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aikainkauna · 5 years

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Fanfic trope meme

Apologies to those of you who see this for a third time, as I’ve crossposted it to both LJ and Pillowfort. Feel free to comment over on there (or my other posts) if you like. And of course, feel free to grab this one and do it yourself, if you like.

***

Grabbed this meme from a couple of people on LJ. It's... well, apparently about fanfic tropes. Some of them more terrifying than others.

I have written:

-Hurt/comfort (Yeah, baby! Most of my fic is this.)

-Body swapping (Sort of? Souls slipping into each other's bodies for a bit? Jaffar feeling what Yassamin feels? Sex swap, I've definitely done.)

-Soulmate identifying marks (tattoo, red thread of fate, etc) (I have! The Throne of Solomon. And maybe The Past Forgotten counts, in its way. I may have written more, but I forget.)

-Snowed-in cabin/isolated together for extended period of time (The Jaffar/Pwinzezz Cavefic!)

-Found families (I guess the Samarkand gang counts for poor old Fadl? Even if Jaffar *is* his brother, so technically it is his family. But he does have his religious congregation and Zainab, and is... well, he always does seem to be seeking something, so he's the kind of guy to go for this trope.)

-Fairy tale/mythology AU (And not just when I am writing in *actual* fairytale/mythology fandoms. Which I am doing most of the time, what with Thief of Bagdad being a 1001 Nights fanfic anyway. So I'm writing fanfic about a fanfic of some age-old RPF (fantasy AU!) about historical figures from the late 700s/early 800s...)

-Enemies to friends to lovers (Yes, please! Aplenty. I'm surprised that enemyslash/FoeYay/Hero(ine)/Villain(ess), whatever you want to call it, isn't mentioned on this list.)

-Characters swap roles AU (Uh... I've written sexual switching in some isolated chapters? Like when Laura briefly doms Torsten in The Fall of Angels, to help him get over some traumas?)

-Friends to lovers (With RPS, Veidtbone in particular, and Theta/Koschei. This also seems to happen whenever I write femslash.)

-Magical connection (telepathy, etc) (Doctor/Master basically ruined me for all my other ships what with their telepathic ability. So that now, it feels less interesting for me to write love/sex that *doesn't* have telepathy.)

-Fake dating/fake marriage accidentally turns into feelings (see next trope)

-Royals/political marriage turns into feelings (These last two are pretty much the same thing in ToB, as I've had Yassamin marry Jaffar a couple of times--like The Past Forgotten and The King's White Falcon, but without him laying a hand on her for up to a year, until she finally grows a brain and realises how loveworthy he is after all.)

-Seemingly unrequited pining (Emphasis on the "seemingly." Jaffar's unrequited pining is painful enough in the movie, so there's no point in making him suffer any more.)

-Accidentally fell in love with the mission target (Well, *kind of,* what with Torsten. Lars-Erik was definitely his mission target in the original film, and at the start of Because The World Belongs to the Devil, he made no bones about having wanted to kill Laura Erika [the teenage girl version of Lars-Erik in this AU, to those of you just joining in] when she was born.)

-They break up (but then they get back together) (With Jaffar/Fadl. Fadl's stormed off in a huff at least twice in the past. And Doctor/Master is always the same old on-off car crash, isn't it? Although this is not a favourite trope of mine, as the setup would usually necessitate them being an existing couple in the first place, and I tend to not write canon or "plausibly lovers" ships because they're already happily together. What do Two and Jamie, Holmes and Watson etc. need me for? They're already as good as married. Let them have their happiness.)

-Supernatural creature/human romance (Sort of. I've written Time Lords/humans, humans/djinn at least. And surely wizards count as supernatural romance, anyway?)

-Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU (What's with the 25 lives? Is this some big fandom thing again? One of the darkest, most fucked-up fics I ever wrote was the Master killing the Doctor during sex and fucking him as he regenerated around him. As you do. And there's reincarnation in one of my Jaffar/Pwinzezz fics, but I won't spoil it for the new readers by telling you which one it is.)

-Selfcest (possibly due to time travel) (I am scratching my head trying to remember when I wrote this and in which fandom, but I have the distinct feeling I've written it. I've certainly whacked off to that World Of Simm!Masters clusterfuck what with the pink dress so many times I... I think I broke two clit buzzers during that time. I've certainly drawn it. And drawn some Connies on Connies. And then there's, of course, Sarosh the Sexbot who's a clone of Jaffar, looks-wise, but he is very distinctly just a robot, not a living character as such--not the sort with which you could have a real, interpersonal dynamic. My problem with selfcest, in general, is that I like having that character dynamic--and that requires the characters to be different from one another. If it's two characters that are too similar--if they fulfill a similar role in the canons--it's hard to create a dynamic between them and to make it interesting.)

-Polyamory (Swinging away ALL the bloody time with the Roses!Jaffar and Yassamin, and Torsten/Laura. Sometimes I miss the monogamous 'verses.)

-Amnesia (I've got a post-movie "Jaffar comes back from the dead" WIP I'll probs never finish, because it doesn't seem to get off the ground. If I wrote this trope, I would have the characters gradually regain memory, though; complete mind-wipes are horrid. I did have Handy lose the majority of his cognitive/motor/Timey skills in No More and that was the main reason I had to... well, I'm not going to spoil it if someone hasn't read it yet, but it wasn't the cheeriest of fics. The Past Forgotten *sort of* has this, but I don't want to spoil as to how that happens.)

***

I could write:

-Daemons (Why the archaic spelling? I have written djinn, so I almost put this in the 'have written' section. I can't remember if I actually *have* written real demons, because I might have. Surely, Torsten counts...)

-'Everyone is evil'/mirrorverse AU (Well, mostly, if I want to explore "evil" characters, I write about those types of characters in the first place, without having to turn anyone evil. Devilry is the 'verse for that. Hell, usually it's the other way around; I try to look for the human elements of the baddies, or at least explore their logic--what makes them tick, what makes them the way they are. So, IDK, I could've also put this in the "unlikely to ever write" section.)

-And they were roommates! (This would be terrible and also hilarious, whatever characters ended up becoming my victims. Even if I'm more interested in those hurt/comfort plots, overall. And I have always found it *impossible* to live under the same roof with other people because I need peace and quiet and solitude too much. So this is almost a bit too much like the sorts of negative RL experiences I don't really want to get more of in fic. But I *could* write it as a comedy for cheap lols, especially if the stress were resolved by hot bonking, ASAP.)

-'They all work in an office' AU (Otherwise, I would've put this in the "just no" category, but... the Barmakids were civil servants. So I *could* write Jaffar and Fadl drowning in paperwork--"WHY DID WE EVER introduce paper into THIS EMPIRE?!?" and cursing their fates and Jaffar restraining Fadl from braining Harun al-Rashid with a paperweight. Same with Lina doing Zainab's books and trying to hold back The Fist of Death when Fadl carelessly drops a piece of his lunch over her perfectly calligraphied accounting.)

-'Falling for a coworker/teammate is a bad idea' except this is fiction so it works out (Maybe. Just maybe. But it'd also be in a medieval ToB context.)

***

I will probably never write:

-'Groundhog Day'/karmic time loop (I just never got the appeal of this. Sounds like the sort of thing experimental writers would like? The sorts who really like filling in bingo cards and challenge lists?)

-Vampires/werewolves AU (I'm not that big on either. Super-unpopular opinion coming up: I prefer sex to the sublimation of it that vampires are often all about; bloodsucking in lieu of sex, and/or being seen as way better than sex just always feel to me like a cheap cop-out from writers who are disappointed in sex, or afraid of it. I've never grokked it any more than that stupid, stupid "chocolate is better than sex" quip from women who don't know what masturbation is--yes, it fucking well is sex, TYVM! I much prefer to make partnered sex better than it is IRL by adding supernatural stuff like telepathy to *that*. Immortality alone is interesting to explore, as are Gothic themes, but all the usual themes that vampires *specifically* usually represent just... either hold little interest for me, or then, I can explore them in other ways.)

-'Pride and Prejudice' AU (I don't hate Jane Austen, but it's not my fandom. That kind of society stuff and being witty over teacups in bonnets has never really been my thing--if anything, I usually have my characters exist in their own bubble, isolated from society and its restrictive mores and social stresses.)

***

JUST NO!

-Coffee house AU/food service AU (AUGH! Please, no coffeeshop AUs for me; the world is full of them already. Maybe I could write it as some terrible, short parody? Or doodle it? But no more than that.)

-Hogwarts AU (Haven't read HP. Young Adult isn't really my genre. I know, I know; I've just lost all my WLW cred.)

-High school/university AU (I've done Time Lord Academy-era stuff with Doctor/Master, but I expect this means a sort of American high school/university AU with jocks and cheerleaders and shit. Hell, no. Again, the exact sort of horrid society stuff I would rather have my characters escape from.)

-Adopting/raising a baby (Erm, not unless you count Jaffar/Yassamin adopting a cheetah? They do have kids in some 'verses but there's none of that everyday baby stuff that this question/trope probably implies. I'm squicked by babies, sorry.)

-Unusually specific occupation AU, like, the Author clearly has the same job (It worries me that this is, by virtue of its inclusion here, apparently seen as normal and acceptable..? When it's crap fanfic, inserting yourself into something that should be about the *established* characters instead. Jesus, I don't want to go in expecting a fanfic, and then find out it’s your diary instead! Unless you're Anaïs Nin. And even if you really *do* want to write about yourself, then just... write original fic? An autobiography? A blog? Write an OC that has your job. Don't do this false advertising where you insist it's fanfic when it's not. That's a dick move towards your readers.)

-Loyalty kink (see next trope)

-Alpha/beta/omega (Too creepy. I can write about piss, shit, incest, necrophilia and cannibalism, but not these last two. Any more than I can glorify the Nazis I've written about; I either take the piss out of them, as with Strasser, or just step outside of their politics and bring them into the land of happy sexings like with von Kolb, with the aim of dragging him out of that madness and leaving it behind.)

-Hot single parent(s) (Please. Rundvik: "You love children." Torsten: "I loooooathe themm.")

-Unrequited pining (Too much of an emotional squick. Has to be requited. I write fanfic to fix things, to avenge wrongs, to set things right. I don't write them to make the characters more miserable than they already are. Unless it's for temporary, character-development purposes, that is.)

#writing #meta #personal #meme #and no #idk what's up with the extra spaces in the formatting either

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some-flyleaves · 6 years

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So! This is Flynn Smith, aka an oc of mine who 1) isn’t directly based on an established canon character (nameless NPCs don’t count), 2) isn’t being “officially” used anymore, and 3) has a decent amount of story that, thanks to point #2, I’m just gonna casually write out to the best of my memory. Buckle up, kiddos, it’s time for DUMP! THAT! INFO!

pre-TFE

The earliest version of Flynn was “unnamed grunt C” and... I kinda forget what his original purpose was, actually. But he was supposed to be a stereotypical charmer, voted most likely to fanboy over Team Flare to the end of his days. At some point he picked up the placeholder name Casey, then Adrian/Adrien (never managed to get the a/e consistent), and the surname Smith. Surname was also supposed to be a placeholder but it was so perfectly generic it stuck.

I’d need to revisit <2016 versions of the storyline to know for certain what he did, but he was a one-scene wonder. More on that below.

If you have no idea what TFE is, the short version is that it’s a Pokemon XY-based “nuzlocke” comic that ran strongly 2016-2017, petered out, and has been sorta-kinda canceled. I don’t intend to pick it back up in its current state, but I would like to publicize as much as I had planned as possible. Someday. Eventually. Because why not.

Said plans weren’t 100% solid start to finish, hence the uncertain status of various developments.

The Firebird Effect

This constitutes of a majority of Flynn’s development, including his current name--and I’d be lying if I said he didn’t get a significant amount of character development courtesy oc chats with @phyllored. At first he was still a one-scene wonder, and then he took over roles that grunts A or B would’ve filled. As of the “final” version of the plot he had 2 scenes set in stone and a few ideas that may or may not have made it onscreen.

His first appearance might have been during a “filler” scene around Route 8/Cyllage City. As the main characters move out, focus swings over to him, as he ignores his girl of the week in favor of an “emergency” text from the head of Team Flare*. The text informs recruits that a recent incident at Glittering Cave was unplanned, and anyone with information is encouraged to divulge ASAP. Furthermore, in an effort to repair public impression of the Team, an awareness memorial--

*For what it’s worth, Team Flare got a major overhaul in TFE, and later got renamed entirely as the Fleur Foundation. It warrants an infodump of its own, probably, but for clarity’s sake I’ll use “Team Flare” exclusively here.

The girl interrupts to declare she’s done. Close curtain on the redhead begging for her back.

Flynn’s first major appearance (and originally his only scene), still as an unnamed Flare recruit, is on Route 10. Unlike the previous scene, he’s in full uniform now, and is one of several grunts standing among the ancient stones. Most are paying tribute to the monuments in some way, with a few trying to get the attention of passerby; Flynn is easily the most enthusiastic of the latter.

Serena enters the scene shortly after strife with her pokemon encourages her to double down on not battling, which has led to deeper investigation into Flare’s true motives. She approaches Flynn at random and barely has time to get her “research project” story out--he’s thrilled to have an audience. (See first image, middle right doodle.) He explains that Flare and only Flare remembers that these rocks aren’t just mysterious tourist attractions, among other factoids from the mission briefing, all the while getting much too close for comfort.

When Serena finally tries to excuse herself, Flynn recognizes her from reports on the Glittering Cave incident and buckles down on keeping her around. The encounter is intercepted by a figure in a trenchcoat, who grills Flynn and pulls Serena aside. He insists he was only informing a curious youth, ma’am, no issue! The scene changes with Flynn moving to the next hapless tourist.

Less a scene and more a canon occurrence that may or may not have been onscreen: at a Lumiose cafe (not named Lysandre but sponsored by him, as indicated by background details), Flynn discusses Team Flare’s recent mishaps with his roommate and (on Flynn’s end) close friend Ren. (This got drawn ages ago, albeit with meme dialogue.) He’s pissed that the Team he considers family has started going to shit, between the Glittering Cave incident leading to several arrests and other rumors of a secret group within the group. Furthermore, no one seems to actually care about this; the rumor mill churns and the oldies roll their eyes, but no one’s willing to do a damn thing about it. But fear not! He has a lead, and he’s gonna check it out first chance he gets.

Ren, who’s working behind the counter, is silent throughout. Flynn pays no mind to their lack of response.

Within the week, half of Lumiose City goes black, including the area with Ren's apartment. Flynn is gone, but he left a note saying he’s gonna check it out. Ren turns on the radio and is caught up to speed: At the Power Plant in Lumiose Badlands, uniformed members of Team Flare have taken workers hostage and are refusing authorities entry. They claim they’ll surrender without resistance as soon as the lights go on.

Serena is one of several forming a crowd around the Power Plant when she receives an anonymous note: “Meet me [nearby, setting pending] or your secret will be MINE alone no longer ;)”

Surprise, it’s Flynn, and though he’s grinning he is infuriated. He ignores questions and dumps his backstory: once upon a time he was an everyday office worker, and then his boss was murdered and he got framed because he got mad at her the day before, the bitch. But rather than waste away in prison, he found his saving light in Team Flare. No, they’re not a cult--the Team takes in those who society has rejected and transforms them into someone beautiful. And despite recent mishaps, they are certainly not criminals--not that Serena can judge.

Serena’s not the only one who can do research. Flynn knows she was not only present the night of the mine collapse, right below Vaniville, but caused its downfall.

Major plot hole alert: I never figured out exactly how Flynn learned this. The cafe scene might have provided some insight, but eventually this was sorta-remedied (among other unrelated issues) by merging Flynn and Ren’s characters. Again, another tangent for another time. Point is, he knows the Dark Secret, and Serena is not happy.

Neither is Flynn, of course. His smile drops as he says someone very close to him died in that little “incident,” and he would be very happy to see Serena dead. Throughout the scene he has her cornered both verbally and physically, and at this point her back’s against a wall/cliff/[other relevant setting detail]. (See top image, 2017 doodle.)

However! Flynn is a forgiving person. Even though she actually killed people, he’s associated with worse. That’s the beauty of Team Flare--they don’t care who you are, just who you can become. And you, Serena Johnson, would fit right in. Flynn bemoans the current state of the Team, then reveals he called Serena here not to attack but ally with her. Between the mine and other disasters she’s participated in, surely she knows something he doesn’t.

Serena, to put it nicely, fucking hates this proposal. She sics her team on Flynn, though they hesitate upon realizing Flynn has no pokemon of his own; he can’t put up a fight. Serena flees for the Power Plant, and the team follows; Flynn is left shaken, maybe incapacitated, but still alive.

Flynn probably should’ve had a scene or at least mention between that and the following sequence, but nothing was developed. Jumping forward a few days, Flynn is next seen back in the cafe, specifically above it--the cafe is the bottom floor of a nameless skyscraper. He and Ren are patrolling the building as night security guards--not their usual jobs by a long shot, but the Team is having issues and someone’s gotta do it.

As the doodle sequence above may indicate, this... does not end well. Flynn loses track of Ren at some point, and by the time he catches up, he finds the space doused in gasoline. When he opens the door, he’s greeted to a wave of flame as the building is set ablaze.

R.I.P. Flynn Smith 199x-2013.

current status

As mentioned above, Flynn and Ren’s characters were eventually combined, but they’re distinct enough to not get scrapped entirely--or at least Flynn is. Other characters have picked up many of Ren’s traits by now, but Flynn still has his niche as token straight white dudebro with a flair for the dramatic.

Which brings us to the present day, where Flynn is... dubiously involved in that one side story I keep posting about that still needs a got dang name. I say “dubiously” because a LOT of this story is under heavy construction, and while I’ve definitely been entertaining the idea of his involvement, it’s not super likely he’ll be central--if he stays in at all. But who knows, stuff’s changing.

For all intents and purposes:

He meets Nico (ponytail dude, see last doodle) and they’re, like, not gay at all, man. Flynn is screaming #NOHOMO the whole time.

Actually, Flynn is interested in Nico primarily for Nico’s girlfriend. Flynn does not get to see Nico’s girlfriend often and that makes Flynn sad, but at least Nico’s fun to hang around. (Nico’s girlfriend seems to hate Flynn’s guts, actually. She seems to hate everyone’s guts. Flynn is not dissuaded.)

The Flynn/Nico introduction may or may not take place 1) at a gay bar, 2) courtesy mutual friend Ava (ringlets gal), and 3) with Flynn not having lost a trace of his TFE-era “hello stranger, let me tell you about my life and problems!” chattiness. Nico could not give less of a shit but at least someone’s filling the silence.

miscellaneous factoids

Flynn’s hairstyle is modeled after the Team Flare logo, right down to the weird split sideburns. It also happens to realistically look like fucking Cr1TiKaL. This was a recent realization, again courtesy phyllored, and I’m still not over it.

Yes, it’s dyed that orange. This... may or may not stay; no Flare, no reason to pick that hue. It feels so Iconic(TM) but I should probably get used to his natural brown.

His original height was 6′00″ (to parallel Serena, who’s 5′00″) but nowadays it’s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I never did develop that close friend of Flynn’s who died in the mine. Flynn and Ren’s relationship, however, has gotten significant development. Which is a bit of a shame because Ren is kinda more of a beta [merged guy] than their own character at this point, but no one aid I can’t recycle dynamics, too.

His voiceclaim is Ivan Alexander from the game Bully. There used to be a video of all Ivan voiceclips on YouTube but it seems to have been deleted and this makes me sad. Thankfully I have a copy of the audio saved; part of it can be heard in this old animation.

For all his shittalk, Flynn could never actually kill someone. If he could be summed up in one word it would be “fake.”

#there would be images below the readmore too but I'm too lazy to dig up the REALLY old stuff #anyway shout out to the people who find this loser attractive because it is 99.9999% your ''fault'' this happened. You Know Who You Are #for lack of a doodle tag #The Firebird Effect #rewritten roommates #coniferous vines

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ibythetidepromotions · 4 years

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An interview with Wormhole

Thank you for your time, Could you introduce yourselves to the readers?

Noni: Thank you so much for having us! I am Sanil Kumar, but everyone calls me Noni. I play guitar in Wormhole.

Ansh : Hello, you FILTHY readers, I'm Ansh, I've been the vocalist for Wormhole for about two years now, as well as guitar for Noisays, Codex Orhova and Perihelion.

Sanjay : I am Sanjay, I play guitar in Wormhole as well as Equipoise and Greylotus

How did Wormhole come to be?

Noni : Wormhole started sometime in 2015 between Sanjay and I, but really this band has been together for a lot longer than that. We’d known each other and been playing music together for a while but stopped for a bit in 2015. At that time Sanjay and I just write and release some music of our own. We saw how other slam bands at the time were making music in their homes and were able to cultivate a cult following through social media and Slam Worldwide and we thought if we could get a small following like that it would have been really cool if we could manage to get a couple people into our music.

So Sanjay and I had some doodles from our old band(s) that we more or less put together for an album and released it under the name Wormhole. Since it was just the two of us at that time, we needed to find a vocalist. We ended up having Duncan Bentley from Vulvodynia do most of the vocals. This must have been right after he finished recording his parts for their album Psychosadistic Design. That resulted in Genesis which was released in 2016.

Ansh: Back in the day we had a comedy slam band called Rotting Phallus that we all left except the vocalist. Later, Sanjay and Sanil used some of their Rotting Phallus tracks, wrote some new tracks, and released Genesis under the name Wormhole. Matt and I joined the band again and we started to really find our sound. New and improved, now with ugly-ol' BASIL, all has been smooth sailing!

Sanjay: Technically Wormhole was originally a ‘comedy slam band’ in 2014 called Rotting Phallus. Noni, Ansh, Matt and I were all a part of this. The band kind of died and we stopped being a band because we had a toxic asshole vocalist who we all hate now. When the band died noni and I got duncan and recorded all the OG Rotting Phallus tunes under the name Wormhole.

On the start of 2020 you guys released ‘The Weakest Among Us’ the cover art reminds me of a boss fight about to happen in some Doom/Halo-esque battle, what is the story behind the cover art?

Noni: You’re kinda close haha. The cover was inspired by the Metroid Prime series. We are super inspired by those games in more ways than one. There is a cut scene before a boss battle in one of the games that we based the cover art off of. We’ve been really inspired by the soundtrack too. It sets such a cool vibe.Sanjay and I grew up playing those games, and we’ve played them over and over. The universe, atmosphere, character design, everything about those games is so cool to us. Pretty metal. If it weren’t for those games I don’t know what I would make this band about.

Ansh: Sanjay and Sanil are BIG and STUPID nerds who like SPACE and other SILLY THINGS like METROID PRIME and ANIME.

Sanjay: Metroid Prime is the main source of visual and lyrical inspiration, but I love Doom (especially Doom 3) and you can tell I think Mancubus looks brutal as fuck.

youtube

Since the world is at a standstill for the foreseeable future and you released ‘The Weakest Among Us’ on the top of 2020 how hard has it been to get the word out about the album since no one can tour currently?

Noni: It has been really shitty having tours cancelled and not being able to promote the album properly, but we also know that we are not the only ones in this boat so there is no sense in complaining I feel. Social media is our friend though and people still seem to be pretty responsive to the album anyway.

It seems like going forward, bands are going to have to figure out how to do this anyway. So, if Wormhole (or any band) isn’t really working out because we can’t tour, then we have to figure something out.

Ansh: In general I've been happy with the online support but not being able to tour is beyond frustrating. As tough as it can be at times, touring is kinda like the celebration of your music and all the hard work you put into it, so not being able to get that live show release is truly devastating. Compounded with the potential fans we could have made and merch we could have sold, it's more than a bummer. But all the love and support the record has gotten online has also been one of the only things keeping me sane whilst I'm stuck in my house.

Sanjay: It’s definitely not as easy since touring is one of the main ways to reach new audiences but it’s not as hard when you have some dedicated fans who genuinely love spreading some Wormhole gospel. Those fans are the realest MVPs in these trying times.

I always find it fascinating when the band's cover art describes what the album is going to sound like, when talking to the artist how do you project your ideas out of your head coherent enough to be understood?

Sanjay: We kind of got lucky with Lordigan (the artist of both covers) on Genesis. We were kind of winging it and knew we just wanted a slam monster album cover. We had some help from my bud Ryan Wolanski on getting the colors we wanted as well. With TWAU I had a general idea of the color scheme and setting we wanted. Lordigan was very aware of the Doom/Space Marine aesthetic so it was not hard to communicate. Our album cover is not really a reflection of the music I would say because we kind of just pick what we want because it’s cool and we’ve seen similar things work for other bands.

Ansh: I usually just get an artist I really love and ask them to listen to the music and draw whatever comes to them, but maybe that's why I'm not allowed to do merch for Wormhole.

Noni: We just tried to be specific and nit-picky. The most important thing for our artwork was to have a center focus, the classic slam monster, with a few other things to look at in the background/foreground. The album’s production wasn’t going to be super futuristic and modern, so the color scheme kind of reflected that. We wanted more browns to dominate the image, to give a bleak and miserable vibe. We went to Lordigan Pedro Sana for both of our albums and he was super responsive to every change we wanted to make. The best thing for them is a reference in my experience, especially if you can find something in artwork they made to use as a reference.

I see the album artwork as just as big a part of the album as any of the songs or riffs. The way I see it, both the music and the artwork and song titles all work together to create a vibe and atmosphere. They need to feed into each other. Not only that, they need to somehow stand out from the other million extreme metal records being released everywhere. It’s really important and one of the places I see newer/local bands cutting corners or not going all in, and maybe settling for something that isn’t stellar.

Crowdkill Apparel has some of the most unique merch options I've seen from car seat cover to a shower curtain, when given the opportunity what would be the weirdest merch you guys would like to release?

Noni: I would love to see the Wormhole logo on a cereal box. I imagine our cereal would have marshmallows.

Ansh: A bong??? A worm shaped bong??? Like from the first album??? Or maybe a big spikey worm dildo/butt plug??? Done tastefully OBVIOUSLY.

Sanjay: Wormhole weed called “The Dankest Among Us”. Any weed paraphernalia honestly like rolling papers and some Wormhole glass. We did a small run of grinders before which was cool.

With the state of the world that it is currently, touring as you would of guessed is a no go, Suicide Silence they have the right idea about having a virtual “world tour” where the show is streamed has the touring bug been bad enough to where you’ve considered this?

Noni: I think rather than trying to make “touring” work, we are going to try to put out content that is a little more practical for people to enjoy. Music analysis, lessons, playthroughs, stuff like that. Comedic or podcasty type stuff where people get to know the band members and develop some kind of a personal relationship with them despite not being able to meet with any of our fans in person. Not everyone who listens to this stuff plays an instrument or makes music, so we want to put something out that engages with that group as well.I’m sure we’ll do some full band stuff too, but not everything will just be us playing the songs. I think in this current era, and consequently the future, bands will have to do much more than just play their music to get out there. It was already kind of like that but now I think the big emphasis isn’t really on the music anymore. I think it will be kind of analogous to how gaming consoles used to be all about gaming. But now your Xbox or Playstation has to be able to have Netflix and YouTube and still regularly release and develop games over time.

Ansh: My other band Noisays was recently part of Mathcore Index Fest, the fest raised a reasonably sizeable donation for the Justice for George Floyed and Breonna Taylor Relief Fund, and it was sick to hang in a chatroom with a bunch of homies that i would be chilling with at the show. It was sick to do something good, share music and connect with friends and fans but virtual life is never going to be the same as real life to me. Whether it's teaching online, hanging out with people on video chat, or attending a virtual show, it's always just gonna be virtual and it'll never be a replacement for real life, to me at least. So please do everything you possibly can to make sure WE CAN COME PLAY FOR YOU ASAP.

Sanjay: I don’t think we can compare ourselves to Suicide Silence because our fanbases are vastly different. I would hope we could do something like that but i definitely don’t think we are at a point where it would make sense. Would be fun though.

Dream tour with Wormhole on the bill?

Noni: For the band obviously we just want to go out with the big boys like Obscura or The Black Dahlia Murder or Thy Art for our egos. But for my satisfaction I would want Wormhole to play with Dethklok just because Sanjay and I worship Brendon Small. Dude is a fucking genius and clearly has something figured out that neither of us do. Defeated Sanity would be on there too. If we’re talking defunct bands as well, I would want Necrophagist and/or Death in there somewhere too. But the real dream would for us to tour with Metallica and just play in Metallica and it’s also 1991.

Ansh: Warped Tour and we play right before All Time Low or some shit like that, Old Town Road guy opens right before us and does all the remixes. Miles Davis joins Limp Bizkit for the headlining set.

Sanjay: I would want to be direct support for Gojira. That’s all really. I think a bunch of bands (including Wormhole) have a lot to learn about the energy they project live and I would love to be a part of their show.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers before we go?

Noni: If there is some crazy guitar player or musician out there that you really admire and put on a pedestal you should understand that you are capable of literally anything that person is. That guy may have some special X factor but that is really only like 10% of it. The other 90% is the hardwork. Also thanks for reading and supporting and all that. It is really sick and cool and makes us feel good.

Ansh: Play and listen to lots of music, work stupid hard, and do whatever the fuck you want, the only people that'll say you can't do it are lazy as FUCK. Fuck'em.-ANSH OUT.

Sanjay: tech-slam

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