#whipping boy

[heretherebedork]

Hope thinks of himself as Save's knight in shining armor but right now he's Aran's whipping boy first and foremost

And now both Aran and Save are trying to protect Hope from his choices and from danger and, in some ways, from themselves but that's never been what Hope wanted.

Hope is always trying so hard to keep Save from worrying about him. Does the do the same with Hope? Has he in the past? Where does the line between shining knight and whipping boy show up? Is there a line? Or is Hope trying to save more people than anyone might suspect?

Is Hope's loyalty to Boss, Aran or Save in the end? Or is to himself or to his job or to his idea of himself, the knight in the shining armor, the protective and beaten whipping boy, the man who beats up other people?

I cannot wait to find out.

[painsandconfusion]

The Carrot and the Stick

Whumping the Whumpers - Part Twenty-Eight

(tw: beating, broken bone mention, kidnapping, stress position, forced to watch, whipping boy, deferred punishment, Crawford being a bitch)

[Previous | Masterpost | Next]

Four Years Ago...

Ethan slumped against the ropes that kept him up on aching feet, for this particular moment, preferring the charring ropeburn against his wrists and the numbness they bring to the aching in his feet and legs.

Too long.

Too fuckign long he’d been left like this.

Then again, it wasn’t like Crawford found much else that kept him in line. At least this wore him down so the fight was…well. Less.

That and he was in the perfect position to be a pathetic little punching bag like this. His bruised ribs were a testament to that, that and the aching burn where his back butted up against the cinderblock wall with each hit.

But hey.

At least the cinder blocks were cool. It eased the pain a little.

Aaaaaaand there was the garage door opening.

Ethan glared up at the ceiling at the audible announcement of Crawford’s arrival home. Stupid fucking idiot hadn’t even given Ethan water yet today - you’d think if someone paid two thousand bucks for you, they’d actually want to keep you alive. Maybe Crawford was finally getting sick of Ethan’s insolence. 

Or maybe he was just stupid.

Both were equally plausible given what Ethan had seen of the man so far.

Good at business. Good at his work. Very very bad at keeping a personal pet/toy/punching bag.

The guy wasn't a natural leader - that was for damn sure. Ethan almost understood how he needed someone to take out his frustrations on. Not like anyone at the office took him seriously - yes, Ethan played therapist enough to know about that shit. Not a good therapist. He didn’t really talk. Just glared.

But hey, at least it was mildly less boring than rotting alone in the basement, so sure. He listened as the man paced and rambled and ranted, occasionally hitting, kicking, or whipping his ‘pet’.

Fucking idiot had no idea what he was doing. Ethan hated Nate and Elias plenty - but this guy? Honestly, he was just pathetic.

One of these days, he’d fuck up. He’d trust Ethan enough to take the ropes off - even just for a second. Then he was so fucked.

Ethan liked to daydream about that.

He’d dangle there as Crawford paced and spit venom at Randy and Devin (yes, Ethan knew the entire fucking office at this point. They all had accountant names. No wonder they were all dead inside), and Ethan would imagine Crawford. On the ground. Bleeding. Begging. Choking and gurgling his own blood. 

Such a pretty picture. Something he was almost proud of.

Pride was a fickle thing. Ethan never had much pride. Not much at all. Through school and activities, from foster home to foster home he’d stayed quiet. Stayed out of the way. He was the freak. Always had been. 

Somehow pride had found him through the blood. Or he’d found it. He’d found something to fight for. Something to keep the pain down. Keep his mind sharp.

It kept him alive. 

Ethan reassumed the dead-eyed gaze, pointing it at the top of the basement steps as he heard a key scrape against the padlock that kept the thick wooden door in place. Then the fucker opened it.

Ethan’s eyebrows pinched ever so slightly at the ever so confusing sight of Crawford looking…excited? Happy? Proud maybe?

That wasn’t normal. Usually when he came downstairs, he was just exhausted. Angry. Defeated or upset. He didn’t need Ethan when he was happy.

Ethan didn’t like the change. Unpredictability was always a sign of trouble. Anything that strays from the norm is an omen of pain. He’d been on this earth long enough to know that was true.

His eyes narrowed at the fucker as he trotted down the stairs, giving Ethan a charming smile. 

Crawford wasn’t charming - the expression looked wrong on him. Almost warped. Deranged.

“Good day?” Ethan’s voice was flat. Sarcastic.

Crawford stopped directly in front of Ethan, eyes wandering down his torso, roaming over blooming bruises. Yellow. Black. Red. Green. Blue. An assorted masterpiece of time well spent in Ethan’s particular predicament. “I guess you could say that…” Ethan twitched as Crawford’s hand raised, fingers pressing into a splash of mottled black and purple on his side - Ethan was about 30% sure his rib had cracked there. Though 30% isn’t high enough to bitch about it.

He bit out the response, mostly to distract himself from the flash of pain that twisted through his stomach. “Yeah?”

“Mhm - Do you remember that little talk we had yesterday?”

Ethan’s head tilted. “Honestly? I’m not really paying attention half the time you talk, so no.”

Crawford sighed, but evidently that wasn’t enough to ruin his mood. “The one about carrots and sticks?”

Mm. Yes, Ethan asking for a trip to Disney Land as incentive for being good rather than threats of more pain which clearly never worked.

Ethan smirked at the mention. “Am I getting a vacation?”

Crawford smiled in return. “Even better. You get a little friend.”

Ethan’s smile dropped. He was pretty sure his heart did, too. 

Anxious eyes flickered to the stairs. The door. 

He looked over Crawford, searching for any sign of joke or bluff. “...wh……..um. What now?”

Ethan hissed as Crawford’s grip tightened, thumb digging into the maybe-chipped-but-probably-just-internally-bruised bone. “I got a friend for you. Different kind of stick - or hey, you can see it as a carrot if you want. I don’t really care either way.”

Ethan squirmed a little to the side - away from the touch. “You–...you don’t need t…no one else needs to be here - you..-don’t do that-”

A little intrigue sparked in Crawford’s eyes. “You haven’t even met him yet and you’re already being so much better. I think this will work out nicely.” His hand pulled away, and Crawford stepped toward the stairs again.

Ethan’s mind scrambled.

Was someone already there?? How the fuck did Crawford get someone else? He couldn’t afford to buy another from Elias and he didn’t have the fucking balls to grab someone himself. ….did he?

Ethan’s eyes desperately followed Crawford - if Crawford had actually gotten someone because of Ethan - that person was fucked already. His fault.

It would be his fault.

No.

Ethan’s mouth opened and closed with protests he couldn’t quite find the words to voice. “..Sir you don’t have t-”

“Sir?? Already an improvement - you really aren't doing much here to vouch for your case, Ethan.”

Frustration bubbled up in Ethan’s chest, hot and thick. His hands rolled in the restraints, tugging at them. Narrowed eyes followed Crawford back up the stairs, dreaming of gripping him by the hair and jerking him back down them, head first. 

That would be a pretty sight.

Damn ropes.

“Fuck you.”

But Crawford was already ignoring him, opening the door and shoving a boy down the steps - he looked small. Early twenties with sandy blond hair that ran with a streak of jagged red blood. He barely stayed on his feet, stumbling and skittering down the stairs until he eventually toppled over on the last few stairs, crying out as the rough wood bit into his thighs and shoulders, and he crumpled to the ground at the bottom of the stairs.

Ethan’s blood ran cold as he watched them whimper, scrambling back with horror-filled eyes locked on Elias.

The boy wasn’t collared. He wasn’t trained.

He was new to this.

He would have been okay if Ethan had just been good - Crawford never would have needed someone else. 

Ethan felt sick, teeth barred at Crawford as the man descended after his new catch. “You like him, E? His name’s Johnny.”

Ethan grit his teeth, jerking against the ropes. “You’re so fucking pathetic,” he seethed, barely tracking Johnney’s scramble backwards - it was a little awkward with his hands bound in front of him. “He’s half your size, are you fuckign kidding me???”

Crawford shrugged, stepping up to Johnny as the boy’s back hit the far wall. “Not in the slightest. From now on, he is going to take your punishments. Most of them, at least. You fuck up? I hit him.”

To demonstrate, Crawford gripped Johnny’s hair, pulling a shrill yelp from the boy, and threw him into the ground facedown. He punted him hard in the side.

Ethan paled, tugging uselessly against the ropes. “Stop! What the fuck are you doing!?”

“Already told you.” Another kick, and Johnny screamed, curling up tight to protect his middle. He clearly wasn't used to pain. He couldn’t take this like Ethan could. “That’s rule two, Ethan. I give the orders. Not you.”

Ethan’s heart slammed in his chest, desperation dripping through his veins. “Jus-just stop - stop, you don’t need to do that-”

Crawford raised a brow, bending down to grab Johnny by the back of his shirt collar, dragging him up to his knees. “Are you seriously telling me what to do again?” 

Ethan winced at the cry as Crawford split Johnny’s cheek open with a downward fist. Tears leaked through the strike, dragging thin blood down freckled cheeks. 

“Rephrase, Ethan.”

Ethan’s mind scrambled, eyes locked onto this small stranger whose fate was sealed. Because of him.

His fault.

It was always his fault. 

Ethan’s mouth opened and shut, trying again and again before eventually forming a soft whisper around “please-”

Johnny’s sharp, shallow breaths and choked sobs rang through the room for a few long, icy moments as Crawford’s eyes raked over Ethan. 

“Again.”

Ethan’s lips pinched into a thin line, a glare heating his gaze again. Until he glanced down at Johnny. 

And it softened. Slightly, but it softened. Desperation lit anew at the sight of the boy doubling over - hiding his face behind bound wrists. 

Ethan swallowed thickly, forcing the word out. “..please.”

Crawford’s lips twitched toward a smirk. “Please what?”

Ethan’s eyes screwed shut, fury and frustration and shame all burning through him. His fingers curled into fists as he forced the words up.

They caught in his throat, resting at the back of his mouth - refusing to play their part in keeping Johnny safe.

Pride was a fickle thing.

And just as soon as Ethan found it, he had to strangle it back down into its shoebox in the darkness. 

And it didn’t want to go. 

It thrashed and clawed every step of the way, drawing blood and screams and bleating like a dying animal with nothing left to lose. 

It just made this all the harder when Johnny gasped a desperate whimper.

Ethan’s eyes shot open to find a blade pressed to the hyperventilating Johnny’s throat - Crawford standing over him with an eyebrow cocked at Ethan. “I’m waiting.”

Ethan slammed the shoebox shut, trying to ignore the claws scrabbling against the cardboard.

Fuck pride.

This wasn’t worth it.

His eyes stung anyway as he forced out the sentence. “..please Master- just..please stop-”

Crawford flashed a grin, dropping Johnny who shoved and scrabbled and crawled as far from the man as he could. 

“Good boy.”

Ethan twitched away as Crawford stepped closer, hand patting his cheek.

He wanted to scream obscenities. To snap at the hand and see if he could draw blood. Kick. Anything. 

But he didn’t. 

He just pinned his eyes shut, face turning down and away.

“Very good.”

With a ruffle of Ethan’s hair, Crawford stepped back, heading for the stairs. “I’ll bring down some food in an hour or so. Make sure Johnny knows the rules. He doesn’t need to get beaten twice.”

Ethan’s glare didn’t quite have the fire he was used to as he watched Crawford disappear behind the door.

The padlock clicked into place.

Footsteps creaked through the house, disappearing up to the second floor and falling silent again.

Ethan’s gaze shifted to Johnny, softening as all of him slumped against the ropes again. 

The boy was crying. Sobbing into his arm in the corner of the basement, covered in shadows and dust.

Ethan swallowed thickly. He had to say something, right. ‘Hi’ seemed like a good option. He chose that, yet all that came out was a small, barely audible, “..I’m so sorry...-”

[Previous | Masterpost | Next]

(tags: @prisonerwhump, @whumpawink, @mabledonut, @heathenwhump, @paleassprince, @happy-little-sadist @wormwriting @distinctlywhumpthing @whump-cafe@jo-doe-seeking-inspo @azayta @wibbly-wobbly-whump @batfacedliar-yetagain @there-will-always-be-blood @siren-of-agony @whumpworld @bandages-andobsessions @deltaxxk @whumpasaurus101 @michaeltalks @pickywhumpreader @whumpberry-cookie @morning-star-whump @shelfsdesires @throwawaywhumper @the-mourning-stars @d-cs @pigeonwhumps @hold-back-on-the-comfort @suspicious-whumping-egg)

As always, lmk if you want to be added to the tag list!

[chicademartinica]

i am loving how kinky the never let me go our skyy eps are shaping up to be, as well as your commentary😂 those power dynamics are great. question though, when you mentioned ‘spit in my mouth khun neung’ is that a reference to a particular thing he said in the show, or just a joking line?

It’s a yaoi joke lol but I am dead serious !!! I use this expression in my notes because to me NLMG has a lot of elements of whipping boy romance and erotica. (The fixation on Palm’s back ?!!) It eroticizes the power imbalance, Palmnueng works because they are turned on by it.And Our Skyy flips the dynamic but they are STILL super turned on by it. Palm is SO HORNY IN OUR SKYY FAM !???

Coincidentally, I was watching it at the same time as Japanese BL (the end of the world with you, my beautiful man 2, Jack O’frost) who were WILDING (its Japan) with the spit/lick in my mouth” and power play tropes. Japan will put it on screen and push your limits, NLMG suggests it. But Our skyy 2 ??

They whipped the whipping boy fam ?!!!!

It’s also in how the couple is shot. Palm is taller so when he wants to look at Nueng he bends and talks right in his face and Pondphuwin do A LOT of lips staring/sharing breath acting. So no I’m not joking ! Palm is always giving “spit in my mouth khun Nueng” even if he is taller, stronger and seme/top coded !

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

"Give me your sorrows. Give me your needings...I will take them from you..." In a muddy field in Faulkner, Illinois, a crowd has come to see the smooth-cheeked boy in a makeshift canvas tent -- the boy whose stern father claims he can work a peculiar kind of miracle. "And you will be mine." Our worst secrets, our darkest pain, our weakness and shame -- the hollow part of us -- these he takes upon himself, leaving behind a strange white light of peace and contentment. What grows in that eerie human light? While word of his power spreads and hundreds are "reborn," two people remain impervious to Paul's power. A priest and a young woman reporter come face-to-face with a nightmare. Relieved of guilt, steeped in self-acceptance, Paul's followers are possessed by a strange new evil no one can control: a living, breathing, palpitating evil freed to live without restraints -- and marching toward blood-soaked dominion.

submit a horror book!

[sinceileftyoublog]

Oxbow Interview: Falsely Simple

Photo by Phil Sharp

BY JORDAN MAINZER

I get the sense that after all these years, the artistic collaboration among members of Oxbow is all but intuitive. The San Francisco experimental rock band, started as an offshoot from Palo Alto hardcore band Whipping Boy, has been making genre-averse noise music since 1989. Starting with the abrasive and bleak Fuckfest and culminating with the comparatively subdued and soulful Love's Holiday (Ipecac) released earlier this year, the Eugene Robinson-fronted band have developed an artistic voice over eight records that's cohesive in spirit and approach even if not always in sound. Whether they're working with no wave poets like Lydia Lunch, legendary vocalists like Marianne Faithfull, or full-on orchestras, Oxbow toys with space and raw emotion, focusing on the oft-uncomfortable relationship between silence and screams. All the while, Robinson sings about life, love, addiction, death, suicide, and violence, inspired by moments in his life but left ambiguous enough for listener interpretation.

Yet, it's that second in the list--love--that upon a surface listen, you might not hear on many Oxbow records. Sure, you can't really understand what Robinson is saying at all on early albums, let alone singing about. The band's longtime label Hydra Head did not, in their early pre-Internet days, send lyrics books along with the records themselves. But according to Robinson, love's always been a key component of Oxbow. What's new on Love's Holiday is the sonic and thematic clarity with which Robinson and the band dive in. "It's falsely simple sounding stuff," bassist Dan Adams told me over the phone earlier this year, "especially for people expecting Oxbow to be dirty and grimy and noisy." At the time of our conversation, before the album was released, Adams was unsure how fans and critics would receive it. It's gotten rave reviews from both per usual, and it seems like it could even be a gateway record for people not used to Oxbow or abrasive music in general.

The band put together and recorded the basic tracks for Love's Holiday just before the pandemic; they wouldn't see each other for a year and a half before returning to the record. During the pandemic, guitarist Niko Wenner suffered an injury, joblessness, and the death of multiple family members, including his father. He also had his second child. While Love's Holiday is by no means about these events or even directly inspired by them, you can hear the confused interplay between grief and joy throughout, as manifested by the instrumentation. Robinson's quintessentially pained bellows, Wenner's slurred blues guitars, and Greg Davis' pummeling drums rub elbows with elements with traditionally lighter timbres, like orchestral instrumentation and choral vocals. Kristin Hayter (fka Lingua Ignota) lends her voice to "Lovely Murk", embedding itself among Davis' deliberations, Adams' wiry bass, and shimmering synthesizers. A 15-person choir features on piano ballad "All Gone" and "Gunwale", the perfect juxtaposition to Robinson's baritone and Wenner's distortion, respectively. Don't get me wrong: Love's Holiday is an Oxbow album through and through, with a song like "The Second Talk" and its choppy rhythms and back-and-forth vocalizations reminiscent of back catalog highlights. But it feels like by being forthright, Robinson and company have become the truest versions of themselves.

Oxbow are in the middle of a West Coast tour celebrating Love's Holiday, playing San Francisco's Great American Music Hall tonight and finishing Sunday at Mohawk in Austin. When I spoke to Adams earlier this year, the band was rehearsing, figuring out how they'd adopt the songs to the stage. Their approach wasn't much different this time around: "Practice them a bunch, get on stage, and play them," Adams quipped. In reality, the challenge is stripping down the songs, "taking advantage of the space and sparsity," according to Adams. "It really is a fairly stripped down record in terms of what's going on," Adams said. In essence, they're doing to the studio recordings what Love's Holiday built on from previous Oxbow records: emphasizing the subtleties and the depth of Robinson's voice.

Below, read my conversation with Adams, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: How do you think Love's Holiday is unique as compared to your previous albums, and how do think it's a continuation of them?

Dan Adams: We were freer to give in to the sparsity and simplicity more than we have ever in the past. Yesterday, I listened to a couple of more recent records, and these are cleaner, simpler songs. One thing I really enjoy about that is they put the voice so far up front in terms of the quality of voice and the timbre and emotional content. It's much more exposed than the records have been in the past. I think that's a great thing.

It's very consistent with what we've done in terms of being a fairly transparent expression of emotional material. It's intense. It's complex, I guess, but...in ways that are much more subtle. It's a sensible trajectory from The Narcotic Story and Thin Black Duke. I don't think any of us in the band feel like our trajectories are a one-way pass. [laughs] I think we've always enjoyed doing what feels right at the time we made the music and following our whims and where we are in life, and so on. It's the music we were making at the time, as Niko was writing songs and we were hashing them out in the practice room. It's impossible to predict what the next round of material will be like, although in this particular session, we recorded a whole bunch more music at the same time, so we probably have another record using the material from the same process, which will also be pretty fun. Some of those songs are kind of similar, and some are very different even though they come from the same genesis.

SILY: Does the voice being more upfront on Love's Holiday place a greater emphasis on the lyrics?

DA: That's an interesting question. I think the lyrical content has always been extremely important and a driving factor. I also know Eugene has said quite a bit that he's intentionally written much less, much sparser lyrics for this record. In a way, you could say that's emphasizing what is there. On the other hand, I think it comes down to how the lyrics are delivered, and how well you can hear them. How clearly they're delivered by Eugene [and] how much space the band leaves for those lyrics. I think it's really up to the listener how much work they want to do to find out what the lyrics are about. In some of the older records, it was hard to figure out. In some cases, there were records that came out years before our lyrics books were published where people couldn't figure out what the lyrics were. In this case, they're both available and easier to hear.

SILY: In the lead up to the release of Love's Holiday, Eugene has talked about how the band has always written "love songs," so these themes shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. But in the context of what you just said, that the lyrics in the past were less physically accessible, it might seem like a newfound theme to a lot of folks.

DA: Yes. I think that's right. Eugene's described it as trying to lay it out there and make it obvious after so many years of people not getting it. My interpretation is that because the music has at times been pretty strong, noisy, loud, big, and dissonant, things we've enjoyed and continue to enjoy folding into it, it's almost like typecasting. People hear that and assume that's the element being conveyed in the lyrics. There's complexity and subtlety. These are not simple topics, and Eugene [was frustrated] that people weren't doing the work to understand and find it. So this is a time to make it a little bit more obvious and tell people in advance what we're doing. That's what Thin Black Duke was about as well: short-circuiting people's assumptions about what our record was going to be like and explaining to people what we're doing rather than having people use the old simplistic interpretations of what we're about.

SILY: During the making of Love's Holiday, Niko had a child but also suffered the loss of multiple family members. Can you recall a time when something familial that has happened in a band member's life has contextualized a record as much as his life changes did for this one?

DA: I think so. We've been at this a long time. Everybody's had major things happening in their lives that have directly affected records. First marriages for several people before the seconds, kids at various stages showing up, parents dying, and so on. What's probably more important is how as everybody's gone through this and gotten older, we've interpreted [life events] as they come. Similar [events] might mean different things to you at different phases of your life. It's a continuum.

Certainly, if you hear Eugene talk about the first record, that was very much about very intense things going on in his life. That was part of the whole reason for the existence of the band. It shows where our heads are at the time: If we're in a different place, we're going to make different music.

SILY: You've talked about how working with Joe Chiccarelli for the third record in a row has provided a consistency to allow you to be freer. Do you have specific examples of where the continuity allows for that freedom?

DA: We've felt the freedom to trust Joe more to make decisions and follow his lead. On the first record with him, there was a lot more tension. We weren't as comfortable relinquishing control of certain things. We've always had a pretty heavy hand on everything we make. It's been a great thing to allow what we make to be shaped more by his reaction to it, to allow him to be contributing ideas and getting the hell out of the control room and letting him do his thing. [laughs] He's learned a lot more about what we're about. For some reason, he's been very interested in what we do and very respectful of it. He's internalized it more and been able to take it and run with it. That doesn't mean he's written half the songs and done a whole bunch of stuff like a lot of producers do. If you listen to our rehearsal recordings as we've figured stuff out, it's fairly similar. But some of his little ideas about what sounds [good] here and what sounds [good] there, where to change the mix or drop a beat or cut a section out, he's got great sensibilities. We were very happy to follow his lead in a lot of cases.

SILY: At what point during the process did you decide to hone in on what I hear as one of the main sonic trends in the record, the choral singing?

DA: Our drummer Greg suggested we use voices instead of the orchestration we had been using on some of the earlier records. It was after a show we played at Supersonic Festival in Birmingham in 2017, where the promoters had talked with Niko and had the idea. They've always liked Oxbow doing special things for that festival. Niko had been thinking about choir stuff, and they asked us to put one together and perform with a choir. It was very difficult but very fun: a really great experience and interesting show. I think it made it clear that would be something very fun to explore. It wasn't a huge leap to decide to put choir back in the songs. It had been brewing for the past 4-5 years.

SILY: How did you come to work with Kristin Hayter on "Lovely Murk"?

DA: That's a good question. I don't know who got in touch with her or don't remember. Either Niko or Eugene, I think. [Maybe] Joe suggested it.

SILY: Were you aware of her before working with her?

DA: I was not. I find myself disappointingly out of touch with a lot of great music happening right now. I need new avenues to find this stuff. I don't search for music a lot on the Internet. When I explore, I usually listen to a couple really good local radio stations, but it's up to what they play and what I hear.

SILY: The band includes many instruments on "Dead Ahead" that contain interpersonal context or tributes to people that have since passed: instruments from loved ones who have passed, guitars Niko uses to play for his kids, even a toy piano you gave to Niko's kids. Were these inclusions a conscious starting point for that song, or was it something you decided on after the fact?

DA: I don't think there was any conscious thought. I'm guessing [Niko] was just playing around with it and happened to be using it at the time and went back to it. It's very consistent with how we've approached sounds we make: immediate inspiration, not too deeply thought out, grab something that's there because it seems like the right thing. If I had to guess--I'm interpreting how Niko works, since we haven't talked exclusively about this stuff ever--he envisions a lot of sounds in his head, sound qualities, timbre. He might be consciously aware there's a certain instrument he has in mind he wants to use, or it might be a subconscious thing to pick up the same instrument. He has a couple guitars he's had for years he still uses when playing in his house and working on new ideas. Nothing new there, I think.

SILY: Can you talk about the visual identity of the record?

DA: It's been a great process. The last record was the first for which we made any videos, because it seemed like they were getting more important for how people consume and find music. In that case, we contacted a few people and basically said, "We'll buy you a plane ticket to come over, we don't have much other money to support it, but pitch us an idea, and if we like it, we'll make a video." That worked with the videos with Chris Purdie. This time around, Eugene or Niko--I can't remember--felt it would be important to make videos for everything. We needed to figure out how to do it without bankrupting ourselves more than we usually do. We sent enquiries out to a bunch of people and asked them to propose what they might do for songs, and if we thought there was a chance it would turn out well, we said, "You're on." We paid people what we could, which wasn't a lot, but we let the directors drive [the entirety of] the content. They're very different. As all of them come out, it will be apparent how different they are. It was a great experience to see people give us finished products that were really surprising. It's been a really wonderful added creative process to participate in, to get that kind of feedback from others to see their visions.

SILY: What about the cover art? Did you give Aaron Turner the same leeway?

DA: Yes. He's worked with us enough where he understands our process and is willing to keep us in the process. In this case, he developed quite a few proposals, and there was too much back and forth as we tried to settle on what we wanted to use. He was extremely patient. Sometimes, our process is convoluted, inefficient, and painful. But he hung in there and developed a bunch of ideas till there was something we all thought was cool. All of his ideas are great. He's a very broad thinker as a visual artist and comes up with great artwork. In this case, the variety in ways made it harder to choose, so it took us a long time to settle on one piece of art.

SILY: What's next for the band?

DA: Trying to stay alive and keep doing what we do. We're always working in the now even if the now is a span of five years. We're focusing on what's on our plates. There's no grand elaborate scheme for where it's all going to go. Time changes all of our lives enough between records that it's probably good that way. Following, rather than leading, I guess, is a good way to put that. Circumstances drive what we do rather than setting a path.

[lostonesart]

So I'm scrolling through history tiktok and this one lady was explaining what a whipping boy is.

Ripped from Wikipedia:

A whipping boy was a boy educated alongside a prince (or boy monarch) in early modern Europe, who supposedly received corporal punishment for the prince's transgressions in his presence. The prince was not punished himself because his royal status exceeded that of his tutor; seeing a friend punished would provide an equivalent motivation not to repeat the offence. An archaic proverb which captures a similar idea is "to beat a dog before a lion."

Do you think Leona or Malleus had one of those growing up??? Probably not, because this is Disney but still...

Imagine the potential OCS or stories, lol.

(let's ignore that it may not actually be a thing. For the angst potential.)

[ryeholder]

“Sir, His Majesty The King requires the services of the whipping boy!”

“Oh, dear! I see… Is it bad?”

“I am afraid it is, Sir! His Royal Highness has addressed his Majesty with the most foul language, again. It will be the cane, most certainly bare, and a lot more of it, unfortunately for you.”

“Well then… I should clean up first, I suppose.”

[total-derangement-of-the-senses]

Song of the Day

2 Sep., ‘24

[temuera-morrison-tournament]

Characters, round 2 poll 7

If you search “whipping boy 1996” it should be pretty easy to find it on Internet Archive. I tried to add a link since I had to skip it on my movie tournament but it didn’t work. It’s a pretty bad quality vhs rip though so be prepared

[pa-pa-plasma]

love fics where Danny ends up in the DC universe & every alarm goes off at once & the magic users are like "yeah that's the most powerful being in the universe & also possibly super evil we are FUCKED fucked" & the Justice League is freaking tf out trying to find this thing that casually tore a hole in reality & it just cuts to Danny (Fenton) standing in the background blissfully unaware & like "man my life sucks but at least i have this candy bar—" *drops it in a puddle*

[weewoo911]

Lou saying that he made little choices to show Tommy was checking Buck out prior to the kiss just made me think of Tommy’s decision to go over and apologise personally. Because Lou also said Tommy had no idea Buck was interested until just before so-

He really went all the way over to Buck’s loft just before work because he thinks he Made The Cute Boy Sad 🥺 And he wanted to personally apologise and fix it

Absolutely whipped behaviour Mr. Kinard 🫡✨

[jesncin]

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! This year I wanted to celebrate by showing you what Lunar Boy, our upcoming middle grade graphic novel, means to us as queer Indonesian representation: the thought process behind crafting a sci-fi Indonesian future that embraces queer history.

Pre-order Lunar Boy or add it on goodreads! Support QPOC creators and stories!

[bakubowwow]

Sasaki is SUCH an incorrigible flirt. The man is a menace to society he needs to be stopped

Miyano is a stronger man than me because I would have simply passed away

THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HIM

I would not survive being the subject of Sasaki Shuumei’s affection

How does Miyano not combust

How can you not melt away at the sight of that gorgeous face

He really has a way of making the smallest gestures seem momentous

Miyano is the strongest of us all

[non-un-topo]

To the next adventure...

Image description and details under cut

I.D.

[A drawing of Nicky, Joe, Quynh, and Andy from The Old Guard. They are all in profile, walking in a straight line facing the sun. They are dressed in medieval clothing and armour, and each carry their own weapons and bags. Nicky has his sword, a crossbow, a quiver of bolts, a dagger at his belt and another strapped to his ankle. Joe is holding his sword, a bag, and a coin purse. Quynh's bow is over her back, and her quiver is at her hip. Two daggers are strapped to her belt, one of them matching Nicky's. Andy is holding her axe, two bags, and a dagger. They each have serene expressions and closed eyes, as if they're not in a hurry. In the background, the seasons change from winter to spring, summer, fall. There is an old tree behind them, and its branches change with the seasons.]

[elizaisdunn]

[total-derangement-of-the-senses]

Song of the Day

16 Sep., ‘23