#you guys can decide if by broke up i mean they were a band or that they were dating

[lolli-popples]

Ya, didn't 'ya hear? *takes a sip from flask* TIES broke up. Etho got back with his ex-wife and Impulse joined another band.

It's just Tango and Skizz now. They're rebranding to "The Heart Foundation".

I know, sad, right?

[turvi]

Chicks Dig Bad Boys

Rodrick Heffley x Reader

According to Y/n, Rodrick was just another emo boy, a loser, a typical teenage dirtbag. At least, this is what she heard from Heather Hills. Y/n was shocked Heather even chose to talk to her. Not just because Heather is the 'it girl' of Westmore High School.

Y/n had cracked the code to deal with high school, and that was to avoid joining any kind of group and not get noticed by anyone. Even if you somehow develop a crush on someone, keep it a secret. So she was surprised when Heather sat beside her and decided to talk to her. Y/n merely shrugged her shoulder and nodded at appropriate times as she spoke, tuning out the blonde girl.

Of course, you were aware of the crush the boy was harbouring for Heather especially when he made a show of ruining Heather's birthday. Y/n saw it all happen and thought how Rodrick actually had a nice voice and had potential. So when Rodrick happened to sit beside her in the English class she off-handedly complimented his voice.

Y/n had expected him to give her a smug smile or make an inappropriate joke. What she didn't expect was to find a very flushed Rodrick who was trying to find the correct words to say to her. She couldn't believe her eyes. She never saw Rodrick become so flustered.

"Uh..th..thank you...it...it means a lot." Rodrick wanted to slap himself for speaking like forgot how to speak. Yeah sure he got a few claps and hollers when his band played but no one complimented his voice.

"Was that the first time you sang?" now she was intrigued. Rodrick looked up and saw a genuine smile on her face. He took a breath of relief. He had thought she was making fun of him.

"Uh..yeah. I only sing when we perform in my garage. I wanted to do something special for Heather. But clearly, it went wrong." he said as he ran his hand through his hair. Y/n almost extended her hand to fix his unruly hair but dropped her hand when she saw him smile. She felt her heart flutter

Shit

Now she had something to say to Rodrick, but she forgot when she saw him smile like that. Boys like him were not supposed to smile like that. He was not supposed to have such a soft smile. Her trance broke when she saw him smirking.

"I saw you last night...not in a creepy way. I mean... obviously, during all that chaos at Heather's birthday, I saw you." there was that damned smile again. "I didn't know you were friends with her." His tone had a genuine wonder.

Y/n chuckled. "I helped her a few times with assignments..not really a friend, but we know each other, plus free food. Who can say no to that?"

Y/n felt her cheeks warming up under his gaze and tried to hide it under the curtain of her hair when she suddenly felt his fingers against her cheek as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. At that moment, she realised Rodrick actually saw her. She realised Rodrick was more than a teenage dirtbag that the world told her to stay away from.

She cleared her throat "I have heard your band play...when I come to tutor Greg."

Rodrick's hand grew sweaty. He knew how loud his band practice was, mainly to annoy Greg and his best friend Rowley. But he can't help but felt guilty as he realised how much of a nuisance it would have been for her.

"I am so sorry if our practice disturbed you guys"

"Oh no it's ok..I actually don't mind. I like that kind of music. Although it would be nice if the volume is a bit low."

"yeah...yeah absolutely...no big deal we can even practice a bit later."

Rodrick looked ahead trying his best to control a giddy smile. He did not expect his morning to be this good.

"Great...so I will see you in the evening..if you don't mind"

"yeah yeah totally" Rodrick quickly responded with a big smile. He was looking forward to meeting her this evening...after he locked Greg in the basement again.

A/N: Ladies and Gentlemen the boy who got me into bad boys. Rodrick Heffley. I couldn't stop myself from writing for him. I feel like a teen again. REBLOG AND COMMENT if you like this.

[mssishipi]

ENHYPEN MASTERLIST (written by mssishipi)

most of my works are nsfw (mdni!)

pls reblog and leave feedback on my work!

i'll include you on any taglist, you can message if you want to be included on perm taglist.

i do not know how to use tumblr so bear with me

DO NOT COPY, TRANSLATE OR REPOST MY WORKS

O1 LEE HEESEUNG

SERIES: mr. panties stealer ft. jake - crack, smut, angst, fluff (under revision)

SYNOPSIS: When Heeseung discovers his roommate Beomgyu's bizarre side hustle-stealing panties for cash in a campus-wide competition-he's appalled. But after hearing about the insane prize money, his moral compass wavers.

Overwhelmed by deadlines and broke from juggling classes and a café job, Heeseung finally snaps. Armed with Beomgyu's tips and a growing desperation, Heeseung sets out to grab the bag-and maybe a shred of dignity along the way.

ONESHOT: was it casual? ft. sunoo - angst, smut

SYNOPSIS: Let’s play “Casual” by Chappell Roan. How far can you sink for a guy who only sees you as a bed warmer? Somewhere between the silences, you start to wonder. If it’s just casual, why does it feel so real? And if it means nothing, why does it hurt so much? WC: 12.3K

O2 - PARK JONGSEONG

THE PURGE SERIES NO.1: Kiss me - the purge au, angst, smut, romance

SYNOPSIS: You hate the Purge. You hate the monster they create, the cruelty, and the way it's broken you down year after year. You hate the rich most of all—the people who don't have to fight to survive. People like Park Jongseong.

And now, somehow, he's sitting next to you. The boy who's always smiling, always comfortable, as if the world hasn't burned down around him. The boy who lives in safety, behind barricades his father's company builds, while you've spent years starving, hiding, and praying.

Jongseong keeps smiling at you, oblivious to the weight of your hatred. He doesn't care about you, not really. To him, life is simple. And maybe that's why you can't stand him. Because while he laughs, you're trying to figure out how to make sure people like him never smile again. WC: 21.8K

SERIES: taste of indulgence ft. sjy - smut

SYNOPSIS: Sex should've been the most electrifying experience. But for you, no matter how much you indulge, it's always the same—the burning, the discomfort, the frustration of never getting there. So when another couple invites you into their bed, you wonder—Will indulgence finally taste the way it should?

ONESHOT: my boyfriend's in a band - fake dating, pure fluff, angst, crack

SYNOPSIS: One second, you were telling a little lie to impress the cheerleaders, and the next, the whole school thought you were dating Park Jongseong—the cold, untouchable, and ridiculously hot guitarist. What started as a desperate move to boost your reputation took a wild turn when Jay decided to go along with it. Now, you’re caught up in nonstop gossip, awkward moments, and a fake relationship that feels a little too real—especially with Jay showing a surprisingly sweet side that no one, including you, saw coming. WC: 14.7K

SCENARIO: bf! jay and your tits - fluff

O3 - SIM JAEHYUN

SERIES: taste of indulgence ft. pjs - smut

SYNOPSIS: Sex should've been the most electrifying experience. But for you, no matter how much you indulge, it's always the same—the burning, the discomfort, the frustration of never getting there. So when another couple invites you into their bed, you wonder—Will indulgence finally taste the way it should?

O4 - PARK SUNGHOON

THE PURGE SERIES NO. 2: catch me (if you can) - angst, action, smut

SYNOPSIS: In a dystopian America ruled by the Purge, you’ve become the voice of the resistance—a fierce, beautiful symbol of hope rallying the oppressed against the corrupt New Founding Fathers.

But your growing influence has made you their top target. They’ve sent Park Sunghoon, their most skilled assassin, to infiltrate your movement, gain your trust, and end your life on Purge night.

As he watches you fight for freedom, your fire and beauty captivating him in ways he never expected. Torn between loyalty to his mission and the undeniable pull of you, one thought consumes his mind: how could he kill such a beautiful girl like you?

ONESHOT: stuck with you - crack, fluff, slight angst, smut

SYNOPSIS: All you wanted was a relaxing vacation—a break from your soul-crushing job, some cocktails by the sea, and, if the universe was feeling generous, a tall, handsome man to sweep you off your feet. So, like any desperate (but classy) woman, you booked a cruise. But instead of a dreamy vacation romance, you got a shipwreck.

Now, instead of sipping margaritas and flirting with rich men, you’re stranded on a deserted island with a random Korean guy who, by the way, does not speak a single word of English. Flirting? Impossible. Communication? A disaster. Survival? Highly questionable. Well, at least, he's tall and handsome.

O5 - YANG JUNGWON

tba.

O6 - KIM SUNOO

tba.

O7 - NISHIMURA RIKI

tba.

[kaulitzily]

Path to Redemption

PAIRINGS: Bill 2010 x female reader

GENRE: fluff & smut

SYNOPSIS: The young man's dry lips touched your neck with a smeared kiss, and the man's hand rested on your narrow waist, feeling the pleasant silk fabric under the pads of his fingers. “Am I forgiven?” Bill asked hopefully, continuing to kiss your slender neck. “I don't know,” You said mockingly, turning your head to the side, meeting the black eyes opposite.

WARNINGS: drunk sex

A/N: english is not my native language! It's a bit short and without details, sorry. I want to thank everyone very much for such activity, it's the first time for me to receive so much attention, thank you all very much!!

A light breeze gently penetrated into the bedroom, bringing with it the freshness of springtime. The silence, interrupted from time to time by the passing sounds of cars, created a calm atmosphere. The wall clock, which had already marked one o'clock ten minutes ago, reminded of the passing time. In the midst of all this, in a comfortable hotel room, you were quietly falling asleep, comfortably wrapped in starched snow-white blankets. You were breathing peacefully, periodically turning from one side to the other. But the sound of the door opening, as well as the attempt to close it as quietly as possible, was clearly a failure, because your sensitive hearing detected the appearance of someone else. This "someone" clumsily tried to take off his huge black shoes, and also grumbled with displeasure at the next setback.

You recognized that grunting and barely heard swearing in German right away. Sleepily standing on the cold floor, you gave up trying to find your slippers, going to the source of the sounds with your bare feet. The culprit of your unlucky dream was leaning on a locker in the hallway, trying to keep his balance, which obviously wasn't going well. The young man was standing with his back hunched over, and the familiar light windbreaker had long been lying a little apart from the shelf. You crossed your arms, watching your boyfriend's clumsiness, as well as his futile attempts to do something.

“Help?” Suddenly, a woman's voice made Bill start and turn around sharply. You were standing nearby in a dark blue nightgown, watching with a barely visible grin.

Exhaling in relief, the guy broke into a drunken smile. “Baby, you scared me.” He replied hoarsely, straightening up.

“Can you imagine how you scared me with your loud bang? I thought someone was after me!” You chuckled, coming closer.

“I'm sorry. I really tried to be as quiet as possible..” With typical Kaulitz sincerity, he apologized, lowering his head.

You softened your gaze by taking a man's hand in yours. “I heard you got hurt during the concert today, does it hurt much?” You asked with genuine concern, running your fingers over Bill's bandaged hand.

“It's okay, but I almost fainted from the sight of blood.” The brunette giggled.

“And you decided to forget what you saw with the help of booze? Or what? You usually prefer not to drink too much, but now you can't even take off your shoes on your own!” You shook your head, squatting down, helping him out of the high platform of his favorite boots.

“I didn't mean to. The guys just insisted and wouldn't let go!” Somehow taking off his uncomfortable shoes, the guy continued: “I told them that my princess was waiting for me, but they didn't believe it..”

“Just don't suck up now. You know perfectly well that I'm angry!” You furrowed your eyebrows, continuing: “I was hoping that at least today we would spend the evening together, but instead, you're back with your band, which you're almost married to!” Rolling your eyes, you blurted out, walking back towards the bedroom.

Kaulitz immediately hurried after your departing figure, tripping over the damn carpet in his manner. A guy on his own often bumps into something, and if he's not sober, he can fall or injure himself out of the blue. Cursing the stupid carpet, Bill followed you into the bright bedroom and saw you sitting on the edge of the bed with your back to him. And he's willing to bet that you're frowning at the panoramic window right now, pursing your lips into a thin line. After standing at the door for a while, he slowly walked deeper into the small room, sitting on the edge of the bed on the opposite side. The singer's head was spinning now because of the whiskey he had drunk, and nothing came to mind but to crawl up from behind and hug the fragile female shoulders, circling, hugging.

“Well, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to upset you..” He apologized softly, hugging you tighter, burying himself somewhere in your collarbone. You didn't say anything, still sitting with your arms crossed. “Do you want to come back here to Paris after the world tour? Just you and me. What do you say?” Kaulitz was already taking more significant actions. If only the ice between you would melt and you would stop sulking.

“Really?” You asked the question softly, with a less caustic tone.

“It's really true..” The brunette whispered in your ear, feeling the girl's tense shoulders relax, meaning that the guy had found a point of contact. The young man's dry lips touched your neck with a smeared kiss, and the man's hand rested on your narrow waist, feeling the pleasant silk fabric under the pads of his fingers.

“Am I forgiven?” Bill asked hopefully, continuing to kiss your slender neck.

“I don't know,” You said mockingly, turning your head to the side, meeting the black eyes opposite: “I still have an unpleasant sediment.” Your slender hand touched the singer's sharp cheekbone, gently stroking.

“I will do everything so that you no longer feel this "sediment".” The young man said reassuringly, before clinging to your parted lips. The native taste with notes of the distant sensation of "Glenfarclas" on the tongue surprised you. How long does Scottish alcohol last that even after such a long time you can catch the familiar taste of bitterness. Every touch of the skin, every movement of the lips is perceived by your senses, making you tremble from the energy that permeates from the inside. Bill ran his hot tongue over your lower lip, as usual, pulled in your upper lip, and then deepened the kiss to the bright stars in your eyes.

Kaulitz gradually moved to your sharp collarbones, slightly biting the pale skin, leaving small marks. You tilted your head to the side, giving more space for the greedy kisses that the German so passionately gave. Soft moans escaped from your lips, your eyelashes trembled slightly with pleasure, the thin strap of your nightgown was brazenly lowered under the influence of Bill's hands, exposing elastic female breasts. Completely relaxed, you leaned against the guy with your whole body, and, placing your head on his shoulder, moaned once again when Bill's cold palms touched your erect nipples. The contrast between hot breath on your neck and cold hands on your chest made your head spin, and Bill's arousal pressing against your lower back made it clear that you weren't the only one in a difficult position right now.

The manicured nails of the guy scratched the inside of your thigh, adding sharpness. Bill bit his lips until they bled, just not to moan with you in unison, because just the feeling of a pliant body in his own hands, caressing sighs full of pleasure, and the damn strong pressure of tight jeans pushed him to whine pitifully with impatience. Cold hands picked you up and laid you on the bed, and Kaulitz himself hung over you, looking at you with undisguised lust. He wanted to tear off the remnants of the rags hiding your seductive girlish body, and with the same fervor squeeze you into himself, taking everything without a trace. But instead, the brunette slowly lifted the hem of your dress up, throwing the already noticeably wet underwear aside. You were incredibly glad that the lights were off and you wouldn't have to be embarrassed by your nakedness again. But even so, the singer still stared there, licking his lips hungrily.

“Devil! Bill, stop looking! How many times have I asked!” Shyly squeezing your eyes shut, you tried to close your thighs. But the man's hands crossed the desire to hide, spreading your legs back anyway.

“It's not the first time we've done this, so why are you still so shy?” The German chuckled, continuing: ”You're just very beautiful..”

“God, spare me such compliments, especially those made at such a moment!” With your eyes fixed on the side, you asked.

“Good. I will not. Just don't stop looking at me.”Cuddling between my thighs, the guy gave me an ultimatum. Your eyes met the deep black depths again, into which it seemed it would be ideal to plunge and stay forever in this mysterious darkness.

“And why do you get so bold when you drink? You don't set any conditions for me when you're sober.”

Kaulitz didn't say anything, just gently brushed his lips over your inner thigh, knocking your breath away. The coffee-colored eyes still seemed to stare into your very soul, and the rough tongue stroked your crotch tightly, tearing a sweet moan from you. The wet flesh took the caresses extremely well, constantly contracting as his metal piercing bead teasingly slid over your sensitive spot. Pressing his fingers against the front wall of your vagina, Bill found the G spot and continued to stimulate your clitoris with his tongue.

The room was filled with wet sounds, vulgar smacking and feminine sighs. The hot tongue collected the plentifully flowing lubricant, preventing at least one drop of the thick liquid from leaking. Your hands are buried in the guy's black, coarse hair, generously varnished, pulling his face closer. Your hips instinctively moved towards him in order to enhance the sensations. The pace increased and the moans became louder each time, signaling that very soon you would reach the peak. Kaulitz knew all your weaknesses too well, and he took advantage of them. Not a single movement of the nimble tongue remained unnoticed, causing an irresistible range of emotions.

“Bill..” You whispered his name, thereby tearing down the German's tower completely. He fucking loved it when you moaned his name uncontrollably. “I'm going to..” Your toes curled up, your back arched, and a high-pitched scream indicated that you had reached your climax. You collapsed back onto the pillow, panting and squinting your eyes. Bill pulled away from your limp body, finally licking the remnants of lube on his lips, looking with shining eyes at the work done, and the result, without words, was excellent. Kaulitz's trademark half-smile formed by itself, too pleased, cat-sweet.

“Do I deserve your forgiveness now?” He whispered, running his nose over your cheekbone.

“Quite.” You chuckled wearily. Your gaze dropped to Bill's jeans, which were still bulging with an erection, causing a quiet laugh. “Come to me..” You pulled him towards you, luring him into a kiss.

The whole night is still ahead.

[disappearintothegrey]

Are you still taking requests? Can you write something related to angst (if you want with a happy ending) about Noah/reader? It's up to you.

<3

i sure am! i hope this lives up to your expectations! so sorry for the delay, but i am back. send in your requests!

//////

All I Wanted

warnings: domestic abuse, not extremely graphic but it's there, language, angst with a happy ending

You knew you fell in love the moment you looked at him. You knew he was your person the first time you talked. You knew you only wanted him the first night you fell asleep in his bed after a long day of merch packages being shipped, only to wake up with him curled up behind you, his back pressed against your chest as you held him close.

But you were never meant to be his. He would always see you as a friend, a little sister even, and it tore you up inside. Because you would do anything just to know he loved you back, but lived in silent fear because your friendship meant everything to you. Admitting how you felt meant losing him, and you refused to let that happen. 

And he would be lying if he didn’t notice how you distanced yourself from him, creating a false wall between you two that he couldn’t break down. And the guys saw it too, it was Nicholas who had brought it up one day, admitting he thought something was amiss. Folio and Jolly had agreed, and you silently did too, unable to rationalize why you decided to step away from the group. And him. 

The day you brought Devin, your new boyfriend, to one of their shows, Noah’s blood boiled. He didn’t know why seeing you in someone else’s arms made him want to explode, and why when he watched you two kiss during Just Pretend, that he felt like he was singing it to you. And you didn’t miss the heated glare in Noah’s eyes backstage when you went to hype up the boys and their performance. Your heart broke silently when Noah just left the room, heading straight for the tour bus. 

Noah wished you had followed him that night to the bus, confronted him even. But he sat on the bus alone, stuck in his own head. He found himself thinking about you and Devin, and how much he wished it was him in your arms. He also couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off with Devin, as the whole night the man spent his time glaring at Noah, keeping a territorial hand on your waist at all times. It had finally hit him that he loved you, and now it was too late. You had moved on because he was too foolish to see the truth. He lost you. 

And it’s not like he was wrong. Devin wasn’t a good boyfriend by any means. Sure, in the beginning he wooed you with dates and gifts, creating a facade to sink his teeth into. But then you started to notice the red flags and the underlying issues he was hiding from you. It had started when you mentioned being friends with the band, and calling Noah your best friend. Devin was livid, creating false scenarios that you were secretly fucking Noah, that you two were secretly together behind everyone’s back. And no matter what you said, he wouldn’t budge from that mindset. 

Then he started smacking you around, leaving bruises on your wrists where he held you tightly in his grip, your face always bruised and bloodied. That’s when you started caking yourself in makeup, and only wearing long sleeve shirts. You couldn’t let Noah see the bruises, you couldn’t let him find out the truth. But it all came to a boiling point, and all you could do was scream for him. 

You had planned to break up with Devin, tired of his constant accusations of cheating and abuse. You had packed up all your things, sitting calmly in Devin’s living room as you waited for him to get home. And when he did, you swore you saw your whole life flash before your eyes. Devin laughed at you, claiming you couldn’t find anyone better than him. He slapped you hard across the face when you tried to stand up to him, the slap throwing you to the ground with a shout. 

“Don’t you ever fucking think you’ll be good enough for that jackass,” Devin spit at you, while you tried scooting away from him, the pain in your limbs becoming overbearing, “He’ll never fucking love a lowlife like you. He wants a woman with class, not you,” Devin laughed, “What a pity,” 

“You leave him out of this. I’m leaving you because you’re a piece of fucking shit,” You spat back, cowering against the wall. 

You almost didn’t see Devin surge forward to you, grabbing you by your hair to pin you against the wall, his hands wrapping around your throat. You coughed and spluttered, frantically clawing at his enclosed hands as you fought to breathe, black spots forming in your eyesight as you gasped for air. Devin squeezed until you blacked out, leaving your limp body slumped against the wall as he kicked your stomach one last time and left the house. 

When you woke up, pain was screaming from every point of your body. You crawled towards your purse, where your phone sat, grabbing it through blinding tears. You dialed the only number you knew by heart, your throat sore and hoarse. You could feel blood seeping from your scalp where Devin had grabbed you, your lip busted and face bruised. Your left eye was swollen to the point of blurred vision, the dialing on the phone feeling like it lasted forever. 

“Y/N?” Noah had spoken into the phone, only hearing your tiny gasps on the other line, “What’s going on?” He could feel panic rising in his stomach, signalling to the guys that they needed to get ready to go. 

“Noah…please…it hurts,” You whimpered out, and that was enough for Noah to see red, grabbing his car keys and speeding to your location, the guys trying to get more information as they listened to your small sobs on the speaker. 

The door burst open, and Noah visibly felt himself break as he spotted you lying on the living room floor, bloodied and battered. Your shirt was torn, exposing your chest, covered by your arm as you looked up from the floor, crying out his name. He rushed to your side, taking Nicholas’ jacket and covering you up as Jolly dialed 911. You crawled into his awaiting arms, blood soaking his shirt from your head injury. 

“How could I have let this happen?” He sobbed, choking on his words as you lost consciousness, lying limply in his arms. He studied your face, unable to control his rage as he saw the bruises and blood. That’s when he saw the finger shaped bruises along your neck, fury surging through him as he was slapped in the face with reality, “Where the fuck is he?” Noah had screamed, Nicholas taking your limp body as Noah saw nothing but red. 

“Noah, the police are looking for him, don’t do something you’ll regret,” Jolly spoke carefully, holding onto Noah’s shoulder. 

He knew Jolly was right, collapsing back onto the ground as he cried into his knees, the paramedics arriving and assessing the damage as they took you away. Nicholas drove after the ambulance, Noah sitting like a stone as he stared out the window. Folio had grabbed all of your belongings and thrown them in the trunk, officially separating you from Devin. All four boys sat with grief and fear in their bellies, the vibe of the car tense. 

When you awoke, you were in the hospital, attached to machines that constantly beeped, the room dim for your pounding migraine. You looked around the room, spotting Noah leaning against the wall in his chair, eyes closed and face tense with stress. There was blood still on his shirt, and you felt the regret blossom in your gut as you let out a weak sob, Noah’s head snapping up and eyes widely staring at you. 

“Noah…” You whimpered, reaching out for him as he raced to your side, gripping your hand tightly, “I’m sorry,” You sobbed, and Noah just shook his head, moving to sit beside you on the bed, cradling your hand to his cheek.

“No, angel. I’m sorry,” He replied, and you looked at him in confusion, spurring him on to continue, “I’m sorry I never told you how much I love you, and I’m sorry I never made you mine. I’m so sorry I let you get into this situation,” Tears were streaming down his face, his brown eyes broken as he stared at you. 

You felt the world freeze at his admission, your heart thumping in your chest as you took in his words. He loved you? He wanted you to be his? What? There’s no way, you thought, grief in your eyes. 

“You love me?” You asked, “You can’t…” You whispered.

“I love you, angel. And I am so sorry I never told you. I should’ve never let you walk away, I should’ve told you sooner–,” He’s cut off by you grabbing his shirt, pulling you into him as you kissed him, your cut lip stinging as he kissed back. 

When he pulls away, he’s smiling so wide, the tears in his eyes now happy, “I take it you feel the same way?” He jokes, and you roll your eyes, kissing him again. 

“I have loved you this whole time. You were what I always wanted, and I was too afraid to lose you and never told you,” You admit, and he lets out a laugh.

“Well, you never have to be afraid again. I’m yours, angel, and your mine,” 

And Noah never let you walk away again, he made you his forever. 

[sosickastro]

Indulgence (Bts x Chubby reader)

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

Poly Bts x Chubby Reader, Soulmate au and Idol au

Summary: Poor broke and isolated mc gets the chance to go to a concert with an old high school friend, with hoping to find their soulmate and see the biggest boy band in the world. A new shocking reality hits her while at the concert.

Chapter Warnings: degrading thoughts, poor writing and grammar, gender confused reader, anxiety, mc being a loner, mentions of weight insecurities, swearing, etc (let me know if I miss anything)

A/N: Hey yall I am not dead just being a wage slave at my job and working 24/7-- I wrote this a bit ago and posted a snip it of this a while ago as well but my friend begged me to post an actual chapter of this--- if this goes well I might post more. As usual, Grammarly is my lord and savior so there are going to be some mistakes even they can't catch.

word count: 2,644 (damn)

(Thank you Corinnecousins on Pinterest for this picture)

The red string is an invisible string with only the users being able to see it. On the other end of the string, it is supposed to be your soulmate. Someone that is your other half, someone that the universe itself said was perfect for you. At the age of 18, you get to see the string in completeness, it's like officially becoming an adult. Some people do find their soulmates before the ripe age but most don't find their other half till well into their twenties. 

There is this website that the government set up, it is called ‘The SoulTies.’ This website is run by a mysterious group that knows when soulmates complete their bond and on this website, you can see who is paired with who. The website came about mainly for celebrities because a lot of casualties happened when crazed fans pushed too much to find their favs soulmates. This was the compromise, and surprisingly it worked. No one knows how these people know, it is almost like the gray sisters and the string of fate except they don't cut the string, and the string is red and involves love. Something the Greeks thought of as a tragedy and not a serendipity. I think the website is funny, not in a mean way. Moreso seeing well-known people get paired with nobodies. It’s nice knowing that the ones who acted full of themselves get humbled by their fate. I haven’t met my soulmate yet, 

I am almost 19 and a month into my freshman year of college with no friends, barely a social life, and no soulmate. Though I wasn't expecting to find him on day one of moving into college, it is still disheartening when you see others with their lovers or soulmates and your red string is so tight it can cut a block of cheese. See the further you are away from your soulmate the tighter the string, when you guys get closer to each other the string will loosen. I was hoping that moving to a different state would give me a fresh start in this whole life mess, but it just made me more depressed than I have ever been. 

I let out a long sigh as my thoughts consumed me, I adjusted the bag on my back and skipped through a few songs. The nice weather and lack of students around made the hell walk to my class more bearable. Recently I have been getting back into listening to BTS, the music makes me less stressed about life, and I get to reminisce about how happy they make me. When I was a tween and didn’t know about the struggles of financial debt and stupid people. I put on one of their albums as I made my way to my philosophy class. BTS as I recently found out are all soulmates with each other, they decided to let the world know a few years ago but I guess I was living underneath a rock when the news broke out. It makes sense in my opinion, all being soul-tied, and it's not like group soul bonds don't exist, they are uncommon, sure but not rare. A part of me, the delusional side of me, secretly hoped it would be one of them. That I was fated to be with Taehyung or maybe Jungkook. I know a lot of their more toxic fans were upset by this announcement as I went into a rabbit hole on the whole matter. The outrage by the delusional fans where overshadowed by the more competent people and was overall taken very well. 

I made myself laugh at the thought as I took my seat in the filled classroom. I gave a soft smile to the two girls who sat by me as I placed my headphones into my bag and grabbed my laptop. I make a quick Google doc so I can pretend to take notes and pull my phone out to check any notifications I may have gotten on my walkover. I smile as I see a text from an old friend, Lauren. Me and her graduated from the same high school and we were some of the very few people to move out of state for college because of this we stayed in contact with each other; hoping to lessen the stress of college and being in a new state. 

LaLaRen: Hi, I know this is sudden and you can say no to me, but I got these concert tickets from a classmate and I was wondering if you want to come with me. I think you know this band and it is happening this Saturday. 

Me: Omg, I would love to, who is the band? :] 

LaLaRen: It is the K-pop band BTS. I only really know a few songs from them. But I remember hearing from Sarah that you love them, or maybe like K-pop in general. 

Me: No fucking way- OMG YES I WOULD GO WITH YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 

LaLaRen: Haha, okay okay how about you come down Friday so we can go shopping and hangout for a little ;0 

Me: Sounds wonderful ;]

I giggle softly to myself as I feel the energy surging in me. I have always wanted to see a BTS concert and now here is my golden opportunity, fuck willy wonka this is more amazing than his chocolate factor.

When I got back from my class, I threw my bag onto my half-made bed and sat down at my desk. I grab my laptop out of my school bag to send off an email to my professors letting them know of my absence for tomorrow. As much as me and Lauren can plan around our classes, it would be easier for us not to have them. Plus I don’t believe I can sit through another psychology lesson knowing I was going to see the biggest boy band ever. 

 My phone set off as I finished sending the emails and looking into bus tickets, the caller ID displaying ‘LaLaRen’ I laughed to myself as I accepted the call. “Hi girl,” I said to the phone smiling as Lauren laughed I placed my phone on the messy desk putting the call onto speaker so I can try and muilty task, “Hello girly, so when do you think you will be down?” she asked me with a small giggle, it looked like she was equally as excited for this. “Well it's a 3-hour bus ride, if I leave at nine I can potentially get there around noon,” I click through the website the bus service has, seeing the available times for tomorrow Internally groaning at the prices for the bus. Maybe if I start walking now I will make it in time. 

A groan gets let out through the speakers “The three-hour bus ride sounds intense, do you want to spend the night at my dorm so you don't have to take the bus after the concert?” Lauren tells me, the way she says that is more of a statement than a question. “Oh my god, a sleepover with THE Lauren, of course,” I responded to her with a high-pitched voice. We both laughed at that and spent the next few hours going over the plan and creating backup plans just in case. 

You never know what can happen in the cities. Crazy people even more crazy traffic. Expense coffees and overrated bangle places. I sign knowing that my bank account will suffer after this 2-day trip.  After our call ended, I took out my school notebooks and folders from my school bag; to use as an overnight bag. I never really had the thought of buying another backpack, I never went anywhere in my hometown to need one. Perks of being a loner with friends who would rather play video games than have sleepovers. I walked over to my dresser, placed my newly empty backpack on top of it, and began packing it with some clothes. Me and Lauren both agreed to shop for a concert outfit and get some coffee before the concert on Saturday. I bit my bottom lips as anxiety fills my stomach, shopping for clothes has always been hard for me. Not that I don't enjoy it, in fact going thrifting is one of my favorite things. 

More so the part where I have to shop for pants or skirts or any bottoms for that matter, I am in the weird awkward body type where I am not fat enough for the plus size clothing but chubby enough to not be able to fit into any size below a 16, even then some 16 pants are too small for me. With Lauren being smaller and skinnier than me I hope it goes over well shopping and we don’t need to go to a hundred different shops just to find one pair of pants that fit me. With that, I put a pair of black cargo pants into my overnight bag. It goes with a lot of outfits just in case I can only find a top to wear.

I like to think I am not super insecure about my weight, though being the fat kid growing up and now even if my weight is distributed through my body after puberty, I still have a stomach to me, I still have big thighs and I still have a chubby face. The comments made to you, even as a kid, stick with you for the rest of your life. I know I am attractive and I am confident in myself, but the insecurity is still there. Especially when you don’t fit into what society wants as a mid-size person, I have a small chest size that makes me pass off as a guy. Another thing that I don't mind as I really don’t care about my gender. But it is whatever. It makes finding a boyfriend hard but makes boys with fragile masculinities pissed off easier, a small win in my book. 

I snap out of my degrading thoughts as I finish packing my bag, adding in a few accessories and perfume. I grumble as the dining halls are now closed; though the food was probably not going to be that good anyway. I place the bag at the end of my bed and debated on ordering some takeout but with the money I was going to be spending tomorrow, I decide to try and sleep. Though I know I won’t sleep for a good while,  I can spend the night relearning fan chants and old songs. But like usual  I spent the next hour scrolling through social media, stalking old classmates before I ended up falling asleep out of exhaustion. 

I woke up that morning with a newfound pep in my step, getting dressed and ready was a blur of excitement and anxiety some thoughts of telling Lauren I don’t want to go anymore pop into my head once and a while, but I can not let my anxiety get in the way of seeing my seven fake husbands. After I was done with everything I did a final check around my small dorm making sure that I had everything As I adjusted the straps of the bag, so it fits more comfortably on my shoulders I pulled out my phone to book an Uber to the bus. I give myself one more look in the mirror before heading out of the building. I can drive by the way, but in this economy, it's impossible to buy a car. But still super expensive to use Uber everywhere, it is always a lose-lose situation. A huge fuck you to the poor and stupid college kids just trying to have fun. Maybe my soulmate is some rich dude who can drive me everywhere. Being a forever-passenger princess doesn't sound too bad. 

As I wait for the driver to come I sent a quick text to Lauren that I was on my way to the bus station which she answered with a simple ‘Okay’ My Uber drive was quick as my nerves got my adrenaline rushing throughout my body, tomorrow I am going to be seeing my all-time favorite band, and who knows maybe my soulmate will be there. He needs to have good taste in music if he wants to be with me. Though it would be easy to indoctrinate him into the BTS lifestyle. 

 I give the driver a small ‘thank you’ as I stepped out of the car just in time for the bus to be pulling in. I pulled out my phone to show them the ticket I bought last night and make my over to the bus seeing as it was filling up. I give the driver a polite smile as he gave me a nod singling that I was good to sit down wherever I wanted to. I made my way down the aisle before taking a seat in an empty section. I prayed to whatever God out there that I had to row to myself. As lady luck is on my side I get the two seats to myself as the bus pulls out of the station, I readjust the headphones on my head as I am going to heavily rely on music during this drive, maybe I can sneak in a nap beforehand too. 

The three-hour ride went well, very well it felt like only 3 minutes. Maybe I am way too excited for this concert but I never had the privilege to be this hopeful in my life. I wait a little as the bus comes to a stop and people begin to step off the bus. As I also take my leave on the bus I quickly spot Lauren, her long black hair and chunky glasses give her away pretty easily. We pulled each other into a hug letting out excited giggles. “Are you ready for city traffic?” Lauren asks me with wiggling eyebrows “Of course” I say back to her, we begin to take off to meet up with Lauren’s soulmate who would be driving us. We talked about the concert and the songs we hope to hear. The sounds of traffic, people talking, kids yelling and cars honking filled the air like an unwelcomed hug from your weird aunt; uncomfortable but familiar I nodded my head along as Lauren rants about how close we are going to be to the stage and hoping to see Namjoon that close up

Then for the first time in my life, I felt a tug, anxiety filled my stomach as I froze in my tracks, and my heartbeat went through the roof as I looked down at the red thread I usually forget about, it loosened. Holy shit I am near my soulmate. Holy shit. Lauren notices that I stop walking and now staring at my pinky finger asks me “Are you okay?” I initially looked around the bus station, there were a lot of people walking around, too many to see where the string goes. “Is it your soulmate?” Lauren asks me again. I couldn't speak, my mouth dry as I gave her a shaky nod.

But unfortunately just as it loosens it quickly tightens again, meaning my soulmate either left or is on a bus going further away from me. “I wonder if he felt it” I questioned out loud, looking at Lauren with shaken eyes. She sighs, almost equally disappointed “Come on Clare is waiting for us, we don’t want to keep her waiting.” Lauren tells me, grabbing my hand and basically dragging me to the exit. I can’t stop staring at my red thread, there's hope. There is always hope. Now I at least can find comfort that he is in the States, and not in Korea or Russia or anything far away.

[pop-punklouis]

its interesting to see how one direction fans still think harry was forced to be separate. where as he's made it clear that he chose to leave the other boys behind and started planning his exit with azoffs way way before he let anyone know.

even keeping his songs for himself and not sharing time with the band.

which is good for him, but its the same as with liam, the one direction fans will cling to the fantasy of "boys" being good and only doing shady things when management forced them.

i mean people are hardly accepting liam could've been abusive to a girl fans arent invested in. why would they ever come consider the idea that baby boy harry cheated the fuck out and made his fame the top most priority. even at the cost of others. i think he chose it to be at the cost of others.

to be completely honest, i think this is such a black and white view of the band dynamic and leaves absolutely no room for the grey which very much dictated a lot of the inner workings of the band we never saw. harry isn’t a super villian and never was. neither was zayn for leaving the band.

if you truly believe that there wasn’t a very clear agenda to bring harry to the face of the band from the beginning which only amplified as his star persona got more obvious as the band got bigger and there was more $$$ to be had— especially over the image of harry, independently, then i think you’re the one who needs to reevaluate it.

these guys were all teenagers/early 20s at the height of their fame (the band ended when harry was 21 years old!!!!). the ego thrust on them and the decisions made that were part of that era were not just decided upon by one of them, like harry. and allowed to exist without careful consideration and input by their team. they were a machine. their brand was raking in so much more money than im sure is even fathomable. were a lot of the things these boys did savory during that time period? no. and i’m not saying harry didn’t involve himself in certain areas that were shit things to indulge. but, the idea that he was a mastermind behind being the face of the band and wanting more out of a career and doing shady things under the table to guarantee that is just so silly to me. he was 18-21 years old lmfao

sony knew that harry was going to be profitable for them regardless of if the band existed. and the azoffs obviously knew that. they had primed harry from the very beginning for what ultimately ended up happening with his solo career. to make things appear so black and white that there’s no room to even suggest that harry had a lot of people in his ear and a lot of power due to his platform in the band with industry heads is just so so silly to me. the influence people have who are so much more experienced and powerful than you, coaching you and guiding you on how you need to go about your independent brand— especially at such an impressionable age as he was is so much more believable than harry edward styles the super villian who broke up the band and had been secretly planning his exit for years without any remorse for any other member and was in it for fame and profit!!!! like be so serious.

these were kids who from the very start were primed by those who saw nothing but dollar signs over their heads. if that doesn’t fuck up logical thinking and decision making after being in that kind of bubble for years, i don’t know what does. i genuinely don’t believe anyone can make any sort of judgement like that on someone who lived such a different life at such a young age and demonize them for it without ever knowing what you would do in that situation. because we can scream “i would never!” or “that’s such a gross thing to do!” or “i couldn’t hang out with them or betray this person!” or “i could never be hellbent on fame!” all we want, but how would that change if you were actually in that position? no one can say for sure. and that’s where all the grey comes in.

and i do apologize i hate being all long-winded and ramble-y but ever since 2020 when all the boys started slowly but surely talking more authentically about their experience in the band….. there’s been such a window of grace for me when i think back on things that used to upset me or confuse me about some of the decisions that were made by all of them. perhaps it’s just growing up and experiencing life, but i just have a lot more grace for them and how things transpired during those last two years especially. i cannot imagine. which is why i believe all of their separate recollections and feelings about it all are valid because they did all experience it differently and interpreted it differently as the years went on.

so, i’m sorry. i understand there’s a more nuanced conversation to be had about harry styles™️ as a brand now. there’s been a lot of things in recent years regarding him that i acknowledge and i understand people’s issues with him. which is fine. but, i just don’t really care for such a harsh opinion of him when it comes to the end of the band and how things were handled from 2014-2016. it just seems silly to look at it like that— especially in 2024.

[steddieas-shegoes]

hello again! here's an angsty little steddie thought for you, because I'm sad and i am putting my guys in angsty situations in my head to make me more sad because the brain is funny like that: Steve decides to swing by to visit Eddie after his shift. They've been hanging out a lot more lately,with Robin off to college and the kids preoccupied with school. It's something he looks forward to. He's been spending the day thinking bout the things Eddie says when it's just them. The way he tells Steve that people underestimate him, especially his intelligence. The jokes they share, the soft gazes over a blunt on the front porch. The best part of Steve's day. Truly the best part of his life, nowadays. Especially the soft moments they have together, where Eddie kisses his hairline with a hand resting on Steve's thigh. It's happened a few times but it never turns into a full fledged kiss, but he KNOWS it'll happen soon. He's about to knock on the trailer door when he hears Eddie chatting with his band mates, which is a surprise because band practice is on thursdays not wednesdays,but that's okay maybe he can get to know them a little bit-. "What are you even talking about, Eddie? you're practically drooling over Harrington every time he walks by" His hand freezes mid air and he blushes to himself. "Harrington? nah he is NOT my type." And that? oh. that's...not ideal. But, maybe he can switch up his style a little bit? He knows Eddie isn't the type to wear polos, that's. That's alright. "No way you're SUCH a liar!" "I'm not lying!" Maybe he's just trying to hide his crush?(Images flash in his mind of Eddie's hand creeping up his thigh, and his breath on his neck,before blushing and turning away. Placing his hands back onto his own lap. A soft smile and a blush high on his cheeks.) Maybe he's- "Okay shut up, I'll admit he's easy on the eyes. But dudes only got like two brain cells to rub together." Huh? But he told him monday that- ("You're so smart Stevie, they don't give you enough credit.") "I thought you hung out with him a bunch lately?" "Yeah,it beats watching wheel of fortune. It's funny to listen to what the king has to say, it's like talking to a door stopper." ("You always have something interesting to say.") The echoing laughter rushes through Steve's ears,grips his heart like a vice, before settling like a brick in his stomach. "Nothing behind those eyes!" (I always used to think your eyes were brown, Stevie. But there's green, and red!) Right. That's, that's. Hmm. That's. Go home. It's time to go home. "What was that?" Run back to the car. "Stevie?"Don't say anything. Get your keys get out TWOBRAINCELLS get OUT OF HERE YOU MORON. "Hey wait don't leave, did you uh overhear, of course you heard. God Steve I didn't mean it,I swear. i was just talking a big- I'm so sor-"Don'tlisten.Don'tcryyouidiot.STARTTHECARGETOUTOFHERE.ofcoursenot!ofcoursehedoesntwantyou!ofcoursehedidntthinkyouweresmart.stopcryinggohomegohomehedoesntwantyouherehedoesntwantyouatall.stopcrying.dryyour eyes(NOTHINGBEHINDTHOSEYES). just stop. Get out of here.

Hey

I’m holding your hand when I say this

how dare you (affectionate)

this broke my heart into 726251527382 pieces

in my head, Eddie follows him and begs for forgiveness and Steve makes him work for it because he’s not gonna let anyone in his life who won’t be all in even if it’s just as friends

Eddie does work for it. Harder than he worked to do anything else

he knows he fucked up so bad and just got carried away trying to get his bandmates off his back. he really genuinely didn’t believe anything he said but now he knows Steve thinks he did and he shouldn’t have even said it as a joke or exaggeration regardless of if Steve would hear or not

He even shows up the morning of Robin’s going away party to help run errands for Steve and set up in the rain that wasn’t in the forecast. Steve finds him crying on the back patio over one of the decorations that got ruined by the rain, and he apologizes a million times “I know it’s not enough it’ll never be enough but you have to know I wouldn’t do it on purpose I didn’t know there was rain coming and I would’ve kept it all inside” and then Steve is holding him and telling him it’s okay, all of it is okay

I can’t keep them sad for long it’s my most ridiculous trait

[wonderingpanda]

Hey You - Pt.1

Clay x Fem!Reader

My first Trolls fic, hope I did alright. I’ll try to post part 2 as soon as I can.

The sun was setting as Rhonda hurried down a dusty path surrounded by hills. Inside sat Bruce at the drivers seat with Tiny on his stomach holding his mini steering wheel. Y/n stood to their left while Branch stood to the right with his arms crossed as Velvet and Veneers popular song, Watch Me Work, played over the radio.

“Oh my kids love these guys, we’re a total Veneer household.” Bruce happily explained.

“They’re the one’s who have Floyd!” John Dory pointed out from further behind them.

“Ah it’s gonna be hard to seperate the art from the artist.” John Dory rolled his eyes and walked off while Branch and Y/n gave Bruce looks of disbelief. As the song finished, a voice came over the radio.

“That’s Velvet and Veneer’s spicy hot new single, Watch Me Work. Catch them tomorrow night at the Rage Dome where they’ll be receiving the Lifer Award (L-Lifer Award!)” Bruce, Y/n and Branch looked at each other with worry before Bruce turned off the radio.

“Guys, will Floyd even make it through that show?” Branch walked down to where John Dory and Poppy were stood by his clue board.

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna make it. We’ve been looking for clues to find Clay.” Poppy placed a BroZone poster of Clay in his funderdraws up on the clue board.

“Oh I’m sorry, the clue board, you mean my clue board?” A quick moment of silence passed as Poppy and John Dory ignored Branch. “That I made?” Poppy and John Dory continued looking at the board, still not giving Branch any response. “We like the clue board now?”

At the mention of finding Clay, Y/n quickly turned around and headed down to the other three trolls while trying to hide her rising panic.

“Do we really need to find Clay?” Poppy, Branch and John Dory turned to face her, confused as to why she wouldn’t want to find him. “I mean, we’ve already got you three.” Y/n gestured to the present BroZone members. “And it would give us way more time to save Floyd if we just headed to Mount Rageous now.”

“Uh Y/n, are you ok?” Poppy stepped forward, concerned for her close friend.

“Wha, me? I’m fine. I’m not panicked, you’re panicked. Like why would I be so nervous to see Clay again after all these years. It’s not like there was anything terrible that happened between us after the band broke up, what makes you think that?” Poppy stepped back to talk to Branch.

“What’s going on with her?” Branch sighed and crossed his arms again, still looking over at their nervous friend.

“Before the band broke up Y/n and Clay kind of had a thing going on.”

“Oh I knew it! There were rumours those two were together!” Branch reached out his hands, signalling for Poppy to calm down.

“But the night everyone left, Clay decided to break up with Y/n on the spot and, as you know, leave forever.”

“Oh” Poppy lowered her hands as her energy dropped after hearing the sad story. “That’s horrible.”

“Exactly.” Branch confirmed Poppy’s thoughts.

“It’s a shame really” John Dory cut into the conversation. “They were such a cute couple. I even remember when Clay made us pull that whole song together just to ask her out.”

“Oh don’t act so sympathetic.” Branch turned to face John Dory. “You weren’t even there when they broke up.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t care.” John Dory tried to defend himself.

“Ok guys, maybe now isn’t the best time for an argument. Let’s all just calm down and- what is he wearing!?” Poppy cut off her previous sentence and pointed at the poster she had stuck up before. Branch noticed what she was referring to.

“Oh, those are just his…”

“Perfect, perfect, perfect.” The music to BroZone’s old song seemed to play out of nowhere as Branch quickly got an idea.

“Funderdraws!” He smashed open a glass case holding Clay’s funderdraws which unavoidably released a disgusting scent along with a bunch of green ghost that flew around yelling ‘Stinky!’. John Dory whacked them away the best he could while Poppy and Y/n held their breaths from the smell. Branch held up the funderdraws proudly.

“John Dory, I have no idea why you saved these it’s incredibly disgusting. But I’m glad you did.” Poppy stood with a dopey smile on her face while Y/n had her arms crossed, not liking where the conversation was going. Meanwhile, John Dory put his hands on his hips in defence.

“What, they’re memorabilia. But I will be good gosh darned if I know how they’re gonna help us find Clay.”

Next thing you know, Rhonda was sniffing the funderdraws dangled in her face at the end of a stick. Branch, standing on her forehead, called out to her.

“Help us Rhonda!” He turned to face Poppy who had her head stuck out the window while keeping a grip on his vest. “She’s got the scent!” The two headed back inside quickly before anything else could happen.

Inside in the background, Y/n helped Branch and Poppy settle back in safely. John Dory came up next to Tiny and Bruce, who now hand one hand on the larger steering wheel, and leaned on the armrest of Bruce’s chair.

“Hey, Tiny, you see that button?” Tiny Diamond’s gaze followed John Dory as he pointed to a button with a swirl pattern and the word hustle above it.

“Uh yeah.”

“That beautiful, shiny button?” John Dory pressed further.

“Oh you mean the button that’s taking every fibre of my being not to press? Yeah I see it.” Tiny Diamond slid off the button as quickly as he had laid atop it. John Dory stepped forward and lowered his voice to a more dramatic tone.

“Press it.”

“Oh heck yeah ooh!” Tiny Diamond jumped off the larger steering that he had a grip on and jumped onto the hustle button causing it to glow and swirl. ‘Hustle Dimension’ began to play as rainbow lights came out of Rhonda. Her eyes lit up and began to glow.

“Let’s hustle daddy!” Rhonda let out a noise before zooming off into the distance, glowing lights trailing behind. She leapt a few times as she ran and jumped into a glowing, star-shaped portal that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

In the hustle dimension, everything was different. Everyone was placed into a two-dimensional state and the gravity that existed before was now lost as Rhonda floated about.

“Woah” Branch called out as he stumbled into what was meant to be the space in Rhonda behind the drivers seat. Poppy followed after letting out a loud gasp as she took note of her appearance. Everything then melted away and while they were still within a two-dimensional space everything about it had changed, including the visual style.

Poppy and Branch now found themselves walking down a black and white road, dancing along to the ‘Hustle Dimension’ music. Bruce then bounced next to Poppy on her left with John Dory bouncing to Branch’s right and Y/n bouncing, landing in the middle. They all laughed together before John Dory, Y/n and Bruce flew off with rainbow trails. Poppy grabbed her own hand and spun away with Branch tumbling after her.

They all flew side by side down the black and white road in the rainbow coloured world. Branch and Poppy were on the right, Bruce and Y/n were on the left and John Dory flew in the middle. They all then flew through another star that once again changed the visuals of the reality they were perceiving. Each zoomed down in their respective colours. Branch was blue, Poppy was pink, John Dory was green, Y/n was f/c and Bruce was Purple. They flew next to stars and swirled together, combining to create Hustle Man who loudly called out.

“Hustle!” Hustle Man flew off into the sky before disappearing. Rhonda finally flew out of the star portal that they had first entered and settled back down to run normally on the road once more. Bruce and Tiny Diamond had been placed back where they were but John Dory, Y/n, Poppy and Branch were unfortunately thrown onto the floor, on their backs, in a heap. Poppy quickly stood up shaking her head for a second as the song ended.

“Wow! Too much hustle is a thing.”

“Huh, look at that.” Branch waved his hand around, hallucinating rainbows following it.

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

It was now dark outside. Rhonda nervously ran through a dark forest before stopping in front of a seemingly abandoned building.

“Are we sure this is where Clay lives?” Branch asked as Rhonda opened her door to let everyone step out. Bruce followed behind him with Tiny Diamond in a baby carrier. Tiny decided to reply.

“Are we sure? Our GPS is an armadillo bus sniffing used undies so no, we’re not sure.”

The group continued to walk towards the old building. Bruce spoke as they wandered through the entrance which lead into a bother part of the dark outdoors.

“Eeh. I think this is the place from every true crime podcast I’ve ever listened to.” They continued forwards through the dark, unaware of the ‘golf balls’ rolling around them. The small group of trolls stuck close together until…

“Halt!” Lights switched on revealing a giant clown face with glowing eyes and a giant tongue extending out to them. Rainbow coloured smoke puffed from either side of the clown head as it’s teeth moved while it spoke.

“Who goes there!?”

“Ahhh!” The entire group screamed in fear!

“Agh!” Tiny cried out, quickly climbing out of his carrier and into Bruce’s hair. He poked his head out once before hiding back inside.

“Who dares trespass on these sacred grounds!?” The clown demanded. Branch put on a determined face and began to walk forward strongly. John Dory tried to stop him.

“Branch, what are you doing?” But Branch continued on. He stopped when he was right near the clown head’s tongue, looking up and calling out to it.

“Listen, we don’t want any clown related trouble okay? We’re just here looking for our brother, Clay.”

The clown’s teeth moved down slightly before moving in sync with it’s voice again. “Wait a second, you’re trolls?”

“So what? You’re a clown.” Branch retorted, gesturing to the face in front of him. Unexpectedly, a yellow, golf ball looking thing popped out of the clown’s mouth and rolled towards the group.

“Woah!” Branch stepped back towards the rest of the group as the ball bounced closer to them. The ball then unfurled revealing to be a troll with crazy blonde hair and pink skin. She stood up in a menacing pose for a moment before smiling widely at everyone.

“Oh my gosh, hello! My name is Viva! It is so fantastamazing to see other trolls!” She immediately ran around squeezing John Dory, giving Bruce a big hug, hugging Y/n from the side, spinning Branch around and lifting Poppy up in her own heartfelt hug.

“Hi! Ha!” Viva smiled after quickly setting Poppy down. Poppy slouched froward, feeling slightly drained from Viva’s energetic mood, but stood up properly to hear her speak.

“So fantastamazing is my own personal word it means, um, fantastic and amazing. I used to say amastic but then I was like ‘Mmm, that’s not as good.’”

Poppy immediately tried thinking of her own word to match Viva’s. “Fantasta um awesome.”

“That’s different but that works too! Way to make it your own.” After receiving the complement, Poppy rushed over to Branch’s side.

“Is this how people feel when they meet me?”

“Yes.” Branch replied, just quickly enough to not be cut off by Viva.

“Am I being a lot? Sometimes I can be a lot.”

“Uh I’m not sure we’re in the right place.” Branch mentioned, but Viva easily dismissed his worries.

“Of course you’re in the right place. Any troll is welcome here with us.” Now stood in front of the small group of trolls, Viva clapped her hands and called out. “Okay, Putt-putt trolls, lights on for our new friends” A bunch of trolls had rolled towards Viva and popped out of their golf-ball disguises. Each one was characterised with a vibrant colour, wild hair, and some sort of sweater romper or dress. While most had their hair out, some adorned buckets on their heads while others wore green mossy hats. As Viva finished talking the lights to the putt-putt course switched on, lighting up the whole place in the dark of night. Viva began to tap her feet excitedly, seeing the expressions of wonder coming from each of the new trolls.

“Oh my gosh, are you guys hungry, are you thirsty?”

“Yes!” Tiny cheered, jumping out and back into his baby carrier.

“Fries fries, you guys want fries, I am seeing fries. Bring out the works.” Viva jumped around and gestured to a few Putt-putt trolls who excitedly left to grab the food. “Milkshakes, to celebrate!”

“Coming in hot!” A bright yellow Putt-putt troll called out. Rolling away as a hot dog, fries, banana split, drink and milkshake were placed down around the pop trolls. Viva grabbed onto the straw of the pink milkshake and drank it all in one slurp, wowing the others. She then jumped down and stretched her back.

“Woo that’s better, now I finally have some energy!” Viva ran past Poppy.

“Did you just braid my hair!?” Poppy smiled, noticing the large braid left by Viva who quickly popped back round.

“You’re welcome, it looks so good.”

“I love it!” Poppy smiled brightly as she gripped her hair. Viva then gasped and ran over to Y/n.

“Oh my gosh, your hair is so pretty. How do you get it to sparkle like that?” Y/n laughed and smiled brightly at the compliment.

“Thank you. It’s just naturally like this. The benefits of being a troll, right?”

“Totally.” Viva agreed.

“Wow, these fries are amazing.” Bruce complemented as he lifted up another fry. “They’d really go great with a burger.”

“Aaa!” A blue Putt-putt trolled screamed, leading to a chorus of panic and terror as all the Putt-putt trolls desperately tried to hide.

“What is happening?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah we try not to use that word around here. It’s just that burger sounds a little too much like ah…” Viva leaned towards Bruce and spoke in a hushed tone. “Burgens.” She winced as another chorus of screams were let out.

“We call burgers…” The group looked up to see a mysterious figure walking towards them. “Meat circles.”

“Clay?” Branch smiled.

“Oh no.” Y/n’s face dropped at his arrival.

“Clay, hey what’s up man?” Bruce cheered as he and Clay happily walked to each other.

“Hey, how you been man?” Clay smiled as they initiated their own handshake.

“Clay!” John Dory jumped forward, opening his arms for a hug.

“Hmm, John.” Clay blankly replied, giving him no more than a few seconds of attention.

“Wha?” John Dory’s face dropped at the lack of response he received.

“Spruce.” Clay gave Bruce a fist bump as they finished off hair handshake. “What do you know?”

“Actually I go by Bruce now.”

“Bruce, oh ho someone got fancy. I like it.” Bruce laughed at Clay’s response.

“Look who’s talking, is that a sweater romper?” He questioned.

“What can I say, when you co-run a place you gotta flex the drip.” Clay pulled slightly on the collar of his sweater romper before releasing it.

“Ya, I’m the fun side of the operation and Mr Clay takes care of the boring stuff!” Viva cheered as she slid into the conversation.

“Guilty.” He admitted. The two laughed together until Clay noticed branch. “Woah, baby branch!” He ran over and grabbed Branch’s face. “No way!”

“Actually it’s Big Branch now, or just Branch. Branch is fine.” Branch struggled to speak as his cheeks were squished together.”

“Come here, come here. Yeah.” Clay spoke in a babyish voice as he continued to squish Branch’s cheeks. Only stopping when Branch started to speak again.

“So Clay, this is Poppy.” Branch gestured to Poppy who appeared at his side.

“Hi Clay! So great to finally meet you.” Poppy smiled as she waved and gave Clay a quick hug. “Can you do the Rusty Robot for me?”

“Yeah no, I don’t do that anymore okay?” Clay awkwardly explained.

“Right, kidding. Ha can you imagine? I wouldn’t just ask you to do that after meeting you two seconds ago. Who would do that?” She awkwardly looked at Clay after glancing away for a second.

“Yeah, it’s just that Fun-boy Clay is dead. Serious-boy Clay only does the Well-Oiled Robot.” Clay spoke while demonstrating his new and improved Well-Oiled Robot. “And it is no friki-friki-friki fun.” He stated while ending in a pose, similar to how he would end the Rusty Robot, only with a frown and his hands in the ‘I Love You’ pose.

“I mean, that’s still pretty fun.” Poppy lightheartedly pointed out.

“Ha yeah, same old Clay.” John Dory added.

“Nah, that’s not true.” Clay tried to defend himself. “If I was still fun, would I have chosen the admin building as my bedroom?” Everyone looked over to the admin building, a small wooden shack with nothing but a window, a door, and the capacity to hold barely one troll. “Huh? Huh? Asking the tough questions guys, asking the tough questions.”

“Oh, right.” Poppy nodded.

“Wait, you still haven’t met Y/n!” Tiny smiled brightly.

“No no no.” Bruce looked down at him with worry.

“No no no no no no…” John Dory, Branch and Poppy chimed in, not noticing Clay’s shocked expression.

“Y/n?”

“Oh yeah, you’re other friend. Where did she go?” Viva looked around to try and spot her. Y/n tried to sneak away behind Bruce but was quickly noticed by Tiny.

“Here she is!” He happily exclaimed.”

“Dammit Tiny!” Y/n stomped in frustration.

“Y-Y/n, hey.” Clay awkwardly waved and stepped forward.

“Hi Clay.” The two struggled in finding a comfortable greeting backing out of a fist bump, handshake and high five. After awkwardly trying to move around their hands they tried leaning in for a hug but backed out of that too. Y/n eventually opted to just give Clay two pats on the shoulder as they exchanged awkward toothy smiles.

“Uh anyway.” Clay stepped back, Y/n doing the same. “I can’t believe you all are here. Wait, where’s Floyd?”

“That’s why we’re here. Branch stepped forward. “Floyd’s been taken prisoner in Mount Rageous by superstar singers, Velvet and Veneer.”

“And the only thing powerful enough to free him is the perfect family harmony.” The five adult trolls finished together. Tiny’s face contorted in confusion.

“Okay, either they just made that up or I have not been paying attention.”

“Well why haven’t you just called he authorities?” Clay asked but slowly came the conclusion by himself. “Oh, unless Floyd is being held in an impenetrable diamond prison.”

“Yeah, that.” John Dory confirmed.

“I’m in. I’d also like to volunteer to keep track of our expenses, just cause I think you’re gonna need somebody to be on top of that.” Clay gave the group an almost smug smile.

“Yeah I don’t think you’ll get any pushback on that front.” Bruce spoke up. Branch’s expression turned to a more serious tone.

“Great, but we need to leave for Mount Rageous like now.”

Part 2 coming soon. Have an amazing day/night where you are!✨

[cherrylng]

Summer Sonic interview - Green Day [INROCK (October 2000)]

GREEN DAY SUMMER SONIC

INTERVIEW: YUKO KATO PHOTOS: MIHO KATO

“Our music is punk rock, honesty, and life!”

I will never forget interviewing Green Day, no matter how many years pass. They always leave me with vivid memories. When they came to Japan two years ago, they were so absorbed in catching cockroaches with disposable chopsticks that they forgot about the interview, and I broke into a cold sweat, wondering what would happen. And now, the three of them are in Japan for Summer Sonic, and they are as energetic as ever. In an interview in the latest issue of an American music magazine, Tre said, "With our new album, Viagra is no longer necessary. I'm feeling it so much," and it seems that they put all their effort into this album.

Tre Cool (ds.): So how did you feel when you listened to this album?

I didn't feel any orgasms. All: (laughs) Oh!

I think I need Viagra. All: Oh God!

What did your girlfriends and wives say when they heard this? Tre: (in a stonking voice) I'm not gonna tell you what kind of tricks I use to make my wife cum! (all laughing) Billie Joe Armstrong (vo, g): We're pretty happy with the record anyway. It's a relief to get it done. We're just now getting to the stage where it's out in the open and people are going to listen to it and have their critiques and opinions, you know? So we're definitely a bit nervous inside. Tre: Not really, hahahaha. Billie: I know people will be pleased with it. So, well…

I hear that the recording process was the most enjoyable you've ever had, why this one time? Billie: A lot of it was because we produced it ourselves, so we had a lot of freedom. And if we weren't sure about something, we'd go to each other… I'd ask Mike, Mike would ask Tre… no one will consult me, though. Tre & Mike Dirnt (b.): Hahahahaha. Mike: We've produced half of the albums we've put out. We didn't have any budgets in the beginning, it wasn't like it was a big project. We had a budget of $700 for a tour or something like that (laughs). Tre: If you make a really good album with a $700 budget, you must be a really good producer (laughs).

You took a year and a half off after the last tour, didn't you? How long did it take you to make this album? Billie: The actual recording period? Two and a half months, I think. The songs were always written long before that, so it was like the album was done before we went into the studio. We were rehearsing five days a week, and when the last two songs were written, we decided it was time to go into the studio. Working this way speeds up the process of making a record.

What did you mean when you said, “We don't want any unnecessary hype for this album”? Billie: It's hard to explain, but we want people to treat this album as it is. We don't want to feel like we're selling something. Mike: We didn't want people to have expectations. We're happy with it, and if people like it, we're happy with it, and if they don't like it, that's their problem (laughs). Tre: But I like to brag and show off. I'd mark every single word of my comment about this album with exclamations. I think it's a great album. These two guys are humble, but I'm not (laughs).

A lot of people consider Green Day to be the longest-running punk band, what is your punk attitude like? Billie: I don't really know, but the essential element of playing in this band is to be honest. Being honest with yourself, that's what punk is all about. That's what punk originally came from. Punk was born because the music was getting more and more fake and covered in shit. Mike: Punk is brutally honest. Billie: Yeah. It's just that we clung to that attitude and didn't leave it, no matter what. If we didn't have that honesty, I don't think we'd be a band anymore. You can call the music we play punk rock, you can call it honesty, you can call it life. Mike: This album is worth as much as hairspray (laughs).

A lot of people think punk is vulgar and dirty, but your music is not. Tre: Well, we do vulgar and dirty things in our private lives too (laughs). Mike: Punk is a broad term, but there's a lot of different backgrounds. There are different kinds of punk, but we're doing Green Day World punk.

During the recording of this album, you said that you felt you were united. Did anything happen before you started recording? Did you need to feel like a gang? Billie: Feeling like a gang? The one thing we've always believed in is ourselves. The purest thing we have in the world for sure is the music we make with our guitars in our hands. Tre: I see Billie and Mike in my dreams too (laughs). Billie: You can't walk into our rehearsal room without feeling the vibe of the three of us. Most people, when they see us rehearsing, either a) they feel very welcome or b) their eyeballs pop out and they want to get the hell out of the room. Mike: There's a British expression, “I got your back”, which means that we think as you think and we care about each other, and I think that's the same in a band or in any group. I think the same can be said for any group in a band.

The reason I asked this question is because a lot of bands take a long time off because of relationship problems. But that's not the case with you guys at all, is it? Billie: We took time off for the opposite reason. We took time off because we love what we do but we don't want to abuse it. We didn't want to take advantage of the fans' feelings towards us and we didn't want to get too cocky about the opportunity. So we thought it was best to stop for a while and just enjoy what comes our way. Let's listen to the music we've made so far and be proud of it. Mike: You know how they say happiness isn't about the destination, it's about the journey to get there? It sounds cliché, but that's what we're going through right now. Tre: It's not cliché at all. That's so deep! I'm impressed.

Did you enjoy your year and a half off? All: Yeah! Tre: It's great to be back on the road again. Billie: Thanks to the break, I've started to enjoy band activities in general a lot more. I'm really looking forward to playing tonight. Tre: I can't wait to get on stage! Mike: I don't want to do interviews, I want to play guitar! (all laugh).

I know how much you guys are looking forward to getting back on stage. You went on the Warped Tour even though you knew how bad it was going to be. You could have been on a lot of other tours, even without the heat and nonstop Warped Tour, couldn't you? You've had a lot of offers from other people, haven't you? Mike: As long as I don't die, I'll be strong, don't worry. Tre: The Warped Tour was so fucking awful. It was just hard, but I didn't mind it at all. Other people were screaming, "It's hot!!" Billie: There were a lot of other bands there, and it was fun hanging out and making friends with everyone. I saw them skateboarding and stuff. I got on really well with the other guys on the tour. We're more friends with the guys on the Warped Tour than we are with Oasis or any of those guys. I don't have anything against Oasis. It's just that Oasis just aren't our friends. Mike: The Warped Tour went by really fast. I was so sad on the last day. I was like, I miss everyone (laughs). We hadn't seen some of them for a long time.

How about this Summer Sonic? Are there any bands you haven't seen in a while? Billie: Weezer!! (same manager) Tre: Yeah, Weezer!

Yes, I know! You went to the Weezer show yesterday, didn't you? Did you (Tre and Billie) both go? Where were you (Mike)? Mike: I had to sleep. I had lost my voice on the last tour and I was so tired yesterday that I had to keep my voice. I had to keep my energy up for the fans. Billie: You missed out on the joys of life. Tre: I was standing with the audience and everyone was jumping so much I thought the floor was going to come loose and we were all going to the floor below. (stomps his feet) It was like this the whole time, it was awesome!

The audience recognised you guys, didn't they? Didn't you cause any trouble? Tre: No, we didn't. We hunched over our backs and hid. Like old people (laughs).

Can you describe each song on the album? The first song on the album, ‘Warning’, which is also the title of the album, is about breaking out of the labels and signs with the word ‘warning’ on them that we see in our daily lives. What does this mean? Billie: I grew up in a place where there were labels and signs with "warning" written all over them. I think America has misunderstood the meaning of "freedom". And also when it comes to "security". You can see it in the label that says "warning".

“I don't want to change the world. I just want to change the small world I live in.”

So you're not preaching or really "warning" people? Billie: It's more about pointing out rules and things like that that I don't agree with. Just recently, the Republicans just ran a campaign, and George W. Bush (US presidential candidate) has no background. He's like an empty suit with nothing in it, and the Republicans have been busy filling it up and making him into some kind of leader to represent their ideas. It's scary to think that our future depends on a guy who doesn't know what he's doing. Mike: There's a phrase in this song "Question everything", which is a pretty bold statement for just a song.

You guys say rules should be broken, but do you really think so? Billie: It depends. Of course I don't want my son drinking a bottle of window cleaner or inhaling gas, but sometimes I give him so much advice that I feel like my intelligence is being mocked. Like, I wouldn't drink detergent, I'm not gonna inhale gas. Tre: Sometimes they're warning you what not to do, but there's also a lot of labels that are ‘warnings’ in the wrong sense of the word. That's how they put the word ‘warning’ all over the place and make up rules and tell you every single time that you shouldn't do this or that. Mike: The other day I was trying to climb over the fence to see the beautiful scenery on the other side of the fence. And it said, ‘Don't climb the fence’. Climbing the fence is not dangerous at all. An old man came and shouted, ‘Don't climb the fence!’ Is he trying to stop me from getting hurt? Or are you telling me not to climb the fence because you don't want me to climb it? That's an example of a ‘warning’ that doesn't make sense.

What's 'Blood, Sex and Booze' about? Mike: It's exactly what it sounds like (laughs). Billie: Yeah, it's about getting pleasure out of pain (laughs). I brought an SM girl into the studio and fucked the engineering staff. We whipped her. And then I put a microphone down and recorded the sound. That's the sound that's in the beginning of the song. Tre: Smack, smack!!

I should have listened to that explanation at the beginning. I've only heard this song once. Billie: It's about dirty sex. Tre: It's sexy. Billie: Dirty is the pleasure of pain. Mike: Dirty punk rock. Billie: Not for some people (laughs)!

Like who? Billie: I don't know, I've never done it myself. Tre: Like people who trust in each other. You have to have a lot of faith in each other to avoid messing around (laughs).

What about ‘Church on Sunday’? That's an interesting song, isn't it? I thought it was a love song. Billie: It's a love song. It's about my wife.

Does she have to go to church on Sunday? Billie: No, she doesn't. When you've been together for a long time, sometimes you have to look at your relationship with each other. That's what this song is about. There are a lot of compromises you have to make for each other.

It's a very romantic song. Billie: Thanks.

What is the song ‘Fashion Victim’ about? Do you think one can live as an independent individual without the influence of fashion and the media? Billie: That's what this song is about. Sometimes people who are looking for individuality dress exactly the same. There's a scene in the film American Pie where there's a naked 17-year-old girl in a boys' room, and the cameras are rolling, and she has perfect breasts. That's what people think a 17-year-old girl should be. If you're a guy, you're supposed to have a big body, lots of muscles, and a big dick. But the truth is, everyone is different and I am who I am, that's what this song is trying to say.

Do you think people should be aware of what they're doing? Billie: I want to be aware of what I'm doing, and I just write songs about what I think I'm doing. Or I'm just writing songs about what I think about what I see, I'm not trying to preach to other people. I'm not trying to change the way people think, I'm just trying to change the little world I live in.

Do you have an opinion on any of this? Tre: Pass! Billie: (smirks) Hey, are you going to make me explain every song? Tre: Too much. Billie: Okay, let's do two more songs.

We'll have to pick something then. How about ‘Misery’? It's my favourite. It's kind of like a French pop song. It's got a bit of an old French feel to it, don't you think? Musically, it's very different from the other songs on the album. Why did you include it? It's quite a different type of song, isn't it? Billie: We just thought we'd try everything. Sometimes I think this is the most punk song on the album.

Is it punk?! I know it's a very dramatic song? Billie: But it's punk. Mike: There are no rules in punk. You challenge yourself and do what you want to do, even if other people don't like it. Punk is about sticking your tongue out at the world. Like in your neighbour's face (laughs). Billie: We just do what we want to do. Tre: People might think we're writing songs for them because we put out an album and a lot of people listen to it, but we're not. We write for ourselves. What we write ends up reaching a lot of people, but our songs are written for us, Billie, Mike, and Tre. We're not preaching to anyone, we're not telling people what to do. Mike: It's not punk to do what everyone expects you to do. Punk is about speaking your mind. Billie: Of course there's a sense of responsibility. You have to be aware of what you're doing as an artist because people are going to listen to you. You have to at least know what you're doing. Otherwise, you're doing it wrong.

Next song… Billie: This is the last one.

I know. I have to ask you about ‘Minority’, which is the first single. Billie: ‘Minority’ is about being yourself. So…

So that's why! You say "I want to be a minority" in the lyrics, right? I was wondering why. Because I wouldn't want to be a minority. In Europe and America we [the journalist] are a minority. Mike: We're a minority here now. We came here to be minorities (laughs). Billie: The problem is that you're taking the word too literally. When I say ‘minority’ I mean standing up for yourself as an individual, as an individual human being. This song is an anthem for being yourself. There's no nationality in it. It's an anthem for those who can't fit in with the people around them. Mike: We're punks. Billie: Yeah, we're punks. Mike: Especially in America these days, it's getting harder and harder to find your individuality as an individual. It doesn't matter if your neighbour is a weird guy with a green head or your mum's best friend has a nose piercing. I don't care about the world around you, you have to find yourself. Tre: (pointing to his tattoos) This is what you need (laughs). Mike: Like wearing your clothes backwards (laughs).

But there are a lot of people who are afraid of being an outcast in society. Billie: We're not afraid. I think everyone wants to belong or be part of something. Especially those who don't have a family. That's why we started the band. Mike: This song is about Billie's life. It was written by one of the three guys from Oakland. It wasn't written for the audience, and some people might relate to it, and others might say, "I don't want to be a minority! I want to wear a suit and tie!" Tre: Because we have each other. So it's fine. No worries.

You've been doing a lot of things during your time off, haven't you? Billie produced a couple of bands, right? The Criminals and One Man Army? Billie: Yeah. They're on a label called Adeline Records. One Man Army is a great band and we did the Warped Tour with them. Criminals are another good hardcore dirty punk band. It was fun, it was like doing it with friends. We didn't try to be so uptight and watchful and producer-ish. It was more like friends helping friends than producers. Tre: It was just one guy getting the other guy to do the wrong thing (laughs). Billie: Bwahahaha!! Tre: But, well, Billie's a great producer, so he did a good job, didn't he? Billie: We're musicians.

What about you? What do you do? Tre: I'm a great producer in my own world too (laughs). Billie: There's a lot of great artists in the ghetto in Oakland, so Tre played with a lot of Latinos, African-American artists, and a lot of other people. Pretty cool, right?

So being in Oakland gives you a lot of opportunities to work with other musicians? Billie: Yeah, there's a lot of different cultures in Oakland. But nowadays most of the internet companies are moving to San Francisco, so there are a lot of people leaving Oakland. Rents are going up, and it's not easy to live there. A lot of our friends have moved away too. So it's getting harder and harder for the artists' community to survive.

You mentioned internet companies, but with the whole Napster thing, your manager said he doesn't want to release this album until October. Billie: Managers don't rule, man. We don't speak for the manager. Mike: Around October is a natural release date. We just wanted to do shows early because we finished writing the album early and prepared for the tour. I don't want to call the Warped Tour a warm-up tour, though. I think it was good to do it as a way to show our appreciation to the fans.

I don't mean to speak ill of the manager, and I think he made the right decision in terms of protecting the band. I mean, you've got the problem with Napster because people can download music for free. Billie: I don't give a shit. I don't have a problem with Napster. I've heard a lot of stories about it, but what the fuck does it matter? Our aim is to release music and get people to listen to it, so I don't give a shit about Napster. I can't even comment on it.

A lot of musicians have said that it's okay to download songs on the internet, but fans still want to have CDs. Do you agree with that? Billie: We… Mike: If you have enough money to go to college and burn the music you downloaded to your computer onto CDs, you're not poor. Billie & Tre: Yeah!! (claps hands and laughs) Mike: I don't give a shit if you get the records for free or not. As long as you're honest, that's all that matters. Stealing records because you want to listen to music? I'm proud of you! If you want to read a book, steal this book (laughs). Tre: It's like some cars on the road are rickety and rattly and some are sleek and smooth, it doesn't matter which one you have. Mike: And people who drive BMWs make mistakes too.

Recorded on August 5th in Osaka

Green Day Visit to Japan

★The first time they came to Japan, they went bowling, the second time they played with air guns, and the third time they played karaoke. On the way back to Tokyo after the show at Fuji-Q, they sang Western summer songs (Queen, Madonna, etc.) that were installed in the salon bus, with dirty parodies, for two hours. The director in charge said that he couldn't look the female interpreter who was riding with him in the face because of the content.

★Mike's essential item is his favourite white pillow. He brings it with him from home, and it is said to be a very important pillow that allows him to sleep peacefully wherever he goes, whether in a hotel or on a bus.

★Tre boasts that he is responsible for all the legends of Green Day. This time, he brought all his fly fishing equipment from America to kill time, and was trying to catch some Nishikigoi carp at the luxury hotel where he was staying… He apparently called Mr. I to verify and was given a stern warning, so he gave up, but only God and Tre know what he actually did.

★Tre has a cute side to him, too. He brought a bat from America, saying it was a gift for the staff at the Japanese record company, to pray for a hit, and some coffee beans to relieve fatigue. Tre came all the way to Mr. I's room at around 7am to give him this gift. He's just a lovable guy.

★He and Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), a student at Harvard, have the same manager and are old friends. The Evil Trio also seem to approve of him, and they got along quite well, going to see his live show and having meals together during his visit to Japan. There are no educational barriers for musicians!

Translator's Note: Tre Cool reminding you once again, that he is a menacing gremlin to society. But the good sort who knows when to back down when told not to.

This interview is quite eye-opening for me in terms of how good of a journalist Yuko Kato actually is, especially after the short Muse interview that I translated previously. She can be respectful and gentle towards artists that are nervous to answer, but at the same time, she's capable of going toe to toe and dish it out just as the same with Green Day during interviews.

Adeline Records was founded in 1997 by Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer of Green Day, Screw 32's Doug Sangalang, Green Day touring guitarist Jason White, and professional skateboarder Jim Thiebaud. It has since closed down in August 2017.

Please do support me with my Ko-fi! ☕

[otherone12]

We Were Meant To Be, Supposed To Be

( Avril reference lol)

Frank Iero × Reader

-> Masterlist

A/N: Hey!! I took too long to write this, because I wasn't at home, so couldn't finish it. Also, i've changed the whole plot of this fic like three times, and I still thinking that's not good as I wanted. Anyways, i hope you enjoy :D

A/N 2: You guys want a Vampire x Reader fic? And with wich member?

Summary - You and Frank dated for a while before he joined MCR, but when you two decided to go separate ways, the different worlds didn’t work well together and you broke up. Years later, your lives collide again, but this time you’re not that young anymore. (This supposed to be a DD era Frank, but if you wanted to change it, be your guest).

- Word Count: 1.530

- Warnings: none

- Ps: I'll not use y/n…

- Ps2: I'm brazilian, so english is not my first language ... sorry if i wrote something wrong.

___________________________________________

1st person POV

  I was walking down streets on my way to my work, like I do every single day. The large amount of people on the street got me a bit nervous, but I learned to pretend that they didn't exist. 

    The huge building where I work seems small when I enter through the automatic door and go to my even smaller office. I took my earphones and turned the radio on in my city’s broadcasting station. “.... and we're gonna rock this town, like we always do.” The voice that I heard sounded a bit familiar, but I couldn't tell who it was, 'cause of the noise from poor radio contact.   

    I tried harder to listen to what he’ll say, but he had already  finished the interview and the announcer said “Guys, that was Frank Iero telling us what we can expect from the My Chemical Romance concert next week. Thank you, Frank!”

    I got shocked. Why wasn't I able to recognize Frank's voice? It's been that long?

   Frank and I met at high school in our freshman year. We became best friends in about three months. Earlier than we expected, we were hanging out and holding hands. He was the best part of my highschool, probably because I was the most introverted person in the world, he is the opposite. Frank encouraged me to go to parties with him, to be less insecure, to be myself… I owe him all the chances I haven't let go since.

So, like all good things, we were over. He is a famous guitarist, touring through the whole world with his band, and I'm here. I went to college and became exactly what I wanted since I was a kid. 

    We were immature and broke up at the first trouble we had, we’ve been together for six years, and knew each other enough to know that we couldn’t handle a long distance relationship. Without any fight or discussion, we decided that was the end, and just didn’t talked anymore to not turn things harder than they almost were.

Moving on took me a few years, but no one of the people that I dated after Frank made me feel the way he did. Maybe we’re some kind of "meant to be'', and we threw our chance away, giving up that easy.

    The idea of Frank being here gave me the sensation of butterflies in my stomach, should i talk to him? No. I mean, I would like to see him, ask him if he thinks of me like I think of him. Maybe he's still trying to forget about us but incapable to do it, just like me. 

    I gave a brief look to the clock on the wall and noticed that I spent an hour just thinking of Frank, remembering our best moments. And just when I thought I reached the bottom, I felt a tear dripping down my face. 

    With my sleeve, I wiped that single tear in my cheek and keeped working. 

    The rest of the day was gray, the color of the clouds coincidently matched with my feelings. At home, I dropped myself in my bed and turned the tv on, with a desperate yearn to keep my mind out of my old memories. In a few minutes I fell asleep. 

*** time skip ***

  Next day, I decided that I would enjoy myself in some cool place. So at 9pm I put on my best clothes and went to my favorite bar. The place still the same since the last time i went there

   The low lights inside the bar almost made me stumble but I held on to the door before falling.

Like always, the place was crowded and the mix of people talking and the small band who were playing reminded me why I definitely prefer to stay at home instead of going out. Don’t get me wrong, the band was good, I only hate this amount of noise. 

    I took a seat by the side of a group of four men, but it was too dark to see their faces. I avoided looking at any of them for a long time, so it wouldn't look like I was flirting or something.

    - Hey! It's been a long time since the last time you’ve been here. - I used to come here so often that I became friends with the bartender - How’s it going?

   - Great i think, just a bit down this week. - I tell him, with a heavy sight - But I'm here to relax, so, gimme the same as always.

   - Right away, dear! 

   The bartender called my name after some minutes to give me my drink, and I felt the back of my neck burn, like I was being watched. Slowly, I turned around and the four guys were looking at me. My eyes, now accustomed with the dim place, could recognize their faces. I forgot how to breathe when I realized who they were.  

  - Holy shit! I thought I heard your voice, but then I thought that I was getting insane - The man closer to me said, and a silly smile appeared on my face. - You remember me, right, darling?

    - How could I forget you, Frank? - I took a sip of my drink, still smiling. - And, believe me, I tried so fucking hard to.

    - So do I… 

   ��He took a deep breath and his gaze showed that he missed me as much as I missed him. 

    - When he knew that we’ll be doing some concerts here, he started to talk about you and didn’t stop - Ray said, giggling, while Frank gave him a deathly look. - Well, good to see you again, by the way!

    - Same, guys! - I looked at all of them and nodded, drinking again. - Eight years is too long, but at the same time it seems like it was just a week ago. 

    - Ain’t that the truth? Damn! - Frank didn’t stop to look at me as of the beginning of the conversation. If he keeps doing this, I'll end up kissing him. - You’re pretty as always. ya know?

    My world just tumbled down with his sentence. He used to say this daily to me, in the same way. I gasped and, just like a movie, I saw him, a sixteen boy sitting by my side at the school’s refectory saying this to me for the first time. 

    Ray, Gerard and Mikey walked away to the other side of the bar and Frank stood up when I didn’t respond. Unable to say anything, I just looked at his hazel eyes and felt him getting closer. The feeling of panic washed my body with the sensation of his lips on mine. His hands runned through my body and his tongue entwined in mine. 

    All this eight fucking years trying to get over him, and he made all of this be in vain. I missed his touch more than I could even imagine. 

    I lost my fingers in his hair and when we both were breathless, we pulled up and just looked at each other.

    - Shit, how I missed you! - Frank said, holding my waist. - Wanna take a walk outside?

    - Sure. 

    We walked at the door, letting all the noise behind. The cold air of the night reached my face and I shivered, my mind was so confused that I barely noticed that Frank was holding my hand. 

    - So… I don't even know how to start to say how much I regret leaving you.   

    He was looking down, and I've never heard him so serious before.

    - You didn’t leave me. It was consensual. 

    - Yeah, but.. but I blame myself every day for not insisting on continuing with you. - He whined with an evident remorse in his voice. The regretful tone of his sigh was painful for me to hear.

    - Wasn’t your fault, Frank. We were both immature. - I let go of his hand and put my arm around his neck, in an attempt to comfort him. I wish someone had told me the same thing I said to Frank. After he’s gone I felt as guilty as him, and it lasted all these years. - Altrought we can try again, ‘cause we made it clear to each other that we still have mutual feelings.

    - You’re right, but how is this gonna work? - We stopped walking and Frank looked at me. His confused gaze turned sad and worried as the next words left his mouth.  - You have your life here, and my music is my life so… 

   - Maybe we can try that long distance thing… - A little unsure of what he would think of the idea, I tried to accept the only possible option for our situation. - Seeing each other when you were not on a tour, spending holidays together, calling and texting each other every day...

    - Sounds like an idea to me.

    He smiled and pulled me closer to a kiss, this time i wasn’t worried about all that shit. I let the moment ride me and a hopeful sensation warmed my body even more than Frank’s hands on my face and hips. I felt on fire when the kiss turned deeper. 

    - Are you sure that you wanna try to do this? - I broke the kiss for an instant. 

    - I’m on there, baby! 

___________________________________________

~So... that's it. lemme know if you enjoyed ;)

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

Just Friends

A/N- i didn’t realize how long it’s been since i’ve posted a fic with all the boys in it!! i really miss getting to write for all of them 🥹

Summary- During a catch up with the boys after summer break, they learn of the unfortunate reason why you broke up with your most recent ex.

Genre- Fluff (?)

Warnings- Bad boyfriends doing bad boyfriend things 🙃

Tag List- @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @munsonology

(my tag list is always open, let me know if you’d like to be added 🖤)

Word Count- 2.1k

The first summer after high school always felt like a weird one.

Wether you had college waiting for you at the end of August or a job lined up for some quick work, catching up with the people you knew best was always so refreshing. Especially after not seeing them for nearly two months.

You walked into the bar you’d snuck into for one of their shows so many times before. You were grateful the owner let it slide whenever he caught you sneaking beers, especially when you stayed after to help clean after a set. Your eyes scanned the room, searching around for them and smiling once you saw Jeff waving his hand for you.

The boys were all smiles, and as you quickly made your way to the table they stood up one by one to give you a long awaited and much needed hug.

“Hi!” You exclaimed excitedly, “It feels like it’s been forever.”

“Two months is forever.” Jeff said with a smile as you hugged one another, Grant standing up after him.

“Why’d you leave us here to fend for ourselves?” Grant laughed as his arms went around you.

“It’s not my fault my family decided the reunion was gonna be out of state,” You rolled your eyes, “if it was my decision, we wouldn’t have had a reunion at all.”

“Reunion?” Eddie said as he stood to take Grants place, “So we’re not family anymore?”

“You shush.” You smiled, “My family’s cool with us smelling like weed and watching horror movies in the basement, my EXTENDED family is not.”

“Well it sounds like they don’t know how to have a good time.” Gareth was last up, laughing to himself.

“Clearly!” You agreed, sitting down in the empty chair they had left for you and grabbing the one still-capped bottle of beer. “Enough about me, how was it up here without me? Anything change with you guys?”

Eddie spoke up first after a sip from his bottle,

“I got that job at the body shop a few miles outside the park.” He said with a smile, shrugging it off as if it was no big deal, “Pays been pretty good, and it’s full time too.”

“That’s awesome!” You cheered, “I’m happy for you Eds, i know you’ve been checking that place out for a while.”

“Yeah, it just sucks when it cuts into stuff for the band, y’know?”

“Well yeah, but that’s just how grown up jobs work.” You shrugged, taking a sip from the bottle in your hand.

“True.” He shrugged, taking another sip before Jeff cut into the conversation.

“Me and Gareth were able to get some classes in at that local community college. They’re supposed to start next Monday.”

“That’s great! Are you just trying to get the gen-ed’s done, or do you think you’ll stick around?” You asked them.

“I’ll definitely be sticking around.” Gareth chuckled, “Mr. Honor Roll over there wants to get the gen-ed’s done so he can get into state.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a community college degree, i just want to make sure that i get the required stuff out of the way IF i go off to state.” Jeff said to Gareth, “And the only reason i said i’d go to state in the first place was because my parents were listening. If the choice was mine i’d stay here.”

“Still, it’s good that you guys were able to get in there. Do you know what you’re majoring in?”

“I’m going undecided for right now,” Jeff said after a sip from his bottle, “but i think Gareth is going for History?”

“Yep, U.S. history.” Gareth nodded with a smile, “I mean i think it’s already pretty interesting, i might as well get a degree in it.”

“Good idea. Good for you guys though, i might see if they have any classes open to get a few more credits while i’m at work. Grant?” You looked over to him across the table, “You said your dad was able to get a good word in for you with his union, did you hear anything back about that?”

“Yeah! I actually started all the training and schooling for it last month,” He said with a smile, “in another two months i’ll be an iron worker.”

“That’s great! I’m so happy for all you guys, it sounds like it’s been pretty eventful without me here.”

“What about you, (y/n)?” Gareth asked, “Anything interesting happen for you?”

“Not really.” You smiled and shrugged, thinking back over the last two months, “Same old, same old. I’m still gonna be working with my mom at the office, it’s been pretty stable thus far and if i make it to a year they make it fairly easy to move up so i’ll probably stick with that for a while. And while i was at the reunion a few people were asking about you guys.”

“Really?” Eddie asked, “Who asked about us?”

“A lot of the younger cousins. They wanted to hear all about my friends and their super cool band. And i showed some pictures to grandparents and aunts and uncles, they said we look like a pretty happy bunch. Oh! And i almost forgot, you guys remember my cousin Carlee and her shithead boyfriend?”

They nodded in unison, remembering how you always told them the stories of her boyfriend being anything but.

Never taking her out on dates, never buying her flowers, and of course who can forget the time he said he didn’t have enough money for their water bill but he absolutely had enough money to buy himself a whole new stereo system for his car.

“He proposed. And she said yes.”

They all groaned,

“Really?! Does this girl have no self respect?” Jeff said before you all tipped back your bottles. After something like that, a drink was definitely needed.

“Guess not.” You laughed, “Oh well, not my circus, not my monkeys.”

You all drank from your bottles, and you were about to mention how at the reunion her boyfriend couldn’t stop eyeballing a few of the other cousins all while Carlee was attached at his hip, but Gareth beat you to it,

“What about that guy you told us about a few months ago?” He asked, quickly jogging your memory to the guy you’d been talking to for only a few weeks at the time, “What’s his name?”

“I think it’s Randy, or Roger, or something?” Eddie asked, “Definitely something with an R.”

“Russel?” You said.

“Yes! How’s he doing?” Eddie asked as they all moved to listen about how you and this new guy were doing, especially when they weren’t around to hear all the juicy relationship details.

You smiled to yourself and stifled back a little laugh,

“Oh, he’s long gone.”

“What?!” Jeff exclaimed, “I thought everything was going good with that guy? I remember we met him one time after a show, he seemed like a nice guy.”

“Yeah, seemed like it to me too.” You said with an eye roll, taking the last swig from your bottle before setting the empty onto the table.

“What happened?” Grant asked.

You sighed and thought back to that final day seeing Russel,

“Well, because he was my boyfriend at the time, my parents said he could come along with us to the reunion. He drove me up there with him and everything seemed normal, we were talking just fine, and then we got to a truck stop close by and i saw a payphone and i remembered i had to call you guys…” You cleared your throat, sitting up as the boys were on the edge of their seats. They may be boys, but no one loves gossip like they do, “And as soon as i told him i wanted to call and check in with you guys he just seemed kind of… off? We got to my aunts house for the reunion and he pulled me off to the side and said he really didn’t like how close i was with you guys.”

“Really?” Eddie questioned.

“I’m not finished.” You smiled, “He said that he knows how guy friends are. That all you guys were hoping for was to see me naked, you didn’t actually care about me, and he would know because he said he’s only been friends with girls to try and hook up with them.”

The collective gasps of the boys only made you giggle more.

“That asshole!” Jeff shook his head.

“He said that if i wanted to keep seeing him then i had to stop being friends with you guys. So i told him he can go fuck himself and have a safe drive home.”

“You made him drive all the way back?!” Gareth laughed.

“Absolutely! I’m not going to let some guy tell me who i can and can’t be friends with, and he’s lucky i didn’t put sugar in his gas tank and leave him stranded there.”

Grant laughed, finishing off the last of the beer in his bottle,

“Fuck, well i’m sorry we got in between that.”

“What’s there to apologize for?” You asked, “You guys didn’t do anything wrong. If i date a guy who can’t understand that i’m JUST FRIENDS with all of you, and you’re cool with that, then that’s their problem and not ours. Besides, i’m not going to cut off every guy i know just for some loser.” You giggled with an eye roll.

“I don’t know,” Eddie shrugged, “I just think it’s funny that he said that after we met him. He kept trying to turn the conversation into talking about you? Like he was baiting us into saying something we shouldn’t about you.”

“Did he?” This was news to you, “What did he say? And why did you not tell me?!”

“I remember me and Jeff talking to him and he kept turning and looking at you while you were with Eddie and Grant and he kept trying to get us to look at your ass.” Gareth said with an uncomfortable look on his face.

“And he also kept trying to pry information out of us, and he seemed irritated that we didn’t have anything to tell him.” Jeff said.

“Information like what?” You asked all of them, seeing them exchange glances with one another.

“He asked us if we ever… did anything with you.” Grant said, leaning in and quietly saying the end of his sentence to keep it private from the other patrons in the bar.

“Yeah, he said something really weird to me.” Eddie got the shivers as he remembered the conversation, “He was saying something about you two, definitely not going into detail, but alluding to some mature thing you guys were doing, and he asked if we ever got to experience that side of you instead of this front you put on.”

“Front?” You questioned, getting more and more irritated with your ex the longer this conversation went on, “What did he mean by that?”

“I think he also assumed that since you were friends with us that meant you had… intentions.”

You groaned and leaned back in your chair, not being able to help the laugh that rose up from your lungs,

“What an asshole! And why didn’t you guys tell me?”

“You seemed like you really liked the guy!” Eddie argued.

“We didn’t want to ruin your chances with him,” Jeff said, “You we’re telling us all about how nice he was and when we met him we figured it was just him having word vomit cause he was nervous meeting us.”

You sighed and smiled to yourself, holding your face in your hands.

“Ok, fine, i’ll cut you some slack. But if you guys ever meet anyone i date, or i have the potential to date, and they’re doing weird stuff like that i want you to tell me. Deal?”

“Deal!” They said in unison, the rest of the boys finishing off what was left of the beer in their bottles and placing the empties onto the table.

“Alright, we’ve had our drink,” Eddie stood, stretching his arms over his head, “you guys wanna come back to the trailer and hang? I know Wayne would be happy to see you after so long (y/n).”

“Yeah! It’ll be like old times.” You stood with the boys and smiled, walking out with them as they wandered off to their cars in the lot.

Seeing the boys after so long felt like such a breath of fresh air, and it was nice to know that they always had your best intentions in mind. Even when guys you brought around them were being a little strange.

No matter what, no man could replace those boys’ places in your heart.

[muzicgenerator]

Hey, can I request an angst story with Bill and reader (the reader is female) abt crazy fans please? Like them (Bill and the reader) admitting somewhere (idk maybe in an interview for a magazine) that they almost broke up because of that (maybe reader's fanbase is known for being "too much" sometimes like following the reader everywhere, being so in love with her etc)

(Also could the story take place in the 2000s please?)

Goodbye 👋

i like this one im actually excited abt writing this one shot

btw im so sorry for late reply AHSJHFKDHDK please expect ill take like AT LEAST a week to answer yalls request bc im busy as hell w school 😭😭 love u guys pls understand

and again this aint entirely proof read

⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒

Too Much?

✮

Pairing: Bill Kaulitz x Fem Reader

Genre: Angst, Mostly fluff

Warnings: Stalking, mention of nonconsensual touching, very embarrassing storytime from bill

Request Status: closed :(

✩°｡⋆⸜ 🎧✮ I'm Not Okay (I Promise) : My Chemical Romance

(Time set back in late November of 2007)

Being a famous actress since as a child was unbelievably tough.

You had worked so hard and expertly; you didn't even have time to spend your childhood properly.

Just at the age of 19 and you've finished numerous movies and series. A true self-made millionaire, really.

You and your ravenette boyfriend are currently doing an interview for a night show.

"So ____, wow! After a long pause from doing films you're finally gonna have one showing soon! How is it like? Being back and all; being the talk of the country."

In the past one and a half year you hadn't done any projects since you've decided to take a break for yourself. And now you're once again busy taping with film staff and directors for your new and upcoming Teenage Romance movie.

Rest assured it's not your typical boy-meets-girl or vice versa and they do sappy sweet stuff and get together kind of film; it has its own uniqueness that will surely be called as "One of 2000s greatest Teen Romance movies of all time."

"Oh, I feel great Hanna. I had a deserving break and I'm back to doing one of the things I love most. I'm even happier because I got my lover and his band to sing the theme song for the movie." You truthfully answered and chuckled by the end of your statement.

"How about you Bill? How are things with your band?" Hanna included Bill to the conversation.

At that, he smiled politely. "Everything's great with us y'know, we're still together and all. Which I'm grateful for."

After a few more minutes for pep talk; the blonde interviewer finally decided to get onto the exciting part of the show.

"And now, for the moment we've all been waiting for! Dunk Tank!" Hanna smiled widely at the selected crowd.

"Where in this game; you will pick someone from the crowd who will accompany you with this game.

Your selected teammate will ask any question they want; to which you will answer, and if you don't want to then they'll get a chance to throw a ball on the target. Where if they hit it, you'll fall down the tank."

Hanna excitedly announced despite having done this for the nth time.

"____ and Bill, play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who goes first."

You knew you'd beat Bill since every single time you played it - he'd miserably lose.

"Oh, I'm confident in winning this one!" you proudly say.

"Just because you've beat me all the other times we played this, doesn't mean I'll lose now!" Bill accepted your challenge and laughed.

He was right. He won for the very first time.

"Oh my God! Did I seriously win?!" your black clothed boyfriend exclaimed.

"I only let you win this time because I felt sorry." you playfully rolled your eyes with a smirk.

"Whatever, I'm gonna choose now." he giggled and stepped closer to the crowd.

His fan girls were screaming at the top of their lings, begging to be chosen by him.

No, you weren't jealous. Not one bit. Sometimes Bill would even complain about you not being possessive of him from time to time and would think you're not as in love as he thought.

It's cute, really. Then you'll show him how much you love him through actions rather than words.

Bill chose a girl who seemingly looked two or three years younger.

The joyous girl screamed in surprise; "Oh my god! What?! Me??! SERIOUSLY??"

It made Bill giggle, "Yes, you! Now get down here!"

A body guard helped the girl down; and when she was no longer at the stairs she rushed Bill to hug him but abruptly stopped. "Hi oh my god you're more beautiful up close! Can I hug you?!" she says excitingly.

It made your heart flutter just how kinder your boyfriend's fans are compared to yours.

To say your fan base is crazy is an understatement. Many would harass you through nasty words or touching you with no consent; it didn't matter if they did that out of how much they "love" you, it was still disgusting.

"Um, yeah. Sure!" he hesitantly looked at you; his eyes asking for permission. To which you subtly nodded.

Again, your heart melted by how he's making sure you're okay with it. Honestly, you very much understood that being famous would mean people wanting to hug you or any form of physical contact. Plus, it's not like you can say no to Bill from hugging a fan; you'd be a scandal. And you knew Bill wouldn't have any other choice as well.

He wrapped an arm over her shoulders while she fully embraced him. Okay, you're a teensy bit jealous especially by the way she's holding him like he's her man.

But that was soon washed away when she turns to you.

"Hi! What's your name sweetie?" Hanna asked and put a mic on her mouth.

"My name is Pauline!"

Before Hanna could say anything further, Pauline beat her to it.

"____!! I'm such a big fan of you too! I've been watching your movies since forever." saying she's over the moon is definitely an understatement! This will definitely be a core memory.

Almost immediately you wrapped your arms around her back and squeezed her. This girl is definitely one of the most respectable and sweetest fan you've ever met.

Was it really low? Yes.

The audience cheered by how sweet you and Bill had been to the girl and by how jealous they were.

As Bill and Hanna chattered about God knows what; the girl leaned closer to you in order to ask a favour which no one can hear.

"Can I ask you to shout out my brother? He has a huge crush on you!"

"Sorry darling but we're in the middle of a show right now. How about later I ask the staff to send you to the backstage? Then I'll give him my magazine with an autograph, and if you have a camera with you - you can video me saying hi to him!" you came up with a resolution.

Was it over the top? You didn't know and you didn't care. You're just fleeting with joy by how this girl isn't like any other of your fans.

"Seriously? You'd do that for me and my brother?" she gasped.

"Well, yeah. I mean it's not always that I have such nice interactions with people who are a fan."

"Okay lovebirds what are you two talking about there?" Hanna teased with a smirk and Bill playfully pouted.

"Nothing, nothing" you laughed and held Bill's arm as the crowd laughed and cheered.

"If you say sooo." she replied. "Alright, your turn to pick!"

You carefully looked around the crowd and walked five steps of the stairs to get a better view of the people on the back. A fifteen year old boy was holding a banner stating "Bill's No.1 Boy", it was cute, really. So you planned to steal your boyfriend's fan! (this a joke dont hate reader pls)

"The ginger at the back with the banner please." you said to the mic.

The boy squeeled in delight and threw his banner somewhere before running down to you. Your arms opened for an embrace which he immediately jumped into.

"What's your name?" you put the mic to his mouth as you both carefully went down the stairs and back to the stage.

"Sam, I'm Sam! My name is Sam!" his rather high pitched voice said.

"Okay, Sam. I know you're Bill's fan so I'm gonna have to steal you, that okay?"

"Hey, no fair!" Bill patted the boy's head and shot a smile at him.

This moment for him is definitely a core memory and will brag about it to every living human he sees.

"Now, who wants to go first in the tank?" Hanna asked.

"I'll do it" Bill says excitingly.

They agreed and the staff helped him get up. Once he were seated and adjusted in the circular surface; he challenge you.

"Ask a good one!"

"Ohohoo, we definitely will!" you smirked.

You turn to Sam and ask him without the mics near your faces; "What're you gonna ask your idol?"

"Oh uhmm, I don't really know." he says bashfully.

"Maybe his most embarrassing moment?"

"That'll work, definitely." you smile supportively and fist bumped him.

"Bill, you read?!" Hanna exclaimed.

"Born ready!!"

"Alright Sam, ask away!"

"What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you?" Sam asked with twinkles in his eyes.

"Oh, definitely when me and ____ weren't dating yet; she threw a sleepover party and she invited me and my mates, and there were three bathrooms, right? The three were being used and in one of those bathrooms it was Tom using it, and I had to rush him because I really needed to take a shit, like I couldn't hold it any farther!

So he went out really pissed and I pushed him off the door and quickly shut it and went right into business."

Bill paused and tried to compose himself as the crowd started to get louder.

"And when I washed and pushed the flush button - It wouldn't flush! So I got really scared because I just shit in my crush's toilet and I can't let anyone know that I'm the one who did it. So i looked around and saw a pack of pads so I took one of them; and forced myself to dip my hand down to grab it and I almost puked!

I look around and see there's no trash bin. So I panic again, and eventually decided I'll just rush down to throw it in the garbage in her garage. I quickly make a run for it and almost bumped into ___"

He now covered his hands in shame and embarrassment. "And she saw the pad in my hand! So she asked me like, 'Is that a pad?' and I'm like yes and so she asks whose it is...... and I said it's mine....."

You know of this story long ago; and it just gets better and better whenever you think or hear of it.

The audience and interviewer roared with laughter; as well as the staff behind and securities who tried to contain their smiles.

"I wish I never asked!" Sam wiped his tears from laughing too hard.

"Get down here Bill! That was too much!" Hanna's cheeks started to hurt, "Sorry to the viewers who are eating."

Bill went down immediately and squeezed the living life out of you. He does this whenever he's feeling embarrassed or nervous, and calls it his "Physical Support" from you.

"You should've let yourself get thrown in the water!" you giggled and hugged him back before he pulled away with a red face.

"Next goes ____!"

Once you were seated and made yourself comfortable on the seat; you tell them you're ready.

It was Pauline's turn to question whatever she wishes. "____, what do you think of your fans?"

She asks sincerely; she must've noticed something by the way you're like to your fan base and to Bill's. A part of you wished she hadn't asked but you've been dying to let the creepers out there know that whatever they'd been doing to you for a long long time - greatly affects you, especially as a young stat growing up in this sort of industry.

You rarely held any meet and greet, rarely had photos with fans where you look actually comfortable and where they weren't touching your waist or hips or near your ass - and ones where you do look comfortable it was mostly with girls or kids, which was not as often as when you do with the rest; who are pedophiles and creepy boys.

Of course you've always been nice when interacting with them; you didn't want to be rude and only wanted to be kind.

Definitely, there were times when you couldn't take it and couldn't do anything about it - other than cry and complain in your lover's arms.

You're forever thankful to have someone like him; he'd always listen to whatever you say and support everything you do.

Not realising; you zoned out quite a bit and snapped out of it when Bill called out your name with worry that he's trying to mask from everyone.

"Oh-, well, obviously I love them so much, if it weren't for them I wouldn't have succeed this much - of course the people who helped me get up in this industry as well.

I truly do appreciate their love and support, seriously. But quite the number of them are uh, how do I say this." you nervously chuckled as everyone listened intently to the tea you're telling.

"Crossing my boundaries? Yes, uh- that." you say not quite satisfied with the word you chose. It was evident that it's worse than just that but the safest.

"We all know people would cross it by taking unsolicited pictures of you, that's given because you're a celebrity, but are there some other ways they would? If you don't mind me asking of course." Hanna carefully asked.

You smiled softly, "Well a few have stalked me to my house - which I dunno how the hell they did so and took pictures of me and they'd send it to me and tell me how they thought of me. Some leave love letters, flowers, food in front of my gate, sent death threats to my exes when I was dating them and even now to my Bill." you left the worse parts out since you didn't want half of the world to be talking about your most private part of life. What you're even telling them now is a whole lot.

"Wow.. we all knew your fan base could get a bit crazy judging from all the videos we see and the news, but not by this much!" Hanna says empathetically.

"It happens, I guess." you try to laugh it off. However, Bill looked at your hues with his that sent the message of "Are you okay?"

In which yours replied with "I'm not okay."

✮✮✮

The game went on a for it was Pauline's turn to the dunk tank, then Sam's.

You continued your cheery self through the whole taping and told yourself you'll regret what you said later in your dressing room. Bill kept his distance close to you and would caress your hand or shoulder as a sign of support - as well as slipping a "How're you holding up?" every now and then.

If there were billions of ways to show gratitude to this man; you'd do every single one of it to him.

After the agonizing show was over; you and Bill kissed Hanna's cheeks as a goodbye and thank you. To which she said back to you both as well and wished to see you soon.

As you made your way to the dressing room in silence with your fingers intertwined with Bill's; you abruptly stop in your tracks.

"I almost forgot I have to sign a magazine for Pauline!"

Your lover looked confused for a second "What? Why?"

"I kinda promised Pauline I'll just sign a magazine for her brother because she asked me to shout him out while taping." you let a small huff and loosened your grip on your boyfriend's slender hand. "How about I'll see you later in the van? You can wait for me there instead if I haven't been back by five minutes."

Bill smiled, "Of course sweetheart, I'll see you later. Love you." he pecked your lips and lovingly looked into your eyes for a moment before heading to his dressing room.

Quickly; you asked a staff to bring Pauline to your dressing room to give her an autograph - to which they agreed to. Thankfully.

While they did that, you strided to your room and grabbed your magazine and marker - which immediately after doing so, a knock was heard on your door.

You hand held the paper as the other gripped the violet ink marker. When you did, you were greeted by a Pauline smiling widely with a camera on her right hand.

"Hi!" she says excitingly.

You greet back and quickly hugged her, "I see you have a camera with you."

"Oh, yes, uhm.. I was wondering if i can take a video of you signing an autograph? So my brother would believe me that it really is from you." she nervously giggled. "I might or might now have pranked him once by giving him a fake autograph."

"Yeah, sure. What's your brother's name?" you say softly.

"It's Percy." she answers as she readies her camera.

"Alright, is it rolling?" you ask with a smile on your face. Pauline says yes with a grateful smile; grateful for being how considerate and kind you are.

"Hi Paul! So I heard from your sister that you're a fan? Too bad you didn't come with her." you looked behind the camera to Pauline.

"And I heard she gave you a fake autograph of mine? Well now, you're getting a real one, and this is the proof." you say still giggling as you signed the magazine.

"There, and keep the pen. I gotta go now, bye and love you!" you say as you waved goodbye and gave your iconic kiss blow alongside a wink.

Once Pauline returned the camera back to her bag; she immediately thanked you.

"I'm serious - thank you thank you sooo much! And uh.. I'm really sorry if what I asked earlier was too personal. I really am. I was just curious and didn't thoroughly before it slipped my mouth." she noticed the change of the atmosphere long ago. Even if she's just fifteen, she knew how to read the room well.

"Aw, sweetie.. it's nothing." you pat her shoulder, "It's fine I tell ya, also I better get going - you should too, it'll get dark in just two hours. Bye bye and stay safe!" you wave goodbye as she still exclaimed thank you's as she walked backwards towards the exit.

(that footage is definitely gonna go viral after many years)

In a light speed; you gathered your essential belongings and had your personal assistant help you carry your other belongings to the van; to which Bill noticed through the windows that you're carrying back pack and a purse and immediately helped you despite having it under perfect control.

He opened the door for you and let you in first before him and closed the door. Your personal assistant sat in the passenger seat next to the driver, while you and your beloved were at the very back despite the space up front.

You rested your head on his shoulder and he put his above yours while he held your hand with both of his; tracing every outline, massaging it, and kissing it once in a while.

"R'you okay now?" Bill mumbled and kissed your head.

"Yes, hon. I'm great actually.. thanks so much for being there, I love you so much." you turn your head to face his and pecked his lips.

"I love you more than you'll ever know, I'm glad you're okay." he smiled genuinely and kissed you deep and passionate.

You returned to your head's original position and fell to sleep; not caring if tomorrow, you'll be the town's talk.

[valentoru]

|| Limitless ||

[CHAPTER 9]

SYNOPSIS: Gojo Satoru, a big time artist, who’s known for leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake wherever he goes. And you, the lead guitarist of an upcoming band, who’s absolutely certain that no one will ever love you. Through an accident in which you happened to kiss Gojo in a frantic state, you both decide, via convenience alone—and zero regard for both of your managers—to pull a fake dating stunt what could go wrong? Any press is good press…right?

PREVIOUS : MASTERLIST : NEXT

You arrived to fake dating Thursday late and in the foulest of moods. You had missed your alarm to wake up and nothing seemed to be going your way since opening your eyes. Your phone hadn’t charged over night. There was no instant coffee left—thank god you were about to be in a coffee shop—and you couldn’t find the words for your pitch to Geto Suguru.

You paused outside the doors of the shop. Taking a moment to breathe and organise your thoughts. You took one last deep breath and slapped on the best smile you could conjure. You needed to be at home working on your pitch, working with the band on the pitch organising stuff. Not waisting your time in a coffee shop on a coffee you didn’t particularly want with a person you most definitely didn’t want to talk to.

Ugh.

When you stepped inside the cafe Satoru was already there. He had a deep crease set between his brows, he was annoyed. You sighed and walked over to him.

“Um hi Satoru.” You we’re embarrassed at your lateness, it wasn’t like you to be this late. You’d also some how managed to startle him, you knew this as he’d gone ridged as he turned to you.

“Oh—oh hello.” His shoulders dropped and he turned his back on you to the counter as he pocketed his phone. “I was waiting for you to arrive before I ordered, what do you want?”

“Oh don’t worry I’ll order separately!”

“What? No I’m paying so I’ll order for you.”

“No no. You really don’t have to. Besides I don’t want to owe you.” You could feel beads of sweat forming at your hairline. You really would love to accept the offer but being in debt to anyone was unnecessary, especially when that “anyone” is actually Satoru Gojo.

“You won’t owe me anything, I don’t want anything in return. Seriously, Y/N, get whatever and I’ll pay.” He insisted and it seemed like he wouldn’t back down so you caved.

“Fine.” You let out an exasperated and defeated sigh.

“Get whatever I don’t mind, I’ll pay.”

You were definitely and clearly reluctant to do so at first till it clicked, you may as well use this to your advantage. After all, you’re extremely underpayed and hardly ever eat a real meal, or anything for that matter. You grinned, you knew this would give him a little bit of trouble and for some unexplainable reason, you wanted to annoy him. “I’ll have a pumpkin spice ice coffee, three pumps of cream and and one pump of cinnamon syrup please.”

He deadpanned, completely unfazed by your request. Then turned his head from you to the woman behind the counter and rhymed off your order. “Can I get a Pumpkin spice ice coffee with three pumps of cream and one pump of cinnamon syrup,” you swore you saw him roll his eyes. “And I’ll have a black coffee.”

Your jaw practically broke. He wanted a what? For some reason you were more surprised that you were so surprised by his order. He had painted you as the type of guy to not like anything with flavour in his life, it was almost like the shoe fit too well. You were even more so shocked your assumption was right.

“Typical.” You mumbled under your breath. But you almost immediately regretted it. You begged the god he hadn’t heard, and you would have made it unscathed if your face wasn’t flushed red.

“What?”

“Oh—I um said it’s typical that you would order a black coffee.” Well there was certainly no turning back now.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I guess the shoe just fits.”

“I get the feeling that’s not exactly a compliment.”

A part of you wished the floor would just open up and swallow you whole, or you could get out of this conversation immediately and preferably run to a corner and never be seen again. But you couldn’t do either so you opted for the only option you could conjure; not answering him.

You could sense that he was waiting for some kind of response however you had none to give, so to make it more clear that you were avoiding the conversation you pulled your phone out to check the group chat. It had been a while since you last checked out what was going on, you’d been surprisingly busy over the last few days.

You rolled your eyes and turned your phone off. Some distraction they were.

The barista called out your order and you practically leapt for the drink. You were running on about 2 hours sleep and no coffee, you were deprived. You sighed and picked up your drink taking a long sip and making a satisfied sigh. You’d needed this.

Satoru, on the other hand, was watching you with a disgusted expression. You could feel his gaze on you so you looked at him, only to be met like his nose scrunched up and his eyebrows knotted together.

“What?”

He practically gagged. “I don’t know how you drink that sugary crap.”

“You mean fall in a cup? I don’t know how you don’t drink this sugary crap.”

“Still crap.”

“Shut up, you always have to be a Debbie downer don’t you?”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just keep that pumpkin spice fall barf away from me.” You could have sworn you saw the corner of his mouth jerk.

“Fine fine.”

You made your way over to a table. He followed you quickly and took the seat across from you. You pulled your phone out of your pocket and set it on the table.

You sat in an extremely awkward silence, clearly both of you were wracking your brain for any topic whatsoever to talk about. But no matter how much you searched you only ended up at a dead end. That was when it dawned on you; you and Satoru didn’t have a single thing in common. This would definitely affect fake dating Thursday from now on.

You sighed and sat back in your seat uncomfortably telling yourself that it wasn’t that bad, but you knew for a fact that it was. This was really really bad. How were you only going to spend the next few months with him every Thursday, even just for 10 minutes without a single thing to talk about. You could gossip to him but he really didn’t seem like the type of person.

Something possessed you to check the time, so you did, and almost passed out. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry I have to go like right now. Thank you for buying me the drink and I’ll see you next Thursday.” You dove for the door as his goodbye chased after you, but before it could reach you, you were already out and on your way to the conference room to meet with your producers.

TAGLIST(29/50): @bbmsxlene @lunavelha @satoryaa @tranzumaki @k-kkiana @luvkvni @lysaray @kalulakunundrum @arysbruv @r4veeen @stillnotherapy @catobsessedlady @colortheoryrocks @minzxec @dazqa @packsvlog @luvvmae @simplysm1le @mintfyi @fushigurosgirl @littlecritteryay @fackeraccount @astro-stars @lavender-hvze @miizuzu @rayrayline @kanaojacksonofc @letsmyy @serenadesvt

AN:

I know canonically Satoru likes sweet stuff but just smile and nod for me PLEASE

© valentoru all rights reserved- do not publish my work on other platforms, plagiarise or translate.

[thedevilinmybrain]

Harry knows Louis has his reasons. He's heard all of them, listed out like one blow after another. The focus should be on the band, on the music, too much at stake. They can't be selfish, need to think about the rest of the boys, the fans. So many things weighing on them, should know better than to push back against management. Louis is the oldest so he needs to make the right choices, be a role model, be mature enough to know when enough is enough.

Louis talks and Harry can hear Simon's voice.

Standing against the wall, Harry presses the rim of the glass against his lips, can smell the vodka inside. It's expensive, served straight because Harry can't afford the calories, no sugar after seven. It's all part of the image, the routine to make Harry hotter, more attractive with a sharp jawline and thin waist. His hair is getting longer now, brushes against his jaw, a real Mick Jagger in his tight jeans and drawling accent, charming whomever he feels like. It doesn't mean shit when he's watching Louis wrap his arm around the shoulders of some up and coming.

He's pretty, Harry guesses, as far as aesthetics go. Big eyes and smooth skin, an upturned mouth in a smirk that makes him look a little impish. Louis is being bold tonight, no one that important around to side eye him, to shove a pretty blond in a mini dress into his lap. So, Louis is free to laugh into the guy's neck, face flushed red and drunk. His free hand has been on the guy's thigh for over an hour, holding him close, holding him down, with a ring on his finger that belongs on Harry's. Louis had said they had to break up because too many people were watching them, that it was a liability, that it just wasn't possible. But someone with a name the tabloids don't care about is safe, Harry guesses.

Jealousy is a fucking collar around his throat, chokes the air out of his lungs, drags him down like an anchor into the darkness, drowning him. Louis used to do that to him, to press their cheeks together, to keep Harry close and safe against his side. Always had to have his hands on Harry somehow, around his wrist, on his waist. But that was before Louis decided to start eating out of the hand that feeds them.

This morning, leaving the studio, Louis had held the door open for Harry and smiled at him, all big and bright and cooing at him. Come on, baby. Hurry up. Like it wasn't a punch to the gut when Louis is the one who told Harry he had to stop calling him that. When Louis is the one who set up the rules, who laid down the way it was going to be. And Harry has been trying to be so good, kept himself away, doesn't try to press or talk to him. Even when it feels like Harry's sawing off a limb every time Louis is in the room.

"Feels fucking rude," Niall mutters, digs his fingers into his own cup, tugging out a cherry. "Over there flaunting it."

"Niall," Harry sighs, takes another sip of his own drink. Across the room, Louis takes the pipe from Zayn, holds it up to show his newest friend.

"Well? It fucking is. I know you all broke up and shit, but honestly? To do it here?" Waving his hand at the center of the room, Niall's top lip curls. "Fucked, mate. Really fucked."

Niall is right. They're in one of the public houses that the label owns, all blase designs and inconsequential art on the walls. But it's still in front of their friends, some of the crew, all the lads. Harry can't remember ever feeling so on the outskirts of the people he considers family, so fucking lonely in his own skin.

"You're Harry fucking Styles," Niall hisses, venomous and angry. He's felt like this since he heard the news, had been the one to pull Harry out of that bathtub, soaked through his clothes, wine drunk and sobbing. Louis doesn't know any of it, but Niall does.

"It was almost Tomlinson." Harry mutters, takes the rest of his drink in one shot, rolls off the wall to stalk towards the stairs. He hasn't worked up the ability to charge across the room yet, to stand his ground, to call Louis out on his shit. No, not yet. So, Harry prefers to have his meltdown behind closed doors, to cry his eyes sore and try to rub the tattoos off his skin.

[jacqueline-p-rose]

In this year I finally ditched Spotify for good in favour of rebuilding my music library offline and, since May, I have been collecting again the music that was lost to time in the great iPod crash of 2016. 98% of the music I listen to now are mp3s on my phone (using the Poweramp app), and most of those songs are ripped from CDs bought cheaply and secondhandly from eBay. I feel that I listen to music differently from the yoothes in that I put on an entire album and listen to it through, so in light of the recent flight from Spotify in hand with my unsuppressed FOMO, I've decided to give you my top ten albums of 2024. So hear, my Not-ify Wrapped 2024!

1 - Antemasque - Antemasque

This is the real reason it's a list of top ten albums and not top ten songs, because the top 12 most played songs on my list are the 12 songs on this album. It's great, not only my favourite album of (2014) 2024, but one of my favourite of all time. I wrote a little more about why here if you're feeling read-y.

2 - London Grammar - If You Wait

A classic of a specifically difficult time in my life, brought back into another increasingly difficult time of my life. "Interlude" specifically gets to me and makes me cry, and you KNOW how I love to cry!

3 - Soundgarden - Superunknown

When I first heard Soundgarden as a pre-teen I remember thinking it was a bit too heavy for me, like... Too metal. It's taken being in my 30s to finally appreciate this bad boy. I don't know what I was thinking back then, maybe I was as soft as un-moulded jelly, but it's now one of my favourite albums of all time.

4 - Le Butcherettes - Sin Sin Sin

A prize for accepting the challenge of trying new things. I love how perfectly this slots in alongside The Dead Weather, while being far more interesting. Beautiful, beautiful, wonderful thing to come into my life.

5 - Boys Next Door - Door Door

Nick Cave was a better father to me than my real father. This album (along with Henry's Dream with the Black Seeds) I have plucked from the nostalgia of dads cigarette-ridden Pajero and claimed as my own. I hope my children have a more positive memory of it in future.

6 - Made Out Of Babies - The Ruiner

Made Out Of Babies is my answer if someone were to ask me what my favourite band is, so it's a little surprising to me to see it so low down on the list, although it's really an even match for play count with most of the other stuff on this list. The Ruiner and Trophy are a fantastic extrapolation of 90's grunge into the new millennia. Coward I don't like so much, maybe I'll appreciate it the same one day, but it is not today.

7 - Warpaint - Warpaint/Exquisite Corpse/The Fool

Really it's only Warpaint that is this high on the list, but I'm including the other two because I often play them all in a row. These are very new purchases to be on the list at all, but my partner likes it so I can get away with playing it during the day. Drone-pop my beloved.

8 - Spectacular Spectacular - Blur

This album is always left off those lists of trans musicians that get shared about tumblr, which is a shame. It's not screamy punk or noisy synth so maybe it gets overlooked amongst the GLOSS and HERS and Against Me! types, but there are other trans experiences and expressions, and this is one. Beautiful and heartfelt, a must listen when I'm sad about boys (which is often).

9 - Audioslave - Audioslave

Though often thought of by the cool kids as less than the sum of its parts, I really dig Audioslave. Just because it plays on the radio doesn't mean you can't enjoy it too, loose your grip on ego and enjoy yourself, I know I am.

10 - Portishead - Portishead/Dummy

Some guy I used to work with put on Portishead one day and was crestfallen when I said "I used to cry to this as a lovesick teenager." He clearly thought he had found something super obscure and was proud of himself for showing it off. Serves him right for playing "Sour Times" the day after I broke up with my girlfriend.

Honourary mention - Adam And The Ants - Kings Of The Wild Frontier

The reason I say 98% of my music is offline is because I listen to Adam Ant a lot on Youtube. This album seems impossible to find as a CD for some reason, even though it was reissued in 2004. It's on Spotify, but I've been struggling to find a copy of it off the streams, so while it's not in my top 10 from Poweramp, it is top 10 in my heart.

So there you have it, my top 10 albums of 2024. There are at least another five albums I would have thought would be on this list and aren't, but I guess the stats don't lie. In an era where Spotify doesn't pay artists unless they get over 1000 listens, and even then their cut is split with the giants till it's almost nothing, I think there's no better time to cut the umbilical to constant access and be more intentional about the music we listen to and the artists we support. I buy digital albums from Bandcamp when I can, but even when I'm buying old CDs at least I'm actually getting something for my $15 a month. The wait for them to arrive in the mail and the space they take up means that I have to be very deliberate about what music I enjoy and will actively choose to listen to, and that makes me enjoy them more. Sitting with the album cover reading through the booklet as it rips onto my hard drive and plays in the background is very grounding, in a way it gives me confidence in other life decisions, it's small practice in making choices and expressing intention, and being rewarded for it. I highly recommend you to try this too, and maybe next year your wrapped will be music you have had a connection with and felt something about, and not just a bunch of songs you listened to without thinking.