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stxrliasfics · 1 year

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Catharsis - Jamie Campbell Bower Smut

Pairing: rockstar gn!reader x jamie (enemies to lovers kinda sorta ???)

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 5.3k

(just now realizing i never explained: D/N stands for “Drummer’s name” and B/N stands for “Bassist’s name” sorry just in case you were confused LMAO)

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A/N: I have returned from hiatus with something new!!! To start off the new year, I present to you this wonderful masterpiece that was really intended for my two beautiful friends (they're big Jamie enthusiasts!)

Some say it’s better to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That was utter bullshit to you. And maybe you were too callow to seemingly miss the meaning, but if your enemies were burning alive right in front of you, you wouldn’t even piss on the fire to put them out. Especially if it were Jamie Bower.

You’ve known him since you joined your band, replacing the former lead guitarist. There was limited interaction between you two from the start. 5 years since then and there has still never been a praising comment from him. It was always constant nitpicking at your solos or the way you played your parts entirely. He didn’t want to cooperate with you at all. You’ve come to realize that.

“You two need to get it together,” said your bandmate, D/N. The morning had started off just fine at rehearsal until Jamie was yelling about you continuously missing a note. “We have two more days until we play this fucking show and you’re acting like babies.”

Jamie glared your way as if the message was really intended for you. As if YOU were the problem. You glared right back at him, mentally boring holes into his skull with your bandmates in the crossfire of tension.

He took the strap of his guitar off his shoulders, threw the instrument down, and muttered something as he stomped off stage.

“Dick,” you called. The sound engineers came running with their clipboards and exasperated looks on their faces.

“Can someone go after him? We’ve barely made it through set,” One of them argued — a burly bald guy with a prominent Yorkshire accent. D/N hurried off the stage in pursuit of Jamie. You turned the volume off on your guitar, set it by the wall of amps, and sat down on a stool. Truly at a loss, you didn’t know which direction to take. You didn’t want to stay somewhere you weren’t welcome. Five years was long enough — but you couldn’t just give up that easily. You didn’t want to be seen as weak, you didn’t want to sulk around anymore and hope to gain the approval of someone so cruel. So you got up and turned your guitar back up.

When D/N came back with no Jamie in sight, relieving air filled your lungs. Your body relaxed.

“Come on, we’ve got a show to play, yeah?” You put your guitar strap back over your shoulder.

“But Jamie—,” B/N started.

“He ran off somewhere,” said D/N. “Got in his car and drove off.”

“We can practice without him,” you said, turning to the sound engineers. “Go on. We’re ready.”

The last few days of rehearsal surprisingly went by with no problems. There was a “Hurry up and get it done” frame of mind settling into everyone, so there was no time for Jamie to start throwing a tantrum. Neither of you two looked at each other for those last few days. You focused your energy more on your excitement for the big day as you stared out into the stadium, imagining all of the bright faces drunk on echoing notes ringing their ears. Everything was good until the show on Thursday.

For more content catered to the fans, you thought it would be a good idea to strap a tiny camera to your forehead, showing a different point of view of your playing. The headband that held the camera was unbearable. So much so that you could feel the elastic digging into your skin, itching below your hairline. Refraining from clawing at your skin, you kept your focus on your fingers dancing on the fretboard and the stinging in your muscles.

During the last song of the night, the last hurrah for the closing show, your eyes closed briefly and your body was thrown into the shockwave of the moment. When they opened, smoke carried off your vision and everything felt lighter. Before you knew it, you were flying above clouds of hands carrying you away. The exhilaration pumping cold through your veins, you lost awareness until you were brought back to the forefront. Every piece of you…except for the camera.

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!” Jamie’s yells could’ve been heard all throughout backstage as he stormed after you, face red with anger. The show was done and everyone was starting to pour out.

You whipped around at him. “It was an accident!” The elastic strap was still itching the skin of your forehead.

“Hey, chill out,” said B/N, stepping in the middle with outstretched arms to hold you two apart. Jamie smacked their hand away.

“The camera. They lost the camera!” he was still glaring at you, harder than ever before.

“It was an accident! We can get it back.”

At this point, Jamie had stepped away from the boundary B/N placed and was getting closer to you. Hell’s blaze burned bright in his eyes. “It wouldn’t have gotten lost anyway if you weren’t being such a dumbass.”

“Get out of my face,” your voice dropped low and your eyes hardened. He took some steps back, jaw still clenched, and urged out his last word as always.

“You are the most useless thing that’s ever happened to this band.”

You watched him edge back out to the stage where fans cheered on his return. Your bandmates surrounded you with somber expressions, yet avoided the crossfire.

Apparently, the camera was found, but no one had told you that. When you arrived back to your flat the next morning, you had closed yourself up in your bedroom and slept the pooling anxiety away. Jamie’s words hit right at your pride. Useless rung in your ears to the beat of his tone. And you were really starting to believe that, but there was no way you were letting this continue on any further. Screw Jamie. Screw the band. You were out.

The biting wind of mid-November had come in for another time. Streets were covered in cold rain — normality for England. It had been raining nonstop for a few weeks. Cleary skies seemed rare. Your days lazing around the house were all the more dreary. With your band on a short break, you were left to dwell in your bed. Your final thoughts forced you to make a stomach-churning move — a compulsive decision that could possibly break the bridges.

You were going to talk to Jamie.

The night before, you were pacing the room with your phone in your hand. Every thought that bubbled up into a word didn’t make sense. Every sentence frayed into a mere memory. It would’ve been difficult to get up with him, considering that you two weren’t really on speaking terms. He did reply to your message hours later. With a thumbs up emoji. You started to get irritated but a thumbs up was better than no response at all.

You planned to meet up at a cafe near your flat that morning. It was still rainy, so you made sure to grab an umbrella. You rehearsed everything that you were going to say over in your head, silently mouthing it to yourself as you reached the place. Jamie hadn’t arrived yet. There was no sign of his light blonde hair given. You ordered a small coffee to hold your patience in the meantime.

Heat transferred from the paper cup, warming your frostbitten hands. If it weren’t for all the eyes around you, you would’ve used it to warm your face as well. Possibly fans trying to scope out. Their eyes left you as soon as the cafe’s door jingled and Jamie walked in.

His hair was tied up and he was wearing all black. Standard Jamie attire. Further more, this made him recognizable amongst the teen fans gawking at you two. You could see his hardened demeanor although he tried to be stoic. When he sat down in front of you, your throat had dried up and everything you wanted to say flew south. You went bitch.

“Hi, Jamie,” was all that could come out. It didn’t even sound like you. All shaky and weak. Sometimes confrontation wasn’t your strongest suit. It didn’t help that you couldn’t see his eyes. Was he looking at you or behind you?

“About the camera,” you tried your best not to stutter. “I’m sorry for being ignorant about it.

A short exhale meant to be sarcastic laughter escaped from Jamie. His face stayed blank.

“You’re not going to say anything?” you poked on.

“What do you want me to say?” his voice was foreign. Softer than what you were used to but still housed a cold undertone.

“The way that you’ve been treating me lately. I’d like an explanation for it.”

He looked out of the window with his arms crossed on the table, not saying a word.

“What’s your problem with me, mate? I work my ass off and you act like I do nothing. If the camera thing was the last straw then once again, I apologize. I seriously didn’t mean to do it.”

He looked from the window to the table, watching it in a few seconds of silence. The whole time you watched and waited.

“I don’t have a problem with you,” he said. Thinking you had imagined it, you eyed him in confusion.

“You wouldn’t just shit on me for nothing, then.”

He only gave you a shrug. You probed further.

“What is it? What do I need to change for you to like me?” you hissed. “What’s your problem with me?—”

“Excuse me. We’re big fans of your music,” Two girls who looked like they were no older than 15 came up to your table. “Could we please have a picture?”

“I’m so sorry, we’re in the middle of a private meeting,” you apologized. The girls frowned and issued profuse apologies for interrupting you two before Jamie butted in.

“We can give you our autographs if you have something for us to sign, though!”

Once again you had to do a double take as Jamie was now smiling. He sounded so sweet. Of course, that was the mask always on display for anyone outside of the band. He held a genuine smile when talking to the girls, taking in every word they said to him. When the girls left, however, he returned to his normal self. You wondered how he made it seem so genuine. Maybe he wasn’t just faking it with them.

“So?” you said. He turned back to you.

“So?” he said. That nonchalant tone of voice irked the hell out of you. He didn’t care. Was he even listening to you?

“I want an explanation. An apology. Something!”

Jamie shrugged again. It took all your might not to smack the shit out of him right then and there.

“Fine,” Gritting your teeth in uproaring anger, you began to sit up with your still full coffee in hand. “I’m out of the band.”

You pushed the door to the cafe open, holding back the hard lump in your throat and trying to take a deep breath before it all went out. You had let it all go. Everything you worked hard for. You regretted it, but it didn’t matter. You could get anywhere on your own. Fuck everything.

Ever since that day at the cafe, there had been no contact between you or anyone from the band. Radio silence. It wasn’t until one Saturday evening that B/N called about a party. You had no plans to go out. Still, it wouldn’t have hurt to show your face. You were sure your bandmates hadn’t known about your self-dismissal.

You got ready at 9:00, 15 minutes before you were to meet up with them. Silently, you hoped that a certain someone wouldn’t be there. Really, you didn’t want to face anyone right now. Something about it was too embarrassing.

All of your friends were meeting up at a nightclub. Big and fancy, it was. One of the biggest in the city, perhaps. Only high-profiled people filled it up. Your band had played here before.

It was one of the club's usual busy nights. Anything that you could think of went down here. It was a chance for everyone to go buck wild and let loose for one night before they got up in the morning with a bottle of aspirin and an unkempt tie. For these to be important people in the industry, you’d think they’d be more civilized. Then again, you thought of what industry you were apart of. Yeah. A band manager snorting coke off of a pornstar’s chest wasn’t surprising.

Through sweaty bodies and seizure-inducing lights, you couldn’t see your bandmates at all. You dialed B/N’s number and hoped that they would be able to hear you over the thumping music. During which, some drunk asshole had bumped into you rather harshly, nearly knocking your phone out of your hand. You gave the guy a side-eye and held the phone up to your ear.

“Hey,” B/N’s voice came through the speaker after the second dial tone. “You on your way?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” you yelled over the music. “Where are you?”

“V.I.P. room. It’s at the back,” they said. “Fair warning, though—”

“What?!” you covered one ear with your index finger to try and hear better.

“I’ll just tell you when you come over. I’ll be waiting outside of the curtain.”

Their voice was replaced by the beep of the call ending. You huffed out a sigh of annoyance, still pushing past a bunch of people. You finally saw the V.I.P. lounge and B/N where they said they would be. They waved you over.

“Hey,” you said. This area of the club was quieter since there weren’t any speakers nearby.

B/N looked to be on their toes. You couldn’t put your finger on it. It was like they wanted to tell you something but it wouldn’t get past their lips.

“What’s up?” you spoke again.

“Jamie’s in there,” they said lowly. As soon as those words left their mouth, the purple curtain shielding the V.I.P. lounge drew back. Your eyes shifted to an emerging Jamie holding a giggling person's hand. He didn’t look up at you. Neither of them did. You rolled your eyes.

“So?” B/N said.

“So,” you shrugged. “I’m not going to let that ruin my night.”

Again, you tried to seem nonchalant. In truth, WANTED a reaction. Just a simple glance would do. You wanted to be seen. Maybe just to shoot him an even meaner look than what he would’ve given you. And you knew that he had seen you. Why wasn’t he saying anything? No thoughts on the meeting from a few weeks ago at all?

To further prove your point that you didn’t care (and why would you?), you wasted the night away by downing drinks. Not too many, but enough to get you a little buzzed so that you could take on the rest of what the night would bring. You sat in your invisible bubble at the bar, contemplating exactly why you would care. Why it was so important to get Jamie’s attention. You downed a shot of your drink. It fired up your insides in a quick flash, starting from the tip of your ears and down. There was no use in thinking about this. What more could you do?

Floating into your absent land, the smell of spicy cologne filled your nose. You felt someone lean into you from the side and whisper in your ear.

“I need to talk to you,” the voice said. You turned to see it was Jamie. Shadows danced in his piercing eyes, the same way they did whenever he was trying to be intimidating.

“What do you want?” you said in a monotone.

“Please. I’ll be quick.”

The two of you disappeared to the upstairs lounge in the club. There was a bar up here too, occupied by people having more civilized and controlled conversations. You ambled over to the black couches nearby and took a seat, Jamie sitting beside you. You stayed in awkward silence for what seemed like forever. From beside you, the man was engaged in thought, trying to find something to say. He had his hands clasped as if he were saying a prayer and held it close to his mouth.

I don’t have all day, you mused. His sigh filled your thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” he started off. He wasn’t looking at you. His eyes were trained on the floor.

You waited for more, then said, “How do I know you mean it?”

“No, I do. I really do mean it.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” you said, looking at him. “Remember?”

“I don’t hate you,” he replied. Not at all.”

There was a flash of amusement on your face. That was the only emotion you could find.

With another sigh, he repeated like a broken record, “I don’t hate you, Y/N. Quite the opposite.”

You quirked a brow as if to tell him to go on. He wanted to. His lips were moving as if grasping for something in the air and pulling it to his cords.

“I-I don’t know,” his voice went low.

“You know what, you’re a dickhead,” you took another sip of the sharp tequila. “Good job. Good fucking job.”

“On what?”

“You’re just…so hard to figure out. I don’t get you.”

“I didn’t mean what I said that night. When I said you were useless to the band and all that. That’s not true at all.”

A satisfied grin was urging on your lips as you had gotten what you wanted. You hid it with the rim of your cup. Down went the last drop and you set the cup down.

“I admire you, Y/N,” he went on. “A lot, actually.”

“So what’s up with you being a dick to me then?”

“I guess…I’m jealous of you.”

The way his words edged out so hesitantly, you didn’t believe it. Because why in the world would Jamie Bower be jealous of you? But his demeanor, the softness in his body language — if he were playing a joke on you, he did a damn good job at acting.

“Oh, bullshit,” you said dismissively.

“You’re an amazing guitarist, and you're the most poetic person I've ever met,” he rattled on. “You're everything I want to be and I just...hate that I'm not, I guess. You’re the backbone of our band."

Really looking at him this time, you could tell he meant it. There was sincerity hidden in that black heart of his. You never thought you’d see the day. There was no room in you to take this in.

You stammered, “I—uh—got to get going.”

Jamie shot up from the chair when you did and trailed after you. “Wait, Y/N. You’ve had too much to drink,” he said. “Let me take you home.”

“No, I’m fine.” you waved him off and walked back downstairs. The beating music in the main part of the club filled your ears once more, pounding a headache into your head. You wanted tonight to be a brain fog in the morning. One that you couldn’t remember for a long time. You couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or if it was the praise you always wanted getting to you. Your face was hot and flushed from being flustered as you ran out of the doors. You could sense that he was still following you. His presence loomed over like a shadow.

“Y/N,” you heard him call, proving your suspicion right.

“I’m calling a taxi,” you said, searching your coat pockets for your phone.

“Listen to me. I meant what I said back there. I really, really admire you.”

“That doesn’t just take away the constant hell you’ve been putting me through this whole time,” you argued. “What? Out of envy? Get fucked.” your fingers typed aggressively on the keypads.

“Y/N,” you felt him grab your shoulder and spin around. Your legs turned to jelly from the sudden touch. You hated that. Jamie was so close you could feel nearly every fiber of him. Smoke from the cold night air escaped past his parted lips. “I’m so, so, sorry. Please, if I have to get down on my knees just to keep you in the band then I will. I’m sorry for being so shitty.”

Too nervous to meet his eyes again, you looked to the concrete. Your heart was racing so much, fluttering butterflies trapped in your throat.

“Let me take you home,” he said again. “Please?”

“What happened to your friend from earlier?” you said. The image of them holding hands flashed in your mind.

“Someone to fill up space, I guess,” he muttered. Both of his hands were placed on your shoulders, forcing you to look at him. There was a sense of sudden gravitation towards this man. Something that was so unfamiliar you were questioning yourself. Could you still hate him even after this?

“You really are something, Bower.” your whisper was carried by midnight’s wind.

It was like the space between you was getting tighter. Your eyes traveled to his lips which were half covered by the lights of the nightclub. You didn’t get any closer but paid attention to the way his soft lips moved as he spoke.

“Will you let me take you home?”

You nodded. “I’ll just tell B/N that I went with you then.”

For the first week of the new month, you distracted yourself with music. Your bandmates still knew nothing of you quitting, as far as you knew. Your mind was still consumed with Jamie Bower and that night at the club. How quiet and frail the air seemed during that car ride. How his goodnight made you burn up more than the tequila you were drinking. Everything you did to ignore it didn’t work. You guessed that it could’ve been some obsessive type of thing. What other explanation was there?

Currently, you were stationed at your desk, scribbling down lyrics and humming along to match them. Nothing would work along with these words. You kept scribbling and erasing, scribbling and erasing; until finally, you cracked and threw your pencil at the wall.

You forced yourself out of the chair to go to the fridge. The only thing that could put an end to this madness right now was a bottle of good ‘ole Jack, which you happened to have. Call you careless for drinking so early in the morning, you didn’t give a shit. It was nice and ice cold. Mind-numbing enough to delete whatever it was you tried to explain to yourself.

You slumped down on the couch, watching some talk show when a knock came at your door. You were too lazy to get up and hoped that it was for someone next door.

The knock came again and you grumbled. “Come in!” you shouted.

“It’s locked,” a voice said from behind the door. It seemed you had no other choice. You got up from the couch, annoyed. And much to your dismay upon opening the door, Jamie was there.

“Oh,” you said.

“Can I come in?” he said. He was wearing a black top and a pair of skinny jeans. Sunglasses adorned the top of his head. You nearly dropped the bottle.

“Uh—yeah—sure.”

You stepped aside to let him in, cursing yourself inwardly for somehow manifesting this. How lucky it was to have him show up on the day of your self-concentration.

“I came to check on you,” he then said, answering a question that was just forming in your brain. Was he reading your mind or something? “I hadn’t heard from you in awhile.”

“I’m fine,” you plopped back down on the couch and felt it dip when Jamie sat beside you.

“You told me that you’d call the day after and you never did.”

“Forgot,” you muttered, taking a sip of your drink.

“Jesus, Y/N, it’s only 9 in the morning.”

“Don’t pretend like you care.”

“I do. Or else I wouldn’t have come here.” his cold and calloused fingertips grazed the hand that held the bottle of your ease over and over. You had a faint realization that it would slip out of your grasp, but it didn’t. Something else had caught it while you were under Jamie’s hypnosis. He had the bottle in his hand. You watched him set it down on the coffee table in front of you.

“I still don’t know if I trust you,” you said, half-jokingly.

A small smile formed on his lips when he turned to you. “I understand. I only hope to earn it as time goes on.”

You sensed your lips tugging on to a smile as well and bit the inside of your cheek to hide it.

“You know I do care,” he said, almost in a whisper. He was closer to you now. Like magnets, you were pulled to each other; pulling to the ecstasy that lay in this tension. Only then when your noses were touching, you realized what you were doing. But in his warmth, nothing else mattered. You thought all of the butterflies would be washed away under sweet oak whiskey only to find them return at his touch. Maybe this was a form of trust.

“I’m sorry,” Jamie pulled away immediately. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, don’t,” you said, grabbing his face with both hands to hold on to this last moment. You didn’t want it to end here. Not with how good everything felt in this moment. Your heart was skipping beats. You thought you would go into cardiac arrest. Your whole world was engulfed in Jamie.

When he pulled away a second time, you both were panting for air. He rested his forehead on yours, eyes clouded with hazing lust. You thought they looked beautiful.

“Y/N, I have to be honest,” he said in between the sound of your soft pants. “I want you. If you’ll let me—”

Your lips collided again as your hands roamed his body. You could smell the tobacco leaves protruding from him, getting drunk off of this scent alone. You moaned softly into the kiss.

It felt like your entire being was pulsating, waiting for this magical moment. Jamie had to have felt the same too. He looked as if he could lose it at any moment.

“Do you want to stay here or go to the bedroom?” you asked. “There’s more room.”

“Whatever you want,” he replied and started to trail pecks down your neck. You moaned, biting your bottom lip.

“Let’s go then.”

Jamie followed behind you like a lost little puppy as you carried him upstairs by the arm. Once the two of you were inside your bedroom he spun you around and picked you up, placing you on the bed. You giggled as he climbed on top of you.

“I don’t have a condom,” he muttered into your neck.

You reached over to your nightstand and opened the drawer, pulling out a blue box of latex condoms and a bottle of lube, throwing it over to him. He snorted a laugh, picking up both.

“Why do you have these?”

“Just in case, you know,” you shrugged and watched him examine them. “Hurry up. You’ve already got me riled up.”

Jamie chuckled. “I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous.”

“Awe, someone’s jealous?” you slid your hands under his shirt, contacting the warm skin and bones underneath. You felt him shudder. Perhaps because your hands were freezing cold.

“Very,” his hands traveled to your thighs. “Can’t have anyone else touching you.”

“Already possessive, are we?” you helped him lift his shirt over his head, throwing it to the floor. Both of your clothes had been discarded, stored away in the confines of your worlds with the least worries.

Once you two were prepped, you took advantage by wrestling him to the sheets and climbing on his lap. Seeing him in such a vulnerable state shook you all around. His nails grazed your thighs, leaving faint and temporary red marks. Soft gasps came from your lips as you sunk down on his cock. The feeling of it twitching inside drove you even madder, your heat quivering around it. You began moving your hips with Jamie's eyes holding you. His hands gripped your hips. You moved faster and faster, moaning at the immense pleasure in your core.

“Jesus, Y/N,” he groaned, admiring the view of your sweaty body. Every thump inside sent you into overdrive. It was like a fire had started in your body, carrying off from your chest down to your toes. Your hands grasped at his pecs. You leaned down, breathless, bouncing on his thick cock as if your life depended on it. His punched-out moans vibrated your eardrums.

“That feel good?” you gloated with a smile.

“Fuck yeah,” was all he could muster. You began marking his neck with hickeys, sucking and biting while you drove his soul out, letting out a pleased hum when you found your spot. “You gonna come?” he says, deep voice penetrating your ears. You moaned again, digging your nails into his pecs. Your body shuddered as your orgasm hit. Jamie held you tighter. You never thought you’d be this close before.

You didn’t stop moving your hips, wading through the aftershocks and overstimulation with tightened eyes. Not long after, Jamie had come too, letting out a relieved sigh as he spilled into the condom. You thought it to be twisted how you wanted to feel every bit of it. Greedy, almost. How you wanted to just get rid of this god-forsaken barrier and feel ALL of him. It wasn’t nearly as good as having it drip out of you.

A small gasp left your throat at the loss of heat when he slipped out. But he was still hanging on to you as he sat up, edging his tongue in your mouth one last time.

You broke away from him, saying, “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“Me neither,” he replied. “That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, though.”

You scooted away from him and watched as he removed the condom, throwing it in the bin and grabbing his clothes. A frown was about to slip on your face, realizing it was all over.

Jamie must’ve noticed when he glanced at you. It took him no time to slip his clothes back on.

“Why the long face?” he said, sitting down beside you on the messy sheets.

“Nothing,” you gave him a thin smile. “Just…where exactly do we go from here?”

“Well, I don’t want to stop talking to you or anything.”

“I don’t either. It just feels weird.”

Jamie’s brows furrowed. “Weird?” The look made you a bit nervous.

“Not like a bad weird,” you explained quickly, laughing. “I mean, we’ve never been on the best of terms, Jamie. We just fucked.”

“True,” he smiled. “I do hope that this…situation doesn’t affect us. I want us to be on good terms. Not just as bandmates, you know?”

“Of course.”

He pecked you on the cheek and stood up. “Gotta get going,” he said. “We’re heading to the studio today. Do you want to come?”

“Don’t know if I can,” you chuckled.

“I never told them you left. Don’t worry. Your spot’s always open.”

The two of you said your final goodbyes that day. It was like nothing had ever happened. You were left with nothing but a ghost of your time. Crawling up into your bubble again, you wondered just how much more confusing Jamie Bower could get from here. It wasn’t very fun when you were still figuring him out.

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skwigelfskwisgaar · 9 months

Note

Swisgaar HCs on Dethklok members?

This became more of what his dynamic is with each member - I wasn't sure if that was what you meant. Anyways, more under the cut!

Skwisgaar and Toki Wartooth

It's hard to talk about Toki without mentioning Skwisgaar - it was, after all, Skwisgaar's idea to invite Toki to join the band. Skwisgaar understands basic level Norsk, and given the similarities between the languages, he probably had a ton of conversations with Toki in both Svensa and Norsk, trying to teach him their signature bad English pronounciations.

I imagine this meant that our 2 Scandinavian musicians probably stuck together closely during the first few months or years of Dethklok as they rose to fame and fortune - Skwisgaar glad to have someone who understood him on some level when he swapped to either of their native languages, or even just having someone nearby who experience culture shock in micro doses as they grew as a band.

They both share a much tighter friendship than the other members based on how Toki canonically seems to admire Skwisgaar's talent, how they both seem to engage in some really stupid shenanigans together, and how Skwisgaar tends to lose his shit if anything threatens Toki's well being.

That said, I see Skwisgaar as being annoyed with Toki's antics, finding his lack of practicing rather insulting, and on a personal level, views Toki as a threat to his position as lead guitarist. He enjoys Toki's company but his own ego and lack of chill (for lack of a better terms) really strain what is otherwise quite possibly his closest friendships.

While Toki is in fact a legendary guitarist in his own right, being denied solos, bullied by Skwisgaar and his impossible to meet standards, and the constant fear of possibly being booted out over a simple tantrum have stressed their friendship throughout their careers and personal lives. Despite this, he still views Skwisgaar as his friend, and hangs out whenever possible with him.

On a more personal note, Skwisgaar probably shares a ton of inside jokes with Toki, naturally includes him in activities with the band to enforce that Toki is welcome (more of a reassurance at this point) and has shared bits and pieces of himself and vice versa in confidence. Skwisgaar has shown that he cares about Toki on more than one occasion, forgiving Toki for his antics if it means Toki is safe, alive, and in a stable happy place.

Skwisgaar shows he cares in a much more profound but silent way especially with Toki, and if anyone in Dethklok even insinuates that Skwisgaar cares in any level, he's quick to shut it down with a snide remark or even a swing of the guitar on his back.

Skwisgaar and Nathan Explosion

No one holds Skwisgaar's respect in the band better than Nathan. The vocalist and frontman brings a brutality and perfectionist need to their music that Skwisgaar can get behind on. Their synergy musically has given way to being called workaholics by the rest of the group as a joke, but someone's gotta have the drive and passion for the 5 of them, and it just so happens that both of these idiots have it in spades.

Often times Skwisgaar and Nathan both will butt heads on the quality of their compositions, from Skwisgaar demanding Murderface and Toki's parts be done again for the 342nd take, or will insist to do them himself if they don't meet his expectations - Nathan often just telling him to record them himself to avoid wasting hours in the booth and producer's chair. On the other hand I can see him growing frustrated with Nathan when he's approved of the bass and rhythm parts, or has played all of them, only for Nathan to delete the entire track for the 100th time but realizes this is what he puts Nathan through so he keeps his frustration to himself. He knows perfection takes time, so he at best tolerates it and, at worst, swallows his pride and does the recording again to fit Nathan's needs.

Outside of the studio Skwisgaar gives Nathan his space and in turn Nathan gives him his. Both share a mutual respect for their craft that extends to each other as people, and it helps the band when they need to cool their heads during album recording crunch.

Both share a need to worry for Toki, Nathan often being the guy that steps in first so Skwisgaar can take a much needed break (not that the Swede minds, but even Skwisgaar has his limits and demands physical space from a clingy Toki). Nathan worries about everyone equally though, so he often also makes sure Skwisgaar knows he has a place in Dethklok - often it's him who pulls the Swede off his guitar when Skwisgaar plays as a coping mechanism for hours without stopping despite blisters forming on his hands.

Over all, a friendship that is built on respect, music and brutality. Skwisgaar enjoys Nathan's company the most in the recording booth, as he seems to take the craft and their music seriously - unlike the rest of the band (exception being Pickles when he decides to show up half sober).

Skwisgaar and Pickles the Drummer

Pickles and Skwisgaar tend to share a bottle when it comes to hanging out, and it's typically over their mothers and the anxiety they induce in the musicians. Both seem to understand how one call can completely tilt them sideways for the entire week, and can just tell when one or the other has received a call from their overbearing mothers.

The feeling of being unappreciated or ignored for others - they are well acquainted with the feeling of having a mother who was for all intents and purposes, absent or needlessly cruel; it has made both of them throw their all into their craft, their passion, and it's made for some small moments in dim closets silently drinking and hearing the other rant about their problems or just crying in the dark about how shitty they feel despite trying so hard.

Pickles will be the first to notice when Skwisgaar has gotten to the point of anxiety attacks induced by his mother, and manages to drag the blonde away from his usual tick and get him to unwind. Skwisgaar notices the same, when Pickles goes too hard on the lamps or goes out in public absoluted sauced he manages to get the drummer to sit down and smoke a few joints.

Pickles, in turn, respects Skwisgaar's ability to play guitar perfectly, and having played it before joining Dethklok, he respects and admires the dedication the Swede has for practicing and perfecting his craft. Sometimes Skwisgaar will give him his signature guitar just to see Pickles play during their 'our mother suck' hang outs to unwind, and it helps to hear music that used to bring a bit of joy to Skwisgaar before Dethklok and the pressures of greatness came crushing down on him.

Skwisgaar used to be a big SnBs fan, when Pickles was the frontman - the 3rd album being his favorite. He brings with him a large chunk of respect for Pickles for managing to pull off the craziest outfits in the tightest clothing and managing to perform with a band that clearly was holding his talent back. He doesn't admit it out loud, but Skwisgaar sometimes gets starstruck still when watching Pickles on drums or when playing guitar and vocals from a SnBs song.

Granted, for someone whose English is so bad he got dubbed out of his own film, understanding Pickles' accent is a huge hurdle that sometimes leaves him more confused than ever.

On a personal note, these two have a great friendship that doesn't get seen much. If one even looks like they had a rough day, they text each other to check in and see where they sit mentally. It's the closest to openly caring either one does for the other, but they don't care if the rest of the band calls it that. They call it "check ins after a code mom" and it works to get them back on track.

Skwisgaar and William Murderface

William has a ton of feeling that he puts into bass playing, and it shows. Skwisgaar can pump out a great bass line but the feeling that they crave can only be done by Murderface, and its with this in mind that makes Skwisgaar put up with William as often as he does.

William is the roughest gem the Skwisgaar wants to see shine, and there was a time when he was actually trying and playing amazing music - his inferiority complex won out as they got bigger and famous, and with Skwisgaar having to mix out his parts or having to re-record them, it became a viscious cycle that fed itself.

Skwisgaar acts like an ice queen due to other things, but when it comes to Toki and William he goes out of his way to prove that they are amazing musicians and it takes all of Skwisgaar's patience to not chew out either of them. Best bassist in the world, Murderface fails to see his potential, his talent, and it kills Skwisgaar because on some level he understands that feeling of not being good enough and what it can do to to one's mental state.

Very rarely do they interact outside of the recording room, oftentimes avoiding each other. Skwisgaar's unable to really pinpoint how to help his bassist and Murderface makes it near impossible to be tolerable - and with his inferiority complex flaring up when he sees the band's most desirable guitarist, its hard to approach the Swede especially when Skwisgaar throws his infamous diva tantrums about Toki and William not pulling their weight.

On some level, Skwisgaar understands why Murderface acts the way he does, but usually makes no effort to assist him when William more often than not is the root of his problems and stress - from lawsuits to constant insults to outight blaming him for the bassist's lack of pussy, William is a neverending source of headaches for Skwisgaar.

On the rare occasion William and Skwisgaar do get along, it's often when they're drunk, just playing tunes for fun, or they're discussing side project work: Murderface was the first person Skwisgaar approached about Depantsification Proclamation when looking for talent although Murderface turned it down for work on Planet Piss.

My personal headcanon is that Skwisgaar is both impressed with William's raw talent and his ability to play bass with his dick out. it's insane that he can play with both his hands and his dick, and on such a professional and talented level. He'd rather feed himself to the yard wolves that admit this ever.

#skwisgaar rp blog #rp blog #skwigelf answers #asks #ooc:#sorry this took forever #i'm still not 100% done #gonna come back and edit this later

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agere-fandom · 4 months

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flip!javier escuella!!

note; hi again guys, I've come back in your presense- /lh anyway, the man himself! I love Javier so so much, like LOOK AT HIM DUDE- he's such cool uncle material, I need him right now- /lh He's so so happy guys, he didn't die- nooooo- he didn't do bad things- nuh uhhhhh- he's just a guy :) (his photos are so pretty AUGHHHHH)

headcanons;

Javier is a flip (regressor lean) and when regressed, is a toddler/middle regressor and his age range is 4 - 7

Honestly, Javier is more of a big brother carer than an actual caregiver, but he tries his best. He's supportive of whoever regresses around him, but he likes to be alone most of the time. Being with his guitar, out on the fields. But he doesn't mind if a regressor tags along with him... as so long as it isn't John, Micah or Sean

Javier really only regresses if he's feeling lonely. Like, he'll be out playing his guitar at night, and then starts to see the little's being tucked in for bed and such, and it makes him feel a bit lonely. So he slowly stops playing his music and watches, feeling more and more fuzzy as time goes on

Like Charles, he is a quiet regressor, but he isn't all that non-verbal. He's a big boy and he can speak all the words he wants too. Most of his vocabulary is taken up by Spanish though, seeing for the obvious. But he mostly does it because he finds that everyone in the camp looks at him weird, and he thinks that's funny

He has a secret passion for drawing, or just coloring. And he used to do that while he was younger and in Mexico. Now, he does it when he's small again, always cooped up drawing whatever he can with scribbled color pencil. He doesn't take much inspiration from Arthur, it's more from Tilly, seeing she likes to color as well. So it's more parallel play for the two

Of course, Javier has his guitar with him, but he ends up keeping it in a safe place so he doesn't break it by accident. But he has his own, smaller one, something like of a ukulele. He doesn't sing with it much, only hums. And he only knows a few simple songs or it's just random freestyle guitar solos as a performance

He usually doesn't have a normal caregiver he hangs around with, he just lets people take care of him, IF he's not being stubborn. But he'll end up with Hosea or Mrs Grimshaw if so. He can usually take care of himself, but sometimes he does more, babyish things on purpose like suck his thumb, or wet himself just for someone to take care of him for a little while, because he doesn't know how to properly ask and he thinks it's more embarrassing to ask for help than wet himself, honestly

He's not all that fussy, but he is a bit cold while being little. And it's rare to see him have an actual tantrum, but it doesn't mean he won't get upset. Usually, his emotions are all over the place when regressed, and he just ends up in a sulky mood and goes over to Mrs Grimshaw for help. She takes him to the rest of the ladies and it's all taken down from there

He really likes to only be around Tilly or Lenny, seeing as they make him get out of his shell for a bit, and he doesn't mind that there more hyper than him. He likes the company, but he would never say that out loud. Even if so, he still feels lonely with all of this, seeing is that he doesn't know how to ask for attention, even though they all say it's okay to ask for help. He's never allowed himself too

While he's small, he loves to go back and think about his time with his parents while in Mexico. Missing his life before he became an outlaw in general, and it usually makes him upset. But he's scared to even try and ask for comfort, so he'll try and use coloring or playing his guitar as a coping mechanism, but that usually doesn't hold out for long, and he gets overwhelmed into a meltdown. And usually, people are there, trying to help him (maybe a fic idea??)

#agere fandom #agere headcanons #fandom agere #fandom headcanons #red dead redemption agere #rdr2 agere #javier escuella #SO SO COOLLLL #we love the espanol man #playin his guitar #best guy ever #he did no wrong #he told me himself /j

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furys-burn · 2 years

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Meta + music (for Thalia)

When Jason was born there was a Prince song playing at the Nurse’s station and a few chords of Rock a Bye Baby mixing with his cries that told Thalia she wasn’t alone anymore. She had spent 45 minutes being begged by a nurse to stop throwing her tantrum and shocking anyone who touched her before she went and saw the “baby”. Later the same nurse had to convince her to put him down for his nap because she couldn’t stop staring at him.

Her mom didn’t care much what she and Jason got up too so she took him around and hummed and sang along with Sesame Street or the radio. She dug through the hell of Limewire and burned her weight in CDs and it was Blink-182 he danced too on shaky toddler legs. She was never quite the singer but she crooned to him, kept him tucked her chin in his baby bjorn laughing whenever he reached for her wrist while she made them something to eat and drowning out Beryl’s snores from the couch.

But then Jason is gone and she finds solace in music, an escape. She can’t hear her mother crying or pleading with Zeus to come back. She can roll up her window and let the world knows how she feels and she even pawns one of her Mom’s daytime Emmys for a shitty guitar she immediately gives up learning on how to play. Her world becomes music and thrifted and stolen CDs and she memorizes songs and writes out the half-wrong lyrics on her school notebooks. It is the few things she cares enough to pack when she leaves home.

Music is a CD Player in her pocket replaying the Green Day album back to back from California to Oklahoma where it finally dies and she swaps it out for Paramore. She tries to dye her hair orange like hers in a shitty bathroom somewhere south of the Mississippi and ends up going black when it comes out patchy and dry.

When she meets Luke it only makes sense that her player gets stuck on “That’s What You Get” and she makes him listen to it on her shitty gas station headphones curled under a bus station awning. He doesn’t get it but she holds his hand through the storm and laughs when he jumps at the lightning.

Annabeth is back to Sesame Street and ABCs but she lets her pick the music and Luke steals batteries, players, and CDs for her whenever he does a supply run. They let music drown out monster roars and smother the world from their hideouts. It is another layer of safety not bound by magic or faith but a thumping bass she can feel in her chest.

In the tree it was silent sure, but she found music in the land. In the birds who rested on her limbs, in the soft growth of the grass, and the hums of nature spirits who sang to soothe the dead body of a girl cursed to a god. She won’t remember them when she wakes up but she still taps her thumb to the rhythm of the wind.

And when the world changes she lets music be her guiding rod. New singers mixing with the same grungy ones she slipped in her pocket at 12 or the worn down faded jewel cases that Luke once gifted her. She lets it fill the silence of long lonely nights and even finds time to learn a mean lyre to join her Sisters in a song celebrating a successful Hunt.

But one day it is Prince who brings her back. Prince crooning about humanity and the pain of loneliness and she remembers the question she never got answers for. When she pulls off the circlet and leaves the Hunters she replays Parade until the CD won’t stop skipping (She’s too mobile for Vinyl and too godly for Spotify) and when she takes Jason home she’ll tell him stories between ad breaks on the bus’ speakers.

And later get confused why half her abandoned CDs at Camp ended up in the solo bunk at Hades Cabin.

#text #»⌀—Behind the Lens | OOC.#»⚡—Thalia Grace | MUSINGS.

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brn1029 · 9 months

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On this day in music….

September 13th

2019 - Eddie Money

American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Money died of cancer age 70. He released over ten albums and had a string of hits in the late Seventies including 'Baby Hold On', 'Two Tickets to Paradise' and 'Take Me Home Tonight'.

2015 - Gary Richrath

Gary Richrath, lead guitarist and songwriter for REO Speedwagon died at the age of 65. Richrath recorded 12 albums with the band before leaving in 1989 and released his own solo album in 1992.

2000 - Elton John

Elton John threw a tantrum when he was set to appear at a sell-out show at the Estoril Casino near Lisbon. Elton was unhappy after the audience were slow in leaving a VIP dinner before the concert, Elton left the building and flew home on his private jet without playing a note.

1985 - MTV Video Music Awards

'We Are The World' won Best Group Video and the Viewer's Choice at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Don Henley's 'The Boys Of Summer' video won four trophies, including Best Video. Bruce Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire' gets the nod for Best Male Video and Tina Turner won Best Female Video for 'What's Love Got To Do With It'.

1975 - Janis Ian

Janis Ian's ‘At Seventeen,’ a song about dealing with unrealistic standards of beauty (not typical hit song material at the time), peaked at No.3 on the US chart for the first of two weeks.

1969 - John Lennon

John Lennon & Yoko Ono flew to Canada to perform at the Rock & Roll Revival Show in Toronto, Canada. The band members Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White were put together so late that they had to rehearse on the plane from England. Also making an appearance at the concert were Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Bo Diddley, The Doors and Alice Cooper. Lennon later released his performance as the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album.

1967 - The Beatles

The Beatles formed an electronics company called Fiftyshapes, Ltd. appointing John Alexis Mardas (Magic Alex) to be the company's director. Alex claimed he could build a 72-track tape machine, instead of the 4-track at Abbey Road (this never materialised). One of his more outrageous plans was to replace the acoustic baffles around Ringo Starr's drums with an invisible sonic force field. George Harrison later said that employing Mardas was "the biggest disaster of all time."

1965 - Paul McCartney

The Paul McCartney song 'Yesterday' was released as a Beatles single in the US. McCartney's vocal and acoustic guitar together with a string quartet essentially made for the first solo performance of the band. The final recording was so different from other works by The Beatles that the band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom. (However, it was issued as a single there in 1976.)

1964 - The Rolling Stones

During a UK tour two dozen rugby players were hired as 'a human crash barrier' at a Rolling Stones gig at the Liverpool Empire. The 'human chain' disappeared under a wave of 5,000 fans as the Stones took to the stage.

1960 - Payola

The Federal Communications act in the USA was amended to outlaw payments of cash or gifts in exchange for airplay of records.

1960 - Ray Peterson

A campaign was started in the UK to ban the American hit 'Tell Laura I Love Her' by Ray Peterson. The song was being denounced in the press as likely to inspire a teen-age "glorious death cult." The story told of a lovesick youngster who drives in a stock car race to win the hand of his sweetheart. He crashes and just before dying, groans out the words of the title.

1958 - Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard made his British TV debut on Jack good's 'Oh Boy', performing 'Move It'. Before he was allowed to appear on the show, Richard was ordered to remove his sideburns.

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randomvarious · 1 year

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Today’s compilation:

Tantrum Compilation 1990 Punk Rock / Alternative Rock / Pop-Punk / Hardcore Punk

Got another one of these punky early 90s LPs that manages to totally rip shit up 🤘😤. Presenting Tantrum Compilation, a 1990 release from a small L.A. label called Cocktail Records, who put out this album, and then a split 7-inch the following year, and then completely bounced out of existence. Ephemeral as hell, this thing presents a bunch of exclusives—though not entirely—from mostly Cali bands, including ones you may have heard of, like L7 and White Flag, and ones you definitely haven't heard of, like The Rails, whose only song they've ever released—a lightly punkish bit of alternarock called "Miss Rome Stays Home"—solely appears on this comp.

So, let's get into some of these raucous wig-flippers, starting with L.A.'s very own aforementioned White Flag. If you're a fan of this band, then chances are that you're familiar with their album, Zero Hour, and its title track. But guess what? There's a White Flag song on this album called "Zero Hour" too, but it's a completely different track than the one that appears on their Zero Hour album. And I thought that, maybe, this was a misprint on the part of Cocktail Records, but it appears that in a 2008 expanded edition of another White Flag album, Wild Kingdom, this song appears as "Zero Hour." Really weird and confusing, but I think I got to the bottom of it. And the guitar solo on it is incredible too, by the way. Blisteringly speedy 🤯.

Next, an exclusive from female-fronted San Franciscan punk band Frightwig, called "38 Special." This thing's such an electrifying anthem, man. They date back to the early 80s and they manage to bring those timelessly irresistible melodic power chords with them into the new decade. Just phenomenal stuff from them here.

And an unorthodox punk duo called The Death Folk are on here as well. They feature Pat Smear, of mythical Germs fame, and their song "Jack" loads up on layers of ever-changing and scratchy punk riffs, without any of the other instruments that you'd typically expect to hear accompanying them, such as a bass or drums. Instead, the band's other member, Gary Jacoby, is credited on tuba, but uhh, I don't think I hear any on this song 😅.

And then we've got another Cali group, Sacramento's Groovie Ghoulies, who supply a raw and super catchy power poppy pop-punk cover of Men Without Hats' 1987 hit, "Pop Goes the World." Something of a successful precursor to that whole Punk Goes... covers series that would come about in 2000 from Fearless Records. Had that whole enterprise existed a decade or so prior, you could expect to hear this song on one of their releases; I mean, it sounds damn near perfect for it.

Truth be told, though, this album felt pretty listless throughout the first half of its a-side, but then it managed to pick up a full head of punk steam and never looked back. Some really terrific tunes on this. Another one to throw on my slowly growing pile of great and obscure late 80s-early 90s punk comps that I've come across in the past year or so. Others include Dionysus Records' Sounds of Now! and Trigon's Gimme the Keys !!, two excellent late 80s punk comps from Cali labels that run a bit more garage-y.

And you definitely can't find direct YouTube links to every song that's on this album, but luckily, someone uploaded the whole thing to YouTube just two months ago(!), so you can hear them all in there.

Listen to the full album here.

Highlights:

White Flag - "Zero Hour" Instigators - "The Blood Is On Your Hands" Frightwig - "38 Special" The Death Folk - "Jack" Groovie Ghoulies - "Pop Goes the World" Spiderbaby - "Wake Up" The Rails - "Miss Rome Stays Home"

#punk rock #punk #rock #alternative rock #alternative #alternative music #alt rock #alt #alt music #pop punk #hardcore punk #music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music

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avaliveradio · 1 year

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7 Must Hear New Rock Songs just Released

Indie rock seems to be coming back around with bands release the hottest new music I’ve heard in years.

What we can expect from this music and the trends in rock music of 2023 are definitely worth exploring.

Emerging Indie Rock Bands

The indie rock scene is currently experiencing an influx of new music with unique sounds and styles. New bands like are taking the industry by storm with rock n roll that holds nothing back.

Listen to what we just added this week to our Playlist..

Modern Day Outlaw - DevilScorned(with Ewar Acosta of They Might be Zombies)

Release date: April 13, 2023 Music Genre: Rock Vibe: Heavy

This song is balls out, we don't care nor make any apologies for who we are. If you plan to play in the Devils game be prepared for whats to come. Link to your streaming page: https://spotify.link/cJR0K6Og9xb

Manners - Hunter? (I Barely Know Her!)

Release date: Apr 14, 2023 Genre: Indie Rock, Emo, Alternative Rock Moods: Sad, Energetic Similar artists: Jank, Sports., Mom Jeans

Part of a two-song split, Hunter is about leaving a relationship where you love someone so much, yet they can't truly connect with you on a deeper and more meaningful level. Written and recorded from December to March 2023.

Rachel Mintz -Zoe

Release date: Apr 07, 2023 Genre: Post-Punk, Pop Punk, 90s Rock Moods: Energetic

Rachel Mintz has a unique vocal, writing and production style that varies relatively wildly yet seamlessly between dream, art and baroque pop to dark synth alternative. Rachel grew up in Miami, FL with a musical family and performed in one of the world's best children's choirs. She went on to lead gritty rock and punk bands (Pigs with Dave Sender of Union 13) which metamorphosed into her more polished solo work accomplished with the help of Grammy winner Ian Cross (Usher, Janet Jackson, Lauryn Hill, Gwen Stefani) as well as Blake Harden (Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Sza), Shane Smith (Dirty Projectors, Los Lobos, Robert Francis) and several other industry pros.

Moses Mikheyev - Whatever You Want (Keeping the Neighbors Awake)

Release date: Mar 24, 2023

Released by: Bad Music Records

Genre: Pop Rock, Post-grunge, Hard Rock

Similar artists: Imagine Dragons, Anberlin, Blue October, Lifehouse, Papa Roach.

An LA-based alternative rock, hard rock, folk, and pop singer-songwriter.

"This is the fifth song off my debut record, I Only Have a Hundred Years to Love You. It was written as a co-write with the Los Angeles rock band ZAANO.

Reclining Nude - She's So American

Release date: Mar 31, 2023

Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Garage Rock

Similar artists: Dehd, Lou Reed, Viagra Boys, Iggy Pop

With a cool punk rock groove and riff guitars, Reclining Nude launched a fun tongue-in-cheek single called “She’s so American”. This single has that all American anthem approach bringing back those wailing guitars of the 80’s incorporating all that’s hot in todays rock stars. On their blistering new single, “She’s so American”, Reclining Nude peels back the packaging of modern life and holds it up to the buzzing fluorescent lights of the neighbourhood bodega.

Lunar Tantrum - Devil mirror dopamine

Release date: Mar 21, 2023

Released by: Lunar Tones

Genre: Classic Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Indie Rock

Lunar Tantrum are a Swedish/Australian rock band founded in Gothenburg, Sweden in late 1991. Richard Reynolds (vocals & rhythm guitar) and Christer Lindbladh (drums) met and started writing and playing songs in Gothenburg, Sweden in the summer of 1991. By winter the same year the group expanded to include Peter Clarin on lead guitar and Torbjörn Antonsson on bass. This line up has remained constant until now although keyboardists Charlie Storm and Matti Ollikainen have both contributed to the band's recordings. Musically the band fuses elements of sixties pop and psychedelia, folk rock, seventies hard rock, progressive rock, garage rock, punk and new wave. The band worked extensively on songwriting, recording and playing live between 1992 and 1998 when they took a lengthy hiatus until 2016.

Missiles to Malta - Television Music Genre: indie rock / indie pop / power pop Vibe: upbeat, energetic, driving, happy Located in: Bethel, CT Sounds like: Strokes, early 2000s rock

Missiles to Malta is an original four piece indie rock band with post-punk ambitions from Bethel Connecticut. Devin (guitar / vocals), Steven (guitar), John (drums), and Pete (bass) got together in September of 2021, and have been blasting their blend of power pop and post punk influences around Connecticut ever since. They just finished recording their second EP to be released this spring.

You can expect nostalgic details and driving guitars to come out in full glory on Missiles to Malta’s newest power pop single ‘Television’. Their use of radio vocal effects sets an interesting tone midway through the song. The vocalists has a terrific voice well suited for this bands focus and I thought the entire project presented itself with valid attributes. There is an energy here that isn’t over bearing or hard core, rather smooth and refined rock n roll like ‘The Strokes’.

#Rock Music

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nationalharryleague · 4 years

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Dance it Out

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: FLUFF

Word count: 1.7K

A/N: I decided to write a self indulgent fluffy fic after I had a bad day! It’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever written but I like it and I hope you do too :) let me know what you think! Any feedback is appreciated!! More of my work can be found in my masterlist!

Today was terrible.

You had woken up on the wrong side of the bed and everything afterwards was downhill. The zipper on your favorite pair of pants broke, then your car wouldn’t start, you got yelled at by your boss at work, and when you decided to treat yourself to a latte on the way home, it was made with spoiled milk. It just wasn’t your day.

Walking in your house, you immediately kicked off your heels and began ripping off your uncomfortable work clothes, stomping past Harry on the couch and up the stairs towards your shared bedroom. You heard him sarcastically call ‘Welcome home, honey,’ behind you but you were just too angry at the world to answer. And unfortunately for Harry, he happened to be in the world.

Once in your room, your eyes narrowed on the spot where you left your favorite t-shirt of Harry’s that you changed out of this morning, only to find it empty. A whiny pout found its way to your lips and you searched around the room until you noticed it in a pile of freshly washed and folded clothes on the dresser. While you understood your loving boyfriend was just trying to stay on top of the household chores, he had washed the smell of his cologne out of the fabric and you wondered if it would ever smell the same again.

After raiding Harry’s closet to find something else comfy enough to wear, you crawled into your bed. You didn’t even realize you were crying, only noticing when you felt the fabric of your pillowcase get soggy.

You felt like a child throwing a temper tantrum and you hated it. You should be able to roll with the punches of daily life like an adult and get over yourself, but today just got to you more than you expected. You felt defeated and down and wished you could start again.

“My love,” you heard sing-songed in your direction from down the hallway, “where are ya?” He rounded the corner to find you under a pile of blankets and with mascara beginning to run down your face. He stopped in his tracks, concern flashing across his eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked, worry and care clear in his voice.

“I’ve just had a very bad day,” you whimpered to the man sitting on the edge of the bed. You held the sheets tight to your chest, making you only visible from the nose up, and sank into the bed in an attempt to hide from the world. Harry reached out and smoothed a hand over your forehead, combing a few stray strands away from your face. His warm hands were welcome.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked softly, met with the shake of your head. He scanned the small amount of your face he could see and was met with tired eyes. “Do you want to cuddle?” Once again, he was met with a small shake to your head. This worried him; you were not known to deny an opportunity to be the little spoon. “I’m going to make us some tea and then we’re going to figure out what we can do to make today better, okay?” He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead and pushed himself off the bed.

As you watched Harry leave the room, your deliriously exhausted eyes welled with tears thinking about how good he was to you. He was a dream. You had met by chance in a bar several years ago when you were far too intoxicated for your own good. You had made a complete fool out of yourself and yet somehow he thought it was charming, eventually asking for your number. You were still shocked that you didn’t scare him off when you slurred ‘Harry fucking Styles, I had a blog about you, ya know?’ in his face. You had been a massive One Direction fan in your teens and you still couldn’t believe he was yours most days. Your teenage dreams had come true and you loved every second of it.

Please come downstairs. We both know you’ll spill tea in the bed., your phone read. When you took a moment to respond, it was followed by a gif of Kermit the Frog sipping tea. You appreciated his attempt at a meme reference, even if it was years old. While you were slightly offended that he thought you’d spill, you knew he was right and mustered all your strength to drag yourself from your warm pile of blankets. You crossed your arms in front of you and made your way down the stairs into the living room, grabbing a new blanket off the back of the couch and creating another cocoon.

You watched as he walked out of the kitchen, his eyebrows furrowed, focusing on carefully balancing your two mugs before setting them on the coffee table. He murmured ‘I’ll be right back’ against your forehead and exited the room once again. You wondered where he was going and pouted that you didn’t get a hug yet. As soon as you heard it, you immediately knew what he was doing.

The first few chords played over the speakers in your living room were immediately recognizable and brought you back to your childhood bedroom, twirling around the room shouting One Direction at the top of your lungs. As the introduction to 18 began, your cheeky boyfriend appeared back in the room, wearing his best grin. You rolled your eyes at him as he pranced around the house, putting on a living room performance for you. You had watched him so many times at concerts, but they had all been on his own, singing his own solo music.

He didn’t really ever talk about One Direction much. When you asked questions, he answered them, but he never brought it up on his own. He regarded it as a chapter of his life that he was thankful for, but that had ended. But he also knew that One Direction was your comfort music, and it usually could get you out of a bad mood.

“I have loved you since we were 18,” he sang, standing on top of the new and expensive coffee table. While you wanted to scold him and get off, you also didn’t want to stop watching how he wiggled his hips too soon.

“You’re older than me and we met when I was 24.”

“Okay Miss Buzzkill,” he put his hands up in surrender, feigning offence. “I guess I need the big guns,” he laughed, taking out his phone and switching to another song you knew by heart.

The guitar riff of Clouds started, balring over the stereo, and so did Harry’s dancing. You watched him as he jumped off the coffee table, almost fell, and then began hip trusting to the beat. You couldn’t help but laugh at the man before you, trying to disguise your joy, too stubborn to give into his tactics so easily.

“I see that smile!” he pointed at you accusingly as he continued to jump around the room, dodging furniture as he went. “I know this is working!”

“No it’s not,” you smirked defiantly. “Everything is awful and I refuse to be happy,” you said crossing your arms in front of you.

With a dramatic eye roll, Harry pulled his phone out to change the song once again, this time to Where Do Broken Hearts Go, your ultimate favorite song. He knew this and he knew exactly what he was doing by the look of the smirk that found its way onto his face. He peered up at you from the device in his hands, eyebrows raised looking for your response. An exasperated ‘fine’ left your lips as you lifted yourself off of the couch to join him in his dance party.

You made your way over to him and fell into his strong arms, laying your head on his chest as you two began an awkward slow dance to the high energy music. He pressed a soft kiss to your temple and started to speak softly, just audible above the music, in your ear.

“Angel, I know you’ve had a tough day,” he began, lips still brushing over your skin, nose buried in your hair, “but we can still make tonight a good night.” You bodies rocked back and forth in sync together, swaying to another beat only you two could feel, completely disregarding the music playing around you. You looked up into this soft and questioning eyes, and nodded, hoping to turn your day around.

This was a Harry only you knew; his hair held back by one of your hair clips, dressed in a tattered old t-shirt he refused to replace and running shorts, the stubble of a few days at home found on his chin. The rest of the world got the rockstar in head-to-toe Gucci and glamour, and sometimes you did too, but this was Harry. This was who your man really was.

Taking you hand, he twirled you in a circle, a small grin breaking onto your face. It felt like it was the first time you had really smiled that day, a feeling of peace finally taking over you. With a deep breath, you decided to start anew.

“I need you to play Treat People With Kindness and dance it out with me,” you told him, ready to get out of your funk.

“There’s my girl,” he lit up, pressing kisses around your face as he changed the song.

Hearing the angelic voices of the chorus envelop you, you began to dance, Harry mirroring your movement. You closed your eyes and let your head fall back, letting go, and moving your body however felt good. Arms swung in whatever direction they felt like and you bounced up and down the rhythm. And you both just danced; singing along with the music you both knew by heart and experiencing every emotion Harry intended listeners to feel.

By the final beats, a big cheesy grin stretched across your lips and you let out a few breathless giggles as the song ended. You both collapsed on the couch in a fit of laughter and you rolled into his slightly sweaty body, finding yourself right at home within his arms.

“Thank you,” you told him as you rested your head on his chest, “I needed to get it all out.”

“I figured my angelic voice would help.”

Thank you for reading!! My ask box is open for any feedback you have :)

#harry styes fanfiction #harry styles fluff #harry styles imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles x reader #harry styles x y/n #harry x reader #harry x y/n #harry fluff #harry styles drabble #harry styles blurb #harry blurb #harry styles fic #one direction #famous!harry

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stylesnews · 3 years

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A year ago, the guitar was in dire straits. With songs like Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” and Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes” among the most consumed of 2019, programmed beats and horns were the sonic flavors of popular music. Sure, there were outliers — the Jonas Brothers’ “Sucker,” Maroon 5’s “Memories” and Post Malone’s “Circles” among them — but as the rock and alternative genres embraced artists like Billie Eilish, whose innovative music made the traditional band approach feel outdated, the days of chords and solos seemed numbered if not headed towards irrelevance.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic and things changed. Forced to perform from home or in rooms not intended for live music during lockdown, many artists went back to basics and out came the trusty six-string. For iHeartRadio’s “Living Room Concert for America” in March, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl played an acoustic Guild on “My Hero”; Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day strummed to his band’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”; and even Eilish, with her collaborator brother Finneas, sang her hit “Bad Guy” accompanied by only a Fender acoustic. Other benefit livestreams like Global Citizen’s “One World Together At Home” event saw the Rolling Stones, Keith Urban and Shawn Mendes strip down their hit songs for unplugged versions. And in April, Miley Cyrus delivered an emotional cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” on “Saturday Night Live” with Andrew Watt, himself a COVID survivor, on guitar.

At the same time, there was an electric guitar solo being heard on one of the most-played songs in the United States. Harry Styles’ “Adore You,” which has logged 1.1 million radio spins in 2020, according to Mediabase, and has been streamed more than 400 million times, per Alpha Data, features the playing of Kid Harpoon (real name: Tom Hull), Styles’ friend and producer, who handled the guitar parts for much of the Brit’s excellent “Fine Line” album, released in Dec. 2019. As it turns out, the melody of the solo, which also serves as the bridge to “Adore You,” was first hummed by Styles for Hull to emulate. “I did it with my mouth into a microphone,” Styles told Variety in October. “And then Tom sent me this video trying to get it to sound the same. He spent a couple of hours getting it.”

Why include a guitar solo when most pop songs would never dare? “I feel it’s kind of like ‘La La Land’ saving jazz — only for rock ‘n’ roll,” Styles cracked when posed with the question. But more seriously speaking, Variety‘s Hitmaker of the Year added: “I’m not a spearheader of the movement, like, ‘Let’s bring back guitars.’ There’s plenty of times when [a song] doesn’t sound better with a guitar, and you don’t use it. But a lot of the references I grew up with have guitars; and it’s the first instrument I played, so it makes sense that I would like the sound of them more. I don’t think the guitar is dying. Guitars are great and always have been.”

In fact, guitar sales in 2020 have been robust. Music retailer Sweetwater reports more than 50% year-over-year growth in guitar purchases, with even larger increases during the peak COVID months of April, May and June “when customers most likely hunkered down to practice and create music after watching all of the streaming video they could handle,” according to a rep for the Indiana-based company.

The spike extended to other string instruments as well, which saw growth of more than 70% year-over-year in the price range of $299 or lower. The metric indicates that “new players are joining the fold,” says Sweetwater, which has been in business for over four decades and operates online. (Competitor Guitar Center, with more than 250 physical locations in the U.S., did not fare as well, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.)

Even in the virtual world, learning to play an instrument has taken off during lockdown. The platform Yousician, which provides interactive learning for guitar, bass, ukulele, piano and voice, currently reigns as the No. 1 app for music instruction while its sister product, GuitarTuna, is tops for guitar tuning.

Ask current writers and producers working in pop and hip-hop about their process and you soon learn that an acoustic guitar is often the beginning or the essence of a hit song. Among Variety‘s 2020 Hitmakers, the trio of Taz Taylor, Charlie Handsome and KC Supreme credited a guitar loop as the foundation for Trevor Daniel’s “Falling.” For Maren Morris’ “The Bones,” producer Greg Kurstin noted: “The first thing I noticed was Jimmy Robbins’ guitar hook; I wanted to keep the song rooted in that.”

“So many hit songs from 2020 started with a acoustic or electric guitar, whether it be a melody line or simple progression,” says songwriter and producer Jenna Andrews, whose recent credits include BTS’ “Dynamite” and Benee’s “Supalonely.”

And often, those guitar-based foundations remained through the finished product — for instance, 24KGoldn’s “Mood,” with its impossibly catchy sun-kissed guitar riff, and Powfu’s “death bed (coffee for your head).”

“I know it sounds kinda old school, but I love it when a well-recorded acoustic pops off on the radio,” says Sam Hollander, whose hits include the aforementioned “High Hopes” and Fitz and the Tantrums’ “HandClap.” “The bulk of my songs tend to be born on guitar. Without that foundation, the lyrics and melodies never really emote the heartbeat and emotion that I’m trying to dial in. There’s just a general warmth to it that’s hard to replicate. It’s like the warmest chocolate chip cookie.”

“I think the prevalence of guitar in 2020 has a lot to do with hip-hop producers using more emo and punk-rock influences,” offers Angie Pagano, whose AMP management company represents Tommy Brown (Ariana Grande, Blackpink) and Mr. Franks, among others. “Juice Wrld really helped bring this into the mainstream over the last few years. We’re seeing a great blend of emo and trap these days.”

Indeed, the year’s most-consumed hits leaned hip-hop — Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” landed at No. 1 on the Hitmakers list with Future and Drake, Jack Harlow and Megan Thee Stallion in the Top 10 — but even DaBaby’s “Rockstar,” the No. 3 song of the year, referenced a guitar in its chorus, albeit alongside mention of a Glock pistol. That visual may go against what Hollander calls “the Kumbaya vibe of the guitar,” but the song still features an acoustic strum at its core.

In the case of Styles’ 2020 successes, which also include the ubiquitous “Watermelon Sugar,” his producer further explained that, while aware of what was reacting on the charts at the time they were recording, Styles wasn’t about to chase the trends. Said Tom Hull: “We [thought], we can’t play the commercial game in terms of what’s happening right now. What we can do is make music that really resonates with us. There’s no blueprint. You just have faith. We love records from the ’70s and ’80s; weird prog rock music that might be a seven-minute instrumental; then you’re listening to Shania Twain, like, ‘This is awesome, too.’ The goal was to make something we will always love, and if it completely flops commercially, at least we know we love it. We have that.”

#harry styles #jan21 #variety21

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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(Accidental 150 Follower Special) IOTA’s Top 10 Best (and By That, I Mean Personal Favorite) Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug

Alright, I already covered what I considered to be the worst Miraculous Ladybug episodes in two parts, and now it’s time to talk about the what I consider to be the best Miraculous Ladybug episodes before I talk about... him...

I’m only putting one rule in place for this list. I'm going to try and list episodes with good qualities other than “cool-looking Akuma and awesome fight scenes”, and focus on other details like character moments and story.

Other than that, let’s get started.

These are the Top 10 Best Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (in my personal opinion because your opinion is also valid)

#10: Mr. Pigeon

While Marinette works on sketching a design for a hat for a fashion contest where the winning design will be worn by Adrien (a rare example where the “Marinette does a thing to impress Adrien” plot actually works), a birdwatcher who loves feeding pigeons in the park is told off by the only police officer in Paris, causing him to get akumatized into the titular Mr. Pigeon, who has control over all of the pigeons in the city.

And by God, does this episode have fun with the concept.

In addition to constantly mimicking pigeon cries, Mr. Pigeon's movements are just so entertaining to watch, only aided by the creative ways he controls the flocks of pigeons.

I'm not kidding when at one point, Mr. Pigeon traps Ladybug and Cat Noir in a cage, and threatens to have his pigeons crap on them unless they hand over their Miraculous. Yeah.

This is one of the episodes that really set the standards for how outlandish the Akumas in Miraculous Ladybug could get. It kind of reminds me of an episode of the original Ultraman, where the SSSP has to find a way to move an incredibly heavy monster using increasingly abnormal strategies, like inflating it with air so it'll float like a balloon. It's clear it isn't taking itself too seriously, so the audience shouldn't either.

Admittedly, Cat Noir's feather allergy feels shoehorned in, and is only included to increase conflict, and you would think it would come up when Mayura, a bird-themed supervillain appears in the third season. But then again, that's just a minor nitpick.

It's just a really fun episode, and I wish we could see Ladybug and Cat Noir fight Mr. Pigeon again that isn't used for a cheap gag.

#9: The Puppeteer

After being told by her mom that she can't have a Ladybug doll made by Marinette, young Manon is Akumatized into the Puppeteer. But obviously, you can't have our heroes beating up a five-year-old, so instead, the Puppeteer has the power to exact control over past Akuma victims as long as she has the doll made by Marinette. So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to face off against Lady Wifi, the Evillustrator, and Rogercop, before the Puppeteer gets her hands on the dolls Marinette made of the two heroes and take control of them as well.

It's still kind of funny to think about the fact that of all the Akumas to become a huge threat to Ladybug and Cat Noir, it's a little girl throwing a temper tantrum. And like with “Mr. Pigeon”, the episode has a lot of fun with the concept, best reflected in the voice acting. You can tell that Carrie Keranen is having so much fun this episode with the stuff she says as Lady Wifi.

The fact that someone who was actually a major threat to the heroes with how she was able to easily outsmart them and also came really close to getting their Miraculous is now acting like a little kid using phrases like “super duper sorry” is even more hilarious.

I'm still a little confused as why of all the past villains, it's Evillustrator and Rogercop that get to come back, and I wish they had gotten more to say, but it's still a treat to see Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting four villains at once, especially since this was before “Heroes Day”.

#8: Sapotis

Hawkmoth akumatizes Alya's little sisters into Sapotis (supposedly based off a folktale, but I can't find anything about it online), who have the power to multiply and easily overwhelm Ladybug and Cat Noir, forcing Ladybug to recruit Alya to become a third hero, Rena Rouge.

I've been a little negative about Alya in the past, but this episode gives her some major character growth. One of the biggest problems I had with her character in Season 1 is how often she tried to figure out Ladybug's identity... despite claiming to be a huge superhero fan, who should know why superheroes keep their identities a secret. Thankfully, this episode mostly puts an end to this idea.

The episode opens with Marinette giving Alya some reasons why Ladybug would keep her identity a secret, and it actually plays into the episode.

Putting aside the stupid Rent-A-Miraculous system introduced in this episode, the idea of keeping secrets and how necessary they can be sometimes is reflected after the battle where Alya is hesitant at first to give up her Miraculous, but eventually concedes and keeps her identity a secret from Marinette (who ironically knows, but that's not important).

Even without that, this episode still has a lot of action with the three heroes fighting their way through an army of Sapotis, with plenty of banter during said action. Hell, at one point, Cat Noir says “gotta catch 'em all”. I don't have a joke here, that's just brilliant.

Out of all the introductory hero episodes, this one easily sticks out among most of them.

(Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about Rena Rouge’s character design in a later post.)

#7: Guitar Villain

I said before in an earlier post that Jagged Stone is one of my favorite characters in Miraculous Ladybug, so it's obvious that the episode where he gets akumatized would be on this list.

After a disagreement with his manager about trying to mimic the popular singer XY (who ironically lacks a Y chromosome), Jagged is akumatized into Guitar Villain, a rock star with a pet dragon who forces everyone to listen to his Awesome Solo (yes, he names his attacks too) to dance uncontrollably.

Honestly, there's not much I can really say about this episode. It's Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting a rock star who flies around on a goddamn dragon. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen! Even the way they defeat him (which I won’t give away) is a fun jab at rock stars.

Admittedly, the episode does border on grouchy old man territory sometimes by complaining about how bad today's music is with the way they portray XY as a whiny and egotistical coward, but after watching “Silencer”, you'll be glad everyone hates him.

Overall, it's a rockingly awesome episode.

#6: The Dark Owl

Mr. Damocles, the principal of Marinette and Adrien's school, is akumatized into the Dark Owl, a corrupted version of his favorite comic book superhero (who would later turn out to be real in the New York special, but I don't want to acknowledge that), who uses his high-tech gadgets to trap Ladybug and Cat Noir, putting them in one of their toughest binds yet.

I'm a huge fan of the Adam West Batman show, so you could probably guess why it's on this list. This episode really feels like an episode of that show with how goofy and over the top everything is. Obviously, this episode has a few Batman references thrown in (even an Incredibles reference at one point), and they're all hilarious.

I just love how complex Dark Owl's traps for Ladybug and Cat Noir are, and the fact that he actually manages to outsmart them at one point. Like seriously, have you ever heard of a death trap that involves drowning someone in whipped cream? That’s totally something you’d see the Joker setting up.

I don't really want to give away the ending (which is why this part is so short), because I think it's a really clever resolution that you should check out for yourself.

#5: Gorizilla

Hawkmoth akumatizes Adrien's bodyguard into Gorizilla, whose sole purpose is to protect Adrien. His motivation? To see if Adrien is actually Cat Noir or not. So Adrien has to avoid this gigantic gorilla's wrath with Marinette, all while trying to catch a movie his late mother was in.

See this? This is Adrienette done right. This is the kind of interaction I like when it comes to romance. Marinette and Adrien spend a few scenes with each other avoiding Adrien's crazy fanbase, and Marinette doesn't stammer half of her words. Even when she interacts with Adrien as Ladybug, she still remains confident, and Adrien trusts her judgment when it looks like he might fall. I don't just want Marinette and Adrien to cuddle with each other or declare their love for each other when they get their memories wiped. I want them to interact like human beings before they actually start a relationship, and this episode is a good example of it.

Adrien also gets some good focus with the way he views his relationship with his parents, as does Gabriel with his relationship with his son. Granted, he's taking a pretty huge gamble trying to kill Adrien to see if he's Cat Noir or not as opposed to just... taking off his ring while he sleeps. Can we at least admit he's trying?

I feel they could have done more with the King Kong homage (guess who I'm talking about?), but I can understand there wasn't enough time to focus on that. It's still an important episode to watch for plot and character growth that will barely be acknowledged in later episodes.

#4: Sandboy

tHe SaNdBoY hAs ChEcKeD iN. nOw NiGhTmArEs CaN bEgIn.

Now that we got that obvious joke out of the way, let's talk about one of the most creative episodes of the show.

Tikki and Plagg, Marinette and Adrien's Kwamis (the magical beings that power their Miraculous) take part in a ritual with the other Kwamis inside Master Fu's Miracle Box to contact Nooroo, Hawkmoth's Kwami, on his birthday and get an idea of where he is. Unfortunately, Hawkmoth chooses to akumatize someone during the ritual, leaving Marinette and Adrien helpless to fight back against Sandboy, an Akuma with the power to make their worst fears come true.

I said before in my worst list when talking about “Ladybug” that there was too much going on for one episode, what with Marinette's expulsion, the attempted Scarletmoth attack, and the fake Ladybug plotlines generally being rushed through. This episode is basically the opposite of that (ironically, they're both the penultimate episodes of their respective seasons).

The Kwami ritual and the Akuma attack are perfectly staged together so one affects the other. Not only do the Kwamis have to risk aborting their ritual to reach Nooroo in order to fight the Akuma, but Marinette and Adrien have to deal without fighting off Sandboy's nightmares on their own. Both plots balance each other out into a well-crafted story.

This is also one of the only episodes in the show where the Akuma of the week isn't the man focus. Here, we don't even see what happens to get the kid akumatized into Sandboy, and instead, Gabriel senses someone with negative emotions and akumatizes the kid offscreen. This works, because it doesn't distract from the main plot too much.

Even Marinette and Adrien's worst fears beautifully contrast each other, with both managing to be unsettling in different ways, even if they both have different tones. While Adrien's worst fear is being imprisoned in his own room (the fear only made worse with Plagg's absence), Marinette's worst fear is... the real star of the episode. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think you all know who I'm talking about.

You can tell the animators had a field day with animating Nightmare Adrien. Just look at the way he moves around and the faces he makes. It manages to be terrifying and hilarious at the same time. Bryce Papenbrook's performance only makes it better, cementing this as the highlight of the episode.

This episode also does a good job at foreshadowing the main plot for Season 3 with Hawkmoth finding out about the other Kwamis and by extension, more Miraculous.

It's got plot, comedy, good action, and Nightmare Adrien, so how can you turn this episode down?

And no, I'm not talking about Nightmare Ladybug, mainly because I'm tired of all the evil doppelgangers from the worst list.

#3: Startrain

Yes, believe it or not, I managed to find a Season 3 episode that wasn't complete garbage, and spoiler alert, this isn't the only one.

Marinette and Adrien's class goes on a field trip to London by taking the train, until the driver is akumatized into Startrain, who wants to escape to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... SPACE! So Ladybug and Cat Noir have to defeat Startrain while also finding a way to bring everyone on the train back home.

I like how this episode plays with the usual Akuma of the week formula. Unlike every other Akuma they've fought, Cat Noir points out that if they beat Startrain, everyone will die, so they have to be more strategic in their approach. They don't even fight Startrain for most of the episode, as they have to make their way to the front of the train to confront the Akuma. The action in this episode is very creative and really takes advantage of zero gravity, only aided by the design of the futuristic train the episode takes place in.

The new hero introduced, Pegasus (AKA Max, another student in Marinette and Adrien's class), is also really cool, being very intelligent and helping out the heroes progress through the train even before he gets the Horse Miraculous. It makes sense that his intelligence would be used rather than just his powers in this situation.

There are even some good character moments too. For once, Master Fu does something smart and loans the Horse Miraculous (which has the power of teleportation) to Marinette so she can still go on the class trip, trusting her and actually letting her have a life. It was also nice to see Alya stick up for Marinette by keeping Lila from interrupting her nap with Adrien.

This episode is basically like a refreshing glass of water to enjoy during the garbage fire that was Season 3.

(I’m going to talk about Pegasus’ character design later on too, don’t worry)

#2: Silencer

Lukanette shippers, ASSEMBLE!

Music producer Bob Roth and his son XY hold a contest for young artists to show off their skills, and Kitty Section, a band composed of several recurring characters, decides to enter, with Marinette helping to design their costumes. But as soon as they submit their video, they find out that XY copied their style, naturally pissing the band off.

Marinette and the lead guitarist of Kitty Section, Luka, confront Bob Roth and XY, who threaten to ruin their careers by claiming that they ripped off XY. Seeing Marinette getting threatened is more than enough for Hawkmoth to akumatize Luka into Silencer, who naturally has the power to silence and mimic the voices of others.

I talked about Luka and his relationship with Marinette in an earlier post (specifically the one where Astruc claimed that the fandom growing to like Luka counted as character development), and I said that this was one of the few good episodes this season because of their interactions. This episode basically made me realize how much Luka cares for Marinette, and the episode gives plenty of time to show the two spending time together and growing closer. It's basically everything “Oni-Chan” should have been about, giving some depth to Luka and not portraying him as a crazy person like they did with Kagami in that episode.

Silencer is also one of the more creatively designed villains this season, and has a really creative approach to achieving his goals. While the ability to steal and imitate someone's voice seems mundane compared to control over the weather, or making nightmares come to life, it's used very effectively. Silencer basically tricks the police into arresting Bob Roth while imitating the mayor's voice, and he threatens to make his life a living hell by using the connections to the voices he's stolen. Even with the hand puppet gesture, it's still unsettling to have Silencer speak in all these voices, and it would make for a really interesting horror movie.

Even Ladybug and Cat Noir's interactions are back to their Season 1 levels of enjoyment. Even though Silencer took her voice, Ladybug just makes so many expressions that do a great job at describing her feelings, which naturally plays off Cat Noir's motormouth tendencies. Whenever Cat Noir jokes about Ladybug's condition, he is rightfully called out on it and is reprimanded in some way, my favorite being when Ladybug uses her yo-yo to hit Cat Noir on the head to shut him up. Even putting aside that, they still work well together this episode and really feel like equals. I also love their silent fist bump when Bob Roth is exposed.

Again, the episode still takes the time to go on about how unoriginal today's musicians are, and how they lack artistic creativity and all that crap. Look, given how ham-fisted the writing in this show can get, are you surprised the commentary isn't subtle?

Even putting aside how much this episode made me appreciate Lukanette, it still has a lot of great moments that aren't even related to the ship itself, which is a real testament to how this show can perfectly balance romance and story when it's done right. Now if only the show could try this much with Adrienette, then people wouldn't hate the main pairing of the show this much.

#1: The Collector

Taking place immediately after the Season 1 finale, Marinette meets Master Fu and discusses the book she found depicting past Miraculous users. Marinette theorizes that since the book was in the Agreste mansion, Gabriel could be Hawkmoth. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, she's right, and in order to draw off suspicion, Gabriel akumatizes himself into the Collector.

This episode has several good writing decisions for both sides, and the choices the characters make feel natural. Gabriel akumatizing himself is such a smart move, and so is what Marinette and Master Fu do with the book at the end. This episode does a great job setting up future plot threads and establishes Master Fu's character and the mystery associated with him.

The Collector is a visually stunning villain, and his powers are really creative, leading to a great fight with Ladybug and Cat Noir, who use a great strategy to outsmart him. I also love how over the top he is in order to make the heroes believe that he's working for Hawkmoth, all with a devious smile on his face.

This was also the episode that really got me into Miraculous Ladybug as a whole. I checked out the first season on a whim after it was mentioned in a Pan Pizza video, but it was during the hiatus between seasons, and I hadn't really started using Tumblr yet, so it mostly stayed off my radar. When Season 2 started however, I really got invested in the story, and the way this episode turned out was a big reason why. I wondered what it would be like when Adrien finds out his own father is Hawkmoth, and how the story would play out after the reveal.

Despite what it led up to, I still consider “The Collector” to be my favorite episode of Miraculous Ladybug.

Well, now that I talked about that, not it's time to talk about what I consider to be the worst episode of Miraculous Ladybug, “Felix”. God help me...

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tabloidtoc · 3 years

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Star, May 3

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

Page 1: Christina Aguilera at 40 -- she talks about child stardom, learning to love her body, and what she wants her daughter Summer to know

Page 2: Contents, Renee Zellweger, Phoebe Dynevor and James McAvoy at the BAFTAs in London

Page 3: Mariska Hargitay and Law & Order: SVU co-star Ice-T take a selfie during a break from shooting the cop drama in NYC, Heather Graham at the beach in Mexico, stepping into the America's Got Talent studio Sofia Vergara elevated her casual cropped jeans with strappy platform sandals in L.A., Jason Momoa cutting a rug with an unidentified partner ahead of filming a scene for his upcoming fantasy film Slumberland in Toronto

Page 4: Colton Underwood comes out -- saying he's the happiest and healthiest he's ever been, the former Bachelor clarifies his orientation

Page 5: Lena Dunham is no stranger to controversy, so it comes as no surprise that her foray into fashion design has also come under fire as she partnered with a plus-size label to create the capsule collection 11 Honore x Lena Dunham, but the kicky line quickly came under fire as critics are calling it tone-deaf, mediocre and not inclusive at all since its largest size is a 26 and some are even going so far to call Lena a grifter who gained weight in order to make money off the plus-size community but Lena, who underwent a hysterectomy at 31, has pointed to early menopause as the cause of her straight-up gut -- while Lena refuses to be intimidated by bullies, she is listening to the complaints about sizes and is planning to address it

* Once a cautionary tale of the perils of child stardom, at age 40 Macaulay Culkin is a father himself as he and girlfriend Brenda Song welcomed a son, Dakota -- he's finally overcome his demons and Brenda has been a huge influence on his life and helped him get back on the straight and narrow and he's even pursuing acting again, shooting season 10 of American Horror Story; his life has taken such a positive turn

* A year after announcing her split from Jay Cutler, Kristin Cavallari is seeing the upside of divorce, saying it's made her a better mom in some ways because she has her kids half the time now so when she has them for her week, she is so incredibly present with her kids Camden, Jaxon and Saylor and she is not distracted by her phone or anything else; she is with them -- Jay and Kristin each have the kids 182.5 days a year and court papers also revealed that her ex is allowed two phone calls and two FaceTime or Skype calls a week and vice versa so now every moment is precious and if someone is having a temper tantrum or something, she remains calm because she knows that she is losing them in a few days

Page 6: Gwen Stefani is widely thought to have had some help in the nips and tucks department, and as her wedding to Blake Shelton approaches, he is starting to object to her constant tweaking of her face -- she's always messing with it by getting more fillers and Botox and Blake is afraid of what he'll see at the altar and he's freaking out at Gwen's increasingly extreme beauty routine which is becoming increasingly over-the-top; Gwen can barely move her face to smile at him anymore and it looks weird -- while he frets, he's trying to reassure his wife-to-be because Blake thinks she's beautiful just the way she is

* As an executive producer on the long-running Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay has tasked the writers to come up with more storylines featuring one of her favorite characters: defense attorney Trevor Langan, played by none other than her husband Peter Hermann -- Mariska and Peter originally met and fell in love when Peter guest-starred on the show and she loves to keep that magic alive by bringing him back to play Trevor but the trouble is he is busy with his own gigs as a series regular on Younger and his recurring role on Blue Bloods and Peter loves working with his wife, but he has his own acting career apart from Mariska -- still, he may soon have his day in court because Peter understands how Mariska feels and is trying to work his schedule to allow him some guest spots in the near future

Page 8: Star Shots -- Lenny Kravitz with a guitar flaunted his well-sculpted midsection during a stroll on the beach, Suki Waterhouse with her on-the-go grub on the set in Liverpool

Page 9: Louisa Jacobson and Taissa Farmiga and Denee Benton on the set of The Gilded Age in NYC, Conan O'Brien sipped on a soda at lunch in L.A., Katy Perry in the American Idol bathroom

Page 10: Kate Hudson with mom Goldie Hawn and kids Ryder and Rani, Kate Hudson twirled solo modeling in a pal's swimwear collection, Jude Law's daughter Iris Law who will make her acting debut in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sex Pistols biopic makes a call in London

Page 12: Kelly Osbourne handed out items at a food distribution event as the Islamic Center for Southern California, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the gym, despite a no-social warning a cheeky Nicole Kidman shared a pic from the set of Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos in which she portrays Lucille Ball

Page 13: Anabella Sciorra and Donnie Wahlberg gloved up for a Blue Bloods scene in NYC, Heidi Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz started their morning during a walk on the beach in L.A.

Page 14: Travis Barker showed off his body art stepping off a Hollywood tour bus shirtless after filming a music video, a cheerful Britney Spears gave a fun look into her wardrobe in a pink floral frock, Scott Disick and Amelia Hamlin color-coordinated for a walk near the beach in Miami

Page 16: Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter put up their dukes to promote their Celebrity Boxing Match in Philadelphia, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and husband Nick Jonas at the BAFTAs in London, Ellen DeGeneres on the phone during a stroll in her main hood of Montecito

Page 18: Normal or Not? A denim-on-denim clad Jay Leno scratched an itch while filming a project in Los Angeles -- not normal, dressed in a Siggi sweatshirt Katie Holmes picked up some seasonal blooms on Manhattan's Upper East Side -- normal, Kate Beckinsale multitasked during a car ride by applying undereye patches -- not normal

Page 19: Gavin Rossdale appeared to be pleased with his Kitson purchase by doing a little dance after leaving the popular L.A. store -- not normal

Page 20: Fashion -- stars wow in statement-making capes -- Gisele Bundchen, Charlize Theron, Zoey Deutch

Page 21: Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning

Page 24: Justin Bieber: How Love Saved Me -- the formerly troubled pop singer gives praise for wife Hailey Bieber

Page 25: Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance has already cooled and the pair are giving each other space -- turns out Olivia and Harry don't actually have much in common -- the two jetted to London after wrapping Don't Worry Darling, but they were soon waylaid by their respective responsibilities as Olivia has been spending time with her kids Otis and Daisy while her ex Jason Sudeikis shoots Ted Lasso while Harry, who was spooked by how quickly intense things got, is gearing up for his role in My Policeman -- for now, the two have decided to reassess things when they're back in L.A., which leaves the window open for Jason, whose strategy was to let her and Harry fizzle out, then see where she is at, and it's going according to plan

* Jennifer Lopez calls off her relationship with Alex Rodriguez

* Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher are better than ever after overcoming a rough patch, one that had their inner circle convinced they were headed for divorce -- Mike had a serious roving eye that made Carrie anxious and she would treat him like he was Mr. Underwood and tensions between the two were at an all-time high when the pandemic hit, forcing the two into extra one-on-one time, but as it turns out, their new routine is just what they needed because they set boundaries, divided up tasks and put time aside for fun things and they prioritized romance, which has made all the difference -- Carrie and Mike are re-committed to their marriage and they've been through so much so much and neither wants to throw it away

Page 26: Cover Story -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's model kid -- Shiloh Jolie-Pitt the gorgeous teen is ready for her close up, but Brad and Angie are at odds about Shiloh's new passion -- Shiloh's been experimenting with girlier styles lately, including growing out her hair and she's at the age where she's starting to change things up -- Brad isn't thrilled about Shiloh's modeling dreams and idea of her walking into the lion's den gives him cause for concern -- Angelina began modeling at 16, just one year older than Shiloh and Shiloh knows that's what set her mom on her path to fame and Shiloh is constantly asking Angie about the pros and cons of the modeling world

Page 29: Model Kids -- these celeb offspring also know how to strike a pose -- Hailey Bieber, Sofia Richie, Amelia Hamlin, Lily-Rose Depp, Brooklyn Beckham, Paris Jackson, Kendall Jenner, Corinne Foxx, Ireland Baldwin, Margaret Qualley, Kaia Gerber, Leni Klum, Patrick Schwarzenegger

Page 30: Prince William and Prince Harry: Behind Closed Doors -- the estranged princes are forced to reckon with their rift as the royal family gathers for Prince Philip's funeral

Page 32: High Anxiety -- it's not so simple for celebs who struggle with panic attacks -- Emma Stone, Stephen Colbert, Amanda Seyfried

Page 33: Hugh Grant, Ryan Reynolds, Ariana Grande

Page 36: Beauty -- nail it -- self-care essentials to score the perfect at-home manicure and pedicure -- Kaley Cuoco

Page 38: Style -- cute cases -- step up your tech, and fashion, game this season with a trendy cellphone cover -- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 40: Entertainment

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Corey Feldman embraced wife Courtney Anne Mitchell as the two ventured out for a romantic outing in L.A.

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twokinkybeans · 3 years

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The Arachnoids: ROCK BAND AU [Starker] - Chapter 6: HEADSTART HERO

READ “CHAPTER 6: HEADSTART HERO” ON AO3

Find the masterpost with all the chapters linked here!

Taglist: @crystallinecrimsonmoth & @staticwhispersinthedark (Let me know if you want to be added!)

Chapter 6: Headstart Hero

Peter knows exactly what it feels like to be standing in the crowd, anticipating the start of a show. The strange connection you feel with all these people that you’ve never met, the laughter, the chatter, the excitement coursing through your veins as you wait for the lights to finally dim. Standing backstage holds the same kind of elation; yet it’s completely different. He too, is waiting for the lights to dim. Every time the lights flicker, every time the crowd makes a little more noise, he feels his heart skip a beat. It can’t be healthy to be so tense. His ribcage feels tight and he swallows. Peter tries to shift his guitar strap a little in the hopes of gaining some breathing space. Not that it helps of course, ‘cause it’s not the strap that restrains him.

Next to him, MJ and Ned are fighting equal battles with themselves. Playing for the New Year’s Eve show had been challenging enough, but somehow, this feels different. Like they’re gonna have to prove their worth. This is their chance to get their name out. To connect with potential fans. It’s overwhelming. Very, very much so.

It shouldn’t be long now, please, please don’t keep him waiting any longer. He-

The lights dim at last, and Peter is hit with the screams emerging from the crowd. Astonished, he knows he should jump to action right now. It’s almost as if someone else takes over his body when a broad smile plasters itself on his face and he runs into the stage lights. “Welcome!” MJ laughs into her microphone. She looks absolutely stunning. Her aquamarine dress swirls around her loosely as she walks. Venus, for sure. “We are the inner concentric, the outer radial lineament, the spider-like volcano-tectonic structures from Venus. We have come to Earth to give you a hint of the whirling desire that is found on our planet. We are… The Arachnoids!”

Ned kicks off with a fast-paced rhythm, the deep vibrations of the bass drum tingling on Peter’s skin. Everything about this makes him feel so utterly hyped up. He lets his pick rain down on the strings, earlier nerves forgotten. His fingers glide over the notes so easily. The stage lights are blinding, but he knows how big the arena is. He knows exactly how many people are out there- watching him, cheering for him.

He walks forward, dancing to MJ’s sweet harmony, and slides to his knees to get a break from the lights for a quick second. The group of young adults pressed against the front barrier raise their hands to him and scream. Peter’s eyes widen when he sees one of the girls is wearing a bright-pink tee with ‘The Arachnoids’ written on it with a black marker. He grins widely at her and winks. The girl instantly tears up and brings her hands together in a heart-shaped symbol. “I love you, Peter!” She mouths excitedly.

Peter can’t help the stunned chuckle that rises from his chest and he stands up again, walking over to MJ while quickly waving to the girl in the crowd once. Then, he turns around and leans against MJ, his head dropping backwards onto her shoulder. MJ plays along. She moves her hand up to ruffle through Peter’s hair as she keeps on singing through the high notes of the chorus. “And now we’re hoooo-hoooooome!” Peter jumps away from her and bounces on the balls of his feet and moves his head along to the music. He runs towards the other side of the stage, giving the crowd a good show as he keeps playing with his instrument raised high in the air.

Somehow, his glance is pulled towards the small backstage area he can see from there. Tony’s seated on top of the transport cases again, watching the show intently. Peter can’t help feeling surprised at the fact that Tony’s here watching them play.

Peter swallows when he realizes that his solo is coming up, the exact one Tony had given him the unsolicited advice about earlier today. He presses his lips together and makes the split-second decision to play it Tony’s way. He may not have practiced it yet, but he knows he can do it. He wants to. Why he wants to please Tony so badly is a mystery to him, but he doesn’t have time to think about it. That’s how he takes a few steps closer towards the edge of the stage and takes a deep breath. His fingers find their usual pattern, his pick hitting each snare perfectly- D-string, he reminds himself. Play the F on the D-string.

And oh, Tony had been right. Peter flies through the solo so much easier than ever before. Endorphins release from his brain and make him feel nice and warm all over. He turns his head to look at Tony again. The man’s eyes are wide as he watches Peter play all the way through the solo with ease, and Peter wonders if the man had expected him to actually listen. Peter most certainly didn’t.

As soon as the solo ends, he breaks his gaze with Tony’s and resumes playing chorus’ rhythm, walking over to Ned who’s happily smashing on his drums. The new kit suits him perfectly. Peter has to suppress the urge to look at Tony again and he scoffs quietly to himself. He’s starting to get weirdly attached to the other guitarist. Asshole or not, there’s… something about the man and it’s inherently annoying to Peter. So, that’s why he refuses to look over even once for the rest of the show, and by the end of the set, he’s nearly forgotten that it even happened.

Nearly.

“You guys were fantastic out there- Woah!” Harley laughs and pulls Peter into a tight hug. Peter chuckles, patting the other boy’s back in return. It’s a little awkward, with his guitar between them, but the intention is what matters most. “Thanks, dude!” Peter sighs happily and pulls back. He only then realizes how much his shirt is sticking onto his skin. “Ugh, I need a change of clothes.” Harley chuckles at that. “One month into this tour and you won’t even notice anymore,” he jokes. “We’ll all walk around smelling like shit- part of the fun, I say!” Peter laughs and shakes his head at that. Harley, in return, looks very pleased with himself.

“Hey, I gotta go switch the stage set-up- eh, tell MJ I’ll talk to her later?” Harley asks, leaning in a little as if he doesn’t want anyone else to hear it. MJ’s standing a couple of feet away from them, talking to Liz, one of the other roadies working on this tour. “Uhh, sure!” Peter answers, noticing the small blush that spreads on Harley’s cheekbones. The blonde grins and glances over at MJ once more before taking a step back. He finger guns at Peter and winks. “You’re a hero!”

Peter snorts, it’s adorable how clearly the boy is trying to get MJ’s attention. Not that he actually has to try very hard. MJ and Harley have been messaging each other every single day since the New Year’s Eve show. Sometimes they even facetime. Peter can tell that MJ is slowly starting to open up to the idea of Harley possibly liking her, but he’ll keep his mouth shut about it. She has to figure it out herself. In her own time.

“Hero,” Tony scoffs from behind him. Peter has to actively keep himself from rolling his eyes at the remark and he turns around. “That’d be me,” he deadpans. Tony lets out a surprised laugh at that and Peter feels a stupid happy feeling emerging in his chest. No, he reminds himself. Don’t let him get to you. He doesn’t want to befriend the man so quickly. He might be less of a prick today, but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a kind presence to be around. He’s very much not that. “Space hero… Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” “I guess.” Peter eyes the man, unsure what he wants from him. Tony licks his lips once and tilts his head.

“So,” Tony starts slowly. “Seems my advice wasn’t that bad after all, mmh?” “I never said it was bad.” “But you didn’t like it.” “I didn’t ask for help, Tony.” Peter narrows his eyes a little, trying to read the man’s face. Tony’s deep brown eyes hold something so… Unexplainable. It’s no fragility, neither is it playful. It’s some weird mixture of every possible emotion out there. It makes it feel both very intense and deep, and closed-off at the same time. There’s so much to see that it’s impossible to know what’s truly going on. Peter sighs. “Unsolicited, but it worked. Yes. Thank you.”

“Ah,” Tony exclaims proudly and Peter instantly wishes he hadn’t said it. It’s irritating and he knows that whatever words Tony will speak next, it’s gonna be something cocky again. “When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Mmh, never thought it was true. When do we start your classes?” Peter huffs and looks away for a second. “I’m not taking classes from you. I’m sure you got better things to do than waste your time on beginners like us.” Peter instantly regrets his words when he sees a flash of rejection on Tony’s face. The man straightens his shoulders, eyebrows furrowing together. Peter knows that whatever he said, it triggered the man’s jerkiness full force. “Fine, I’m just trying to be nice. But you’re right, Peter. I got better things to do,” Tony spits out and he stalks off. “Fuck,” Peter mutters to himself. He messed up. Nice job, Parker. Keep going like this and you’ll find your ass on a plane back to New York first thing in the morning. He wishes he knew what had set Tony off so much, but at the same time, he can feel anger bubbling up inside him. It’s so utterly frustrating that Tony can’t handle anything without stomping his feet and throwing a tantrum. It’s not Peter’s problem. It’s not his issue to solve. “Go fuck yourself,” he mumbles quietly. Feeling annoyed with the fact that the whole, hazy feeling of post-concert bliss has shattered.

“Hey Pete, we killed it out there!” Ned interrupts his thoughts as the drummer nudges his side. “And those fangirls in the front, can you fucking believe it? We got fans!” Ned’s enthusiasm instantly lightens Peter’s mood a little. Tension leaves his body and he grins widely at Ned. “We’re gonna be huge, Leeds. One day, I’m telling ya!” “Let’s toast to that, boys!” MJ chimes in and hands both of them a small bottle of water. Peter eagerly takes it from her hands and skews the cap off.

“You,” he says as he brings the bottle to his mouth, “-are a lifesaver.” “I know,” she smirks and chugs some water down as well. “Has anyone seen Harley? He said he’d see me after our set,” she then asks, voice wavering slightly. She cranes her neck to try and spot him. “He just hopped by, told me to tell you he’d see you later. Not sure what he was up to, but running ‘round as always,” Peter tells her. MJ seems pleased with the information that Harley told Peter to make sure she wouldn’t feel left behind. “Poor dude,” Ned mumbles. “I’m sure he doesn’t get paid even half of what he deserves.” “He loves the job, though,” MJ smiles. She tilts her head at Peter. “I saw you talking to Tony, by the way! He seemed nice today?”

Peter scoffs. “He sorta was, in his own way. But one wrong word and he turned all bitchy again.” “Ugh, there’s always some issue with him, isn’t there? Do you still wanna watch their set after that?” “Yes,” Peter answers. “They’re a good band. Who knows when we’ll be kicked off the tour, we should enjoy it while it lasts.” He tries to bring it jokingly but knows it sounds petty as fuck. Dammit, Tony sure brings out the worst in him. “Yeah,” MJ smiles. “I vote we stay.” Peter simply nods and takes another big sip from the water and wipes the small stains of sweat from his forehead using his sleeve. He still feels low-key guilty about the whole encounter with Tony. The least he can do is watch the show and give them their support. He’ll have to try to ignore the nagging thoughts clawing at his mind. He can do that, he hopes.

Read the next chapter >> 7: Ice Cream Ignition

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clickyourradio · 3 years

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Maya Azucena, fuses contemporary R&B/Soul, indie-pop, and the raw edge of Blues vocals to create emotional music that uplifts the soul. Among several awards for her music and humanitarian outreach, Azucena contributed her 4-octave range to a feature performance with Stephen Marley, which earned a Grammy for Best Reggae Album of the Year. Critically acclaimed, Brooklyn-native, Maya is an avid indie touring artist and songwriter. She collaborates extensively on stage and recordings with both national and international stars. Her collaborations have included diverse artists such as rock band Brass Against, guitar legend Vernon Reid (Living Colour), jazz greats Jason Miles, Marcus Miller, soulful house DJ Spinna, DJ Logic, alt-pop artist Fitz and the Tantrums, and international legends such as Gibonni (Croatia), DJ Jad (Italy), Oleg Butman (Russia).

Azucena has 3 critically acclaimed full-length albums under her belt, plus several digital singles, and countless co-writes and recordings as the featured singer. Recent concerts include a 17-country tour of Europe in 2019; Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Essence Fest in New Orleans, Blue Note in New York, plus countries like Turkey, Russia, Dubai, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Macedonia, Croatia, and South Africa. Based on a personal commitment to help the world through her talent, most of Maya’s songs are anthems that lend a voice to self-worth, empowerment, overcoming obstacles, and stepping into our "fearless" selves. Maya is slated to represent America (Brooklyn, New York) as a performer at the International Expo in Dubai, January 2022. She is also in the process of writing and recording both an EP in collaboration with soul-outfit Dreemtime, produced by Klive D-Farley, and her next solo EP titled "I Am Enough," produced by Timo Ellis (Sean Lennon).

#hits top40 #hits #top40 #newsong #rnb #canada #onlineradio #music #radio #listen #newmusic #princess of rnb #rnbsoul #rnbpop #youtube #neo soul

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merrilark · 3 years

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🌻

Rules: Answer these questions and tag as many people as you like Tagged by: nicked from @joz-stankovich

name/nickname: i don’t have a nickname here yet but i guess any form of my url will do; bun, bunny, huck, huckleberry, idc just call me anything gender: female star sign: gemini height: 4′11″ time: 11:18pm birthday: 5/23 favorite bands: saint motel, mother mother, fall out boy, panic! at the disco, interpol, white lies, twenty one pilots, half•alive favorite solo artists: stromae, matt maeson, iwan rheon, cosmo shelldrake, hozier, billie eilish song stuck in my head: “what’s wrong” by half alive last show: ooh. uhhh. lol tales of wells fargo, i think. last movie: bad samaritan. again. when did i create this blog: 2021 what do i post: self-indulgent fanart mostly, sometimes fandom things, and occasionally i reblog stuff i think is relatable lol. i’m still not quuuuite sure how i want to handle the content of this blog, but it’s meant to be a safe fun place for me to be embarrassing about fan stuff and not care. last thing googled: ignore that i forgot to answer this for a few hours “best bread recipes” other blogs: wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy? sfjksdf jk jk jk jk a lot. but i want to keep this blog mooostly separate from all my others. this is a place for trusted fandom friends and complete strangers do i get asks: nah. i’d like to! but i don’t have many followers yet so it’s chill. why i chose my url: i deliberated for a bazillion years and decided to go with this because i like wild huckleberries and bunnies and... idk. it’s cute? i guess? i wanted this to be a fandom blog, too, but i didn’t want my url to be tied down to any 1 fandom, you know? following: 68 followers: 18 average hours of sleep: whooo... usually 4-10 hours. i either sleep way too little or way way too much. trying to work on that. lucky number: 2 has been pretty good for me, i think instruments: i took violin lessons as a kid but after i grew out of my tiny violin i never got a new one so. uh. now i play ukulele and a little bit of guitar. what am i wearing: a doctor who shirt i got from the free bin at my college dorm and a pair of fuzzy lion king pajama pants. we’re livin’ the cozy life tonight. dream trip: i desperately want to go back to ireland and wales. people are so!! SO nice there. favorite food: anything potato... and curry, mmm nationality: american favorite song: this is an impossible question lol but! “handclap” by fitz and the tantrums, “what’s wrong” by half alive, and “preach” by saint motel are bangers. i always have to dance to them. top three fictional worlds: horizon: zero dawn, misfits, the chronicles of narnia

Tagging whoever wants to do this!

#about bunny #personal

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unseelie-bitch · 3 years

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Season 3 Episode 1: The Princess' Ball

Oh I am EXCITED for this

Oh god okay new shots in the intro include a well-dressed man who very much looks like a human version of Scarlemagne from Kipo. Gonna go out on a limb and assume he's the new antagonist

Musa's hair's longer!! Oh it's so cute

Okay who is this blue haired lady that keeps showing up in the intro she's clearly important but gives me villain vibes

Also loving the amount of ballgowns they're clearly going to wear this season

Stella's packing for a vacation, good start

Musa "wear whatever you have" is not advice Stella would EVER take come on

And why exactly is vacation way shorter this year? You can't just say that and expect me not to question it

I think Techna's voice actor has changed >:(

Layla and Musa aren't going home? Aww...

"Hitherus" iconic

KIKO

Oh nice one Layla

Oh no Stella's getting a sungram please tell me her parents aren't cancelling on her

Oh Stella's getting a princess ball! Also "back when they still had arranged marriages" implies that Sky actively proposed to Diaspro and they were actually dating so... what's the truth lover-boy?

Oh no her dad has a suprise announcement he thinks will make her happy? What's the bet he's either pulling her out of school or has found her a husband

Aww Stella's bringing the whole squad!!

"Approaching omega dimension" with ominous music... can I assume we're either going to see the Trix or fancyboy?

Oh they're delivering three prisoners... Icy? Darcy? Stormy?

"They say it's so cold down there it freezes your heart solid" well Icy won't exactly have an issue now will she

Yep it's the Trix

Okay so Icy just woke up with glowing eyes which is a whole thing but can we talk about their frozen expressions? They not only look afraid but in pain... when were they frozen? What happened to them? I hope they're okay

Well Icy's free

Icy I'm loving your monologue but do you want to maybe free your coven sisters

Oh no she's hoping her parents are getting back together honey no

Oh my god Icy freed Darcy and Stormy and they both immediately collapsed they look so exhausted I'm so worried for them

"Only the baddest of the bad get sent here, girls" "Nice! I bet they're talking about us at Cloud Tower" I cannot stress enough that these are not Big Bad Villains they're just teenagers who don't want to be forgotten and have been abused and manipulated please can they get redemption arcs

Oh ice-laser-breathing-snakes. Isn't that fun?

Stormy actually looked terrified oh no

Blue haired girl from the intro has made her entrance and she's a dick

Pizza man is not okay with this Stella Vs Mystery Girl fight in his shop

Sorry they're... what? Please tell me she didn't actually say "Betas" like it's a flex

Oh wow her friends have a song and dance. Isn't that lovely

Okay I was willing to accept Mystery Girl right up until she was a bitch to Flora now she's going down

Techna going "snap" to emphasise Stella's insult? Iconic. Especially since she did it better than the Betas

Musa's getting her hair spelled! Excited to see it longer

Bloom and Stella are alone <3

Virtual dresses? Excellent world building

Montage!!

The Beta bitch is going to steal Stella's dress isn't she

Yep there we go

HOW DARE YOU PUSH STELLA AND BLOOM OVER

The Trix are running from the snakes oh shit

IT FROZE STORMY'S MAGIC AND SHE LOOKED SO SCARED AGAIN NOOO

Icy actually called back to make sure Stormy knew where they were going! I'm so glad they all care about each other <3

Icy please stop enjoying the icy floor the others can't deal with this like you can

Love that Icy jumped then flew into the cavern while Darcy and Stormy just fell straight down

Again, Icy is fine and gets up straight away, Darcy is hurt and crouched down and Stormy is just straight up lying on the floor please look out for the non-icy witches Icy

Oh there's sir fancyboy. His name's Baltor and I believe I've vaguely heard it

He was sentenced to eternity?? Jesus. Also implies that they would have gotten the Trix out at some point which is interesting

"Frozen dude, blink once if you can see us" okay first of all Icy his name is Baltor and it is literally RIGHT in front of you, secondly he was sentenced to eternity do you really want to try and team up with that? Thirdly iconic line though I love her

Love that Stormy's like "what if we unfeeze this guy so the snakes can kill him and we can get away" and Icy immediately agrees. These girls are pro-murder but everyone has flaws and they're cute so

Darcy and Stormy protecting Icy's back while she's using her (clearly diminished) powers to unfreeze Baltor? Even though they know damn well there's nothing they can do against the snakes? Absolutely brilliant the Trix are such a strong group I love that they actaully love each other and will protect the others at all costs

Fully ran behind Baltor and shoved him into the snakes lol

OH SHIT BALTOR KILLED ALL THREE SNAKES WITH LIKE 0 EFFORT

He's so extra I love him

He was frozen and awake for 17 years... yikes

I didn't notice his stupid little beard until now yikes Baltor please shave it

Oh he cut Icy off this won't end well Darkar has taught her not to let anyone else take charge

Baltor being like "I have no idea what any of you can do and I know I'm powerful but we've been sentenced to the same place so you probably are too. Also I'm out numbered so Imma just let you do what you want... for now" is the smartest villain-play so far

Meanwhile Stella's still trying to get her dress from Beta bitch

"Tantrum Tirade" is Beta bitch's spell so she's clearly the epitome of 'daddy's little rich girl'. Just the Winx version of Veruca Salt. Clearly Beta is for the trustfund babies without talent. Yikes

We have a name lads: Chimera

OH NO HER SPELL IS MAKING A BASKET OF PUPPIES FALL FROM A HIGH BALCONY

Watch Stella lose the dress because she's a good fucking person and won't let the puppies die

OH THOSE DOGS ARE SO CUTE

Oh shit. She's "soon going to be the princess of solaria". Shit man. Stella's dad's marrying Chimera's mother isn't he. That's the news SHIT

The gate to Tides? Oh no Baltor and the Trix can't wreck Layla's home world :(

Baltor you little bitch you could have told them the gate was re-enforced BEFORE they tried to break it and got thrown backwards

Icy might want to show off but I love how Darcy and Stormy are like "bitch do NOT bring that snake back near us"

The teamwork lads. Icy redirecting the beam so Darcy and Stormy can break the barrier? Immaculate. Also I love how Icy has started calling them "ladies" I just think it's cute

Baltor's little hops are ridiculous

"I like your style" "Back at ya Baltor" Icy I can't believe you just WINKED please stop flirting your girlfriends are RIGHT THERE

Mermaid guards!!

Okay but for real, why do you even HAVE an omega dimension gate? Like, what was the purpose? Come on

Oh Baltor's enslaving the mermaids. Christ that was quick

"How do all these guys get minions?" "I don't know but we gotta get some too" says Stormy and Icy, ignoring the third member of the Trix who's primary power is MIND CONTROL (also the Trix are so cute I'm sorry they're just adorable)

Musa's long hair is WONDERFUL

Okay Stella's new dress is actually quite cute

Musa please don't ignore your boyfriend

Are we going to find out why Bloom and Sky fought or...?

Riven brought music for Musa oh my god I can't believe I'm starting to like him... but the growth... the development... HE'S ACTUALLY KINDA CUTE NOW SHIT

"Something's wrong with the ocean" no shit Layla there's a TIDAL WAVE

RIVEN JUST SAVED A TINY CHILD AWW

Layla saving the OTHER tiny child

Oh... bye Layla! Good luck fighting Baltor alone...

"You brand them, turn them into freaks and take their power? Very cool, Baltor..." Icy PLEASE I know you have a crush but come on

Baltor's electric guitar solo is peak

#winx rewatch #winx club

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