#which led me to more techno

[koreanbibliophilegirl]

Super late, but I wanted to share this anyway. Technoblade Never Dies!

(The colors look a bit more desaturated than what I saw on my tablet...🤔 oh well.)

[idontcaboose]

Haunted car Au part 11

Previous. Masterpost

When Duke woke up, he remembered the fight he had with Bruce last night. All in all, it was actually what Duke wanted to happen in a way. Duke got full access to “fix” the Batmobile, but just the way Bruce made it sound was just… Infuriating. Like, sure, blame the newly 17 year old kid who had only moved the car, not even a hundred feet, for everything wrong with the car. Being benched until he figured out how to get whoever was possessing the car sucked though.

The good news is that the only people who would be awake to bother him or ask unwanted questions would be Alfred and maybe Tim. If Tim got on his case it would be simple to call in Alfred or to threaten him with calling in Alfred. The only other people that use the cave like the front door are Dick and Jason. Both would be up for hiding the issue from Bruce once explained. Dick would be a bleeding heart to a potential meta/alien kid getting stuck because of their powers. Jason would keep the secret just on principle, especially if told Duke got blamed for something he had no hand in. Jason would probably help set the kid up after he gets out of the car too, assuming Bruce doesn't pull a Bruce. It would be nice to not be the only meta in the family though, and the kid would already know about the family, but that would be the kids choice.

After a short breakfast, Duke made his way back down to the cave, only to hear a…Rave?

He made his way through the cave following the muted music to… the car…

“What in every hell are you doing?” Duke could not help to exclaim as he saw the Batmobile, for lack of a better comparison, dancing.

The car was strobing its headlights from the yellow driver's lights, to the brights, to the color changing LEDs Jason and Dick put in for a party prank that Bruce never removed, all to the beat of some techno that had to have been in Tim's Playlist. The car stopped in its perceived dancing to open its door in another mockery of a wave causing the music to become almost deafening as the door opened. Duke had to cover his ears as the kid in the car panicked and set off its alarm before turning everything off. If Duke thought the cacophony before was deafening, the silence after was even more so.

“Seriously, what the hell kid?” Duke said with as much incredulity as he could muster.

The car responded with a slow turning of its front wheels and a quieter sound of ‘Sorry’ by Justin Beiber playing, which could have been from either Dick or Steph’s playlists.

“You know what? I am not going to deal with song names and lyrics to guess from. Give me a second.” Duke went to the Batcomputer and found Tim's folder containing all of the sound bytes and clips that he uses when he gets real malicious with the power points for his team, the JL, or for Bruce when he is being exceptionally pissy, and downloads it onto a large USB stick. It took a little longer than Duke expected, but within an hour the USB was downloading its new playlist into the Batmobile’s radio storage. The sound bytes should be better than songs, right?

“GOOOOOOODDDDDD MOOOOORRRRRRNNNING GOOOOOOOTTTHHHHAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!!!!!!!”

“God dammit Tim”

Next

@kizzer55555 @sebas-nights @candeartist422   @trappednyourheart @fandom-life-corrupted-me @tkiesai @2lbballpeenhammer @admiralwidow @rewrittenwrongs @whotfevenknowsanymore @symmetricalastigmatism @thespacedragons @atinygracie @okami-love  @lesbian-spider-drone @1n0sss @forgetmenot-bluepurple

[lightningonatether]

Why c!endersmile were actually friends

ALTERNATIVELY TITLED: my crazy thesis on two bad bitches with not a single moment of screentime fueled purely by my own insanity

ALTERNATIVELY alternatively titled: to all loreheads please be nice i dont usually lorepost. feel free to engage though

So my return is courtesy of litchi, who mentioned c!endersmile like once a month ago, and got me thinking about them so hard I couldn't just walk away.

Namely, litchi reminded me of a few theories I have concerning c!endersmiles relationship, that I developed back when i was watching the SMP live. This might make my recollection of some events a little fuzzy, but everything should be canon compliant cause I was thinking about all this as I watched.

I was already watching ranboo pretty regularly at the point the prison arc started, I cant resist a really weird guy with horrible debilitating anxiety. I already thought the whole hearing dreams voice in his head was really interesting, but as the prison arc evolved it became clear that ranboos relationship with dream wasnt just some hallucination inside ranboos head and actually had some substance.

My theory really started to develop into what it is now with the explosions on the prison roof which led to the lockdown and tommys death; these were confirmed to be set by ranboo in his enderwalk state. He was one of the only people online at the time, ranboo found tnt in his inventory afterwards, and I think dream also told sam he knew ranboo did it at some point, although I can't find the exact stream.

At that point it was obvious that enderwalking ranboo held a different set of beliefs, alliances, and likely more memories than the "awake" ranboo we saw most of the time on streams, and was acting against amnesiac ranboos wishes. The explosions above the prison along with the reveal that ranboo had been regularly visiting dream in prison confirmed that dream and ender!ranboo were some sort of allies.

At the time, my assumption was that ranboo had simply made an attempted prison break. It wouldnt be a stretch to assume, if ranboo had visited regularly, that he would have noticed the poor conditions and tried to break his ally out. However, after the confirmation of the staged finale, and a better look at cdreams motivations(wanting to provide protection for punz, separating himself very publicly from his only known ally to keep them safe) the idea that enderwalk ranboo, an ally of dreams, would go against dreams explicit wishes to stay locked in that prison began making less sense.

It would only make sense if either:

enderwalk never knew about the plan or

enderwalk knew about the plan but went against it anyway

1 is a very tempting explanation. c!dream rarely lets anyone close. even punz, who knew the plan intimately, wasn't aware of dreams true motivations to bring the server back to a peaceful time before conflict. but..... it didnt sit right with me.

Two reasons for this: I know some people may have stopped watching/never watched ranboo lore, but towards the end of the prison arc, ranboo began seeing flashes of "lessons" appear on screen. These lessons all had that utilitarian and paranoid feel a lot of dreams actions/reasoning have, like "dont trust anybody"(paraphrasing, thats just what i remember the core of that message being) or "never hesitate to gain a favor from someone, you can use it to get something from them later". anyone remember technos favor to dream? It was heavily implied these lessons were meant to be from dream, directed at c!enderwalk. This would mean the two spent a significant amount of time together. not only that, dream was sharing his *life philosophy* with ender!ranboo. thats not just something dream would share with anyone, and implies a close allyship at the least. its almost like he was teaching a pupil. yeah, sure, some of his lessons were a little fucked up and weird in that dream sort of way, but he was looking out for the kid. and it seems that enderwalk wasnt hesitant to act on those lessons either. he promised to keep a shulker safe for foolish, gaining a favor, and didnt sign a single one of those prison visitation waivers, on top of sam discovering they were corrupted into enderian when he checked LMAO.

This alone would be enough to persuade me enderwalk HAD to have been let in on the plan, at least so he wouldnt cause any problems (such as trying to get his ally out of prison).

but the other reason is... ranboos stated philosophy against conflict. he doesnt like sides, he wishes they wouldn't exist. I remember watching a stream and nearly jumping out of my seat when he told chat he just wished the server could just be one big happy family! because that is nearly word for word what a bunch of loreheads were saying about dreams motivations at the time(and now obviously lmao). if we keep in mind their contact for those "lessons", ranboos visits to dream in prison, AND the fact that dreams and ranboos motivations coincide on a level even Above dream and punzs(punz seemed to have been unaware of and also not particularly motivated by dreams wish for peace) i cant really imagine dream not letting this guy in on the plan.

which leaves us with 2) ranboo tried to break dream out against dreams wishes.

Maybe ranboo was just an ally and chickened out after he saw dreams mistreatment in prison and went against the plan, but... dream missed him after sam barred him from visiting. he asked sapnap to deliver a note to ranboo(just a smiley face, likely with the hopes of triggering an enderwalk) despite fearing for his ally punz enough to lock himself in prison. it feels reminicent to how dream sounds when he comments on george not visiting him once. like he missed a friend despite trying so hard to separate himself from the ones he'd had.

Maybe ranboo tried to break in because he saw a friend being mistreated, and couldn't leave the plan stand.

And that kind of makes sense doesn't it? that dream, someone whos paranoid about how peoples connection to him puts them in danger, would choose an amnesiac who spends most of their time terrified of dream, and wouldnt remember any of his plans or their friendship to use against either of them in the first place?

[robin-evry]

Heeeyyyyy~ it’s a me again, so just watched the Transformers one movie, and it got me thinking of what would happen if Yuu was a cybertronian/Transformer? Like alien robot that Can transform into a vehicle isekaied to a magic School? Imagine the fun! the chaos! They can pick up the overblot students and put them in air jail like a misbehaving cat! Ortho finally has a bestie!!!!

Sure thing, ask and you shall receive

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐂𝐘𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐍 👾🤖

Cybertronians are a species of autonomous robotic organisms originating from the distant planet called Cybertron that had their essences transferred into robotic bodies known as "Transformers".

Cybertronian!Yuu one of by far most unique students ever, they tower over most of the students. By cybertronian!yuu has received some modification in twst that helps them fit in the world more.

They can partially transform parts of their body into mechanical tools, like shields, scanners, or even small weaponry. This ability has led to some interesting duels in combat class, where they improvises with forms no one expects.

Cybertronian!Yuu sees magic as something like a digital matrix, with each spell having its own “source code.” While they may struggle with traditional spellcasting, Cybertronian Yuu can often rewrite spells or make unique modifications, leading to unexpected effects. This adaptability often puts them at odds with teachers, yet impresses friends like Ace and Deuce.

Cybertronian!Yuu can store and retrieve a ton of information like a living database, sometimes glitching and blurting out random trivia. Ace and Deuce find it hilarious, but it occasionally becomes handy, especially during exams.

Do you know the meme of the song I woke up in a new Bugatti, that's the first year riding on cybertronian!yuu on their transformation form. They have become their friends chauffeur around school pretty much everywhere.

Ortho + Cybertronian!Yuu : robot besties.

NRC tend to call them both a “tech wiz.” They often exchange “upgrades” and tech secrets, and Ortho even helps Cybertronian!Yuu unlock hidden Cybertronian features that they were previously unaware of. They’re like the school’s tech-savvy duo, making Idia’s life easier and sometimes scaring him with their synchronized techno-speak.

Cybertronian! Yuu has an “echo mode” that lets them record and replay sounds, which Rook finds utterly fascinating for tracking creatures or investigating mysteries. Sometimes, they use it to replay people’s voices, teasing Ace or copying Riddle’s strict tone. Grim once caught them imitating the Headmage and nearly exposed them!

Their system has an auto-translate function for languages, magical runes, and even animal sounds, making them NRC’s unofficial interpreter. This skill shines with Sebek, who tries to one-up them in translating ancient text, and with Kalim, who loves hearing animal translations from the Spirit of the Dunes.

Inspired by Pomefiore’s focus on beauty, they develop a “glamour mode” that projects holographic outfits, allowing them to “try on” new looks with a simple transformation. Rook and Vil are fascinated by their ability to shift appearances at will, and Vil even pushes them to “update” their glamour mode regularly to keep up with fashion trends.

Cybertronian!yuu is very curious about the world around them, since originally back in Cybertron there wasn't any organic like plant-life. You can find them being curious and browsing things that find them interesting.

When seriously damaged, cybertronian!Yuu has an auto-repair protocol that initiates a regeneration process. This usually involves a “recharging stasis” where they power down for a few hours to restore internal systems by transforming into a metal box to repair any damages coming to their body and database.

They also have the ability to heck or connect themselves into different technologies, they can see through the technology database as well copying the abilities of the technology.

They discovers they can use holo-projections to mimic voices and create illusions. With Ace and Grim, Yuu pulls harmless pranks like projecting an image of Crowley, scaring students into thinking he’s around.

During battles, cybertronian!yuu possessed a wide range of arsenal weapons. But one of their favorite styles of fighting is basically running over the enemies in their transformation form.

Imagine overblot Azul laughing and yapping about something, and the next thing he got hit by a vehicle as well putting their enemies in time out.

[meridiansdominoes]

Hi! I've read Dominoes and Espirit D'Corps (probably butchered that, but it's French, so) like. At least a dozen times each. I love both so much. I always cry at the part where Kyber and Hevy meet--its just. It's so good!!!

Can I ask how you came up with the plot? If you want, feel free to rant about your creative process, I'd really like to know how your brain works

Hi! I'm so so glad you've been enjoying them! Thank you so much!

Oh my, about how I came up with the plot, haha... hm. Well, for Dominoes, it was back when I was in high school and clone wars was in full swing, so I was reading a TON of fanfiction. I had noticed that there were tons and tons of fanfiction where Jedi are thrown back in time or given a chance to try and fix the timeline, and many of them were very good! But there were very few that dealt with clones in that situation back then. I noticed this because of my clone obsession, haha, I really wanted one, but I couldn't find anything to satisfy me. As I thought about it more, I realized it could be really interesting to see how non Force-sensitive characters would deal with such a situation, especially ones that don't have nearly as much authority as a Jedi. Figuring out that dynamic was fascinating for me, and so rough drafts of the first chapter began! In the beginning I didn't even have a reason for how or why they time traveled, either. I just wanted it to happen, so I wrote it! It's been fun putting things together to make the plot more coherent now. Of course, this was before we got news that season 7 would be released, so I had no idea we would get more Echo content, thus his involvement with the bad batch and survival past the techno union nonsense isn't included, but it's still been fun!

For Esprit de Corps... I remember it was new year's eve several years ago and I was having some serious writer's block with Dominoes, so I decided to pull up a blank document. I had just watched the Force Awakened again and was mourning the lack of Finn character development, and started to brainstorm how his interactions with the clones would have gone. That led me to remember the term 'esprit de corps', which basically refers to a sense of kinship or loyalty felt between members of a group... and then 'esprit' looks a lot like 'espiritu', which is spirit in Spanish... so then I thought it would be really fun if ghost clones were helping Finn throughout his adventure. It really evolved from there!

Thanks for the ask haha! It was fun to remember how these fics began! Keep an eye out for updates in the near future ;)

[meret118]

In 2008, a software developer in San Francisco named Curtis Yarvin, writing under a pseudonym, proposed a horrific solution for people he deemed “not productive”: “convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.”

Yarvin, a self-described reactionary and extremist who was 35 years old at the time, clarified that he was “just kidding.” But then he continued, “The trouble with the biodiesel solution is that no one would want to live in a city whose public transportation was fueled, even just partly, by the distilled remains of its late underclass. However, it helps us describe the problem we are trying to solve. Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide.”

He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”

Yarvin’s disturbing manifestos have earned him influential followers, chief among them: tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his onetime Silicon Valley protégé Senator J.D. Vance, whom the Republican Party just nominated to be Donald Trump’s vice president. If Trump wins the election, there is little doubt that Vance will bring Yarvin’s twisted techno-authoritarianism to the White House, and one can imagine—with horror—what a receptive would-be autocrat like Trump might do with those ideas.

Way back in 2012, in a speech on “How to Reboot the US Government,” he said, “If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” He had also written favorably of slavery and white nationalists in the late 2000s (though he has stated that he is not a white nationalist himself).

Both Thiel and Vance are friends of Yarvin.

. . .

In 2016, Yarvin attended Thiel’s election night party in San Francisco where, according to Chafkin, champagne flowed once it became clear that Thiel’s investment in Donald Trump would pay off.

Since entering politics, Vance has publicly praised—and parroted—Yarvin’s ideas. 

. . .

When Vance ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, Thiel spent an unprecedented $15 million on the campaign and persuaded Trump to endorse him (Vance had previously compared Trump to Hitler). In 2024, Thiel led the charge to convince Trump to pick Vance as V.P.

. . .

Yarvin is the chief thinker behind an obscure but increasingly influential far-right neoreaction, or NRx, movement, that some call the “Dark Enlightenment.” Among other things, it openly promotes dictatorships as superior to democracies and views nations like the United States as outdated software systems. Yarvin seeks to reengineer governments by breaking them up into smaller entities called “patchworks,” which would be controlled by tech corporations.

More at the link.

------

Are you fucking kidding me?!! Why isn't this leading every news report? Is this well known, and I somehow just missed knowing about this yarvin sociopath? This needs to be exposed like project 2050 is!

It's like republicans are deliberately trying to see if they can find someone worse to put in the oval office each time - nixon, reagan, dumbya, trump, and eventually vance.

[owl-with-a-pen]

so ever since Brainiac was introduced on My Adventures with Superman, I've been trying to figure out what Brainy would be like, and look like, if he were introduced. Would he be more robotic, like the LOSH version? Would he be created by Brainiac himself, maybe as a companion for Kara but rejected as a failed experiment at some point? Could he be an organic Coluan merged with Kryptonian tech? Does he look like Brainiac, or wear an image inducer? someone should be asking these questions.

YES! I'm also brimming with questions about this, and with what little we know about Brainiac so far, it's hard for me to stick to a good theory.

So far, the show is suggesting that Brainiac is the AI that ran all of Krypton's computer systems and I'm not sure how to feel about that yet. Part of me thinks there's going to be some sort of twist or big reveal surrounding Brainiac and what/who he really is. Did he have an organic body to begin with? Was it given up to merge with Kryptonian technology? Was he even given a choice? Big shrugs all around.

Needless to say, I'm a big fan of Brainiac's more 'organic' design and in kind, I'd like to see Brainy look like that too - although it'd be cool if he was brought into play and they did go the 'robot' route like the LoSH cartoon. (As long as he has hair, I'm happy. 😉)

I'm still holding out hope that we could get a Legion of Superheroes style plot somewhere further down the line. Especially with the very minor Legion ring Easter egg we got last season, in which case I'd like to see that version of Brainy as a descendent of Brainiac's. Perhaps Brainiac did at some juncture have an organic body and had a family that led to Brainy's conception some thousand years later. Or maybe Brainy's otherwise connected to Brainiac in a more techno-means depending on how the show explains Brainiac's origins. More big shrugs.

I also love your idea though of Brainy being built as a *failed* companion for Kara. That'd be a really cool way of bringing Brainy into the present era as a bit of a change-up. Maybe Brainiac tries to make Brainy appear more humanoid to appease Kara, but he's still melded with Kryptonian technology to remain functional. Brainiac strikes me as pretty inept to Kara's emotional needs (he's not getting a #1 dad mug, that's for sure) and so I imagine an attempt to create a companion would result in a lot of tension between that version of Brainy and Kara at first. Maybe it ends with Brainy learning more from Kara than the other way around. Maybe the *failure* is that Kara softens to Brainiac's mind control the longer she has someone more like her to spend time with. When Brainiac realises he's losing his control over her, he decommissions Brainy and wipes that from Kara's mind along with everything else.

You could even argue that was why Brainiac was resistant to Kara going alone to recruit Clark - because he'd already seen her defy him the first time she was given the opportunity to spend time with someone more like her.

But yes, I also have endless thoughts about this!!

[cherrylng]

Foals interview - Yannis Philippakis [INROCK (April 2008)]

FOALS will be coming to Japan in May with their debut album “Antidotes”!!

"Looking back, I'm glad I caused the problems I caused, and I'm glad I didn't go to the classes I didn't go to."

Yannis Philippakis/Foals INTERVIEW: AI ANAZAWA

Foals are an Oxford band whose name means "Kouma (子馬)". Led by Yannis, who dropped out of Oxford University to concentrate on his band career, the five-piece sound like… If you try to categorise their sound, Yannis himself would probably say that he doesn't agree, but in reality, it's a sound that can't be categorised so easily. Dance, techno, Afrobeat, punk, and other elements are mixed together, and what's most noteworthy is Yannis's squeezed vocals between the deep bass and the fluttering high-pitched guitar sounds, creating an unbalanced and strange arrangement of sounds, but it's cool music that you can dance to, so it's understandable in a way that they're being called "the one to watch this year!" even if the band members don't like it. "Antidotes," produced by David Sitek of TV on the Radio, will be released on March 26th.

I understand you are in the USA at the moment. Yannis Philippakis (vo./g.): Yes, I'm in Seattle today, and I just got driven to this lake by the guys from Sub Pop (label), and it's beautiful here. There's a beach a little bit further out, and it's really nice and quiet.

Before Seattle, you played two concerts in New York, right? Yannis: Yeah, the Bowery Ballroom gig was a lot of fun. It was great to headline in that vein, and it was nice, or surprising, that it was almost sold out. The next day we played a show at a place in deep Brooklyn called the Silent Barn, which is like a house party. It's a place where normal kids live, and they put on their own shows, but it was pretty crazy and fun.

I heard Jimmy (Smith, guitar.) threw up on stage. Yannis: Yeah, at the Bowery Ballroom (laughs). It happens all the time. I go into a trance and I move around and I feel sick and I throw it up. Especially after a show. I don't know why… I don't have that kind of thing.

I see (laughs). Yannis: I bleed more often than I vomit.

It's a bit of a quandary as to whether it's better to throw up or to bleed. Yannis: I don't know. But bleeding is pretty annoying too. For me, I get injured all the time. I've broken my toe and recently I cut my eye during a show and it bled. Jimmy just had a tooth knocked out and he's just had it fixed.

It's rock ‘n’ roll. Yannis: I don't know about that. I'm sure it hurts.

"It's not like we're digging our brains out of our skulls and putting them on a table and putting glasses on them and making them write songs."

Your debut album, "Antidotes", is something different from any other band. Are you satisfied with the album yourself? Yannis: Yeah, we're happy with the album we wanted to make. Looking back, there are things we could have done a bit better, but we're happy with it.

I've been reading a lot of material and it's not clear whether you had David Sitek (TV on the Radio) produce it, or whether you didn't like what he did and had to redo it, but in fact David is ultimately credited as the producer of this album, right? Yannis: No, no, Dave (David) produced the album and he is definitely the producer. We did the whole album with him in New York. There's nothing we added, we just re-mixed it a bit, that's all. We just re-mixed it to sound more like what we did in New York. Dave did a lot of work on it at the mixing stage, so we reworked it so it was closer to the studio version that we were working on with him in New York.

So everyone was happy with the result? David was happy, the band was happy. Yannis: Yeah, well…… (whispering “tsk”).

Oh, why? Yannis: No, because people ask me about it all the time and I have to defend myself every time. He's a great producer, the mix he did was different from what we expected, it was like it wasn't our album anymore. The problem is psychological. We're a pretty sensitive bunch of people, and we made an album in New York with a lot of openness about ourselves, and we wanted to take the album back as our own… I mean, the album was so far from what we had in mind that we had to re-mix it.

I think it was good that you were able to re-mix it yourselves in the end. Yannis: Yeah, it was.

How was the recording in New York itself? Yannis: It was fun. We hardly left the studio. And Dave is a pretty intense guy… That's why I wanted to work with him in the first place. There were a lot of knives in the studio, and we all smoked weed, and yeah, it was good.

Haha… Did you have all the songs in place by the time of recording? Yannis: Yeah. We were going to record 14 songs, but we whittled it down to 11. So the extra ones were already written. The songs were already there, so Dave worked from that and he didn't mess with the structure of our songs. After we recorded it, we all added a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

In the process, you were able to adhere to the so-called Foals rules? Yannis: Which rules?

No chords, only notes above the twelfth fret on the guitar… That's what it says in the bio. Yannis: That's a bit of a joke. I mean, it's nothing serious at all.

But you don't actually use chords, do you? Yannis: Yes, we don't play chords, but it's not like it's an absolute rule against chords. It's not like we only play notes above the 12th fret, there are no rules. We just do what we want to do and if we think it sounds good, we use it. Then we didn't use chords. But that doesn't mean that if someone played a chord, we'd say, "No, no, that's not allowed!" (laughs).

So it's a myth that the rule was made in order to ease the members of the band from criticising each other too much in the beginning when they were making music? Yannis: We were never too critical of each other. It's just been the way of the band from the beginning, and we're comfortable with that way of doing things. And we're a lot more mature now. Also, the relationship between me and Jack (Bevan, drums.) has always been all about arguing. And when I say ‘argument’, I mean it in a positive way. That's why we're still friends. No one is complaining about the constant arguments or the criticism. It's just the way we function. We're just very self-critical.

David mentioned earlier that you never changed the structure of the songs, but that your song structures have a lot to do with your aesthetic, with your preference for methodical music. Yannis: It has something to do with that. I like to think about the structure and how the guitar should fit into it. It's like a craftsman's skill. But it doesn't mean that's the only way I like to do it or that's the only way I write songs. There seems to be a misconception out there that we only think about structure when we make music, but it's all about impulse. It's all intuitive. It's not like we're digging our brains out of our skulls and putting them on a desk and putting glasses on them and making them write songs. It's all instinctive intuition.

It's not like we're thinking about it. Yannis: Yeah, it seems like other people are trying to do that. But that's bullshit. Half the stuff they write about us is stuff we didn't even say. Even if we do say something, it's going to be misinterpreted… Anyway, what I'm saying is that musically, everything we do is instinctive.

"All my high school teachers said I'd never get into Oxford, so I got in just to piss them off."

So people misinterpret it and call you ‘math rock’ (experimental rock that incorporates odd time signatures, etc.) (laughs)? Yannis: There is no such thing. It's not real. We're a band that doesn't even know the scales, we don't know anything technical. We don't know the terminology, none of us have studied music properly. So it's kind of ironic, isn't it? We come from the same musical background as everyone else in Oxford. In Oxford, it's not normal to be in a pop band, and what's normal is to be in a band that's heavily influenced by post-hardcore bands. We grew up like that, as most of us did, because that's just the way it was. So no one really made an effort to learn to play a little bit differently on the guitar. It just came naturally.

What was your boyhood in Oxford like? What kind of kid were you? Yannis: I wonder what kind of kid I was… I was just a kid, I didn't have many friends, I was just a typical stoner kid who liked rock music. I didn't get on well with my parents, I was a problem child at school and didn't make many friends. Instead, the friends I made were like, "Let's go listen to Godspeed You Black Emperor instead of hanging out with the others," and we got high together. So I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Looking back, I'm glad I caused the problems I caused and I'm glad I didn't go to the classes I didn't go to.

I was just wondering, it's fine for you to talk about getting high with impunity, but in Japan, if you were caught in possession of such a thing, you'd be in big trouble. Yannis: No, I'm not taking it to Japan, so if that's what you're worried about, don't worry about it (laughs).

Hahaha. So, why did you bother to go to Oxford if you were going to drop out? Yannis: I went to Oxford to study and I dropped out for the band. I love reading books and there's no better university to do it at than there. I loved literature. It was my hometown and I like Oxford. And all my high school teachers said I'd never get in, so I got in just to piss them off.

When did you decide to put your life on the line for the band? Yannis: I mean, I still don't know that. We're doing this now, but I don't know when it's going to end. Next year we might be grilling hamburgers.

Maybe it won't happen next year, but I know what you mean. Yannis: Maybe not next year, but in years to come. It's not a sure thing to make a living from music unless you're George Michael or U2 or something like that. It's always been a precarious thing.

So it was a big decision to quit university to concentrate on your band, wasn't it? Yannis: Not really. I just wanted to play music all day, every day. There's nothing else I can do.

Now you're doing that, so that's good. Yannis: Yeah, it's going great so far and I'm happy with it. I like the album, and the whole reason I made the album was to communicate with all these people like you.

In the NME or something, you said that artists you admire put their backs into every single thing they create. I thought that was a romantic notion, do you yourself want that kind of life? Yannis: I never thought it was a particularly romantic way of thinking. I mean, it's a fact. I don't want to live that way, I just think it's a fact. Of course it depends on the process of creation. Because it's a process of devotion, isn't it? I'm in this band because I'm trying to get something out…

Who are the people you look up to, for example? Yannis: There are many. Charles Bukowski, Hemingway… Maybe that's why I feel so strongly about what I said earlier.

That's a typical example, surely. Yannis: Yeah. I don't know, but when I read books about these people, I sympathise with them and I get attached to them. I haven't read their proper biographies, but when you talk about who you admire from an artistic point of view, that's what happens.

Do you have any ambitions to write a book yourself? Yannis: I don't. When I read the writings of people like that, I think it's a talent given by God. I don't want to litter the world where such things exist with my dirty words.

As a book lover, can you recommend some books? Yannis: "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace. It's a bit long, but it's a story about alcoholics and ex-alcoholics set in a tennis academy, and there's a child prodigy. It deals with film, media culture, and tennis, and it's just an exciting book. The other one is, of course, "The Great Gatsby" by Scott Fitzgerald.

Recorded in Seattle on February 17th

Translator's Note: Every once in a while, I scan and translate other bands and artists that I never listened to before, but I do it because I have mutuals who love these bands/artists. It's also a way for me to sort of refresh myself before getting back into translating my favourite bands/artists.

That said, I love how Deepl keeps constantly mistaking Yannis' name as 'Janice' lmao

Please do support me with my ko-fi! ☕

[i-starcreamed]

Hey, I was thinking of a oneshot request for MTMTE Rodimus, Megatron, Drift, Whirl, Tarn, Shatted Glass Optimus Prime and Bayverse Ironhide with a Cybertronian S/O who can transform into a weapon (and it depends on what weapon she turns to, depending on who the character she is with). I was thinking it could be a female S/O as well, to make it easier for you cause I'm aware that's a lot of characters lol. Thank you, have a good day/afternoon/night 🤗

oo this is a cool request! this was very fun to write especially since one of my ocs also transforms into a weapon..And I had to exclude Megatron and Ironhide since I sadly don't know how to write for them too well :(

Also I'll be uploading the oneshots separately so that the characters are easier to find and for organization purposes :D hope you don't mind. This post includes Rodimus and Drift

MTMTE Rodimus x Cybertronian!reader

Whenever danger sets afoot on the Lost Light or any other alien planet the crew makes a stop at, Rodimus is immediately looking at you with begging optics. Every time, you would sigh and know exactly what he meant.

Today was one of those cycles, the Lost Light had to make a stop at some random alien planet. According to Ultra Magnus and your significant other, the planet belonged to a bunch of techno-organics that weren't too welcoming to cybertronians. Or rather, which you learned too late, they weren't welcoming to any intruders.

"Alright, alright listen everyone! We're under attack, this planet is apparently defensive against us, but we'll be fi-" Another explosion ringed in the background. "we'll be fine!" Rodimus announced this to the whole crew, which were itching to fight or hiding within the ship.

"We're all gonna die!"

Someone in the crowd yelled, which led to more of the crew muttering to each other and doing the exact opposite of what Rodimus wanted. His optimistic smile faltered as he sighed. You were at his side, as always. You placed a servo on his shoulder in a comforting way.

"Hey, it's alright. We should go help out there though, system's scanner says they're closing in. How about we go protect the crew, yeah?" You said with a smile.

Rodimus seemed to perk up at this. Suddenly, a knowing grin crept onto his face. 3..2..1.."Does this mean...?" His striking blue optics stared down at you expectedly. There he goes. You sigh but nod your helm.

"Yes Rodimus. I'll turn into my alt mode.."

-----

Rodimus was the only bot you trusted enough to wield you in your alt-mode, which happened to be a rather cool-looking plasma rifle. With temperatures reaching to a scorching amount, you and him easily plundered through your attackers. Techno-organics and heat don't mix well, you learned. By the end of it, the nearby location was a nasty mess. But hey, at least you protected the Lost Light in an incredibly badass way. It's not every cycle they see a femme that can turn into a rifle and melt away at her enemies. Rodimus was proud of you, to say the least. He couldn't have a better/more badass conjunx.

He still holds you as you enter the Lost Light once again, to continue on your journey before the planet's inhabitants call for backup or something.

"Can I transform back now?"

"Hmm, nope. I need to make an announcement first, remember?"

"If you drop me again, I swear to Primus Rodimus..."

He groans, you were never going to forgive for that, were you?

MTMTE Drift x Cybertronian!reader

Early on when you embarked upon the Lost Light, you had quickly befriended the third-in-command. You happened to bond over your love for bladed weapons and swords, combat in general. As you got closer, those feelings for each other grew. You were so trusting of him despite his past, despite everything. And yet...he didn't know what your alt-mode was. You had mentioned to the crew and himself that you took the form of a weapon. When asked what kind, you kinda said it depended and left it at that. It wasn't until today that he just had to know.

"Y/N, sweetspark?" You heard your conjunx ask a your side. Currently, you were both in his hab suite, reading some old cybertronian literature Drift recommended. You lifted your helm from the datapad and let out a short hm?

"I never mean to intrude, but I'd still like to see your alt-mode..." HE asked rather cautiously. To be fair, it's not that you were ashamed or anything of your alt mode. However, the mode you chose truly depended on who er...handled you during combat. You have been with Drift for a while, you decided it wouldn't hurt to trust him enough for this. So you sat up from your spot and placed the datapad down.

"Okay, okay Drift. Here we go.."

Your alt-mode depended on your conjunx, gears and metal turned into place as your t-cog worked out its form. Not a second later you fell into Drift's servos, his optics widened as you finished transforming. He thought you were a sniper rifle or some type of gun, he never imagined you transforming into a beautiful and intricate blade. And there you were, on his servos. He would so much compare you to the Great Sword, powerful and he would give his absolute spark to you.

He'll admit, it's a bit trippy to be with a talking sword but he wouldn't change it for a thing. A soft smile made its way onto his face

"Thank you, Y/N."

[simplepotatofarmer]

Okay so I hope you don't mind me asking this, but how do you define anarchism? Like yes, of course the base of no goverment/authority, but I mean more like ideologically/functionally? i don't know how to exactly phrase what I'm asking, but how/what do you like think of anarchism as?

I'm asking because where I'm from, anarchism is mostly defined as chaos, but from what I do know it clearly isn't, but i'm not sure what to really call it either? Sorry if this is offensive, I'm just curious and confused and trying to understand it better

unironically, teen vogue wrote a fairly good and simple article on what anarchism is when it comes to an ideology.

but yeah, most people think of anarchy as chaos. which is understandable considering the way '''anarchists''' in media are often portrayed. which is why i like c!techno! he's definitely not a perfect example but no anarchist is perfect and his idea for the syndicate is pretty on point.

for me, i'm definitely more of a mutualist/collectivist. the simplest way i can put it is i believe people have the means to help and support each other and those means are best put in our hands. but i also personally understand getting there will take a lot of work and time so i promote harm reduction and community led things like local gardens and swaps.

[ultraflavour]

Adventures in Shared World-Building

I just got finished my first adventure of Fabula Ultima, using the shared world-building method they describe in the book.

For the most part, it was a very cool experience to conjure a whole-ass universe out of nothing, that anyone in the group could pick up and run with. But I made a few crucial mistakes that led to me very quickly falling out of love with the setting that the group had created. I want to talk about them here, so that people know what they're getting into before they jump in feet-first.

Mistake #1: Not Specifying the Genre Before Session Zero

This was by far the biggest blunder that I made.

Fabula Ultima has three major genres that it supports: Natural Fantasy, High Fantasy, and Techno Fantasy. This is a decision that you have to make before any other world-building can happen, because it significantly changes what's possible and what's thematically appropriate for the setting you've selected.

The Fabula Ultima rulebook doesn't really specify when you need to make the decision between these genres. My assumption was that, like most of the other world-building decisions, it would be made as a group during Session Zero. Whether or not that was the intention of the authors, it was a bad idea for my table.

What ended up happening was almost too predictable. Because I hadn't made any hard decisions about what genre the game should be set in before getting to the table, the setting elements ended up being all over the place.

Two players showed up with what amounted to Cyberpunk capitalist dystopias, while the rest showed up with much more High Fantasy concepts that would have been much more at home in something like Song of Ice and Fire or the Kingkiller Chronicle. It ended up being a genre mismatch that I was not equipped to deal with.

Looking back on it, there were things that I could have done to make things work. The problem was that I was already fighting an uphill battle to desperately try to include the things that the players had created in the game, and didn't have any energy left over to try to create some sort of deeper thematic meaning out of the very disparate setting elements that had been introduced.

Action item: The thing I should have done was decide on an overall setting before the game started, rather than leaving it to chance that everything my players brought to the table would just magically coalesce into a setting. When you're building a house, you build the foundation and the frame first, then put the walls up.

So don't be afraid to make some big decisions about the world before the players get to Session Zero. Also, make sure the players are aware of the decisions you've made so that they don't show up with ideas that clash with your vision.

Mistake #2: Not having enough of a Stake in the World

Another thing that I somewhat misinterpreted from the guidelines in the Fabula Ultima book was that I, the Game Master, was supposed to act solely as a referee and to help shape the players' ideas, without introducing any of my own to the party.

I do think that's largely correct, but it creates a huge problem: I, the GM, ended up having very little buy-in into the world. The players ended up coming up with a lot of stuff, which left me with very little space to fill in with my own stuff later on.

This dovetails into Mistake #3 but I want to point out why this was a problem before moving on. I actually do think that the GM should not introduce their own setting elements during the world-building process, because the game is ultimately about the players and their characters.

If I introduced my own setting elements, then they would be the only ones I'd be focusing on, because obviously I'm going to be more interested in my own ideas than the ideas of the players. So my solution was to not introduce any of my own setting elements, and instead leave everything up to the players, simply acting as the moderator for their ideas.

But the problem this creates is that when you show up to the table, you're not excited about what you're doing in the game because none of it is yours. The players are having a bunch of fun because they built the sand castles and now they get to be the ones to knock them over, while you only built the box.

I know that a lot of GMs balk at the idea of shared world-building because a big part of the fun of being the GM for them is being the one who gets to decide on everything related to the world. The players bring characters, you bring the universe. That's how it's worked for a long time.

But I also think that "The GM decides on everything related to the story" leads to the dreaded Railroad. This is a big part of the reason why I wanted to do a game with shared world-building in the first place. The problem was that I went way too far in the other direction, and ended up with a setting that I felt like I had no real stake in.

Action item: Being more selective about what genre I wanted to run a game in early would have helped here (see Mistake #1). But also, taking some time to introduce setting elements after the world-building session wrapped up would have helped a lot here. I was too worried about trying to incorporate the players' ideas as much as possible that I left no room for myself to create things that I was excited about, and this ended up hurting my enjoyment tremendously.

Mistake #3: Going too Big too Early

The task of shared world-building is big. You're sitting down to create a whole fictional world out of nothing except the fecund imaginations of the players present.

When I first saw that the Fabula Ultima "Press Start" guide expected the players to have everything done in one session and still have time left over for gameplay, I balked. Hard. HA! You expect me and my table to make all of these decisions about the world AND characters in a couple of hours? No way.

Well... There's two sides to that story. Because yes, I do actually think it's a bit outrageous to expect the players to do everything and get to gameplay in one session, but it's not unreasonable to expect the task of world-building to be done in an hour to 90 minutes.

Here's the thing: It's very easy for the players to get carried away. After all, they're filling a world with their cool ideas, and they don't even have to worry about executing on them. That's your job.

You, the GM, are the one who needs to take the ingredients you've been handed and make soup with it. When the players keep excitedly piling ideas onto you, you start to lose focus on the story at hand.

A concrete example of this mistake in action was that the world we created ended up with two maps, one for one hemisphere, one for another. On one map we had 3 continents, on the other, a single large continent.

Well, the problem was that in the time we allotted to play the game, we only really had time to explore (partially) one continent. To incorporate all the other world-building elements into the game, I had to get very creative, and it ended up being mostly unsatisfying. Rather than focus in on a smaller set of concepts that the players were the most interested in, I ended up trying to shoehorn in a ton of setting elements that weren't directly pertinent to the adventure the players were on.

This also ties into Mistake #2. Every setting element the players introduce is something that you, the GM, are going to feel compelled to execute on, and that's not going to leave a lot of room for the things that you are interested in.

Action item: Keep the setting development focused on a smaller area that the players actually have some chance of exploring. Don't be afraid to be vague about setting elements that are far away from where the action takes place. You will end up wasting a lot of time and energy making big decisions about places that the players have no chance of actually exploring, rather than focusing more closely on the area that you know for sure they are going to be interacting with.

Remember, you can always fill in stuff later, if it ends up that the players get really excited about some faraway place and want to travel there. If that happens, you can do a second world-building session to flesh those places out.

Another really good reason to keep things small is that going too big can lead to Mistake #4...

Mistake #4: Over-Committing to Exploring the Whole World

"Holy crap, a FOURTH mistake, did you do anything right?" Well, I've only done this three times, and arguably each time has been unsuccessful, so yeah, I think there's room for a bit of introspection here.

After all, the task of world-building is fun, but it is also complicated. And as we've seen above, there are a lot of ways to screw it up.

For mostly the reasons I've listed above (plus some external factors that were a major drain on my mental resources) I ended up burning out on the game way sooner than I thought I would. The problem was that I had told the group that I would try to run the game for at least 4 months, then start paying off storylines to bring things to a close over the next 2 months after that.

This was way too ambitious, though I couldn't have really known that at the time. I thought that I really needed to commit to the game in order to make the rest of the players feel rewarded for the effort they put in. I didn't want to disappoint anyone by cutting the game short after all the effort it took to create the world.

When you create a shared world between a bunch of different people, there is a tendency to want to reward that investment. After all, everyone put a little piece of themselves into the world. It's like your baby after that.

But at the end of the day, you are building this setting to run a game in. You want players to feel rewarded for their investment, sure, but at the same time, you don't want the game to feel like work. As soon as you start running the game out of a sense of obligation instead of out of genuine excitement, you end up burning out and ending the game in a rushed fashion.

It's often tempting to make big promises, so that players invest their own energy into making the game as big and exciting it can be. You don't want to break those promises, because the next time you want to get the players on board with your idea, the less likely they're going to buy in.

You, the GM, should always be realistic about how much you're able to commit to. Nobody is entitled to your time and energy. It's better to make a promise you know you can keep, and then figure out how you (and the rest of the table) are feeling after that first adventure arc wraps up.

Action item: The obvious solution here is to just not make big promises about how "big" or "epic" the game is going to be. If you can only run the game for a month or two, that's fine. One of the big advantages of the shared world-building method is that everyone at the table has a (mostly) equal stake in the world. That means any one of your players should be able to pick up the task of GMing from you if you find that you're unable to do it.

And hey, here's the thing: If nobody else wants to do the job of GMing, then that's a tacit admission that they recognize that it's a wholly different beast to be a player than it is to be the GM. This is a truth that I think every player of TTRPGs needs to understand, because it has a huge effect on whether or not you actually end up with a full game at the end of the day.

Shared World-Building is still Fun

I don't want to make it seem like the task of shared world-building is fraught with pitfalls. It's actually a very rewarding experience, even if you do it incorrectly.

And it's not like other worldbuilding styles don't have their own pitfalls. Homebrewing a setting by yourself is a ton of work, and you don't always know if the players are going to be excited about your ideas if you never bring them into the creative process. Packaged settings can be good, but you also have no stake in them because they're by definition not yours.

I would very strongly encourage everyone to at least try this style of world-building, especially if you've always just done your own homebrew. It's a very enriching experience, and can be very eye-opening about the creative ideas of other players.

You can gain a lot of insight into the other people at the table by what types of things they get excited about. That can help you to better tailor your own homebrew to your players in the future. It can even give you ideas for how you can incorporate the ideas of Fabula Ultima into your own TTRPG campaigns.

While you might not necessarily be able to totally hand the keys to the kingdom over to the players in the case of something like D&D or Pathfinder, you can still get some input into your setting from them to help you flesh out the things that they're actually interested in exploring. If you show up to the game having already made all of the most interesting story decisions, you will find that your players have no room to move within your framework, and end up feeling railroaded.

Giving your players a feeling of buy-in into your setting increases their investment in your game, even if you are ultimately the one who's going to determine the story. It also increases the potential for emergent storytelling, when your players' ideas interact nicely with the ideas you came up with for your game.

Well, Anyways

I think that shared world-building can be a really cool method to enhance the tried-and-true homebrew methodology that most GMs are used to. But I also don't think that it's a magic bullet solution, and like a lot of tools, it can be used incorrectly.

I hope that I've helped, and maybe you think these tips don't apply, but I assure you that these tips are all borne out of a lot of time spent screwing these things up. Making mistakes is how we learn, and you should forgive yourself for screwing up. At least you tried, and that's more than a lot of people can say.

[ourladyofomega]

I was getting deeper and deeper into everything electronic and industrial, all during my one-year break in-between the Brentwood era and community college. The UK electronics invasion, MTV's Amp, and Wipeout XL were the major influences that led me to that point. I was starting to have an endless appetite for music, and one thing I learned about myself that I could be interested in anything and everything. I already had an affinity to golden-era hip-hop / rap and alternative. The seeds of hardcore started to grow, so there would be no stopping me at this point. There were so many genres, artists, and sounds I was getting into, and I wanted to keep up. I had a position at a department store in the shopping mall, then later at a movie rental store, so I could afford to buy titles for whatever cash I had in hand.

I didn't have a desktop with internet to find independent stores. I had yellow pages instead: thick phone-books listing hundreds upon hundreds of pages of local businesses, their addresses, and their phone numbers all in minuscule print. That's how I discovered them back then. It was a year after visiting my first-ever independent record store, Commack's Mr. Cheapo's. Then came West Babylon's Looney Tunes before the holidays. Still enthusiastic in discovering the vast unknown, I wanted to find more. Port Jefferson's Music Den would be the next destination.

I already felt like an outsider when I arrived on campus. It was a different type of demographic I was used to. I looked around and I'd still see cliques, circles, and other "exclusive" groups of students that I felt I wouldn't be included in. I'd meet newfound friends who'd introduce me to their friends, but it felt forced, and they didn't seem to care. I was crazy for Atari Teenage Riot because they showed me exactly what techno always should've been: deafening loud, criminally high-speed, and maniacally all over the place. I tried looking for people who were in them, and observed what types of music the majority were into. Simplistic, manufactured, predictable dance hits. Boring weekend club-mashers. Formulaic radio chart-toppers. I wasn't impressed. The people who were into that were shallow, superficial, judgmental, needlessly competitive, and at times just unnecessarily mean. Drama artists and attitude jockeys all over the place. That's why they called community college "13th Grade". Now you'd see the disgusting distaste of the late-Nineties music scene I had. But, I did have a couple of good cards given to me. I joined the campus newspaper which I'd write music reviews for. An attractive brunette, Sandra, randomly stopped me to strike up a conversation, and wanted to get to know me better. She was also a Jesus freak. I also made another friend I met on campus who decided to set me up with an Irish blonde acquaintance of his, and we hit it off right away. Even then, I'd deal with constant games, rudeness, and random acts of ego during my time there.

The newspaper meeting ended one late October Thursday night. I finally had the opportunity to drive out eight miles from campus to the Port Jefferson Music Den for some shopping. I walked right in, and started digging. I'm not even there for two minutes and I already find gold: the import version of Alec Empire’s The Destroyer for only $9.00 used ($22.00 brand new otherwise). That was a huge deal for me because (once again) I was an Atari Teenage Riot / DHR fanatic. Right after that? Another label release, this time from EC8OR. I'd finally discover all those artists I heard about on the internet; thirty-minute download times of grainy 480P-resolution video and all. I was really starting to like this place. I start scouring the used CD bins, and I’d stumble upon KMFDM’s banned version of Naive for $8.00 - back when used copies on eBay were selling for…$80.00 each! Then came Pigface’s Washingmachinemouth and Ministry’s The Land Of Rape And Honey for a few dollars used. I copped Fluke’s Risotto because of Wipeout XL, and I’d snatch Skinny Puppy’s Back & Forth Volume 2 and Cleopatra’s Industrial Revolution: Third Edition, all for regular price. Finally, Coldcut’s "Atomic Moog 2000" / "Reboot The System": the first-ever multimedia CD I'd ever own.

Minute-by-minute, I'd slowly discover all sorts of wild and unusual sounds and artists they had on the racks. The Port Jeff- Music Den carried all the rare, unusual, and obscure stuff no other store on the island did. Sure, there were plenty of used CDs and vinyl bins in pop, metal, alternative, shoegaze, indie, hip-hop, and jazz. It was their industrial, noise, electronic, and experimental selections, however, that would be the all-important tie-breaker. They had all what I was looking for. I remembered seeing titles like Gescom’s Minidisc on the racks, Coil’s “Autumn Equinox: Amethyst Deceivers” 7", tons of Clock DVA, Controlled Bleeding, plus some Oval and Microstoria albums. It was wild. I felt stimulated because I found plenty of abnormalities that I never knew existed, instead of the expected, typical, calculated fare that did absolutely nothing for me.

90 minutes later, I took my short stack of CDs, placed them on the counter to be rung up, cashed out, and wrapped up what would be my first visit to The -Den. $82.00 later, I leave fucking satisfied.

With each visit after, I’d continue to score big victories where I’d find them. They were Phil Western’s debut album The Escapist, Muslimgauze’s Hamas Arc, Mike & Rich’s Expert Knob Twiddlers, Aphex Twin’s Analogue Bubblebath 3, Merzbow’s Pulse Demon, and Sam & Valley. I’d nab more DHR albums from 16-17, Shizuo on vinyl, Fuck Step '98, Give Up on 12", and Alec Empire’s Squeeze The Trigger. The best? Autechre / Gescom’s “Keynell” 12" that I found under the vinyl bins and hidden inside the cabinet underneath. It was stickered for $17.00 - another record where second-hand copies sold on eBay for $125.00. I also managed to pick up a few of their 12" EPs, mainly Chiclisuite and Envane.

All these finds made The -Music Den the most unforgettable store I had the privilege to visit. They were like nothing else on the island. Sadly, they closed down after the turn of the millennium, and no store that came after was half-as-good enough to fill the hole they left behind. Believe me, if any of you reading this would’ve shopped there, you’d feel amazed and blown away like I was. I’d still have a tough time dealing with all the constant, petty drama on campus over the next couple of years. At the Port Jefferson Music Den, however, I knew that was a place where I felt like I’d belong.

[box-architecture]

which are the aus You have more on your ming latetly?

A mixture of them!

I'm staring at the Dreambur AU I have (Strangers Vassal) and wondering if I should post what I had planned for it to look like. I'm struggling a lot with writing it, partially because I don't have a lot of people to bounce ideas off of, partially because it's an AU that would have a lot of fight scenes, something I don't have a lot of experience in and am unsure how to proceed with.

I really enjoy the concept of it, and I want to write for it, but it might once again turn into a bunch of shortfics in a series rather than the longfic I originally wanted. It's disappointing that I can't seem to consistently write longfics, but if I don't accept the limitation I might risk not getting anything done at all, and that's potentially more disappointing.

The Communication Knife AU is almost always on my mind. It's evolved from just pure demons and rotations to being a huge comfort that I can just idly think about throughout the day.

It's really neat, because I started out as a Dream-centric multishipper who wasn't sure if I could vibe with Punz and Sam closing the triangle, but after marinating in the idea, it's now really important to me that they become something too. They grow from two people fighting around their relationship with Dream to something based on trust and blunt honesty and Forgiveness Withoit Forgetting. They can be deeply affectionate with each other in a way thats different from their relationship with Dream. Not bad, not in a way that excludes him, just different.

The AU has also tentatively opened me up to exploring 2nd Gen characters, something I've literally never been capable of before. I have a lot of vague ideas for who gets together post-main story, and how those relationships works and why. Ponk/Foolish/XD is a ship for example, and I've designed a possible child for them? As well as designed Fooshs Totem children? It's always a maybe for if I actually want to give people kids, and it's not really the point of CKAU, it's just really fun to explore the rest of the smp in this sort of fix-it au and how it impacts their lives in the After of it all.

It's also helped me expand my Minecraft Lore and Worldbuilding Bible (how in my headcanon the mineacraft world works and its history/lore, including tying other media's like Hermitcraft and Maricraft to the dsmp to make everything part of the overall world.)

Writing CKAU post-story had also, ironically, made me enjoy benchtrio more, as I get to talk to my friends about their interpersonal dynamics and how they work and how they end up finally at peace. Especially considering Tubbo and Ranboo are bitterly divorced for a long time.

I had a lot of small ideas for a DNB Mass Effect AU in a similar vein to To Tear Asunder being my Dragon Age AU, but I feel really guilty getting into that when I haven't even finished the Philza fic or the Techno fic I have for the latter. I have significantly less people to bounce ideas off of for To Tear Asunder, which is why I struggle with it sometimes.

A lot of my writing in the beginning was done through utilizing my manic moods, but now that I'm better medicated/no longer constantly manic, it's led to me going a lot slower with writing. Demons (PWP stuff) are a lot easier to write, because they require significantly less scene set-up when I can use the sexual act as a template, and being horny-brained isn't particularly difficult.

(Also. No Plot Nessecary. Hence the Porn Without Plot. Plot is really exhausting to write sometimes.)

Obviously it's a lot better for my health that I'm no longer manic, but it's still disappointing that I can no longer work myself into a tizzy and write 30 pages of something (before collapsing and being unable to do anything at all for the next several days.) Give and take and all.

I briefly was very insane about Benchtrio fucking Dream in various ways. I made a whole Teacher/Student AU about it that's in my drafts, god willing I get my new laptop and can finish that up. I really enjoy CNC and bodice ripper type stuff, so it's pretty fun to explore crack AUs where Dream is just trying to be normal and the 3 most abnormal people in the world come into his life.

I'm not really a fan of the Tommy/Dream dynamic where Dream is preying on the Poor Helpless Child, especially because it has a habit of taking itself Very Seriously. I'm not looking for serious and dark and the villainization of Dream. It's a lot more fun for me to explore a strong, confident, and very tired 20-something desperately trying to figure out how to deal with the 17-18 year old being horny on main. Also it's just really interesting to me when the younger character takes advantage of normal social and power dynamics and subvert them so they can have the older character sub.

^I'm not sure if the explanation there is perfect or makes sense but I'm always happy to try to talk more about it if you'd like.

I have a little more of the Warden Hybrid!Dream type stuff in my head that I wanted to write out, mostly just a lot of Porn With Minimal Plot for purely kink reasons. I also have a Dream/Ravager fic I'm supposed to be posting, but God only knows when I can finish it. I need zoomies.

[ourshadowstallerthanoursoul]

Beyond Led Zeppelin - interview to JPJ

(by Guitar.com - Jan. 1, 2010 - x)

Zooma is very experimental and takes your musicianship to a different level. How did you develop the chops to do something so free-flowing? Were you listening to lots of jazz?

No, it’s always been there. I’ve always listened to lots of jazz. At the time when Zeppelin started, I was always listening to jazz and rhythm and blues and classical music. The only rock I listened to was Jimi Hendrix. So, I actually came to rock late. I listen to everything constantly — everything from rhythm and blues, drum and bass techno, Latin music, salsa, meringue, and some rock n roll. Bass-wise I keep listening.

Does that allow you to constantly grow as a player?

In composition and playing, everything at a basic level is about questions and answers. You have musical questions and you have to get the answers, which is basically what composition is about. How does the piece start and then what happens? You’ll get a musical idea, then you have to realize it. And in the realization it’s just about those questions and answers. How does it finish? What will make it interesting after we’ve done one thing for a while? All music has the same questions and answers. It doesn’t matter what kind of music it is, whether its pigmy music or Mongolian stuff. It’s still, how do you make a musical idea, how do you make a tension release? And everything you listen to can come in use as reference material for your own questions, for your own music. Listen to as much as you can because there’s something absolutely everywhere to be found.

A lot of people listen to blues, jazz, country, world music, whatever, but they can’t combine the different techniques.

Most people gravitate towards music they like. If youre a blues player, you only play the blues. So listen to everything else and then play the blues. You’ll find that you start playing the blues in a different way.

How do you feel about what your former bandmates have done with their respective careers? Page and Plant did Zeppelin songs together for a while, and now Page is doing Zep stuff with the Black Crowes. Do you think maybe they’re not expanding their vocabulary and reaching out the way you have?

No, they’re not reaching out the way I have, because I’m me and they’re them. I haven’t heard Page and the Black Crowes. He could be playing a whole load of blues for all I know. I heard Page and Plant’s 'Walking into Clarksdale', and was disappointed that there wasn’t more Page on it. I like to hear lots of Page. But they’re doing what they’re doing. They ain’t bothering me.

Do you keep in touch with them?

Sure. There’s lots of Zeppelin things we attend to. We attend releases.

Atlantic released 'The Best of Led Zeppelin, Volume 2' earlier. Did that concern you?

Well of course it concerned me. I wasn’t very happy about that, but it was a democratic process, just two to one and I was the one. But the BBC Sessions I was very happy with. To me that was very valuable. It was great to hear the band in a well recorded situation, because normally when I heard the live stuff I was either standing right next to Page or it’s a horrible bootleg. So, to be able to sit back and not do anything and be able to hear all that he’s playing, that was a treat for me.

Why didn’t you want the 'Best of Vol. 2' to be released?

It’s been done before. I couldn’t see why, you know? I mean, the first remaster, the box set, was good because Atlantic went through the original Zeppelin release campaign kind of quick and didn’t really spend too much time with it. In fact, when we were collecting stuff for the box set, we found that some of the masters they used were actually second and third generation, and they put them on CD. They sounded really dull. They didn’t seem to have any life. So, the chance to remaster them, to bring them to life again was valid. But I couldn’t really see the point of the Greatest Hits records that came out last year. We were always against Greatest Hits album traditionally from the word go. It may have been a hang back to the fact that in the days when we started, you had singles bands, you had pop bands, and then you had albums bands. They were completely different things. So, I just didn’t see the point and I said so. But as I said, it was democratic and they thought differently.

How and why did you put 'Zooma' together?

Basically, I wanted to play live again. And of course, I needed something to play. I tend to need motivation to do a project. I’m not somebody who would just write things for no reason at all. I’ll work on a project and I’ll commit myself to it. But if I’m not actually working on it, then I’m just as happy to sit down and play instruments and not write anything. So, I need motivation but I didn’t want to join a band. If you’ve been in the best band in the world, what do you do? I knew that if I did an album, I’d be obligated to promote it. So, I knew I couldn’t just go, "Oh well, I’ve done the album. That’s it." I knew that it would force me on the road, which was what I wanted to do originally. So, I trapped myself into it. But it was really a positive experience.

So, what possessed you to say, "Man, it’s time to get out there live again"?

It’s funny, Diamanda Galas [who I recorded the album 'Sporting Life' with in 1994] said to me that she’d done collaborations with composers and various people. And she just said, "I realized one day that if I’m going to put this much effort into my music then I think it should be my own." And I took those words to heart. I figured I’d worked on everybody else’s records since 1963. It’s about time. And I’m fortunate to be in the position I’m in. I had my own studio. I don’t have to work to eat. Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis, who knows?

So, playing with Diamanda was what inspired it?

Yeah, I think so. And writing material for Diamanda. She got me playing steel guitar, so I could have a voice on stage. Cause I always used to play steel guitar in hotels and she saw it in the studio and had never heard one before. So I started playing, and she immediately wrote a song. And we put it on the album. People were like, "Wow, this is new, different."

How did that collaboration come together? How did you know her? Did you know her from years back?

I knew her from her work. I had one record by her at that time, 'Wild Women with Steak Knives', wonderfully titled. And the voice was just like, Whoa! A mutual friend said she’d be interested in doing a rock record and he thought that I’d work well together with her. I like the idea because I wasn’t into normal songs. She called them homicidal love songs. It was a case not so much of, "My baby’s left me, I’m going to throw myself out the window." It was, "My baby’s left me, I’m going to throw him out the window." I found her whole approach quite refreshing. And we hit it off immediately. We’ve both done lounge gigs, believe it or not, in our time. We used to do The Lady is a Tramp in soundcheck, which worried a few people. Nobody knew what to make of that. And we also found that we knew the entire Motown songbook. And we’d sit sown and play Stop In The Name Of Love. We had respect for each other as musicians.

Why was it a one time thing?

Well, she has a serious career. She follows what seems to be good at the time. And it was, because it led me to this.

[astoldbyaja]

Primal - Ch.15 ~AU Predator (Franchise)~

My chest hurt from the pounding of my heart as the buildings outside passed us by like blurs. What did the Hu’s want? Were they looking for Gabriella? I doubted that, but at this moment anything was possible and I just wanted to make it out of here alive. I glanced down at the men’s hands who I was in between. They were scarred and tatted. They were older too, which meant they had been in this gang for a long time. I wanted to look out of either window, but I was afraid to move. I felt completely squished between them. I had no choice but to keep my eyes ahead and remain still. I was sure Kelly was calling my phone, wondering where I was. She probably thought I stood her up. God, my life is in danger right now and I’m more worried about letting down a woman who needed help with her kids.

The car finally stopped and the men slid out of the doors once they opened. My arm was immediately grabbed, and I was pulled out and onto my feet. I noticed the sun would soon be going down. I swallowed hard before I was pulled in the direction of a large building with flashing lights. Obviously, a club, but I wasn’t familiar with it. Once inside a bald man in the black suit and sunglasses, spoke to the other men around me in a language I wasn’t familiar with. I could hear techno music playing behind the double doors behind this man. I could see a tattoo on his neck. He began to turn and walk toward the doors, and I was forced to follow.

The music now flowed out into the lobby as I could see neon lights moving about the dark ceilings in greens and pinks. I could see bodies moving about while men and women sang on stage. They weren’t fully dressed and I could smell sweat in this room. The men continued to lead me around the dancing. Off in the corner of the room I could see multiple tables and booths of men in suits smoking and drinking and sitting stoically with beautiful women besides them. All of them were of Asian descent I was sure. I was led down a dim lit hall which had an elevator at the end of it. We went inside and I just looked down wanting to ask what I was doing here, but I was sure to be getting my answer very soon. Once the elevator dinged, the doors opened and now we were in a clean penthouse looking room. There were leather couches beside glass cocktail tables with lines of coke on it. Women were laughing with men on these couches and I could see a bar off into the back of the room. This place is very lavished. There were many men with guns in their hands standing close to the windows and doors.

“Ah our guest of honor has finally arrived.”

I looked ahead to see a man in a black tank under a white collared shirt and pants walking from the back of the room. He had black gelled hair and smooth features with a muscular build. His eyes were dark and dangerous, his hands calmly tucked into his pocket. He eyed me immediately.

“Teleya Garrett, a beautiful name to match a beautiful face.” he said with a purr in his tone. I noticed some of the girls in here were eyeing me too, more aggressively than the man before me. The two men who drove me here remained two steps behind me. I wanted to say something, but I was too afraid in this moment. “I hope my men were respectful through the drive here.” I looked him over now trying to get more answers with my eyes than anything, but I knew that wouldn’t last.

“Who are you?” I finally asked. The man chuckled.

“Where are my manners? I’m Kang Li, I am the leader of the Hu Mongols. You’ve heard of us.” he said with a slight nod. I replied with a light nod myself and he nodded. “Good.”

He took a few steps closer, and I leaned back some.

“I know all of this must be confusing t you and you wonder why you.” he added. Silently I nodded and he gave a relaxed sigh. “Well it’s because I need answers and it seems only you can give them to me.” I glanced around the room a bit in confusion before looking back at him. What could he possibly want with me? What could I possible tell him?

“Answers?” I asked, and he nodded turning and moving back across the room. He raised his hand and motioned his fingers for me to follow him. The large man from before gave my back a firm push forward. I began to follow Kang, slowly as I didn’t want anything or anyone in this room to get too close to me.

“A month ago you were at the Black Jack Club the night of the shooting between my men and the Hilltop Slashers.” he said finally pausing his walk toward the bar. I could feel my insides tightening as now it began to be clear of why I was here.

“Many were.” I replied, and he nodded moving behind the bar.

“Yes, and I had to go through many to find you.” he said, and I looked at him feeling angst fill me. “My brother Quan was there that night. My sources say you were sitting with him and his friends before the shooting happened.” Now I was really on edge now.

“I was dancing, but I was introduced to him that night…” I replied softly. I didn’t even think about the men doing the shooting because so much was going on in that short amount of time. Kang nodded moving to pull out a bottle of Smirnoff from a cabinet and set two small shot glasses down in front of me on the bar.

“He along with all the others were killed that night during the shootout.” he said opening the bottle and filling the two shot glasses up.

“I mourned him from the second I identified his body to the day I began to hunt for his killers.” he said pushing one of the shot glasses to me. I wasn’t much of a drinker but I have tasted Smirnoff before. I didn’t like it but right now I didn’t have a choice in the selection of drink. Did this man do shots with all the people he met to get to me? He raised his shot glass toward me and I did the same. “To Quan, my little brother.” We both did a shot and the drink burned going down and, I did my best to hold back my coughing. I cleared my throat multiple times before putting the glass down.

“You’re looking for his killers… but it was the-”

“The Slashers, yes I’ve gotten that quite a lot. But my sources also tell me another player was involved in the shooting that night, a ghost who killed from the darkness of the ceiling.” he said coolly. I stared at him intently now knowing he meant Scorpion.

“You think because I was just there I know everything that happened? I was just as traumatized as everyone in that club.” I replied. Kang nodded turning his back to me to remove his shirt. That’s when I noticed the handle of a gun sticking out of the back of his pants. My body tightened as he began to fold the shirt.

“Traumatized but alive.” he said sharply, making me feel a twinge of guilt, “Now someone else was there that night and I just want to know who it was seeing as you were one of the last to leave the club.”

How the hell did he know that? How the hell did he know anything about me being there? Whoever his sources are, they had to be either a paramedic or a cop.

“Look I don’t know what happened that night. Why don’t you ask Gabriella, Quan’s girlfriend? We were separated and I haven’t seen her since then!” I replied watching as he now rummaged through the bottom drawers beneath the cabinet.

“But I have.” he said before suddenly lifting a bloody object and setting it flat on the bar. My body reacted before the blood curdling scream left my voice, my body jumping from the bar. I was immediately caught by the two men who dragged me here. I was staring at Gabriella’s purple and grey face. One of her eyes were missing and the other was rolled into the back of her head. I was in complete shock as I continued to scream.

Scorpion’s POV

The darkness was quite an ally to me on my hunt. Humans proved to be useful for hunts. Even though this city had enough prey to hunt, I prided myself in taking down two feuding clans I had noticed were constantly fighting and killing one another. It was an obvious blood feud for land and females and I enjoyed killing the toughest and strongest of the tribes. I had already collected the gift I would give my mate and I planned to give it to her later on tonight. I had been so happy about this fact, I was collecting numerous trophies from a group of the tribesman right now.

 I had stalked them to their lounging grounds and was carving them up. Their weapons did not harm me and to be truthful, nothing could ruin this hunt for me now that I had a mate to go back to. But right now, I had a large human male in my grasp, my wrist blade was out and ready to impale. I moved my arm back with the intent to strike through his chest with brute force. This moment was mine and mine alone!

However, an echoing screech made me pause and look up with a sharp shrill. My mask immediately picked up the frequency of the voice and analyzed it. It matched the harmonizing of my mate. She was in distress- she was in danger. I roared sharply and dropped the human and ran through the closest window of the building and smashed through it. Speed was always on my side and so I climbed up to the roof tops of the building and scanned the city.

A recording of the screeching played again and after analyzing the voice patterns I was able to pick up the direction it came in. I wasted no time running to the end of the building and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, following the direction of voice patterns that would take me to my mate and her enemies that I would be annihilating.

[calamari-minecraft-corner]

Brain not working properly right now but the thirst for more au lore never ceases so I shall try to be at least somewhat making sense in my questions :)

In dnd con, what's disc duo like? I think Tommy's only been mentioned once but in canon almost anyway you slice it, that's a major relationship for both of them. Is their any parallel for exile arc somehow? And does Tommy know about Wiblur's whole 'being undead' thing? Or like is that a thing that only Wilbur and Dream know about? Come to think of it, how exactly did Wilbur die in the first place, was it just from the explosions or was Phil involved like in canon?

Hope that makes some amount of idk right now, brain is pretty scrambled

YEEEES DISCDUO MY BELOVED

1. Discduo is actually very cathartic for me in this au. At first when Tommy meets the party and Dream, he doesn’t like it. He’s fully running on his emotions and disdain and the only reason he’s alive right now is because Wilbur told Tommy not to kill him. It’s very jagged and messy at first-/ from BOTH sides. And Cala and Spooky notice it and so does Fundy but Fundy understands why Tommy is acting like that. And Tommy I will admit is being an ass, even when he realizes that Dream got hurt in prison because in his head that’s a good punishment for the hell tommy endured, even though a part of him just has that feeling that it isn’t right.

Over time though Tommy does come around to Dream. It’s slow and MESSY. and both of the boys go to Cala to talk to her separately on how they’re in the right for feeling this way and all that- and Cala doesn’t side with either of them but gives them honest advice- and she lets them come up with their own conclusions and how they want to handle it.

Early dnd con au it’s very much like exile- and during the war Tommy did go through an Exile esque arc with Dream which led to one of the many things that ended up fucking him over in the long run. So Tommy is still really fucked up by that despite thinking he’s healed and Dream sees this as a sort of power and control he can get back and feel like HIM again.

But the rest of the party nip that in the bud so so fast when they realize what’s happening.

And after a lot of uneasy talks and some major major arguments from both sides they come to an uneasy alliance, which later on becomes like.. a reformed friendship. They don’t like to admit it but they enjoy each other’s company a lot and they’ve both gotten insight from one another. And later in the au Tommy is a huge role that helps the party and even joins them for a while as a party member (he had to at first but it was more unwilling)

But now it’s literally along the lines of this animatic I made!

Tommy doesn’t forgive Dream for what he did to him- and vice versa. That’ll always be the big point. But they’re moving on because that’s really the only thing they can do.

And they still go back into the past but they know they have to move forward. That’s the only thing they can do if it’s to help the continent again.

2. Tommy has NO idea that Wilbur died. He was there when it happened and from his perspective, he saw the old kingdom blow up with Wilbur in it— Dream coming out minutes later being smug and fuckin unhinged, and then Wilbur coming a moment later turning on Dream and being the one to take him down and issue the command to surround him. So Tommy sees Wilbur as a hero and is loyal to a fault to him-/ even if he makes questionable choices. Nobody knows that Wilbur is undead but him and Dream, Techno and Philza, and that’s a hell of a reveal in in the AU :3

3. I mentioned it before but it was vague! But the way Wilbur died was that Wilbur in a moment of him kind of going mad blew up the kingdom at the height of the war, having a “if I can’t have this country no one can moment”, but thankfully the explosion didn’t obliterate the entire country just the capital and it did cause some casualties. But Wilbur was still alive in the explosion.

During the chaos, Phil found Wilbur since he knew what Wilbur was doing and was trying to talk his son down, hell to even convince him to come into hiding with him but Wilbur was blinded by rage and being manic and Philza realized he was too far gone.. so he killed him :3

And Phil left the scene since he was not supposed to be there— no one knew he was there except techno.

And Dream the bastard man saw that as he was hiding and thought he could use Wilbur as a way to win the war, so Dream revived Wilbur.

And the second Wilbur revealed himself to be “alive” to everyone he turned on Dream in literal seconds.

And it led to Dream going to Pandora’s vault c: