are some other things they’re doing right:

Consistent branding and messaging. The offer being highlighted appears above the fold in the email and on the landing page. The color schemes are the same. Even the product pictures don’t vary. It’s hard to imagine any visitor getting confused when they wind up here.

Reduced friction and streamlined checkout. The discounts offered in the email are automatically applied once someone clicks through to the landing page. Samuraw makes it simple for customers to reach the final purchase decision.

Segmented customer messaging. “Add to Cart” is a call to action that almost begs to point to a product page, but Samuraw instead links to two specific landing pages aimed at either adults or kids to close the sale. With added details, these pre-cart landing pages do a better job of selling than online store pages.

Example: Great Wolf Lodge

Next up is Great Wolf Lodge, a family of indoor water parks and resort hotels.

Over the summer, they drive bookings through an email marketing campaign that touts their Summer Camp-In event, which includes campfires, pool parties, BBQs, and all kinds of other outdoor fun—only, y’know, inside.

To spur interest, Great Wolf Lodge sent out this well-designed email campaign that highlighted some of the main activities going on, as well as lots of images showing families having an awesome time.

From here, recipients are invited to “Book Now” through the email’s CTA button, which leads to the following tailor-made landing page:

Image courtesy of Great Wolf Lodge. Click it to see the whole thing.

As they scroll down the page, the potential booker gets lots of details about what’s included during the event, sees compelling visuals that evoke positive feelings, and even gets a coupon code for a summer-themed suite.

So, well else is working well here?

Seamless look and feel. The custom graphics create a consistent experience across the two different touchpoints and generate a feeling of nostalgia with their classic 1950s look.

Strategic call to action. The booking CTA on the landing page becomes a sticky bar as the visitor scrolls, so it’s always right at the top of the page and never out of sight.

Reinforced discount offer. The coupon code offer is consistent and referenced both in the email and the landing page, helping keep the promotion top of mind.

Looking for more ecommerce landing page examples? Check out our Ultimate Ecommerce Landing Page Lookbook, which features pages from 27 of the top online retailers.

How *Not* to Match Your Emails with Landing Pages

The examples above show a few companies who understand that it’s not enough just to send a great email. Your landing page has to reflect that email if you want to convert your subscribers.

Let’s look at an example of an email and landing page mismatch. Motorsport.com recently ran a Cyber Monday email promotion that promised “better than half price” discounts for customers. Here’s a snippet:

Interesting visuals and a clear call to action make this good so far. But when you click “Subscribe Now,” you’re linked to a landing page with this pricing overview:

It’s great that the link to subscribe sends you to a subscription page. But pay attention to the subtle messaging inconsistencies:

Where’s the mention of the “better than half price” sale? Cyber Monday customers that wind up here might wonder if they’ve missed their chance. Are they receiving the discount, or not? This sort of confusion can lead them to bounce.

If a discount was applied, is it the one we were promised? Is $8.60 per month “better than half price”? Is so, there’s no indication of that here.

Why is there a different call to action? “Subscribe Now” becomes “Get the Full Story” and “Select Package.” There’s a missed opportunity here to more carefully match the messaging and imagery from email to landing page.

Visitors who wanted a unique deal might click anyway, but since the landing page doesn’t even mention the discount, lots of people are going to conclude they’re in the wrong place.

Turn Ready-Made Email Clicks Into Ecommerce Sales

Email conversion expert Laura Lupoch sums things up nicely:

To get an email subscriber to make a purchase, you need a series of touchpoints where they keep saying “yes” to you. That sets the stage for the big “yes” at the end when you ask them to buy.

Think of your landing page as another major step in that “yes” journey towards making a purchase.

If you see high click rates on your emails but not high conversion rates on your landing pages, it doesn’t necessarily reflect on the quality of your emails. It might just be that your emails have promised something your landing page failed to deliver—and that’s hard to say “yes” to.

This is where a landing page builder helps. You can quickly drag-and-drop together specific pages for each email promotion (all without a developer) and deliver a consistent purchase path from inbox to checkout.