#got xaa in his FEELINGS

[xaallo]

A belated Valentine's Day gift for Xaa will be Nicholas dressed in his Marg suit with a salt lick wrapped in a bow because he's not really sure what else Xaa wants or needs on this human holiday of affection.

There’s a bit of alarm seeing Nicholas in the guise, which they hadn’t tested beforehand yet since he’d gotten it December. Xaallo fusses over his mate before and only notices the hardness of salt block pressing against his body when everything seems to be in order.

Nicholas might not’ve been aware, but this was in truth, two gifts. For a moment, he simply stares at the other dumbly, taking in his jet fur, his blue eyes. It was the first time he’d seen another Margaven other than his parents. Or himself in reflections on the water.

Gently, almost with a reverence, he bunts his head against the much smaller margaven, voice warm and honeyed with his affection,

“Nicholas, you’re so beautiful. I love you.” 

#ask #got xaa in his FEELINGS #matteblackstars

[augurhound-a]

❓ both for xaa :3c

9.5/10

02 loves Xaallo, das his bf. :] There's a problem, and it's that Xaallo is stupid and angry which is a dangerous combination, and the fact that Xaallo is so outspoken about his disdain for his family, after everything they've gone through to keep this planet (and ironically Xaallo's Confederation) safe doesn't help things. He feels like he can't trust him to make the right and sensible decisions. But he does trust Xaallo to be able to change his mind, given time, attention, therapy, and care, and that's where the big dent comes in. He loves him enough to trust that Xaallo can, eventually, be better, and get better--after all, someone took that risk with him, and 02 likes to think he got better despite him. He knows that if he was in Xaallo's position, beaten and broken and wronged again and again, lashing out from maladaptive rage and trauma and a myriad of other issues, a lot more people would be dead right now.

There's a lot of issues, but 02 believes that they can make it something good. He doesn't believe HUSK and Xaallo would have talked at least somewhat cordially otherwise, and there wouldn't be this nuance if the issue was entirely one sided. It's messy and it's imperfect and it isn't always sunshine and rainbows, but when 02 loves people, he loves them even when they aren't being convenient to him, and he's willing to stick it out and fight like hell for it because he trusts Xaallo to do the same.

Which leads to what 02 trusts the most, which is that Xaallo does love him. He knows he doesn't have to worry about his partner hurting him or betraying him, because he knows that Xaa adores him to the stars and back, and he knows that he's smart enough to learn from his mistakes, even if it takes a little time. It's not every day you meet someone who promises you the moon and the stars behind it with all the galaxies in his eyes when he says it. It helps that Xaa is too big of a jarhead to be able to lie better than 02 is smart.

For being an alien, Xaallo, ironically, is the only thing 02's 100 percent sure he can understand. His life is a confusing chaotic mess right now, but Xaallo is a beacon of transparency. This is what he's getting, and it's not perfect, but there's no ulterior motives, no horrid secrets to unearth, something that he can comprehend, and that comforts him so much to think about. He really thinks that once the war is over, if they're all still alive, they can start the first steps to building something that can not only last, but something that can be beautiful too.

3/10

It's nothing personal--Xaa is a patient and 04 knows that their relationship has an inherent power imbalance that they can't ever cross because it would be unprofessional. 02 adores him but that means very little to 04. He likes Xaa's brother, but he views Xaallo as a troubled kid with issues to him deeper than just "he's a raging affluent narcissist with tantrum issues". Four is a doctor--he knows that these problems don't arise from nowhere, and so anything Xaallo says to him he doesn't take personally.

It frustrates him sometimes how Xaallo flipflops with treatment--some days he really seems like he's getting better, then others he goes and he shoots someone. Some days he's open to making amends, others he gets murderous ideations. The instability makes Four wonder if he's even taking this seriously sometimes. However, again, Four is a doctor, and he knows that these things take time. What is he supposed to do, undo thousands of years of trauma in three months?

It's complex. Xaallo is a tough case to crack and he doesn't make things easier. Until Four feels like he's really willing to cooperate, he can't trust him to make the hard and big decisions on the road to recovery. And until Xaallo decides that not every hill is worth dying on, it's going to be difficult, too.

#xaallo #◊ ooc. #◊ ask. #anyway 02 be like -loves his bf- -loves his bf- -loves h

[withered-rose-unbreakable-lotus]

Hey, what do you think is behind the decline in interest in VK in the West? It’s ridiculous how much the fandom has died down. Is it just because of the rise of kpop and the general decline in interest in all sorts of rock? Or are other factors at play - like how toxic the fandom could be?

In my opinion, kpop doesn’t really have much to do with it. People liked visual kei because it was different. What I think is responsible, because I’ve seen many fans admitting they grew out of it because of it, is a list of things (bear with me, it’s gonna be long):

1) disbands: While disbands were always a big thing in the visual kei scene, with more and more people translating stuff for fans and, bands getting on social media used by mostly western fans, like facebook and twitter, more western fans were exposed to how often this actually happens. Some fans maybe thought that visual kei is dying because of it, but truth is, disbands were always there, with smaller bands we might have never heard of, because there was sooo little information for us back then. Also, many big names in the visual kei scene have disbanded the last 5 years, which is why many fans thought that putting so much devotion and spending money on sth that could be destroyed at any moment isn’t worth it. For example (I am sorry if I am not wording this well ^^’), I knew fans who left vkei because they were tired of liking a band and then these bands kept disbanding. There is no stability. American artists and kpop artists do not break up or retire that easily, you know? And some fans want that stability or become too hearbroken when having lost a band they’ve been supporting for 10 years, or sth, and don’t want to go through that anymore (it might sound a little bit too much or dramatic, but there are fans out there who genuinely feel things about these bands, they have found some short of shelter in them and their music, so losing that band might hurt a lot and the best way to move on is by cutting ties with anything like them). In my case, this is the reason I barely like new bands anymore. I like finding newbies and keeping an eye on them but I do not actively follow them unless I am convinced they are in it for the long run. And honestly, so far, I’ve been lucky with this, because most of the people I chose to follow are still around, either as bandmen or sth else, or trying with new bands that I happen to like. Of course, I have lost some favorites too but I get it. It’s a hard life to live and, some people eventually change their mind, but not every fan feels this way and if they do, they try to “retire“ from the whole thing like their favorite artists and move on with their life. (I am in no way saying that a bandman shouldn’t leave his band when he feels like it, even if he is 20 years active. It’s their life, their rules and we should all respect that, but it seems to be hard for many people to do so, sometimes)

2) fandom. Like you mentioned, fandoms can be toxic. It happens with every fandom, though, not just visual kei, so I wouldn’t like to point fingers, especially because I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of my best friends through the fandom, most of whom aren’t even in it anymore. :P I can tell you with certainty that our lack of translators is entirely the fandom’s fault, though. People just don’t get what reblog or share with credits means and some people grow tired of it, you know? Contrary to common belief, translating a video of 30 minutes or an entire interview might take someone more than just a day, maybe even a week, and if people don’t respect that, then unfortunately the translator has to cut being nice to everyone and continue being a fan in privacy (they don’t get paid for this, they got their jobs, their families, but still wish to spend time sharing sth they love with others and helping them learn more about it through translating, even though, between us, some of those translations are illegal because we need permission to translate magazine stuff etc (a visual kei artist once said that, saying yes translations are great but guys be careful because some things are copyrighted and you might get in trouble), but some people just wish to take and take without helping others get to the initial source to find out more, too. I think there are still many visual kei fans out there, they just no longer blog about it because they want to enjoy it by themselves and without the negativity and opinions of anyone else. I started as a private fan for example. I liked fangirling on my own, I didn’t want anyone to intervene with that because it was my sole way of having fun, I didn’t want anyone to ruin it for me, but eventually, I wanted to help the bands spread their info beyond their social media and I am currently running 3 fanpages, 1 of which is on hiatus. I still get shit while doing that, by the way, there are still know-alls among us but I am not going to let anyone spoil it for me. So to cut everything short, I think that fandom could have played its role as to why so many left and why those of us left, became so quiet.3) Some people might bite for this one but it’s a mixture of “Mainstream“ and “platform“. I believe the best people to talk about this are old-schoolers. When bands like A9 and the Gazette entered the scene, most old school visual kei fans had already started barking about the fact those bands were copying their predecessors and that they don’t really make cool music (they were making shallow stuff for their tastes, aka mainstream stuff). Truth is that, fans of that “new/2nd generation“ visual kei era are acting like old-schoolers did, when their faves came out, to the newbies coming out now, aka people following bands like Xaa Xaa or Kizu. But if you pay close attention you might notice this: When bands like A9 and the Gazette came about, old schoolers seemed to be very few among us, weren’t they? Many seemed to have disappeared and given up, because to them, visual kei was dead. Honestly, I follow many old schoolers right now. They are still around. They just don’t fangirl as loud as the rest of us do. They stick to old pics and the occasional updates from visual kei artists of that time that are still active like Sugizo, Malice Mizer members, Buck-Tick members, etc. This is what I see happening now too. There are still people listening to visual kei of the 2000s. They just aren’t loud enough and the new fans of visual kei are more present on twitter than here or facebook. Why? Because visual kei bands are also on twitter now and they can immediately fangirl on the posts of their favorites by retweeting the pics. (It also adds that some visual kei artists reply to those retweets either with words or likes) So yeah, I think we are few here now because many have moved to twitter and also because new bands sound mainstream to us fans of bands from the 2000s.

4) the Visual Kei scene. Ok, I am not that sure about this but I think it plays a role to this somehow. There are several visual kei artists that claimed visual kei is dead the last few years. I won’t name who cuz only one name comes to mind right now, but I know I had read it from many more people. I don’t know how the visual kei scene is like in Japan right now, but I know there are more bands forming than in the past, most of which are not serious about it (see bands disband within a year). This happened in the past, too, I don’t know to what extent though, but we didn’t know about those as much as those who actually had sth to say and still do to this day. I’ve heard artists complain that the new kids entering the scene have no concept. That all they care about is looking cool and nothing else. They are lucky to have more means of promoting their stuff, though. Twitter reaches out to western fans, some bands get a music video from their first release and maybe cool costumes from their first release, things that bands of older times would beg for, when they started. And still these kids do not use those means as creatively as they could so, they fail to impress the old fans enough to get an active following that fangirls about them everywhere. Not all new bands. But most. Like, Kizu, for example seem to have a vision (i am not their fan by the way, I have just seen some of their stuff and they seem to be in it for real). So, the result of all this, is fans getting bombarded by 100 new bands each year and having hard time sticking to anything. So they just retweet sth and comment about it and that’s it. They do not get into long talks about music or concept or anything because most of these bands have no concept. I dunno, I think it plays a role. And also, sth that I hadn’t thought about and was also brought up on twitter. Some big venues have closed in Japan the last two years and due to the big amount of bands wishing to perform, they are all struggling to find dates to perform. In other words, there is so much competition right now that if you aren’t a big name by now, you gotta wait in line for scheduling your lives. One of my favorite bands was like “yeah no live this week, everything was closed.“ and I was surprised. Also big events have stopped happening. I don’t know if you had experienced that but there was a time Nico Nico, the channel had several bands hosting their own shows. It was mostly PSC bands that did that but due to tough schedule it stopped. There was also the Xmas live, a festival with many bands which was broadcasted each year and that I’ve heard nth about the last two years. The show does still happen they just don’t broadcast it anymore. There was another festival called Stylish Wave. That stopped being broadcasted too so many events that were broadcasted for free are no longer happening so this is why I am saying that we’ve lost lots of the hype from Japan’s side too. I knew so many people who were looking forward to such events and then we’d all gif everything and translate stuff. It’s no longer there though. Only one interview show is still broadcasted on Nico Nico for free, the rest is paid stuff.

So yeah, all in all, these are the basics that I think played an important role in losing western fandoms. Of course, this is just my opinion, many people might disagree. Thank you for the question, I am always glad to exchange opinions on visual kei stuff. ^^

#mdp #reply #answered

[symeraid-s]

2021 Retrospective: Artist of the Year

ONF (Beautiful Beautiful, Ugly Dance, POPPING, Goosebumps)

As somebody who spend half of 2020 getting into ONF, seeing them get their deserved first win with Beautiful Beautiful was just… beautiful. The other three comebacks they had this year were also great. Ugly Dance is solid, POPPING is a great refreshing summer bop (with people dying in the MV) and Goosebumps came out of nowhere with a very undeterminable chorus and closed out an amazing year for them. They really had a great run and I hope they can continue this after their return from the military.

Honourable Mentions:

xaa-xaa (Gogatsu-byo, Ju Gatsu Itsuka Getsuyobi Barabara)

This band is the only Visual Kei band on my radar that seems to still be releasing music. The songs they released this year are all good and somehow this always surprises me, despite them releasing Bangers annually. I hope 2022 marks the time, where I’m not surprised anymore (I doubt it).

SHINee (Don’t Call Me, Atlantis, Superstar & Advice, BAD LOVE, Heartbreak)

SHINee finally came back from military, released an album, a repackage and a Japanese single, all in the span of six months and then Taemin enlisted. Yet somehow, their presence was still strong in the second half of 2021. Minho got back into acting, making history by playing a gay character in a K-Drama, being casted into two more dramas before the year ended. He also released a solo single. And Key released his mini album BAD LOVE, which is just full of bangers. And they did all off that while flirting on Instagram.

TXT (0x1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You), LO$ER=LO♡ER, Frost)

In 2020 I finally understood the hype around Stray Kids. This year, I finally understand the hype around TXT. Their concept of changing positions in the group with each comeback is unique and allows all of the members to show off equally. The musical direction they took this year also helped. Both 0x1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You) and LO$ER=LO♡ER are absolute Bangers (despite having dumb names) and feel like something not many other groups could pull off.

PURPLE KISS (Can We Talk Again, Ponzona, Zombie, Cast Pearls Before Swine)

Nominating a rookie group for AOTY? Yes, if it is PURPLE KISS. Both their debut and first Comeback were just impressive. They don’t sound or act like rookies at all. It really seems like they already spend years in this industry. I really hope they can do even more great stuff in 2022.

#disclaimer: just my opinion #2021 retrospective #onf #xaa-xaa #shinee #txt #tomorrow x together #purple kiss #part 2 of ??? #next up: Album of the Year #but different #again i'm sorry