Tumgik
#The piano was so hard to draw but I did it XD
pinemartenstudios · 2 months
Text
"Bares, qué lugares tan gratos para conversar. No hay como el calor del amor en un bar"
Tumblr media
I've been working on this one for very long. I've started this canvas on February 20th, but the first actual concept for this illustration goes back to 2021, to my extremely early fandom days.
When I read Hollyberry's loading screen fact I doodled her trying to beat her glass record in Sparkling's bar, while Herb and Vamp were cheering on her and Mint Choco was playing some sick violin tunes. I proposed myself to finish that sketch one day... and I never did xd. That didn't mean I didn't forget about that doodle. The game kept evolving.
More little facts were introduced. And the bar from that tiny illustration started growing. Herb was revealed to be able to play de piano in a First Anniversary illustration, and I didn't want Mint Choco to play his violin all alone, so no they're playing music together u.u. And Cocoa went to hear Mint Choco play, of course.
Wildberry became real, so he came cuz Hollyberry dragged him. He went to the corner all alone cuz he's a bit overwhelmed by the ambient. Rye usually hits bars and orders stuff, so I thought she would be here too, probably thinking about how could she get new hints on catching Chili Pepper.
Caviar and Candy Diver are celebrating another day of hard work, and finally we have Royal Margarine, singing. And what is he singing? The song that ended helping me develop the ambient for the scene: "Al calor del amor en un bar", of Gabinete Caligari. The lyrics of the song really suit his character :0.
I wanted to challenge myself with this one. I wanted to create a scene with a lot of different characters all at once, without overwhelming the space and making everyone perfectly noticeable. And I included 11. This was pretty enjoyable to draw, both the process and the final result have been worth the time. Hope you like this one!
BTW: Here's the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUNVmH2ukwY&ab_channel=GabineteCaligari-Topic
32 notes · View notes
tommy-thomas · 2 months
Text
@lemowolf SPRRY I HAD FORGOT TO POST WHEN YOU TAGGED ME
SO MUCH HAPPENED IM SORRY 😭😭😭
I also made a separated post cuz was getting too big--
1. Are you named after anyone?
Uhh... I dont think so? I think my parents just choose a random name.
Tho, Thomas i choose based simply on nice sound XD. I could be tecnically related to the train???
2. When was the last time you cried
Hmmmmmm. 2 days ago? Something around that
3. Do you have kids
Too young too early, but me snd my life partner are still thinking if we even should on the future. Kids are a great responsability
4. What sports do you play/have played
I used to play "run after the boys with a stick to beat them" and volleyball. Both were fun!!
5. Do you use sarcasm
Rarely, i usually avoid cuz i think its rude ._.
6. What's the first thing you notice about people
Shirt. Cuz i avoid eye contat lmao
7. What's your eye color
Very very dark brown. Black on the shadow, beautiful on sun
8. Scary movie or happy endings?
Well, i like scary things not scary movies (im a pussy yes) so uhh... happy ending?
9. Any talents?
Im good at art.... but dunno if its a talent cuz i worked hard to get where i am today. So..... maybe i dont have a talent?
I do know how to play piano tho, but i studied 5 years for that lol
10. Where were you born?
BRASIL 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷 the shit hole
11. What are your hobbies?
I like to draw and talk to my husbando.
Also watching scary and depressing stuff cuz i love felling bad i guess LMAO
12. Do you have any pets
I had 3 cats but they all ran away/died :(. Now i have none...
13. How tall are you?
14. Favorite subject in school?
Im 1.75cm.... in feet i think its around..... 5'74?
That what Google told me at least, dunno how feet work lol
I woukd say art cuz duh, but i also like history. I love hesring histories of any type
15. Dream job?
MAKING COMICS!!!!!!!
Well i dont have much people to tag, most already did this so uh...
@akabendyfan and anyone whod like!!
4 notes · View notes
eirasummersart · 4 months
Note
A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate
Refering to this.
Thank you for the ask! Let's answer this one too C: Adding this after the full answer, I'm gonna add a read more because it turned out quite long hahaha
7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate?
Ah, what medium of art don't I appreciate? I love art! I love reading, listening to music (and singing, but I'm not great at it hahah), sculpture, etc.
With reading, I mostly read fanfics lately, but I enjoy lots of typical books and authors too: Chaos Walking (Patrik Ness), the Lord of the Rings, Rick Riordan's books in general, MXTX's books, the Castle in the Sky. Those are the ones that come to mind first, my faves~ Of course, I include here manga and comics, there's sooo many I love as well. I do draw, but don't usually do comics (maybe someday!). Lately I've been loving Jujutsu Kaisen and Akagami no Shirayukihime, but I could recomend so many good ones.
With music I just always need some music if I'm not watching anything that has sound otherwise, I love so many kinds of styles, but I have a preference for melodic, mellow songs~ specially ones that I can sing along too. Lots of classical too (Chopin is my fave~). And piano is my fave instrument to listen to <3 I kinda talked about music already in the previous ask, so I won't go into more detail hahah
For sculpture I don't really have a particular artist I like, it's more a casual love. But all those "realistic" sculptures are mind blowing to me, how it seems completely real, specially fabric or expressions, but it's made of marble or another hard material.... man, so much talent, I admire them so much.
If we talk about drawing/painting I'm not proficient at but I still admire: watercolour is gorgeous and I am incapable of it. I love the art made with it! Oil and classic paintings as well, there's so many classic artists who have made amazing pieces. My fave is Monet! But I also greatly admire the ones from the victorian period in general. The way they render fabric and clothes is SO GOOD. I kinda emulate it unconsciously when I do my shadding ahah but I am sure it looks nothing like that xD Like, look at this art called "Flirtation" by Frédéric Soulacroix, that fabric 🙏🙏🙏 And the background is gorgeous too.
Tumblr media
Also, I really enjoy watching movies/tv shows. Wether they're animation or not. Specially if they have good plot and/or if they have good photography/animation. There's so many beautiful works of arts in that medium as well. Ghibli movies are some of my faves (Howl's Moving Castle is my fave movie ever), Lord of the Rings movies are also masterpieces. I've also enjoyed lately the Poirot movies they've been making recently, they're really interesting and have great photography as well~
I have to say, I don't often watch theater/musicals because they're expensive and I'm broke af. But the times I went to see some, they're amazing as well 🙏 I'll include dance performances here too, because they're in a similar category to me.
I enjoy seeing architecture as well. My fave period for architecture is gothic! The way they did all those high arches and beautifully decorated walls. And the stained glasses! Sooo many great buildings!! Most of the ones I can see around where I live and was able to travel are churches or cathedrals. They are such beautiful buildings, even though I'm not religious in any sense at all, I always love visiting them and seeing them. But there's sooooo many amazing artstyles out there as well! Lique some Mosques are absolutelly stunning, with their intricate colorful patterns! There's so much good architecture to admire as well...
Also, I'll add that videogames are a form of art in my opinion as well, and I admire lots of creators. There's SO MUCH variety in this media, it's insane. Stuff like Return of Obra Dinn or Papers Please by Lucas Pope (who makes it all, including music, he's so talented), Baldur's Gate 3 (currently enjoying this one), Chants of Sennar, Binding of Isaac, Fire Emblem, Kingdom Hearts, etc. So many different styles but so fun and interesting. And also, so many good RPGs with amazing stories I don't think can be told in a better way using other media (Persona series, Tales of series, Dragon Age, the Nonary Games, Mother saga, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc.)
Sorry for the big rambling, I guess you didn't expect me to go into such a extended answer hahahah I really, really love all art of creation, it's such an amazing thing that someone visualizes something and can create it so everyone else can see.
I've said this over and over again, I wish I were filthy rich, so rich I could never ever use all my money, only so I could be an art mecenas (I think it's called patron in English, I like the word we use in Spanish tho XD) and give money to aaaall my favourite artists so they can just create without any worry at all, just focus on their art and not the money they need to make to survive. Just create their own stories, characters, art pieces, or create fanworks of any kind. I don't even want to request stuff I want to see, I just want to see what they want to create! What their mind can imagine and how they see the world!!!
Ah, if only...
Anyway, this has gone for long enough hahah thanks again for giving me the oppotunity to ramble~
And if you read till here, thanks as well for your time~ Feel free to send more questions for this ask~ (or anything else, really, if you want me to expand on any of these topics I mentioned here haha I'd be happy to~) P.D.: Just as I posted it, I also remembered tappestry/weaving/any kind of thread art. AND OF COURSE, fashion/outfit makers and designers!!! There's so much art in this world... so hard to remember it all, but it's all around us <3
2 notes · View notes
zeevoidlight · 6 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
OC time I have a drawing of him that i made based on one of the npcs in Breath/Tears and just had to try to replicate it in SL modifying a ripped model because i was feeling very lazy, but i want to make my own mesh but i know that if i didn't do something in the moment i wouldn't do anything for months. It's still a work in progress and is just for fun. The fins need some paint work so they look more like the drawing and it needs some clothing. I put some temporary clothing in SL but i will post it later when i take a good photo.
Still can't find a name for him though. His temporary name is Ottan but that kinda sounds like otter so I'll just try to find another one. Back in Majora's Mask days when the game came out I was fascinated with how the Zoras were portrayed there, with so much personality, much more relaxed, weird, diverse, they seem to have so much fun compared to the Ocarina Zoras that were a bit more regal and calm. Mikau even had some powers (or Zora Link at least), electric magic shield, boomerang fins, played a sick fish bone guitar in a band, and the swiming mechanics were just the best, I still consider them the best ever and i used to simply get into the game and do nothing but swim and jump out of the water like a dolphin XD. I wanted to make an OC back then too. Can't remember if I did. But with Breath and Tears it got me all fired up to make one again.
So this guy is inspired a bit on Evan from the Indigo-gos which was an eel Zora in Majora's, which I really liked back in the day because he was unique and played the piano. If we try to put him in Breath and Tears universe he would be from another realm of Zoras outside of Hyrule, a place that could probably be Breath's Majoras realm equivalent but is not in another dimension, is just far away or hard to get to, idk. The thing is that he would find himself in Hyrule at some point. He plays an instrument because in his realm music is a very important part of those Zoras culture like in Majora, and he would play the handpan (because right now that's my favorite instrument) maybe one made out of a shell (listen... if you can play the guitar using some huge fishbones you can find a way to play a huge sea shell and make it sound the same as a handpan). He might not have water powers like the Hyrule Zoras in Tears but he would have eelectric powers. and, I think that's it for now. Just wanted to share. Will finish him later and think of another name.
3 notes · View notes
amazing-spiderling · 8 months
Note
40, 42, 60!
40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?
Gosh this is such an embarrassing question. >.< Getting fanart is the highest praise I think you can get as a fic writer, isn't it? I think it would be really great to get art of "Marci and the Guys" from my Mattfoggy band AU "Getting the Band Together" in rehearsal or during a show, or maybe when Foggy sees Matt playing piano in the church for the first time. Also, the scene in "Jack's Boy" where Matt and Foggy are in the church attic sorting through donations might be kind of cute, if there was an artist that was inclined to draw creatures. Also, low key high key if someone ever gave me fanart for Ask Nelson and Murderdock like... in any form, I would lose my mind. XD
42. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?
I was woken up at an odd hour and had a hard time falling back asleep last night, so I was revisiting some fics that were in open tabs on my phone to help lull myself back to sleep. So at bijou-stop-barking-at-the-sun in the morning, I was reading "the song you know's begun" by Sunflower78. It's a cute, cozy little fic about Foggy being a florist who keeps running into the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and striking up a friendship (and eventually something more). It's got those cozy vibes that make it good for a bedtime story, even if the idea of Foggy being lonely with Karen as his only real friend does tug at my heartstrings.
60. Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?
I feel like most of my comments tend to come from my fandom friends who read and write the same ships I do, and I happen to be friends with some *very* talented creators, so yes. Of course I love any and all comments I get, even if it's just heart emojis or someone keysmashing XD But I think other writers have an eye for the things that can be tricky to work out, and they're more likely to zero in on those things and let you know you did a good job. It's really gratifying to have someone with an "expert opinion" validate your work.
3 notes · View notes
katyspersonal · 2 years
Note
6 for Micolash, Gehrman, or both (depending on your preference + if this got asked already lmaooooo)
(Ask from this ( x ) meme)
6) Psychological headcanons (tastes, fears, talents, regrets, how they deal with anger, just anything that comes to mind on the topic)
Oh all right... xD I did not expect to get to talk about these characters, but naturally I’ll choose both of them since there are only so many times I get concrete questions!
(For Micolash)
Whereas having plenty of charisma and sly, fascinating appear, he is not actually as ‘chill’ and composed as one could think! He is as much in struggle with anger issues as he is able to mesmerise with his lull-like tone. That is normally. Wearing his cage reduces it significantly, the effect of it on his behaviour is similar to sedating medicine or strong calming herbs.
So, normally, Micolash is quite splitting between roughly ‘a sentimental, sensitive, gentle, dignified intellectual willing to give and receive nurturing (especially in terms of education)’ and ‘a callous, vain, unceremonious, snappy, demanding crazy scientist that only wishes full devotion and worship’. It is however not as easy as to draw clear ‘two states’! His moods (and wishes) shift somewhat chaotically, sometimes hitting severe childlike neediness or complete apathy, too.
No, seriously, he can be hard to understand. Now he is almost yelling at the patient for being ‘pathetic’ and ‘useless’ and (righteously!) scared and tells them they should try to be like Adeline, next day he will hold this same patient’s hand and sob to them about how much he wishes to soothe their emotional suffering if they let him. Or he will mock and tease a close friend about something important for them, and later act bitter if they appear distrustful. Or he will cherish a tiny bug, and then switch heads of a dog and a crow between each other.
He is very good at playing piano. Yes, this one is simply inspired by a deranged piano in his theme, love it a lot. Naturally he is a huge bookworm. He ended up knowing a lot about everything as well - nature, history, literature, all that. Needless to say knowledge about ‘normal’ world soon turned to be useless in his eyes, however he sometimes still ruminates about it fondly.
He has permanent ‘lagging’ in terms of habitual skills - constantly forgets how to tie shoelaces, switches up between cursive and print font chaotically while writing, will not eat or drink until someone reminds him (or rather finds him passing out from starvation), sometimes will catch himself puzzled before staircase or a doorknob trying to remember how to use these... In fact, Nightmare of Mensis nature is a big relief for him, as ‘magic’ practically carries him everywhere (and even lets him run with untied shoelaces and not fall!). In the waking world? Yeah he is often helpless in tiniest things. However even in the Nightmare he’d need help in removing his Mensis Cage if he was to want to remove it because... yeah he forgets how to do it. :’)
Upon meeting new people, Micolash tends to close the distance very soon, sharing too much and developing strong attachment too soon. That lead him to making very intimate friendships fast, however not many are comfortable staying once he shows his “ugly” side too, so ironically he combines that with trust issues and clinginess. Over years in Byrgenwerth as he matured from young student guy into late adult and moreso man of medicine, this had progressed into becoming a huge control freak and manipulator - that was extremely useful when he started School of Mensis, however, so no pain without gain I guess?
He really loves it though when he finds someone who talks a lot; as much as he enjoys lecturing (and simply listening to his own voice xD), he likes to relax just once. He might not say much but he is actually paying attention to everything, even if person is ranting about some nonsense that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Back in Choir he was almost never wearing Blindfold Cap. All in all presence in the Choir was not pleasant for him - starting from lacking direct eye contact that he needs, personally, ending with the very concept of entrusting one’s mind and will to the ‘stars’ instead of aspiring for becoming one able to find this way. That’s his philosophy. That is also what he believed he was guiding his followers to, failing to realise he ironically himself became a very oppressive leader.
He developed the habit of becoming very distraught and anxious if he is not seeing nightmares for a few nights, fearing it is a sign of something divine ‘abandoning’ him. He believes objective reality could never be peaceful and beautiful and it is always ‘sweet lie’ no matter if a human or a God gives it, finding comfort in horrors and uglyness as result.
For as long as he himself remembers, Micolash is woefully bad at appreciating what he is given until too late, as he overlooked Rom’s unconditional love and respect before she moved onto listening to others (mostly Great Ones), or Damian’s devotion and fatherly patience before Damian started to fear him, not just for him- Heck, he wonders if he disregarded potentially good friendship from Archibald and Izzy too, sometimes. Watch him nevermind Wet Nurse who is by his side and only have his eyes on Kos now, lol!
If he wishes for someone to get beaten, he usually always has someone he can command do that instead, as he watches and gloats, maybe giving ‘advices’ sometimes. However if he is to raise his own hand at someone - he believes they should consider it a very big honour.
As little opinion as he has on the Choir, or people who remained Byrgenwerth students after Healing Church broke away from Willem, sometimes Micolash is stuck feeling sad and cold and yearning that back then they’d been more accepting of him. Deep down he is very lonely and still wishes for genuine love even if he had cast away every chance in the name of knowledge and transcendence.
Speaking of love, he is very bookish and nerdy and it is nearly impossible to flirt with him as he redirects everything to the smart facts and ‘bigger’ things! One might think he doesn’t have an inch of sexuality in him! ...Except for the fullmoons. This is when he becomes extremely sensual.
He tends to feel move vulnerable with women specifically though. This stems from the fact that he doesn’t do mocking laugher before ‘Oh, majestic~’ if you play as female Hunter! In fact, being a woman and angrily yelling at him is the most guaranteed way to wipe the ever-present smug smile from his face, he will feel uneasiness and pit in his stomach that he can’t explain. He just really doesn’t want women to be mean with him, he is in fact desperate for a motherly or mom-girlfriend attitude (with Kos as a peak of this dreaming), though he will try to keep his Big Guy Who’s In Control facade at his best ability.
(For Gehrman)
Gehrman is a strange mix of callous and gentle as well, but unlike Micolash, Gehrman doesn’t suffer from his feelings shifting chaotically! Instead, his curse is that he cannot express his tender side (or even realise it before too late). In younger (?) years, if he was to like someone - he could outright cherish a napkin they dropped like a relic, write a diary page all over with their name, craft them the best gift ever (that he would never actually give) but once that person actually talks to him - the dumbest, the most insensitive shit would leave his mouth! You never know if he is a jerk or just an idiot! He is only in touch with his caring and loving side when he is all alone, which... defeats the purpose.
However, unlike with Micolash that cherishes every single living being (until he doesn’t), Gehrman is consistent in his attitudes. He cherishes only and only and ONLY human life, disregards any of whatever monster/beast/mutant/Kin/God/whatever. This is the dark side of him; though there is something respectable about how much he’s devoted to defending the humanity, but it was number one cause of conflicts between him and Old Hunters that regretted Fishing Hamlet massacre or started to doubt purpose of the hunt.
Nuff said, he is top notch craftsman, with weapons or inventions or clothes. And he is never tired of having to detalize everything - in fact, the more details the better, as he loves to get lost in physical work! In modern era he of course would disdain mass production of whatever... and have a right for it, because he hardworking enough to replace a wholeass assembly line! xD Screw sewing machines as well, he will sew everything with his own hands! Wonder how he is able to accept printed books instead of writing every single one with a pen? xD /j But yes he likes to create things. I like to think that ridiculously elaborate embroidery of Willem’s clothes is his work. And Willem tried to stop him to the more minimal design, but Gehrman was too absorbed to listen.
Although being stuck in the Hunter’s Dream had weakened him mentally, overall Gehrman is an extremely tough guy. To a fault, actually - he bottles up a lot, doesn’t admit his fears and and doesn’t let even close friends to see him cry. Something akin toxic masculinity. He just gotta be a killing machine and a reliable worker rather than a human being, he gotta, you don’t understand! The good part of it is that he is very composed and level-headed when he is angry, he could never snap.
He hasn’t really learned a thing from ‘How to pick up fair maidens’. Think of every possible gag along the lines of ‘person writes a reminder on their palm and reads it all wrong’ or ‘person memorizes a cheesy flirting line but when they say it - the mix up words making it sound like something dumb or awful instead’. Unreal contrast to Micolash’s charisma, huh? Gee I have a blast still comparing these two.
His biggest regret in life is that he failed to be a reliable emotional help for Maria when she needed it during her crisis. He could never forgive himself for it, however he represses these feelings deeply. His second biggest regret in life is eventually animating the Doll through a ritual in the Dream, because loneliness started to drive him insane and he needed an assistant! At first he was feeling very disgusted with himself, to the point of sickness, as if he tainted his most precious memory for a selfish reason. But well, it was for the sake of the hunt too - he was mentally falling apart and sooner or later would have allowed some hunter to kill him to be free! Someone to take turns so not every hunter is on him would be helpful. He still doesn’t know Maria’s soul was summoned within Doll since she remembers exactly nothing, however he feels a bit guilty he failed to explain her how to be more humanlike because... well, he himself doesn’t really know that! He is a little scared of her, too, to the point of not being able to fix the manufacturing errors he made with her face since his hands were shaking too much that time. It just feels too much like touching face of Maria herself, and that is NOT allowed in his eyes, and never will be.
As a jaded Old Man (TM), naturally he has many stories from his life to share! In fact, ones before the whole mess with the dungeons and the hunt and the ascensions are almost equally as interesting! He tends to focus on particularly morbid and violent ones though, lol he doesn’t go to many parties xd
He is in fact waaaaaaaaay more ‘educated’ than expected, and he used to be just as curious as an average high-ranking Byrgenwerth staff! He used to be a teacher there, in fact. After all he did have interest in ascension too when he went at Fishing Hamlet. He also did invent at least two kinds of meteorite-cut weapons with unique properties, he discovered how to use crystallised old blood to enhance weapons, heck, trick weapons themselves as concept are his! He always finds the coolest ways to utilise the most useless materials. Basically he has every kind of talent as a pay-off for little social skills ahaha.
He’s been quite reckless from childhood, and had great instincts. His first ever kill count happened when a rabid dog charged towards him and his first reaction was to grab a sharp metal road and ready to fight it, instead of running. Bullies trying to mess with him as a ‘quiet weird kid’ would end up leaving him alone and declaring he was “crazy” - he never showed signs of fear, as if he was actually ready to die any moment? But maybe he was! Secretly, Gehrman found some dark joy in it when the hunts became a regular thing; the side of him that had him question whether he’s been a ‘callous monster’ all his life finally was useful!
Speaking of which, despite tender feelings that Gehrman possesses, he has less than average morality and through his life only adopts bits and pieces of it based on reaction of others - if it is strong enough. Like how he never felt in the wrong about Fishing Hamlet until something ‘moved’ in him seeing how much Maria, whose opinion mattered for him, was horrified and broken about it. Lives of innocent fish people? pfffffft! Disappointing a person he was trying to impress, however? Oh god oh fuck. ‘Protecting humanity from inhuman things’ is the one consistent principle he can hold onto as it is simple and direct, but finding evil within humanity is... complicated.
22 notes · View notes
tiredassmage · 1 year
Text
15 questions, 15 mutuals
Thank you for the tag @captainderyn!
1. Are you named after anyone?
Possibly a great, great(?) grandmother I never had the chance to meet, via middle name, though it’s been... probably at least a decade since I heard that tatter and I’m not sure how correct it is, lol. I’m... not particularly close to a vast majority of the family, tbh, given Drama(TM). Mom picked by meanings though. I know that was very important to her.
2. When was the last time you cried?
I... think I cried a little about a week and a half ago in one of my classes. Not because the class, I promise, lol. We watched the pilot episode of a show called Station Eleven in class and that was a gut puncher.
3. Do you have kids?
No, thank you. My pets and my OCs are all I need, lol. Very ace. Not my personal cup of tea.
4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Mmmm. I wouldn’t say regularly. It has its moments and I’m sure I was a bit more brutal with it when I was a kid, but its purpose isn’t generally helpful in areas where I need to communicate. I think most of the things I say sarcastically now are probably in regards to fictional characters. xD
5. Favorite time of day?
Late evening, in that like seven - ten pm range. Generally evenings. I’m absolutely not a morning person. If I’m up rather early, I’m tired later in the day. Evening tends to host “me” time.
6. Eye color?
Good ol’ reliable brown. (I need more brown eyed ocs, tbh?) Fun fact: eyes are kind of what enchants me, irl and I probably tend to be a bit invested in fictional character eye colors, too, lol. They’re beautiful. I have no other explanation. That said, I’m very shy about eye contact until I feel more comfortable with people/get to know them better.
7. Scary movies or happy endings?
Happy endings, if I’m picking between them and scary. I don’t do horror, I am baby. I can be enraptured by a decent thriller and loved a good crime drama TV show. I can kind of do paranormal stuff sometimes, but I can scare myself just thinking a little too hard about it, so very hesitant.
8. Any special talents?
Mmmm... nothing nontraditional, I suppose. I had a few music teachers tell me when I was younger that I have hands that would’ve been great for piano, but I wasn’t super interested in pursuing musical interests outside of, like, basic school requirements. I did chorus for a while, but was kinda eh. I did enjoy acoustic guitar, but, again, not exactly enough that I ended up doing anything with it.
9. Where were you born?
Rural northeastern US of A. I miss having a fall season, but decidedly not enough to give up the warmth of living much farther south.
10. What are your hobbies?
Largely video games, lol, if it was hard to tell. I’d like to do more drawing and get into digital art. I am majoring in Digital Media Design, after all. One of my hopes is to properly play around with a tablet I bought myself over the summer while I take a break from courses. I desire to draw my blorbos, haha!
11. Do you have any pets?
Two ball pythons, the loves and amusing occasional nuisances of my life! They made a brief appearance on my main here. There’s also two dogs in the house, James and Cooper. Cooper is definitively my mom’s dog, however, and, jokingly, my little brother. (He’s her favorite. We all know this.) Cooper is... ??? We think a Collie mix. And James is a Basset-Lab, both adopted about a year or two apart, if I remember right.
12. What sports do you/have you played?
Oh, actual eons ago, I briefly played soccer (probably not very well) when I was very, very small. I have ridden horses (I miss them, Brent), but primarily only in schooling shows and I did participate for a few years in my barn’s summer gaming series just at Walk/Trot. I used to ride low-level jumping courses. Competitive sports haven’t ever really been my thing, particularly to participate in. I would’ve called riding one of my hobbies while I did. It’s an expensive one though and a bit of a tricky one to get back into when balancing college and part-time retail work. My mom and I try to stick to our developed tradition of selecting a local trail riding venture to attend every year for my birthday though that keeps that connection outside of whatever I vicariously pick up through games, lol.
13. How tall are you?
5′5ish. A smidgen shy, but that’s what they put on my license.
14. Favorite subject in school?
Histories and sciences. If I wasn’t so averse to writing research papers and math, I have genuinely considered majoring in either area. Unfortunately, my university doesn’t have a program for meteorology (weather and natural events are a somewhat more recent interest of mine) and video games evidently have some staying power as my interests, so that’s how I ended up in DMD.
15. Dream job?
I’m honestly not sure anyone has a really solid answer to this question, lol. I certainly don’t. I... went into DMD partially because it was interesting enough and I genuinely felt college would benefit me somehow. While I like my pet store job, it’s not exactly where I’d like to spend the next twenty years, even if I am a creature of habit that balks at change, lol.
So, theoretically, I’m studying DMD and entertaining the idea of a minor in creative writing because characters have always been one of the most important aspect of games to me. The idea is to maybe pursue a focus on character or scenario writing, but I... really don’t know, lol. I’m still largely clearing prerequisites and other structural graduation requirements, so I haven’t really dug into the focus areas of my degree yet and I definitely still doubt that I know what I’m doing or if it’ll genuinely be something I can pursue.
It’s definitely scary and I absolutely struggle with that uncertainty, but it’s also a process of just trying to remind myself that it’s a skill and therefore it is something I can develop if I put the work in - that’s the whole purpose of taking classes, after all. It’s something I’m trying to be more conscious of because I have found it very easy to slip into the student mindset of doing things just for class, so I’m still not sure what all I have as far as presentable skills or how to showcase them. But that is... off the base question, I suppose, lol.
So, work in progress!
Uhhhhmmm, this one’s sort of a mix idk who to tag for, lol, so I think I’ll leave this one open? Muts/followers, feel free to say you’ve been tagged if you’d like to do this one!
2 notes · View notes
kaynai-sama · 10 months
Text
Alright, alright. Here I come talking about my life because I haven't had enough time to draw... XD
So today was the school musical presentation. I'm in the music club as a tecladist and there are other clubs like theater, but I think that the only thing they lack doing there is taking some actual acting clases... SORRY but it's true.
It was a two hour play of The little mermaid, Beauty and the beast and Aladdin but with more dancing for elementary and preschool than actual acting.
And let me tell you this, if they had put in at least less three dances from each presentation the summary of the three movies would've been more coherent and with less argumental holes.
The little mermaid started good but it suddenly passed to when Ariel decides she wants to see prince Erick AGAIN (Where did the boat scene, when she saves him and king Tritone wrecks her place to hide human objects go? I have no idea.) I know it's a summary but, seriously? That's a big argumental hole. Then it passed to Ursula and the spell scene and the "kiss the girl scene" which was played by the music club (where I am) And suddenly we pass on to the wedding scene with Ursula and prince Erick suddenly just goes "who are you get away from me I choose Ariel for script convenience" And the play ends.
Beauty and the beast directly included fortnine dances... Yeah, I know, I know. You weren't there but it was hella cringy. Also there were remixes, argumental holes (less than in the little mermaid but still) But Aladdin in! Man, they went full on random dancing with that one! (THE only good actor in the whole presentation was the kid who played Chip in Beauty and the beast and Abu in Aladdin) But anyway...
Aladdin started soooo good with the dancing team an "Arabian Nights" the it all went to hell with the remix they suddennly shoved in. At least the dancing numbers in this one were good comparing to all the others. I got to play "a whole new world" Which was HARD AS HELL in piano. Although, in the version of the play, A whole new world turned into random electronic songs just to get back to the calm beat and don't even make get started with "Prince Alí" (I don't remember the song name lol) But you get me. Now that one turned into "Staying alive", "Eye of the tiger" and three more songs I guess? I was just so tired.
Every second I was there I was like ooohhh I miss my old school... Because it had a so much better organization than thing guys now.
Anyway I have to go now so...
Kaynai out 😎
1 note · View note
Text
Elena Dimitrescu headcannons
NOTE: Not my character! Created by @annasassiart but for the sake of this blog I’m laying out how I interpret the character so my followers can know how to expect me to doodle her with the rest of the family- with my last doodle of Elena- I realized I needed this as well or else I wouldn’t keep it consistent wheeze.
OVERALL:
- Very Kuudere like, she’s a stone face and rarely openly shows her emotions- for her, actions speak louder than words. But don’t get this wrong, she’s still a lovely dumbass.
- The youngest sister and Daniela is ecstatic about that XD
- Fave colour is blue, when she’s not in the dress, she’s chilling around the house with various shades of blue outfits.
- The artist of the family! While she enjoys reading as a sister bonding moment with Bela and Dani, her passion lies in sketchbooks.
- Her forte is graphite and oil/acrylic painting- she vents whatever emotions she can through art when she’s not doodling mindlessly to pass the time.
- Same with venting through art, she vents through music too. It’s not uncommon to hear somber or fast piano music in the castle when Elena is practicing- though no one has figured out it’s how she’s feeling- cuz she just claims to like those kinds of songs.
- A huntress like Cass! She looks up to Cassandra the most, and the two have a silent bond that can’t be broken. It’s scary how they don’t have to speak to communicate-
- The shortest Dimi sister, based on how I draw the sisters, she’ll only be two or three inches shorter than Bela.
- Softie for cute things... give her a bunny and she’ll sit there petting and cuddling the thing for hOURS.
- A little less emotionally constipated in my opinion, mostly since she’s the youngest and got the most attention from Alcina since bat mom could afford to focus on her rather than frantically switch between three-
- But still emotionally dense, she has a hard time understanding how she’s feeling despite being pretty emotionally in tune to others.
ALCINA
- Like the rest of her sisters, she LOVES her mom.
- She borders on absolutely clingy-
- As a kid she would not be out of her mother’s arms and to this day she can’t walk beside Alcina without pinching the fabric of her dress inbetween forefinger and thumb.
- Touch hungry.
- She’s not as verbally needing of affirmation like Bela, but if Alcina pats her head after something, she’s practically been blessed by the hands of a goddess.
- Alcina is the only one who’s seen her laugh, and oh how does she love that sound.
DANIELA
- Honestly doesn’t have a hard time keeping up with Dani’s feral energy-
- They are basically “the dumb idea generator” and “the dumb idea doer” duo.
- Sleepovers are often held in each other’s rooms, and Elena almost never takes off any trinkets Daniela makes her.
- Not uncommon to see her with braided hair that she refuses to undo because Dani did it during a sleepover last night.
- Dani is the one who’s seen her smile the most. She smiles with the rest of her family, but Dani usually gets to see it the most.
CASSANDRA
- As stated earlier, the sister Elena looks up to the most.
- They will hunt together for hours or even days on end-
- Not uncommon to see Cass training her in the courtyard.
- Thanks to her artistic abilities and Cass’s talent in weapon making and forgery, they manage to design some cool things together.
- They rarely get mad at each other, but when they do, Elena’s the one who tries her best to make up.
- Cass is probably the only one who has seen her cry.
BELA
- The sister she spends the least time with, not because she doesn’t love her, but just because they’re both having their attention on something else-
- When they do spend time together though, it’s mostly reading and drawing together with music playing, the silent company needed after a bad day.
- Bela does teach her stuff like the piano and history, the blondie finds that her youngest sister is a really good listener.
- They might vent to each other, Elena might ask about emotions, but usually they’re relaxing company for each other.
- Bela is the only one who has ever seen her visibly get angry.
DONNA/ANGIE
- we got a fourth feral over protective flesh eating fly colony hell yeah
- At first they didn’t click, Elena was just too intimidating to Donna with her 24/7 deadpan stares and Angie didn’t like how she rarely talked back.
- But after a while Donna came to appreciate the silent gestures and Angie found out that the fourth Dimi sister is just a quiet, stone face Daniela.
- Artistic abilities come in handle in asking Auntie Don-Don for outfits, and drawing together with Angie is always a chaotic mess.
- They both have unique nicknames for each other based on cute fluffy things- though Donna still has a tendency to call her by bug like nicknames too like her sisters.
- “Snowflake/Snowfly” is a favourite and Donna defaults to it usually.
58 notes · View notes
franeridart · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media
Anon said: [Spoilers for non-manga readers] opinion on Baku's hero name?
Very Bakugou, honestly don’t mind it at all! Mostly just surprised it’s, like, legal in the bnha universe for heroes to call themselves stuff like explodo-kills (and also that there isn’t a character limit for hero names??) but that Bakugou would stick with it is pretty damn in character for him so I like it xD still, I’ll probably just call him Dynamight if I’ll ever need to use his hero name lmao
Anon said: not to be the most romantic sap but uh just a kiss by lady a is killin me
Nothing sappy about letting romantic songs get to you!!!! I say, as I’m constantly crying over romantic songs so this mindset benefits me as well lol
Anon said: i may or may not have stumbled across some of your older kiribaku art, the stuff with akane, and she's the best child oc tbh. i actually like her and i tend to not be a fan of child ocs but she's just the cutest darn thing 🥰
I’m so glad you like her!!!!! She was a lot of fun, what a good gremlin ;;;
Anon said: uve heard of dragon!kiri w his hair spikes up, now get ready for dragon!kiri w his hair dowm lookin like the softest boy
AW HECK I think I’ve drawn him in the past, actually!!!! Spike-haired Kiri will forever be my fav Kiri, but there’s just something about hair down Kiri isn’t it!! What a cute boy ;;;; all sharp edges and soft curves, what a lovely sight
Anon said: can i just say your itafushi art is so cute? these two already make me feel and then your art just (つω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥`)
THANK YOU SO MUCH I really need to draw them more, don’t I! goge kinda monopolized my attention there, but the way itafushi makes me feel..........boy the way they make me feel ;;;;
Anon said: good day, poké au thought: 12 y/o bakugo somehow catches a dreepy as like his 2nd pokemon and never questions it
WHY NOT WHY NOT I have a whole team in my mind for the boy tbh but dreepy is so cute ;;;; and anyway, I like my poke!bakugou with as many dragon types as he could possibly get his hands on hahaha
Anon said: Please know that, amongst other factors, you were one of the maon reasons I stsrted Jujutsu Kaisen two days ago and there isnothing more to say except thank you and I'm absolutely in debt with you for that, thank you so much 😍
I’m so so SO glad you’re liking it!!!!!! It can get kinda heavy but it’s such a great story.... honestly I’d been wanting to start it since I saw the first pv for the anime all the way back last year but I was like, you know it’s a mappa anime! so I wanted to watch the anime as a new thing, cause I love mappa, but three episodes in I couldn’t hold back and just binged it. It’s kind of story that just makes you wanna drink it all in one go, isn’t it? so good so good
Anon said: makeup artist kirishima and model bakugo or makeup artist bakugo and model kirishima? :0c
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm can’t say I see either of them much into fashion tbh, but if I had to pick probably model Kiri and artist Baku? I just don’t think Baku would be able to stay still enough to get photographed, and he wouldn’t like the photographer bossing him around anyway, and catwalks would be impossible for him to stomach imho, he’s too restless for it! At least it’s the way I see it haha
Anon said: fdgdhdkfhdafs i had a thought, what if bakugo prefers dogs and kirishima prefers cats and when they meet each other and become friends it's like, "oh." because they have some striking similarities to their fave animals
That’s been my headcanon for a while now, actually!! I think for me it came from two characters in a manga I like that are a lot like a dog and a cat but have inverted fav animals and when I read about that I was like “oh, right, makes sense since they like each other” and then my brain turned it krbk because when does it not lmao
Anon said: your art is the soothing balm to my soul recently, thank you for posting so much beautiful content. i hope you have a lovely week. ♡
sob thank you so much, I’m glad my doodling can help you feel better ;; <3
Anon said: Friendly reminder anon from last time: that post I left last time I had only eaten 7 gingersnaps that day and hadn’t drank any water. So that encouraged me to actually self care. Thank you.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well I hope you’re taking care of yourself today too! And as fair trade, I’ll do the same myself! <3
Anon said: Hi! I'm an artist and I'm thinking of making a sideblog for my art. Do you have any tips?
Ah man, I’m sorry but I’m not the best person to ask this to! I started this sideblog cause I had too many followers on my main and I didn’t want my stuff to be seen by that many people at first, so whatever I did probably isn’t what you’re looking for :( but really there isn’t much to it, just post whatever you like to draw, tag it as best as you can (but remember that only the first five tags appear in the search page) and be patient, since whatever you do at first you won’t get much attention anyway - the only real advice I can give is to draw something that makes you happy and that you’d draw anyway even if no one were to see it, it’ll make keep posting despite a possible lack of activity a lot easier!
Anon said: Your goge art🥺🥺
I just love them so much ( TT’’’TT)9
Anon said: how the fuck have i not been following you? I remember seeing your bakushima art in the bnha tag and always thinking it's so cute. Now you're into JJK too??? and the satosugu art??? fuckin, diabetes incarnate. I love it. I love you. Your art 10/10. I'm tired lmao.
WELL thank you for the follow!! And for thinking my stuff is cute!!!!! I do my best with that, I want all the soft things for my favs 😌
Anon said: Are you gonna draw Gojou/Getou comic?? 👉🏻👈🏻 WOULD LOVE TO READ IT
you mean an actual doujin? I don’t think I will, sorry! I’m really no good at long projects orz but thank you so much for wishing to read something like that from me!!! ;A;
Anon said: Hello! YOUR ART IS SO FREAKING GORGEOUSSSS!!! I love them so much!! If I may ask you one question. Between Getou amd Gojou, who do you see as top/bottom? Just curious
THANK YOU!!!!! And I honestly don’t care as long as they’re happy and together!!! please let them be happy and together 🙏🙏🙏
Anon said: i want you to know!!! i followed you for your kiribaku art but!!! i love your art so much that idc what you post because it's all just!!!! incredible and wonderful and stunning!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! this means a lot to me so seriously thank you so much!!!!
Anon said: d'you think bakugo has like headaches or migraines after training or battles because of how loud his quirk is? like, i listen to music slightly too loud and my head is sending me to hell. (unless you go with the hoh hc which is also 👌)
I like to think Baku’s body is attuned enough to his own quirk that he wouldn’t get drawbacks of the kind tbh, though that wouldn’t be a bad thought for when he just starts to increase the output/width and strength of his explosions............ well, I myself suffer from chronic headaches and migraines so I’m always up for projecting on my favs ngl lmao
Anon said:  so like... dragon kirishima's eyes glow right? like, if we equate his dragon-ness to unbreakable his eyes glow? they also glow when he's half shifted? honestly i just live glowing eyes
Oh hell yeah I’m all for that, definitely definitely, I love glowing eyes with my whole heart and Kiri’s eyes in unbreakable are just so!!!!!! NGH *chef kiss* the more of unbreakable there is in his dragon form the happier I am ( TT^TT)9
Anon said: me, scrolling through your blog: ah shit guess im gonna have to start watching jjk
!!!!! hope it won’t hurt you too much, anon!!
Anon said: dragon!kiri and bakugo having a tug-of-war match over a piece of meat. both have it in their mouths. both are determined to win.
Kiri is turned into his dragon form and Baku still wins, hell yeah
Anon said: your satosugu is top tier!! it's hard to find stuff for them that isn't straight up angst so your art has been super cool and also very very cute!! (tho if you went with angst, it wouldn't be a bad thing obviously)
AH I’m so happy to hear you like them!!!! but also happy you wouldn’t mind angst, as I do like them the best happy and soft but my brain, my brain has been throwing sads my way for a while now 👀 I got some ideas
Anon said: What program/device do you use??
Easy Paint Tool SAI and a wacom intuos!! Though I got myself an ipad+procreate just yesterday and I’ve been messing around with it, let’s see how that one goes!
Anon said: *inahles* i am simping for mohawk man please tell me everything about your ocs immediately or i will detonate
THANK YOU FOR LIKING HIM HE’S CALLED DAVIDE Dav for short, he’s a cat of a man and a music instrument enthusiast (mostly string ones, but he’s very good with the piano as well) - he works in a music instruments store, and he’s a uni student majoring in philosphy! He doesn’t like bothersome things, he isn’t very good at taking anything seriously or putting effort in stuff, but he’s very chill to spend time with and generally a nice chat both if you want mindless thoughts or deep conversations (he’s a philosophy major after all). He can’t sing for shit, he’s got two cats (tago and schelly!), and he just wants a quiet life to laze around but all his friends are hurricanes in human bodies, but then again, he picked them himself so he can’t complain. He’s a good boy!! I’m planning a comic for him and his boy Ross >:]
146 notes · View notes
zu-is-here · 3 years
Note
OK thanks Zu! I'll dm you about it.
Thanks Zu, yeah I'm working on references for god dream and nightmare, since killer and cross got one I've been working on ones for Dream and nightmare.
Oh I'd rather not talk about them, but thank you for asking. I've already talked things over with my mother and also Jan. But thank you for asking, I always appreciate it.
I'm not actually sure what it tastes like. We are trying it for the first time. It's basically taking frozen banana slices and blending them into something ice-cream like. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Ohh I'm sorry heh.... Would you believe that your songs had completely slipped my mind XD I'm really sorry about that.
Ten years is impressive, when did you start?, I used to play the clarinet.
You did it absolutely great (〃ω〃)☆
Sounds cool! Did you try this already? *^*
Oh no need to apologize! (ówò) It started when my mother gave me to sing in the choir xp but I was interested in the music itself so my teacher agreed to teach me how to play the piano. She was old, strict, banging her cane on the floor every time I played wrong, and I tried so hard until one day I burst into tears right in class. And then she said something so soft and warm like "Why can't you try again?" and then I did it! So many years have passed... guess I've learned this lesson ☆
The clarnet! Wowie *0* How was it?? How long have you played? Can you now? ♪
Tumblr media
Hi again! Sorry I didn't reply last night, and thank you for checking in!╰(*´︶`*)╯I appreciate it a lot <3
Yep, we're doing grrreat! Dis lady was outraged I didn't get up early in the morning for work and didn't feed her (gasp), so she woke me up herself XD but then, full, she went to sleep, and I stayed awake :'))
How are you doing today? ♡
UPD:
Tumblr media
Oh that's a really nice idea! ☆ Do they taste sweet?
Oh yay! *high five* Were you alto or soprano? :'D It didn't last long but we've taken part in an international competition in Vienna! That was niccce *^*
True <3 Oh that's cool! *0* Guess that was a good experience ☆ And a purple clarinet! Aww beautiful! (*'▽'*)
Oh yeah!! Can't wait to see it \(//∇//)\ Keep up the great work but remember about taking breaks! ☆ And have a nice evening with your dad <3 What do you prefer to eat at pub btw? *^*
And the rest of the day was good too! Had some time to draw as well (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) Ah nooo, there won't be hot water for another week ot two,,, this happens every year :') but not in the area I lived before! xd Yesterday I was lucky to visit my parents but tonight I'll warm water in a kettle x)
Tumblr media
Oh this makes sense (゚∀゚)
Same here! <3 Sans impressions xd That's actually so sweet and nice! Both in German and English *^*
Good luck with drawing! (๑>◡<๑) Sounds so tastyyy gonna have a lunch *w* And thank you twice! <3
17 notes · View notes
szynkaaa · 4 years
Photo
Tumblr media
I more or less watched The Boy!!! And by watching, I mean I skipped more or less through the jump scare parts because I cannot do horror movies at all. I haven’t watched one since 2015 and The Boy was like the first horror movie after five years
Full disclosure, the ONLY reason I started watching the movie was because someone posted a gif of Greta standing close to Brahms who was all sweaty and breathing heavily n I was like “oh shit who dat he hot” and here I am 
Can anyone explain the sandwich scene to me? So Greta was scared shitless and locked herself in her room, but why did Brahms make her favorite sandwich for her?
I did some digging for interviews and generally what people have been saying about the movie, took some screenshots from youtube to put my thoughts and musing together too! 
Can anyone explain the sandwich scene to me? So Greta was scared shitless and locked herself in her room, but why did Brahms make her favorite sandwich for her? 
So first of all, let’s start with a low resolution photo I found on IG of James Russell without mask:
Tumblr media
which brings me to my first musing/thought/question? 
It’s all under the cut, very screenshot and text heavy, you can find more Brahms drawing at the bottom though  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So at the end of the movie, we are shown a Brahms with a broken mask and his face being burned, indicating that he was in fact in the fire.
I assumed first that the fire was created by the parents to fake their sons death and then he had to live hidden inside the walls? 
But I’ve also heard apparently it was Brahms who set the fire to fake his own death or maybe an eight years old kid really was trying to burn himself down?? 
My other theory is that his parents made the fire and tried to kill Brahms and it did burn him but he survived, and the parents didn’t wanna go to jail sooo to hide everything they made their son live in the walls
i mean the responsible thing would be to turn their kid in and have him treated and stuff;;; listened to a murder podcast about two cases where kids murdered enough kids and how they are doing now interesting read Brahms made me think of those two cases 
I also do not think that the previous nannies were killed. Like, c’mon. You’d report a person missing and sooner or later it would go back to the Heelshire mansion and if the body counts piles up? Can’t look good and I doubt that the Heelshire wants the police investigating them close up. 
Also, when the mom was like “He’s chosen you if you’ll have him” to Greta? Is it just me or the wording or does it sound like a marriage proposal/arrangement xD 
Brahms is a brat and he sees the people around him as his possession or to toy around. But I also do think that he has some abandonment issues but not in the sad tragic kind of way lmao. Even if he was the one controlling and manipulating his parents from behind-the-scene (quite literally I suppose?), he was still told as a kid to live in hiding and that no one can know he is alive. I don’t know much about the human brain, but I can imagine how damaging that must be to his mental growth and set him back in some way? We don’t know too much about his relationship with his parents - but I assume that he must have still loved them in his own twisted way. Can’t imagine that he would have been indifferent about his parents suicide. 
The scene before Greta manages to back out - first he uses the child voice to beg her to come back and promises he will be good. That’s his manipulating Greta, but when that doesn’t work and she tries harder to open the door, he becomes more desperate to keep her there and then completely loses his temper and threatens to kill Malcolm if she doesn’t return. I’m pretty sure homeboy would have killed him anyway. And then later when she returns and he is all heavy breathing and smelling her hair and then jumps up when she shouts Brahms? Idk I def think there is some sort of abandonment issue going on. 
I don’t think he is a child stuck in a man’s body or manchild or whatever. I think that he does know how to take care of himself - but he just chooses to manipulate people with the facade of a kid to do his bidding and cater to his needs. 
Anywhomst, but clearly Brahms is also a very manipulative and controlling person based, based on how the mother was reacting on the destroyed bedroom, she really seemed to be at the end of her wits and just breaking down with her “you promised you’d be good”. It was very heartbreaking to watch and also scary because it really makes you realize just how much power Brahms holds over them?? idk maybe it was just me.
Next point: the CGI mask  + the burns 
So according to some interviews with the director stated that at the first test streaming, people weren’t really scared of Brahms because he was too handsome so they had to slap a mask over his face. The face was done after everything was filmed. I’m thinking the face burns were also added post-production when they were adding the cgi mask. Otherwise, James would have needed to go through the makeup department for some wicked face burns and it would have been visible during the filming and test screening too? Which would imply that at first the fire was supposed to be just  a cover story that their son is dead and it was changed later
Observation/thoughts on Brahms Heelshire
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Love how he stands there with his hands behind his back and then nods when Greta tells him to go under the cover
James Russell is 191cm tall. So like. Brahms is really fucking tall. But I notice that most of the time he stands with a slight hunch. Could be due to him crawling through the walls and crawling out of places that requires him to do a lot of crouching. His bed in his hideout made me really sad, I’ll get to it later. 
Since James didn’t get many lines in the ten minutes that he appeared, I do think that his eyes did all the acting. They stand out even more with the mask on, there is just this crazy look on it. I also noticed during my rewatch that he doesn’t seem to blink much or at all. 
Oh yeah, he also peeped on Greta and Malcolm making out on the bed and then cockblocked them. We been knowing that he made a Greta doll and very likely jerked off to it. We also been knowing that he very very very likely wanted to bone Greta at the goodnight kiss scene still waiting for the maskeless kiss scene gimme gimme. I also highly doubt that Brahms has much first-hand experience with kissing n stuff. High key thinking he was trying to do copy Malcolm and do what he observed lmao
Tumblr media
When I first watched the scene, I assumed that the hole behind the mirror has always been and it’s just another one of the hidden passages Brahms to slip in and out, but now that I’m looking at the shape of the holes, it seems to me more like the mirror and brick wall were broken at the same time?? If that is the case holy shit boy is s t  r o n g. I mean, he also punched through the closet door like no big deal so really what have the parents been feeding him. 
I’m also leaning toward the fact that he ran there because Greta screamed loudly. I don’t think he was in the room as them when everything went down there, it seemed more like he heard the scream and had to nyoomed over and then punched a way through to get out of the wall. And then went on to attack Cole. He must have known that Greta wanted Cole gone, since that what she whispered to the doll before going to bed. 
Tbh, I fully expected him to murder Cole in his sleep, but Brahms wrote a warning message in blood to tell him to get out soooooo like. Cole you were warned and now you gotta live with the consequences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brahm’s sleeping corner
Tumblr media
This scene was shown at the end after Greta and Malcolm escaped. We also see them briefly during the part where Greta and Malcolm are trying to find a way out and stumbled into Brahms’ hideout. I’m not sure why the rules are slapped on the walls. It seems to me that Brahms is very very very set on that the rules / routine should be followed. In the movie, he called Greta and suggested to her that she should follow the rules, to which she then started doing it.
I headcanon that that’s the routine that he grew up with as a kid and it’s just very very very very very hard to break out of it - not that he is trying to break the routine. 
I’m failing to find a good way to put my thoughts into words, but I guess the rules and routine is sort of his coping mechanism? 
I suppose if you had an OC that you ship Brahms with and want to change stuff around the house, the OC would have to very slowly introduce new rules and routines. Baby steps, yknow.
Tumblr media
Brahms has a violin hanging there! Honestly I would be surprised if Brahms didn’t know how to play at least one instrument. The family also has an old ass piano/clavichord (?) and Brahms loves classical music soo yeah. Love me a boy who appreciates classical musical hehe
I suppose the egg boxes are there to soundproof the room more - maybe so he can play the violin? 
There’s also music sheets hung around his attics, it’s not clear on the screenshots but when you rewatch the scene and shove your face close to the screen. Some are hanging next to the violin and there are some taped on the wall next to his bed and porn too
nice to see he has a fridge and microwave, I was concerned that he wasn’t well fed and that leftovers might not be enough, but then again. Dude is 191 cm so clearly he has been drinking his milk
Didn’t take a screenshot of his vanity, but there is a crocodile magnet stuck to the mirror hehe. I do think that he shaves and stuff, otherwise his beard would be much longer??
Tumblr media
We can see more music sheets stuck to a pillar on the right. 
Loving the christmas lights that he has hanging there above his bed. It’s cute. 
On the shelf he has a bunch of tupperware and empty bowls. Most of hte things are neatly organized. We can also see some books and a pen
There’s some sunlight streaming inside - I do hope that Brahmsy stays warm during winters.
Tumblr media
Here we can see more of the food that he has there - there is also a sink but I didn’t snatch a screenshot of it. I think those are potatoes in the pot? Maybe he does know how to cook some basic stuff, I do wonder if he has a functioning kitchen up there. Probably not for fire safety reasons lol
Tumblr media
Yall see that thing on the note sheet covered pillar? Ngl, that’s a whole ass aesthetic right there.
Tumblr media
He got a few potted plants up there. Took a closer look at them and it seems like they were healthy. So he knows how to take care of plants, which is nice to know I suppose?
Tumblr media
Yes, we all know what he was doing with the doll and what the tissue balled up tissue implies. However, has anyone noticed the size of the bed??? 
If you scroll up a bit to the screenshot of Greta seeing the doll, it looks t i n y. The make shift doll takes up more than half of the space. 
Yall. this breaks my heart. Dude is a beanstalk. I’m pretty sure the bed is from when he was a kid shoved by his parents to live inside the wall, does he have to sleep there in his adulthood too??? 
Even though Brahms strikes me as someone who probably doesn’t sleep much or during normal times, that bed must be so tiny for him. He must be sleeping with his knees bend and shit unable to stretch out :((( 
Brahms: is a psychopath that smashed the skull of a girl and very abusive tormented his parents and then Greta Me: omg he needs a bigger bed that poor thing :(((
Brahms’ DIY corner 
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Ah yes, Brahm’s little DIY/creative corner. 
Homeboy got lot of animal traps, cages and taxidermies hanging around, pointing strongly toward that it’s a hobby of it? 
Also at the end where we see him fixing up the doll, we can get a better shot at his desk, and I gotta say the threads and stuff are all very nicely organized. Brahms’s table looks more organized than mine does lmao. 
So we know he is a crafty boy. Not sure how difficult taxidermy is but I imagine it does take a lot of time to learn? Well he had all the time in the world anyway.
So yeah, that’s a wrap. Congrats if you made it to the bottom of my incoherent thoughts and ramblings, have a bonus drawing of Brahms wearing different masks: 
Tumblr media
310 notes · View notes
angelanimedesaray · 3 years
Text
Through the Looking Glass Chapter 9:  April
AN:  I’m getting ahead of the question now and stating that in this world, AOT isn’t an anime (Poor souls). So no, the Reader isn’t going to become omnipotent to Levi’s life/world.
They did not binge this in one day.  The first round, for sure they did, but it was a little broken up in spurts.  For the sake of brevity, considering this was already going to be a long chapter, I cut out all the flickering back and forth and just focused on their Movie Nights and them watching the show.
It might feel a weird mix of rushed and long, because they’re watching the entirety of Your Lie In April, but I wasn’t going to transcribe the whole show, so there’s a lot of summarizing and cutting things out and highlighting certain pieces, but its still long because there’s a LOT to cover.
Also because of how emotional this chapter is actually going to be, I want to just remind...that Levi is like, mid teens, and hasn’t gone through much of the stuff that adult Levi has been through, so in my mind, that justifies a bit more of a REACTION for some of this stuff.  But he’s still Levi, and he’s still going to be reserved and such, just...not as controlled as Adult Levi.
This whole chapter is like one big lead up to the next chapter, funnily enough. XD
Also got to listen to “Constellation” by Far Out feat. Karra on repeat writing this.  It felt so fitting!
I’m putting quotes from Your Lie in April in italics with quotes and an indent like this, so its clear that they came from the show.  Levi’s thoughts/memories will just be in italics, no indention .
Characters:  Levi, Reader
Pairing:  (Eventual Levi x Reader)
Warnings:   SPOILERS FOR “YOUR LIE IN APRIL”, Angst, FEELINGS, Language
Word Count:  10994
<----Previous Chapter    Masterlist    Next Chapter---->
Tumblr media
*Levi’s POV*
At long last, Y/N was finally going to show him those movie, show things she kept talking about.  He knew plays and acting and putting on an act, but the concept of a show that was saved so you could watch it whenever you wanted without having to make people do it over and over was novel to him.
Boisterously proclaiming that it was going to be a “Movie Night” day, she’d grabbed his hand and dragged him after her like she’d used to do when they were young, despite his protests.  To be fair, he didn’t try too hard to wiggle away, either, letting her pull him along to the living room as she fussed and tried to decide what they were going to watch.
After all of her attempts to explain what a movie or TV show was, she decided that the best way to explain it to him was just to show him, though she still had to stop and explain the type of show they were watching.
“Okay, so what I’m showing you right now, is actually called an anime.  It’s a type of animation from a country called Japan, and it’s made from computers or hand drawn.  They draw the story, picture by picture, and put it together to make the characters and such move, with actors doing their voices and recording it in time with the pictures, sound effects like bells and wind also being saved, background music, so on and so forth,” she explained as she cut up pieces of paper and layered them on top of each other, pulling out a pencil and drawing a circle on each page, moving its position slightly each time.  “See, if you do it frame by frame, and then move it really fast, it's like the ball is bouncing--animation, and anime, works off the same concept, except they’re drawing everything,” she continued to explain, grabbing the bottom page and then letting the papers rapidly spring free, causing Levi to see the ball she drew appear to move along the page, even though he knew it was a bunch of individual drawings going by rapidly.
“They draw a solid background that doesn’t move, and then they add another layer on top that you can see through like glass, but they draw the moving parts on that layer, so it looks like they’re in the solid background and they’re walking and whatnot.  It’s really cool--makes me wish I could draw,” she continued, putting aside the papers she’d used for her demonstration and picking up the controller so she could get them started, gesturing for Levi to take a seat on the couch.  “I haven’t seen this one yet, but a friend recommended I watch it cause I love music, and I play the piano, and she said it was a really good coming of age story.  I’m a little wary cause she said she wanted my reaction to the end, but she usually suggests stuff I love, so I’m gonna trust it,” she continued to babble as the screen lit up with colors and pictures like a computer screen, most of it nonsensical to Levi as she shifted rapidly past most of it looking for the specific show.
She stopped on something extremely colorful, blues and yellows and pinks and reds in vibrant color with four drawn people lying in what looked like the sky, and she abruptly turned to face him.  “Are you okay with having to read what they say?  The original is in a different language, so it’ll have subtitles at the bottom translating what they say.  There are other versions where they redid the speaking parts in different languages, but I really like listening to the original--I feel like it really gets the emotions across because it's so well done.”
Levi hesitated for a moment, contemplating her offer of putting it in a language they understood or keeping the original and having to read what they were saying.  Eventually, he just shrugged.  “Whichever you want.”
“Subtitles it is,” she said, turning back to the TV and messing with a few things before she finally started the show, coming over to sit by him on the couch.  He was sitting normally, his ankle propped up on his leg with one arm resting against the back of the couch, the other lying casually in his lap.  Y/N, however, sat directly beside him, his arm behind her shoulders and her side pressed slightly against his, causing Levi to glance at her, mind flashing back to how she’d sat at the piano with him not too long ago.  She wasn’t even glancing at him, though, gradually relaxing next to him like a kitten curling up to get warm, her eyes fixed on the colorful display that was now on the TV.
Turning his attention back to the TV, Levi studied the images in front of him, a cheerful bit of piano music fluttering towards them as vibrant and colorful images of a girl chasing a black cat moved seamlessly across the screen, much smoother than the quickly drawn bouncing ball Y/N had put together to describe what they would be watching.
If she was trying to sneak a peak of his reaction, she would catch his eyes had widened at the vibrant colors and amazing detail, the realistic sounds that came through and made him want to check and see if the piano behind them was being played, or there were people hiding somewhere making the character’s voices and singing the song as the scene suddenly shifted to what Y/N described to him as an intro, a quick prologue of sorts that set the tone of the show.  Thankfully, however, she’d already explained to him that the sounds were done beforehand, recorded and somehow stored so it would be repeated to the images on the screen as they watched.
It was a little...outside his realm of understanding, how it all worked, and he had the sneaking suspicion he’d just have to accept that it just was and he needed to sit back and try to enjoy it.  That was how a show was supposed to work, right?  And that was exactly what Y/N seemed to be doing.
As she had warned him, the characters were speaking an entirely different language, so Levi couldn’t understand what was being said on its own.  Thankfully, there were the subtitles to translate, Levi’s gaze flickering between reading the small letters to looking at the colorful screen to see what was happening, trying not to get too caught up in the details he didn’t understand, like the games the kids were playing, and how different the environment was even to what he saw in Y/N’s world.
At least the basic stuff he could easily make sense of--the main character was obviously the quiet and reserved, black haired, blue eyed pianist Kousei, and the characters were around Levi and Y/N’s age.  The point of the story wasn’t clear yet, but she’d explained this was going to be episodic--it would be played like chapters in a novel, stopping at the end of a chapter before they would have to start the next one.  So it might be a while before he started catching that.  Right now, they were meeting characters, finding out their relationship to one another and getting hints at the history between them all.
Like the fact that Kousei lived alone because his father was absent, and his mother was deceased.  She’d succumbed to illness when he was still young.  That alone had the stirrings of empathy settling in Levi’s chest for the main character.  He couldn’t relate to the abuse, but the desire to make her better, that somehow he could do something to make her feel better did resonate.  It made him listen to their conversations a bit more, since he already had a foothold and something relatable.
Once he started drawing comparisons to the story unfolding in front of him, he couldn’t stop noticing them.
“The moment I met him, my life changed.  Everything I saw, heard, and felt.  All the scenery around me started to take on color.  The whole world began to sparkle.”
A world of monotone, devoid of color, until he meets a certain vibrant youth who brings a sudden rush of color and life into the world around her, dragging Kousei in by the hand--as if he could ever resist the force of nature she was.
Hm.  He wondered who that reminded him of.
He didn’t even notice when the “chapter” ended and the next started, his gaze flickering subtly towards Y/N on the couch beside him, appearing just as taken by the story as he already was.
However, this new chapter did bring about new questions, and was a bit closer to his grasp of understanding after watching Y/N play music for so long.
“Do you ever do competitions?” Levi asked as the characters walked around the competition and the history Kousei had at this specific building was teased, easily able to see that there was a piano on the stage despite it being a violin competition.  Surely if there were competitions for violins, there were for pianos?
She shook her head, chewing slightly on her lower lip as she answered him.  “No way--I play piano for myself and a few people.  I’m not looking to make a career of it or become famous for it.  Not to mention, I don’t think I’m cut out for competitions.  There’s a lot of pressure, and they’re really strict about playing the pieces exactly how they were originally written.  I want to play the piano how I feel, and that’s not always by paying attention to how it's written on the sheet.”
“And violins?  What are they like?” he asked.  He hadn’t seen or heard a violin yet, and was curious to hear what they would sound like.
“They’re a string instrument--portable, small.  Really beautiful, too--they’re my second favorite instrument.  They usually pair wonderfully with pianos--I’m pretty sure it’s common for a piano to accompany a violin in shows and competitions.”
Levi hushed with his questions again as the scenes playing out on the TV continued to unfold and the first violin performer took the stage, Levi hearing the light and lively music of the violin for the first time, the same song being performed over and over by the nondescript and nameless musicians on the stage in the show.
Beside him, Y/N was slowly tilting her head side to side as she listened to the music being played, eyes fixed on the screen.  She must have felt almost in her element watching this, while Levi felt a bit more like Tsubaki, not understanding a lot of the names and such that were being thrown around by the characters in discussion, but still there to enjoy it nonetheless.  When Kousei was tapping his fingers on the armchair to the piano music, Levi’s gaze flickered to Y/N to see if she was doing something similar, since she seemed focused on the music as well.  It wasn’t as precise as Kousei, maybe she wasn’t playing every note in her head, but her fingers were lightly tapping against her legs like she wanted to be playing the keys on the piano.
Then came Kaori’s first performance.
Watching, Levi felt a familiarity in the girl’s intensity, once again reminded of the girl sitting next to him, who seemed to throw herself into every aspect of life around her--at least compared to him.  There was a tension in the air, a feeling that this was going to be much different than the music they’d been hearing up until this point.  Even Y/N had stilled next to him, eyes riveted to the girl on the screen.
The first notes were shocking.  After listening to Y/N play the piano for so long, even his unprofessional, inexperienced ear could hear the shift in the sound, and how rich and deep it suddenly was.  Beside him, Y/N shifted into a more upright position, eyes suddenly lighting up and sparkling as she leaned forward, her breath catching.  The ripple through the audience wasn’t just in the show, but in reality, as the two of them on the couch suddenly focused entirely on Kaori’s performance.
The girl’s eyes flashed on screen, and the music suddenly leapt to life before them, making his own heart seem to pound a little faster, the sounds pleasant and uplifting to his ears, making him restless in a good way.  It sounded similar to when Y/N played the piano with him that one day, not necessarily in skill, but in the life and emotion that was in it.
Like Y/N, Kaori was pouring herself into her playing, she shone brightly through in the piece, made like it was pulling back a curtain to reveal a part of her soul.  Kousei even said as much, stating that Kaori was making the piece hers and hers alone.
The performance ended, and Y/N suddenly grabbed his arm with a squeal.  “That was awesome!  I’m going to have to find a recording of that!” she said breathlessly.  Her excitement was infectious, and almost prompted Levi towards a smile as they slowly settled back onto the couch, the story progressing in front of them.
She was such a stark contrast to the black haired youth in front of her, the whirlwind to his reserved personality, but even she would show flashes of vulnerability, for his eyes only, it seemed.  And he did what he could to hide what he could in order to protect her, without her ever knowing, probably.
Wait, was he still thinking about Kaori and Kousei?
Levi shook his head, focusing back on what was happening, reading Kousei’s contemplations about how he could still hear the refrain of the music Kaori played in the competition he witnessed, over and over.
Levi’s fingers tapped slightly against the back of the couch and in his lap, barely tapping out the melodies for the song they’d played on the piano the other day, music he heard even when he was alone with his thoughts in his own world, still able to feel her fingers aligned with his, guiding him through each key.  He’d find himself tapping them out in rare moments of idleness, like he was still clinging to the memory of the sound even if he didn’t have a piano in his world.
Y/N shifted entirely back to her relaxed position against Levi’s side, head brushing briefly against his shoulder and making his skin tingle where the brief contact had been, his stomach squirming.
Kaori dragged poor Kousei around everywhere, usually into situations far out of his comfort zone, and far more aggressively than a certain someone sitting beside him.  However, it seemed like more often then not, those situations were wonderful places that he wouldn’t have found or experienced on his own.
She brought color to his monochrome life.
Where he was hidden in shadows, she was cast in light, and she didn’t hesitate to pull him into the sun.
”I know you’re broken and beat up, but I want you.  I choose you.  I want you here.”
The beginning chapters seemed to fly by quickly, with Kaori pushing Kousei more and more, and beside Levi, Y/N seemed to be slowly wiggling closer to him.  Was it intentional?  Did she realize she was doing it?  He did--he seemed hypersensitive to every motion, yet he didn’t pull away, didn’t even twitch.  He stayed still, like sudden movement might frighten her away as easily as a stray cat.
As intriguing as the events on the screen were--and he was taking in the information, such as how Kousei used to have a black cat, how he couldn’t hear the sound of the piano after his mother died and quit piano directly afterwards, important stuff like that--Levi’s thoughts kept wandering as he watched.
He thought of how beautiful the trees with the pink petals were, how breathtaking every scene with them was, and how prominently they seemed to feature in every scene that had something meaningful going on.  Y/N called them cherry blossom trees.  He wanted to see one.  What would it look like?  What would the scene be if he stood under one with her?
Before he knew it, Kaori had cornered Kousei into accompanying her on the piano, and they were rushing towards another performance.  Anticipation stirred in the air between him and Y/N, both of them wondering how this piece would sound, considering Kousei had already been framed as a child prodigy on the piano, and they knew Kaori was breathtaking.  What would it sound like when they played together?  Levi worried about how it would turn out, how Kousei seemed to be unraveling in front of them just before they went up on stage.
Before Kaori gave him a literal smack to get him out of his own head.
As lighthearted and carefree as she seemed to be, every now and then, she would drop these little petals of wisdom.
Levi’s gaze flickered to Y/N again.
Her eyes would shift from a sparkle that almost seemed naive to a depth he hadn’t expected to see, and she’d say something that seemed beyond her years.
“Go on a journey.  A man away from home need feel no shame.”
“Natural.  Bizarre.  It’s like this girl herself is the journey with no clear destination.”
“You’re Freedom Itself.”
The couple took the stage.  The song started out slow, sensual, peaceful.  It reminded him slightly of the song Y/N taught him.
Before, predictably, Kaori brought her wild, fast paced playing back, bringing liveliness to the performance.  It started beautifully, but just as the music seemed to portray some kind of descent, Kousei lost sense of the notes, the sound distorted even for them, listening, as if they were Kousei, only able to faintly hear Kaori while the rest sounded muffled, strangled out by water.  When they were allowed to hear the sound again, it was off, it sounded harsh and jarring, out of sync.  Not at all pleasant.
Considering the earlier mentioned problems, he should have known this wasn’t going to be a perfect and completely enjoyable performance.  It was grating, and while he understood the emotional significance of seeing Kousei give up halfway through, his ears were a little grateful by that point.
The surprise was seeing Kaori stop as well.  He’d thought perhaps something would urge Kousei to start playing again, but he hadn’t expected Kaori to stop in the process.  Beside him, Y/N seemed to be biting on her thumbnail, her brows furrowed as she watched the screen in concern, a frown on her face, leg shifting restlessly around on the couch as she suddenly curled closer to Levi, directly against his side, oblivious to the surprised look he shot her because she was so focused with what was happening on the screen.
“Maybe there’s only a dark road up ahead.  But you still have to believe and keep going.  Believe that the stars will light your path, even a little bit.”
Kaori began to play again, the sound of just the violin playing on its own sounding lonely and out of place, especially when he knew there should be a piano playing with it.  All they needed was for Kousei to play again.  Would he?  No excuses, Kaori needed his support, and Levi found himself silently judging Kousei, mentally pushing him to help her, to play, because that was what she needed from him.
”So what was it that you saw in me?”
“But you have me!  Look up, and look at me.  Look at me.”
Kousei starting to play again was a relief, even if it wasn’t quite right at first.  After a bit of inner reflection, some time where they spent listening to the underwater sounds, it all faded away, and a soft scene of a mother and son filled the screen.  The mother’s softly sung lullaby was soothing, and as it shifted to a scene of the sky, Levi’s eyes widened at the brilliant beauty it was, the range of color, of blues and whites and even some purples and pinks.  How it sparkled and shimmered, stirring up emotions he didn’t know he’d buried somewhere inside him as he suddenly felt small again, curled up in a nest of soft warmth, staring out a small window up towards the sky high above him for the first time, gazing in wonder at the stars and moon that glittered high above him.
Words from one of the many times Y/N had played the piano for him drifted to his mind.  How she had perceived her music had struck some kind of chord with him, even if he wasn’t saying anything--even when he realized he had no words to describe what he was feeling listening to her play that single song.  He remembered how she’d told him that the point, what made music with her time, was how it could communicate what couldn’t be said with mere words.
The music shifted, and Kousei finally began to play, and the sound was enrapturing.  There were no words--it could only be felt, what was happening between the boy at the piano and the girl with the violin.
Could he find a violin in his world?  Could he learn to play it, so he could play with Y/N like Kousei played with Kaori?  Would they manage to produce something similar, something wonderful like that?  What would it feel like?  What would the sound between them be?  What would it say?
”I can hear your sound.”
So caught up in his thoughts, in the raw emotion and the music that had just enraptured them both, Levi was caught off guard when the mood took another shift.
He tensed, hand gripping the back of the couch a little harder as the sound faded away into an echo as Kaori suddenly collapsed.  The hairs on the back of his neck seemed to raise, warning him of something incoming, even though there was no physical threat.  He had a bad feeling, suddenly, seeing Kaori’s paler form in the hospital, seeing Kousei’s disbelieving look, the way all of her face wasn’t visible during certain key answers.  It put dread inside him over what was happening with her, where this would go.  A brief moment of happiness...but what did it mean in the long run?  What did it matter, if it was going to be ripped so harshly away, anyway?
“It was everything to you, and you’re trying to rip that away by force.  As if you were plucking off your limbs.  That’s why it hurts too much for you to bear.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to forget?  No, not a chance.  Because you and I are living for that moment.”
“I won’t forget.  I won’t forget, even if I die.”
“Thank you.”
The mood of the show mellowed drastically, far more serious notes seeping into the air around them as Kousei and those around him were faced with far more serious matters than who liked who, and music competitions.  The competitions seemed to be fading into the background, a mere backdrop to the true story.
Ah…
He might be seeing it now.
There was more to this tale than just playing in competitions.
And he had the feeling he was going to be facing some...difficult scenes.  Not the kind of gristly scenes of the everyday Underground.  The personal, emotional kind.  He was already getting flashes of past events, old emotions stirring this early on.  What would come next?  How deep was this show going to dig to bring out emotions or thoughts he didn’t even know he was keeping buried?
Y/N shifted again, now blatantly sidled up beside him, head leaning slightly to the side, coming to rest very lightly on his shoulder.  Levi stilled, pulled entirely from his thoughts, both of them seeming to hold the position to see what the other would do.
She didn’t pull away.
Neither did he.
Her head leaned a little more heavily against his shoulder, and she got more comfortable in her position next to him.  Levi relaxed, letting her do as she pleased, silently grateful for the companionable warmth her presence beside him seemed to be offering him, allowing the scarier thoughts to temporarily be soothed and chased away.  It helped that the story was shifting towards the more light-hearted as well, as Kaori and Kousei began to prepare for a piano competition.
“Before your fingers touch the keys, you must determine in your mind how you’re going to play it.  Why do you play the piano?  Is it for your sake?  For someone else’s sake?  How do you want to play this piece?”
Levi turned his head slightly to look at Y/N, curiosity stirred up in his mind as Kaori grilled Kousei for his mental imagery while he played.  “What about you?  What do you think of when you play the piano?” he asked her.
“Hm?” she asked, pulled for the first time out of the show as she turned slightly to meet his gaze, surprised by the inquiry.  “I...don’t know.  It depends on the moment.  Usually it’s memories, though.  Certain songs make me think of certain people, usually memories with that person.  Maybe something I want to do or say to them?  I haven’t thought of that much before...usually I just...do it.  And I tend to get lost in what I’m doing, too.  I guess that’s part of the reason why I haven’t thought of it much before.”
Levi continued to look at her even as she turned her attention back to the show, barely holding back a question that bubbled up inside him.
Have you ever thought of me?
She was teaching him to play the piano, right?  What would his mental imagery be when he played?
While Levi got his quick question in and mulled over his own thoughts once more, the mood shifted to something more serious in the show again.
Kaori was worried she was being too pushy, that Kousei might resent him for forcing him into the position he was in, now.  That she was being too hard on him.  And something that they said resonated with him, because of recent events.
“You’re suffering because of me.  I’m sorry.”
Levi saw Y/N in front of him in his mind’s eye.  Her eyes were downcast, lips pressed together, shoulders slightly hunched, and she was on the verge of tears after his barbed words expressing how shitty this situation was for him, how it teased him with what he could never have.  Did she blame herself, for him being pulled into her world, always around her for a brief while before he was kicked back?
But again, she’d been right.  Even if it was brief, that didn’t mean the time he spent here with her was worthless.  It still meant something to him, and it still brought him some comfort and, oddly enough, a sense of security.  From the very first time they’d met, she’d provided him with somewhere he could truly feel safe and cared for.
“It was you who swept away all the dust.  For sweeping away the dust that had collected on my body...thank you.  For encountering me.”
Tumblr media
The more hints the story dropped about Kaori’s health, the more worried Levi became about the turn this story might take.  He was bracing for impact, a small frown on his face as he saw the pile of medicine Kaori was carrying around with her at the competition.  Kousei’s musical rivals didn’t register so much with him in the previous two chapters, because he was still so focused on what was happening with Kousei and Kaori.
Y/N had gotten up at one point by now to get a drink, bringing back a water for him to sip on as they continued the story, time passing by without either of their knowledge of just how long they’d been sitting here.  Even Levi, usually so much more active, was content to sit here and watch, hardly noticing his inactivity as he drank up every scene, every word, some ringing out through his mind, others falling into place as narrative importance, worry and elation and nostalgia, as well as so much more, all stirred together inside him, Y/N curled up like a kitten at his side, his arm still leaning against the back of the couch, his hand resting softly on her shoulder.
However, while he and Y/N were falling into a position of ease, the story seemed to be starting to shift more to the relationship between Kousei and his mother, and what happened to her.  Kaori was getting worse, it seemed, and they were digging into a relationship that felt, in certain ways, similar to what Levi had gone through, and not too long ago, either, now that he was forced to look at it.  It made him...uncomfortable, to say the least, but he wasn’t saying anything--he needed to see where this story was headed, with how invested he was at this point.  And even if it got personal, he thought he might be able to sit and endure it all the same.
”My mom’s coming from the hospital to see me perform...so you see, in order to make Mom well again, in order to make her happy, I’m gonna play my very best as a gift!”
The first hit actually made him flinch.  It was slight, but it was there, and Y/N might have caught it--he wasn’t expecting it, not from the tone, or what had just been discussed, or the way the scene changed so rapidly from the cheers of the audience after little Kousei finished playing his best for his mother to the slap across his face from the ailing woman.  He suddenly felt tense, his hand still on Y/N’s shoulder and his expression suddenly unreadable as the hits kept coming, making something dark and angry well up inside him as Kousei was hit hard enough to draw blood against a backdrop of the abuse he’d been suffering the entire time.
Perhaps Y/N hadn’t caught it, because she was flinching as well, and her reaction was far more open on her face, eyes watering with near-tears, a slight shake in her body, and the occasional, shaking breath.
”All I wanted was for you to get better.  All I wanted was for you to be happy.  And yet...I wish you would just die.”
“That was the last time I said anything to my mom.”
Levi’s grip tightened on Y/N’s shoulder, but neither of them said a word, a grimness in the air as they continued to watch the story in front of them that had started so colorful but was taking a darker turn rather quickly.
Levi scowled slightly at the switch to such an upbeat little song at the sudden end of the chapter, which would be followed by another upbeat song at the beginning of the next.
“These ‘intros’ and ‘outros’ are deceptively cheerful,” Levi criticized.
“What’s a good story without some struggle?” Y/N replied, though she briefly untangled herself from her position at Levi’s side and wiggled off the couch.  “Though, I think I’m going to go grab some tissues.  I’m starting to think there’s going to be some really sad or heartfelt stuff coming up.  Tell me when it’s back on if I’m still missing!” she added before darting away, leaving Levi to sigh quietly to himself and look up at the ceiling, keeping track of the show in front of him as he waited for her to run off and come back with a colorful box, squirming back into place beside him and letting his hand return to her shoulder as she placed the box next to her on the couch, sighing contently.
“The show must go on!” she insisted, face devoid of the strong emotion they’d been sharing just a few moments ago.  She settled next to him with a soft sigh, the sight of Kousei struggling at the piano returning where the previous chapter left off.
They watched him struggle against the ghost of his mother, trying to force himself to play through it, to play even though he couldn’t hear, even as the sound grated on them.  Watched as he slowly gave up, until he stopped entirely before the song was even over, just like he had with Kaori.
Part of him had expected Kousei to have some kind of revelation just before he quit and push through, but he’d really stopped.  Now it just remained to be seen if he could start again.  Of course, after his performance with Kaori, they knew he was disqualified.  But would he find a reason to play anyway, like she had?
”Even the you that’s here inside me, won’t let me give up.  That day, I wonder.  What did you play for?”
Levi felt the ghost of her fingers on his again, unaware that he was tapping the keys against the skin of her shoulder at the memory.
Once more, the sound changed as Kousei found his reason to play.  The girl who’d changed his world from monotone to color, who dragged him into a whirlwind of life without giving him the chance to think twice about it.
“Just one person matters to me.  Only you matter.  Thank you...Will it reach her?  I hope it reaches her.”
Tumblr media
”Your hidden emotions.  The you that you’ve never known.  The piano drags out everything…”
Levi’s gaze once more was unfocused on the screen as he was swept away in a sea of his own thoughts, thinking back to the times he’d listened to Y/N play.  What had he been hearing those days?  What would he hear in her playing in the future?  If he put enough effort into learning to play as she tried to teach him...could it help him communicate some of the things he struggled to say?  It was at least worth giving it a shot.
And he would be sure to pay closer attention in the future to see what he could hear, what he may not be aware of.
The pacing lulled into something more relaxed once more, a brief reprieve after the emotions that were just thrown at them, allowing him and Y/N to talk a bit more, both of them keeping one eye on the subtitles even as they made little comments about what they’d heard so far.  The unspoken love triangle?  Maybe it was a triangle.  The romantic feelings were crisscrossed and all over the place between this group of friends.  They commented on their observations about Kousei and Kaori, what they thought was going to become of the two as they watched, whether Kaori or Tsubaki would end up the one with him in the future.
Music was another thing they talked about, obviously.  How they wanted to hear Kousei and Kaori play together again--and were excited they had the chance to with the upcoming concert.  Y/N also expressed how she loved Chopin pieces, and as a result was happy about how many Chopin pieces were in the show so far and was hoping to hear more.  She also mentioned that Love’s Sorrow, the song they were working on now for the concert, was a beautiful piece--mournful, obviously, but beautiful.  She even offered to help him learn it when he got more used to the piano if he wanted to.
Levi was a little distracted, though, by the further warning signs that something was going to happen to Kaori.  In the same stroke that he contemplated how she had a skill for seeing the beauty in the world, like Y/N tended to do for him, she said something ominous that further solidified a growing suspicion that Levi was keeping in mind.
“You know, I’m not always going to be around to help you.”
As worried about Kaori as that line made Levi for the context of the show, it also reminded him of his own situation with Y/N.  He helped when he could, but he was absent so often...and it worked both ways.  He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself when he was on his own, but Y/N he worried about.  What if something serious happened when he wasn’t around to help her?  Would she be all right?  Would she be able to take care of herself until he could be here to help her?
It was another line that resonated with him, another one that was going to burn in his mind and make him brood over their situation.  This show was rife with them, and it had his emotions all over the place, despite his outward calm posture.
He had no way of knowing just how strongly the next chapter was going to hit him.
Tumblr media
He was as riled up as Kousei after hearing that smart mouthed kid claim that the music Kaori made was just disastrous noise.  If he’d ever heard someone say that about the music Y/N played, he was liable to sock them in the mouth.  Honestly, after that comment, he’d thought that the focus was going to be on Kaori again, even with all the recent focus on Kousei’s mother.  That misconception was quickly fixed, though, when the chapter began with a flashback to Kousei’s mother and how he became a pianist, further reinforced when Kousei started to play and they were given the first glimpses into his thought process, and what his new mentor--his mother’s old friend--was thinking.
Kousei’s mother’s favorite song, Kousei’s lullaby.
”Would she have played it like this?”
Kousei was curled up against the wall in the darkness of a room with no one else, knees pulled up to his chest, head buried, trying to shut out the world, the woman who’d known and been close to Kousei’s mother finding him in the darkness as Kousei cried out for his mother, for someone to help him, save him.  Levi tensed, going completely still beside Y/N with his gaze riveted on the scene in front of him.
”That son of ours is about to bid you a last farewell.”
”Will it reach her?”
Levi’s jaw clenched, his teeth grinding together as he attempted to keep a lid on the emotions that were trying to rise inside him again.
“After I’m gone, what’s going to become of Kousei?  Will he be able to earn a living?”
There was a pressure on his chest making it impossible to breathe and a forceful pain in his throat that was pushing right at the back, like there was something stuck there that wanted to come out but couldn’t, because he wouldn’t let it no matter how much it pushed.
”What a terrible mother.  There’s nothing I can leave that boy...”
His breathing ground to a halt except for the barest, shaking whisper through his nose.
“I wish I could’ve stayed with him longer...Will my treasure ever find happiness?”
Eyes fixed on the screen, Levi suddenly felt the overwhelming need to bolt, could feel his fingers and legs twitch like he was about to without warning, but the music was reaching a crescendo, and he thought maybe, just maybe, he might be able to make it through this, even as the pain in his throat and the pressure on his chest seemed to grow more crushing, more painful, so much harder to contain.
”Do you think it reached my mom?  The way I played my very best?  Do you think it reached Mom?”
“You two are connected, aren’t you?  Of course it reached her.”
Kousei broke on screen, and Levi suddenly realized he wasn’t going to make it to the end of the episode.  He needed to bolt now or he might shatter.
Levi tapped Y/N on the shoulder to get her to move, not daring to look at her and possible see her a crying mess already at the emotional scene.  He gave a brief, “I need to take a shit,” that he managed to get out in a steady voice past the pain in his throat by some miracle, and then stood up, the brief statement her only warning to shift before his movement accidentally dumped her on the ground.  He didn’t run to the bathroom, that would be too much of a tell.  Instead, he got up calmly and made his way to the bathroom, not hurrying his step until he was out of sight and already halfway up the stairs.
By the time he reached the bathroom, he couldn’t hold it back any further, safely locked behind the bathroom door with the water in the sink running seconds before he finally choked on the feeling in his throat and chest.  A strangled sound left him, and he leaned over the sink, trying to catch his breath even as his body tried to make him sob.  His breaths hitched painfully, a slight shake in his hands before they clenched the edge of the sink, shoulders hunched and teeth grinding painfully as a soft whine escaped his rigid body.
Y/N was waiting for him.  He couldn’t stay up here forever, but he at least had to get ahold of himself before he headed back down there.  Out of stubborn determination, Levi tried to gulp in air and steady his breath and hands.  Once he had a strong enough hold of his breathing, he cupped his hands under the water and splashed some of it onto his face to help calm himself down.
Only when he felt his composure had returned, Levi dried off his face and hands, then carefully made his way back downstairs, well-aware that the chapter wasn’t even over, and there were still several chapters left--nine, according to Y/N.
A lot could happen in nine chapters.
Levi calmly returned to his seat on the couch, Y/N giving him a quizzical, examining look before she resumed the position they’d been in before resuming the show in the exact spot he’d left--thankfully, it was after Kousei’s breakdown, so he wouldn’t have to see any of that again.
That didn’t, however, mean that he was in the clear.  No, now that they had put a neat little bow on Kousei’s struggle with his mental image of his mother, they were moving on to the one who had been concerning Levi since one of the first few episodes.
”There’s an ever present sorrow hanging over Arima’s music...Then it’s a demon’s path he must walk.  His growth is spurred by sorrow.  If he walks that path, he might have to lose someone to move forward.”
Kaori was in the hospital again, and Levi felt the uneasiness and dread about the direction this show was taking grow substantially.  Especially as Kousei ran inside the room and saw Kaori in the exact position his mother had been in.  The way this show was starting to dig at some subconscious and deeply buried pains and fears of his that he would rather keep far from the front of his mind, but it kept plodding on, and he felt far too invested now to just leave it where it was.  The curiosity and need to know what happened next would eat away at him if he asked Y/N to stop it there--plus, asking that might tip her off that something about it was upsetting him, considering at this point he couldn’t claim he was bored with it.
”You’re gonna be fine, right?”
“I can see you again, right?”
“You won’t leave me like my mom did, right?”
At this point, the focus on Tsubaki and Kousei’s relationship was a much needed break from the reality and darker questions being asked with Kaori and Kousei right now, questions that he had asked himself from time to time regarding Y/N, questions and concerns he didn’t want to think about for his own sanity.  What was happening with Tsubaki was more lighthearted, less grim, even if it was confusing and brought up even more questions to ask himself.  After all, Tsubaki was being faced with the question of how she felt about Kousei--the boy who had been her friend since they were little, who she was falling in love with no matter how much she tried to deny it, who she had always been beside and wanted to be beside forever.
It made him wonder.  He and Y/N were friends--had been for years now.  She was there for him during his darkest moments, and he’d been there for some of her scariest moments.  Yes, they were friends, but...was it starting to go deeper than that?  Did he feel closer to her, somehow?
Her hands had felt warm against his when they played the piano together, pressed against one another with his arms around each other so they wouldn’t get in each other’s way.  His skin had tingled where she touched him when she’d taken care of and cleaned him up after that fight.  He felt comfortable sitting beside her now, with her leaning against him, her head on his shoulder, despite how borderline intimate it felt.
Had she felt something similar?  They hadn’t really looked at each other in these moments--they’d been avoiding looking at each other whenever something like that happened, so he had no idea.  Was she aware of just how comfortable he was around her?  How different that was for him?  Did she have any clue how important she was becoming to him, how big a part of his life she had gradually become despite the very real distance and difference between their two worlds.
This entire time he’d been drawing similarities between them and Kousei and Kaori, when perhaps the comparison should have been with Tsubaki and Kousei.
It sure as hell might make him feel better, considering he was rather sure she had a terminal illness.  After growing up in the Underground and with the experiences he had so far, fatal illnesses were something he could spot, especially when there were as many warning signs as there were for Kaori.  She only seemed to be getting worse--he was pretty sure she’d been told she was going to die, even though there was no audio for the moment to confirm it.  Since the first episode, Kaori had been centered on making an impression, about living on in the memories and hearts of others--she was clearly afraid of disappearing without a trace after she was gone.
Still, amid all the aching and pain, there was still flashes of hope as Kaori struggled against her illness, and more moments that made him think about the relationship between himself and the girl next to him--more damn connections between them and Kousei and Kaori, which did nothing to sooth his nerves and fears he didn’t even know he had.
“Why are the sounds you make so beautiful I think I’m going to cry?”
“That devotion you showed.  Her heart had turned grey, and you gave it color.”
Had he managed to give her what she gave him?  He felt like he didn’t have anything to give, coming from the dreadful world he did.  She was always the one bringing color into his life, had he ever brought color to hers?  Would he ever be able to?  His world, his life, was ugly and dark and probably tragic.  What could he offer her out of that?
”Did I reach him?”
“You don’t have the time to see me.”
“It’s not about time--I want to see you.”
Tumblr media
The chapter started so calmly--discussion about the next round of the competition, Kaori continuing her struggle to get better, Tsubaki finally admitting her feelings for Kousei in a way.  Levi even made a quip about how Watari and Kaori really needed to stop dragging him along as the awkward extra in their group, practically rubbing it in his face even if it was unintentional.  There was even another moment of resonance with something Tsubaki said to Kousei.
“So you won’t lose your way, so you won’t have regrets, I’ll stay by your side forever.”
Still, he should have seen it coming.  It shouldn’t have surprised him, considering he was well aware of the cruel shittiness of the world, even if Y/N wasn’t.  All this time he’d spent bracing himself with the hints of just how bad Kaori’s illness was, the ominous lines of hers.  All the lightheartedness and self-discovery of the past several episodes came crashing down with the emergency with Kaori as, from what Levi could see even though they clearly had far more advanced medicine that Levi knew nothing about, Kaori had some kind of close call, a brush with death, right in front of Kousei.  And then with the damn cat getting hit and dying literally moments later, Kousei having to wash the blood off of his hands and breaking down in the wake of everything that was happening.  He shouldn’t have been surprised, but it still ached to see it.
And there were two chapters left.  Realistically, he doubted that Kaori was going to recover in two chapters after all this time.  By now, he was certain that she was going to die by the end of the story.
She wasn’t even gone yet, and Kousei had already given up.  Levi had seen plenty of people reach that point.  No fight left, no will to move.  Kousei was right back in the position he’d been in at the start, the impending loss of Kaori the final nail in his coffin, his breaking point.
“Why does it have to end up this way?  I can’t...go on.  No more...I can’t try anymore.”
He hadn’t hit his breaking point--he hoped he never reached that point.  But he was sure even he had one, even if he wasn’t sure where his limit was.
Levi blinked at the white fluttering from the sky on screen. A novel sight he couldn’t ignore or just accept.  Snow, Kaori called it.
So that was what it looked like.  One of the many things he’d heard about but hadn’t seen…
“Have you seen snow before, Levi?  Since you live Underground,” Y/N suddenly asked from where she was curled up into his side, head turned to look at him curiously.  Levi shook his head no, and she hummed.  “You’ll have to show up some time in the winter so I can show you all kinds of awesome things you can do when it snows.  It’s cold, but it’s fun.  And everything looks so clean and pure...my favorite things are the trees encapsulated in ice,” she said with a wistful sigh, eventually quieting down as the scene on the screen continued to develop.
Maybe one day.  But he would have to come through not only when it was winter, but on a day that there was snow, and he had no control over when he blipped over into her world.
Blipped, blip...her word for when Levi flickered into and out of her world.  Clearly, it had caught on even in his mind.
“The people I care about keep leaving me...I’m going to be left all alone.”
Inwardly, Levi felt himself flinch, and that desire to bolt was trying to rear its head again, the desire for her to shut it off and spare him these comments that kept digging into the darker corners of himself, the weakness he kept hidden away for no one to see.
“But you have me.  But you have me.”
For the first time, Levi felt Y/N’s hand give his little squeeze on his knee as Kaori repeated her sentiment to Kousei.
Perhaps the feelings were mutual.  Maybe he wasn’t the only one drowning in emotions on the inside and drawing parallels while they watched this show, if she was giving him a little squeeze after those words.  After he registered that he had felt it, and he hadn’t imagined it, he gave her shoulder a small squeeze in return.
“I’m going to struggle as hard as I can.  Struggle, struggle, struggle, like there’s no tomorrow.”
“You gave me this desire to cling to the time that I spent with you.  Aren’t you going to struggle to?  We’re so good at struggling.”
Hell if that wasn’t the story of his life so far, right there.
Collectively, the two of them held their breath, watching as, after Kousei declared how useless it was for him to even try to play in the state he was in right now, Kaori got to her feet on her own, and the sound of the violin softly flickered towards them from the screen.  It was like the music was from a dream, her imaginary violin ethereal, Kaori lit up by a flurry of snow as she played to a crescendo and smiled at Kousei.
“See, miracles can happen just like that.”
Shaking, legs trembling, sweating, collapsed into Kousei’s arms with a breathless laugh, clinging to him like a source of comfort.  It wasn’t her reciting of the things she knew about Kousei, or what she wished she knew, that drew a response from him, but her heartfelt pleas with Kousei as he held her in her arms.
“I’m scared.  I’m scared!  Don’t leave me all alone!”
That was why it was familiar.  That was how Y/N had held him when…
And perhaps the reason he’d lashed out when he’d found out about how fleeting this world was for him had been because…
Levi shifted, and it was only when Y/N started to pull away did he realize he’d been shifting to get up and walk away, to bolt.  When she fixed him with that questioning look again, not-yet-spilled tears in her eyes from the emotion of the scene, her hand still fisted in his shirt, it brought him back to what was happening in the present, and he shook his head as if to dismiss the movement as he sat back down, relieved when the scene changed again.
Considering it was going to the competition and Kaori’s surgery at the same time, he doubted he was going to get much of a reprieve before the emotions hit again.  Kousei was still a mess, though it was a miracle he’d at least shown up to the competition, but even watching him was worrisome, wondering if he was going to break at the piano again after all this progress he’d made throughout the show, everyone watching in concern in the show and on the couch.
“I made you remember something you don’t want to remember…”
“I won’t forget, even if I die…”
“You can just forget about it all, like you’ve pressed the reset button…”
“I guess maybe we never should've met, huh?”
Levi had to close his eyes for a moment after that one, sucking in a sharp breath.  It was like it had come right out of his denial of their entire situation, how angry he’d been, the pain it had caused, how for a few moments, he’d felt like it would have been better if he could forget it all, if they had never met, because then he wouldn’t know about what he could never have.  His heart ached painfully, the words reverberating not in his mind, but in his bones as the pain in his throat already seemed to be returning.
He opened his eyes, and on screen, Kousei started to break down again, face in his hands, on the brink of tears seated at the piano, on stage in front of everyone once again.
Tsubaki sneezed, and after a few moments of reflecting, after realizing how many people he knew were there...Kousei finally began to play, the notes reverberating deep inside his chest in a full, resonating sound.  Something about it made him nostalgic, but also so...it was so…
“Bursting with such mournful color.”
The chapter suddenly came to an end mid performance, which startled Levi--especially when Y/N darted forward so suddenly to grab the remote and quickly jump to the next one, immediately snapping back into his side, clutching to his clothes like her life depended on it, curled into a ball as he realized for the first time that tissue box was suddenly right in front of her, easily accessible.
The last episode.
Considering the set-up, neither of them were going to get through this last part unscathed emotionally.
It started from the beginning of the piece this time, the commentary being made by the onlookers and Kousei different this time, centered entirely on Kousei after the very beginning.  Levi and Y/N were both enraptured by the performance though, holding to one another on the couch with gazes fixed forward, completely still, even their breathing slight as they paid full attention to every word, and let the music pull them in deeper into the emotional symphony Kousei was creating with just the piano.
“I’m so scared...Somebody…”
“But you have me.”
“I’m not alone.  From the moment that we meet someone else, none of us can ever be alone.  We’re all connected.”
Levi’s grip tightened slightly on Y/N’s shoulder again, and he felt her grip tighten in return.
“Don’t leave me all alone.”
“Dummy, you have me.”
“Inside me...you exist.”
Y/N nuzzled into his side like a cat, and he thought he felt his shirt starting to get damp.  He ignored it, keeping his grip on her firm and steady, staying still beneath her as he stared stalwartly at the screen, even as the emotions were starting to stir violently around inside him.
”No way am I going to leave you all alone.  Reach her.  Reach her.  Reach her.  Reach her.”
The scenery changed entirely, like Kousei was playing in the sky amid a shower of colors, floating around like leaves that autumn day when he and Y/N had jumped into the piles and sent them scattering into the air.  Kaori’s whispered ‘Thank you’ as Kousei carried her back down the stairs sent a shiver down his spine, especially when Kousei of the present reacted, and turned his head to see Kaori materializing beside him, violin in hand.
Beside him, there was suddenly a whine from Y/N, and a rather large sniffle, as well as that damp feeling on his clothes starting to spread.  She trembled slightly beneath his arm and hand, and he realized she was starting to cry rather heavily, her face partially buried in his side.
The music was jarring, disorienting, suddenly intense and tragic as Kousei closed his eyes, barely holding back tears.
Oh.
Oh, shit.
And there it was.
Kaori’s rich violin playing joined into Kousei’s suddenly mournful and tragic playing, and Levi realized that they were witnessing the last time the two would get to play together.  It couldn’t happen again in body, but at least in spirit.  Words weren’t needed for this moment.  Nothing was said between the characters on the screen, and not a word was spoken between Levi and Y/N.  She was continuing to cry into his side, with Levi starting to semi-awkwardly rub her shoulder to try and comfort her even as his own heart seemed to be pounding painfully at the sight in front of him, every note piercing him deeper than he thought possible with the raw emotion behind and pure weight of this single moment.  All there was at this moment in time, was him, Y/N, and the music being created on the stage in front of them between Kaori and Kousei, one last time.
A sob broke past Y/N’s control as the colorful day turned into a rich night, and Kaori stopped playing.  Levi held his breath, watching as transfixed on the scene as Kousei was transfixed on Kaori, the music softening for the briefest moment before it started to turn slow, mournful, and tragic again.
”Wait...please don’t go!”
As Kousei started to beg Kaori to do all of these things with him again, good and bad, Levi felt the pressure on his chest return, the burn in his eyes and the clench in his jaw, the pain in his throat.  Memories of his own were flickering before his eyes in place of what Kousei begged of Kaori.
A small hand offering a still-warm roll.  A splash of cool water to the face with shrieks and giggles filling the air.  The security of being able to lean comfortably against a warm back with the sun shining down from above, hands gripping his legs and his arms wrapped around the girl who carried him home on her back.  The cool taste of ice cream as they leaned against the brick store.  A gentle hand rubbing soft circles on his back as he slipped in and out of lucid thought in his feverish state.  The sound of hope amid darkness that they managed to create together despite his crude piano playing.  Her hand even now clenched tightly in his shirt seeking comfort, like when he’d led her home in the dark through the desert.
His hand was stretched out before him, pulled along by the girl that suddenly disappeared when he closed his eyes.  He tried to reach a little further, as if his fingertips could press past some veil between his world and hers, so he could reach her even for another moment.  The warmth and the softness of the comfort she wrapped him in evaporated into smoke between his fingers, disappearing in translucent curls, leaving him with nothing to hold, the weight of her presence suddenly disappearing.
What if one day he didn’t come back?
What if one day it all just...ended?  Without any warning?  The only sign that he would never return the passage of time and gradual loss of hope?
“Don’t go, don’t go, please don’t go, please don’t leave me behind!”
Y/N was sobbing openly into his side now, but she didn’t move to stop the show--she kept watching it.  Levi was unaware of the fact that his hand was shaking against her shoulder, all of his effort on keeping the emotions bottled inside him as he watched Kaori disappear before Kousei’s eyes in a flurry of petals, swept away by an indifferent wind.
The rest of the last chapter seemed to pass by in a blur, Levi spending most of that time trying to work his way down from the emotions that scene had stirred up in him, glancing over at Y/N to see a collection of tissues around her while her gaze remained fixed forward, still a blubbering mess over the events that were unfolding on screen.  Shards of Kaori’s letter made it through to Levi, certain fragments sticking with him in the moment, others slowly settling in likely to make an impact on him later.
“I want Kousei to play the piano for me!”
He understood that sentiment.  He loved listening to Y/N play for him, it was one of the many reasons why he brought it up so often.  Sure, it was nice she was trying to teach him to play, but the true moment of enjoyment for him was when she played for him.
“Isn’t it funny how the most unforgettable scenes can be so trivial?”
“None of it was trivial.”
No, none of it was.  From playing card games in her room to playing tag on the playground, or eating frozen treats on the steps while they played simple games with their hands.  Every little moment was one Levi kept stored away, a secret trove of memories just for him and her, something bright and...something that the Underground couldn’t corrupt, because it couldn’t reach or touch this world or the girl at his side.
“Was I able to live inside your heart?  Do you think you’ll remember me at least a little?  You better not hit reset.  Don’t forget me, okay?  That’s a promise, okay?  I’m glad it’s you, after all.”
Like Y/N said, just because the moments were fleeting, didn’t mean they didn’t matter.  Even if they stopped one day, for whatever reason...at least he would have everything that had come before, the memories, the moments that nothing could take away.  He didn’t think she would want him to try and forget, anyway.  And a part of him wouldn’t want her to forget him, either.  Unlike everything else in his life so far, he wanted this good thing to last, one way or another.
“Will I reach you?  I hope I can reach you.”
This time, when his mind procured the image of his hand outstretched in front of him, trying to catch the disappearing back of the girl in front of him, fingers finding nothing but air, he let his hand squeeze slightly against Y/N’s shoulder once more, reminding himself she was right here in his arms right now, and not to take that for granted.  Maybe sometimes she’d be out of reach, but right now, she was right here.  She wasn’t always out of reach.  He’d just have to make each moment he was here count for something.
Thankfully, she already seemed pretty good at making that happen, so he felt like he wouldn’t have to worry about it too much.  She was always taking him by the hand to have him run with her wherever she wanted to go and explore, and so far, she hadn’t made him regret following her on her little adventures.
She made his life colorful.
“Thank you for being my friend, Levi.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
Tumblr media
Next Chapter---->
Levi Tags:  @clary-quinn @humanitys-hottestsoldier @whalerus @sunny-flo @thirstyforsometea
Through The Looking Glass Tags:  @artist-bby @kaz2y5-pie​ @tartheyes​ @super-peace-fangirl​ @huntersbunker​ @nefelimalfoy​ @soft-levi-girl-blog​ @honeygivemeachainsaw @regalillegal​ @sugas-daddy7​ @cathyannecookie @chaoticshepardplaid @roayaloveslife​ @sanrioclit​
44 notes · View notes
tracybirds · 4 years
Text
Caesura
This fic is brought to you, courtesy of my complete and utter inability to trill and being mean enough to say if I can’t play the piano properly, neither can he.
Many thanks to @gumnut-logic for the prod to write it and to @hedwigstalons for making me feel better about endings.... look there’s even a title xD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Virgil wished he could tell people honestly that when he first registered the sharp snap of bone against rock, his primary concern had been for International Rescue. A broken bone was serious, even if it was a clean break without complications. He would need to be pulled from duty for at least a couple of months, leaving everyone else to pick up the slack. He knew what that felt like, to be a part of a team that was missing a limb, working longer hours and stepping into a role that wasn’t made for him.
But when the crack resonated in the air and the pain flared in his wrist, International Rescue had been the last thing on his mind.
***
Three days later, Virgil sat down at the piano. His left hand was a whirlwind of motion, running up and down the keys, and his right was strapped to his chest. He wasn’t using it but muscle memory kept his fingers twitching in the solid cast. He hissed and doubled over his arm protectively as the automatic movement twinged against the nerves in his broken wrist.
A hand fell heavy on his shoulder. He ignored it, the thought of soothing the dull ache in his wrist overwhelming.
“Virgil.”
Scott said his name like a command, and he looked up into the worried eyes of his brother.
“Come on, Virgil, what have you done to yourself? You can’t play with a broken wrist.”
“Wasn’t trying to play,” said Virgil, through gritted teeth. “Was practising my scales.”
Scott’s lips thinned, but he said nothing as he gently pulled his brother from the stool and brought him down to the kitchen. Out of sight of his beloved instrument, but never far from mind.
“Here,” said Scott, pushing two small pills and a glass of water over to him.
“No,” said Virgil, immediately. “It’s not that bad, I don’t want–”
“Stop being a hero,” snapped Scott. “You’re in pain, there’s no shame in taking drugs for it.”
Virgil glared at the pills in lieu of a response.
Scott huffed in front of him.
“What’s eating you anyway?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It clearly does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
He pushed the glass away and strode from the room.
“Great,” called Scott after him. “Good talk.”
Virgil ignored him, stalking up the stairs towards his own room. It seemed a cruel irony that now his schedule was wide open and the days stretching before him, he couldn’t do the one thing he’d always wanted to spend more time on.
He pulled a sketchbook from the shelf and threw himself onto a chair. He knew he had a lot to be thankful for, that things could have been so much worse, but the thought was of little comfort as he stared blankly at the open page.
A pianist leapt from his pencil, captured in the throes of performance. He could hear the vitality in the piece, the energy as the sketch moved his whole body with the rhythm.
It wasn’t just the way music allowed him to relax, he needed it, the constant heartbeat of the world translating to harmony in a way that kept him connected to those around him. Without his piano he felt cut off and distant, even his humming felt flat and lifeless.
The second sketch held an aching tenderness, gentle, the pianist caressing the keys as he played, head bent close. If Virgil listened to the phantom melody, he could hear the hesitancy between the notes. The silence echoed as he lifted his pencil, art reflecting life.
Uncertainty plagued him most of all. It was the long weeks where his muscles would waste away that he feared, where the dexterity he had worked so hard to maintain all his life could be lost in one minor accident. The stiffness surrounding his wrist felt unnatural and he didn’t know how to let go of the trepidation that was coiled in his chest.
A sharp knock lifted him from the world of greyscale and charcoal.
“Virgil?”
He sighed, knowing Scott wouldn’t wait to be let in forever, and trudged over to the door, yanking it open with a suitably annoyed expression on his face.
“What?”
Scott held up a mug of coffee.
“If you’re not taking meds, there’s nothing stopping you from drowning in caffeine.”
“You can mix caffeine with painkillers, you know,” he said, taking the coffee as he stepped back.
Scott kicked the door shut behind him.
“Well, I needed an excuse to get in.” His eyes softened as he spied the drawing materials abandoned on the desk.
“You gonna turn these into a painting?”
He shrugged, not in the mood to discuss his work. He wasn’t embarrassed, and he’d learnt long ago that very little could remain private with four brothers, but the new sketches were personal. They had a sense of fragility to them that he wasn’t ready to share.
He took a sip of the coffee, its taste bitter on his tongue. Scott always made it too strong.
“Can we talk?”
Virgil eyed his brother.
“Depends on what you have to say.”
Scott’s eyes narrowed at the challenge.
“You’ve been moping around for the past three days. I want to help, that’s all.”
“Well unless you’re hiding away a new medical breakthrough that can knit bone back together again, that’s going to be a challenge.”
“C’mon, you’ve had worse injuries than this.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“And that shattered knee was what exactly?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Four surgeries, Virgil.”
“But I could play then, Scott,” snapped Virgil. “You can’t make me feel better about this.
Scott halted at the words, regret washing over his expression. Virgil felt a twinge of satisfaction watching his brother crawl his way back to his contrite opening.
“I know piano’s important to you, but it’s only for a few weeks. And Grandma said you can switch to a brace and restart your strength training by May.”
Virgil sighed and shifted his gaze. Scott followed his line of sight to the beat up piano his brother had insisted they bring with them to the island. The one their father had given their mother as a wedding present. It had been ancient even then but it was infused with their parents’ love and both brothers had spent countless hours learning simple tunes on the instrument under their mother’s tutelage.
“I just miss it.”
Scott smiled sadly.
“Yeah, I know it sucks.”
“And what if there are complications and it never comes right? What will I do then?”
“You’d figure it out. People have played piano after worse injuries than a poorly mended wrist fracture.”
Virgil scrubbed at his eyes and leant back, suddenly feeling exhausted.
“I know it’s only a few weeks in the cast, and only a couple of months before I’m back out there on rescues. Maybe that should be enough.”
Scott nudged him.
“There’s no ‘should’ in this, you can be upset.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Just don’t get hurt in the process. Stay off that piano, you can’t help yourself.”
“It’s the perfect time to work on my left hand technique though.”
“Stay. Off.” Scott jabbed his finger at Virgil, a menacing look in his eye. “Or I’ll sic Grandma on you.”
Virgil rolled his eyes.
“Sure, Scott, whatever you say.” He glanced back over at the abandoned drawing materials and Scott stood, taking the hint.
“Right, well, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Scott?” he called after him. “Thanks.”
“Any time,” Scott said with a grin, closing the door behind him.
Virgil sat still, waiting, for a few moments before sidestepping the desk and making his way to the old upright in the corner.
The piano lid creaked as badly as it did when their Dad had first bought the instrument but the tuning was true.
His left hand sought out the chords instinctively, running up and down the arpeggios and exercises he’d learnt as a child, letting the notes wash over him like a soothing wave.
Scott listened from outside with a half-smile and a shake of the head.
He had to trust his brother with this.
69 notes · View notes
missmorosis · 3 years
Note
hi hello i love you how are you 🥺🥺 could i- uh, mayhaps i have a matchup?? uhh i'm 5'6", girl, straight (i think- ??? AKYDLIUWDIUWH) i love singing, musical theatre, acting, hanging out with like 50 guy friends. oh and i also play piano, violin, and i love cuddles!! please give me cuddles. i love cuddles. i also love love music, and i like blasting it in my room while drawing or writing soemthing 🥺 i'm usually really bad at talking in person, and i can be really rude without knowing, so (1/3)
so maybe someone who can deal with me being rude time to time?? because i can accidentally say something that could potentially hurt people, and i just want to make sure people are happy with themselves but ITS SO HARD TO DO SO SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THIS LIKE UGH PLEASE I DON'T EVEN KNOW AHHHHHH XD also i can be really chaotic and be an absolute crackhead. thank you so much bby!! take care morosis, GET SLEEP AND DRINK WATER I LOVE YOU
AHHHHHHHHH HII ILYSMMM
I HAD TO DO THIS ASAPPPP HEHE
IM GREAT!! FINISHED 11 MATCHUPS IN LIKE 24 HOURS AJSJJWJW ive also had a lot more asks and interactions via tumblr and thats makeS ME SO HAPPYYYY
YES OFC YOU CAN HAVE A MATCHUP!!
I ship you with...
Tumblr media
AANG (aged up, ofc!!)
Dunno if this was who you were expecting dkdndjjd
AHH BUT LET ME EXPLAIN RQ
IF YOU WANT CUDDLES HE'LL GIVE YOU CUDDLES :D
HUGS HUGS HUGS FOR DAYSSS
he'll also cuddle you with appa snuggling with the both of you~
appa kinda feels like a giant pillow so its real comfy dndjdj
he also loves music!!
HAVE YA SEEN HIM PLAY THE HORN THINGAMABOB IN THE HEADBAND EPISODE
He'll ✨vibe along✨ with you to all the music you blast hehe
He loves to dance with you!!
HE LOVES YOUR ANGELIC VOICE JSJSJE
"ELLIE WOW THAT WAS SO GOOD!!"
"SING IT AGAIN!!"
Sing for him till your voice is all gone 😎
"Sorry, Ellie" mwkdjeieiie
He goes to every single one of your shows!!
He's always super supportive
Will not hesitate to yell your name from the audience
WILL bring the entire gaang and make them cheer for you as well
"YAY ELLIEEEEEEE" *millions of claps*
He'll bring you flowers at the end of every single performance
No matter how big or small the performance was
No matter now major or minor your role is
He's just really proud of you 😭💖
He won't be super protective
Aang wouldn't mind your guy friends
Frankly, he's just happy to have new friends cuz YOUR FRIENDS ARE HIS FRIENDS
He trusts you completely 💕
Now DONT ruin it and do something bad eididuud
He wouldn't mind when you’re being rude accidentally
He totally understands that it happens
He loves you anyways, and he thinks that you're the ABSOLUTE SWEETEST
Aang def loves how much you love others 😘
He appreciates all the effort you always put in!!
AND ITS OKAY IF YOU'RE CHAOTIC
Please he deals with the gaaang dkdjdjkeejjdjd
He LOVES YOU SO MUCHHH AHHH
KEJEJEIE HOPEFULLY THATS OKAY
Hehe i did that asap ILY ILY ILYYYYY 💕
Now im going to bed sjdjjnsjsje
TAKE CARE OF URSELFFFFF
10 notes · View notes
piracytheorist · 4 years
Text
Allen & Colin interview (pt.1) summary and tidbits
Because I know y’all are curious ;)
I’m not mentioning everything, because a) it’s in a foreign language for me and I miss stuff, b) I’m not sure what impact it has other than them simply mentioning that stuff in the interview and c) I’m just your average fan with her biases and preferences, some things draw my attention, some don’t. But it was an interesting insight into Colin’s inspirations and work ethic, so I’ll try to mention as much as possible. Also because c’mon it’s Colin and we all want a bit.
If you can and can afford it, I’d suggest supporting Allen on patreon. The work he’s offering is very important, especially in the times we’re currently experiencing.
In the intro, which was recorded after the interview, Allen says: “In this interview, Colin talks about his early life, growing up, having such a wonderful big brother to look up to... Maybe he doesn't say that. You'll have to wait and see.”
There's a lot of laughs in the beginning, as they start getting into the motion of brother interviewing brother. The room they were recording used to be Colin's old bedroom, and Allen asked him where his bed used to be, and almost immediately said "I'm pretty sure the listeners are loving this right now." Hahaha we are.
Colin kept a bit to himself when he was a teenager. He drew a lot and played the guitar, he was introverted when he got into the whole theater thing.
Real artistic, so, he wasn't sure if he wanted to be a musician or an artist, but when he started theater he eventually realized it was theater he wanted above all. Dude. If only we all were so widely talented and had so many opportunities to choose from XD
Honorable detailed mention: Allen mentions how amazed he was by Colin's talent. He remembers one time he was looking after Colin (he said it was about six months after Colin had started learning guitar, and iirc that was when he was 11) and he (Allen) had also recently started, and was trying hard to learn some chords. He heard some Led Zeppelin from Colin's room and was like "Oh he's listening to Led Zeppelin," then he went to his room and he realized it was actually Colin, playing Stairway to Heaven. And he still remembers! What a proud bro, we stan.
Colin learned a lot of music by ear. It was more practical than technical stuff that he worked on. He's very humble about his guitar playing, too.
They talked a bit about playing music with emotion and how sometimes people who concentrate a lot on technique don't use any emotion, and as a musician myself I've seen this a lot, where people focus too much on teaching technique that the result comes off completely emotionless. Though, I mean, I'm trained in classical music, and that's heavily based on building technique, so I can’t say you shouldn’t work on technique, but there are many ways of playing music and so many genres, and there is a healthy balance between technique and emotion, and depending on the style you're playing technique can be applied (or is needed) accordingly.
Colin talked about how he had piano lessons when he was young, and he remembers how the place where he had lessons creeped him out (he laughed at that), so that along with the heavy focus on technique discouraged him, but he wishes he was able to play it.
Don’t we all
He remembers Michael Jackson being one of his first inspirations for music. He remembers Thriller was the first vinyl he got, though the very first music that he bought was a cassette from Huey Lewis and the News - after he had his communion. Gotta say I appreciate the attention to detail XD
Colin: I used to listen to Michael Jackson non-stop. Allen: You did.
I can picture Allen nodding as he said that XD
The first concert he went to was of Jackson's Bad (I think), when he was seven! It was Allen's first concert too.
Their dad used to listen to a lot of Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam and those became Colin's favourite music to play. Especially Rory Gallagher. He and their mom also used to play in bands, and there was a lot of music in the house in general and Colin said all that contributed to his inclination in music.
He said how once he was an adult, Helen was his biggest supporter in what he did. WE STAN. That meant a lot to him, especially when as a starting actor there'd be times he wouldn't have a job for a long time, but the support from Helen and the rest of his family in general meant a lot to him.
Then they talked about people who used to tell him that he was lucky to have the band (The Enemies) as a job, but how that wasn't luck, it was based on work he did for years before he could go out on stage with them. And again, can confirm, there's a lot of work put behind any decent and above musical performance, it can be as hard as any job, especially when you have to pack up and go to a different place, set up, rehearse, perform, pack it all up and come home late. It's just that the crowd sees only the entertainment part it gets, and doesn't know the work behind it, so a lot of time they don't appreciate it as such.
It's just... I feel that, a lot, you know? Yes, music is fun and we love it, but performing it for a crowd ain't no game.
Colin compared that to acting, with how people see the end result as a snapshot of the entire work behind it, same way we don't see a lot of the work behind professions we don't know about - Colin mentioned an electrician, for example.
I think he’d shared this story before or something about it, but he talked about his very first touch with theater; he’d gone to the youth theater to meet with his friends - just to meet them, and they were rehearsing a play but one actor was missing, so they asked him to read in for him that day. At first Colin was like “No way” but eventually they convinced him.
That first experience made him realize he could pretend to be anyone he wanted to be and it gave him a newfound confidence. At the time he wasn't playing the guitar publicly, only in his room, and playing in the theater gave him the confidence he didn't have with the guitar at the time, because in the theater he was putting his character out there, not himself.
I think it's interesting how he talks about acting; he mentioned "putting on a skin". And I think, seeing the variety of characters he has portrayed, and how invested you can feel he is during filming, and then seeing him... "collected" in cons and interviews, and not very active in social media... I think "putting on a skin" fits perfectly the way he does it. And I think it's part of why I love his acting, and why his characters feel so different from each other; it's full-on becoming and feeling like another person, not simply acting like one.
His theater group went to the Olivier Theatre in London (for a competition, if I got that right), and they got a standing ovation for their play, and it was then that Colin thought that he could really invest and make a living out of acting. He was about 15-16 at the time.
Again, standing ovation => confidence goes through the roof, can confirm.
It was there that his group won an award, and it was Colin who received that from Anthony Minghella, the director of The English Patient, and Allen said that Minghella said Colin was amazing. a) bruh can you imagine and b) what a proud brother!
Colin said how he was already interested in animation and special effects, and the whole act of making a movie, so even as an actor he still likes wandering around sets and getting to see how they're all made and built, even sets he's not part of. Again he talked about how much is done behind the scenes that the audience never gets to see.
Even from his experience in the Olivier Theatre, Colin already had the ideology that in drama, it was about the group, the team, and not about himself, and he's followed that to the present. He talked about how acting is just one part of a production, and it takes hard work from many people of different professions working together to get to that.
Like, he's so conscious and so respectful of what is behind the scenes of a production and how important everyone is... and like, I feel that says a lot about the humility we see of him, the way he treats his job as any other job, and the way a lot of his co-workers talk with such respect about him. Like, when you respect everything, from the basis to every little cogwheel that make a film and always take the opportunity to learn anything you can from your co-workers...
I love him so much.
He mentioned how his grandmother was a big influence for him too, back in the fourties she’d gone to London to study producing, so he says subconsciously there was always an influence towards drama in his family.
"You can't complain about having a disillusioned bunch of teenagers or kids causing trouble if you're not willing to invest [in their future], to help them realize [their potential]." He said that as part of how that one evening in the youth theater changed his life, and how having the chance to have a safe space to express himself, that being the theater, played such an important part in his life and the lives of pretty much everyone who had taken part in it. And how things like that, giving children the chance to explore hobbies and things they like, can have such a positive impact on their lives and futures.
So that’s for the first part! I hope it was all clear :D
82 notes · View notes