#what's the point of doing festivals if it's not to showcase YOUR music. who YOU are as an artist
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louehvolution · 5 months ago
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sweetdreamsjeff · 6 months ago
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Jeff Buckley; Obituary
June 7, 1997
Jeff Buckley, guitarist and songwriter, drowned on May 29 aged 30. He was born on August 1, 1966.
ALTHOUGH he was the son of Tim Buckley, one of the most influential American folk-rock singer-songwriters of the 1960s, Jeff Buckley was thought by many to have eclipsed his father's career with his 1995 debut album, Grace. A collection of unusual cover-versions (Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah , Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol ) and his own compositions, Grace was a showcase for Jeff Buckley's astonishing vocal talents.
Once described as "a choirboy singing in a whorehouse", he could go from dirty-kneed, Kurt Cobain-style screaming to the purest top C in a breath; before embarking on a scat-jazz odyssey that would last ten minutes or more. Employing a mixture of folk, funk, grunge and jazz, Grace won Buckley the Rolling Stone Best New Artist Award in 1995.
On May 29, while working on the follow-up album in Memphis, Tennessee, Buckley and a friend went to a marina on the Mississippi to relax. Buckley, fully clothed, waded into the river singing, and was swept away by the wake of a passing boat. His body was found a week later.
Jeff Buckley never knew his father - Tim was a lothario with a drug-habit that kept him restless. Although Tim released eight critically-acclaimed albums, his sales were always disappointing. He left Jeff's mother when Jeff was six-months-old, leaving her to support Jeff and his younger brother through a variety of dead-end jobs. They had a nomadic existence, moving from state to state; and the pressure of his mother's work left Jeff to bring up his younger brother on his own.
Although he dedicated the song Dream Brother to Buckley senior, Jeff was frequently disparaging of his absent father - claiming he inherited his musical talent from his mother. At one of his London concerts in 1995, a member of the audience kept shouting out Tim Buckley's name - Jeff responded by miming the inhalation of heroin and falling to the ground in convulsions, before "dying" by the drum-riser. Tim died of an overdose in 1975. He was 28.
As a result of such an unconventional upbringing, Jeff Buckley turned to music at an early age. He was a regular on the New York folk scene, playing to crowded bars in rough-and-ready half-hour slots. One of his trademarks was to begin singing soft and low, gradually raising the volume and pitch until the audience became totally silent and entranced.
His first, limited-edition live album, Live at the Sin-e , was released on the independent label Big Cat in 1994. Such was its critical success that Sony Records signed him up for his first proper release, the Grace album, within months.
Buckley was disparaging of his status and burgeoning "legend" - and often bemused by record companies waiting on him hand and foot. One of his favourite jokes was "How many Jeff Buckleys does it take to change a lightbulb?" "Oh, it's okay, Jeff, we'll do it for you, we know a guy in Brooklyn who's wonderful at changing lightbulbs. He'll do it for a couple of points (royalties) on your album."
Although the Rolling Stone award raised his profile in the US, it was in Britain and Ireland that Buckley's career was based. His audience was diverse - from fortysomethings checking out Tim Buckley's son, to more avant-garde teenage girls, impressed by his cheekbones and haunted eyes. John McEnroe and Chrissie Hynde were regulars at his concerts - Hynde and McEnroe once spending an evening jamming with him after a particularly triumphant London appearance.
Songs such as Last Goodbye - a shivering blend of folk, blues and Buckley's scatting, ululating voice; and the dolorous, harmonium-led Lover, You Should Have Come Over - had marked Buckley out as a new Van Morrison, someone with limitless talent and range.
His last British appearance, at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival, was a chance to premiere new material, post- Grace. Songs such as the astonishing What Will You Say When You See My Face - built around Eastern chord-structures and endless, despairing blues arpeggios - confirmed that Buckley was on an artistic roll that might have resulted in dozens of treasured albums.
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downtowncats · 8 months ago
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I've been thinking about Larry since Louis's interview and all the articles started appearing. More specifically, what is the point of Larry? Louis has growth potential, but he stalls out. I think a big part of that is Larry.
There's two parts to Larry. There is the relationship, whatever it is, and the business strategy. I see these as independent ideas. I don't think Larry, the relationship needs to be true to sell Larry, the business strategy. I also don't think the ending of Larry, the business strategy is necessarily the ending of Larry, the relationship. I think they are separate.
More under the cut...
It is a business strategy. If you have any doubt, do a quick google search on Louis's interview and count the articles. All top tier media. Or count the brands in Harry's recent Umbro walk. Larry gets the clicks. There's a lot of discourse. Engagement is high. Larry is a revenue stream for both of them. It's planned and coordinated. It's not coincidences.
Louis's recent press tour (and the Larry denial at the end) was to raise his profile to sell more tickets. I think from a marketing perspective, there's not much of a story to promote. He uses the same talking points in every interview. He won't share anything specific about his personal life, except that one thing, which is also an engagement tool in my opinion, although not an effective one. He's gorgeous, but also doesn't seem to find value in showcasing his appearance beyond clothing choices. He won't share specifics about his songs or the process of making music. He is locked down. As a new fan, what is the hook?
His biggest marketing tool is Larry, the business strategy. He has denied Larry twice in six months for promotion. He is seeking a bigger audience. Larry, the business strategy can be very effective in fan spaces, but if he keeps using it for promotion in the general public - and the only thing he can do is deny it - then how long is it sustainable? Fans who engage in Larry, the business strategy do not enjoy Larry, the relationship, denials.
Larry the relationship, if it were true, is never going to be public. I can't think of a single reason why they would share their private lives for publicity. Larry, the business strategy is effective because of the mystery. If they were openly together, there is no mystery. What is there left to sell? Their actual relationship. Larry at home in a cover story for your favorite lifestyle magazine? No way.
Louis can't grow with Larry, the business strategy. It is a dead end. Either through attrition or resentment, the effectiveness will continue to decline because of the contradictory nature of his promotion. The only way he can grow is to lose Larry, the business strategy. It's a delicate balance because fans who engage with Larry, the business strategy are very invested in Larry, the relationship, being true or false. There's equally high investment in solo fans that dislike either H or L. It's emotional - it creates discourse - and thus that engagement turns into money. He will lose money if Larry, the business strategy ends. At first.
But think of the new, less guarded Louis that could emerge? His cleverness, the sunshine we sometimes glimpse radiating out of him mixed with a little PR image magic, it could be very good. No more Larry cloud over him. It's a risk. Maybe there is a greater purpose for Larry, the business strategy to still be relevant. Time will tell. I'm interested to see if the festivals have a positive impact. I'm rooting for him. I'll be here waiting to see what happens next.
What do you think would happen if he retired Larry, the business strategy? Do you think it would have a positive impact on his career?
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leodanbrock · 1 year ago
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anyway my 2 cents...if you've seen any of the current discussion on twt re: discovering music through a certain national source in australia (which became hostile real fast bc a certain group of fans have absolute worms for brains stumbled upon something outside their personal bubble) i just wanna say..
community radio is infinitely better than whatever that wealthy man programming a national 'youth' station for like 30+ years has to say. far more diversity in genre and programs. some faves of mine who have played my music: 4ZZZ, 3RRR, PBS, 2SER, FBI, RTR FM (my local beloveds!!!! right now you can listen to the 3pm-5pm gender diverse showcase spanning all genres and eras) are great starting points. there's probably many more as well.
you go a long way through engaging with your local community and music scene. get out there and see someone play at a show. talk to people of different ages, backgrounds etc. can't begin to say how much i've learned talking to older punks and metalheads in my city that have given me extensive histories, let me borrow stuff they have that you cannot find anywhere online. if you can't do any of those things, that's fine too because the internet is at your fingertips now. plenty of sites, forums, reddit threads. look at what your mutuals are posting about. i use spotify blend playlists with groups of 3-4 friends, i also have that collaborator (?) feature where people can throw in songs they like onto a playlist. it's a great way to exchange music with ppl.
generally...approach things with an open mind and you'll be more than fine. you absolutely do not need to rely on something that churns out the same 5 racist upper middle class white dudes w mullets who play indistinguishable festival friendly whiny alt psych rock or whatever.
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evasgelions · 11 months ago
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Christmas 2023
Christmas, a holiday I remember fondly growing up: baking cookies, visiting family members, looking at the houses lit up with hundreds of lights, movies, tv specials, and festive music filling the radio stations.  And who can forget about Santa Claus? There’s a religious aspect of it too, but that isn’t what my child brain was looking forward to. That was a normal Sunday morning for me. Just like other aspects of growing up, at some point the Christmas season starts to lose its sparkle. The magic that you experience as a child fades away over time. The memories of waking up before sunrise to bask in the glory of the Christmas tree. The plastic branches adorned with lights and ornaments. The stacks of gifts piled high all around. Something I once loved so much has now become something entirely devoid of meaning. 
Christmas is supposed to mean something right? The birth of Jesus, savior of the world. It’s sacred, is it not? Even from an entirely secular view, the Christmas spirit is the driving force of the holiday. Aren’t we all meant to be joyful, giving, and kind to one another? Isn’t that the condition you must meet to avoid a stocking full of coal? I once thought so, but as I grow and see the world for what it really is I’m not so sure this was ever the case. 
I am an adult now, so it’s no surprise that I’m not as jazzed for Christmas as I once was long ago. The strange thing is, it feels like I'm in the minority. My coworkers have been decorating the office and buying little gifts for everyone all month, we even did a secret Santa. I don’t want to sound ungrateful here, I like the idea of trying to spread the joy that they all obviously still experience. I just don't feel the same way.
Since the relentless bombing of the Gaza strip began on October 7th, celebrating a holiday that seems to do nothing but print money for the already wealthy corporate executives feels wrong. Buying gifts for my loved ones used to be a fun experience, aside from slight financial stress. This year, I can only think about how the corporations that supply the manufactured cheer are complicit in the crimes against humanity occurring not just on the other side of the world, but here in the United States as well.
With access to news 24/7 I have learned a lot about how the world works. Prisons in the south are using their inmates as actual slaves. American factories have been exposed for violating child labor laws by employing young children to work with dangerous chemicals and machinery. TikTok after TikTok showcasing the horror of endless bombs dropping on a highly populated civilian area. Images of children covered in dust with eyes that tell a story better than any words ever could. We also can’t forget about the deplorable conditions of the cobalt mines located in Congo and elsewhere. Men, women, and children forced to mine the precious mineral by hand so that we in the West can continue to get the newest iPhone, just like the one I received for Christmas when I was 14.
These images have stuck with me, I couldn’t forget them even if I wanted to. Walking through any big box retailer, I am haunted. The batteries powering the season's hottest toys represent the suffering of enslaved peoples across the world. The new pair of name brand tennis shoes were made by a human who would not be able to afford the same luxury. The holiday bonus offered by some employers, is cursed by the federal taxes taken and sent overseas to fund never ending wars in the name of American imperialism.
Where I once saw a beautiful gift wrapped up in a bow, I now recognize the true meaning of Christmas all along: mindless consumerism. I can admit that I am cynical, but I don’t know how to see anything else. When you open your eyes to the suffering that I naively thought was in the past, you can’t go back. While hope is hard to have, the only thing I can do is fight for a better tomorrow.  
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peace-coast-island · 3 months ago
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Diary of a Junebug
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The power of music brought us here and it'll take us even further as long as we keep following our dreams
Never underestimate how freeing it is to express yourself through art and creativity. When my mind is loud with overwhelming thoughts or if I’m feeling sort of meh, I find that doing something creative often helps my brain unwind. Journaling’s an obvious thing, and maybe it’s because I’m doing it for years now, but I find it easy and therapeutic to just let my thoughts run wild on paper. It can help sort out your thoughts and feelings over things that you feel conflicted over. Or it could help organize your mind of you’ve got a lot going on and just need some time to settle down.
I don’t always have a rhyme or reason for writing in my journal, nor do I have a strict routine. Some days, I have a lot of my mind, and other times, it’s no thoughts, head empty. To be honest, I don’t really care much for routine or consistency, because to me, journaling’s like any other hobby I pick up. The point is to enjoy it, and if I’m super busy or just not feeling it, I could easily put it aside and focus on something else without feeling bad or guilty. I like routine for the stability, but I don’t want it to completely dictate my day to day life, so I try to aim for a balance.
For me, I like do do a mix of different things when I journal. It’s not the most cohesive thing, which is okay for me because it’s my creative space and I can do whatever I want with it. Diary entries, random pages of art, quotes and lyrics that have been living rent free in my mind - really, the possibilities are endless! Over the years, I have developed my own style of journaling, which I’m happy with, and as of this moment, I’m hoping to keep up with journaling for as long as I feel like it - meaning, for the next few or several years to come.
Songwriting’s another popular way of self expression, and it’s actually come up a lot in conversations, probably because we just attended a music festival and some of our friends who performed there are staying at the camp to chill for a couple days. We’ve got Ying, Hua, Desi, Dello, Donna, and Edie - all who came a very long way to attend the Dreamer Festival in Spectrum Falls. Basically, Edie came from the midwest, Desi, Dello, ands Donna all the way in the west coast, and Ying and Hua came overseas from Yuexing - so they came a really long way! At least by stopping by the camp, Ying and Hua are able to cut their travel time by a few hours, which really makes a difference.
The Dreamer Festival is one of those events that’s a huge deal, sort of like a pipe dream for many. It’s not one of those mainstream festivals that is well known outside of certain circles, which makes it even more special if you’re able to get in. Not that it’s like exclusive, or elite, or anything, it’s more that they try to be super diverse and aim to showcase a wide variety of music, and there’s only so much you can pack into one event a year. In other words, space is limited and invite only, which also isn’t always guaranteed because things can change at the last minute - though from what I’ve heard, if they reach out to you, they will try to give you a slot within two years.
So it really was a stoke of luck that this gang of musicians got in this year, months after the organizers reach out to them, which, again, doesn’t always happen for a variety of reasons. Even now, after the festival, they still can’t believe that they made it. Like, if someone came up last year and told them, “Hey, you’d be performing at Dreamer one day” they’d be like, “You can’t be serious!” And now here they are. Amazing, isn’t it? Even more so after years of being told that their music wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
Obviously, you can’t win everyone over, but it starts to get to a point where the naysayers aren’t being logical anymore, or are just jealous or petty. On one hand, it’s understandable why someone might be against pursuing the arts as a career because it’s not an easy path, and even if you have talent, a lot of it also comes down to luck - and money, and connections, which often serves as a barrier for many. That, I get, because it is a valid concern, and it carries a lot of weight on your decisions.
Financial stability’s one thing, burnout and stress is another that’s a huge concern for many. A good support system can help with that, but that’s also not guaranteed, especially when it comes to factors that are completely out of your hands, which is the unfortunate nature of the music industry. Mainstream music, I can definitely see a lot of behind the scenes stuff happening, though that and smaller labels or independent have their own challenges too. Please note, I know absolutely nothing about the business side of the music industry except that like any other job, it has its problems and whatever.
For Dello and Donna, they acknowledge the fact that they had an advantage because of their connections because their uncle is The Kent Clanwing. However, everything else like finances and such, that was their own hard work and effort, partly due to Clanwing not being involved in that at all. Even now, his support still sends mixed messages to the family, which is something they’ll just have to accept. Not ideal and could be a lot better, but that’s just how it is.
Dello had always been into music, so he’s had a bit of experience with the industry, though it was more of a side thing. Clanwing never exactly discouraged him from pursuing music, but it was kinda implied that he felt that Dello didn’t have the chops to survive the business. Sure, he had the talent and artistic merit, though that can only take you so far, especially if you have other factors working against you.
The biggest obstacle was Dello’s stutter, something he’s struggled with all his life that he still gets self conscious about from time to time. It’s gotten better over the years, but it’s still there, and he knows how to live with it. Of course, Clanwing would never admit that he considers Dello’s stutter a flaw that should be hidden away out of shame. There’s no doubt that Clanwing holds his nephew in high regard, but even then, there’s always gonna be that catch, which is also something Dello has long accepted.
One thing that Clanwing always enforced on his family is to know how to roll with the punches, and so that’s how Dello chooses to live. He knows he can’t control his speech impediment, so he’s not gonna let that control his life and stop him from living. Why let that stop him from singing? Or in his case, why let that stop him from writing and producing music?
It wasn’t until he, Donna, and the others moved out of the manor when he decided to pursue music seriously, forming Ocean Winds with Donna. Dello knew from the start that he didn’t want to sign on with a major record label, choosing to go independent instead so he’s have more artistic control over his work. For them, that was a viable option, and I think they made the right choice to go down that route. They didn’t want to be big stars, they just wanted to make music and share that with the world.
Shine Within You, their debut single unexpectedly rocked the charts, because A, it’s a good song, and B, it has a reassuring message that spoke to a lot of people. And not surprisingly, the song’s message resulted in some “controversy”, which to me is more like pointless discourse, mainly by chronically online people who have nothing better to do. Really, how do you interpret the message of the song - that it’s okay to be yourself and you don’t need to be spectacular to be worthy - and say shit like it’s promoting laziness and being a burden to society?
I think more people need to hear that it’s okay to be mediocre and live a mundane life that makes you happy rather than constantly feeling the need to climb the ladder and aim for perfection in order to prove yourself. After all, it’s not healthy to be always pushing yourself, to be beating yourself up if you fail to meet the high expectations you’ve set for yourself. To always be aiming higher, never feeling satisfied enough with what you have because of the belief that there’s more.
The way I see it, it’s kinda like a never ending cycle - like, what’s the point in always aiming higher if you know that you still won’t be happy with what you’ve got? What’s the point of measuring your self worth with things like how much money you made, or if you did anything groundbreaking, or if you managed to climb to the top, if it brings you stress?
Maybe I’m kinda jaded because I know some people who treat life as some competition to see who’s the best of the best, either constantly beating themselves up for failing to meet their often unrealistic expectations, or acting like they’re superior because they’ve accomplished a lot and so everyone else is just lazy for not being able to reach the same level as them. I get being pressured to succeed and be on top of everything, but it becomes a problem when you force your views on others to the point that you end up being an unpleasant person to be around.
If anyone knows what that’s like, it’s Edie. She and her siblings always had a difficult relationship with their father, who seemed to disapprove of everything they did. He saw Edie’s venture into music a waste of time, saying that she needed to take life more seriously or that she didn’t have what it takes to be a good musician. By that, he meant that she had to be groundbreaking, a game changer, a prodigy - someone. She couldn’t just be a musician - she said nothing was ever enough for him, which was the main source of frustration between them.
I can’t imagine what it’s like growing up with someone that insufferable, especially a parent. Sure, he had his reasons, like the fact that he never really had a childhood because his father died when he was young and as the eldest he was responsible for the family. Still, that doesn’t excuse being a stuck up bitch who thinks you’re better than everyone. It’s even worse when they go out of their way to put others down so they look better in comparison.
Edie’s long accepted that she and her father will never see eye to eye. Aside from his disapproval over pretty much everything she does, he was also a manipulative liar, which is a whole ‘nother thing. He would basically tell people that Edie’s a struggling, disgruntled artist who’s failing to find an audience, and then get defensive when they find out the truth, that Edie was doing well and she was happy with her life.
However, the most telling thing about her father is his comment on her song Cloudy Roses, which was basically what he thought of all her work. Out of all the songs he chose to listen to, he chose the one she knew he was going to hate due to the fact that it’s about two women falling in love, something he considered blasphemy. His response? Telling her that back in his day, she would be murdered for writing something like that. That was really the only direct comment he had over her music. What the fuck? Like, what kind of a thing is that to say to someone? Edie knew he never thought highly of her work, but to basically straight up tell her that she should be killed for expressing herself through her art is going too far.
The others can relate to being told weird and unprompted comments regarding their music, though not on the same level as Edie’s father. Clanwing seems to support Ocean Winds in general, but he appears to have issues with the messages behind some of the songs. Donna said that he has a tendency to overreact to anything he perceives as criticism, so songs where they talk about their struggles - like mental health issues, for example - he can’t help but see that as a personal attack. She and Dello speculate that maybe part of it has to do with guilt, especially for someone like him who has a tendency to blow things out of proportion. On the other hand, it’s like yes, their songs tend to be more personal and inspired by their own life experiences - the key word being inspired - but it’s not 100% true to life, like pretty much all forms of art.
Ying says it’s similar with some of her more conservative relatives too. She doesn’t mind them listening to her music, but she knows that they’ll take issue with some of her songs that touch on subjects like being queer and dealing with mental health struggles. she won’t stop them from checking her stuff out, but at the same time she isn’t up to explaining herself when they demand an explanation, which has happened a couple times. They’re like, “We want to support you, but we don’t agree with your art and the messages you’re conveying through it and we don’t like that.”
Her father and grandparents are also the kind who take it as a personal attack when she opens up about her struggles growing up, specifically what it’s like to be a kid with undiagnosed ADHD and feeling like something was wrong with you, as well as dealing with those who aren’t always supportive of what you do or who you are. I guess it’s uncomfortable for them to accept that someone you grew up with or raised will never fit into that mold you had in mind for them and your expectations mostly succeeded in hurting them instead of helping.
It really sucks when there’s people close to you who refuse to accept you as you are, whether it be your sexuality, identity, if you’re neurodivergent or have a physical, or mental, or chronic condition - anything that makes you different. They’re like, “We don’t wanna hear any of that shit, so suck it up and suffer in silence.” Some people don’t want to admit it, but what they’re really thinking is, “We’d rather have you live in shame and suffer in silence because who you really are makes me uncomfortable,” and it becomes more apparent when other people are able to accept you without reservations while they keep insisting that you’re wrong and they’re right.
The mental health/ADHD stuff continues to be a touchy subject in Ying’s family as there’s still some who don’t believe in that kind of stuff and don’t want her to be associated with those types. At this point, the way she sees it, they’re entitled to their opinion, she’s entitled to her life - if they can’t see eye to eye, then so be it. Some battles aren’t worth fighting. Better to leave it as is rather than waste your energy trying to prove yourself to someone who won’t listen.
For Desi, most of her naysayers are, not surprisingly, people she worked with during her days with Too Cool and the Shayne Brothers, who are known for being cookie cutter mainstream pop - the kind that are stuck reliving their past in a bad way that makes them look bland and uninspired. These days, their songs are too formulaic and predictable, a far cry from their past when they actually put effort in their music rather than pander to what they thought would make the Top 40. I have no idea what they’re up to now, mainly because I’m not interested, though it’s likely the same old stuff.
Although they openly showed their support when Desi decided to go solo, she said it felt sort of backhanded, kinda like they were hoping that she’d reconsider her decision. It became even more apparent when she decided to embrace her Cuban roots, blending elements of traditional and pop rock, as well as incorporating Spanish lyrics. Some fans weren’t too keen on that, which wasn’t a surprise as they expected her work to be more like Too Cool, something she wanted to break away from. Looking back, her only regret was that she hadn’t left earlier once she realized that she was stuck in a rut.
I guess one of the biggest takeaways is that you can’t please everyone. Some people will always find something to criticize no matter what. It sucks to have someone you trust not give you their full support, it really does. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from achieving your dreams. After all, this is your life - you’re the one who calls the shots, not them. Maybe they don’t see eye to eye right now, but that doesn’t mean things won’t change for the better in the future.
Just focus on the present and do what feels right for you. In time, as long as you keep working at it, everything else will fall into place. I know from experience that things will work out in the end, often in ways you least expect it.
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johnlye213 · 7 months ago
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DJing's Specialty: Uncovering the Techniques and Systems Behind a Show-Halting Execution
At the point when you're at a party and begin moving to the music, you probably won't really think about to the creativity of the performers who made the beats. DJing is a work of art that requests a specific blend of specialized capacity, creative mind, and information; it's not just about playing music. Find the craft of DJ for Event — the science and expertise of choosing the right tunes for an occasion's soundtrack and keeping an elevated degree of energy — in this top to bottom article. We will likewise accentuate how the DJs from Merry-beeshave these characteristics and can make any occasion more paramount through their abilities.
Turntables, blenders, regulators, and beatmatching are only a couple of instances of the specialized capacities should have been a DJ. DJs need a top to bottom information on mood, speed, and music hypothesis to combine melodies as one such that keeps the crowd intrigued and moving.
One of the main pieces of being a DJ is understanding what sort of music would turn out best for every occasion. DJs should be knowledgeable in a wide assortment of melodic styles and classifications to meet the needs of their audiences. To push the party along and cause everybody to recollect the dance floor, they should have the option to measure the mind-set of the crowd and make last-minute playlist changes.
While specialized capacities are important, extraordinary DJs stand apart from the group thanks to their inventive soul and innovative reasoning. It's normal for DJs to mashup and remix tunes, putting their own twist on them to utter new and fascinating sounds that attract with regards to audience members. They showcase their creative vision and push the frontiers of melodic articulation by incorporating methods such as circling, testing, and scratching into their shows, which give surface and profundity.
Cooperation with Crowd: A cultivated DJ can establish an affinity with the crowd and rouse them to move as one. They draw in with the group, perusing their feelings and acting in like manner to keep up with the energy of the festival. A DJ's capacity to involve music as a binding together power is colossal, whether by working with sing-alongs, driving call-and-reaction drones, or planning seasons of aggregate hand-applauding.
Timing and Consistent Changes: A gifted DJ can keep the music pushing ahead and keep the speed consistent with their consistent changes between tracks. The timing and pacing of their show are very much arranged, making a feeling of expectation and coming full circle in paramount peaks.
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All in all, DJing is a complex work of art that requires an extraordinary mix of creative energy, specialized expertise, and the capacity to enrapture a crowd of people. Any occasion might be raised by the ability and capability of Merry-bees DJs, who have these properties in overflow. Regardless of the event — a wedding party, confidential party, or business occasion — the DJs from Merry-bees are valid specialists at what they do. They will create an optimal playlist and guarantee that your visitors will remember your event for an indefinite time.
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singto-prachaya · 1 year ago
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So it's Steam's next festival again. 7 days were you can try out lots of game demo's. As a gamer I always take advantage of this. I downloaded 14 demo's and already played a couple since yesterday evening. Let me give an overview of what I tried and a quick review. In order of what I played
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Artificial (puzzel platformer)
It was nice but not totaly my thing. I felt like it could get repetitive at some point.
Steam page
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The Last Exterminator (old school shooter)
It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum! For anyone who is like huh what are you saying read further. For all older people who played shooter games in the 90's you might be like "why are you quoting Duke Nukem". Well because this game totaly gives of Duke Nukem vibes. From the graphics to the music. Was fun to play and if you like old school schooters do check it out.
Steam page
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Eldrimar (action/RPG/adventure and survival horror)
Looks really good but you need a really good computer or else it lags. So unfortunaly I can't properly play this. Check the specs and if your computer can handle it then check it out.
Steam page
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Ghostrunner 2 (action FPP-slasher)
Just as cool as Ghostrunner 1 even tho I still haven't played that one yet. But I like the fast pace of this game. And running against walls and everything is really cool. Definitly check this out if you are older then 18.
Steam page
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Retrowave World (racing, adventure)
Retrowave World! Back to the 80's. In look and sound. Demo didn't showcase that much. The trailer shows way more. Not recommended to play without a gamepad. Doing so like me can result in the second image.
Besides that it feels like a relaxing game so if it won't be to expensive and you are into the 80's ascetics this could be a nice game.
Steam page
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Reveil (horror)
Looks good but if after looking around for about 15 min for a key and I still can't find it it's a no for me. Also a no for people who are afraid of clowns.
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reggiejworkshop · 3 years ago
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"The Simpsons Crew on Public Access TV"
In the late fall of 1992, a local public access show in Connecticut called "Twilight Tunes" aired what was soon to be one of their final episodes. Its was a simple show dedicated to showcase different music videos and short films made by local artists in the New England area. But this final episode, episode 133, was its most notorious not only for its unusual use of four Simpsons characters, but that it was also done without the permission of FOX. It only aired once, and hasn’t been seen since. Today it is considered lost, the screenshot you see above is only the surviving proof of its existence.
The episode featured a short film that started off with sitting Homer Simpson being interviewed by an off screen interviewer. The title character would answer the questions and occasionally made some jokes that wouldn’t have been out of place in actual Simpsons episode before the short took an abrupt left turn. Suddenly it transitioned into a music video in which the title character lip syncs to an 80s synth funk song; "You Are In My System" by the group The System. He dances against a changing back drop of early 80s CGI effects and live action footage of a dancers at rave. He is then accompanied by three other Simpsons protege, Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble, and Groundskeeper Willie, as they performance various antics and breakdance moves. Yes, you read that right.
Aside from its obviously forced attempts a being trendy and hip (possibly a attempt trying to recreate the success of the Simpsons based single “Do the Bartman”, The short was notable for its slightly off model appearances of the characters along with seriously inconsistent animation. Some scenes were limited to looped walk cycles and reused frames, while others were fully animated sequences. It also featured instances where the backdrop flashed with hot pink and blue strobe lights. Another oddity was that none of the characters on screen appeared to voiced by their respective voice actor Dan Castenella. Instead is an unknown actor who provides an uncanny  deep voiced impression of Homer and a hyena-esque cackle for Krusty. Willie and Barney were spared from having any lines.
Before the short even ended, the studio that broadcasted  it, WECO-TV, was bombarded with many angry and or confused viewers. While many were were wondering why these characters were appearing on public access of all places, some complained that the visuals triggered epilepsy. But the worse surprisingly enough, came from higher ups at FOX themselves. A FOX executive who lived in the area at the time happened to catch broadcast and immediately reported it. Apparently what sparked the outrage from FOX, aside from its obvious copyright infringement, it was an off color comment made by Homer near its conclusion.
At the end of the song, Homer points at the camera and shouts “Up Yours, Ullman!” A reference to the comedian actress Tracey Ullman, who's sitcom aired the very first Simpsons prototype shorts before it became its own, and at the time was still fairly popular with the network. And while its unknown whether Ullman knew of this short film, coincidently enough, it aired around the same time Ullman would attempt to file a lawsuit against FOX. But that’s another story...
FOX immediately filed a lawsuit against WECO-TV  less than a month later.  "Twilight Tunes" was canceled right around the same time. This was also followed up by Atlantic Records also suing the studio for the use of the The System's song, as the band's song was also used without permission. The legal troubles that plagued the studio ended up bankrupting it 1994. All master tapes of the infamous episode were considered to be destroyed, although some unverified sources claim the short was actually viewed privately at some animation festival throughout the early nineties. But its also said that these were later seized by FOX before being destroyed as well. Despite the small frenzy it created, it quickly faded away in time.
Years later, The incident was first brought to internet attention in December 2021 when “Twilight Tunes” main host Gennedy Legpull, started blog through Live Journal in which he recounted all of various odd guests featured on the show. This particular one was no exception. Throughout the blog he explains a lot of the behind the scenes drama that unfolded around it. But even the answers he provided are still just mysterious as the short its self. He claimed to have one surviving tape of the infamous tape and used it post a couple screenshots (including the one above) as proof.  However he hasn't uploaded the tape. While the blog has since been mysteriously deactivated since February of this year, his quotes have been archived through various lost media sites.
There were some of his various recollections:
It was a week after Thanksgiving, and it aired Sunday night around 11, we usually got our highest viewership around this time. We had 4 shorts slotted for this episode. The Simpsons one was the 3rd. Even though I would introduce the shorts, I wasn’t involved in process of  selecting what shorts would air on the show, that responsibility relied solely on our producer who was in LA at the time. So when my jaw dropped at seeing what our program was airing, I immediately called him up to see what the hell was going on.
Cartoons weren't too uncommon on the station we aired on, We’d get those that were in the public domain, and even the occasional Ralph Bakshi film aired as well, But never 4 famous cartoon characters made for prime time TV.
Our producer, surprisingly stated that this wasn't a mistake.  He explained The director of short actually was associated with FOX and wanted to air it on our show as test run before retooling it as a regular episode for the actual show. This was later proven to 100% false. We never found out exactly who directed the short, as there were NO credits included. What we did find out was that director had moved out of country and was never seen again.
As for our producer, He stated that our viewership was at an all time high this season and that if anyone had the nerve to stop the broadcast, they'd be terminated. So I could do nothing but watch the captivating cringe fest that was happening on screen.  It was a bizarre but slightly hypnotic experiment, but one that didn’t seem to have any clear direction or payoff. Just confusion. Instead of any rapid jokes or social commentary of pop culture, there was more flashing lights, Homer and Barney doing the running man, more flashing lights ,Willie pop locking and swirling onto a cardboard mat, live action footage of what seemed like a rave in the background, all with brief glimpses partially nude female dancers, Krusty doing Michel Jackson esque crotch grabs, oh and did I mentioned the lights? 
Aside of being disorientating, it occasionally got unsettlingly random. During the song’s instrumental break, there was audible female’ person’s voice screaming Stop! Stop!!” TO which Homer replied “Shut Up Bart! I'm in the groove!”
We were already getting calls pouring in half way through the short, but the calls exploded once it ended. The next day I reccived a call from the then President of FOX at the time; Peter Chernin, where one of first things he said was this; "So, explain to me why Homer was doing the robot on your station last night?" And that's when I knew my time as a host on this show was over"
Today, FOX still has yet to publicly acknowslge the existence of the short. Even though the notoriety of it is rumored to have reached to small handful of crew members on the actual show. Dan Castenella is said to have seen the segment. Allegedly when he was shown a copy by a FOX executive in the 90s, he  reeled back and jokingly replied in his Krusty the Clown voice “What the hell was that?!” Matt Groening, the show's creator, had no comment.
One of very last posts Legpull made in recalling the odd short on his blog was this:
"It's one of the strangest things I have ever seen in the 30 years Iv'e worked in television. The only way something like this can happens is if the there  is poor decision making, and not enough proper management to regulate a popular brand. Or or its an alternate universe written by bored artist someone with too much time on their hands.”
  And if you actually read all of this, and have far more advanced skills in photoshop and storytelling than I, then you probably already figured out this is the latter.
Well, this was my attempt at trying to create a fake screen shot. It took a lot of experimentation that I doubt I'll be able to accurately replicate. On top of that, might have gotten a LITTLE carried away in trying to write a bogus lost media story as a companion piece. This probably would have been more timely had I posted this on April Fools Day. But better late than never, and I already spent way more time on this piece than I probably should have.
 One thing that is true about this short; You Are in System is an actual song. And its a killer 80's bop! www.youtube.com/watch?v=619xf0…
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nopefun · 4 years ago
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Interview #495: Quince Pan
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q: Give a short introduction of yourself: a: I am Quince Pan, a documentary photographer born in 2000, currently based in Singapore. I am now waiting to enter university to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
q: What is your series "JBM" about? What was the process of making the series? a: “JBM”, my family’s abbreviation of “Jalan Bukit Merah”, is a documentary photo project centred on my maternal grandmother, Lau Giok Niu, her cultural heritage and her HDB flat where I spent my childhood under her care. It is my first exhibited series and also my first serious long-term documentary project.
In 2015, I followed my grandmother to visit her hometown in Fengwei, Quangang District, Quanzhou City, Fujian, China. Bringing my camera along on the trip, I noticed that instead of shooting purely for fun or beauty, I would include certain objects (for example, a calendar on the wall) in my frames because they had historical significance. I submitted those Fengwei photos as my portfolio for the 2016 Noise Art Mentorship (Photography and Moving Images). I got selected, and my mentor, Jean Qingwen Loo, urged me to pursue a project which I could speak authentically about. Through her criticism, I learnt to further prioritise meaning over style. My grandmother and my childhood were topics close to my heart, especially as she cared for me during my childhood and gave me the gift of the 头北 Thâu-pak dialect, a unique variant of Hokkien from the Quangang District. Eventually, “JBM” was born as my mentorship capstone, and was exhibited at the “Between Home and Home” Noise Art Mentorship Showcase at Objectifs in 2017. I haven’t stopped shooting; that’s why it’s an ongoing long-term project!
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“JBM” contains a range of visual styles, ranging from photojournalistic fly-on-the-wall documentations of heated family discussions and visits by distant relatives from China to more tender images of sunlight at the void deck where my late grandfather’s wake was held in 2006. Rituals and festivities are anthropologically significant, so I pay particular attention to Chinese New Year, the Qing Ming Festival and the Winter Solstice, which my family celebrates. I also look at how other photographers document their families: Bob Lee, Nicky Loh, Bernice Wong, Brian Teo and Nancy Borowick.
More broadly, “JBM'' extends beyond photography and is a family history project. Since 2013, I have been researching the Quangang district, 头北 Thâu-pak dialect and my grandmother’s clan. I discovered that other descendants from her clan established an ancestral temple in Singapore, which initially stood on Craig Road but is now housed in a flat in Telok Blangah. I already did some fieldwork, interviews and preliminary documentation, which led to an article I published in April 2021 in Daojia: Revista Eletrônica de Taoismo e Cultura Chinesa. Maybe I will explore this in greater depth in future photo projects!
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q: How did you get into photography? a: When I was around seven years old, I loved to play with my father’s Fujifilm compact. As a young student, I hadn’t heard of terms such as “light painting”, “Dutch angle” and “rule of thirds”, but those were the techniques I subconsciously used in my photographs. 
I entered the Noise Art Mentorship, as previously mentioned. During the school holidays, I worked as a media intern at Logue and as an assistant at Objectifs for the “Passing Time” exhibition and book by Lui Hock Seng. Through these work experiences, I learnt so much from Jean Loo, Yang Huiwen, Ryan Chua, Lim Mingrui and Chris Yap: news angles, editorial writing, scanning and touching up negatives and slides, colour management for print, liaising with clients and issuing invoices, among other skills. As part of the Noise Art Mentorship, I was given a copy of “+50” by the PLATFORM collective, which opened my eyes to diverse approaches within the documentary genre. I started to regularly attend talks at Objectifs and DECK, where I got to know people in the local photography scene, particularly in the documentary tradition.
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q: You also do videography. How do you see it in relation to your photography? a: Videography requires a different way of seeing and thinking compared to photography, because video has additional temporal and auditory dimensions. With photography, I don’t have to think about how long I want a scene to be, what foley and B-roll I want to overlay, or have a storyboard in my head before heading out to shoot. In that sense, photography is more reactive to and receptive of situational contingencies because it requires less pre-planning. 
Also, photography can be a solitary endeavour, but it is quite difficult to make films alone, and the schoolmates I used to make films with have since embarked on separate paths in life. However, photography and videography share the same basics as visual media: composition and sequencing.
Fundamentally, I see myself as a documentarian, and this applies to any medium I work in, be it photography or videography, or even writing. The end goal is to record and share history by telling stories from lesser-known perspectives. Thus, the topics of my video projects are similar to the topics of my photo projects; sometimes I do both side by side! The films I made were all documentary shorts of places which do not exist anymore, such as the Hup Lee coffee shop at 114 Jalan Besar and the old Sembawang Hot Spring before NParks took over the site from MINDEF and redeveloped it. 
Currently, I am working as a videographer for Sing Lit Station’s poetry.sg archive. Thankfully, this job can be done solo!
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q: What or who is inspiring you right now? a: Bob Lee, for being an amazing father and spreading hope and joy to others through his images. Alex and Rebecca Webb, for pairing literature with photography. Tom Brenner, for approaching photojournalism like street photography. Sim Chi Yin, for her international achievements and being both an academic and a practitioner. Brian Teo, for being an eminent contemporary. Last but not least, Kevin WY Lee’s advice, “CPR: Craft, Point, Rigour”, which I try to benchmark my work against.
q: Upcoming projects or ideas? a: Nothing concrete on my mind so far. I am just going to see where life takes me and what topics life makes me want to explore or talk about.
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q: Any music to recommend? a: First and foremost, my fight song: “倔强 Stubborn” by Mayday. A close second, Queen’s 1986 “Under Pressure” live performance at Wembley is a transformative experience. The catchy “他夏了夏天 He Summered Summer” by Sodagreen brings out the grandeur in the mundane. “Silhouette” by KANA-BOON and “Everybody’s Changing” by Keane remind me of the fragility of life and time. I also like The Fray, Kings of Leon, Last Dinosaurs, Stephanie Sun, Tanya Chua, and the Taiwanese indie band DSPS.
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his website.
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bqstqnbruin · 4 years ago
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Always be my plus one - part 2
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Ok I know that I should use a different gif for each part but I'm not going to. But here's part 2! It's longer than the first part so have fun.
People to thank who are amazing and I owe my whole life to even though I'm probably forgetting someone because I'm the worst: @zinka8 (I CAN FINALLY TAG YOU) @hockeywocs @calgarycanuck @chara-hugs @justjosty anyone who sent in an anon and again I'm forgetting someone so if you helped me with this and I forgot, yell at me.
But here we go! This is about 9k words, and, fun fact, this is also my 5,000th post on this blog, so that's exciting!
Hope you like it!
Read part 1 here!
Series masterlist --------------------------------
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
New Year’s Eve is the last day of the Georgian calendar year, marked with celebrations that last well into the next day. Huge parties take place around the world, one of the most notable being the ball dropping in Times Square in New York City, marking the new year for the eastern coast of the United States, televised with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. This special each year includes a packed Times Square, performances, interviews, and general excitement to put whatever happened in the past year behind them. Likewise, in Canada, the CBC has hosted a similar countdown special since 2017, including live music and coverage of festivities in each of the provinces and timezones the country spans.
New Year’s Day is the first day of the Georgian calendar year, again marked with celebrations. In the United States, various parades take place, including the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, or the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition, various sporting events take place as well, including the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, the Outback Bowl in Tampa Bay, Florida, the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, California, and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, all post-season college football games, and the National Hockey League's outdoor game, the Winter Classic, typical showcasing a major regional rivalry. The day typically includes people already failing at keeping up with their New Year’s resolutions, whatever it was they promised to do every day of the year (such as working out, flossing, getting more sleep) already not going well.
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December 27, 2021
Lucy had insisted Anne go with her to the mall to go shopping when she found out that she was going to a New Year’s Eve party with Tyson’s teammates. Once her older sister found out that Anne’s ‘mystery man’ was a professional hockey player, she went practically bat shit trying to figure out more information about the two of them since Anne had yet to tell her anything.
If only she knew there was nothing to tell.
“Come on, what about this?” Lucy asks, holding up a dress. Anne wasn't sure that it would go past her butt, not to mention the open back and the plunging neckline. Lucy had to know that Anne would never, on any occasion, wear a dress like that. It would look good on Lucy, and Lucy would be comfortable in it, but not Anne.
“No,” Anne tells her, continuing to look through the rack for anything that had more fabric to it than what Lucy was offering her. There was nothing wrong with the dresses, really, and Lucy was normally pretty good about picking things out that Anne would actually like, but something about this being a dress for what sort of was, sort of wasn’t a date with a guy she spilled her coffee all over was making her more nervous than she needed to me.
“But it’s for your man. On New Year’s Eve. It doesn’t hurt to look a little sexy,” Lucy begs, making sure to add a little shoulder shimmy at the word ‘sexy’ for emphasis.
‘He’s not my man,’ Anne wanted to say. But she wasn’t about to spill that secret before Lucy even met him. It would be easier to just tell them they broke up by Valentine’s Day. “Tyson wouldn’t want me to wear anything that would make me uncomfortable,” she lets out instead.
Lucy sighs, pulling out dress after dress to show to Anne. “Ok, how about this: what color do you want to wear and how long do you want it to be?” Anne shrugs, not having thought about it in the slightest. “Well what’s Tyson wearing? Are you matching with him?”
“I don’t think so?”
“Annie!” Lucy practically screams the nickname her family decided they were going to call her, a few of the other store patrons turning to glare at Lucy’s outburst. “How do you not know what your boyfriend is wearing to a Colorado Avalanche New Year’s Eve party?”
'Not my boyfriend' she thought. “I don’t dress him. Do you know what Jason is going to wear for every party?”
Rolling her eyes, she holds up another dress that Anne turns down. “Well, since I’ve known my man since we were in diapers, I know his style, and therefore, know what he could potentially wear before I tell him what he’s going to wear.”
Anne lets out a sigh, wandering away from her sister while she continues to go through what seemed to be endless rows of dresses. Part of Anne wished she was like her sister: lucky enough to find a man that she would love forever when she was young, never having to worry about anything. The other part of Anne wished her family wasn’t so annoying about her finding a man, wishing that Sebby didn’t steal her phone and see Tyson’s name, and that their mom hadn’t come down and jumped to conclusions before she had a chance to defend herself.
“Hey,” Lucy comes up to Anne, “Why don’t we grab some food and then try a different store.” Anne nods, Lucy linking her arm in her sisters before taking her out of the store. “Have you met any of Tyson’s teammates before? I mean, you have to mean a lot to him if he’s bringing around the guys he spends the most time with.”
“He’s told me a little bit about all of them, but I haven’t met them yet.”
“You know this is big, then, right?” Lucy says, finding a line at the food court for them to order from.
Even if Lucy hadn’t picked a place that Anne wasn’t too fond of, her words made Anne lose her appetite. As far as she knew, Anne’s family thought they were dating, which they weren’t, while Tyson’s teammates thought they were friends, which they were. That’s what they had agreed to. They just needed to make it to New Year’s Day and then this would all be over.
Lucy keeps talking, rattling off information about Tyson’s teammates that Anne was sure she had found on their Wikipedia pages, Lucy’s ‘top of her class,’ ‘photographic memory’ coming out while Anne stayed silent.
“Look, Anne,” Lucy says once she gets the food she ordered for both of them, “if he likes you enough to bring you around his teammates, that’s a good thing. Think of it like Jason asking me to go to his soccer games when we were freshmen. He wants you to be at something important for him.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Anne shrugs, “I’m worried about bringing him into the belly of the beast the next afternoon.”
“Why, because you’ll be hungover and Ma and Dad haven’t seen you that way yet?” Lucy asks, smiling with her fork between her teeth.
Throwing her head back and groaning, Anne starts, “No. Ideally, we’ll still be drunk and calling you or Matthew to come to pick us up. Remember what Mom was like when I introduced you all to Andy?”
“Well, yeah, it was hate at first sight. And she was right to feel that way, obviously. If you think Tyson is the ‘one,’ then you’ll be fine.”
Anne chokes on the fries she was picking at when Lucy says that. “The ‘one’? Please. I wouldn’t know if he was the ‘one’ at this point. Right now, he’s my ‘plus one' at best.”
Lucy shrugs, a sly smile on her face as the two of them continue to eat in silence.
The two of them venture to another store, Anne not having high hopes in finding a dress, knowing that she was going to have to resort to wearing something old that probably wouldn’t be very ‘New Year’s Eve’ themed, or borrow something from Lucy, who, albeit having great style, definitely didn’t have anything that she would want to wear. Maybe she could call Stephanie or her cousin Lauren and see if they could pity her enough to let her borrow something.
Lucy went to the dress rack, Anne just wandered around the store. At this point, she didn’t even care if she found a dress; a long shirt would be just fine. She was nowhere near her sister or the dresses, but she saw something out of place, a skirt and sleeves peeking out in the middle of pant legs. She picked up the dress, solid black, which would probably fit her like a glove, off the shoulder. A black choker, which she had, and a nice pair of heels would make the dress perfect. And it was even on sale. Someone had probably put it there in order to hide it, but Anne didn’t know that for a fact, so could she really feel bad about wearing it?
She practically ran through the store to find her sister, grabbing her by the arm to the dressing room despite the stack of dresses on Lucy’s arm that were probably going to end up back on the rack or in Lucy’s own closet.
Anne looked at herself in the mirror, excited for the first time for Tyson to see her on New Year’s Eve wearing something like that. The two had been talking nonstop, but Anne had made it clear they were friends and that she wasn’t looking for anything. If something came along, she would know it, and honestly, she didn’t know it with Tyson.
But picturing him seeing her in the dress gave her a glimmer of hope that it was Tyson, even if he wasn’t the ‘one’ like Lucy had been badgering her about earlier.
“Hey, Annie, come on!” Lucy snaps Anne out of her fantasy, banging on the door to show her, “Jason texted me that he and the girls are going to be home in an hour with dinner so you can’t take all day.”
“You really think putting on this dress is going to take an hour?” Anne huffs, opening the door from the dressing room stall.
“Well, it depends on how many dresses you try,” Lucy starts, cutting herself off when she sees her sister in the dress. “Oh, Anne.”
“You like it?” she asks, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. It was a simple dress, knit and insignificant. She had no idea why she was so excited about it.
“I do,” Lucy says, coming up behind Anne and resting her chin on her sister’s shoulder as the two of them admire Anne in the mirror. “And you know who else is going to love it? Tyson.”
Anne took in a deep breath, Lucy rubbing her back between her shoulders before she let her get changed back into her clothes. ‘Tyson was going to love it.’ Anne hoped so.
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December 31, 2021
Tyson said he was going to be at Anne’s place at 9:15 to pick her up and drop off stuff at her place to stay over. Since they were going to be together all night, it was easier if Tyson stayed with Anne after the party before needing to drive to Anne’s uncle’s house the next afternoon.
But it was 9:30, and Anne was sitting on her couch, waiting for the boy who was supposed to fake being her boyfriend tomorrow to show up to take her to a party with a bunch of people who had no idea who she was or that this scenario was going to be happening the next day.
How did Anne end up like this? What if he didn’t show up? Why did she let her mom and siblings take over the conversation about her life and let them believe that Tyson was her boyfriend? And why did he agree to it?
Anne gets snapped out of her downward spiral of thoughts by her phone ringing, Tyson calling to hopefully tell her that he was waiting to be let in. “You said you were going to be here at 9:15,” she answers, not letting Tyson say anything.
“Well, traffic,” he explains, “It’s New Year’s Eve and I didn’t want to speed, either, and end up getting pulled over for that. Can you come let me in? It’s cold.”
Anne gets up from her couch, venturing downstairs in the slippers she was keeping on until the last minute. The heels Lucy had let her borrow weren’t uncomfortable, but she wasn’t about to wear them around her apartment building if she didn’t have to. She spots Tyson sitting on the couches in the lobby, going up to him. He was looking down at his phone, but seeing him made her heart race. He had on a white button-down with the top two buttons undone, a black jacket, and black pants on. She goes up to him, resting her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.
Tyson looks up, unable to find the words when he sees Anne. He stands up, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Anne sees this and lets out a small laugh. “Are you ok?” she asks, her nerves of seeing him dissipate while he acts like this.
“You’re,” he starts, letting out a breath as he looks her up and down. He shakes his head, a lazy smile on his face. “You’re beautiful.”
Anne laughs, grabbing his bag for him and leading him back upstairs to her apartment. “You’re not too bad yourself.”
“You know,” Tyson starts when the two of them get to her door, “pretending to be your boyfriend really isn’t going to be that difficult.”
“Yeah,” Anne scoffs, putting down Tyson’s bag with a thud by the couch, “and if you keep flirting with me like you mean it, then they’ll really believe you.” Anne’s back was turned to Tyson, so she didn’t see the look on his face, him biting his lip at her words that she thought he was just pretending. “You’re staying over for a night, what the hell could you have brought with you?” she asks him.
Tyson clears his throat, still not over Anne’s little dig about him pretending to flirt with her. He’s been flirting with her since they met, has she really not noticed? “Uh, you didn’t tell me how formal or casual this is at your uncle’s so I just packed a few options.”
“Huh, I never pegged you for a fashionista,” Anne teases, putting on her shoes and coat as Tyson orders the Uber to take them to the venue.
“Apparently you’re never going to peg me at all,” Tyson mumbles, not loud enough for Anne to hear.
“Sorry?”
“Uh, the Uber will be here in a few minutes so we should get downstairs,” he tries to save himself.
“But,” Anne says, locking her door and following Tyson back down to the lobby, “You can pretty much wear anything to Uncle Vince’s house as long as it isn’t a Juventus shirt.”
“Juventus?”
“That’s Napoli’s biggest rival. It would be like me wearing, I don’t know,” Anne says as they both get into the car that had pulled up, “a Red Wings or a Wild shirt to something for you guys.”
Tyson can’t help but smile, even though he knows it’s probably meaningless. Anne had made it clear that the two of them were just friends. But what if, “you like hockey?”
Anne shrugs, looking out the window as they drove into the city. “I don’t hate it, but I couldn’t tell you much about it. I’m more of a basketball girl, honestly.” Tyson scoffs, Anne turning to him. She had a smile on her face, trying to hide the slight insult she felt by the noise he made. “What?”
“Hockey is clearly better.”
“You’re just biased.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong,” he teases her, reaching over and nudging her arm. His hand lingers on her arm for a little bit, not really thinking about Anne’s noticeable settling into his touch. “Um,” he clears his throat, taking his arm back and praying that it was dark enough that Anne couldn’t see the red on his face, “What are your teams?”
“Men’s are the Nuggets, of course, women are the Seattle Storm, and college I go for UConn.”
“Did you go there?”
Anne shakes her head, Tyson admiring the way her hair framed her face, thankful that she was looking out the window instead of at him. “Nope, I went to CU Denver. My dad’s other brother, Johnny, went to UConn, and when I was born, that was around the start of the women’s dynasty that they have. When my dad was away on trips and mom was working, he and Aunt Lisa would watch the four of us and always have the UConn games on. I fell in love with Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Stephanie Dolson. I grew up wanting to play basketball and be like them, so I played basketball.”
“Did you in college?”
“No,” Anne laughs, looking at the building they were pulling up to. “I played until high school, and was definitely not good enough to play in college. I still love it, though.”
Tyson smiles at her, getting out of the car and rushing to the other side to help her out, linking his arm in hers to escort her in. “I love that,” he whispers to her, walking in and thankful that he had Anne on his arm that night.
The guys weren’t necessarily on his case about finding someone the way it seemed like Anne’s parents were, but that didn’t stop the chirping about him never having a girlfriend for as long as he was on the team. They knew she was his friend, but, hey, it was better than nothing.
Anne had no idea where Tyson took her, not recognizing the building they had walked into, but she was speechless at the sight of the grand ballroom, the lighting just dim enough that she couldn’t help but feel at peace, the noise from Tyson’s teammates and their families taking that away and leaving her overwhelmed. Tyson had slipped away to hang up their coats and grab drinks, leaving Anne to fend for herself for the time being.
She knew they weren’t late by any means but based on the sobriety, or lack thereof, that everyone was displaying, an outsider would think that Tyson and Anne had shown up hours late, everyone seemingly on at least their third drink of the night, if not more. Anne worked her way to the side of the room, giving herself a good view of the bar where Tyson was, hoping that he could find her after he was done chatting with whoever it was that had his attention.
“You look almost too comfortable for someone just watching everyone on the side. Who are you here with?” someone interrupts her thoughts. She snaps her attention to the mystery man standing next to her, leaning against the wall and looking out at the crowd as they danced and sang, drank and had fun. He was the same height as Tyson, just about, probably not that much younger but the rosiness on his cheeks made him look years younger than both her and Tyson.
“I’m here with Tyson,” she tells him, waving to the guy who was supposed to be by her side that night.
“You’re the girl who spilled her coffee on him when we went to the hospital for the charity event,” Rosy Boy laughs.
Anne scoffs, “I wish that wasn’t my legacy, but here we are.”
The two of them stand and watch everyone, laughing as some of the kids pretend to chase around the adults, one of them catching someone by the leg as the man pretended to fall down. “That’s our captain, Gabe,” Rosy Boy tells her, “being chased by Naylah, Nazem’s daughter.”
“So, Gabe, Nazem, Tyson,” Anne says, pointing at the only three men of the Avalanche that she knew, “You?”
“Cale Makar.”
“Anne DeFormicola.”
Cale smiles at her, turning his body so he was facing her directly. “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” Anne could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks, thankful that her hair was down to cover the red that she knew had appeared on her ears. “Uh, are you and Tyson together?” Cale asks, his voice shaking as he prayed he didn’t make the mistake of flirting with one of his teammate’s girls.
“No,” Anne tells him, “We’re just friends.”
Cale lets out a sigh of relief. “Good, I, uh,” he stammers, Anne’s confused look making him nervous despite the smile that was on her face, “I mean, good, good for me. You? Us? I don’t know what I’m saying.”
The two of them laugh together, Anne seeing Tyson out of the corner of her eye. He didn’t look particularly thrilled as he watched her and Cale talking, the distance between them shrinking as the conversation proceeded.
Before she knew it, Tyson was by her side, a glass of wine in hand for her that he practically thrust in her hand. “So, how’s Cale treating you?” Tyson asks, not hiding the discontent he felt seeing Anne and Cale so obviously flirting.
Anne watches Tyson down his drink, a little too fast for her liking, especially considering Cale was obviously uncomfortable by what his teammate was doing in that moment. “Very well, we were having a good conversation.” Anne sips her wine, Cale mumbling something and slipping away. “What was that about?”
“I want you to be careful?” Tyson says as if it were obvious, even though he was lying. He didn’t want to have to see Anne flirting with his teammate all night.
“Of who, Cale? Didn’t you tell me he was the human equivalent of a puppy?” Tyson rolls his eyes, looking over to the bar and already wishing he had more to drink before having this conversation. “What’s the worst he’s going to do? Bite my ankles? Bark when he wants to go play outside?”
“Ok, you’re being mean.”
“And you’re being ridiculous.” Anne studies his face, the way he bit his lip as he tried to find his words. “You remind me of Sebby.”
“Your little brother?” Tyson asks, not really wanting to be compared to him.
“He’s really protective of me. We’re all protective of each other, but he’s especially protective of me. You’re probably the same way with Kacey, right?”
Tyson swallows hard, nodding. “Yeah.” He wasn’t even just friend-zoned: he was sibling-zoned.
“You just don’t want me to get hurt,” Anne reasons, already finishing her wine. It’s not like it was that much in the glass. “I think if anyone was going to hurt me, it wouldn’t be Cale.”
The two of them stand there, watching Tyson’s teammates dancing as the music changed to something more upbeat. On the nearest table, Tyson put down his and Anne’s empty glasses, extending his hand out to Anne in a bid to lead her to the dance floor. Anne hesitates, not really too fond of dancing, but then Tyson smiled at her, raising his eyebrows, and for whatever reason, she felt like she had to go with him.
His hand found the small of her back, holding her close enough that they could still talk over the blaring from the music, his other hand in hers as he tried to get her to move to the rhythm of the song. It’s not that Anne was uncoordinated, but she just wasn’t that great with dancing. “I would have thought you were better at this,” Tyson teases her, looking down at their feet as Anne steps on for what he thought was the fourth time.
“I will gladly go back to my place against the wall and watch you make a fool out of yourself by yourself instead,” she jokes, rolling her eyes as Tyson spins her around.
He pulls her in closer than before, the music changing to a slower song. “I don’t think you want to do that,” Tyson tells her, his forehead pressed against hers. He could kiss her right now if she let him. This was technically their second date, if they considered the coffee place their first. And Tyson did. He didn’t know why he wanted this girl in front of him so badly so fast, but there was just something about her that he had to be with her.
Before Anne could say anything, she feels someone tapping on her shoulder. Pulling away from Tyson, she sees Cale standing there, his hands in his pockets, looking down at his feet. His entire face was red, clearly nervous, as he started, “Uh, sorry, but I was wondering if I could dance with Anne?”
Anne smiles at him, looking over at Tyson to signal that she wanted to. Cale was adorable, and something about him left Anne unable to say no to him. Tyson gives a sad smile, releasing Anne from his grasp. “I’m going to go get another drink,” he says, leaving his date and teammate alone to be closer than they were before. He couldn’t be with a girl that didn’t want to be with him, he thought, downing the drink he got probably too fast. At least tomorrow he could pretend that the two of them were together, pretending that he was hers and she was his.
But for now, he had to watch Anne smiling and staring at Cale, his teammate holding her so close that Tyson wanted nothing more than to be Cale.
Tyson had his back against the bar, watching Cale and Anne dance and have fun when JT came up to him. “Didn’t you bring a date?” JT was the only one Tyson had told about the fake dating plan between him and Anne.
“Yep.”
“She in the bathroom?”
“She’s dancing with Cale,” Tyson says, raising what he thinks was his third drink in their direction. He was praying that they couldn’t get any closer than they were now, but the way Anne was smiling, he knew that was what she wanted.
JT looks between Anne and Cale together and Tyson’s near angry expression as he took another sip of his drink. “Oh, I get it,” JT realizes, Tyson side-eyeing his friend. “You like her, and now you’re seeing her with Cale and you’re jealous.”
Tyson could feel himself start to panic. He did like her, but he wasn’t about to let everyone know that. “No,” he lies, JT scoffing at him. He hated that he knew him so well. “Maybe.”
“Well, then why aren’t you the one dancing with her?” JT asks, Tyson watching Anne throw her head back laughing, Cale burying his head in her shoulder, a smile just as big as hers on his face.
“She wanted to dance with him. What was I going to do, say ‘no?’
“Yes.”
“No,” he rebuts, signaling the bartender for yet another drink. “At least I can pretend to date her around her family,” he shrugs.
“Yeah, until she pretends to dump you because she’s really dating Cale.”
“Maybe in the new year you should try to be more helpful instead of whatever you are now,” Tyson snaps. “Sorry,” he mumbles into the fresh drink he was bringing to his lips, planning on downing it as fast as he got it. If he had to watch Anne dancing with Cale, he might as well be drunk so he can’t remember it in the morning.
“It’s almost midnight,” Cale whispers to Anne.
“Yeah,” she smirks, having a feeling she knew where this was going, especially judging by the way his grip tightened around her waist.
“Uh,” he clears his throat, getting nervous about what he wanted to ask her. “Who are you kissing at midnight?"
Anne can’t help but smile, his innocence endearing to her. Tyson and JT were still watching the two of them dance even though Anne and Cale were too focused on each other to notice. “I think it depends on your answer,” she flirts.
“I was kind of hoping it would be you,” he tells her.
Anne laughs, “Yeah, I got that,” she tells him, running her hand through his hair at the nape of his neck, sending a chill down his spine. “I was hoping it would be you, too,” she tells him, closing her eyes with their foreheads pressed against each other. She almost wished she had spilled her coffee on Cale instead of Tyson, not needing to pretend to date him tomorrow and instead just date Cale and date him for real. It might have been the alcohol or the night that was making her feel this way, but Cale was not a hard guy to like.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” Tyson mumbles, not wanting to see Anne and Cale anymore, setting his drink down and leaving the room before JT could protest.
Soon after, everyone began their countdown to midnight, chanting while Anne and Cale stayed silent.
Anne knew Cale wanted to kiss her before the countdown was over. He was hovering against her lips as soon as someone yelled ‘ten!’ She didn’t know what it was about him, but she was ready to kiss him, not waiting for everyone to get past ‘five’ before she connected with him for a second, already wanting more as soon as they started.
Cale pulled away fast, smiling, moving his hands from her waist to cup her face, kissing her as soon as everyone around them was screaming ‘Happy New Year!’ When they finally pulled away, Cale’s entire face was red, and Anne knew that there was some color on her cheeks, too. Kissing Cale was something else, but something was missing. She just couldn’t put her finger on it.
=============
January 1, 2022
Anne and Cale danced a little longer, some of the guys and their families starting to leave.
“I think I have to go find Tyson,” Anne tells Cale, realizing she hadn’t seen the boy she came with for the better part of an hour.
“Uh, wait,” Cale says as Anne starts to pull away, Anne stopping as Cale smiles at her. He puts on her jaw, tilting her head up to kiss her again. “Can I see you again?”
Anne smiles, biting her lip. “I’d like that. But I really have to find Tyson.”
The two of them start walking around, trying to locate their lost boy. “Are you coming back with us?”
“Us?”
“Tys and I live in the same building,” Cale explains, part of him wanting to ask Anne to go home with him.
Before he can, Anne starts, “No, Tyson is staying at my place tonight. We have something tomorrow. Today,” she corrects herself.
“Oh, ok. Well, then, can I get your number?”
“When we find Tyson because he has the ticket for our coats and my phone is in my coat,” she explains, regretting giving everything to Tyson.
“Anne!” they hear someone yell, turning around to see Tyson stumbling over despite JT trying to help him up. Anne hadn’t told him not to get very drunk out of caution for having to deal with her family in a few hours, but now she was regretting forgetting.
“How much did he drink?” Anne panics, slinging Tyson's free arm around her shoulder.
“When I got to him he was already on four and I think he had at least three more while I was with him. I couldn’t tell you what he had on his own,” JT explains, the four of them getting their stuff and trying to get out while Tyson could barely walk.
Tyson mumbles something, trying to lean his head against Anne’s shoulder while they walked, despite the three-inch height difference that would have been bigger had Anne not been wearing heels. JT asks him to repeat it while he orders and Uber to get Tyson and Anne home. “Anne’s so pretty,” Tyson says, practically screaming it in Anne’s ear.
“Thank you, Tyson,” she says, trying to be as sweet as she could despite her anger she felt for him getting this drunk.
Tyson keeps babbling incoherently, none of them wanting to try to figure out what he was saying while they were waiting in their Ubers.
“Hey, Anne, hand me your phone,” JT asks, trying to reach out to her with his free hand while also making sure Tyson didn’t fall over or fall on Anne. She does as he asks, Cale standing there wondering why he didn’t just do that in the first place. “Text me when you two get back to your place and let me know how he is before you leave for your Uncle’s.”
“Yeah, of course,” Anne says, not even thinking about how he would have known where the two of you were going later.
Before Cale can ask for Anne’s phone, the Uber for her and Tyson pulls up. “Are you sure you’re good to get him back?” Cale asks her while JT gets Tyson in the car safely.
Anne nods, putting her hand on Cale’s bicep to reassure him. “Yeah, he should sober up enough to walk with just me during the drive back. Thank you, though,” she says, giving him a quick kiss before climbing into the car.
“I wish it was me,” Tyson slurs, his head on Anne’s shoulder as the Uber pulls away.
“What’s that, Tyson?” Anne asks.
“I wish it was me that was kissing you.”
Anne looks at him, his eyes closed as he fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. “When?”
“At midnight. I wanted to kiss you at midnight. I just hope you didn’t kiss Cale. That would make me sad,” he says, letting out a yawn.
Before Anne could say anything to respond, Tyson was asleep, leaving her alone with her thoughts, and the Uber driver probably hoping they remembered this to tell their friends in the morning. Why would he have wanted to kiss her? They were just friends. They had both made it very clear that everything they were doing was just out of friendship because they both needed someone to be there for the other and just pretend they were something they were not.
This wasn’t going to be like one of those ‘fake dating’ tropes that Anne had read in books when she was a teenager or in rom coms. Those weren’t real life. That didn’t happen.
Anne gets Tyson up to her apartment, surprised that she was able to drag him out of the Uber and balance him long enough that he didn’t fall over and take her with him to the ground. She practically threw him onto her bed, getting him in position so no matter what happened he would be fine. He was asleep almost immediately, a soft snore coming from his lips.
Anne pulls out her phone to text JT that his teammate was asleep, getting herself ready to go sleep on the couch.
The next morning, Anne woke up to Tyson sitting at her kitchen table, already having helped himself to a cup of coffee. “You look like you’re feeling great,” Anne commented, Tyson clearly hungover from the night before.
“Why did I wake up in your bed and not your couch?” Tyson asked.
Anne shrugs, fixing herself a cup of coffee to join him. “You’re my guest and the couch isn’t the most comfortable thing to fall asleep on if you aren’t used to it.”
“You are?”
“I’ve fallen asleep plenty of times while I was reading on that couch,” Anne tells him, wishing she had something to offer him to eat. “Uh, when we get to my uncle’s house, there’s going to be a ton of food so if we didn’t eat now, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”
Tyson nods, looking down at his coffee. He wished that he didn’t have to pretend to be Anne’s boyfriend. He already wanted to be more, but Cale was already closer to that in one night than Tyson was in how many weeks. “What do I need to know about your family before I meet them?”
Anne starts rambling about her family: her grandparents moved back to New York which was where they grew up so she hasn’t seen them in a while because they’re too old to make the trip out here and she hasn’t had time to make the trip to see them. They were going to her Uncle Vince’s house, her dad’s older brother. He has three kids, Michael, Emily, and Spencer, all of them dating someone. Then there’s Uncle Johnny, her dad’s younger brother, who has two kids, Lauren and Landon, and three grandkids from Lauren: Christopher, Lydia, and Henry.
Tyson didn’t even know if he was going to remember everything she was saying; from the food that Johnny brings just for Landon because of allergies, or the food that was designated as ‘the kid's food’ which was absolutely off-limits unless you were under the age of five years old. The Sam Adams’ beer is only meant for Aunt Lisa and Aunt Laura unless they offer it to you, but the wine is a free for all because it’s guaranteed that everyone of age brought their own bottle anyway, including Anne.
“Wait, but I don’t have a bottle,” Tyson asks, both of them getting up to get ready.
Anne smiles at him, going into one of her cabinets. “You want white or red?” she asks, holding up two bottles. “Because, as you know, I’m partial to red.”
Tyson laughs, taking the bottle of white wine from her, not even sure if he should be drinking anything given the night before. He was just lucky he somehow didn't feel worse despite how much he had. “I knew you were my kind of girl.”
They stand there for a second, neither of them sure how to react or what to do. “We should go get ready,” Anne says, bringing the bottles over to where she kept her keys so she wouldn’t forget them.
She retreats to her room, leaving Tyson to get ready out in the open of the rest of her apartment. That wasn’t a moment they just had in her kitchen, she tells herself. She puts on a pair of jeans, trying to find a shirt suitable enough for her mom to not nag her about, finally settling on a sweater that she was almost sure was Lucy’s that she stole a few months ago.
“Hey, Anne,” she hears Tyson calling her. “Someone’s calling you.”
An unknown number flashed on her screen in Tyson's hand, her forgetting she left the phone by the couch. Normally an unsaved contact was something that she wouldn’t answer, but the Calgary area code, for no reason whatsoever, told her that she had to answer it. “Hello?”
“Anne? It’s Cale. Sorry, I got your number from JT.”
Anne smiles, looking at Tyson who could hear his teammate's voice just loud enough that it made him upset. Tyson’s words from the night before rang through Anne’s mind as she finally answered him back, “Hey, no, it’s fine. What’s up?” Anne goes back into her room to finish getting ready, putting Cale on speaker as she does.
“I just wanted to check on you. And Tyson, I mean, that you were ok with him last night.”
Anne laughs at his nerves, the same ones that came through when they were first talking last night that she was thankful had faded as time went on. “Yeah, we’re fine. We’re getting ready to head out, though.”
“Any idea what time you would be done? I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner tonight?”
She could hear his voice shaking, wishing that she could say yes. “I can’t tonight, but maybe another time?”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” he says, both of them saying goodbye as Anne grabs what she needs to head out.
“You ready?” she asks Tyson. He looked good, a simple black button-down he had paired with jeans. Why did he have to look good? Tyson nods, grabbing the wine while Anne grabbed her keys.
The two of them drive in silence, her phone plugged into her car with Cale and JT’s contacts popping up on the screen on her center console as they were texting her. “I’m glad you got along with some of the guys last night,” Tyson tells her, finally breaking the silence between them.
“Yeah, me too. Especially since someone seemed to enjoy the bar more than anything else,” she teases.
“Hey, the bartender was attractive, and giving free drinks, what was I supposed to do?”
Anne laughs, knowing that wasn’t the real reason he was there the entire night. She didn’t know what that reason was, but it wasn’t because of the looks of the person giving Tyson drinks. “What do you remember from last night?”
Tyson hesitates, really not sure what to answer. “I remember the drinks and you were dancing with Cale at some point.”
“You remember none of the Uber drive back?”
He almost did. He knew he had fallen on Anne’s shoulder, but he didn’t remember getting into the car with her. He wasn’t even sure that Anne was the one that got him in the car. “Not really, no.”
“Ok,” Anne says, partially thankful for that. She wasn’t sure she would want to relive the part of the night, nor did she think Tyson would either.
She pulls up to her uncle’s house, already seeing Lucy’s car and her cousin Spencer's sitting in the driveway. “Ready to enter the belly of the beast?” she asks him, patting his thigh as a sign of encouragement.
Tyson looks out to the house, seeing someone standing in the doorway waiting for them to get out of the car. “We’ve gotta start acting like a couple, now, don’t we?” he says, leaning closer to her across the center console.
Anne rolls her eyes, knowing that he wanted a kiss or something, anything to show Aunt Laura that Tyson was actually her boyfriend. She does kiss him, sweet and slow. Tyson was sure if they weren’t being watched, he would have gone for more, but knowing he couldn’t was killing him. He had to make the most of the time he had with Anne’s family.
When Anne pulled away, she reached up to Tysons face, grazing her thumb along his beard as his hand connected with hers. She didn’t know why, but she kissed him again, their foreheads pressed together as they sat there in her car. It was different kissing him compared to Cale. A good different, and like last night, she couldn't put her finger on why. She almost forgot where they were, startled by Aunt Laura knocking on her window.
Anne’s face had to be bright red, embarrassed that her aunt saw whatever moment, real or fake or whatever that was, while sitting in the driveway of her house. She greets her aunt as she gets out of the car, handing her the two bottles of wine.
“You must be Tyson!” she says, more excited than Anne thought she would be. “Teresa’s told us so much about you, come in, come in,” she gestures. Anne was sure that she would have dragged him in by the collar of his shirt if she didn’t have the wine in her hands already.
Tyson looks at Anne, confused. “I have no idea what my mom could have said to her,” Anne says. Tyson shrugs, grabbing Anne’s hand as she leads him into the house.
Lucy comes running up as soon as Anne steps through the door, a baby that couldn’t be more than a year old in her arms. “Hey there, Hazel,” Anne coos, taking her goddaughter from her sister. Hazel reaches out, grabbing Anne’s hair as Anne winces at the slight pain from the baby’s pull. “This is Tyson.”
“Hi, pretty girl,” Tyson says, Hazel reaching out, squirming to get away from Anne and into Tyson’s arms. “Is it ok if I hold her?” he asks Lucy, waiting for her to nod before Anne passes her off to him.
Lucy pulls her sister aside, a silly grin on her face. “He’s perfect,” she gushes, “Look at him!” Tyson was bouncing Hazel up and down, Hazel shrieking with glee with him.
“He’s not perfect,” Anne says, “but he might be close.” The sisters laugh, Lucy hugging Anne from behind while they continue to watch Anne’s ‘boyfriend’ interact with Lucy’s youngest daughter. Anne wasn’t even sure if she was really pretending as the rest of her family came into her uncle’s house.
Teresa was practically attached to Tyson the entire time, as were Skylar and Harper once Tyson started playing with them. Literally, Tyson was walking around Uncle Vince’s house with Skylar and Harper clinging to each of his legs. Tyson was the center of attention, Anne wishing that it wasn’t because everyone was just finally excited that Anne found a man.
“What do you think of him?” Anne asks Sebby, the two of them watching Tyson and Matthew talking as if there was no one else was in the room. She had heard ‘touchdown’ and ‘linebacker’ come up in conversation, meaning Matthew was going on a rant about the Broncos, something that he did way too often.
Sebby looks him up and down, pursing his lips while he thought about it. “I’m not sure I trust him.”
“Oh, come on,” Anne whines.
“He’s an athlete. And a professional one, at that,” Sebby throws his hands up in defense. Growing up, Sebby was the only one who didn’t really like sports, feeling they were a waste of time when he could be doing something like reading or studying. Sports were only relevant when his siblings were involved, otherwise, he hated them.
“Give him a chance. Please?” Anne begs, not even sure if it were necessary. “He’s not Andy.”
Sebby narrows his eyes at his sister, jumping slightly as Tyson and Matthew start laughing. “Why didn’t you mention him before Christmas?”
“If you remember, I didn’t mention him at Christmas, you did,” Anne scolds him, trying to figure out what story to tell her brother. “And, it was still new. I didn’t want to say anything if it wasn’t going to be something.”
“Is it?”
“Maybe. I think so,” Anne lies. At least, she thought she was lying.
Tyson comes over to Anne while she was talking with Sebby about his upcoming semester, his last one before he graduated from college and hopefully entered law school. He wraps his arms around her, kissing her cheek before resting his chin on her shoulder. “You think I could steal her for a second?” he asks.
Sebby narrows his eyes, Tyson a little thrown off by her brother’s reaction. “Sure.”
Tyson brings Anne into another room, praying that no one would walk in on them. “We didn’t talk about anything we could say to your family about how we met,” he brings up.
“I was planning on deferring that to you since I normally can’t get a word in otherwise,” she admits, even though she hadn’t thought about it before.
“That’s not fair,” Tyson says, looking over Anne’s shoulder to see someone in her family looking at the two of them. “Your family is watching.”
Anne follows Tyson’s gaze, turning and waving at Landon and Lauren. She reaches up and puts her hand on Tyson’s cheek, Tyson taking it with his own and kissing the palm of her hand. “When you see how I get pushed aside at dinner, you’ll understand why it’s fair.”
The two of them continue talking about how they were going to go on with the rest of the day, Anne telling Tyson she was fine with everything he had done so far and really didn’t care if he kept doing it. Anne, not wanting to tell Tyson, liked what he was doing. It felt right for some reason. Was Tyson right that it should have been the two of them kissing at midnight and not her and Cale?
Tyson’s drunken confession from the night before was still ringing in her mind when everyone got called to sit down for dinner. Tyson was still, unsurprisingly, the center of attention. His hand was on Anne’s thigh for most of dinner, Lucy’s eyes never leaving as Anne rested her’s in his. The usual rounds of conversation started, asking Lucy about her medical practice, Jason about Andersen’s, his restaurant that bore his family’s name, Matthew and Steph about work at United, Sebby about how he was feeling going into this last semester of college.
Then the conversation was supposed to turn to Anne, normally swamped with questions about Anne’s lack of love life. Instead, of course, the conversation turned to Tyson.
“How did you two meet?” Teresa asks, giving a smug look to her daughter, “Anne hasn’t told us anything about you.”
Tyson hesitates, figuring Anne wouldn’t want her family knowing they met when she spilled her coffee on him. “I was out with some of my teammates after practice one day,” he starts, hoping that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was good enough. “We were at a coffee shop, and I saw Anne there grabbing something before her shift at the hospital. I saw her smile at the barista when she thanked him for taking her order and,” he looks at her, taking Anne and putting it on the table for her family to see. “Something about that smile of hers I just knew I had to talk to her. I needed her in my life and I’m happy she’s in it.”
He kisses the side of her head, whispering, “we have to remember that story now,” against her skin. When he pulls away, Anne smiles at him, signaling that she would. There was no way she could forget that honestly. Why was pretending to like him so easy?
The conversation stays on him for a little longer, Anne never being asked anything. Finally, Emily stands up with Jimmy, saying they had an announcement. “We’re engaged!” she squeals, holding up her left hand with the ring that she either just put on, or no one noticed as the family congratulated her. Jimmy had proposed at midnight, down on one knee right as whoever they were with said ‘Happy New Year!’
“Another wedding!” Teresa yells, Tony rolling his eyes next to her. He didn’t hate weddings, he hated his wife’s need to spend an extravagant amount of money on a new dress and presents for the couple every time. “And then maybe we’ll have one for Anne in the next year, too, oh Tony we’ll get to plan another wedding.”
“Mom!” Anne scolds, Tyson’s face getting bright red. “That ringing in your ears is not wedding bells.”
The rest of the dinner goes on fine, Anne and her siblings off in one of the rooms while their spouses and Tyson were nowhere to be found.
“I think Tyson’s scared of me,” Lucy says, examining her nails.
“He might just be intimidated by you, Signoria Perfezione,” Anne teases her with the nickname Lucy got when she was little, her need for order prevalent from a young age.
“Yeah, he said that Anne told him how smart you were and he didn’t want to feel stupid around you,” Matthew points out.
“Well, shouldn’t he be intimidated by Anne?” Sebby asks.
“I know you’re trying to compliment me, but your tone says otherwise,” Anne says. “Why don’t you like him?”
The three of them look at their youngest siblings. “There’s something off,” he starts, Anne feeling her heart start to race. “He’s like borderline pretending to be with you.”
“Come on, man, you’re paranoid,” Matthew scoffs, Lucy agreeing.
“I mean,” Sebby explains, “He looks at Anne like he wants to be with her, not like he actually is with her.”
“You’re just over analyzing. We’re together. Probably more together than you and Collins are,” Anne fires back, part of her hating that she was lying to her siblings, the other part of her wondering how much of it was a lie.
Sebby shrugs, “Well yeah, because we broke up.” Anne’s jaw drops, Matthew raises his eyebrows in shock, Lucy the only one to scream and actually make a verbal acknowledgment of what he just said. “Yeah, the other night. She finally blew up over the whole, ‘I don’t want to move to Boston or California,’ thing and said if I wasn’t willing to move to be with her then I wasn’t good enough for her.”
“Oh, I don’t like that,” Anne says.
"Why didn't you tell us," Lucy asks.
"I see how they act about Anne never being with someone," he says, Anne glaring at him. "I'll just find someone in law school and not say anything unless they ask. Plus, I don’t want to be that far away from you guys. Why would I stay with someone who wants me to do that?” he admits.
“Aw, you do like us!” Lucy teases him, her and Matthew tackling him in a hug while Sebby yells for them to get off, yelling louder when Anne joins in.
“Hey, um,” Tyson interrupts, “Sorry, you’re having a moment.”
“No, no, what’s up?” Anne breaks off, going over to him.
“Your aunt said dessert is out,” he tells them, or, rather, tells Anne with her siblings in earshot.
“See, you’re delusional,” Lucy tells Sebby as they walk past Anne and Tyson into the next room.
Tyson looks at her confused, waiting for an explanation. “I think Sebby’s catching on to us pretending,” she shrugs, really not that worried. She and Tyson could talk later about how long this would go on, and if anyone in the family were to find out that it was fake, Sebby would be the one to keep it quiet.
She goes into the next room, leaving Tyson there by himself. “Yeah, pretending,” he says to himself.
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kanmom51 · 4 years ago
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JM JK timeline.- my observations how they grew over the years
2016 part 2
Disclaimer: these are my own opinions and conclusions.  Feel free to disagree, but hate or aggression will be unacceptable.
26 August 2016 – MBC ISAC 2016.  Another big one for me.  The vibe between them – they were just so cute, constantly messing around with each other, all touchy feely.  Of course, they were hand wrestling again, so what’s new?  There was also the BTS bomb moment, when JK touches JM’s chest with the bomb, then his own chest a couple of times then JM’s again, was he trying to say something?
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1 Sep 2016 – JK’s birthday. They seem happy.  They were seen out together.  JM tells in a later interview that he took JK out to shop for his birthday present.  Why are both of them so shy about it though?
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Manila 2016.  Was there a fight?  What was going on there? Idk.  Seen plenty of vids on it.  My impression is that there was some kind of tension there.  No idea what was going on there.  But even if there was a fight or they were going through something, they came out of it even stronger.
8 Oct 2016 MBC Korean music festival – what was going through JK’s mind?
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13 Oct 2016 – Jikook in their own bubble.
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From the Bantan Bomb released in June 2017, we learn that  in 2016 JK got a birthday present for JM for his birthday, JM being the only member JK bought a present that year.  Jin even complaining how for his own birthday, celebrated a couple of months later, all he got from JK was a ‘happy birthday’, even though Jin specified to JK what he wanted as a gift for his birthday.  
27 Oct 2017 M countdown Jeju – spot the couple?
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31 Oct 2016 fan sign – they were so cute.  JM’s loving gazes at JK, and JK’s grabbing JM.
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6 Nov Bangtan bomb – what was going on there?  The back and forth flirtation was so loud.  Who makes you happy JK?
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16 Nov 2016, after receiving the best artist award, JM gets emotional and cries while talking to the members.  JK is so adorable, showing his concern for JM, asking if he’s alright, and tearing up himself seeing JM cry.
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Nov 2016 Japan fan meeting – spot the couple.
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16 Dec 2016 eat with Jin Vlive – This one was a doozey.  We see some of the push and pull in the boys relationship that I was talking about here – JM complaining that JK doesn’t do what he wants anymore, that he came only because it’s a live show, and not when he calls him, saying he wasn’t like that before.  Really JM? What changed? JK asserting himself within the relationship, maybe?
JM puts JK through the loop before letting him into the room, getting him to say “I love you” 3 times, complaining that when he asks him to say that he loves him JK doesn’t, and that he did it only for the fans.  and still not letting him in.  Jin only lets him in after JK threatens to post a ‘crazy’ photo.  
The very high key flirting going on there, JM trying to leave only to stay after being sort of threatened by JK turning on his phone (we see a photo of him, one that looks like it was actually posted later that day) saying he has a great selfie (was that a hickie? – why was it a ‘crazy’ photo otherwise?).  They are smiling, but there is somewhat a tug of war going on there. That’s the two figuring out the dynamics within the relationship, all for us to see.
There are ups and downs in every relationship, and even more so when it’s relatively new, when the couple are creating their boundaries, what is ok or not ok as far as their partners behaviour.  We can assume that JK and JM had their fights, maybe even split up during this 5 year period.  It’s only natural.  Still, moments like during the Manila concert or during the KBS song festival 29 Dec 2016 can be pretty gut wrenching.  
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This was the day JM performed with Taemin.  What exactly happened that day we don’t know. What we do know is that over time they grew stronger.  Maybe more secure in themselves, their feelings and each other’s feelings.  
Being a couple in an industry where not only aren’t you allowed to be a couple, but, god forbid, you are a gay couple, something not to showcase, but to hide, well, the level of insecurity would be incomprehensible, sometimes probably overbearing.  
That could maybe be the reason we sometimes see both being uncomfortable with the other’s interactions. I’m not convinced it’s actual jealousy of the connection.  I mean, we are all human, and jealousy is sometimes a factor, but showing every single uneasy moment as jealousy does not serve both JK or JM justice.  Their bond is not an unhealthy toxic bond, it’s a beautiful one.  What it may be, though, is jealousy or a feeling of frustration that they cannot showcase their connection with each other.  I really don’t know, and don’t want to over speculate.  I can feel though a vibe of uneasiness.  You can see on their faces something is bothering them.
2016 is when we see more than ‘regular’ skinship between the two.  We do still see the skinship between them, but we also see the hidden micro touches, light brushes, as if sometimes they are scared to touch each other, scared of how it would look or scared of their reaction to the touch? Also the gazes, wow the way they look at each other, sometimes hidden looks, sometimes so goddamn obvious.  
In 2016 JK starts being there emotionally for JM – making him laugh, crying when JM cried, every opportunity JK has to compliment JM he does it.  Saying how good looking he is, how sexy.  I say ‘starts’ because we can see from JM that it’s not enough, not yet. He repeats on more than one occasion that JK isn’t there for him enough (not coming when he asks, not saying he loves him when it’s off camera etc.).  
The start of a relationship is filled with excitement and insecurities.  This is amplified when the relationship is a ‘non conventional’ one. When you are in an industry where you are not allowed to develop any kind of romantic relationship, and told so since you’re a trainee, and even more so when you are two young men and the society you live in does and will not accept your relationship as ‘normal’.  That it will not only be frowned upon, but be deemed as ‘not normal’, ‘wrong’.  
When you are in a relationship deemed ‘wrong’, a relationship that if it becomes outright public knowledge may put your career and personal safety at risk, the stakes are oh so much higher.
You’re filled with the excitement, the need to constantly look, touch, affirm this new connection, but you can’t, you need to hide it from everyone.  Even from those who are closest to you, those who are with you 24/7.
So, the way I see it, 1st stage would be hiding from everyone.  Then would come stage 2 when those closest to you have caught on, but still having to hide from everyone else – that’s when you allow yourself to be more touchy and more obvious, but still hiding.
This is actually what I think happened in 2016.  It was a very big year for the two. Getting their bearings within the relationship.  Being discovered by the other members, or ‘coming out’ to them. I believe that by the end of 2016 all of the members were aware of the shift in the relationship, some earlier that the others.
At this point, during 2016, their reactions to the couple are less noticeable (maybe apart from Hobi’s teasing JM during the Vlive…), but later on they become so loud, they are even louder than JM and JK’s own actions, so loud that it’s their reaction to Jikook that creates the suspicion.
To be continued…
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Appetite for Destruction!!
She-Ra fanfiction Entrapdak Entrapdak Mini-Month Multiple characters Rated G Comedy
Summary: An Etherian festival. A pie-eating contest. A surprising contestant. A surprising outcome.   Done somewhat after a much older Season 2 fic of mine, “Pie(s) R Squared-Off,’ but in a different world / outcome setting from that, as Hordak is alive in this one. An aspect of this comes from the rumor of a scrapped idea for Horde Prime.  (Tumblr kept screwing up my formatting.  I tried to correct things, but if this posts with the italic-sentences separated all weird, I apologize. I do not know why Tumblr does this.  Pasting writing here is a nightmare). 
---------------------------
Prompt / Theme - Day 2- Challenge
Pie(s) R Squared Off II! Appetite for Destruction! The rusty scent of fallen leaves permeated the air at the Plumerian Fall Festival.  People were chatting, and dancing and making music.  More than a few of the newly-incorporated “spacebats” hung upside down from trees, hooking their knees over branches, biting into apples, peaches and pomegranates.   Deer-folk decorated their antlers with grape-leaves and hanging grapes from the vineyards.  Little children of all kinds ran about with colorful ribbons on sticks.   Somewhere, a kid picked up a stick, pretended it was a laser-rifle and his friend fell to the ground, pretending to be a stricken Horde-soldier.  This earned them both whispers and disapproving looks from the adults and older teenagers. They were ushered off to go ride the wooden-track ride that wended through the woods and they made haste to claim a wheeled cart to coast down the dips.   Bow was showing a group of people magic tricks with a deck of cards.  Entrapta was showcasing a harvester-bot she’d built.  Everyone was laughing and having a good time.   “Everyone!  Everyone!  Your attention please!”   Princess Perfuma had entered the glade, held aloft on a wave of thick, winding vines, which deposited her in the center of it. Everyone who wasn’t on a carnival ride or off to one of the tinkle-tinkle bye-bye zones turned to give her their attention.   “The Pie-Eating Contest is about to begin! Our contestants are ready to take their seats!  We’ve got two…”  Scorpia passed her a scroll of paper and she mumbled, reading it, before looking up, “No! Three contestants this year!”   She turned to Scorpia.  “Only three?”   Entrapta held up a hair-tail.  “I would have signed up if the pies were tiny. They’re so big, so I was out!”   “Still, only three?”   “Well, look who it is…” Scorpia said, pointing a tip of a claw to the form.   “There’s a Dark Horse… oh, gee, I hope it’s not Swift Wind…”   “Dish someboshy say Sift Ind?” a voice sounded as a muzzle turned their way, stuffed with a fresh apple.   “Nope!”  Scorpia announced. “Unless you’re in the Pie-Eating Contest.”   Swift Wind gulped down his apple. “Nope!” he proclaimed, throwing out his wings.  “I am in the cheering section!” “Don’t you remember who won last year?”  Scorpia harshly whispered.  “She didn’t even use her powers! Don’t you remember what happened?  It’s no surprise that no one wants to go up against…that!” Perfuma looked around.  “Someone, anyone?” she asked.  “We have loads of pies! Come on, Scorpia, you can take part!” “Sorry.  I love you, but I can’t go up against my wildcat. Or, you know…her…” Deer and goat-folk shook their heads. The child who’d previously been playing soldier said an emphatic “Nuh-uh!”   “I was happy to bake many of  the pies,” Kadroh, the clone formerly known as Wrong Hordak said, “but most of my brothers are still quite new to solid foods. Our insides would swell far too much with an eating contest.”   One of the clones hopped down from a tree with juice dribbling down his chin.  “Raw fruit is best! Why ruin it with baking?!”  he asked.   “Alright, alright,” Perfuma finally said. “Everyone come to the pavilion to cheer on your favorites!  And whoever the third contestant is will be a surprise to everybody!  Even me!”   The spectators gathered.  Pies were loaded upon a long picnic table, stacked and teetering in their tins.  Two contestants already sat at the ready, sneering at each other.   “You can do it, Adora! Just like last year!” Glimmer shouted.   “Get her, Catra! Show her who’s boss!” shouted Kyle, backed by Lonnie.   “Failure! Failure!” came a scratchy recorded voice.  Rogelio grumbled at the winged toddler that was hanging from his chest in a snuggly. Entrapta lifted herself up on her hair and patted Emily, signaling the robot to begin a video recording.  “No pie for you,” she said to the robot’s forlorn beeps. “I’ll give you the special oil when we get home.”   “Where’s our last minute contestant?” Perfuma wondered, ready to set the ten-minute timer.   Out of the shadows of the trees loomed a tall figure.  Steel-toed boots with greaves sank softly in the mud.  A red-lined black cape fluttered.  A pair of long ears flicked.  There were gasps among the crowd.   Entrapta wore the biggest, most devious smile. “Hordak?!” Glimmer choked.  “You can’t be serious!” “If he wants to eat pie, let him!” Bow said. Hordak sat down in the most serious manner imaginable.  “I wish to have a fair contest,” he said simply.   “Go, Hordikins!” Entrapta encouraged. He snorted and his ears dipped for a moment. The crowd went wild.   “Are you serious?” Catra demanded.  “I don’t recall ever seeing you eat!” “I am quite capable.”   “Hey, Catra, lay up!” Adora said.  “If he wants to have a little fun, let him. Besides, we both know I’m going to win.”
“Fat chance!”  
Some of the clones huddled, wondering just how their brother was going to do this.  Few of them were comfortable with an eating-contest, given their newness to the world of flavors and food.  The ones that did eat more than simple things tended to take things slowly, to savor it. Some couldn’t handle the idea of being in a contest in which one was to shovel food into one’s mouth in a rapid manner, heedless of waste.  A few had been the subject of one of Horde Prime’s more gruesome entertainments – force-feeding to test their devotion.  They were, nonetheless, interested in the contest and its outcome in their desire to learn all they could about various Etherian cultures. They simply couldn’t fathom entering such a contest themselves.  
And here their eldest-to-independence brother was, ready to take up the challenge.  
The buzzer sounded.  An assistant shoved pies to each contestant.  All of the fine fur on Catra’s face was sticky with blue syrup and berry-bits in short order.  Adora was knocking out tins and tossing them behind her like everything in them had been made of air.  
“Oh, such a mess!” groused an elderly woman in the crowd as she shook her broom.  “Messy, messy! You should chew your food!  Razz spent all day yesterday baking! And so did that nice young man!”
Hordak delicately pierced a pie with a claw and casually ate one berry.  He ate a single berry from his first pie, breaking not a sweat, no mess and clearly in last place.  
“Ha!” Catra shouted, diving into her fifth pie. “Did you plan to just sit here and mock us?”
“Nom, nom, nom, nom,” was the extent of Adora’s utterances as she polished off a seventh tin.  
“Time’s almost up!” Perfuma announced.  
“Hey, Glimmer?”  Bow said, nudging his girlfriend, “Do you see Entrapta?  I don’t like the way she is smiling.”  
Hordak was looking around in apparent boredom as he licked another berry off the tip of a claw.  
Suddenly – and no one knew what happened first: Entrapta laughed in a raucous cackle. Hordak stood straight and tall and his cheeks peeled back from his eye-grooves down to his upper lip, he unhinged his jaw and his entire mouth opened up in a snake-like maw, showing a glowing row of red teeth.  
His mouth had suddenly become larger than a pie-tin, and, in fact, larger than most Etherians’ entire heads.  
He grabbed pie after pie, dumping them from the tin into his mouth!  He surpassed Catra’s five and then Adora’s seven.  In roughly thirty seconds, ten pies had been deposited into that monstrous cavern and gulped down in a similar manner as a python gulps down a rat.  
Save for some very confused and innocent-looking clones (who seemed to think everybody knew that they could do this, if need be), the entire crowd was screaming..
Abject terror of a former Dark Lord ruled this day!  
“Are you getting this, Emily?!” Entrapta exclaimed, affectionately patting the robot’s chassis.  “This is the best social experiment ever!”  
Adora was panting and sweating.  She was panicked and was slightly glowing, as if she was ready to bring out She-Ra to protect the crowd at any second.  Catra’s eyes were as wide as the tins they’d been eating pies from.  
“You knew about this?!” Bow demanded of Entrapta.  
“Relax!” she said, “He’s not going to hurt anybody!  It’s fundamental spacebat physiology!”  
“None of us knew about it!” Glimmer hissed.
“Well, they only employ it in emergencies,” Entrapta explained.  “I guess…there never was one until now! Aahahahhahaa!”  
“Does this constitute cheating?” Scorpia asked.
Hordak put his mouth back together and carefully, even daintily, took a white cloth napkin and gently patted the tiniest of crumbs from his lips.  
“It appears as though I have conquered this challenge,” he said.  
Entrapta was freely doing an evil laugh. She pumped her fist as Hordak gave her a conspiratorial smile.  “Best social experiment ever!”  
Etherians were running about and cowering in terror.  Entrapta walked up to the picnic table and Hordak held out his hand to hers.  “Shall we go to the music pavilion for a dance?”
Emily continued a rolling recording of the complete chaos.  
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stellaestra · 4 years ago
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how would stray kids interact with mc in high school if they ever met? // high school au headcanons [stray kids/reader]
pairing: skz hyung line + mc [reader]
description: who would mc interact with in high school if they ever met? what kind of interactions would they have? // bulletpoints headcanons + small snippets
genre: platonic, high school au, friendship, humour, hurt/comfort
author’s note: this could be a stand alone or not, the mc is the same bodyguard/intern au!mc...it's just a "what ifs" kinda thing, fellas
p.s. some of the scenarios are based off real life events that happened to me in high school but i overly exaggerated some of them for the shit and giggles,, tell me which event actually happened to me in the askbox lmao I'm curious
pls I'm funny i swear
cw: minor swearing, just teenagers being teenagers, idiots, mention of blood (?) uhh mentions of violence (??)
unedited
// no beta read, we’ll die like men
---
bang chan
mc is a '00 liner,
she doesn't interact with her seniors pt.1
to interact with them; it would have to be a school event or a collab project between the seniors and the juniors
possibly would be approached first by chan during sports day or a school festival for something
he thought that she's a pretty decent track runner when he saw sprint during the sports day track event
after that incident, chan would greet her in the hallways or wherever if he ever comes across her
mc would always awkwardly greet him back
“hey! you’re that really fast track runner, you did great that day!” chan complimented her in the hallways. out loud.
mc prays to whoever above there that chan would stop talking so loud as she could feel her face burn when she felt eyes on her.
cue to her awkwardly smiling at him and nodding, “yep, that’s me, yes, alright, senior chan.”
chan finds her adorable ever since that first few encounters
he also found out that she hangs out with felix just as much as he does
(love rivals (for felix) arc when)
he doesn’t know who to be envious of
that mc gets to spend so much time with lix or
felix being able to spend so much time with her
the never-ending saga
(love rivals (for felix) arc turned into possible rivals to friends arc)
(okay, im joking)
their respective friends group made a running joke
about how chan and mc are love rivals for felix
(it eventually became theirs as well)
(it's funny)
once he made her go off-tangent about felix
she was really passionate about his freckles and smile
for a moment
he really did think that she has a crush on him
no surprises there tho
felix IS absolutely cute
(friends arc?? omg, all for felix, HA)
he really really finds her adorable
he could go on for days
esp her little habit of covering her mouth when she speaks
sweater paws bc he almost always sees her with a jacket on even if it was a hot day
it's like a second skin on her
he once asked her if she ever removes her jacket
“only when im on school ground or during school events like assembly, i’ll take it off, senior chan.”
“eh? don’t you feel warm underneath that during a hot day?”
“...i do remove it sometimes, i guess...but i like wearing it bc it’s comforting.”
one time chan saw her without her jacket and wears short-sleeves uniform, he really wanted to shower her in his affections n also it’s such a rare sight that he almost couldnt recognized her
“haha hey, you didn’t wore your jacket today!”
“they’re in the laundry and...today’s a hot day...unfortunately, haah.”
he once tried to ruffle her hair but found her dodging his hand so fast at breakneck speed
that he was kinda concerned
she told him that her hair hasn't been washed yet so it's dirty
but the thing is: she told him every time he tried to ruffle her hair
“you’re not letting me pat your head on purpose.”
“senior chan, i wouldn’t do such a thing.” he noticed the little teasing smile before it disappeared.
he wondered briefly if she has always been this playful and cheeky with others her age
chan is aware that she speaks formally towards him out of habit though so he lets it slide and let her take her time growing comfortable with him.
he knew she was lying but let's her be anyway
bc she's his cute little junior
---
lee minho
another case of mc's "no seniors juniors interaction"
minho’s very attractive so mc will definitely avoid him at all cost
plus, he looks intimidating to her so bye bye
to not step on any of her classmates' landmines that has the hots for him
drama isn't her thing, she already witness a handful and even got thrown into the fire as fuel before
no thank you she liked having her life in high school as peaceful as possible
mc would make her conversations with him very short n blunt
she's not gonna catch anyone's hands today, my dudes
really, she doesn’t
minho thinks of her like a small kitten that needs to be taken care of
bc of how she always scutters away from chan whenever he’s with him
if they ever interact
it would be when the juniors have the collab with their seniors
like a science fair, where the students have to come up with things to showcase
his class coincidentally collabs with her class for that particular event
he told chan about it and he have never seen chan pout and deflate like that
the only person he does that to is felix...if not, it’s jeongin.
chan sure adores this little junior other than felix huh…
then again, felix and mc does hangout a lot and so does jisung and her
so he took this chance as to know more abt her
coughs because jisung seems to be talking a lot about her coughs
(minho + mc love rivals (for jisung) arc pt. 2 when)
(mc really about to fight 2 seniors because she's stealing their respective juniors huh)
(the never-ending saga of love rivals)
he approached her inside that shared classroom for the collab event
she looked constipated when he approached her group of friends
even more so when he directly asked for name and whatnot
it kinda made him want to tease her even more now
he found out her name and what they were planning to do
heard her cursing under her breath
he decided to join their group on the whim
found out that mc is just a little shy whenever he approached her
her friends are somewhat protective of her
he got glared at by one of them once when he wanted to greet mc in the hallways
and mc kind of hid half of herself behind them
so whenever she’s on her own, he would try to approach her as slowly as possible
like. dealing with a cat and you’re a stranger trying to gain their trust
what he never will forget nor stop teasing her was about
her spinning on her heels to walk into the direction she was previously coming from
just to avoid him
he couldn't help but find it hilarious
he won her over when he brings the topic of cats wandering around their school campus
saw how her eyes lit up brightly
“the stray cats here are fun to play with, right?”
“yeah, me and friends decided to name a few of them too!”
he mentioned it to her because he saw her playing with the cats when she was waiting for someone or when she has time to play with them during recess
and the ramblings of a high schooler about cats commences
he wasn’t bothered about how much she talked
would nod along with what she says
because wow, shes really passionate about cats
that's a huge bonus for minho
and that was how minho adopted another kitten
whenever they weren’t busy with their own things, they would play with the cats together
playdate with cats <3
she would tell him that one particular grey cat was called
“this cat’s name is miss universe! they’re so cute, right?” she picked the cat up and cuddle with it, eyes sparkling with joy
“why did you guys name them that?”
“because why not?”
“fair enough point.”
and she laughs
he was glad that she stopped being so cautious around him if he was being honest
since the way chan was talking about her so affectionately made him really curious about her
casually mentions that jisung talks about her a lot
expected her to be bashful about it
but all she does was
“oh, cool, what did he say? I’m a weeb? Hah, he’s the same as I am” + "he should've said to it my face, senior minho, hmph"
so making her flustered backfired on him
poor minho
here’s your “you tried” star
mwah
so yeah, minho adopted a new cat (his little junior)
---
seo changbin
same case as the two above, unfortunately
if they do ever interact, it's short and pleasantries
mc does kinda find him intimidating to certain extent
she's not good with dealing with intimidating looking people
but when he smiles, her shoulders feel less tense when she interacts with him
thinks of him as a pretty cool senior
he made her listen to his rap once n she told him that he's so cool n that stuck with him for days
imagine a junior telling you that you're so cool with that starry-eyed expression
your ego would go off the rooftop
after that, changbin would make it out of his way to greet her in the hallways
RAP MUSIC BUDDIES???? POTENTIAL
pat her on the head occasionally
if she doesn't dodge like hell away from his hands
“why do you keep avoiding them”
“no, don’t pat me, you’re treating me like a cat”
“I’m not?” lies, ever since minho told him that she reminds him of a cat, he really thought about it more
“you have that same look minho gives me when he tries to pat me…hyung…”
“we’re really going to make you call us oppa one day, watch us”
“um, yeah, no.”
“let your cute senior pat your head!!”
“im gonna run away!”
he knows that the younger ones in their friend group do interact with her
esp felix and jisung
for innie’s circumstances, that’s different
she does comes to him every once in awhile to abuse her title of his cute little junior to get a chance to listen to a teaser of his raps or songs he composes
found out that she does like rap songs! a lot more than he thought
they became those friends who shares new songs they found out and share it with each other
even at ungodly hours like 2am in the morning
that would not stop them
“this song reminds me of you”
“hey hey hey listen to this, psst”
“This shit SLAPS, go listen or else im gonna fight you in the school hallway, coward”
he became smug about it and boast about his knowledge to 3racha
jisung complained that he thought she only listened to anime songs or soft indie songs because he saw her playlists before
changbin told them that she has other playlists that’s for more “intense and aggressive” songs
they were floored and the conversation starts like this,
“what do you mean she likes listening to yours and ours music and raps?”
“im not kidding, she does! she even showed me her playlists that were filled with rap, rock and metal songs!!”
“my little mc? likes those songs? are you sure you’re not dreaming?”
“it’s a public playlist, i even followed her playlists”
“If you’re wrong, hyung, im really gonna fight you on this! bc I KNOW her first”
“doesn’t mean that you know her BETTER”
lots of petty bickerings
chan and jisung has a big revelation about mc that day at school
(there goes mc’s little rep within their group of friends)
he did warned them to not tell her that he told them about it and
that they actually are aware of her music taste
or else
she tried to rap really fast one time, trying to rap like how he does
he had to witness her biting her tongue live
changbin would never think someone like her would have
such a vulgar language
every profanity he knows came out of her mouth
he quickly got her something to soothe her wounded tongue
after fretting over her though, he started teasing her
relentlessly
she threatened to sue him
"I'll sue you"
"with what money?"
"my 2 fucking dollars lunch money!"
"that's not enough to pay anything, not even your attorney!"
"fight me!"
he’s that older brother figure that mc would come to whenever she has no one to tell her woes to
their relationship turned out to have lots of playful banters and teasings
he gives very comforting hugs and pats
mc doesn’t want to admit it tho
well, until, changbin caught her snuggling into his hugs one fine day
“admit it, you like them, you like my hugs”
“okay, fine, i DO like them, they’re great hugs, don’t let it go to your head.”
“I KNEW IT”
“You’re so loud, shut up, hyung!”
“OH MY GOD, YOU FINALLY ADMIT TO IT, IM GONNA TELL THE WORLD-KSDFNKSDNF-”
"FUCK- I SAID, SHUSH"
rip in peace, changbin
he didn’t expect someone like her would have so much strength to smother his mouth with her hand and shut it
the more you know
curiousity killed the cat????
---
hwang hyunjin
avoidance at all cost (pt.2) despite being in the same year
why? exhibit a: he's considered very attractive in her year and that her classmates n batch mates have crushes on him
coughs one of the school princes coughs
their batch year prince
she's really gonna swerve away from him
interactions will be kept at a bare minimum
one time hyunjin n some others wanted to borrow a textbook from their class because they have forgotten theirs n he chose hers
she could feel cold sweat forming as she feels the death stare of some of her classmates
that gta [wasted] sfx whenever ur character dies
yeah that's mc
that was probably the last time she would even think about it
when he returned it back to her, he smiled at her, the really cute eye smile and she felt like she made the target on her back bigger lol
goodbye mc you've lived a good life
your friends will definitely will play never gonna give you up during your funeral (it's a promise)
jokes aside
hyunjin would probably noticed the panicked look in her eyes and wondered why
since his friends like felix and...jisung...and seungmin are like on good terms with her
he probably wondered about it a lot
borderlines on overthinking since both felix and jisung are particularly close to her
so she should know that he’s friends with them
ever since that encounter, it would come across his head whenever he saw her hanging out freely with felix or jisung or both of them
or when he come across her in the hallways
sometimes he wants to greet her but it feels like it would scare her away
esp when she looks ready to run into the opposite direction
if he ever made eye contact with her
so his plan to befriend mc has started
tried to join into the trio hangout; jisung, felix and mc
mc never did protest his presence like at all
but does occasionally look stiff when he's near her
eventually shes comfortable enough with him
but not enough to actually hang out with him alone though
that thought kind of made him feel envious towards the other boys
and a little left out
as a teenager, he has too many emotions to handle so
jisung and felilx caught the idea and told him to let her
take her time because she kinda. shy. (???)
that didn't stop him from mulling over it tho sometimes
one day he found her waiting at the bus stop
it was in the evening, she was still in her school uniform
he was kinda on an errand run too
kinda didn’t want to sit on the same bench as her
afraid that she might run away
she noticed him standing there eventually albeit very anxiously and kinda awkward
a casual greeting slipped past her lips which shocked hyunjin to his very core
he splutters back a reply
“on an errand run, errand boy?"
"huh?"
“uh, um, pretend that i didn’t say anything.”
“right, sure, but may i sit next to you, the bus seemed to be late and my legs are kinda tired.”
“oh, uh, yeah, sure, but you didn’t have to ask, y’know?”
“well, didn’t wanna scare you off…"
“it’s nothing personal, if that’s what you’re worried about,” + “it’s just. didn’t wanna step on a landmine and the girls in our batch seemed to adore you a lot and me being close to you might set off the wrong signal…?”
“that’s absurd, you’re...being unreasonable..i mean, its none of their business-!”
“i know, im sorry, my bad, it’s not your fault either, it’s not anyone’s fault, to be honest.”
for a moment, he found her reasoning to be petty and unreasonable until it finally clicks inside her head, from her point of view when he really thought it through.
“...no wait, im sorry, i think, i kinda get why when i really thought about it.”
“yeah, it’s no biggie, don’t worry, im sorry too, we’ll both get over it”
“...um, we’re friends, right?”
“...i suppose so, if you dont mind, dummy.”
a giddy smile crossed his face while mc struggles to not stare at him looking so cute like that as she coughs into her hand, avoiding eye-contact
pretty boys have too much power in their hands
and she’s one of their fallen victims towards their charms
this isn’t fair for her heart
so when the bus arrived
they sat beside each other on the bus
hyunjin did most of the chattering while mc listens
he was so glad he cleared smth up with her
if she allows it, he would definitely tried to hug her
until he remembers that one time changbin told him he almost got punch in the face by her
when he tried doing it the first time and startled her
yeah no not now
maybe sometime in the near future, a long-awaited hug would be great
(if he was honest tho, he really wanted to cry when she told him the truth)
(it felt like a heartache)
but it’s okay now though
they’re friends now (somewhat) and that’s all that matters
---
[masterlist]
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h2bakugou · 4 years ago
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Hi there. I want to make a request about Bakugou x Kind! Reader (they're not a couple yet). It's about the Cultural Festtival arc and I was thinking that Reader has talent with singing and dancing ballet, showing everyone what she can do for the festival. Some moves and everybody is choosing who's gonna the music part, Bakugou doesn't wanna be the drummer so she says with a sweet voice while holding his hand: "I know you can do it Katsuki-kun, so give it your best. I'm your biggest cheerleader" making him blush accepting to be the drummer. Also, she gives them a little demostration of her singing but she decides sing along with Jirou and maybe help the ones who are gonna dance.
Practicing was kind of easy 'cause she was cheering up everyone. Especially Bakugou talent with the drum. The beat was so tentative at the point that she wanted to dance.
I'm runing out of ideas at this point :( . The rest is up to you. I'll know it'll amazing
a/n: hi!! ooo this is cute! i love flustered bakugou so much omg
summary: the cultural festival is rapidly approaching and you’re excited to show what you have to offer. but you also help bakugou decide what he’s going to do.
key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (e/c) - eye color / (h/c) - hair color / (y/q) - your quirk
warnings: swearing, fluff
word count: 795
»»————- ★ ————-««
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»»————- ★ ————-««
The Cultural Festival was quickly approaching as your class prepared what they were going to do. And when it had been decided that a song and dance with super cool special effects was going to be what you were all doing, you were among the many that were excited.
You had a few talents you wanted to showcase, some that would work well with your classmates, especially Mina, who was looking for someone else with a dance background. You had some ballet experience and you amazed her with some of your moves.
Even more so, when looking for someone to sing, you decided to also showcase some of your singing, which shocked everyone.
“Who knew you could sing so good!” Mina cheered, admiring the talent you had. Jiro was also super excited, deciding that maybe a duet of sorts could be worked out for the two of you to sing together.
But when it came to deciding who was going to play what instrument, there was really only one choice for the drums. 
Bakugou Katsuki.
Kaminari teased him about it seeming to be really hard, but it wasn’t until you used a bit of your own persuasion that got him to play a little drum solo.
“I know you can do it Katsuki-Kun, so give it your best! I’m your biggest cheerleader!” You smiled, encouraging him to do his best. The tips of his ears along with his cheeks burned a bright red color at your statement, as well as the warm feeling of your hand cupping his. He was so madly in love with you, he was begging to wish you’d say how you felt already. He wasn’t going to confess to you unless he knew for sure that you liked him back.
He was still waiting. He could assume how you felt, based on your actions, but he needed solid proof. He wasn’t about to embarrass himself by asking you out and you had just been friendly the whole time. 
During practices, you would help out as much as you could, always finding a way to trail back to Bakugou and listen to him play. He was always doing his best, and it always sounded great, even when they were ‘struggling’ to come up with the right rhythm and beat for the song.
When the day came to get on stage, you were a little nervous. But this time, it was Bakugou who encouraged you to loosen up.
“You’ll do fine dumbass.” Bakugou had pulled you aside, resting his hand on your shoulder. You smiled and sucked in a breath before letting it out.
“Thank you.” You hugged him, wrapping your arms around him. It was sudden, and Bakugou stood frozen for a few seconds before hugging you back. Kirishima caught a glimpse of it and smiled to himself, watching as a relationship slowly formed between the two of you.
He’d placed a small bet that Bakugou was going to ask you out soon.
On stage and during your performance, you sang along with Jiro and then joined the dancers, creating a wonderful performance. It was amazing, and when you looked out at the crowd who were dancing and jumping with happiness, it made you feel good.
You knew everyone was enjoying it, even those who had tested you before the show had even been thought of. It was truly magical.
Cleanup was fun, even more so when you got to hang out with Bakugou a little more. 
“We did so good.” You smiled, carrying some trash to the dumpster beside Bakugou.
“I told you we would, I don’t know why you were so nervous, dumbass.” Bakugou tossed his trash over the side before taking yours and tossing it. You bit your bottom lip and shoved your nerves aside, leaning and planting a small kiss on his cheek.
Bakugou blushed and groaned.
“Come on. We’ve got more to clean up.” Bakugou huffed, holding your hand for a few seconds on the walk back to the gym. 
Kirishima eyed the two of you as you returned, noting how close you had been walking beside each other. More so, he watched your pinky leave Bakugou’s, almost like you had been holding his hand. Kirishima was getting closer to the truth, he had to tell someone.
He turned to Kaminari and began explaining.
“I think Bakugou and (Y/n) might be some sort of thing.” Kirishima whispered.
“Bakugou totally likes her, it’s so obvious.” Kaminari groaned, hanging his arms by his sides, tired from moving so much ice.
“You knew!?” Kirishima whisper-yelled.
“It’s obvious!” Mina and Sero joined. Bakugou gave the group a glare who in turn smiled and waved at him.
The group started laughing as Bakugou approached, it was going to be a long day.
»»————- ★ ————-««
masterlist
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louehvolution · 3 years ago
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have you seen people’s tags on that post (about the festival having no press) though? they’re saying this must’ve been louis and his team’s choice, that they decided this should be an experience for his fans only lol i admit i can be too pessimistic sometimes but after years of evidence i just don’t think louis is deliberately making bad decisions regarding his own career
I heard about it and have no patience for it.
How can anyone believe that an artist—who has a problem with his press revolving around his personal life and has had to battle constant erasure as an artist—would refuse press about this project that showcases his artistic genius on multiple levels, that he spent so much time planning and preparing for as a singer, and that was a huge financial investment? It’s absurd. Wanting to give back to fans doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be covered by the press, that no one but fans should even hear about it? [Also there were other artists involved too... and haven't these same fans made a point of Louis using his platform to support them?]
No doubt he also decided to give the exclusive of his livestream record to TBHonest and Celebmix. Why would he want people to know about him being an artist, performing and organising concerts—that could lead to them wanting to listen to his songs and buy tickets for those shows, after all. Wouldn't want that.
But this isn’t new. How many excuses have been peddled over the years to avoid confronting the obvious sabotage going on with his career?
Nothing is wrong. It's that Louis doesn’t want his music to chart or recognition for it; doesn’t want to be acknowledged by other artists, or to be known as an artist—let alone a credible one. He just doesn't want his music to be heard or appreciated by anyone outside his current fanbase.
Why? Take your pick: because his music career is just something to pass the time while he supports someone else, or until he can fulfill his true purpose of working behind the scenes; or he’s just too 'indie' for it—what indie artists do is work backwards into obscurity, you know; or it’s all about organic success—which does not require opportunities being secured for his music to be heard by people, of course [In fact the opportunities he has created for himself for just that have been wasted.]—he doesn’t need the industry, that dehumanising machine...
As if he doesn’t have to deal with the downsides of his fame from 1D, without the advantages it should have for his career. As if it’s a comfortable position in the fringes of the industry, isolated from his peers, in a strange limbo where he can have the third biggest livestream of 2020 and yet not get acclaim… while also having a round of press about a hypothetical management company, iHeart tweeting pictures his girlfriend shared from a private wedding, and being called a superstar dad by VEVO on his birthday. He is not avoiding the worst parts of the industry by not being visible as an artist...
And it’s all about the fans… but LTHQ will do nothing to keep the fanbase engaged and satisfied most of the time: not building up excitement and limiting posts about even his big projects on IG, then going inactive for months; Louis unseen except on his girlfriend’s IG or meeting stalkers, then one picture in the studio—so that fans are encouraged to stalk everyone with a personal or professional connection to him. As if there is no risk of fans growing bored, or tired of the focus on his personal life over him and his music, and of the fandom drama worsened by lack of relevant content.
It’s a testament to Louis being so wonderful and his music so amazing that he has the following he has—not to how his career has been handled.
His situation is by design, but I don’t know how anyone can seriously believe it’s his choice. So, same, anon.
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