#yeah don’t ask it was because of that one artwork that has no undertones but the pose could be read as a bit suggestive

[byakuyasdarling]

One of my former classmates is really funny, and I’m not at all degrading them: but today they asked if I drew or had any r//34 of Byakuya and I was like “how am I going to say I dislike NSFW content and I’m asexual???”

[lilyoffandoms]

I'm so confused about anon's ask because yes it looks like Eli has brown eyes but it looks like his eye is brown in your artwork too??? It's like a brown with some green undertones, but overall it still looks brown to me. idk

Yeah, I don’t know either. Eye colors are hard to get right a lot so I’m open to knowing when I get it wrong but I don’t see it with this one 🤷🏾

[lukneetoonz]

Ghost of You

———————————————————

Summary: You were the greatest thing in Katsuki’s life…. now you’re gone.

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader

Warnings: Major angst, violent outburst, sexual undertones, cussing, cheating, just Im sorry for this one

Word Count: 1,622

A/N: Been feeling angsty and wanted to give you guys something! This will probably be a two parter… Please use my ask box on how you would like it to end or give me ideas! I recommend listening to ghost of you by 5 Seconds of Summer while reading! That’s what this is based on!

**NO ARTWORK POSTED IS MY OWN AND IS FOUND ON PINTEREST**

——————————————————————

‘Here I am waking up, still can’t sleep on your side’

Empty. That’s how someone could describe both Bakugou and the bed he slept in, the bed he used to share with you. It used to be so warm, used to be filled with love and talks of the future, now- now it was devoid of everything it once was. He wished he could go back, go back to how it was, but he couldn’t. It was impossible, he could never get you back and it was his fault.

‘There’s Your coffee cup, lipstick stain fades with time. If I can dream long enough, you’d tell me I’d be just fine…. I’ll be just fine’

Moving to the mess of a kitchen, Bakugou took note of how it was almost frozen in time. He hasn’t touched anything since that day, he wanted to preserve your memory for as long as he could, even if it meant that the stain of your lipstick on your Favorite mug slowly fading reminded him of your absence, he still didn’t move it. He couldn’t. If he moved it- then you’d be gone from this apartment forever and the thought alone was enough to make his heart break.

He had to force his eyes away as he went and sat down, closing his eyes he remembered how you used to calm his thoughts. Bakugou always did get lost in his thoughts, but he had you to pull him away from them. Maybe if he closed his eyes long enough, he’ll wake up and this would have all been a horrible nightmare and you’ll be by his side again to tell him that it’s okay. That you’re never going to leave, that you’re here forever. But he only opens his eyes to the frozen apartment and he has to reel himself back from the edge or else god knows what Bakugou will do in a breakdown.

‘So I drown it out, dancing through our house with the ghost of you’

Like clockwork he moved through the apartment that used to be shared by the both of you, it was almost as if you were still there. He moved to open cabinets for you, only to turn around and remember you weren’t there. Bakugou tensed and decided to blare music, he needed something to drown out his thoughts, something that could at least keep his mind off them. The way he moved was almost like a dance he rehearsed many times before, it was perfect but sad. A dance meant for two, but performed by one.

Even subconsciously, Bakugou made breakfast for two, set the table for two, by the end he looked around to see your eyes looking back at him, but they weren’t there. He was alone.

‘And I chase It down, with a shot of truth. Dancing through our house, with the ghost of you’

Bakugou didn’t care that it was only 8 am, he poured himself a drink and let it burn his throat. The hero would do anything to take away the pain of the deafening silence. Numbly, he looked at the spot you usually sat on the couch and sniffled harshly, reminding himself that this was his fault. You’re gone because of him. How can he sit here and be depressed, when he only has himself to blame? Screaming, Bakugou threw the bottle of alcohol across the room and watched it splash everywhere.

Pops could be heard as he started getting angry and blindly, he made a mess as he started unleashing every emotion he felt. A hole in the wall here, chair thrown there, glass everywhere. He couldn’t give a fuck.

‘Cleaning up today, found that old Zeppelin shirt, you wore when you ran away, and no one could feel your hurt’

The apartment looked like a tornado had formed and only destroyed the inside before dissipating. But maybe that’s how someone could describe Bakugou Katsuki; a tornado, destroying everything in its path. Even you. With a frown on his face, Bakugou stood up and started cleaning, even if he was an emotional mess, he still couldn’t live in such a disaster. Going he walked to the couch and started putting it back in place, but saw something sticking out from it.

As soon as he picked it up, he regretted it. Tears pricked his eyes because this was your favorite shirt, his shirt. The one he gave you. You wore it all the time; cleaning, on dates, lazy days, to bed, it didn’t matter to you, because you loved it. But now it was a constant reminder of what happened, because you wore it that day. The day he wished he could take back. He thought you took it with you, or even threw it away… but you left it, and honestly? That hurt more.

*•*

You had a bright smile on your face as you walked into your boyfriends agency, you didn’t get to visit him much, but when you did it always led to a make out session in his office with you on his desk. But- something was off… as you walked in you could see people looking at you, some throwing looks of… sympathy? A sick feeling gathered in your stomach as you got to Katsukis office but stopped as you heard an all too familiar sound, “Katsu… shouldn’t we be patrolling?” No no no… her voice came out as a moan followed by her own chuckle

“Babe, I’m the boss, we can patrol whenever we want.” Tears filled your eyes and before you knew it, you stormed in seeing Bakugou Katsuki, your boyfriend of 3 years, standing in between Camie’s legs with his face buried in her neck as she sat on his desk, limbs wrapped around him. As soon as The strangled sob left your lips, both of them whipped around to see you, looks of horror on their faces, and before they could say anything you ran off, not even stopping when you heard Katsuki calling your name.

You wore his shirt. The shirt he gave you. As soon as you got home you tore it off your body and changed, a scowl on your face and you threw it on the couch as you started packing your stuff, not stopping when you heard the door open and rushed footsteps come your way.

*•*

‘We’re too young, too dumb, to know things like love. But I know better now.’

Bakugou Katsuki was known for calling everyone else around him a dumbass, but after seeing your face that day, he knew he was the true dumbass. How could he have hurt you so bad? Why did he do what he did with Camie when you were more than enough. Yeah you guys 21… he- he was allowed to make mistakes right? From a young age he was expected to grow up faster than others…. but if he wanted to mess around he should have broken things off, not break your heart.

He knows better now! He’s talked to fucking shitty hair about it, asked him for advice and how to win you back, he understands. Before, Bakugou didn’t know anything about love, honestly, but now? He does. And now, he would do anything to get you back.

‘So I drown it out like I always do, dancing through our house with the ghost of you, and I chase it down with a shot of truth, that my feet don’t dance, like they did with you’

Denki, Kiri, and Sero, dragged Katsuki out of the house saying ‘he needs to get his sad ass up and get crunked’, well Denki said that…. Kirishima more So gave his blonde haired friend a pat on the back asking if he was okay. So here he was, sitting in a far too packed club in a booth with a drink in hand, watching his friends dance horribly with people they don’t know to a song they’ve never heard before.

Sitting here only made him remember how you’d drag him on the dance floor and dance like a weirdo against him, making him crack the slightest smile. No one will ever make him feel like you did, nor will anyone ever make him do things that you made him do. You made him a better person, always cheered him on. Putting his face on the table he tried hiding the tears in his eyes, the sounds muffling as all he could hear was the sounds of your crying. Bakugou Katsuki would never be the same man he was with you. He won’t ever love again like he did with you, hell he’s never going to love again.

Anyone that could describe Bakugou Katsuki, would say he is Empty, but you would describe him as heartless. For how could anyone do that to someone else they loved? That’s why when you saw him you felt your blood run cold, how dare he look so- so sad? Before you could even make a quick escape, Mina threw her arms around your shoulders giggling, “Y/NNNNN PUSH THOSE TATA’S UP AND LET’S GET OUR DRINKS PAID FOR!” Your eyes went wide as they met crying, red ones. “Y/N…”

[oldphone-whodis]

How much money do I have to pay for any form of writing on a shikamaru jinchuriki au

No money at all, my good dude. Here! How about the classic introduction scene of the Squad meaning their Jonin Sensei? It took a while, but I like how it turned out and hope you do too!

And just a note, since there's a lot of swaps, many (but not all) characters will be part of different clans. I'll make a post of the swaps later.

Rating: T (for some cursing)

× × ×

His team. His team is an equal balance between an absolute disaster and a dream come true!

On one hand, he has a better chance at befriending Chouji now. If only the boy will look past his ingrained prejudices and see Shikamaru for who he is -- just a chill guy who wants to be friends. Damn all the adults in the village for deciding that just because the Kyuubi was inside of him, he himself was to be treated as that beast. (Honestly, he'd learned that fact very recently.)

Sure, Shikamaru may go out of his way to act out from time to time, but they're all for a good cause! People just just tend to look at his art and call it "illegal" and "vandalism of public property."

Truly, it was a mistake on his part. Next time, he won't paint his artworks on the Hokage Monument. Or he'll at the very least use paint that cleans away with water. He wasted hours cleaning that up while Mikoto-sensei sat with him to make sure he got every last bit of it. It was so… troublesome.

His other teammate is -- for lack of a better term -- a total bitch. Hanabi. He doesn't care what sort of trauma she's gone through. A tragic backstory doesn't mean she can go around manipulating her fanclub into doing dangerous stunts for her amusement or making them buy her snacks on a whim! Why does nobody else ever do anything about her?

Shikamaru himself just prefers to stay out of her way as much as possible. Though he does intervene when it comes to Chouji. He can't stand how often others take advantage of the boy's friendly nature. And Hanabi truly finds some sick pleasure in seeing the others around her do her bidding, no matter how outrageous. He can't let that happen to Chouji.

So Shikamaru has his long-awaited Genin Squad of the person he likes the least and the person he likes the most.

It's been one hour now after everyone else's Jonin Sensei have come to retrieve them, and their Squad -- Squad 7! -- is all that remains. If Shikamaru knew their Sensei was going to be late, he would've went straight for a nap. He stayed up all last night.

"Our Sensei still isn't here," Shikamaru sighs finally, breaking the silence. "I can't sleep because they couldn't be here any minute."

Chouji looks up as if curious when Shikamaru stands up. Confidence thoroughly boosted by the attention, Shikamaru strides down a couple steps to the chalkboard and begins on making his newest artwork.

And by the finish of Shikamaru's interpretation of an improved Konoha, their Sensei is still missing. Two hours late now. And pettiness boils in his heart as he picks up the chalk eraser. He knows it won't work. He knows! But on the off chance that maybe it will, Shikamaru places the chalk eraser in the space between the sliding door and the door frame.

"Shikamaru, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Chouji asks in disbelief. "That's our Sensei! You can't just do that! They'll hate us for sure if that's what you do."

Shikamaru is temporarily conflicted. Give in and remove the eraser for the sake of preserving the very small relationship he'd gotten between himself and Chouji? Or does he keep it to satiate his pettiness powered by a need for vengeance against their Sensei?

"Agh! Fine, I--"

Before he can even finish his sentence, the door slides open and reveals a… very distinct man, to say the least. And he now has chalk dust all over his head.

"My first impression of you in that you're very unyouthful!" the man exclaims. "One of out five stars! Would not recommend!"

All three of them cringe in unison at hearing the man say such a thing. Is this guy really a Jonin? And a good enough one to train Genin? Shikamaru, in that moment, has his doubts. Surely this is a joke, and their real Sensei will walk in any moment now.

"See Shikamaru!" Chouji exclaims in distress. "I told you you shouldn't have done that!"

Shikamaru just sighs. Damn his faulty impulse control.

"Okay! You three, meet me on the roof!" the man -- presumably their Jonin Sensei -- orders them before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

× × ×

"Okay, let's do introductions," their Sensei says.

"Introductions?" Chouji asks warily. "Like what?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru points out. "We could use an example, so why don't you go first?"

"Great idea! I am the very youthful Maito Gai! I like youthfulness and I dislike unyouthfulness!"

Shikamaru can't help but mostly zone that out. Youth this, youth that. What the hell is this guy even saying? But he thinks he's getting the general idea of what Gai-sensei wants from them.

"And finally my dream is…," he trails off as if lost in a very heartfelt memory, which is frankly a little concerning. Should Shikamaru go to the Hokage and petition for a new Sensei now?

"Anyways, just like that!" Gai-sensei says. "Now, you first, with the ponytail."

"Uzumaki Shikamaru," Shikamaru introduces. "I like napping, I guess? I don't like…"

He doesn't like Hanabi, but he doesn't want to make himself a target for her. He doesn't like the people in the village who give him those looks, but he doesn't want to get into that. Maybe he should just skip that, say he doesn't particularly dislike anything. Yeah.

"…I don't really dislike anything specifically," Shikamaru continues. "Hobbies? I'm good at art, I guess. And my dream… Hokage."

The Hokage because if he's Hokage, he can make some much needed changes. Such as fixing that lacking education system. He gets a headache every time he hears someone call the Byakugan a "Sharingan". Definitely fix the education system.

"Nice! Now you!" Gai-sensei points to Chouji.

"I'm Haruno Chouji," the boy says softly. "What I like most is… uh, barbeque. I like barbeque! And my hobby is rating different restaurants around the village. And my dream…"

Chouji glances over to Hanabi with a smile. Shikamaru isn't even sure if she's paying attention. Of course, Chouji's dream would be to finally hook up with Hanabi. Shikamaru wishes he could show Chouji what a demon she actually is.

"And what do you hate?" Gai asks.

"I hate how Shikamaru won't even give Hanabi a chance!" Chouji exclaims. Ouch! Does Chouji think Shikamaru is being unfair to her? He isn't! She actually is a terrible girl. He spend a few months trying to be nice to her after he heard about the incident, but she just doesn't care. All she wants is to see the world suffer and burn. He just knows it.

"Right…," Gai-sensei says as if a bit uncomfortable. "And our last person?"

"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi," she says, emphasizing her name to prove some unknown point. "Likes, dislikes. I'm sure you'd like to know."

He can just hear her calling them plebeians and pissants in the undertones of how she speaks. And Shikamaru wonders how she's gotten through life this far without anyone else getting pissed at her with the way she talks.

"My hobbies," Hanabi says and chuckles darkly. Shikamaru doesn't want to know what that's supposed to mean.

"And my end goal?" Hanabi leaps to her feet and slams a fist against her chest. "I will murder the one I hate most, once and for all!"

Shikamaru shivers and scoots as far away from her as possible. What the hell is her problem? Does she really have no life outside of… whatever hellhole she's trapped herself in? She has too many problems and not enough therapy.

Shikamaru makes a mental note to add that to the list of things that will have to change when he is Hokage.

"Okay then," Gai-sensei says with a nod, now looking a bit more serious. "Now that we're done with our… very passionate introductions, I must tell you about the test tomorrow."

"A test?" Chouji asks and Shikamaru can't help but share the sentiment.

"Yeah, what kind of test?" Shikamaru questions warily.

"It's a survival test," Gai-sensei says, "and your opponent will be me! Prepare for tomorrow -- anything is fair game! -- but you can't eat breakfast because you'll just puke it all back up! Be at Training Ground 3 at dawn! See you then!"

Before anyone can ask any further questions, Gai-sensei is gone, leaving his three students blinking in his dust. That was… very quick.

Nonetheless, Shikamaru will be heading home and start on his petition for a new, more suitable Jonin Sensei for the three of them. It will take some time though. And some reading up on Konoha Law. What a drag.

[anxiously-unsatisfied-world]

It Takes Two to Tango - Ch. 6

Pairing: eventual Prinxiety & Logicality Word Count: 2170 Warnings: food mention

A/N: So not much really happens this chapter but it’s our boys spending time with each other so enjoy! I’ll see you Saturday for chapter seven! :D

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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When they settle on a restaurant, Roman pushes the thoughts of the next day aside, instead deciding to focus on Virgil and the upcoming performance. Those thoughts can wait at least until that’s over with.

They order their food and continue telling each other stories they have about dancing. “And the whole audience was laughing and clapping, they must have thought it was a scripted fall,” Roman says, grinning at the way Virgil’s laughing, looking so carefree and beautiful.

“Oh man! At least they took it well! I remember a dance not going right but the audience wasn’t as receptive as yours. The silence was almost a bit too much, thankfully, it all settled once we continued dancing.” Virgil says, wincing slightly at the memory, Roman mirroring his expression.

“Yikes, that must have been horrible!” Roman says, “They must have settled because they got entranced by your dancing. From last night, I already know you dance beautifully so that must be it.” Roman smiles at Virgil, unknowingly making his heart skip a beat, Virgil’s face growing warm at the compliment.

“Maybe… But I’m sure you’re the more beautiful dancer. Everyone’s eyes were on you last night.” Virgil says with a soft smirk.

Roman’s eyes widen at the compliment and his cheeks turn a soft pink, which makes him even more beautiful in Virgil’s eyes. “You sure about that, Mr. Famous Dancer? I’m sure they were all watching you. Sure, I’m great to look at but you in that outfit from last night? Absolutely captivating.”

Virgil goes still at the compliment, painfully aware of the way his heart is pounding in his chest. The simple fact that Roman thought he looked good in that outfit has thrown him completely off guard. “I-I… Thanks, Princey.” Virgil says, “You also looked great last night. How about we agree they were watching both of us?”

Roman’s lips curl up in a satisfied smile. “That sounds good to me.” Virgil returns the smile and the conversation shifts off to another topic, though both are distinctly aware that the other has thought they looked good before.

Once their food arrives, they both go silent to eat, occasionally meeting eyes with each other and holding that contact for a bit too long before looking away. The rest of the meal goes on with this slight tension, but it quickly fades once they’re out of the restaurant and onto their next destination.

Virgil leads Roman to a tucked-away bookstore, down one of the side streets Roman hadn’t gone down the previous day. He’d mainly spent time on the main streets of the city so he hadn’t even known this was here.

“This is one of my favorite places to just spend time. It’s quiet and not a lot of people are in it any given time so it’s a relaxing place to just chill.” Virgil explains as they step inside, quieting his voice even though this isn’t exactly a library.

Roman smiles at that, finding it sweet how Virgil’s opening up to him. This is more than he expected when he first got the idea to travel back to this time period, but he’s enjoying every second of it.

“What kind of books do you like to read?” Roman asks, smirking before continuing, “Though, given your stage name, I think I already have an idea, Mr. Raven.”

Virgil rolls his eyes at the teasing expression Roman’s giving him, but he has to admit, he’s not too far off from being right. “Okay, Smart Guy, you might be right about my tastes but I bet you live on fairytales. Am I right, Princey?”

Roman huffs and dramatically puts a hand to his chest. “Why ever would you assume such a thing?” He layers on the drama in his voice before snickering, “Actually, yeah, you’re not wrong. I am a sucker for a romance with a happy ending!”

Virgil raises his eyebrows and looks up from the book he had half-heartedly been looking at while Roman was doing his dramatics. “Are you sure we’re reading the same fairytales, Princey? Because the ones I know have way darker undertones.”

Roman’s about to say something about how Disney movies/stories always have happy endings but then he remembers that Virgil would have no idea what that means since Disney movies don’t exactly exist yet.

“Sure, some fairytales do end darkly, Count Gloom. But surely, you can think of a few that end up well for the two love interests.” Roman says and Virgil begrudgingly nods as there are stories that do that, even if they’re not the ones he usually reads.

“Fine, Princey. Maybe you should read some of the fairytales written by the Brothers Grimm sometime. If you could handle a darker twist on your usual fairytales, that is.” Virgil says with an expression that Roman would swear is far too attractive to be so mean-spirited.

“Uh, hate to break your bubble, but I have read them, and I find them to be brilliantly written. But I still prefer things with happier endings.” Roman says and Virgil snickers behind a hand at his reaction being teased like that.

“M’kay, Roman. Now, I actually do want to look around a bit while we’re here. Then we’ll go somewhere else.” Virgil says and Roman nods, both of them silently walking around and looking at books for a little while.

Once Virgil’s purchased a new book, he leads Roman to a nearby museum, which gets a curious but excited expression from Roman. With those eyes looking at him so curiously, Virgil feels compelled to explain why they’re there.

“So, uh, I don’t really have to say what makes a museum enjoyable. But I like other types of art than just dancing so it’s nice to come look around every once in a while.” Virgil says while fidgeting with his hands without thinking.

“I agree. It’s always interesting to see how they portray similar emotions that we do while dancing in a different medium.” Roman sets a hand on top of Virgil’s to still them, causing Virgil to look up and their eyes to meet.

It’s like time freezes for both of them the second their eyes lock, the world around them no longer as important as the person in front of them. Both of them feel like they could stay forever like this and be perfectly happy to do so.

As quickly as the moment starts, it ends. Virgil shakes himself off and offers a shy smile to Roman, who retracts his hand and beams back. They then enter the museum to kill some of their remaining hours until the performance.

“I have to say, Princey. While most people would’ve been bored by the whole thing, you actually had something to say about each piece of artwork.” Virgil says as they’re leaving the museum. “It made that more fun than when I’m by myself.”

Roman grins at that, his cheeks heating up just faintly. “Thanks, Virgil. I’m used to it, my brother loves going to all sorts of museums. It’s a lot easier to bear if you’re not by yourself.”

“I agree with that. Now...I have one more place to take you before we’ll eat dinner and go perform.” Virgil says, feeling a fluttery feeling in his stomach at the idea of taking him to this next place. It’s not like it’s the most personal of the places they’ve been, but something about taking him there feels special enough to make Virgil nervous.

“Alright. Lead the way!” Roman says, offering a bright, encouraging smile when he sees Virgil look a bit nervous. Without thinking, he reaches over and takes Virgil’s hand, squeezing it softly to let the other know that it’s all going to go fine.

Virgil’s eyes widen at the fact that they’re holding hands. But instead of freaking out about it, or goofily grinning like he wants to, he simply smiles back at Roman and starts to lead him, not bothering to let go of his hand.

Part of the way there, Roman realizes that they’re holding hands and has an internal gay panic. This is fine! We’re just two friends holding hands as he leads me somewhere. This is completely normal. It’s not like he’s stupidly attractive or anything. Gah! Roman, get a hold of yourself. You’re leaving this time in the next few days, you can’t get attached! But he knows he’s already attached. (and that’s a problem for later)

The walk itself is quite short and it leads to a gazebo of sorts where a few people are sitting playing various instruments together. Surrounding the gazebo is lush grass that would be perfect to either sit on and listen to the music or dance around on.

Virgil’s shoulders relax as they step onto the grass, unable to help the smile spreading across his face as they step into one of his safe havens in this town. Roman bites his lip at how beautiful Virgil looks smiling so genuinely and knows instantly that he’s screwed. There’s no way back from how much he feels for this dancer now.

“So, I come here often. I usually just sit and listen to the music, but I often come to dance and mess around when I don’t want to do actual practice.” Virgil says, seeming so relaxed and happy at being here.

Something in Roman’s heart catches at how beautiful and serene Virgil looks. It’s obvious that this is one of his favorite places in town from how at peace he’s become just by coming here. “Sounds nice.” Roman says softly, “I can see why you’d love this place.” Roman lets the music wash over him, starting to sway slightly on his feet as the music makes him want to dance.

Virgil hums lightly in response, not even bothering to hide his smile at how the music is affecting Roman. His heart skips a beat to see him looking so contented like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

Roman full-on twirls when the music swells and Virgil tries to muffle the surprised laugh that it causes but Roman just grins at him and extends a hand towards him. No words are needed for Virgil to know what he’s asking and thus, he takes Roman’s hand, allowing him to pull him into a somewhat messy dance.

The leader varies from move to move, from Roman dipping Virgil to Virgil spinning Roman around, but neither of them notices. It feels natural for the leader to switch so often when they’re not having to put on a show for an audience. Instead, this is only about them and the person in their arms.

One song shifts to another with neither of them caring about how much time is passing, not really. A small crowd of people gathers to watch them as they’re still using moves that only trained dancers would use even in this more relaxed setting.

Through the dancing, Roman never lets his eyes stray from Virgil’s, evoking an intimacy to the dance. It’s been ages since either of them, particularly Virgil, has felt this drawn to a dance partner, and despite his usual qualms about maintaining eye contact unless necessary, he finds that it’s much easier to hold Roman’s steady gaze, though it’s a bit embarrassing and flustering.

The song melts into a more romantic one that causes the audience to break away, not wanting to intrude now that it feels less like a rehearsed performance. Roman laughs softly when he hears the soft swells in the music, the sound bringing an almost dopey grin to Virgil’s lips.

They draw closer to each other, swaying to the music instead of performing intricate moves. Roman’s hands settle around Virgil’s neck, while Virgil’s wrap around his waist, their hearts beating in sync as Virgil gently rests his forehead against Roman’s.

It’s a bit odd for him as he’s never been the type to grow close to someone this quickly. But, of course, there’s something different about Roman. Normally, people aren’t able to understand his snarky nature, instead preferring his grace when he dances. But Roman… Roman has witty quips to match his own and doesn’t shy away when Virgil gets too snarky. So maybe that’s why he’s already so attached to him.

They stay in that position until the song draws to a close and it’s only then that they realize how long they had been dancing together. Roman offers up a sheepish smile, “So, I guess we should have dinner?”

“Yeah… Come on, I have a place I think you’d like.” Virgil reluctantly draws away from Roman but grabs Roman’s hand to lead him to their destination.

Roman feels his face flush at the fact that it was Virgil who reached for his hand this time, meaning that their feelings have to match at least a little. Right?

The thought alone causes a grin to spread across his face as he trusts Virgil to get them to the restaurant in one piece.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[i-choose-liam]

Tassels - King Liam x MC (The Royal Romance)

A/N: An anon requested Liam and Mc playing truth or dare. It’s pretty suggestive, but not nsfw, so don’t worry. Tagging @bowful, @indescribablechoices, @indiacater, @zaffrenotes, @angelicfangirl, @thatspicegirlssong, and @lizzybeth1986. If you would like to be removed from the tags, please please let me know. I feel awkward enough tagging you as it is. Thanks.

Pairing: King Liam x MC (Queen Riley)

Rated: T, for sexual themes 

As the Queen of Cordonia dropped her head back to the couch, she let out a weary sigh. Her husband was standing by the dresser, taking off his coat and looking at her with a smile. "Tired, my love?", he asked. Riley turned her head to the side to get a better look at him. She said, "No. Just bored. Contrary to what my teachers said about me in college, I cannot talk an entire Parliament into submission" Liam chuckled, taking off his cravat. "I'm sure you could, dear, provided we hand you a bottle of vodka before" "Ha-ha. Wait", she wondered aloud, "When was the last time I got drunk?" She sat up straight when she realised - "Liam, I can't remember the last time I was drunk. I think it was that time when I played truth or dare with Maxwell and the others, but I'm not sure" Liam turned away from the mirror to face her, unbuttoning his shirt as he spoke. "You lot played truth or dare? When?" Riley shrugged, "It seems like ages ago. I think it was before your Coronation" "Wow" He said and turned away. Riley had become so accustomed to her usually impassive husband's moods, it didn't take her long to figure out something was amiss. That "wow" hadn't been one of nostalgic surprise. It had undertones of hurt. "What do you mean by wow?", she asked. "Nothing. Just that it has been so long" "No", Riley got up, "I know all your wows. Your wow, when you see an amazing artwork. The other wow, when you can't believe how funny something is. Then there's another wow, when you see me naked" She smiled on hearing his laugh. ‘God, I love that laugh’ Liam turned to her. He was unbuckling his belt, while the ends of his shirt lay wide open, exposing his chiseled torso. "I am quite flattered that you have been studying my speech patterns" "Or as I like to call it... Liam-guistics" "Dear god" "Oh hush. You love it" He took her in his arms, saying he did indeed. Riley laid her face against his chest, lovingly dancing her fingers along his abs. Liam was quite tall, so she often got to enjoy being enfolded in his arms, having his chin rest atop her head. She asked, her cheek growing warm against his chest, "What was that 'wow' about?" Liam rubbed circles on her back with his hand. He said, "Do you really want to know?" "Yeah" "Well, it's going to make me sound petty. But I felt jealous that you guys played truth or dare without me. Sorry" She said, "Aw. Don't be sorry. If I were in your place, I would have never forgiven any of you for playing without me" "You can be rather vengeful" She gave him a playful push, moving her face away from his chest, but Liam held her tight in his arms. Riley looked up into his smiling face. She said, "There is a way we can set this right. I'll play truth or dare with you" "That is incredibly sweet of you. But you don't have to" She held his arms, insisting, "I want to! It will be fun, I promise" Excitement flickered in Liam's eyes, until he compressed it into one word. "Okay" "Great! Come on, we will sit on the bed" Riley had changed into her nightdress, and Liam wore his pyjama pants. They were sitting up on different sides of the bed, facing each other. Riley had explained the simple rules to him before she asked, "Shall we play then?" "Absolutely" She said, "Okay. You pick first. Truth or dare?" "Hm", Liam seemed to be giving it a thought, "Truth" Riley smirked, waggling her brows at him. "Too scared to be dared, Your Majesty?" He returned with a devious smile of his own, "I'm just getting warmed up, my Queen" "Well then, truth, huh? Okay!", Riley asked, "When was the last time you got a hard-on in public?" Liam's eyebrows rose, as he said, "Wow" "That's definitely your 'I can't believe this' wow" "You're just jumping right into it, aren't you?" She winked. Liam cleared his throat. "If I must answer... it was four days ago" "Four days ago? We were at the Beaumont estate four days ago" Liam nodded. He wouldn't meet the surprised look in her eyes. "You were helping Maxwell with the cleaning. You offered to wash the car. Bertrand and I were discussing Parliamentary matters on the lawn" "But I don’t remember doing anything sexy", Riley said. Liam gave her a look. He said, "That's what always happens. You are just doing your own thing, and without knowing it, you can seem unbelievably sexy" She laughed in disbelief. "Okay. So I was washing the car and?" "It was hot out and we were inside the estate grounds. So you were wearing shorts and a tank top. And you threw on a red plaid shirt over it. There was that wash bucket, the foam and washcloth", Liam said, "You were bent over the hood, washing the glass. The angle of your body, it... and you had foam on your chest" "Oh my god" Liam blushed, "That's not what I...! Anyway, you... you wiped the sweat from your forehead and took off the shirt because it was too hot. Then you crawled on your hands and knees on top of the hood… to clean the car's roof. Let's just say that was enough to... illicit an indecent response from my body" Riley laughed, "Liam! Why didn't you tell me right then?" "How could I? Bertrand was talking to me, and all I could think about was pinning you down on that hood and getting your tank top & shorts out of the way" Riley covered her face as she laughed some more, expertly covering her blushing cheeks too. She asked, "How did you get rid of it?" Liam said, "I took a newspaper from the tea table and put it on my lap. I had to pretend to read it. Then Savannah came in with Bartie and handed him to me. I was horrified at the thought of seating him down anywhere near my... so I just awkwardly held him in my arms throughout the rest of the conversation" "Poor baby" "I made sure he didn't..." "Not Bartie. You", Riley giggled. Liam grinned. He told her, "You're more dangerous than you realise" "Oh I totally get it now" Looking more relaxed, Liam reclined into the bed. He said, "Now it's your turn. Will it be truth or dare?" "Dare, obviously" "Very well. I dare you to take off all your clothes and keep them off for the rest of the game" Riley stared at him in surprise. Liam looked as innocent as a lamb. "That was fast", she said, "Were you planning it or something?" He gave her a nod, saying, "It was the first thing that popped into my head when you suggested playing truth or dare" Liam laughed on seeing the expression on her face. He sat up in bed, pulling her to him. "Come on. Don't tell me you're scared" "I'm not" Riley narrowed her eyes at him, before getting on her knees and pulling off her negligee. "Wait", Liam said. She watched him get out of bed. He had the nerve to turn on every single light in their bedroom, even the bedside lamps. He plopped down into bed, resting his head on his elbow and watching. "Continue", he said. With his eyes hungrily caressing every exposed inch of her skin, Riley slowly pulled off her nightdress. She rose on her knees and arched her back fully, making Liam's jaw drop. Her fingers unhooked the bra from behind. She held it in place for one agonising minute, before it slipped out of her hands and fell on the bed. Liam's pulse visibly moved in his throat. Riley turned, so he was facing her side, and slipped the panties off her butt, the fabric caressing her skin as she pulled it down. She sat down in bed and stretched her right leg up in the air. She pulled down the panties along the length of her leg, freed it from her left leg, then tossed it on the floor. When she turned to Liam again, he was practically devouring her with his eyes. So for added effect, she shook her head to let her hair bounce and splay, till it settled on her shoulders. "Riley...", Liam growled. He advanced on her, saying, "You're so fucking gorgeous..." "Uh-uh", she put a hand to his chest, keeping him away, "I did what you dared me to. Now it's my turn to ask" Liam almost sounded desperate, "But darling..." "Rules are rules, Liam" He immediately schooled his petulant expression into one of nonchalance. He sat down on the bed, away from her. "Fine. I choose truth" "You're such a chicken!" He laughed, "The choice is up to me, isn't it?" Riley scoffed. She rolled her eyes, "Fine" On purpose, she positioned herself in bed on her side. Liam could gaze unhindered at her front, and the curve of her body cresting over her hips and narrowing at her legs. "Tell me. If you absolutely had to, who would you have sex with - Drake or Maxwell?" "You...", Liam exclaimed, "What kind of a question is that?" She tried not to burst into a laugh. "It's a question. You have to answer truthfully" Liam put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. He sighed. "If I absolutely had to", he mumbled, "Drake" "I'm sorry, speak louder" "I said Drake! You happy?" She giggled. "Oh very happy" Liam warned her, "If you tell him, I swear I will tell our friends what your nicknames for them are"   "You wouldn't!" "If you tell him this, then I will tell them", Liam said, "I'm quite sure Miss Honeypot will forgive you though" "Liam!" He ducked the pillow she threw at him and laughed. This time, Riley chose truth. Liam gave it a long thought. "Are you going to ask me or are you just going to stare at my body?" "Hm?" "You're such a..." "Okay, okay!" He finally asked, "What is the most public place you would be willing to have sex in?" "Why do I feel like you are asking this for future reference?" "What if I am?" She blushed, "You are incorrigible. I swear, your exhibitionist kink is going to get us caught some day" "Answer the question, Your Majesty", he grinned ear to ear. Riley thought about it for a while. She said at last, "Anywhere but public transport. Those places are crawling with germs" Liam raised an eyebrow, "Anywhere, you say? Interesting" She cut him off, saying, "It's your turn now, pervert. And if you pick truth again..." "Dare" Riley confirmed, "Really?" Liam nodded, "Yes. Dare me. It's only fair" When she sat up in bed with a big smile on her face, Liam realized he was in trouble. Riley said, "I dare you to take a sexy selfie and send it to one of your closest friends" She chuckled when Liam shook his head at her. "A dare's a dare", she reminded him. Liam groaned, throwing a pillow over his face. Riley pulled it off him, laughing, and put his phone in his hand. "Come on now. Don't tell me the King of Cordonia can't keep his word" Liam gave her a pained look, "If I wasn't in love with you, I would hate you so much" "Yeah, right. Sexy selfie now. Come on" "I don't even know how to take a sexy selfie!" "Just pretend you're going to send it to me. What would you want me to see?" "Well…" Riley giggled some more. She said, "I mean, other than my favourite part" Liam huffed. He had a hand under his head as he lay in bed, the muscles in his arm flexing. He turned on the front camera on his phone and positioned it above him. It did present a good picture. His shirtless torso, the fruits of his workout, and his mussed up hair. He managed to give half a smile to the camera before clicking the picture. "Let me see!" Riley took the phone from his hand and gawked at the picture. She said with reverence, "This is definitely going in my private collection" Liam asked hopefully, "Does that mean I don't have to send it to a friend?" She began typing, "Oh you're definitely sending this to someone. Who's it going to be?" "Darling, please..." "I'll just send it to Drake" Liam shot up in bed. "No!", he took the phone away from her, "He'll never let me hear the end of it" Riley chuckled. "Then how about Hana?" "That would be extremely inappropriate" "Then that leaves..." Liam closed his eyes, mumbling, "Forgive me, my friend" He typed in the name but couldn't hit send. "You send it" Riley took the phone back from his hands. She said with a wicked leer, "Gladly" She even attached a caption: I'm waiting for you. "And... sent!" "You are pure evil. I really wonder at times if the red dress you wore at the Masquerade wasn't a sign after all", Liam said. Riley laughed, exclaiming, "Oh my god, he replied!" "Nooo...", Liam groaned. Riley read the reply aloud. "Uuummmm... Liam, you sure you got the right number?" "Give me that!" She rolled on the bed and laughed, while Liam typed a frantic apology to his friend. ‘I'm so sorry, Maxwell! That was meant for Riley. I apologize. So very sorry’ Maxwell texted back, ‘Lol awkward. No harm done tho. You two kids play safe. G'night!’ Riley was still laughing when Liam jostled and tickled her as punishment. By the time she had regained her breath, Riley was sitting up. She grabbed her bra from the bed and her panties. She got out of bed to put them on, saying, "I sure hope you enjoyed your first game of truth or dare, babe. That was fun" "It's not over yet" She turned to see Liam get out of bed and approach the side of it where she was standing. "What do you mean it's not over?", Riley asked. Liam had a stoically sexy expression on his face, one that made her stomach flutter. He said, as he advanced on her, "I was the first one to choose. You still have to make your last choice" He walked to her, backing her into the nightstand. Riley tried to retreat from his lustful gaze lighting sparks under her skin, but there was nowhere to escape. Liam towered over her, 6'2" inches of masculine beauty and abundant sex appeal. His broad chest, his wide shoulders, his arms that she knew could bench-press two of her. She had never felt so... intimidated by Liam's size. He looked like he could do anything he wanted with her. The possibilities turned her speechless and immobile. "What will it be - truth or dare?" 'Oh fuck. He's using his sexy voice' Riley took a deep breath and defiantly met his heated gaze. She said, "D-dare" "Excellent" He leaned forward, making her jump. She saw he was only reaching for the bottom drawer on the nightstand.

Under his personal effects, which he knew Riley would never snoop through, Liam had hidden a gift box. He laid the rectangular box against her bare chest, meeting her eyes under his dark eyebrows. "Open it" The box almost slipped out of her hands. But she managed to untie the silk ribbon and open it. 'Lingerie?' Liam said, "I was going to ask you to wear this for me on my birthday. But it looks like I'm going to get my present a little early" Riley lifted the two piece lingerie out of the box. It was black and nude. Silk and net and lace. It looked expensive as hell. And the design was weird. There were no cups on the corset and it had fastenings in the back. She said, "I have never seen anything like this before" "Thank goodness" Riley found two round patches in the box. They had the Cordonian flag on them. 'Wait. These aren't patches. These are...' "Nipple tassels?!", she asked with disbelief. Liam grinned like he had finally been caught. He rested his hands on Riley's waist, grazing the tip of her nose with his. He said, trying to sound sweet and innocent, "You don't have to use them if you don't want" "You have got to be kidding me" Now she realised why the corset didn't have cups. What she had supposed to be the back was actually the front. When she wore it, her breasts were going to be completely bare. Unless she put on the tassels. And the panties looked weird because they were crotchless, front and back. "Liam... you are officially the most depraved, lecherous, perverted, shameless..." He silenced her with a kiss. He smacked his lips loudly against hers, withdrawing and nipping her lower lip between his teeth. Resting his forehead against hers, Liam said, "I dare you to wear this under your dress tomorrow evening" Riley felt the heat rise up in her face. She said, "We are supposed to be at the Royal Theatre tomorrow. Why would you possibly want me to wear this there?" "For access, of course" Riley gasped and hit him in the chest, making him laugh. She wiggled to get away but her husband had her pinned against the nightstand. "I dare you", he said, moving to bite her lips and clacking his teeth just an inch short of her mouth. With his hand trailing down and squeezing her butt, and his eyes boring into hers, Riley said, "Challenge accepted"

[doomedandstoned]

CHAINED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN!

~Interview by Shawn Gibson~

Forward by Billy Goate

At Doomed & Stoned, we live for moments like these, when we discover a band that isn't just good, but remarkable. Meet the savage four-piece act Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean from Springfield, Massachusetts. If you missed their crushing September debut, 'Decay and Other Hopes Against Progress' (2017), I suppose you could be forgiven, seeing as how packed a year it was for compelling releases. Plus, it's not like the band is itching for the spotlight. Their monstrous release kind of flew under the radar, as it wasn't accompanied by the usual hype and hoopla that a band is expected to expel nowadays in order to grab hold of the coveted PR cycle. It seems CTTBOTO are content with the small, but steadily growing, fanbase they've nurtured thus far. In fact, they were surprised to hear from Shawn, who hunted them down for a rare full-band interview. The transcript of their conversation below has been lightly edited for clarity and flow. Enjoy!

Decay and Other Hopes Against Progress by Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean

There’s a lot of despair in that name, Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean. Reminds me of Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire or Dragged Into Sunlight. Where did that come from?

So we're just gonna answer questions as a group, because the music, for us, is more collaborative and not about the individual person. We feel more comfortable answering questions as a group, [thought it’s] not like our total personal views on everything, for sure. We can tell you it’s a THOU song and we do derive a lot of influence from them. I think it's more the imagery that those words portray that gives us a lot more depth and meaning.

It's an amazing name! Makes me think of doom, terror, and depravity. You dropped an album last year called, 'Decay And Other Hopes Against Progress.' What’s the significance that title?

Generally, it's just progress against disruption. It's kinda where we're at currently. Feels like everything's kind of falling apart.

The band’s slogan is, "Send every God and King to the Gallows."

Yeah. I think the way I interpret that is, a lot of political figures, entertainment figures, and people have become adulterated. There's an undercurrent taking everyone down a peg.

Your artwork is as spectacular as your music – the picture of a lion holding swords. It almost looks like a tarot card.

Thank You! I think we attempt to as much of our endeavors, into art. We don't create it ourselves, we try to find artists, tattoo artists, design artists, locals on a small scale. We give them a concept and let them run with it. For sure, there was a tarot card in describing what we wanted, referencing the nine swords and all of that, as well as a lot of undertones of medieval woodcuts. I guess we warned to go with a simple, aggressive, oldish design – that sort of feeling.

The pin itself looks fucking regal! Pretty dignified thing to have on your jacket. Proud to wear it!

The pins came out a million times better than we thought they would.

They shine! They're on point! And your cassette tin, is that lavender in there?

It is indeed lavender. We didn't really anticipate this going as well as it did, so we wanted to make a special version of Decay And Other Hopes Against Progress that really gives the effort that it deserved. Ultimately, we'd like to press it on vinyl, but I guess that's a less intimate version of like doing a deluxe cassette, where we sat down and did everything ourselves and made all the decisions. The idea was to convey like a lot of intimacy with people who share our music. They're willing to support us and spend money on us, so we're willing to put in the work and make something unique and nice for them.

So what are some damn good books you guys have read?

I got one. I recently read this book that I'm going to explain very poorly, Candide by Voltaire. What I got out of it, basically, is just because you exist the world you live in is automatically the best world you can live in, simply because you're there. So it's not worth other possible worlds. It’s about how you can live in absurd times, but it’s still the best thing that you could ever experience. To make the best of things, you know? I'm pretty into Vonnegut, too.

When you guys do live shows, do you wear those chains like in the picture?

You'd be surprised how heavy those chains are!

I bet! I saw the picture and I was like, "God damn, that's some hardcore shit!” Bands like Dragged Into Sunlight, they've got ski masks. Void Meditation Cult has the blackened faces and hooded cloaks. If those are real chains, your heads must weight 25 or 30 pounds! (laughs)

I think that set of chains weighed at least 60 pounds.

Shit!

They were old, they were heavy, and they were very dirty. It was definitely more a concept piece.

Is this an effort to preserve the anonymity of the band members?

We're not trying to be anonymous. You can come to our live shows and see who we are and meet us. By no means are we trying to hide our identity. It plays into the concept that we're pieces of a greater whole. It's not about any one individual band member -- where we've been, who we are, where we come from -- it's more about what we do together and what we can create together.

You guys got anything works right now?

We're playing Stoned To Death Festival in March with Black Pyramid. It's in this really pretty church with stained glass windows.

Sick! The band playing any local shows?

We really try to limit ourselves playing locally too often. We don't want to have oversaturation in a small area; could be detrimental.

What’s was one of your favorite shows?

We've had incredibly good shows! A month after the new album came out, we put a whole thing together ourselves, rented a room at this church, and brought bands we wanted to play with. It was really good to play a release for your album surrounded by people you wanted to be there.

I take this question seriously and asked it all my interviews throughout the years: What makes you guys laugh uncontrollably?

Laugh uncontrollably?

Yeah, you chuckle, snort, pee your pants a bit. Something hilarious to you, funny images in your head.

Let me think about that for a second. I'm going to say The Eric Andre Show. (laughs)

Yeah he's pretty funny. That guy gets pretty nuts! Some of it, I think, is dumb, but man he's got some big brass ones! The episode where he has a grizzly bear on his show as a guest, he's like: “Fuck it, I'm out. Skit’s over!" (laughs)

That's a wicked hard question! There's this picture of a Chihuahua and his face is scrunched up it says something like, "How I feel when the sun goes down at four o’clock everyday" or something like that and people send it to me all the time and I lose it no matter what I'm doing.

That's what I'm talking about! I had a very, very embarrassing moment in high school, in a 10th grade biology class. The substitute teacher and assistant principle walk in the room and announce that our Biology teacher had passed away. I burst out laughing! It was a nervous laugh. The whole class turns in the chairs, staring at me. I felt so terrible, literally like a Southwest Airlines commercial, I wanted to get away!

This is going to be a dumb answer. I don’t know how old you are or if anybody else in the band remembers, but there used to be this show where comedians get up and do two-minute sets and the point of show was if you could make it two minutes without laughing, you'd move on to the next round. I think that had a serious detrimental effect on my young age, because I find a lot of things not funny and I'm able to not laugh aloud. I end up laughing at a lot of things that shouldn't be funny, though, like violent scenes in movies that weren’t meant to be funny, end up making me chuckle.

That's all I have for you guys, do you have anything else?

We'll probably be recording some songs in the next give or take, two months, it's not super out there, but one of the songs is a Devo cover.

Oh wow!

After that, we're pushing for a full-length and see where we go from there, but we're not going away!

Hell, yeah! You've just had your first record come out in September and you're already talking about another on. Great news!

We're doing stuff, playing shows, we'll be around! How'd you come across us?

Through Bandcamp. I'm a big fan of BC and found a lot of bands that way. When I had my radio show, I'd be on BC until 2 or 3 am scouring for bands.

We looked on Bandcamp real quick under the discover tab -- didn't realize we're #4 under all metal!

You are?

Yeah, what the fuck? (laughs) When the album came out, we were at #7 under doom metal and shit. We were wicked stoked, because the Primitive Man single was close to us! I can’t believe we had our album logo next to it. It's remarkable.

You're up there, dude. You got the goods, you're going to Hollywood! I'm proud of you guys for that.

Thank you very much!

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it!

Follow The Band.

Get Their Music.

[turqrambles]

I watched all 26 episodes of an obscure Australian cartoon in one week and I’m not okay - My journey with Wicked! (2001) PART 2 - The Actual Review

Hello again! I just checked my watch and I noticed that it was time to talk about the cartoon with the apple-headed guy some more!

When I last talked about this delightful piece of obscure media, I went over the origin story of how the show was created, introduced the cast of characters, and then talked about the main draw of the cartoon that makes it unique of other cartoons of its quality.

And then, at the end of the blog post, I mentioned that I think that the cartoon is merely “Okay” rather than anything Amazing. It has a great idea but ultimately, it really is just an alright show.

So now, after introducing this beautiful cartoon and explaining to everyone just what the hell is going on, it’s time to break this whole thing down.

The Good, The Bad, and The Apple-Flavored

Wicked! is a weird show to grade. The animation itself fluctuates in quality and there’s some very obvious cut corners from how frequently animation is recycled in some of the episodes, scenes can have weird editing or continuity errors, and sometimes they’ll even recycle sound bytes like insults that Dawn and Rory shout at each other or Gramps reminding everyone about Normandy. I feel like I heard The Appleman mention that something was “100% real nightmare” like five times while watching this whole thing in quick succession.

Information for this cartoon is practically nonexistent, but my theory is that this happened because the animation was all produced in a single in-house Australian studio rather than shipping bits of it overseas to get tightened up. Again, I could be wrong, and if anyone has any better information, please send me an ask, but a lot of the techniques that Wicked! use reminded me of Filmation, which also famously kept everything in one studio.

Just be warned, similar to when someone watches He-Man and go “oh hey, I recognize that talking animation from the second episode”, there are shots that get reused often to save time. Get used to that one scene where Appleman is laughing and running across the steel walkway suspending over the refinery vats, it’s used a ton.

That being said, when they give them the budget to add a little polish to the show, they do a pretty good job!

Don’t be fooled by my talk of He-Man - this show actually looks pretty great. Most of the time the animation is pretty fluid and the decision to constantly use shadows to wrap around the characters really works in its favor and gives it an extra layer of moodiness.

It just reuses animation on top of that.

I think that, in many ways, Wicked! is carried more by the strength of its ideas over its actual execution. Even if this show gets super goofy at times (this is a show where the Appleman literally infects the Internet by taking a piper and dropping glowing green goo on a CD-ROM), there is a definite horror undertone to the show that gets carried through its entire season.

Dare I say it, the show actually gets a little scary at times. That scene where the kids discover that their pets are nothing but empty skins with all the organs and bones sucked out in the first episode actually sets the mood really well and feels extremely faithful to the original books.

Plus the concept of The Appleman being able to tinker around with a living virus and create something that can mutate literally anything is a fun as hell idea, even if it doesn’t make sense most of the time and seems like a weird mutation (hah) of the conflict from the books. It’s just fun that this guy can create literally anything out of thin air as a weapon just so long as he goes to his lab and makes something that allows him to do so.

The Pros

*The Appleman. Yeah, there’s a very good reason why the only thing people remember about this show is The Appleman. He’s just a fun character and a fun villain. His design does takes a bit to get used to on account of how uncanny he can be, and there are times when they draw him off-model and make him look just horrendous, but once you see how far they go with the apple-theming, you kinda start to vibe with the apple headed monster.

Sure, he’s basically your run-of-the-mill cartoon villain but with a bonus tragic backstory, but his vocal performance by Bill Conn really sells the whole package. You can tell that he’s greatly unhinged and that he’s not exactly playing with a full deck. It’s only until the last episode that they flat-out say that he’s being controlled by the same virus that he’s been using to infect other creatures, but I’m pretty sure your average cartoon-watching kid is able to guess that just from the small hints that they drop.

Also all of his vehicles are apple-colored and I love a villain that takes the time to make sure he has a proper theme.

(The “starting out with an island with apple trees on Animal Crossing: New Horizons” moodboard)

*The Family. I liked that, since this show is about terrorizing one particular dysfunctional Australian family, all five family members of this show get enough character development that the mom and dad feel like they’re more than “the mom and dad character”. Save for that one episode where Gramps was constantly bragging about how back in his day, he didn’t need electricity, he was a fun, lovable grandpa, and I like that the kids get someone to talk to about mutant frogs and such.

They’re definitely dysfunctional and, as I mentioned in the previous post, Rory and Dawn constantly insulting each other in every single episode can be grating at times, but I like that their level of dysfunction is not because of the mom and the dad having an emotionally abusive relationship. If anything, the mom and the dad have the most stable relationship in the whole show! Eileen and Jack love each other and I hate that I’m at a point where I see this husband and wife genuinely enjoying each other’s company and I go “Yes, this is something refreshing”.

Also, gotta give the show points for having the family be two single parents from past relationships finding each other and getting married and for having Eileen be totally cool with her new in-law Gramps. 

*The Slobberers. Expanded from the first creatures from the books, I like that the apple-headed monster has giant worms for pets (again, gotta aggressively keep to the apple theming) and, while there’s a couple episodes where they’re just something to give The Appleman something to talk to, their designs are fun. Gives the animators an excuse to draw slime.

In a later episode, he mentions that he considers them his only friends and boy...that’s rough, buddy. 

*There’s an episode where characters travel into the Internet and fight a buff video game avatar of The Appleman in a late 90′s dungeon crawler computer game. I looooove late 90′s Internet imagery in cartoons, what can I say. You even see the dial-up pop window and a clunky late 90′s webcam!

*This is a show where a divorced man keeps bugging his own son and ex-wife while sometimes trying to kill his ex-wife’s new husband - all while keeping to a strict apple and virus theme - and honestly, this is a pro on its own. The Appleman is such a petty bitch at times and I love it.

*The Appleman is allergic to medicine. Minor touch, but I like that, since he’s a virus-themed bad guy, they apply “Revive Kills Zombie” logic on this guy and he literally can’t take painkillers because it’ll only cause him more pain and agony. This comes up in an episode where he’s screaming in pain and wishes he could make the pain go away but just can’t.

*The Title Cards. This is one of those shows that freezes on eye-catching artwork for each episode title before they continue with the rest of the episode and they’re really nice.

*The Accents. Forgot to mention this anywhere else, but since this is an Australian produced cartoon that aired primarily in Australia, everyone is rocking a very noticeable Australian accent and say things like “Oi, you two! Come and get a wriggle on!”. It’s fantastic.

They were definitely at the level where, if this show ever did make it to the states, they would’ve dubbed it to sound more American. And probably flip the animation so that the characters are driving on the opposite side of the road.  

The Cons

*The Reused animation and sound clips. This is unfortunately the show’s biggest strike against it. Once your brain picks out which scenes get reused and which voice clips get reused, you’ll notice that some of the episodes have a noticeably smaller polish than others. The episode “Decayed” in particular felt like 50% footage from previous episodes and boy, did it stick out like a sour thumb because of it.

That being said, I didn’t mind too much (watching a lot of B-list anime and Filmation shows will do that to you) and I feel like you would’ve noticed this a lot less if you weren’t blazing through all 26 episodes in a short period of time like I was. But it is definitely a bummer that they had to cut corners like this because again, when they don’t cut corners, this show looks utterly fantastic.

I guess the lesson here is that the animators of this show didn’t get paid enough, but really, you can say that about literally every animated project in existence.

*Weird continuity inconsistencies. This goes into a weird nitpicking “you probably only noticed this because you’re an adult with too much free time/boy I sure hope someone got fired for THAT blunder!” territory, but sometimes this cartoon does a thing where something minor is established and then the cartoon subtly retcons it.

Mostly I’m using this space to complain about how Dawn explicitly mentions that they don’t own a cat, but then in the “character shrinks to the size of an ant” episode, they have a pet cat! They have a pet cat that lasts a grand total of one episode and no one says anything!

What happened to the cat, Rory? What happened to the cat?!

(my theory is, like his father, it ran away from this family)

*Some episodes use stock cartoon plots. There is an episode where the main characters shrink to the size of an ant. There is a camping episode. There is a school dance episode. There is a Halloween episode. There is an episode focused on teeth. There is an episode that talks about the dangers of too much fast food.

Like the reused animation issue, depending on the episode, you end up not minding too much about this on account of how utterly bonkers The Appleman is when he’s concocting his evil schemes. The “characters teleport into the Internet” episode ended up being one of my favorites, as did the school dance episode.

But at the same time, two of my least favorite episodes are the stock episode plot episodes, so it’s definitely a mixed bag.

*They use real photographs in background shots and it bugs me. Come on, guys. Just have the blank wall or scribble in some posters. Anything will look better than this cartoon character standing right next to a still image from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, especially when you clearly had the time to draw that cartoon skull on the door.

*The three plot-heavy episodes unfortunately have weaker animation. This just seems like weird planning on their parts, but Episode 1, Episode 4, and Episode 26 are all episodes that deal with backstory of The Appleman and this wacky dysfunctional family and, for some reason, they didn’t bring their A game in regards to actually animating these episodes.

I feel like if you’re dealing with heavy backstory, you need to make the episode look good, because that’s going to be the stuff that the audience remembers. You need to have the flashback of The Appleman’s horrific transformation while he was working at the old refinery look amazing, but instead it just....doesn’t.

(picture unfortunately related)

Just to make a note, the episodes with the most fluid animation are the following: The one with the mutant plants, the one with the mutant sheep, the Halloween episode, the episode with the dinosaur bones, and the episode where The Appleman learns how to make clones. None of these episodes are important to the overarching plot. 

*One of the episodes is unfortunately popular because it depicts animation that caters to the inflation fetish. Just...noting this for posterity. It makes google image searches of this cartoon a bit awkward. I’m not going to elaborate much further.

*There’s a minor transphobic joke in one of the episodes. In the episode “Decayed”, The Appleman dresses up like a nurse, tries to adopt a more feminine voice, and puts on makeup and fake eyelashes. Thankfully, this only happens for like three seconds and is never mentioned again.

The rest of the show otherwise passes the “can this still fly in 2020″ test. I’m just making a note here because it is pretty shitty. 

Closing Thoughts

Wicked! is not the best show in the world, and I struggle to call it ��great”, but it is a solid and enjoyable one and honestly, the things that it has going for it are unique enough that I recommend giving it a shot despite its shortcomings.

If anything, my main takeaway from watching this whole show is that this show does not deserve to be as obscure as it is. At the very least, the concepts and characters introduced here are strong ones - the villain is a bitter divorced man transformed by a hate-feeding virus after all - and I feel that, in a more fair world, this show got the small but dedicated fanbase it so woefully needs. It doesn’t deserve a huge following of fans, but I say it definitely deserves a Fanfiction.net tag with 200 fanfics total and a lot more fanart than what it does.

While I’m not sure I could recommend it as one of the great obscure cartoons that everyone missed, I think it’s definitely worth checking out for anyone looking for a fun time. It’s definitely a hidden gem, even if the hidden gem has a few imperfections. If anything, this show is a definite wild ride and I think it’s time for everyone to give this cartoon a shot.

Anyway I got to see The Appleman playing Second Life and moving the muscle slider all the way to the right, so I obviously had a blast.

Next time, I talk about the actual episodes!

[oosteven-universe]

Unearthed #1 Advance Review

Unearth #1 Advance Review Image Comics 2019 On Sale July 10th 2019 Written by Cullen Bunn & Kyle Strahm Illustrated by Baldemar Rivas Lettered by Crank!     When a body-warping disease starts to manifest in a dangerous, remote section of Mexico, a scientific task force is assembled to deal with the crisis. Accompanied by an armed escort, the scientists travel to the inhospitable area, only to discover that the effects of the contamination are much, much worse than they could possibly imagine.     The opening here is pretty awesome. We meet three very distinct and different characters and a fourth for good measure. I like this because we all know you only have one chance to make a first impression and our three adults well after hearing each of them speak I wanted instantly to know more. Lieutenant Morris oh he’s a piece of work and can be seen as either the best or worst example of a man who joined the army for a reason. So yes I gravitate towards him because he’s the most shall we see dedicated of the three and his shoot first ask no questions attitude has me wondering what kind of life he’s led to make him this way. Yeah already I am so far off story and that’s because these boys have created a character that stands out in a good way.     So the way that they’ve laid this out, see structure. We get some really good hard looks at some of these characters and either what they’ve been through or what they are going through. Also this whole mysterious event that is occurring well it just begs for some answers. By answers I mean for us the reader, however that being said I don’t want to know before the characters do. I like to be surprised right alongside them and that kind of writing also keeps us on the hook so we keep coming back time and time again. Though lets face it we’re talking Cullen and Kyle here so of course we’re coming back. Also how many kind of biological horror thrillers have seen lately, yeah thought so, so this one is already something unique and different so there’s no not coming back as far as I am concerned.     Baldemar is a new name to me so from what I am seeing here I am more than a little interested to see how his style continues to develop. The opening artwork had me and I really like the linework utilised in bringing the characters to life. Then seeing this Major made me start to rethink that as his body, gut and shape of his head well you can decide for yourself but he looks like Hulk Hogan if he were in the Hills Have Eyes. When Baldemar utilises backgrounds they do wonders in expanding the moments and bringing a size and scope to the book so I hope that he becomes accustomed to utilising them more, a lot more. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a nice eye for storytelling. There is also some very nice creativity and imagination on display here. The colour work is really creative as well and the use of light sources, shading and shadow work show that off. ​     Well it should be interesting to see how things play out after this issue. I mean we only get a peek at this here and now so what is going to come next is where the real weird and creepy stuff is going to come into play. This sets up the series perfectly in my opinion, we get a solid look at the premise, the story & plot development is great and the characterisation couldn’t get any better. Add into the mix these interiors and the summer’s going to have one heck of a creepy undertone to it. With some very strong personalities and at least one man who will make sure no one comes out of this mentally intact I am hooked, on a feeling, tired of believing, but I'm in love with this.  

[frankierising-blog]

Crappy Lair Review for Passenger

-Okay, a few things I forgot about as I haven’t done Lair Reviews in a long time. 

1. I’m terrible at them. 2. I ended up swearing a fair bit. 3. They take me.... AGES. I’m sorry!!

Before I go into it, overal:

LOVE your lore... but there’s not enough! You tease us with the intro and with Crow and then there’s only little teasers. I AM ADDICTED TO YOUR LORE, FEED ME!!

Also, love the subtlties of a lot of your customisations, there seems to always be flecks of blue, green, yellow that perfectly contrast or compliment the outfit!

Okay, onward!

@fr-ari

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

I love how discrete the Customisations are! At first glance your lair looks quite plain, there’s lots of neautral colours and when you’re just looking at the thumbnails it all looks very simple... but the longer you look, the more details and differences and personalities that you start to see! I thought that was neat!

Okay Individuals:

Luc:

Um.. ex freaking SCUSE ME!? Wine/Cin/Wine is SO freaking amazing! I had no idea! And the Facet/Glimmer looks GORGEOUS with Skink! LOVE THIS SO WELL GENES HOLY CRAP! 

But... are you going to add apparel? ARE YOU GOING TO DRESS THIS BEAUTIFUL MOFO!? IS THERE LORE? IS THIS A WIP!?

Crow:

Crow’s story is awesome! I love the simplicity of his apparel! I imagine having to wear a respirator that ends up giving you your nickname would kind of make you want to avoid drawing any more attention to yourself – so you’re probably try to stay as neutral as possible!

I feel like I want to see him in a trench coat or something, but I guarantee that’s only because of the goggles.

Question, are they part of the respirator or for another purpose?

The artwork though! There’s two broken image links on my end but I can see the top one and it is STUNNING! LOOOOVE CROW!!!

Lovett:

Okay, so I assume Lovett is geared up for flying, but boy you’re not fooling anywhere. Patchwork, leaves and smoke everywhere? Oh, you’re flying alright... Tert: Smoke ;)

But hecking heck, how GOOD does shadow and goldenrod look!? And the little green (*wink*) flecks throughout, hot dayum!

Flint:

Hnnnng.

 HNNNNNNG

 HNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!

 Flint, you sexy m*** f*****!!! Look at this flying steampunk robot dragon!!! I love this so much, holy crap! The cheeky little accent underneath Silver Steampunk Wings is cheeky AF and gives the whole thing a kind of a creepy undertone. Like, Ridgebacks always look like they’re smiling, so I immediately thing this is a jolly pilot, deliveryman or otherwise helpful fellow who loves life…. But that sneaky little hint of red under there…. Suspicious….. BUT ALSO MATCHING FAMILIAR IS YES GOOD… but fuck that Hooded Dodo, they’re always puffed up arrogantly, smug bastards.

 Slaid

Holy crap, I can’t tell if Slaid is rich or poor! HE’S GOT WRAPS AND MISSMATCHING STUFF BUT THEN THERE’S ALL THIS GOLD AND STEAMPUNK! The mismatch kind of gives me the impression that he’s comfortable, but perhaps doesn’t always acquire his goods from the most honest of sources? Does that make sense? Like he’s been collecting his gear as he goes along in his travels.

 CROW’S LORE WAS SO GOOD, I WANT MORE LORE ABOUT THESE GUYS!!

I really like this outfit though, it’s cluttered and miss-matched but everything sort of fits together nicely, nothing is clashing. You’re really good at subtly matching colours! (TEACH ME!)

Cardani

THE HAT SORT OF LOOKS LIKE A FEDORA ON GUARDIANS, I AM LAUGH! But bloody hell, are the Greens intentional? Oh wait, Wind Flight… so probably. WELL EVEN SO CARDANI IS KIND OF BAD ARSE! I’M REALLY GLAD HE DOESN’T HAVE MUCH APPAREL ON HIS MIDSECTION BECAUSE THE IRI/SHIM/CRACKLE LOOKS BLOODY AMAZING!!! <3

Bonemother

 It took me a second to actually see the dragon under all that, dayum. I LOVE the Guise and the Skin together, that looks so dark and kind of ghoulish, but I feel like there’s just a little bit too much going on here. I feel like I’d like to see it with either the Crown of Bones OR the Bone Antlers on their own and maybe with a few less accessories? Mind you, that’s just my opinion and my lair looks like a dumpster so wtf do I know?

 BTW WHO DID THE TOP ART FOR BONEMOTHER AND CROW!?

Fausten:

Subtle greens, Subtle Greens, SUBTLE GREENS! Yaaay! Also loving how much the shoes match it’s Secondary! <3

Vedere

ExfuckingCUSE me right now!? This is perfection. PERFECTION! THE SIMPLICITY, THE INTRICACY! It’s beautiful, delicate, fierce and horrifying, I love it! You have NAILED IT!!! GOD I WANT LORE! MORE LORE MORE LORE MORE LORE!

Kell:

LOVE IT! CREEEEPY AS FUUUUUCK!!! Hopefully that was the intention! The art is effing AMAZING TOO!! Who did it!?

This one is busy too but I feel like it’s the perfect amount of busy - I get the whole Voodoo vibe, but is that too shallow an interpretation of Kell?

Hallow:

OMG I love him and I hate him! I mean, he’s gorgeous and he seems charming.. but on the other hand, look at all that discrete gold. It’s subtle but flashy and he’s waving his Light Sprite around, acting all chill, but you just know he’s mocking you… or is he? Still don’t know if I hate him or I’m jealous of him (in the scenario where I am somehow a dragon responding to his existence, haha).

 The colours though, the accent, the subtle yellows… dayum. He better have a super gorgeous mate when I click next or I’m so freaking stealing him. I’ll find a way!

But I have to ask, Why Hallow and Trick or Treat? IS THIS JUST A COSTUME!? IS HE ACTUALLY UGLY UNDER THERE? OR is that flirtatious?

Shiver:

Bleaurgh, look at this queen! Fire and Ice, BLAAAARGH!!!! BLLLAAAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! I’VE GOT ANOTHER ELEMENT FOR YOU: VOMIT.

 But seriously, you’ve put this together really well, everything compliments eachother perfectly so it looks fantastic!!! I just hate Twilight for using that STUPID ROBERT FROST POEM! BLAAAAARGH! BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Liden

OH MY GOD, YES, GOOD! YES! THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! PERFECTION! I don’t have enough to say about Liden because he’s freaking perfect! Per. Fect. I am starting to dislike you as a person over how nice some of your dragons are, purely jealous!!!

 TRULY IS A FINE MINT CANDY BUT WHERE IS THE MINT CANDY LORE MY FRIEND!?

[Okay, I see I have more notes now and I feel like I need to try to get a few more done before I finish work, so I’ll try and get a few more in but maybe with shorter responses]

Ari

Okay, Ari and Liden together are a pretty freaking nice Fire & Ice style thing - especially as you could also see this as Autumny more than Fire, but next to the ice.. yeah. Anyway.

SEE, EVEN ARI HATES THE FIRE AND ICE THING AS MUCH AS I DO! But seriously, I really like the simplicity of the apparel, it makes the accent pop so hard, and Ari looks like he has resting dick face so he’d probably be a little prick if you tried to jazz his outfit up too much!

Lear

NO, STOP, THIS IS SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!!! THE LITTLE WINGS WITH THE CROWN - ALL THE CUTE LITTLE PINKS AND PURPLES FUUUUUUUU- 

Lear seems almost out of place in you lair, I like that! She’s so freaking beautiful, holy crap!

Griffin

THIS REMINDS ME OF LINK FROM ZELDA! HOLY HECKY HECK, THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING! PERFECT AMOUNT OF GREEN AND BUSY AND LOUD AND SUBTLE ALL AT ONCE!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAH1!!! Griffin is my favourite! I like how the goggles and the accent sort of tie him to the rest of the clan but he still seems like such an outsider! LOOOOVE!!!

Okay, I’m gonna end this here. I’m sorry if this wasn’t what you were hoping for! Feel free to not pay if it’s offensive or not up to standard!

Regardless, hope you liked it and thanks for your patience!

[ourpublicgarden-blog]

“Get To Know Ellen Ma”

By Jocylene Nunez 1.10.17

(Photo of Ellen Ma)

  Let us take a moment to appreciate women who have their shit together and are doing it all! I present to you graphic designer, painter, and a current student at The Art Institute in Chicago, 21 year old Ellen Ma. This south sider from Chicago only aspires to do more.In the summer of 2016, Ma landed her dream job designing for Chicago based brand Leaders. She is currently the only female designer on staff, one of her first designs being a collaboration with Red Bull for a basketball tournament, as well as The Silver Room. Not to mention her very own project that was the cause of her life changing completely and having her experience all that she has; an actual coloring book, to the album Coloring Book by Chance the Rapper.

Striving away from society's standards for Asians and family expectations. After attending a prestigious high school, Ellen decided that Art school was for her.

“My mom just went ahead and told me that it was okay if I wanted to pursue art, I did the one thing nobody in my family could do which was draw”. Art was not the only dream she was after.

(Artwork By Ellen Ma) 

Ellen walked into Leaders to ask if there was anything that could be done with the coloring book she had created, Corey, her current manager, thought her designs were great. Not being able to do anything with it because of legal purposes, might have been a blessing in disguise, because that brought him to get her to work with Chance. Cory was so impressed with Ellen’s work so he hired her as a graphic designer for Leaders, a highly respected brand in Chicago rocked by many artists including Jay-Z..

Impressively Ellen has been able to accomplish all of this in less than a year, three months to be exact, “All my college life has been a hustle”. Designing Tees, painting and having one of Chicago's hottest artist have you on board with his latest project are the ultimate goals. One would think why even bother with school when all this has happened.

“It all depends on the person on how determined you are. Yeah, you don't really necessarily need school, you know for the people that are not in school there is a lot more work that you have to figure out yourself rather than a teacher telling you what to do. I mean for me after awhile I wanted to drop out, there is that point in time but I stuck through it, and try to make it on my own. But you know there are things that I learned in art school that I would have never learned outside and there are things that I learned outside that I would of never learned in art school, business and the real world I learned all from Leaders. It’s just a good balance between real world and some training”.

“I viewed art school as a tool,I try to learn more the basis of design. Rather than painting, because I already know a lot about painting I have been painting since middle school. So I just take it as okay I have put more work towards that on my own time”.

(Artwork By Ellen Ma)

 Own time that she dedicated to her first art show. Documenting everything from the making of it to the end of the show, she described it as “ a fashion show but for art.” Getting her friends to be a part of it all so different aspects of art would be included, she made sure there was photography and videography were included. There was a commercial before the art show for people to view her setting up the space while rocking leaders shirts. “I fund my whole first art show, at The Silver Room. Over 200 people came to the show. I hired my friends to help me. I designed the flyers ,got the space, kept working on paintings the entire time. I got a vodka sponsor so I needed to get the ingredients to make drinks, wine, get all my prints ready to sell”. It was all worth it for her not only for the great turn out, but connections were made that night.

 With success there comes doubt and hate from people, Ellen mentioned how her friends were not the best supporters from the beginning. “After I did my art show, and started getting success a lot of my friends started gaining more respect from me, opposed to when I said I wanted to go to art school”.

(Artwork By Ellen Ma)

As our conversation went more into depth we touched base on social media, and the exposure a lot of artist are receiving based off of their following what a simple retweet can do for most.     

“I do think that social media can be oversaturated for artist exposure, because I do help a lot of kids with their own brands, with designs and consulting but the problem is everyone wants their own brand, everyone wants to be an artist. It is hard to I guess see who is really focused and who only wants to make the money”.

“I just want to shine a light to chicago and also to my Asian/ American heritage…. I feel like i do have to be a role model to a lot of these asian american girls I feel like I owe it to them, I have to make it like hey you don't have to be a doctor you don't have to be a lawyer”.

In her paintings you can find connections to her family background, doctors, scientist,heritage. “There’s a lot of medical undertones in my paintings,  I also like to do weird paintings when you don’t know what you are looking at. I like getting a reaction from people”.

Still figuring out what she wants to go for after school, Ellen hopes to work with bigger brands in the future, “Nike would be really nice” she says, and maybe having more art shows in the future will be in the works. Also she has designs coming out in February, so be sure to check that out at your nearest Zumiez!

Ellen Ma:

https://www.artofema.com

Instagram- Theellenma Twitter- Theellenma

[wishingfornever]

1/10/2018 – No Contact:  Hitting the Polls

So, I ended up asking a question to my fellow nations and I got minimal communication out of it.  Lol, I’m really bad at being responsible. I ended up watching several movies yesterday.  And by yesterday I mean it’s almost 1am and I watched three movies as well as ordered a large pizza and ate it at one sitting.  I’m a terrible person.

Three movies, all animated and almost all French.  The Angry Birds Movie (which was better than I thought it’d be), Avril and the Extraordinary World, and The Long Way North.  The last two were the french ones.  I watched these after binge watching CellSpex who I started watching due to her Zero Punctuation styled portrayal of herself.  Not to say she’s ripping it off or anything, she just uses a very simplistic way to illustrate herself being her outline. Expression is done with a simple outline of eyes rather than using a facecam like other channels.

The Angry Birds Movie… as mentioned, better than I thought it was going to be.  I relate with the angry main character because I too have large eyebrows.  Oh, and I might have anger problems.  CellSpex mentioned how it was an allegory for Trump being right, but the way I saw it was… anti-American.  The pigs represented the United States as evident with their boats and greedy pigs with Southern Accents. The eagle was the outdated throes of liberty, coming back to aid a less advanced people to overcome their enemy who is a western power. In the end, they sing praises of “Red” which is communism!

I guess my point is, if you look for something you’ll find it.  I don’t think it’s trying to push a Communist message but everything can be open to interpretation.  That’s what makes everything so challenging.  When you take a religion and you determine your interpretation is the only correct one, then you end up with Protestantism and Catholicism with all these little heresies in between.

That said, Avril and the Extraordinary World.  I was a little let down.  I thought the art was something.  The animation was well done, I like how each individual person sort of moved on their own accord.  Gives a lot of life to the world in a very subtle way, I felt.  The opening scene with the police was just stellar.  However, I did feel the second half of the movie was somewhat weaker.  The ideas I came up for were WAY cooler than what actually happened.

I really wanted to see it in French, however.  I would have preferred subtitles.  Especially when the talking cat (who is actually quite charming, btw) requests Avril explain something simply by saying, “In English, please.”  That actually pissed me off.  They’re French. They’re in France.  They should speak French.  Even if the movie is in English, they should have said, “In French, please.”

I also thought the villain creatures were kind of… cute.  I mean, I didn’t like the idea behind them and sort of felt that they didn’t fit that well in a supposedly steampunk setting.  I was hoping for more politics and thought that they’d be a rival nation like Prussia or something.

Which reminds me, they (the French) were at were with the American League, for some reason… and they built a bridge to connect themselves with Britain.  Um… why?  They’re the BIGGEST rivals.  In fact, France had plans to invade Britain prior to WWI (if it came to that, of course).  And considering a Napoleon sat on the throne…  Not that it mattered.  The entire political system was sort of just background noise.  The Emperor wasn’t really important except that the original Napoleon III died.  Even then, he could have totally been replaced with a government stooge and it would have been fine.  I don’t know why they wanted France to be a monarchy when it was pretty unneeded.  If there were more politics in the movie, then yeah.  That’d be important.  But… it’s not, really.  It’s just kind of there.

There is a lot that I didn’t like now that I think about it.  I was expecting… A LOT more.  And I dislike how the Alternative History got the real history… wrong.  Like certain things wouldn’t have been able to happen due to what they proposed.  That’s always been a pet peeve of mine.  And I also dislike how they just selected a group of famous or relatively well-known scientists from the early 20th century just to be sort of… cameos.  I mean… Tesla.  That’s the only one people really would care about.

Regardless, I liked the animation, even though the noses and ears were really big.  The cat was great, as mentioned, and the grandfather wears spats.  That’s nice.  Fashion hadn’t changed much, it seems, as they still had late victorian wear.  It’s steampunk, which is sort of underplayed in media.  It’s charming.  It’s just… eh.  I was hoping for more.  I felt disappointed.  Like, if it were a pizza I’d have eaten it all and still feel like I hadn’t eaten enough.  And it’d have mushrooms which I dislike but I’ll eat anyways because it’s still good pizza.

Finally, The Long Way North.  This was my favorite of the night.  It was GORGEOUS.  Just beautiful.  The artwork wasn’t as detailed as Avril and blah blah blah but it was still very inviting.  What I liked most about it is that it didn’t use a lot of black outlines.  Really, it had very few outlines.  Samurai Jack did this, sort of.  The eyes are simple but they were beautiful.  The motion was just… refreshing.

The story was fine, though I did have some quips about how they’re supposed to be in Russia.  Only ONCE did I see Cyrillic.  The rest of the writing was mostly in French, which admittedly would have been a thing for Russian Aristocracy to know… but not Norwegian sailors. At least, I assume they’re Norwegian.  They have Scandinavian names and the ship is called the “Norge.”  I don’t really know what they do, either.  Like, they’re not whalers and they’re not transporting goods.  What do you do?!

They make plot happen, I guess.

I found how they did feet to be weird but also kind of… cute.  It had a childlike spirit but was still captivating.  There were some dumb cliches here and there and some more questions that I’d like answers for, but for the most part?  It’s a movie I want to suggest to Ariel.  I think she’d like it too.  :D

Time for bed.  Going to be a busy day tomorrow.  I intend to finish my tax plan tomorrow.  Or… today.

Well, that was a waste.  Current time is 10.  I didn’t have a lot of time today.  I was called in for work.  Drat.  I posted a poll asking about “What we should do!” and what should be taxed.  Irrelevant, really.  Just buying me time.  I didn’t have the chance to pick up honey mustard or anything else, not that it matters.  I was too tired from work.

I ended up watching videos and streams when I got back.  I can’t recall what I really did today, which is weird.

I’m watching an old movie.  Troy.  It came out 14 years ago.  An old story but I don’t like how the narration begins with, “Will they remember us in 2004?!”  Golly, I don’t know.  Will they remember us in 6018?  It’s dumb.  And they keep doing it.  “They’ll tell our tales thousands of years from now!”  Shut up!  Stahp it!  No! Stop bragging about how we remember an ancient story!  Stop it.  You don’t see modern stories about snipers talking about “In 300 years, they’ll remember me.”

Dumb.  So dumb.

Still, I quite enjoy troy.  Not a lot of ancient movies that aren’t overtly religious or mythic.  Like… it’s somewhat similar to what France considered art while Rembrandt was doing his thing.  He had stark contrasts with sublime imagery as did other Dutch artists while to the French, this was not art!  Art must be old, depicting historic events or mythological events!  That’s why there is SO much art depicting ancient kings and whatever and not much of the actual normal every day from that period.

Like, cool, but for real though.  Branch out.

In the 60’s and 70’s all Ancient movies were just… meh.  Ben-Hur. Romans.  Jesus, also.  Dumb.  I hated Ben-Hur.  Jason and the Argonauts.  Also dumb but impressive for its time.  Then The 300 Spartans or whatever movie.  Also dumb.  Haven’t seen it, but it’s dumb.  Of course, that one isn’t religious but I’m sure it’s got some religious undertone.  Most American movies did, probably in an effort to combat Communism.

Anyways, I’m trying to think of a good movie about Rome or Ancient Greece… idk.  There is a lot you can do, I’d personally like to see something involving the siege of Syracuse during the second punic war.  Which reminds me.  Why is Hannibal not in any movies?

Of course, Hannibal would perhaps be cast by an African American gentleman if they made a movie about it.  Really, they should get an Israeli to do it as the Carthaginians were a Semitic people.  Of course, that might not be enough because the modern Israeli can be sort of white at times. Perhaps an Arabic character would be fine.  Just a Middle-Eastern sort of appearance physically.

Regardless, going to watch my movie.  I like the outfits because they’re not the greek armor you know and love.  Breastplate, corinthian helmet, bracers… honestly, you had to supply your own kit back then.  So, there wouldn’t really be a uniform.  What I described?  That’s expensive and I’m fairly certain they didn’t have bracers.  Just didn’t.  Not sure why, may have been a waste of armor to them.

That said, the armor takes some inspiration from this old boar tusk helmet from the Mycenean period.  They were basically early Greeks which is appropriate for the… well, Greeks in the movie.  A lot of detail and design.  Sometimes too much design, but still.  It was clear that “These aren’t the Greeks we see from pottery.  These Greeks are even MORE Ancient!”  Except for Achilles who has a Corinthian helmet… with a very open face.  And somewhat modern armor for the time.

Regardless, I always felt good costumes help sink you into the feel of the movie. When I was younger, this all looked perfect to me.  Now?  Not so much, but it gets a pass.

Oh, Christ.  The costumes are worse than I remember.  Non-Greek items on supposedly Greek men.  They mentioned a lot of places in Greece, too. Not sure how powerful they would have been at this time but they didn’t sound very… well, powerful.  In fact, I think it’s kind of redundant.  Thessaly also looks like a desert.  It’s in greece so I THINK it should be green but I’m not sure.

The capital A without the line in the middle.  That’s a popular thing on shields.  Called a Lambda.  It’s basically the letter “L” for the Greeks.  Spartans never really used the lambda until AFTER the battle of Thermopylae which is YEARS after.  I say that because I noticed a random lambda at Achilles’s yurt.  Very ancient if they’re using yurts instead of housing.  Almost nomadic.

They say Thessalonian again.  I think he’d be identified more by his city rather than region.  Thessaly isn’t a city but a region.  I guess it’s not wrong, just unusual.

Army shots.  A lot of extras.  Thing is, uniforms are very important in movies because you can recognize them versus us!  We’re the good guys, we wear white while… eh.  Yeah, there was a lot of individuality in the militaries back then.  Armors would look different, shields would DEFINITELY be different, colors would be different, or whatever.  As mentioned, you brought what you had.  If you had a yellow shirt then you wore it.  Your friend would wear a blue shirt.  The idea of uniforms being an important thing to have wasn’t really a thing until quite recently.  Even in Ancient Rome when they had a professional army, you’d still see a few different effects here and there.  Mostly with officers, mind you, who could afford it.  But still.

I LOVE how they have to convince Achilles to stay because their army is scared.  Like, dude.  They’re scared because Achilles fights all the battles for them.  If he leaves, then they have to fight.  And they’ve probably never fought a battle because Agamemnon says, “Best fighters fight only!” all the time.  It’s a miracle the Greeks ever conquered Troy.

Oh, shit.  They have that weird helmet thing with a super circular crest. Didn’t notice it.  The guards at the table during a feast. Guarding… a portion of important wall?  Hrm.  Regardless, I’ve seen that helmet before.  Also seems to be a Saracen helmet adorned by someone at the table… for reasons?

Sparta is the most fucking overrated city state ever.  Just a thought.

Poseidon? I’m fairly certain the Trojans had different gods than the Greeks because they weren’t actually Greek.  I’m not entirely certain, however.  Just fairly.

The Greeks wear red and the Trojans wear blue.  Hrm…  Weird thing to notice.

Paris loves Helen… thing is, love wasn’t really an acceptable reason for marriage back then.  Funny thing, that.  You see someone talking about how in Greek mythology, humans had 4 arms and 4 legs and Zeus separated them so they’d have to forever find their soulmate, you look them in the eye and call them a liar.

Country wouldn’t really be the term.  City-State.  So City.

Whenever someone says, “Poetic” my ears perk like my name is being called. Hector said “Nothing Poetic” and I’m like, “Eh?!”  First half of my screen name.  ;)

Proved.  That’s a word, yeah.  Sounds weird.  I think I would have said, “Proven.”

Every day wear costumes are… weird.  Costumes in general are getting weirder.  Sean Bean, what?

And Odysseus references his wife.  Lel.  Odyssey easter egg.  And then he talks about how remembered it’d be… oof.  Stahp it.

Larissa? Wait, what?  That’s IN fucking Thessaly!  Achilles fought other Thessalians?  Seriously?  And the king of Thessaly didn’t know who Achilles was?  Achilles just happen to be a POWERFUL mercenary, born locally.  In fact, he’s from what is probably your main city.  I mean, he’s bumped elbows with OTHER kings like Odysseus.  And now they’re talking about being remembered again!  Christ, this is like the prequel to Coco.  -,-

Priam has a voice like deep velvet.  Oof.  Powerful.  Wasn’t expecting that from such a narrow figure.

Thinking back, I think in the Iliad the Gods were on both sides because they felt split about the issue.  I can’t remember, I read it in high school and it was sort of difficult to read through.  So, maybe they did worship the same gods?  Or maybe Homer assumed they did.  It’s possible.

What accent does Hellen have?  Everyone is English but she sort of sounds… well, drunk.

I hate when extras have their gear slightly to the side like it doesn’t fit correctly or something.  Dude, straighten your helmet.  Do what you need to do.  Everyone should be passed around a handheld mirror or something.  -,-

Oh, those archers have the most worthless helmets.  You could have a band of metal wrapped around your head that will get hot and eventually start cooking your flesh in the nice, Mediterranean sun… or you could wear a straw hat.  Both will protect you about the same.  The stray hat may actually be better, considering it won’t melt your forehead.  If the sun exists and can get hot, you don’t want to be touching metal.

Something I do remember is whenever someone who had awesome armor fell in battle in the Iliad, people fucking lost their shit and rushed to loot the body.  Strip them of their armor.  Random fact.  May remember it wrong.  So, a lot of those people who are fighting would have a shield, a helmet, and a spear with nothing else.  The myrmidons would be decked out because they’re badasses and they’d have collected armor from previous encounters… but the run of the mill warrior wouldn’t.

I want to see a movie where the armor isn’t a suggestion.  I want to see it actually save someone’s life.  Preferably, someone who isn’t a main character.  Something else I’d like to see is more people who are just… wounded.  Not killed but just wounded.  This may surprise you but most casualties in a battle weren’t really fatalities.  Well, not immediately… wounds could be fatal but they didn’t die instantly.  I dislike seeing the aftermath of a battle and it’s a field littered with corpses.  It wouldn’t be that static.  There would be crying, people huddled in a ball, people writhing in pain.  It’s actually kind of hard to kill a person. But no.  Everyone must die instantly.

Oh, look.  D-Day.  Lelelelelelel.

Random thing to note.  The Romans believed their people were originally Trojans.  This is probably untrue.  However, I do think it’s a possibility that their neighbors to the north may have been Trojan. They were the Etruscans and not a lot is known about them.  The Romans had a tendency to adopt customs and cultural ideas from other cultures, look at their gods.  Basically reskinned Greek gods.  The Etruscans being Trojan?  Perhaps the Romans adopted their neighbors’ history and some of their identity.  Just a thought, of course.

“I spoke with two farmers today.  They saw an eagle with a serpent clutched in it’s talons today.  This is a sign from Mexico.  They will pay for our wall.”  I make myself laugh.

I’m not sure they’d be kissing.  I believe kissing was a Roman tradition.  Was very unusual in other cultures.

Looking at the extras for the armies, I’d say this may have been filmed in Turkey.  If so, they used the Turkish army as extras.  That’s a common thing to do.  You pay the government rather than the extras so it’s cheaper.  Then again, they may have filmed somewhere else.  I assumed Turkey because that’s where Troy is supposed to be.  But the Trojans aren’t Turks.  Remember that.

Lol, they look like my cousins actually.  I think I see one of Adela’s brothers.

Hrm, maybe they aren’t entirely from an army. If they are, then they allowed the soldiers to grow beards just for the movie.  I’m curious where it’s filmed now.  :o

...is this Mexico?

HOLY FUCK, IT MIGHT BE!!!  I just Googled it.  They filmed in Malta and Mexico.  Mexico was where they filmed the gates and wall of Troy. Whoa.  The extras probably are Mexican.  Certainly a lot of CGI.  And it makes the idea that the eagle with the serpent thing represents a sign from Mexico even better.  I wouldn’t have guessed Mexico but the guy with Agamemnon looked like one of my uncles.  Interesting. :D

Hector has a very handsome actor playing him.  More handsome than Brad Pitt I feel.

There is a nose guard on the helmet of Paris.  When we see through his perspective, however, it’s sawed off.

He spits out a lot of blood for what looks like SUCH a weak punch.

Apollonians… they look like every other soldier.  It probably would have been cheaper if their costumes were more realistic.  Minimal armor for the average soldier while the Apollonians would have actual armor.  That way, they’re unique and can be identified quickly.  Also, archers are op please nerf.

The Hittites are mentioned.  That’s pretty neat except the Hittites are on the other side of Turkey, almost Armenia.  I can’t remember if it were them or the Assyrians but one of their cultures relied on conquest.  Either their civilization conquered or the world would end.  They had to win EVERY battle… well, they lost a battle. World didn’t end.  Then their civilization collapsed.  The lesson there is push for victory but allow defeats.  You can lose every battle in a war but that doesn’t mean the war is lost.

I feel the scene where Achilles rescues the priestess is cliché.  So cliché.  :/

They’re listing off gods now.  Eh…  There were literally hundreds of gods in Greek culture.  Like, I touched on this back with Hercules.

Sean Bean actually has a rather soothing voice.  I never noticed that until now.  I remember in the Sharpe series, he pissed me off.  Even then, I think it was less to do with his character and more to do with Anglophilia.  As well as blatant classism.  And horrible cliches, again.  And inaccurate historical portrayals.  Then again, I guess the books may have been better.  Not sure.  It was suggested to me back when I played vidya gams.

Patroclus is a terrible actor.

“Attack at daybreak!”  *attacks in the middle of the night WITH FUCKING NAPALM!!!*

Really, if you could get so close to their camp without setting off the alarm, why not just go in and stab everyone quietly.  I mean, you’re already attacking at night.  Just… come on.  Wouldn’t Apollo have better watch over you when the sun is out?

I love how they march in the sand.  Like, they look like they’re running SO slowly.  Fun times.

The armies stop fighting to watch the best fighters fight.  I’m not sure how true that is but I’ve heard it’s happened on medieval battlefields before.

One of the extras in the back, shaking his head.  I love it.

“There are no turns, so you can’t get lost.  I know you too well.  Got lost in the fucking hallway… dumb bitch.”  I shouldn’t poke fun.  I get lost easily as well.

Archery. Ah, yes.  Warfare for the cowardly.

Good fight between Hector and Achilles… except Achilles forgot his helmet, shield, and spear head.  D’oh!

King Priam snuck into the Greek encampment.  Really?  If some old dude could do it then the Trojans could have snuck at least Hector in there.  Killed a few people, slit a few throats of sleeping Greeks and then flee.  Cause chaos or something.  Didn’t have to turn the beach into the Vietnam War.

Wait, Priam knew Achilles father?  And the king of Thessaly never even heard of Achilles?  The guy who is literally two yurts down from his palace?

CGI soldiers… huh.  I wonder why CGI movies aren’t more common.  I think they did something like that with Beowulf but it was just… weird.  Not a good movie.  There was a movie called Beowulf and Grendel which was interesting.  Not the best, either, but they had historically accurate armor.  Always nice.  Was true to the original lore, as well.

CGI might be cheaper than live action in terms of large battles and historical accuracy.  And if you’re doing a series, maybe you can reuse assets.  Then again, it might be more expensive due to… well, CGI taking time to do.  Time is literally money.

Oh, Aeneas has a part in this?  I was under the impression that he was a cousin of Hector and Paris.  Paris doesn’t know him?  Huh.

“We’ll be together!  In this world or the next!”  Erm…  The River Styx isn’t a very romantic setting.

Lol, this dude just bounced his shield.

There is a lot of impalings in this movie.

Oh, Agamemnon died.  Weird, I thought he survived the war.  I guess he was basically the antagonist in this movie… though I don’t think there really was an antagonist in the Iliad.  Every story nowadays needs someone to personify evil, I guess.  Where Achilles is honorable, Agamemnon seeks power.  They clash, thus they’re opposites.

Eh…  I prefer the idea of not having antagonists.  We expect the bad guy to lose.  To die.  To be punished.  In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not that life is tragedy, it’s just what you make of it. Those who do what they must ensure a better world for themselves and those they care about.  Behind every pair of eyes is a story.  And in every story, they will be their own hero.  And each story… each hero.  They’re all flawed.

That’s what makes a good character.

Geez, Achilles.  I bet you wish you didn’t forget your armor in front of the gates of Troy.  Dumb ass.

If I recall correctly, Achilles doesn’t die in the Iliad.  I’m not sure I remember the ending at all.  However, it’s suggested that Paris’s shot was guided by Apollo himself… because Paris is a coward and isn’t allowed to be credited with defeating Achilles. Poor, poor Paris.

Of course, I’ve heard a lot of things.  My dad told me about how Achilles was on his chariot, dragging Hector’s body and Paris prayed to Apollo to guide his arrow and it hit Achilles’s heel.  He falls off his chariot and his head hit a rock.  That’s what my dad told me.  I don’t actually know how he died but the way I heard it sounds dumb.  Also conflicts with the Iliad, which probably isn’t the most ACCURATE of sources, but I like the idea of Achilles finding a bit of peace by returning the body of Hector.

Alright. Movie is over.  Not as good as I remembered but it was decent.  :D

Current time is 2:30.  I did the thing I thought was probably annoying.  The movie thing.  Not really a review, more a walkthrough.  If you just read it while not watching the movie then I just describe dumb moments.  I said I wouldn’t do it again because it’s annoying. But I started and I couldn’t stop.  My weakness is historical facts in movies.  D’oh!  And I told Adela I’d do the dishes before I went to bed!  Also D’oh!

I’ll do them… it’s just really late.  I’m irresponsible.  A good reason to not document my movie viewing experience is because of this crap right here.  I started watching a two hour movie at 11.  Maybe before.  And I just finished it.  I did a lot of writing with the occasional stop by google to check where the movie was made and who died when. Btw, I was right.  Agamemnon survived the war.  -,-

Anyways, time for bed.  But first, dishes.  Night.

[untoldmusicpromotion]

Before the Streetlights - somethingreal. EP + Interview

Before the Streetlights’ new EP somethingreal. is here… and it kind of changes everything!

1. Homesick 2. Houses 3. Forget You 4. Anchored And Torn 5. Deadweight

The Louisville, KY band has released their newest album somethingreal. Tyler Courtney (singer/songwriter), Josh Courtney (bass/programming), Tyler Pritchett (guitar/programming), and Zachary Schindler (percussion) have constructed 5 tracks with lyrics that are exceptionally florid and music that alone is moving. Their profound writing style is crucial to take note of. somethingreal. has undertones of questioning your life and embodies taking yourself from the mess of reality. There is immense creativity shown throughout and I can honestly say it is unlike any EP I’ve heard recently. The more you listen to it, the more brilliant it becomes.

I was lucky enough to receive a physical copy of somethingreal. The packaging is very sleek, and the outer sleeve slides off to reveal an overcast ocean/beachy setting; which is a running theme for the photo book (an important component to the album). You should experience this for yourselves, but what I will say is that it is designed to transport you somewhere. It unquestionably achieves that.

somethingreal. starts off with “Homesick”, and it quickly builds toward a strong introduction. Well-written with clear vocals that make this instantly gripping. Being in a low state generated by searching for and wanting a place with consistency and stability. “Homesick” is the type of song that you fall in love with; purely because it’s a deeply relatable concept surrounded by an upbeat melody. Did I passionately sing along? Uh, yeah. I found this to be the EP’s earworm.

“Houses” exudes a mirthless vibe, while allowing the presence of a stormy heaviness. There’s this idea that a home isn’t plainly the structure; it is what’s inside that counts. “Houses” represents the outer shell without having the comforting aspects. You may also feel a vast sense of dissatisfaction and tiring disappointment expressed effortlessly through each element. “Houses” is intense and packed tightly with raw emotion. I recommend paying close attention to the lyrics here; gives a greater understanding of what is being conveyed on the EP.

Switching to an intoxicating part of somethingreal., the title “Forget You” speaks for itself in that it emphasizes desperately trying to no longer remember haunting memories. A rather personal song that’ll surely resonate with many. I believe Josh Courtney’s answers in the interview below will give you an insight as to what the intent behind “Forget You” was. Leaning towards the rock side of Before the Streetlights, I was particularly impressed by the instrumentals.

After every rock track, it’s nice to slow it down a bit. That’s where “Anchored And Torn” comes in. Relatively laid back, it is sort of this slightly acoustic pop song with a complex message. It touches upon faith and restriction while reaching for freedom. I was pretty invested in “Anchored And Torn”, which isn’t surprising considering the way it draws you in and washes over.

The EP comes to an end with “Deadweight”. Full of catchy sounds and lines that’ll replay in your head for a while. The most prominent, “when love turns to hate you become deadweight”. A more straightforward track with an unexpected twist. I don’t want to spoil it for you… but wow. Gave me chills. The positioning of all 5 songs perfectly align to tell a rollercoaster of a story.

I asked Before the Streetlights a few questions about somethingreal. (answered by Josh Courtney):

The physical somethingreal. EP contains a photo book that you say is a main component of listening to the album. Why/how did you decide to include this?

The photos were taken by one of my good friends Kate Neal who did all of our previous album 'Westward' photos and artwork. We wanted to connect you to a world where the songs can make sense. I believe that music is a visual experience as much as it is a sonic experience. We always try to create an atmosphere with your music. So when we saw the photos for the album we knew that they, on their own, expressed the same feeling that we wanted to portray with the songs. The pictures connected with each individual song perfectly so we knew right then that we had to highlight that in some way. We made a cardboard sleeve for the album and put all relevant album info on that as well as blacking out the innermost two pages to put liners and such because we wanted the photos to speak for themselves and didn't want any writing to cover up the worlds. When you look at the photos I want you to be able to visualize yourself there doing whatever you want to be doing and the songs be the background music. It's in a way therapeutic because takes some sense of clearing your mind to be able to accomplish.

Can you explain the process of bringing these almost esoteric songs to life?

When our singer Tyler went out to Los Angeles to write for the album with our friend Mike Hart, we knew that we wanted the new songs to be somewhere from the heart and pulled directly from life experience. We also knew that there is so much more to the songs we wanted to write than just girls and wanting to get out of the town you're from. I didn't have much of an idea of where Tyler was going to take these songs when he went out to write them but I had heard the demo for Anchored and Torn and knew that our songs were going to go in the direction that they ultimately did. These songs are so esoteric because they came from such a personal realm of Tyler and my life. They touch on the confusion and apathy that an unstable homelife created by divorce, lies, and addiction can have on a someone and how the effects of that can last far longer than you can anticipate. The songs are for everyone, but I hope it finds people who are going through a point in their life where they feel anchored to a mindset or a place that they wish that they could get out of. I hope they know that we are right there with them. I am hoping that on the next album we can address the solutions to these problems but for now we just needed to shed light on the fact that those problems are real. 

Okay, let’s discuss the ending to “Deadweight”. What’s that about?

The ending to deadweight was originally just the sound of the rain fading out and then you hear us talking for a bit. I had the idea one day of having a song with an audio clip of Carl Sagan talking about god and the existence of one. So Tyler Pritchett (guitar) and I worked on that song for a while. We originally wanted to put it at the beginning of the album and intro the album with it but it would have given you a false sense of whats to come for the rest of the album so we added it to the end. Putting it at the set up the world of "whats to come". It's our cliffhanger to the album so I would expected the next album to be more like that. The final "hidden" track on the album is titled 'moonsounds.'. 

Ideally, what do you hope people take away from somethingreal.?

I think what we ultimately want people to take from somethingreal. is that we are growing and maturing as a band and that there is a lot more to us than just a pop/punk band from Louisville. Personally I hope that this album will set a tone in peoples minds that we don't want to be known for a genre but for an experience. What comes next will continue to be us experimenting with music and our abilities as song writers and musicians. I want people to know that they are not alone in their experiences, thoughts, and beliefs not matter what those are and that the healthiest way to cope and learn from your life experiences is to share them and express them through some sort of outlet. somethringreal. is the stepping stone to the experience of Before the Streetlights.  

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Alex Kilgore, Untold Music Promotion