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emometalhead · 9 months

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My Eras Tour Concert experience!! (7/28/23)

Let's start at the beginning! Immediately after we got through the gates, people approached my friend and I about trading bracelets! (We also gave bracelets to the parking lot attendants!!) The energy was so fun! On our walk from the parking lot, and the entire time we were in the stadium, I was complimenting people's outfits. Everyone looked gorgeous!!! I have never seen so much glitter and sequins!!! It was so cute!! Btw the first bracelet that someone chose to take from me was "Three Sad Virgins" lol.

We walked around the stadium for like an hour. We talked to quite a few people, and traded several bracelets. We met up with one of my dad's former co-workers too! She was super sweet, and I gave her a bracelet. We went to the Capital One booth to do the Taylor elevator video thing, and it turned out really cute!! It's posted on my Instagram if any mutuals want to see. Since we were walking around and stuff, we ended up not watching the openers. It wasn't a horrible loss for us, because none of us were familiar with their music.

We were shocked when we found our seats. Our view was incredible!! We were directly in front of the stage, and we were in the first row of our area. No one was in front of us. We literally could've sat through the whole thing and still would've had a perfect view. (That being said I stood the whole time lol.) I got so excited when I heard Misery Business and Immortals play btw!! I love that Taylor has Paramore and Fall Out Boy in her pre-show playlist! Also I hadn't seen the clock countdown before. The crowd energy was insane, and I was legit about to cry before she even came on stage.

I didn't cry when she came onto the stage, but I did scream a lot lol. As expected, it was super fun to sing along to Miss Americana and YNTCD. Also as expected, my dad sang along to YNTCD! He recorded lots of stuff for me throughout the concert too. Being able to yell "shade never made anybody less gay" was a great experience btw. I started crying during Lover, and I cried again during The Archer. I really wasn't sure which songs would make me cry, but I've got to say I didn't expect Lover lol.

Onto the Fearless era! That was my first time hearing the song Fearless! She didn't play it at my reputation tour concert. It was so much fun!!! I was jumping around and dancing through the whole era. I saw my dad singing along to YBWM! As excited as I was myself, I was also happy that my dad got to hear songs he was familiar with this time. I will always cherish the memory of doing heart hands with Taylor + everyone in the stadium.

You guys have no clue how loudly I screamed when I saw Haim come onto stage in their Bejeweled dresses!! I'm so obsessed with them! Hearing no body, no crime live was incredible. What surprised me most about this era was the fact that I sobbed through marjorie. (Very intense, ugly crying.) That song does make me cry often, but I failed to consider how hard it would hit live given I recently lost one of my grandmas. The song is a beautiful tribute, and I love that Taylor gets to honor her grandmother in such a special way. My dad hugged me through most of the song while I cried. champagne problems was exactly as cool live as I expected. The crowd energy was WILD!! I will always love the intensity in Taylor's eyes when she drops the f-bomb line lol. tolerate it live was also incredible. One of my favorite songs forever and ever!! Btw we cheered for over 3 and a half minutes after champagne problems. (That's a whole minute longer than night 2.)

I have no words for how hot reputation Taylor is. I ascended watching her. I can't believe I essentially got to see a second reputation era. I have the least to say here because I had already heard the songs from this era live, but I had so much fun dancing around and I am just so so gay.

Now for Speak Now!! I had entirely avoided spoilers of what the stage looked like for this era. I was in awe of how beautiful it was! I am so happy to have heard Enchanted live, and the fireworks were perfect!! (The fireworks were not part of the show, but still very cool. Levi Stadium is across a parking lot from Great America, so we experienced the amusement park's firework display during Speak Now and Red.) I cried again during Long Live! I thought I'd be safe since I heard it during the reputation era, but my love for Taylor got to me lol. I love her so much, and I am so glad she gets to be celebrated each weekend.

The transition into the Red era was fun! I hadn't seen anything about it online, so it was totally new to me. This is the era that I could tell my dad had the most fun in. He sang along to 3/4 songs. He didn't know the words to All Too Well, but he did record the entire song for me!! Also he sang the correct words to Trouble lol. This era was so fun to dance around during. I hadn't heard any songs from this era live previously, and my dad and I fueled each other's hype!

God the folklore era was amazing. I had so much fun screaming along to betty!! It's been one of my favorites since the album came out. My inner 2020 self was LIVING!! My jaw locked during illicit affairs, which really sucked, but beyond that it was a wonderful time during this era!! The stage setup was gorgeous!!!!!

Oh. My. God. The 1989 era!!!!!!!!! So damn fun!!! I was jumping around and dancing the whole time!!!! I don't have the words, but it was EVERYTHING!!!!! I was so hyped and also knew we were right around the corner from the surprise songs!!

The surprise songs were right where you left me and Castles Crumbling!! You guys don't understand how insane my friend and I went. We knew Aaron Dessner was at the show, and we jokingly were like "haha what if we get rwylm or peace". We had also been talking about those songs in the car prior to knowing Aaron was there, and my friend said that rwylm was one of her biggest hopes. (It was in my top 10 too!) So imagine how excited we were when Taylor brought Aaron on stage and the song started. We looked at each other, screamed, and hugged. It was such a good moment. Then after, we just had no clue what to expect from the next song. Taylor started playing the piano, and the crowd went silent. I screamed so loudly it hurt my throat when she sang the first line of Castles Crumbling. I had been intentionally avoiding speaking my surprise song hopes out loud, because I was scared of like jinxing it or something. It was everything to me to hear that song. I was completely not expecting it, but Taylor knew I'd go crazy for a Speak Now TV vault song and she delivered!!!! Those song choices were perfect. It was fun going on Twitter after the show and seeing all of the memes from people that weren't there. Usually I'm right there with them and Like everything, but I got to be like "yeah sorry I was actually there" lol. Btw now that the second night has happened, I'd just like to confirm that we won lol.

Last but not least, the Midnights era!!! So cool! Just so so cool! I made my dad record Vigilante Sh*t, because I was losing my goddamn mind. That was the sexiest thing I've seen in my life. Holy wow. No thoughts just gay. I was sad because I knew we were at the end of the show, but I was having too much fun to really think about it. Taylor is such a force. Her care for her fans is so evident, and I'm so grateful she broke curfew to be with us. My love for her is infinite, and I'm in awe that I got to see my favorite person irl for a second time.

Btw I got my favorite outfits for most of the eras, and I still can't get over that. I will never stop talking about this concert!!!! My dad is going to show me his videos on the TV today, and I'm looking forward to reliving everything!! Shoutout to the #1 Swiftie dad for taking so many photos and videos! I didn't take out my phone during the concert because he was totally on top of it all. He let me live in the moment, and I'm very appreciative. Also I know he recorded me a couple times, so I'm curious to see that footage lol.

Here's some photos that my dad sent me!!

#it was really just the best time #I'll never get over it #taylor swift #the eras tour #ashley overshares

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kerra-and-company · 2 years

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🔫🔧❄️ for kerra

Kerra answers for your Kerra asks! :D

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

Ooh, lots of questions in this one! All righty, let's see here:

Does Kerra trust people easily? The short answer is "probably more easily than she should, even if she's usually right". The slightly longer answer is that she's good at reading people (even without the advantage of her empathy power) and she knows it. She doesn't quite judge a book by its cover, but at the same time...kinda? It's maybe like if you judged a book by its cover and a decent idea of the themes covered in it, I guess, if that makes sense. She's never (nowadays) all in on trusting someone right after she meets them, but she will kinda be like "okay, this is someone I think I can trust" or "this is someone I might not be able to" and then proceed from there.

How easily will she turn her back to someone--not easily! Kerra cares very deeply about her friends/family, and even if they deeply hurt her, she'd have a hard time letting go. For people she's more like...friendly acquaintances with at best, she'd turn her back more easily, as long as it wasn't diplomatically necessary to play nice. (Even so, her whole dynamic with Smodur during Icebrood was...Not Pleasant after he tried to do the whole war crimes thing.)

Has Kerra been backstabbed before--yes, kinda? Not exactly in the traditional sense of "this was an intentional backstabbing", though. To give a couple instances, Marjory and Rytlock's distrust of sylvari during HoT (mainly Rytlock, since Jory made maybe one or two comments in Verdant Brink and that was it) hurt a lot and might as well have been a knife in Kerra's back, even though (and honestly? especially because, in some ways) they saw her as an exception. Rytlock's refusal to talk about what happened to him in the Mists coming back to bite literally the entire world in the ass via Balthazar is another big one for Kerra. Again, not an intentional betrayal or backstabbing, but ooh boy did she have a hard time talking to/working with Rytlock during the rest of PoF/LWS4. They're on better terms now, at least a little, but...yeah, not great! And last but not least, she and Caithe were on rocky ground for a while thanks to Caithe taking the egg in LWS2 and not explaining why (at the time, at least). The not explaining was the thing that hit harder for Kerra once everything calmed down slightly after HoT (considering it came on top of her Mother not explaining the origin of sylvari--except by proxy through the memory seeds--and the assorted feelings that came with that), but she and her sister are on good terms again now.

Would she betray someone if given an ultimatum...assuming it's someone she cares about, you'd have to be real damn creative with that ultimatum to even have a shot at that, my friend. So, broadly speaking? No. If you managed to fully back her into a corner, she'd hurt herself first before anyone else. You'd have to literally take away any other possible option somehow.

🔧 WRENCH - are they good at fixing relationships? or do they tend to avoid doing so?

As you might have guessed from the mentioned bit in the last question that she's on decent terms with Rytlock and good terms with Caithe despite past events, yes, Kerra's track record on fixing relationships is good! She and Caithe are closer than ever, now that they don't have to deal with huge secrets pulling them apart. She and Rytlock are on significantly better terms post-Icebrood, though still not necessarily great terms.

Other notable relationships that Kerra's worked to fix include: a) her friendship with Braham, who she tried to reach out to even when he was out on his own and who she sees as something close to a little brother; b) her friendship (sibling-ship?) with Trahearne, which was a bit of a mess after he tried to sacrifice himself to save the world and she very nearly sacrificed herself in his place, but they talked it through; c) her and Canach, who were barely friendly acquaintances before the whole fight with bombs and things--she ended up visiting him in his cell in Lion's Arch to check in, and formed a real friendship (and a couple years later, relationship) that way; and, d) her and Mai Trin during EoD, which honestly was less of Kerra working to repair/fix something that had only ever been hostile and more of Kerra seeing who Mai was now and leaving the door for a friendship open a crack if Mai wanted to walk through it, which she did.

(It is worth saying, though, that Kerra didn't jump to instantly fix her relationships with either Caithe or Rytlock. It took a second--for Caithe a few months, for Rytlock the better part of two years--for her to both want to and be stable enough emotionally in that area to try.)

❄️ SNOWFLAKE - do people consider them cold? if so, what made them this way?

No, definitely not; if there's one thing Kerra's rarely referred to as, it's cold. The closest thing she'd get would be the kind of thing that Kalidris says during Icebrood--that it's a little concerning how used to world-ending violence she is. Which...fair! But it's been literally her entire life (Kerra awoke at the very beginning of 1325), so getting as used to it as you can be kinda tracks.

#gw2 #kerralind #dasozelotvonnebenan #thanks a bunch for the ask! :D #i could write entire essays on her relationships with literally all of the people i mentioned up there #including marjory who i only mentioned for a second #maybe i will at some point alks;jdf #but thanks so much this was fun to think about and write!!

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austennerdita2533 · 2 years

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Your answer to my question about Jane Austen heroines and Taylor Swift was literal perfection and made me long to write a fanfic revolving around Austen heroines being inspired by/analyzing/bonding over various Taylor songs :) You know I have to know a few more of your Taylor-related thoughts: 1. Three favorite Taylor albums...in order if possible? (I'd go with Evermore, Folklore and Red, though it changes!) 2. Ten or so favorite Taylor songs? 3. One or two Taylor songs everyone seems to love that you're just "eh" about?!

You should totally write that fic! It would be fun to read a modern Austen AU with some Taylor Swift fangirling. :)

Favorite Albums:

Folklore

Evermore

Red (Taylor’s Version) - all the vault tracks are *chef’s kiss* and made the album even better than it already was

*I have to put an asterisk here, because while my choices for 1 and 2 are pretty solid, I will say my 3rd favorite changes depending on my mood. When I’m feeling nostalgic, I will listen to Speak Now, Fearless, or her first album on a loop bc they remind me of my youth. All of that innocence and puppy love. When I want something upbeat, or pop-y, I reach for tracks from 1989 or Lover. And when I want to blow shit up in my life it’s all about Reputation. 😈

Favorite Songs:

invisible string - Like a memory, it’s wistful. There’s something about how she paints the romantic connection in colorful imagery, makes it feel ephemeral

august- Lyrics from this are the current lock screen on my phone. “Living for the hope of it all,” to be precise

All Too Well (10 min version) - The number of times I’ve listened to it since it was released is probably unhealthy 😂 Also the OG version has significant ties to a past heartbreak of mine. Helped me feel cry heal my way through it

I Forgot That You Existed - This song just INFLATES me in the best way, I can’t explain it. Something about being able to say “I’m over it, I’m indifferent to you” and know you really mean it. It’s cathartic!

Death by a Thousand Cuts - It. Hurts. So. Good.

Love Story - The whimsical romance of it hits me like a dart to the heart. Any cynicism I possess evaporates when I listen to it

Marjorie - This song will never stop haunting me, okay? “What died didn’t stay dead/what died didn’t stay dead/you’re alive, you’re alive in my head” lives rent free in my brain. PERIOD.

You Belong with Me - This one is interwoven with college memories. It was a time of blurred friendships, coffee breaks, late night walks around campus, and a crush that was never meant to come to fruition

no body, no crime - Morbid, probably, but it always makes me think of the people in my life I’d kill for (literally)

Teardrops on my Guitar - An oldie but a goodie. I love her country twang and that strumming of the guitar

*There are so many others I could add to this list

Songs I’m “Meh” About:

Wildest Dreams - Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to it but it’s not one I go feral over

Cardigan - An awesome song but there are so many others on Folklore I like better

#eleanor tilney #replies #the loveliest of lovely people #ashlee bree talks taylor swift #what about your list?#i’m curious if we have any overlap

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bookoformon · 7 months

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Alma Chapter 58. Part 4. "Final Freedom."

39 And those sons of the people of Ammon, of whom I have so highly spoken, are with me in the city of Manti; and the Lord has supported them, yea, and kept them from falling by the sword, insomuch that even one soul has not been slain.

40 But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come.

41 And now, my beloved brother, Moroni, may the Lord our God, who has redeemed us and made us free, keep you continually in his presence; yea, and may he favor this people, even that ye may have success in obtaining the possession of all that which the Lamanites have taken from us, which was for our support. And now, behold, I close mine epistle. I am Helaman, the son of Alma.

The City of Manti is the one that recognizes the Ten Commandments and uses them as the basis for its neighborhood cohesion. We do not have such a feeling about us here in America. Donald Trump was a war criminal, a liar, a murderer of innocents in large numbers, a jealous and covetous man and tens of millions support him to the dismay of all the people that are terrified of him and the Republican Party.

In the wake of his illegal inauguration and admninistration, we have lost our civil rights one after another, forests are burning down, the air is getting thinner, the lifeless oceans are rising faster than ever, the only thing rising faster are food prices.

Rob Desantis who has committed one apartheid after another against gay people is still alive and breathing for reasons I do not understand, Marjorie Taylor Green tried to cripple our Secretary of Defense while we are engaged in a shooting war with Russia, her party tried to close the government down which would have caused tens of millions of households to go without a paycheck for a very long time.

These Godless savages, the Republicans have done these things before, they are predictable. They will always keep doing them. There have been suggestions we return African Americans to the field, Jewish people to concentration camps, there are Nazi flags flying.

The final verse of Chapter 58 says "May God who has redeemed us and made us free keep you continually in His Presence...behold I am the Light sent into the darkness to enliven the Nation."

The US Governmnet does not have the right to collect taxes and then force its citizens to pay for their own oppression. This is a Crime Against Humanity.

Someone PLEASE wake Joe Biden up and tell him it is time he did his job and rid us of the ever present Darkness, so all of us, everyone who lives on this planet can finally be free as God made us now and forever.

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kayla1993-world · 1 year

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After introducing several unsuccessful articles of impeachment against Joe Biden since his inauguration in January 2021, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene said she now has "evidence" to prove the president's alleged crimes. The congresswoman published a "breaking news" video on her Twitter account on Wednesday. Biden's potential pay-for-play with foreign nationals to influence policy decisions as vice president was cited by Greene in the report. Impeachment articles have been presented to the House of Representatives. Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, tweeted: "For years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded politically-motivated attacks against @POTUS without offering evidence for their claims. Or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests. They prefer innuendo traffic." In the clip, Greene added that a whistleblower had "very credible" information that would allegedly tie the president to "foreign nationals in an alleged pay-for-play scheme to influence policy decisions." Greene said the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Christopher Wray, the FBI director, for a document, FD-1023. This would allegedly contain "proof and information that Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States, actually interacted with a foreign national and made a deal with a foreign national in exchange for money." Greene then shared images of a letter from Senator Chuck E. Grassley and Rep. James Comer sent to Wray on the subject. The letter states that the form is needed to prove the House Committee's allegations. He appeared confident that the committee would uncover evidence of the accusations on the podcast War Room: Battleground the same day. "Now on the Oversight Committee, because we have real subpoena powers, we have the power to investigate, and we have the power to do what we're doing now," she said. "We're calling for Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, to come before the Oversight Committee and bring with him a form, FD-1023—it's unclassified right now, but I bet very soon it will be classified—and that form shows proof that Joe Biden took a money payment from a foreign national in exchange for policy decisions while he was vice president of the United States. During the interview, the MAGA congresswoman said that the document subpoenaed by the committee "is specifically linked to Joe Biden." Nobody else tweeted: "Joe Biden has no one to hide behind anymore, and he must be held responsible for his crimes." In another tweet, Greene wrote: "Joe Biden should have been prosecuted for his crimes before running for president. Almost everyone in the government knew. The FBI had evidence. Treasury Department SAR reports. Why did the FBI and DOJ not take action?" Newsweek has contacted Greene's spokesperson and the White House for comment.

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persephonememes · 3 years

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* ( EVERMORE ALBUM BY TAYLOR SWIFT / SENTENCE PROMPTS.

These may have been edited for clarity or length or to better apply for roleplaying.

willow

❛ The more that you say the less I know ❜

❛ Wherever you stray I will follow ❜

❛ I'm begging for you to take my hand ❜

❛ I come back stronger than a 90's trend ❜

❛ Wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark ❜

❛ Show me the places where the others gave you scars ❜

❛ I should've known from the look on your face ❜

❛ Every bait and switch was a work of art ❜

❛ That's my man ❜

champagne problems

❛ Your heart was glass, and I dropped it ❜

❛ I dropped your hand while dancing left you out there standing ❜

❛ Now no one's celebrating ❜

❛ I can’t give you a reason ❜

❛ This dorm was once a madhouse ❜

❛ I never was ready, so I watch you go ❜

❛ Sometimes you just don't know the answer till someone's on their knees and asks you. ❜

❛ She would've made such a lovely bride, what a shame she's stuck in her head. ❜

❛ You won't remember all my champagne problems ❜

gold rush

❛ I don't like a gold rush ❜

❛ I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush ❜

❛ I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch ❜

❛ Everybody wants you ❜

❛ Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you ❜

❛ I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush ❜

❛ I don't like that falling feels like flying till the bone crush ❜

❛ What must it be like to grow up that beautiful? ❜

❛ The coastal town we wandered round had never seen a love as pure as it ❜

❛ You know it could never be ❜

❛ My mind turns your life into folklore ❜

❛ I can't dare to dream about you anymore ❜

❛ At dinner parties I won't call you out on your contrarian wit ❜

'tis the damn season

❛ If I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone, I would've asked you. ❜

❛ So we could call it even ❜

❛ You could call me "babe" for the weekend ❜

❛ The road not taken looks real good now ❜

❛ The holidays linger like bad perfume ❜

❛ You can run but only so far ❜

❛ I escaped it too, remember how you watched me leave ❜

❛ But if it's okay with you, it's okay with me ❜

❛ I'm missing your smile ❜

❛ We could just ride around ❜

❛ Sleep in half the day, just for old times' sake ❜

❛ I won't ask you to wait, if you don't ask me to stay ❜

❛ The heart I know I'm breaking is my own ❜

❛ It always leads to you and my hometown ❜

❛ You could call me "babe" for the weekend 'tis the damn season ❜

tolerate it

❛ I notice everything you do or don't do ❜

❛ If it's all in my head tell me now ❜

❛ Tell me I've got it wrong somehow ❜

❛ I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it ❜

❛ I take your indiscretions all in good fun ❜

❛ I polish plates until they gleam and glisten ❜

❛ While you were out building other worlds, where was I? ❜

❛ Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life ❜

❛ I’m always taking up too much space or time ❜

❛ You assume I'm fine ❜

no body, no crime

❛ We meet up every Tuesday night for dinner and a glass of wine ❜

❛ It smells like infidelity ❜

❛ No, there ain't no doubt ❜

❛ I think I'm gonna call him out ❜

❛ I think he did it but I just can't prove it ❜

❛ No body, no crime ❜

❛ I ain't letting up until the day I die ❜

❛ I've cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene ❜

❛ They think I did it but they just can't prove it ❜

❛ I wasn't letting up until the day he died ❜

happiness

❛ I see this for what it is ❜

❛ I was dancing when the music stopped ❜

❛ In the disbelief I can't face reinvention ❜

❛ I haven't met the new me yet ❜

❛ There'll be happiness after you ❜

❛ I would've loved you for a lifetime ❜

❛ When did your winning smile begin to look like a smirk? ❜

❛ When did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt? ❜

❛ I can't see facts through all of my fury ❜

❛ You haven't met the new me yet ❜

❛ There'll be happiness after me ❜

❛ There is happiness in our history ❜

❛ I can't make it go away by making you a villain ❜

❛ I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night now I get fake niceties ❜

❛ No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you, and you know you hurt him too ❜

dorothea

❛ Do you ever stop and think about me? ❜

❛ I got nothing but well wishes for ya ❜

❛ This place is the same as it ever was ❜

❛ It's never too late to come back to my side ❜

❛ Are you still the same soul? ❜

❛ Are you still the same soul? I met under the bleachers ❜

❛ They all wanna be ya ❜

coney island

❛ If I can't relate to you anymore then who am I related to? ❜

❛ Did I close my fist around something delicate? ❜

❛ Did I shatter you? ❜

❛ Sorry for not making you my centerfold ❜

❛ Lost again with no surprises ❜

❛ It gets colder and colder when the sun goes down ❜

❛ What's a lifetime of achievement? ❜

❛ I pushed you to the edge but you were too polite to leave me ❜

❛ Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there? ❜

❛ Will you forgive my soul? ❜

❛ Will you forgive my soul when you're too wise to trust me and too old to care? ❜

❛ Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring ❜

❛ Close your eyes ❜

❛ Did I leave you hanging every single day? ❜

❛ Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest gray? ❜

❛ When I got into the accident the sight that flashed before me was your face ❜

❛ The sight that flashed before me was your face when the sun goes down ❜

ivy

❛ Your touch brought forth an incandescent glow ❜

❛ My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand ❜

❛ Your opal eyes are all I wish to see ❜

❛ I'd live and die for moments that we stole ❜

❛ It's a violent blaze in the dark and you started it ❜

❛ It's the fiercest fight of my life and you started it ❜

❛ You started it ❜

cowboy like me

❛ Dancing is a dangerous game ❜

❛ I'm never gonna love again ❜

❛ I've got some tricks up my sleeve ❜

❛ Takes one to know one ❜

❛ Never wanted love, just a fancy car ❜

❛ I could be the way forward ❜

❛ You're a bandit like me ❜

❛ Never thought I'd meet you here ❜

❛ It could be love ❜

❛ You're a cowboy like me ❜

❛ I know I'll pay for it ❜

❛ Forever is the sweetest con ❜

long story short

❛ I tried to pick my battles til the battle picked me ❜

❛ I fell from the pedestal ❜

❛ Long story short, it was a bad time ❜

❛ Long story short, it was the wrong guy ❜

❛ Now I'm all about you ❜

❛ I'm all about you ❜

❛ I always felt I must look better in the rear view ❜

❛ When I dropped my sword, I threw it in the bushes and knocked on your door ❜

❛ But if someone comes at us, this time I'm ready ❜

❛ No more keeping score ❜

❛ I just know there's more ❜

❛ I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things ❜

❛ He feels like home ❜

❛ Long story short, I survived ❜

marjorie

❛ Never be so kind, you forget to be clever ❜

❛ Never be so clever, you forget to be kind ❜

❛ What died didn't stay dead ❜

❛ Never be so polite, you forget your power ❜

❛ Never wield such power, you forget to be polite ❜

❛ The autumn chill that wakes me up ❜

closure

❛ It's been a long time ❜

❛ Seeing the shape of your name still spells out pain ❜

❛ It wasn't right the way it all went down ❜

❛ Yes, I got your letter ❜

❛ Yes, I'm doing better ❜

❛ It cut deep to know ya, right to the bone ❜

❛ I know that it's over ❜

❛ I don't need your "closure" ❜

❛ Don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled ❜

❛ I'm fine with my spite ❜

❛ I know I'm just a wrinkle in your new life ❜

❛ You’re reaching out across the sea that you put between you and me ❜ but it's fake and it's so unnecessary ❜

evermore

❛ I've been down since July ❜

❛ I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone trying to find the one where I went wrong. ❜

❛ I was catching my breath, staring out an open window ❜

❛ I had a feeling so peculiar that this pain would be for evermore ❜

❛ I can't remember what I used to fight for ❜

❛ Can't think of all the cost and all the things that will be lost now ❜

❛ When I was shipwrecked I thought of you ❜

❛ In the cracks of light I dreamed of you ❜

❛ In the cracks of light I dreamed of you and it was real enough to get me through ❜

❛ I had a feeling so peculiar that this pain wouldn't be for evermore ❜

#rp meme #rp memes #rp prompts #ask meme #Ask memes

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ginnyweasleymybeloved · 3 years

Text

evermore x hp / masterlist

hp x readers based on the absolute masterpiece that is evermore by the love of my life taylor swift. i’ll be posting these fics once or twice a week and i will update the links once i’ve posted each one <3 really hope you guys enjoy <3

// these aren’t going to be exact line by line songfics, but based around a particular line or verse //

all fic masterlist

[🌸 = fluff, 🍁= angst]

taglist: @padsfirewhisky

[🌸] willow - fred weasley x reader

“life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

they count me out time and time again

life was a willow and it bent right to your wind

but I come back stronger than a 90's trend”

summary: hogwarts’ most popular playboy has made it very clear that you, his best friend, are not his type. seeing as you were crushing on him hard, you decide to take matters into your own hands

«»

[🍁] champagne problems - ron weasley x reader

“you had a speech, you’re speechless

love slipped beyond your reaches

and i couldn’t give a reason

champagne problems”

summary: on a cold night in november, your boyfriend, ron, gets sentimental thinking about a future that you’re not sure you deserved

«»

[🌸] gold rush - ginny weasley x reader

“and the coastal town

we wandered ‘round had never

seen a love as pure as it”

summary: revelling in the fact that you have the most amazing girlfriend in the world, while unbeknownst to you, she’s thinking exactly the same thing

«»

[🌸🍁] ‘tis the damn season - cedric diggory x reader

“so we could call it even

you could call me babe for the weekend

‘tis the damn season

write this down

i’m stayin’ at my parent’s house

and the road not taken looks real good now

and it always leads to you in my hometown”

summary: you bump into an old flame and old feelings catch up to you as you find yourself rekindling said flame

«»

[🍁] tolerate it - harry potter x reader

“i made you my temple, my mural, my sky

now i’m begging for footnotes in the story of your

life

drawing hearts in the bylines

always taking up too much space or time

you assume i’m fine, but what would you do if i

break free and leave us in ruins?

took this dagger in me and removed it?

gain the weight of you then lose it

believe me, i could do it”

summary: in the chaos of war, harry pushes the one person he didn’t ever want to lose, to the brink of walking away from him

«»

[🍁] no body, no crime - marauders x reader / peter pettigrew x reader / sirius black x reader

“i think he did it but i just can’t prove it

no, no body no crime

but i ain’t letting up ‘till the day i die”

summary: your best friends, lily and james potter, were betrayed by their secret keeper however you’re sure it couldn’t have been sirius.

«»

[🌸] happiness - remus lupin x reader

“there is happiness

past the blood and bruise

past the curses and cries

beyond the terror of the nightfall

haunted by the look in my eyes

that would’ve loved you for a lifetime

leave it all behind

and there is happiness”

summary: after the death of his friends and the betrayal of sirius, remus fears that he has lost the capacity for happiness. until you came along

«»

[🌸] dorothea - hermoine granger x reader

“hey dorothea

do you ever stop and think about me?

when we were younger

down in the park

honey, making a lark of the misery

you got shiny friends since you left town

a tiny screen’s the only place i see you now

and i got nothing but well wishes for ya”

summary: you see your childhood best friend for the first time in nearly a decade, you hold the same love and respect for her now as you did then

«»

[🍁] coney island - george weasley x reader

“the question pounds my head

‘what’s a lifetime of achievement?’

if i pushed you to the edge

but you were too polite to leave me

and do you miss the rogue

who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?

will you forgive my soul

when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to

care?”

summary: business is booming and the joke shop is expanding at a rapid rate, by the time it reaches its peak, geoege wants to bask in his success with the woman he loves, only to realise he’d completely neglected you in favour of pursuing his dreams and he doesn’t know if you’ll forgive him for it

«»

[🍁🌸] ivy - harry potter x reader

“how’s one to know?

i’d live and die for moments that we stole

on begged and borrowed time

so tell me to run

or dare to sit and watch what we’ll become”

summary: he thinks he’ll only ruin you, you think he’s worth the risk

«»

[🍁] cowboy like me - sirius black x reader

“you’re a bandit like me

eyes full of stars

hustling for the good life

never thought i’d meet you here

it could be love

we could be the way forward

and i know i’ll pay for it”

summary: sirius runs into you at a pure-blood party he’d been dragged to, the pair of you find solace in each other and gravitate towards one another from then on, however, noting the similarities between you and him, you deduct that you’ll end up paying dearly when you begin to crave more than secret rendezvous at pure-blood occasions.

«»

[🌸] long story short - george weasley x reader

“and he’s passing by

rare as the glimmer as a comment in the sky

and he feels like home

if the shoe fits, walk in it everywhere you go”

summary: george weasley is undoubtedly the love of your life, you realise

«»

[🍁] marjorie - remus lupin x lupin!reader

“the autumn chill that wakes me up

you loved the amber skies so much

long limbs and frozen swims

you’d always go past where our feet could

touch

and i complained the whole way there

the car ride back and up the stairs

i should’ve asked you questions

i should’ve asked you how to be

asked you to write it down for me

should’ve kept every grocery store receipt

‘cause every scrap of you would be taken

from me”

summary: your father dies in the battle of hogwarts and you’re left to go through his things

«»

[🍁] closure - fred weasley x reader

“yes, i got your letter

yes, i’m doing better

it cuts deep to know ya, right to the bone

yes, i got your letter

yes, i’m doing better

i know that it’s over, i don’t need your

closure”

summary: you and fred have a messy breakup and after a few months he owls you to see how you’re doing, and it just so happens that you’re doing fine without him

«»

[🌸] evermore - harry potter x reader

“and i was catching my breath

floors of a cabin creaking under my steps

and i couldn’t be sure

i had a feeling so peculiar

this pain wouldn’t be for

evermore”

summary: a soft moment between you and harry as you heal from the war together

«»

[🍁🌸] right where you left me - sirius black x reader

“did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen?

time went on for everybody else, she won’t

know it

she’s still 23 inside her fantasy

how it was supposed to be

did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion?

break-ups happen everyday, you don’t have to

lose it

she’s still 23 inside her fantasy

and you’re sitting in front of me”

summary: when sirius is condemned to azkaban you wait, and wait, and wait, right where he left you

«»

[🍁] it’s time to go - george weasley x reader

“that old familiar body ache

the snaps from the same little breaks in your soul

you know when it’s time to go”

summary: transitioning from best friends to lovers isn’t always the best idea, sometimes it’s better to walk away before there’s nothing left to leave

«»

#harry potter x reader #george weasley x reader #fred weasley x reader #ginny weasley x reader #sirius black x reader #remus lupin x reader #hermoine granger x reader #ron weasley x reader #cedric diggory x reader

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blackcatrph · 3 years

Text

** evermore sentence starters.

willow.

“ i'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night. ”

“ you cut through like a knife. ”

“ i never would have known from the look on your face. ”

“ the more that you say, the less I know. ”

“ i'm begging for you to take my hand. ”

“ life was a willow and it bent right to your wind. ”

“ i could feel you sneakin' in. ”

“ you are a mythical thing. ”

“ i come back stronger than a '90s trend. ”

“ wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark. ”

“ show me the places where the others gave you scars. ”

“ anywhere else is hollow. ”

champagne problems.

“ you booked the night train for a reason. ”

“ bustling crowds or silent sleepers, not sure which is worse. ”

“ i dropped your hand while dancing. ”

“ your mom's ring is in your pocket, my picture is in your wallet. ”

“ your heart was glass and I dropped it. ”

“ you told your family for a reason. ”

“ you couldn't keep it in. ”

“ no one's celebrating. ”

“ your hometown skeptics called it champagne problems. ”

“ love slipped beyond your reaches. ”

" this dorm was once a madhouse. "

“ don't think we'll say that word again. ”

“ sometimes you just don't know the answer. ”

" she would've made such a lovely bride. ”

“ what a shame she's fucked in the head. ”

“ she'll patch up your tapestry that I shred. ”

gold rush.

“ eyes like sinking ships on waters, so inviting I almost jump in. ”

“ i don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch. ”

“ everybody wants you. ”

“ everybody wonders what it would be like to love you. ”

“ i don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bones crush. ”

“ what must it be like to grow up that beautiful ? ”

“ i see me padding across your wooden floors. ”

“ it fades into the gray of my day-old tea. ”

“ it could never be. ”

“ my mind turns your life into folklore. ”

“ i can't dare to dream about you anymore. ”

“ the coastal town we never found will never see a love as pure. ”

'tis the damn season.

“ If I wanted to know who you were hanging with while I was gone, I would have asked you. ”

“ it's the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass. but I felt it when I passed you. ”

“ there's an ache in you. ”

“ but if it's all the same to you, it's the same to me. ”

“ you could call me "babe" for the weekend. ”

“ the road not taken looks real good now. ”

“ the holidays linger like bad perfume. ”

“ you can run, but only so far. ”

“ i escaped it too. ”

“ remember how you watched me leave ? ”

“ now I'm missing your smile. ”

“ hear me out, we could just ride around. ”

“ i won't ask you to wait if you don't ask me to stay. ”

“ i wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I'm faking. ”

“ the heart I know I'm breakin' is my own. ”

“ we could call it even, even though I'm leavin'. ”

tolerate it.

“ i notice everything you do or don't do. ”

“ you're so much older and wiser. ”

“ if it's all in my head tell me now. ”

“ tell me I've got it wrong somehow. ”

“ i know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it. ”

“ i greet you with a battle hero's welcome. ”

“ i take your indiscretions all in good fun. ”

“ while you were out building other worlds, where was I? ”

“ where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire? ”

“ i made you my temple, my mural, my sky. ”

“ i'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life. ”

“ always taking up too much space or time. ”

“ you assume I'm fine. ”

“ what would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins. ”

“ took this dagger in me and removed it. ”

no body, no crime.

“ he did it. ”

" it smells like infidelity. ”

“ that ain't my merlot on his mouth. ”

“ i think I'm gonna call him out. ”

" i think he did it, but I just can't prove it. "

“ no body, no crime. ”

“ i ain't lettin' up until the day I die. ”

“ his mistress moved in. ”

“ there ain't no doubt. ”

“ somebody's gotta catch him out. ”

“ i've cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene. ”

“ they think she did it, but they just can't prove it. ”

“ i wasn't lettin' up until the day he died. ”

happiness.

“ i see this for what it is. ”

“ all the years I've given Is just shit we're dividin' up. ”

“ i can't face reinvention. ”

“ i haven't met the new me yet. ”

“ there'll be happiness after you. ”

“ there was happiness because of you. ”

“ there is happiness past the blood and bruises. ”

“ haunted by the look in my eyes. ”

“ leave it all behind. ”

“ tell me, when did your winning smile begin to look like a smirk? ”

“ when did all our lessons start to look like weapons? ”

“ i hope she'll be your beautiful fool. ”

“ no, I didn't mean that. ”

“ i can't see facts through all of my fury. ”

“ there'll be happiness after me. ”

“ in our history, across our great divide, there is a glorious sunrise dappled with the flickers of light. ”

“ i can't make it go away by making you a villain. ”

“ no one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you. ”

“ now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head. ”

“ after giving you the best I had, tell me what to give after that? ”

dorothea.

“ do you ever stop and think about me?”

“ you got shiny friends since you left town. ”

“ i got nothing but well-wishes for you. ”

“ this place is the same as it ever was. ”

“ it's never too late to come back to my side. ”

“ the stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo. ”

“ and if you're ever tired of bеing known for who you know, you'll always know me. ”

“ you'rе a queen sellin' dreams. ”

“ they all want to be you. ”

“ are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? ”

“ i guess I'll never know. ”

coney island.

“ break my soul in two looking for you. ”

“ if I can't relate to you anymore then who am I related to? ”

“ did I close my fist around something delicate? ”

“ did I shatter you? ”

“ sorry for not making you my centerfold. ”

“ lost again with no surprises. ”

“ it gets colder and colder when the sun goes down. ”

“ what's a lifetime of achievement If I pushed you to the edge? ”

“ you were too polite to leave me. ”

“ will you forgive my soul when you're too wise to trust me and too old to care? ”

“ sorry for not winning you an arcade ring. ”

“ were you waiting at our old spot? ”

“ did I leave you hanging every single day? ”

“ did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey? ”

“ the sight that flashed before me was your face. ”

ivy.

“ i'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones. ”

“ your touch brought forth an incandescent glow. tarnished, but so grand. ”

“ i just sit here and wait, grieving for the living. ”

“ my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand. ”

“ i can't stop you putting roots in my dreamland. ”

“ my house of stone, your ivy grows. and now I'm covered in you. ”

“ i wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed. ”

“ your opal eyes are all I wish to see. ”

“ clover blooms in the fields. ”

“ what would he do if he found us out? ”

“ he's gonna burn this house to the ground. ”

“ i'd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time. ”

“ so tell me to run, or dare me to sit and watch what we'll become. ”

“ it's a goddamn blaze in the dark. ”

“ it's the goddamn fight of my life. ”

cowboy like me.

" dancin' is a dangerous game. "

“ now I know I'm never gonna love again. ”

“ i've got some tricks up my sleeve. ”

“ takes one to know one. ”

“ you're a cowboy like me. ”

“ i never wanted love, just a fancy car. ”

“ i could be the way forward. ”

“ the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up. ”

“ the old men that I've swindled really did believe I was the one. ”

“ now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon. ”

“ forever is the sweetest con. ”

long story short.

“ i tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me. ”

“ the knife cuts both ways. ”

“ if the shoe fits, walk in it 'til your high heels break. ”

“ i fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole. ”

“ long story short, it was a bad time. ”

“ i always felt I must look better in the rear view. ”

“ missing me at the golden gates they once held the keys to. ”

“ but if someone comes at us this time, I'm ready. ”

“ i wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things. ”

“ your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing. ”

“ rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky. ”

“ long story short, I survived. ”

marjorie.

“ never be so kind that you forget to be clever. ”

“ never be so clever that you forget to be kind. ”

“ what died didn't stay dead. ”

“ you're alive, so alive. ”

“ never be so politе that you forget your power. ”

“ nevеr wield such power that you forget to be polite. ”

“ if I didn't know better I'd think you were listening to me now. ”

“ you loved the amber skies so much. ”

“ and if I didn't know better I'd think you were singing to me now. ”

closure.

“ it's been a long time. ”

“ seeing the shape of your name still spells out pain. ”

“ it wasn't right, the way it all went down. ”

“ i got your letter. ”

“ i know that it's over, I don't need your closure. ”

“ don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled. ”

“ i'm fine with my spite, my tears, my beers and my candles. ”

“ i know I'm just a wrinkle in your new life. ”

“ it's fake and it's oh so unnecessary. ”

evermore.

“ i replay my footsteps on each stepping stone trying to find the one where I went wrong. ”

“ i was catching my breath. ”

“ i had a feeling so peculiar that this pain would be for evermore. ”

“ I can't remember what I used to fight for. ”

“ you cannot think of all the cost and the things that will be lost. ”

“ can we just get a pause? ”

“ is there a line that I could just go cross? ”

“ when I was shipwrecked I thought of you. ”

“ in the cracks of light I dreamed of you. ”

“ it was real enough to get me through. ”

“ i swear you were there. ”

#sentence meme #sentence memes #rp sentence meme #rp sentence starters #rp meme #ask meme #roleplay meme #lyrical meme #lyric meme #memes by j

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

Text

Ask any member of the Republican Party what they think the Democrats’ most unforgivable action was while Donald Trump was in office, and they’ll all likely tell you the same thing: impeaching the GOP’s lord and savior on not one but two occasions. (The close seconds obviously being the Dems acting mean to Brett Kavanaugh and their neglecting to pass a resolution formally making Ivanka Trump a princess.) There were, of course, very good reasons why the 45th President of the United States was impeached, first in December 2019 and later in January 2021. However, if you or a conservative you know can’t quite recall what those reasons were, here’s a reminder: Trump tried to extort Ukraine for his own political gain and incited a violent insurrection that left multiple people dead, both of which quite obviously fall under the “high crimes and misdemeanors” the Constitution mentions when it refers to impeaching and removing a President from office.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, has not committed such acts. But Republicans are not going to let that stop them when it comes to attempting to boot him from the White House!

Over the weekend, GOP Representative Nancy Mace told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that “there’s a lot of pressure on Republicans” to vote to impeach Biden. Asked how she personally would come down on the issue, Mace said she would “follow the Constitution,” explaining that she would not “vote for impeachment of any President if I feel that due process has been stripped away for anyone.” In 2021, despite criticizing Trump for the events that transpired on January 6, she chose not to impeach him over the attack on the Capitol and attempt to burn democracy to the ground.

On Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz declared that if Republicans retake the House in November, their number one priority should be to “engage in impeachment inquiries to get the documents and the testimony and the information we need,” saying that if his party doesn’t go after Biden, “voters will feel betrayed.” Speaking to ex-Trump administration official Steve Bannon, Gaetz insisted that investigating the President should take precedence over “policy [and] bill making,” and lamented that some members of the GOP want to do dumb things like “work with the Democrats so that we don’t have to go through the pains of any government shutdowns.”

“We are in a battle,” the Florida congressman added. “And we have to open up every vector of attack on a corrupt administration that is punishing the American people out of these virtue signals to wokeism.”

Mace’s and Gaetz’s comments follow similar remarks from their colleagues about the prospect of Republicans spending the next two to six years devoting every waking moment to trying to remove Biden from office. Rep. Adam Kinzinger—one of the few anti-Trump elected officials in the House, who is retiring at the end of his term—warned last week that a House controlled by the GOP would attempt to impeach Biden “every week.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has made impeaching the 46th president an official plank of her own personal platform, introduced articles of impeachment against Biden the day after he was inaugurated. GOP nominee Joe Kent has promised, on several occasions, to “drop impeachment papers” on Biden (and Kamala Harris) “on day one.��

While some Republicans have thrown out vague reasons like “the border” and “Hunter Biden” to support impeaching the president, for the most part, their plan appears to be: “Impeach first, ask questions—like, ‘do we actually have a valid reason for this?’—later.” In January, Ted Cruz said on his podcast that Republicans would impeach Biden “whether it’s justified or not,” adding: “That’s not how impeachment is meant to work, but I think the Democrats crossed that line. I think there’ll be enormous pressure on a Republican House to begin impeachment proceedings.” As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake noted on Monday, it was probably Senator Joni Ernst who best summed up the party’s position when she said: “I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened.”

“Whatever,” indeed!

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ascalonianpicnic · 3 years

Text

Hey! Y’all want a salty essay about the bullshit treatment Caithe gets from the fandom at large that compares Rytlock and Caithe’s characters? Cause I wrote one!

Warning: this essay is incredibly bitter and salty, and that bitterness and salt is directed at people who hate Caithe. I swear in it. I’m mean to Rytlock in it. I heavily imply people who hate Caithe are sexist in it. This was written in the middle of the champions releases, but doesn’t focus on s5 or past pof in general.

A morally grey assassin, jaded from a traumatic past who thinks they have to do everything themself to ensure it's done right. They had to kill someone close to them for the greater good, were deeply hurt by a former partner, no longer work with their old crew due to a tragedy they could not prevent and blame themself for. The two people they care about are their brother whom they love and understand despite his quirks and oddities, and their new young mentee who they have mixed feelings about and who they don't want to admit they care for for fear of losing them. They have a blood soaked past and make mistakes, but they're learning and growing thanks to their young mentee and the hard work they're putting in at reflecting on their past actions and accepting they don't have to bear the weight of the world alone.

Y'all would like Caithe if she was a man. She's built on several tropes so commonly seen in male protagonists and mentor figures. Mistakes she's made that people claim are unforgivable are made by other, less apologetic, male characters who are forgiven and still held in high regard. And I know these archetypes are popular among the guild wars 2 fandom, considering the high crossover with dragon age fans, and how many dragon age fans love Zevran the assassin who regularly hides his true feelings and bears so much guilt, and Duncan the former thief who sees little crime in what he views as rightful murders and views death as an acceptable cost to protect some secrets for the safety of the world. The guild wars 2 fandom in general would love Caithe so much more if she wasn't a woman.

But because she's a woman, killing Wynne, killing a few courtiers during personal story, keeping the secret of the sylvari to protect her people from a massacre at the hands of the other races, and taking the egg to ensure it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands are all seen as unforgivable sins. She's learning and growing every step of the way. She's taken the time to look back on what she's done. She's apologized for not trusting and betraying the commander (who she has a complicated relationship with regardless of race, that person stole her wyld hunt because she was somehow not good enough to kill a dragon alone), she's learned she can rely on others to have her back and doesn't have to do everything alone, she's realized bloodshed isn't always the answer. She's come a long way, learned to let herself trust again, and is working so hard to grow. Yet loads of y'all still hate her for her past mistakes, and some of y'all think it's okay to wish death on her fucking openly with no warning.

And yet, so many people who hate Caithe and wish death on her, citing her actions during Living World Season 2 and Heart of Thorns as the reason why, will in the same breath mention that Rytlock is one of their favorite characters in the game. As I said, y'all would like Caithe if she was a man.

Rytlock has made the exact same mistakes as Caithe during the story. Alright maybe not exactly the same, but his mistakes parallel hers very cleanly. He isn't an assassin, but he is a born and raised soldier who has killed countless people in his rise to the rank of Tribune. He didn't steal an egg, but he did jump into the mists and free a clearly powerful and dangerous figure for the sake of getting his sword back. He didn't keep the secret of the sylvari, but he did, in fact, keep the secret of Balthazar. And he had his own mentee who he had a fraught relationship with. Let's take this one by one.

If you play through the blood legion story on a charr, you probably remember overthrowing the legionnaire of your warband and taking over. In this segment, Rytlock not only encourages you to challenge your Legionnaire, he forces Urvan Steelbane to fight you. Then, at the end of the fight, he gives you the option to kill your superior. Rising through the ranks in charr society is a mixture of proving yourself a reliable soldier and proving yourself superior to your superiors through combat so you can take their place. As a tribune, Rytlock has risen high through the legion, spilling lots of blood and putting those around him at risk. It is noted that prior to his promotion to tribune, Rytlock got in serious trouble more than once for risking missions and endangering his own warband for the sake of his own fame and glory. While not an assassin, much like Caithe he has a very bloody history and a habit of trying to do everything himself

One of the biggest events held against Caithe is when she steals Aurene's egg from the dying Master of Peace as he tries to give it to the commander. While especially true for the sylvari commander, Caithe has a lot of her own reasons for not trusting this incredibly important egg in the hands of the commander. At the same time, her calling as one of Aurene's guardians, her wyld hunt to protect this egg, and the poundings at her mind of mordremoth are all overwhelming her and leaving her confused. Feeling she has to do everything herself, as she often struggles with, Caithe takes the egg to protect it from falling in the wrong hands. She later admits this was the wrong move that put people around her in grave danger and risked the world and apologizes for it. The way Caithe acts about Aurene's egg is pretty similar to how Rytlock acts towards the sword Sohothin. The first time he sees it, he jeopardizes the mission he and Crecia are on to steal it, putting her in extreme danger and blaming her when she has to act to protect herself. Later on, when he loses the sword through a mists portal during a ritual to try and cleanse the foefire ghosts from Ascalon, he abandons the ritual, ensuring it fails, so he can pursue his sword, leaving the commander and the iron legion imperator to face the danger of Barridin's ghost army alone, much like how Caithe left the commander to face the Shadow of the Dragon while she fled with Aurene's egg. While in the mists, seeking his lost sword, Rytlock frees a very clearly powerful and dangerous figure (who we'll come back to) in order to reclaim Sohothin. Like how Caithe put the world at risk by trying to protect the egg alone, Rytlock puts the world at risk trying to reclaim his sword.

Let's take a brief moment to talk about Caithe and Rytlock's mentees, before we get on to the biggest similarity the two share. Caithe's mentee, if she has one as it depends on the player, is the sylvari commander. The sylvari commander is a decently young sylvari, who only a few years earlier emerged with a parallel wyld hunt to Caithe herself. Caithe is a loner in general following the pains of Wynne's death, Faolain's abuse, and the breaking of Destiny's Edge. Now she's handed a youth who was created to help her with her Hunt that she was always told she had to do alone, basically saying she is no longer trusted to perform her hunt alone and now she has to train her replacement. She does seem to care for the commander, but the relationship there is always going to start off complicated, and it leads to her betraying the commander, leaving them to fight the Shadow of the Dragon, and taking the egg she doesn't trust them to handle. Later on, once she realizes her mistakes, she reaches out to the commander to apologize, and repeatedly puts her trust very clearly in them, acknowledging that she does need them and she did in the past. How that relationship ends is of course up to the player, but she makes an attempt at reconciliation after the fallout. Rytlock's mentee of note here is Rox. He takes her own as a promising young woman who he thinks would fit well in his warband and takes a hand in helping her train and find her place again in the legions. In order to join the Stone warband, Rox is given the incredibly difficult and definitely not soloable task of killing Scarlet Briar. Rox, when it comes down to it, chooses to put Braham's life and safety over dealing the killing blow to Scarlet herself, trusting the commander, whoever they are, and Kasmeer to get the job done while she stays back with Braham and Marjory. Following the victory over Scarlet, Rox is too afraid to face Rytlock. She didn't kill Scarlet herself, meaning she failed, and she's afraid Rytlock will kill her for it. This is itself a sign of a deeply unhealthy relationship between Rytlock and Rox. On top of that, Rytlock has as of yet never tried to reach out to Rox, to check up on her or apologize or do anything to repair the relationship between the two of them. (A note from replaying s2, Rox does join for the barradin keep mission with Rytlock there, but Rytlock doesn't really check up on her, and he sure as hell doesn't offer her the more than earned position on his warband despite everything.)

The last point is the one I believe I've seen held against Caithe the most. During Living World Season 2, Caithe keeps secret from the commander and from her own brother Trahearne that the Sylvari are purified minions of Mordremoth, leading to Trahearne's attack against the dragon ending in a massacre. Caithe, when she was incredibly young and impressionable, learned the truth from Wynne before having to kill her to keep Faolain from learning the truth as well. She has, for years now, been the only one to know this secret, and she believes that if it were to get out, the world would turn against the still young and fairly defenseless sylvari and slaughter them. As she sees it, she has to bear the burden of this secret alone, as she has to do everything alone. While dealing with her duties tied to Aurene's egg and struggling with the growing voice of Mordremoth as well, she may not even know of Trahearne's plans to fly an army into the jungle. She has every reason to keep this secret still, it's for the good of her own people. Yes it is a mistake, but she didn't know this at the time. She believes, as she keeps this secret, that it is the only way to prevent the sylvari from dying off as they're just coming into the world. She regrets the loss of life, but she can't go back and change it now.

Now Rytlock also keeps a very important secret, from the commander and everyone else. He refuses to share details of what he saw and did in the mists during his hunt for Sohothin. While in the mists, Rytlock meets an old man in chains. The man, recognizing Sohothin in Rytlock's hands, unlit, says he can reignite the sword if Rytlock frees him. Rytlock accepts the deal and frees the man, returning Sohothin to its original glory and gaining access to a portal out of the mists that the old man makes. Now, Rytlock grew up while the war between humanity and the charr was still growing strong. He spent a lot of his early years in Ascalon, exploring the ruins, likely fighting humans trying to reclaim their land, and definitely fighting the ghosts of humans. That alone should have been enough for him to recognize the human god his enemies worshipped while waging war against him and his people. Beyond that, after Rytlock came into possession of Sohothin, he researched the sword's history. The sword, originally crafted and wielded by Balthazar, is one Rytlock is familiar with. It stands to reason Balthazar himself is at the very least a familiar figure to Rytlock. So when Rytlock encounters a large, powerful figure in the mists who recognizes Sohothin in a state very few have ever seen it in, and has the power to relight the flames that the god Balthazar had originally created, Rytlock has to know who he is talking to. He knows who he freed in exchange for Sohothin's flames. He may say otherwise, but there is no way he doesn't know who he freed in the mists. Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't know who exactly he freed, he still should have told the commander about the man with very powerful fire magic and the ability to make portals who he followed out of the mists. Rytlock caused the tragedy that is Path of Fire and almost caused the end of the world, because he decided to keep the fact that he freed Balthazar a secret from everyone until it was far too late and Elona was already burning. Caithe's secret may have resulted in the failure of the Maguuma campaign and the loss of lives of many soldiers, but Rytlock's secret resulted in the near destruction of an entire civilization and the deaths of countless innocents.

Yet Caithe is still hated deeply for keeping a secret that she thought was for the good of the world, while Rytlock is quickly forgiven for keeping a secret to protect his pride. Rytlock has made all the same mistakes Caithe has and has arguably handled all of them worse, yet he is still a fandom favorite while she is hated by the community. It's pretty clear that Caithe isn't hated for her actions and mistakes. That's just an excuse.

You would like her if she was a man.

#gw2 #my essays #caithe #not tagging cat man #building my mean lesbian niche of essay content 😊🔪#last one was for the eir lovers this ones for the caithe fans #also sorry for referencing da origins 😔

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padfootagain · 3 years

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Grumpy

Hi everyone! I'm back with a very cute little drabble for Christmas! We're one week away from Christmas, and I'll try to post a few of those little drabbles before the 25th!

This is a very cute, grumpy Ben with a cold! I hope you like this!

A little comment is greatly appreciated, if you have a second to spare!

Pairing: Ben Barnes x Reader

Word Count : 1672

Ben was grumpy.

It wasn't in his nature, and it wasn't in his character at all. He was a rather shy, goofy and quite adorable man with a mischievous sense of humour most of the time. There were only a few instances that brought him to a more bitter state of mind: the remnants of a hangover in the early morning, being stuck in traffic for a long time, and being sick.

And now, Ben was sick.

Nothing dramatic, but a seasonal cold that would have disappeared in a few days. But for the moment, Ben was in the dark phase of the disease.

A runny nose, a sore throat that was sometimes scratched with a rough cough, fever and a migraine that made him feel like someone was piercing his skull with needles. He had no energy for anything and was stuck in his bed, under a pile of blankets and pillows you had brought for him.

And it would have been bearable, had you been there with him to distract him from his miserable state, give him cuddles and bring him regular doses of his favourite tea. But you were at work, and he had to survive four more hours without you. And the more time he spent on his own, the grumpier he became.

It was snowing outside upon London, large snowflakes brightening the days of children and turning the old city into something a little enchanted, a little magical. Low clouds almost as white as the snowflakes they released hovered lazily above the tall buildings and worn-out stones, businessmen hurrying under the cold weather while the more innocent kinds carved faces for snowmen and threw snowballs at their friends. Cars of those reckless enough to try to drive through the city under this weather honked loudly, punctuating the rhythm of the city that never slowed down, especially at the approach of the holidays. And Ben would have loved the spectacle it offered, had he moved to his window to glimpse at the outside world. He would have dragged a chair by the window, and enjoyed a warm cup of coffee while watching peacefully as the snowflakes fell in his garden. Or perhaps, had you been there, he would have enjoyed looking at strangers running down the slippery street, imagining with you crazy lives for these people he didn't know. You would have found an astronaut in their midst for sure, you always did, for some reason. Ben's theory was that it was because of how much you loved the stars.

But again, you were not there, he was alone in your shared home with a buzzing brain that was slowly turning into jelly, and sore limbs, and a nose that wouldn't allow him to breathe. And now, the snow annoyed him, the cold weather the cause of his pain, after all.

He checked the time again, and heaved a desperate sigh as he counted – with much difficulty – how many more hours he had to survive through without you. He had never cursed your job more than now, as he grumpily mumbled a string of curses under his breath, wrapping himself even more in his blankets until the only part of him still visible was his forehead and messy dark hair.

He counted the minutes till you'd be back to fall back to sleep, and he spent most of his afternoon tossing around, somewhere between sleep and reality, in a daze that wasn't peaceful and didn't bring to his tired frame any rest. He reached for a book after a couple of hours, but the words written on the page required from him way too much concentration and his migraine got worse after only a couple of pages, so he discarded the item once again. He checked the time one more time.

He had two hours left.

He made an almost-unbearable effort to extract himself from the covers and finally head for the shower, figuring that some warm water would help.

And it did. The shower gave him enough energy to carry his set of pillows and blankets to the sofa instead, moving his mess to the living-room so he could watch some stupid things on the TV.

He spent most of the rest of his time alone watching some old episodes of Columbo, keeping an eye on the time while he waited for you, hoping you wouldn't be delayed by the snow on your way home, his mood darkening some more at the mere thought.

And when you finally walked in your shared home, Ben couldn't refrain a relieved sigh.

He waited for the sound of your keys to drop on the little bowl by the door, for the sound of the shuffling of fabric as you took off your scarf, beanie, gloves and coat, and finally the thud sound of your shoes being kicked off. Finally, the muffled thumping of your footsteps on the wooden floor echoed through the hall, and you appeared by his side, your hair a little wet because of the snow, but you still seemed warm and cosy in your warm jumper.

"How are you feeling, baby?" you asked in a soft voice, tilting your head in wonder, and Ben swore that he had never seen anything cuter in his life.

He let out a groan, pouting dramatically.

"I feel awful," he mumbled, letting out a grumpy growl and holding his cover closer to him.

You sat down by his side on the sofa, and rested the back of your hand against his forehead.

"You still have fever, babe," you told him in the softest voice you could muster, your fingers sliding from his forehead to his hair, soothingly travelling through the dark strands. "Have you taken a shower?"

He nodded, before sneezing very loudly, the noise echoing throughout the room, and letting out a frustrated groan.

"I hate being like this," he pouted.

"I know, love. But you need to rest to get better, that's all we can do. I'm gonna make you some tea with honey, it'll help, okay?"

You were about to get up when he quickly grabbed your wrist, pulling you back to your seat gently. The quick gesture seemed to exhaust him even more, but he didn't mind, for once.

"No, stay. You'll do that later."

"It would be good for you…"

"No, please. Please stay with me. I've waited for you all day. Just… stay."

His eyes were watery because of his cold, and his nose all red, and his cheeks flushed with fever, and he was poutier than ever, buried under three blankets. There was simply no way for you to say no to him.

And it was unsaid, right now, but it wasn't hard to read in his eyes that he meant to add I love you to his plea.

So, you settled properly in the sofa, opening your arms for him to snuggle into your side.

He heaved a sigh, finally relaxing, as he tucked his head in the crook of your neck.

"I hope you don't get sick holding me like that," Ben mumbled into your skin, his voice muffled and barely audible, but you were so used to his voice by now that it wasn't hard for you to decipher what he was whispering.

You smiled a tender smile, that he couldn't see and that you barely noticed yourself as it formed across your lips, but it didn't matter. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular anyway. It was just how he made you feel all the time.

"Well, if I do catch your cold, you'll have to nurse me back to health too, then," you replied, making him chuckle, his first laughter of the day.

"That's a deal. Besides, I'm gonna be a little selfish here, but I need you too much now to really care if you get sick or not."

It was your time to laugh, and your heart was filled with love as you did so, the bright sound illuminating the whole room.

"Well, you're feeling very bad, so, I won't hold that selfish act against you," you reassured him, and Ben closed his eyes as you started running your fingers in his dishevelled hair again.

"Thanks. Because I really do feel awful."

You hummed, focusing on the TV before you, but only for a moment, as Ben spoke again. He had missed your voice too much during the day, after all. And if having you in his arms was already working wonders on his mood, still, he wanted you all to himself, and you seemed to give way too much interest to the crime show on TV.

"How was your day, baby?" he asked in a hoarse voice, before he would be shaken by a cough.

"It was okay, a bit long," you admitted as Ben settled back into your arms.

"Tell me everything that happened, please?" he asked, looking up at you with puppy eyes, and you could only let out a fond chuckle as you kissed his forehead and proceeded to tell him everything about your day at work.

"Well, Marjorie broke the coffee machine this morning, which was undoubtedly a good odd for the rest of the day!"

You went on for a long time, sometimes slowing down to a stop when Ben's eyes remained closed for a while, and you thought he had fallen asleep, but he kept on asking you to continue then, his eyes still closed, so you did. He did fall asleep though, once you had finished your story and settled back in a comfortable silence with him nestled in your arms. You didn't mind, despite your position growing a little uncomfortable after a while. You watched TV while Ben caught up on some most needed sleep, a soft snore coming out of him once in a while making you smile fondly at him.

Yes, Ben was grumpy when he was sick. But then again, sometimes, he wasn't that grumpy, even if sick, for as long as he had you.

************************************************************

Taglist : @ponycake27 @horsesreign @xinyourdreamsx @jbluevelvet@notkeppeki @daynigt-dreamer-stuff @fudgeflyss @stuckupstucky@snek-shit @suchatinyinfinity@i-padfootblack-things @buckybsarmy @heyohheyitsgabi@jigsawlover10 @emyyjemyy @addictedtofictionalcharacters @staringmoony@geeksareunique @giggleberts @sad-orange-thoughts @aylinnmaslow @benbarnes-world @ladyblablabla @madamrogers @drinix @joelynnp @mxrihollxnd @rockintensse @newtstarmander @iammadeofstarsandlazyness @shinebrightlikeafanbase @wangmangagavroche@presstocontinue @ilmiopiccolounivers0

#ben barnes #ben barnes x reader #ben barnes fanfiction #ben barnes imagine #ben barnes drabble #ben barnes fluff #christmas fic #ben barnes fic #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #drabble #imagine

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path-of-my-childhood · 3 years

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Aaron Dessner on How His Collaborative Chemistry With Taylor Swift Led to “Evermore”

By: Claire Shaffer for Rolling Stone Date: December 18th 2020

Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner didn’t expect to make another record so soon after Folklore. As they were putting the final touches on Swift’s album this past summer, the two artists had been collaborating remotely on possible songs for Big Red Machine, Dessner’s music project with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver (who also dueted with Swift on the Folklore track “Exile”). Dessner recalls:

“I think I’d written around 30 of those instrumentals in total. So when I started sharing them with Taylor over the months that we were working on Folklore, she got really into it, and she wrote two songs to some of that music.”

One was “Closure,” an experimental electronic track in 5/4 time signature that was built over a staccato drum kit. The other song was “Dorothea,” a rollicking, Americana piano tune. The more Dessner listened to them, the more he realized that they were continuations of Folklore‘s characters and stories. But the real turning point came soon after Folklore‘s surprise release in late July, when Dessner wrote a musical sketch and named it “Westerly,” after the town in Rhode Island where Swift owns the house previously occupied by Rebekah Harkness.

“I didn’t really think she would write something to it — sometimes I’ll name songs after my friends’ hometowns or their babies, just because I write a lot of music and you have to call it something, and then I’ll send it to them. But, anyway, I sent it to her, and not long after she wrote ‘Willow’ to that song and sent it back.”

It was a moment not unlike when Swift first sent him the song “Cardigan” back in the spring, where both she and Dessner felt an instant creative spark — and then just kept writing. Before long, they were creating even more songs with Vernon, Jack Antonoff, Dessner’s brother Bryce, and “William Bowery” (the pseudonym of Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn) for what would eventually lead to Folklore‘s wintry sister record, Evermore.

Even more spontaneous than the album that preceded it, Evermore features more eclectic production alongside Swift’s continued project of character-driven songwriting, and includes an even wider group of collaborators, like Haim and Dessner’s own band the National. Dessner spoke to Rolling Stone about the album’s experimentation, how it was recorded during the making of the doc The Long Pond Studio Sessions, and how he sees his collaboration with Swift continuing in the future.

When did you realize this was going to end up being another album?

It was after we’d written several songs, seven or eight or nine. Each one would happen, and we would both be in this sort of disbelief of this weird alchemy that we had unleashed. The ideas were coming fast and furiously and were just as compelling as anything on Folklore, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. At some point, Taylor wrote “Evermore” with William Bowery, and then we sent it to Justin, who wrote the bridge, and all of a sudden, that’s when it started to become clear that there was a sister record. Historically, there are examples of this, of records which came in close succession that I love — certain Dylan records, Kid A and Amnesiac. I secretly fell in love with the idea that this was part of the same current, and that these were two manifestations that were interrelated. And with Taylor, I think it just became clear to her what was happening. It really picked up steam, and at some point, there were 17 songs — because there are two bonus tracks, which I love just as much.

Evermore definitely sounds more experimental than Folklore, and has more variety — you have these electronic songs that sound like Bon Iver or Big Red Machine, but you also have the closest thing Taylor has written to country songs in the last decade. Was there a conscious effort on her part to branch out more with this album?

Sonically, the ideas were coming from me more. But I remember when I wrote the piano track to “Tolerate It,” right before I sent it to her, I thought, This song is intense. It’s in 10/8, which is an odd time signature. And I did think for a second, “Maybe I shouldn’t send it to her, she won’t be into it.” But I sent it to her, and it conjured a scene in her mind, and she wrote this crushingly beautiful song to it and sent it back. I think I cried when I first heard it. But it just felt like the most natural thing, you know? There weren’t limitations to the process. And in these places where we were pushing into more experimental sounds or odd time signatures, that just felt like part of the work.

It was really impressive to me that she could tell these stories as easily in something like “Closure” as she could in a country song like “Cowboy Like Me.” Obviously, “Cowboy Like Me” is much more familiar, musically. But to me, she’s just as sharp and just as masterful in her craft in either of those situations. And also, just in terms of what we were interested in, there is a wintry nostalgia to a lot of the music that was intentional on my part. I was leaning into the idea that this was fall and winter, and she’s talked about that as well, that Folklore feels like spring and summer to her and Evermore is fall and winter. So that’s why you hear sleigh bells on “Ivy,” or why some of the imagery in the songs is wintery.

I can hear that in the guitar on “‘Tis the Damn Season,” too. It almost sounds like the National with that very icy guitar line.

I mean, that is literally like, me in my most natural state. [laughs] If you hand me a guitar, that’s what it sounds like when I start playing it. People associate that sound with the National, but that’s just because I finger-pick an electric guitar like that a lot — if you solo the guitar on “Mr. November,” it’s not unlike that.

That song, to me, has always felt nostalgic or like some sort of longing. And the song that Taylor wrote is so instantly relatable, you know, “There’s an ache in you put there by the ache in me.” I remember when she sang that to me in my kitchen — she had written it overnight during The Long Pond Studio Sessions, actually.

Did she record all her Evermore vocals at Long Pond while you were filming the Studio Sessions documentary?

Not all of them, but most of them. She stayed after we were done filming and then we recorded a lot. It was crazy because we were getting ready to make that film, but at the same time, these songs were accumulating. And so we thought, “Hmm, I guess we should just stay and work.”

On “Closure,” there are parts where Taylor’s vocals are filtered through the Messina, which is this vocal modifier that Justin Vernon uses a lot in his work with Bon Iver. How were you able to modify her vocals with it, if she was never in the same room as Justin?

I went to see Justin at one point — that’s the one trip I’ve made — and we worked together at his place on stuff. He plays the drums on “Cowboy Like Me” and “Closure,” and he plays guitar and banjo and sings on “Ivy,” and sings on “Marjorie” and “Evermore.” And then we processed Taylor’s vocals through his Messina chain together. He was really deeply involved in this record, even more so than the last record. He’s always been such a huge help to me, and not just by getting him to play stuff or sing stuff — I can also send him things and get his feedback. We’ve done a ton of work together, but we have different perspectives and different harmonic brains. He obviously has his own studio set up at home, but it was nice to be able to see him and work on this stuff.

“No Body, No Crime” is also really interesting, just because I don’t think I’ve ever heard you produce a song like that. How did this country murder ballad featuring Haim end up on the record?

Taylor wrote that one alone and sent me a voice memo of her playing guitar — she wrote it on this rubber-bridge guitar that I got for her. It’s the same kind I play on “Invisible String.” So she wrote “No Body, No Crime” and sent me a voice memo of it, and then I started building on that. It’s funny, because the music I’ve listened to the most in my life are things that are more like that — roots music, folk music, country music, old-school rock & roll, the Grateful Dead. It’s not really the sound of the National or other things I’ve done, but it feels like a warm blanket.

That song also had a lot of my friends on it — Josh Kaufman, who played harmonica on “Betty,” also plays harmonica on this one and some guitar. JT Bates plays the drums on that song — he’s an amazing jazz guitarist, but he also has an incredible feel [for rhythm] when it comes to a song like that. He also played the drums on “Dorothea.” And then Taylor had specific ideas from the beginning about references and how she wanted it to feel, and that she wanted the Haim sisters to sing on it. We had them record the song with Ariel Reichshaid, they sent that from L.A., and then we put it together when Taylor was here [at Long Pond]. They’re an incredible band, and it was another situation where we were like, “Well, this happened.” It felt like this weird little rock & roll history anecdote.

You also brought on the National to record “Coney Island.” What was that process like, where you’re recording a song with your band that’s for a different artist?

I had been working on a bunch of music with my brother [Bryce Dessner], some of which we were sending to Taylor also. At that stage, “Coney Island” was all the music except the drums. And as I was writing it, I don’t think I was ever thinking, “This sounds like the National or this sounds like Big Red Machine or this sounds like something totally different.” But Taylor and William Bowery wrote this incredible song, and we first recorded it with just her vocals. It has this really beautiful arc to the story, and I think it’s one of the strongest, lyrically and musically. But listening to the words, we all collectively realized that this does feel like the most related to the National — it almost feels like a story Matt [Berninger] might tell, or I could hear Bryan [Devendorf] playing the drum part.

So we started talking about how it would be cool to get the band, and I called Matt and he was excited for it. We got Bryan to play drums and we got Scott [Devendorf] to play bass and a pocket piano, and Bryce helped produce it. It’s weird, because it does really feel like Taylor, obviously, since she and William Bowery wrote all the words, but it also feels like a National song in a good way. I love how Matt and Taylor sound together. And it was nice because we haven’t played a show in a year, and I don’t know when we will again. You kind of lose track of each other, so in a way, it was nice to reconnect.

When working on Folklore, you had to keep most of your collaborators in the dark about who you were working with. What was the process like this time around, now that everyone knew it was Taylor? How did you keep it a secret?

It was hard. We had to be secretive because of how much people are consuming every shred of information they can find about her, and that’s been an oppressive reality she’s had to deal with. But the fact that no one in the public knew allowed for more freedom of enjoying the process. A lot of the same musicians that played on Folklore played on Evermore. Again, it was a situation where I didn’t tell them what it was, and they couldn’t hear her vocals, but I think a lot of them assumed, especially because of the level of secrecy. [laughs] But as funny as this is, I think everyone who’s been involved has been grateful for these records to play on this year and is proud of them. It kind of just doesn’t happen, to make two great records in such a short period of time. Everyone’s a little bit like, “How did this happen?” and nobody takes it for granted.

Taylor has mentioned that you recorded “Happiness” just a week before the album was released. Was that something you guys wrote, recorded, and produced all at the last minute, or was it something you’d been sitting on for a while before you finally cracked the code?

There were two songs like that. One is a bonus track called “Right Where You Left Me,” and the other one was “Happiness,” which she wrote literally days before we were supposed to master. That’s similar to what happened with Folklore, with “The 1” and “Hoax,” which she wrote days before. We mixed all the tracks here, and it’s a lot to mix 17 songs, it’s like a Herculean task. And it was funny, because I walked into the studio and Jon Low, our engineer here, was mixing and had been working the whole time toward this. And I came in and he’s in the middle of mixing and I was like, “There are two more songs.” And he looked at me like, “…We’re not gonna make it.” Because it does take a lot of time to work out how to finish them.

But she sang those remotely. And the music for “Happiness” is something that I had been working on since last year. I had sang a little bit on it, too — I thought it was a Big Red Machine song, but then she loved the instrumental and ended up writing to it. Same with the other one, “Right Where You Left Me” — it was something I had written right before I went to visit Justin, because I thought, “Maybe we’ll make something when we’re together there.” And Taylor had heard that and wrote this amazing song to it. That is a little bit how she works — she writes a lot of songs, and then at the very end she sometimes writes one or two more, and they often are important ones.

My favorite song on the album is “Marjorie,” and I feel like, for most artists, the instinct would be to present a song like that as a somber piano ballad. But “Marjorie” has this lively electronic beat that runs through it — it literally sounds alive. How did you come up with that?

It’s interesting, because with “Marjorie,” that’s a track that actually existed for a while, and you can hear elements of it behind the song “Peace.” This weird drone that you hear on “Peace,” if you pay attention to the bridge of “Marjorie,” you’ll hear a little bit of that in the distance. Some of what you hear is from my friend Jason Treuting playing percussion, playing these chord sticks, that he actually made for a piece that my brother wrote called “Music for Wooden Strings.” They’re playing these chord sticks, and you can hear those same chord sticks on the National song “Quiet Light.”

I collect a lot of rhythmic elements like that, and all kinds of other sounds, and I give them to my friend Ryan Olson, who’s a producer from Minnesota and has been developing this crazy software called Allovers Hi-Hat Generator. It can take sounds, any sounds, and split them into identifiable sound samples, and then regenerate them in randomized patterns that are weirdly very musical. There’s a lot of new Big Red Machine songs that use those elements. But I’ll go through it and find little parts that I like and loop them. That’s how I made the backing rhythm of “Marjorie.” Then I wrote a song to it, and Taylor wrote to that. In a weird way, it’s one of the most experimental songs on the album — it doesn’t sound that way, but when you pick apart the layers underneath it, it’s pretty interesting.

I do have to ask: How did you come to find out about William Bowery’s real identity as Joe Alwyn? Or did you know all along?

I guess I can say now that I’ve sort of known all along — I was just being careful. Although we never really explicitly talked about it. But I do think it’s been really special to see a number of songs on these albums that they wrote together. William plays the piano on “Evermore,” actually. We recorded that remotely. That was really important to me and to them, to do that, because he also wrote the piano part of “Exile,” but on the record, it’s me playing it because we couldn’t record him easily. But this time, we could. I just think it’s an important and special part of the story.

Do you have a personal favorite song or a moment that you’re proudest of?

“‘Tis the Damn Season” is a really special song to me for a number of reasons. When I wrote the music to it, which was a long time ago, I remember thinking that this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made, even though it’s an incredibly simple musical sketch. But it has this arc to it, and there’s this simplicity in the minimalism of it and the kind of drum programming in there, and I always loved the tone of that guitar. When Taylor played the track and sang it to me in my kitchen, that was a highlight of this whole time. That track felt like something I have always loved and could have just stayed music, but instead, someone of her incredible storytelling ability and musical ability took it and made something much greater. And it’s something that we can all relate to. It was a really special moment, not unlike how it felt when she wrote “Peace,” but even more so.

Do you see this collaboration with Taylor continuing onward, to more albums or Big Red Machine projects?

It’s kind of the thing where I have so many musicians in my life that I’ve grown close to, and make things with, and are just part of my life. And I’ve rarely had this kind of chemistry with anyone in my life — to be able to write together, to make so many beautiful songs together in such a short period of time. Inevitably, I think we will continue to be in each other’s artistic and personal lives. I don’t know exactly what the next form that will take, but certainly, it will continue.

I do think this story, this era, has concluded, and I think in such a beautiful way with these sister records — it does kind of feel like there’s closure to that. But she’s definitely been very helpful and engaged with Big Red Machine, and just in general. She feels like another incredible musician that I’ve gotten to know and am lucky to have in my life. It’s this whole community that moves forward and takes risks and, hopefully, there will be other records that appear in the future.

#cute #Aaron Dessner #interview #about taylor #taylor swift #Rolling Stone magazine #making of #evermore album #evermore era

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bananaofswifts · 3 years

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Taylor Swift appears to be waging war over the serial resale of her old master recordings on two fronts. She recently confirmed that she is already underway in the process of re-recording the six albums she made for the Big Machine label, in order to steer her fans (and sync licensing execs) toward the coming alternate versions she’ll control. But now that she’s followed the surprise release of “Folklore” with the very, very surprise release of “Evermore” less than five months later, the thought may occur: If she keeps up this pace, she may have more new albums out on the Republic label than she ever did on Big Machine in a quarter of the time. Flooding the zone to further crowd out the oldies is unlikely to be Swift’s real motivation for giving the world a full-blown “Folklore” sequel this instantaneously: As motivations for prolific activity go, relieving and sublimating quarantine pressure is probably even better than revenge. Anyway, this is not a gift horse to be looked in the mouth. “Evermore,” like its mid-pandemic predecessor, feels like something that’s been labored over — in the best possible way — for years, not something that was written and recorded beginning in August, with the bow said to be put on it only about a week ago. Albums don’t get graded on a curve for how hastily they came together, or shouldn’t be, but this one doesn’t need the handicap. It’d be a jewel even if it’d been in progress forevermore and a day.The closest analog for the relation the new album bears to its predecessor might be one that’d seem ancient to much of Swift’s audience: U2 following “Achtung Baby” with “Zooropa” while still touring behind the previous album. It’s hard to remember now that a whole year and a half separated those two related projects; In that very different era, it seemed like a ridiculously fast follow-up. But the real comparison lies in how U2, having been rewarded for making a pretty gutsy change of pace with “Achtung,” seemed to say: You’re okay with a little experimentation? Let’s see how you like it when we really boil things down to our least commercial impulses, then — while we’ve still got you in the mood.Swift isn’t going avant-garde with “Evermore.” If anything, she’s just stripping things down to even more of an acoustic core, so that the new album often sounds like the folk record that the title of the previous one promised — albeit with nearly subliminal layers of Mellotrons, flutes, French horns and cellos that are so well embedded beneath the profuse finger-picking, you probably won’t notice them till you scour the credits. But it’s taking the risk of “Folklore” one step further by not even offering such an obvious banger (irony intended) as “Cardigan.” Aaron Dessner of the National produced or co-produced about two-thirds of the last record, but he’s on 14 out of 15 tracks here (Jack Antonoff gets the remaining spot), and so the new album is even more all of a piece with his arpeggiated chamber-pop impulses, Warmth amid iciness is a recurring lyrical motif here, and kind of a musical one, too, as Swift’s still increasingly agile vocal acting breathes heat into arrangements that might otherwise seem pretty controlled. At one point Swift sings, “Hey, December, I’m feeling unmoored,” like a woman who might even know she’s going to put her album out a couple of weeks before Christmas. It’s a wintry record — suitable for double-cardigan wearing! — and if you’re among the 99% who have been feeling unmoored, too, then perhaps you are Ready For It. Swift said in announcing the album that she was moving further into fiction songwriting after finding out it was a good fit on much of “Folklore,” a probably inevitable move for someone who’s turning 31 in a few days and appears to have a fairly settled personal life. Which is not to say that there aren’t scores to settle, and a few intriguing tracks whose real-life associations will be speculated upon. But just as the “Betty”/”August” love triangle of mid-year established that modern pop’s most celebrated confessional writer can just make shit up, too, so, here, do we get the narrator of “Dorothea,” a honey in Tupelo who is telling a childhood friend who moved away and became famous that she’s always welcome back in her hometown. (Swift may be doing a bit of empathic wondering in a couple of tracks here how it feels to be at the other end of the telescope.) One time the album takes a turn away from rumination into a pure spirit of fun — while getting dark anyway — is “No Body, No Crime,” a spirited double-murder ballad that may have more than a little inspiration in “Goodbye, Earl.” Since Swift already used the Dixie Chicks for background vocals two albums ago, for this one she brings in two of the sisters from Haim, Danielle and Este, and even uses the latter’s name for one of the characters. Yes, the rock band Haim’s featured appearance is on the only really country-sounding song on the record… there’s one you didn’t see coming, in the 16 hours you had to wonder about it. Yet there are also a handful of songs that clearly represent a Swiftian state of mind. At least, it’s easy to suppose that the love songs that opens the album, “Willow,” is a cousin to the previous record’s “Invisible String” and “Peace,” even if it doesn’t offer quite as many clearly corroborating details about her current relationship as those did. On the sadder side, Swift is apparently determined to run through her entire family tree for heartrending material. On “Lover,” she sang for her stricken mother; on “Folklore,” for her grandfather in wartime. In that tradition the new album offers “Marjorie,” about the beloved grandmother she lost in 2003, when she was 13. (The lyric videos that are being offered online mostly offer static visual loops, but the one for “Marjorie” is an exception, reviving a wealth of stills and home-movie footage of Grandma, who was quite a looker in a miniskirt in her day.) Rue is not something Swift is afraid of here anymore than anywhere else, as she sings, “I should’ve asked you questions / I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me / Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt / ‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me,” lines that will leave a dry eye only in houses that have never known death. The piece de resistance in its poignance is Swift actually resurrecting faint audio clips of Marjorie, who was an opera singer back in the day. It’s almost like ELO’s “Rockaria,” played for weeping instead of a laugh. Swift has not given up, thank God, on the medium that brought her to the dance — the breakup song — but most of them here have more to do with dimming memories and the search for forgiveness, however slowly and incompletely achieved, than feist. But doesn’t Swift know that we like her when she’s angry? She does, and so she delves deep into something like venom just once, but it’s a good one. The ire in “Closure,” a pulsating song about an unwelcome “we can still be friends, right?” letter from an ex, seems so fresh and close to the surface that it would be reasonable to speculate that it is not about a romantic relationship at all, but a professional one she has no intention of ever recalling in a sweet light. Or maybe she does harbor that a disdain for an actual former love with that machinelike a level of intensity. What “Evermore” is full of is narratives that, like the music that accompanies them, really come into focus on second or third listen, usually because of a detail or two that turns her sometimes impressionistic modes completely vivid. “Champagne Problems” is a superb example of her abilities as a storyteller who doesn’t always tell all: She’s playing the role of a woman who quickly ruins a relationship by balking at a marriage proposal the guy had assumed was an easy enough yes that he’d tipped off his nearby family. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer ‘ Til someone’s on their knees and asks you / ‘She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s fucked in the head’ / They said / But you’ll find the real thing instead / She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.” (Swift has doubled the F-bomb quotient this time around, among other expletives, for anyone who may be wondering whether there’s rough wordplay amid Dessner’s delicacy — that would an effing yes.) “‘Tis the Damn Season,” representing a gentler expletive, gives us a character who is willing to settle, or at least share a Christmas-time bed with an ex back in the hometown, till something better comes along. The pleasures here are shared, though not many more fellow artists have broken into her quarantine bubble this time around. Besides Haim’s cameo, Marcus Mumford offers a lovely harmony vocal on “Cowboy Like Me,” which might count as the other country song on the album, and even throws in something Swift never much favored in her Nashville days, a bit of lap steel. Its tale of male and female grifters meeting and maybe — maybe — falling in love is really more determinedly Western than C&W, per se, though. The National itself, as a group, finally gets featured billing on “Coney Island,” with Matt Berninger taking a duet vocal on a track that recalls the previous album’s celebrated Bon Iver collaboration “Exile,” with ex-lovers taking quiet turns deciding who was to blame. (Swift saves the rare laugh line for herself: “We were like the mall before the internet / It was the one place to be.) Don’t worry, legions of new Bon Iver fans: Dessner has not kicked Justin Vernon out of his inner circle just to make room for Berninger. The Bon Iver frontman whose appearance on “Folklore” came as a bit of a shock to some of his fan base actually makes several appearances on this album, and the one that gets him elevated to featured status again, as a duet, the closing “Evermore,” is different from “Exile” in two key ways. Vernon gets to sing in his high register… and he gets the girl. As it turned out, the year 2020 did not involve any such waiting for Swift fans; it’s an embarrassment of stunning albums-ending-in-“ore” that she’s mined out of a locked-down muse.

#taylor swift #evermore #review

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