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theinsanecrayonbox · 11 days

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FOP: A New Wish ep1-4

alright, lets do this

long time watchers will know that i live for FOP lore, i die for FOP lore, and even in it's worst examples i try to find something of value...and then run away screaming like a lunatic to make it my own and a million times better lol

so New Wish. this is the...3rd sequel attempt (after the Live Action movies, and Fairly Odder) and could be considered the 5th continuation (if you count Sparky season and Chloe season as separate continuation attempts)

as a quick reminder, like s3-5 were my jam, Superverse is my baby forever, i hated 99% of the Sparky season, love Chloe but the season was heavily flawed, the LA movies suck (Christmas is the best only because it's a holiday special), and Fairly Odder was a huge hot mess that was very questionable

so again, lets do this

Episode 1: Fly Part 1 and 2

uhg ok first just going by the title, we are doing the stupid and counting half episodes (15 min segments) as separate full episodes again huh? i hate this, it makes keeping track of the chronology harder, and makes it so the TV Guide won't always register new episodes because they'll split a previously aired with an unaired but he guide says 'has already aired" so you miss the other new half. OR you get duplicate recordings of the same episode half because they keep pairing it with a new one and your DVR fills up and just urgh. it's terrible, 30 min blocks should be the norm again. please fix all animation peoples.

anywhos, onto the episode proper

i had seen the opening theme before this, and yes i approve of the completely revamped/brand new opening song. it's got the right vibe, but is it's own thing. they tried it with Chloe...but that just felt like a copy/paste clip show element. this is it's own thing, it evokes the original but is still itself unique.

and i guess i could do it now; the art style. i'm...eh? it's hard to explain. there's times when i'm getting an eerie uncanny valley effect where my brain says that they're like flat puppets (you know the kind you made in grade school out of construction paper and brass tabs so the joints would work) and that's not right. this isn't stop motion, but sometimes it looks it and i can't process that. it's...eh? maybe i'll be more used to it by the end of the 4th episode, and if not i'm sure over time i'll be used to it. it's not bad by any means, LEAGUES above the CGI in Fairly Odder. but it's...uncanny.

the title card being 2d while the episode isn't though is slightly jarring. HOWEVER i do appreciate having a 2d model for Hazel that is easy to see and not a blink and you'll miss is thing like in Fairly Odder (she also looks far better duh lol). it's just slightly odd to do it this way, idk maybe that's just me. it's fine.

not immediately recognizing any of the staff credits aside from the obvious...that could be good or bad...

the style is looking more stop motion clay now...weird...

but i cannot get over how many Chloe elements Hazel has to her. you've got the tooth gap, the voice is similar, the enthusiasm over learning things, collecting things. as i said above, i actually LOVE Chloe, it's just the writers didn't really use her to her full potential. it feels like Hazel is a doo-over to do it right. idk if that's a good or bad thing, because i want Hazel to stand on her own, but i also want Chloe to not just get swept up and hidden away in shame like Sparky; he deserves it, she doesn't. but back to the episode...

it is also a nice changeup that Hazel is in a more urban setting; it's still more west than east sure, but Dimmsdale was suburbia, so this is a new setting with different problems to tackle. and her being a younger child is also a new and exciting development. there is so much potential here, it is exciting!

are they going to explain why Cosmo and Wanda are pretending to be humans again? i know descriptions mentioned retirement...but why would the retain their magic...or unlimited magic at least.

is Hazel's dad the new Crocker?

Dev Dimmadome is the bully id ok...wait your dad is Dale Dimmadome?? HOLY COW! we have a spot on the timeline here folks!!! Dale was 16-18 when freed from Vicky's basement, and Dev here is a 10 year old, so this is at minimum 10 years in the future from the main series, if not more (because teen marriage/pregnancy bad, probably safe to assume Dale didn't have a kid that early). but how cool! and it makes sense that dale would move out of Dimmsdale given his history, and that his dad would give him control of stuff. ok Dev, i like you, you can be the new Remy with some Trixie and Tad and Chad blended in there.

ok that was a nice and easy and fast introduction of our supporting cast with a brief character trope to each. i like it.

heh ghost, gotta have a DP joke don't we

zomr the screencaps of Cosmo's times in space, pfftt. great continuity nod and visual gag. Totally/Spaced Out caps are obvious, the white asteroid one i don't recognize off the top of my head, but...that's an Oh Yeah! Darth Cosmo...idt they were in space for that one? how weird that they pulled s0 for this and Odder

i love it. Hazel's problems are realistic and plausible, and she's trying to deal with them in a way that makes sense. things suck, so yeah she'd need fairies. again, the element that a lot of later FOP lacked was the fact that these were mundane problems that just needed a little help to get through....and using magic usually made them worse and at the end of the day it was the lack of magic that made it better actually. i think that might be a reason why App Trap wasn't *as terrible* as the rest of the Sparky episodes, because it kinda did that...then again it had Missy and i think i focused on that way more. but conversely, that's why a lot of Chloe's episodes didn't work as well as they could've, because the situations weren't believable to start with. yes we got magic, we gonna be crazy and zany and fun and magical, but...this is also a storyline about kids learning to grow up and deal with things at their own pace. Timmy wasn't allowed to grow up after a certain point, the writers regressed him and kept him in a permanent absurd level, and that's why the series started to fail.

and i need to get back to the episode in progress, because i've already spent 40 min to get 12 min into the FIRST episode of 4 ^^; (maybe doing everything at once was a bad idea after all ^^;;;;;; )

ADULT TIMMY! ok, ok, slow it down! gah i can't spend hours untangling the timelines right now to figure this one out. because that's adult Timmy from The Big Problem (why do we keep referencing this episode suddenly?? i swear Odder did it too), as in he was aged up from 10 to this form instantly. compared that to the OTHER adult versions we've had (Channel Chaser 1, Channel Chasers 2, Channel Chasers college aged, LA, and Odder (we're not counting the grandpa 10 year old from the stupid "i paused time for 20 years" trial episode) ) who appeared to age naturally. this Timmy was guesstimated to be middle-aged, which is 45-65. SO if we go for 45, that's 35 years from the original series, making Dale Dimmadome like 50s...he did not look in his 50s. now i KNOW nothing says that that IS Timmy (though his vest did have T on it...but he is an actor...)

also "Chin-finity War". yes, that's mine now. idk how or when i'll use it, but i'm taking it, no takebacks. thank you FOP team, you know how to feed me well, i appreciate it.

they aren't assigned to her yet, why would saying "I wish" revert their disguises? i mean, i guess since they *wanted* to come out of retirement, their own desires could've triggered it, but still...they could hang around people who said "I wish" before and not be compelled to grant them. are they compelled because they're unattached? is that why genies work the way they do? does attaching oneself to a human limit their capabilities? or protect them more like it?? what lore ramifications does this have on the fae social and power structures?? also she's turned into a fly...that sounds like a genie's monkey paw wish granted and not a fairy's. again, is this because they are unattached to her? are they granting wishes "rule-less" so they are unfocused and more chaotic? are genie wishes twisted because they do it on purpose, or because they are unbound and unfocused?

O.o!!! i did not have Cosmo and Wanda body horror on my FOP bingo card...i applaud you writers, that surprised me

ok a carousel of timeline events...not referencing anything in the past canon...but is dating it for this time frame...eh i'll let it slide (because i missed it the first time because of the shock at the body horror)

wait their welcome gift was a Seemingly Harmless Plant? how did i miss that earlier? lol

dawww Hazel learns the lesson of the day from an ant that's going to be dead in 5 minutes. so sweet. see, using magic to fix mundane problems.

oh that's cool, their front door is an interdimensional portal. so they aren't living as humans in the human world. but oh boy, 2d flashback time again...oh no, but wait canonical confirmation that they were with Timmy for 7 years???? (pft 20, yeah that's real time i know, stilly funny). that...makes sense in both the you age out of fairies thing, but also that it was s8 where things started to loose proper focus what with only 5 episodes that you could fold into s7...and that's where the stupid Timmy's Secret Wish thing was. but also...s9 was Sparky, and s10 was Chloe; if we go back to the alternate timelines thing, ten that means it was after s7 (s8 folded in or not) that each continuation branched off from. best example being that Poof didn't speak until s9, but in the LA movies he only started to speak, so obviously those 2 are separate branches. now, this doesn't explain the lack of Poof in Odder or here (so far) i know, OR how there's a few connective episodes between s9 and s10 (very few) but DOES explain the absence of Sparky from Chloe's season since they could be considered different timelines, and why they both were not in the LA or Odder. this is fascinating, and i eagerly await more of New Wish to see if anything from s9 or s10 show up to disprove this theory

ALSO if they were with Timmy for 7 years, and we assume that 1 season = 1 year (not exactly right but roll with it), then since Dale Dimmadome first appeared in s2 (and last appeared s4) and Dev is 10...wait i lost my math train of thought and my tv went to screensaver i'm taking so long on this gah! well it's not the 35 years that adult Timmy woudl suggest. c'mon i gotta finish this episode before i hit the 90 min mark

oh i had a minute left lol. ahhhhh but the production? drawings on the credits with the instrumental of the opening theme, my heart! i love these latest sequel-reboots that know what they're doing.

so to sum it up; this is a yes. this series is looking good so far. i know, still got 3 more episodes to go. but hopefully it won't take me 3 times the length of the episode to get through them too ^^;;;;

Episode 2: The Department of Magical Violations

ok so this description says something about the fairies reupping their magical permits. makes sense, seeing as they've been retired for who knows how long (and we'll just ignore the magical build up implications of that since they do reside in Fairy World still so do regularly use magic) AND the old lore does have them having to redo their certifications like...twice i think in the canon? i know Temporary Fairy was one, but i think there was at least one other instance. so yeah, i'm on board for the premise, let's go

Jorgen what happened? you're in a sweater vest and you haven't shaved. did you retire too?

ok cool Hazel was already on the list to be assigned a fairy. Cookie though....already not vibing with them (which is the point i know, we want our OG pair tp be best after all)

Jorgen you're in cargo shorts and tall socks. did...did you become a dad?

Wish Fart...eh...i can forgive it

because this trial thing sounds very much like something they've done before too! Wishing Well, Wish Fixers, there's another one idr...oh but this is something different, cool. also nice that Hazel has performance anxiety; i guess that's our lesson for the week.

does this dance off date this...i'm not sure...the dabbing though does pretty sure

ahhhh Cookie's so proficient because she does whatever whether that makes her kids happy or not. she must annoy them so much that they willingly give up their fairy rights too early. thus leading to her productivity levels being "many jobs completed" but not because they were done properly.

oh look Da Rules!

Hazel hates chocolate chip cookies? hmmm...i guess i can still like you

huh just now noticed that the fairies are scaled smaller than Hazel.

mk, so yeah lesson of the week was communication and standing up for yourself. nice, sweet, simple. onto the next half!

Episode 3: Teacher's Pal

this description says she's lonely and wants to make friends. mk, that's a good lesson of the week, and very relatable. the title card even reminds me of A Wish Too Far...well in vibes, not in matching title card art obviously

"Dimmadelphia Enrichment Center" is the name of the school

oh wow that's interesting; Cosmo and Wanda took up her pop-it keychains but weren't them, they were overlaid on them.

"Dimmy Shimmy"...yeah...i don't get tiktok dances either

hm maybe the principal is the new Crocker...

wait does ASMR boy have a d20 on his shirt???

yup that's your lesson Hazel. see, a mundane problem made worse by magic and fixed in the end by the MC growing up and taking responsibility. good story telling

and was really a breeze to watch *shrugs* not every story is action packed or dripping in lore. as i said, some of the best stories are t he mundane and in the end are about growing up on your own terms at your own pace.

Episode 4: A Dinosaur in Dimmadelphia

it's the last aired thing my Xfinity On Demand is giving me, since this isn't on Paramount+ yet. weird that they list the previous 2 as a full ep2, yet the wiki has the half episodes (save for the pilot) being individual numbers. so for the sake of me not complaining, and simplicity, i'll just use the wiki as an episode guide from now on

(also Robby Daymond is part of the cast??? hurray! ok you just scored points with me. thanks wiki for telling me) (oh wait this is supposed to be on Netflix...but not yet...ok, so Xfinity we remain on)

so this description says dinosaurs. should be fun!

"Dimmsonian Museum" lol

"Obtuse Rubber Goose from 2001 BC" pffffft cute

classic wish train going on. get a dino, talk to him, get people to not care, don't send him back, make him fit into modern society.

convolute dover the top parade thing? lol sure

black vans huh? oh it's the mayor, not MERF, hm

but hey day is saved. and i guess a dinosaur just...is around now...mk

so this was a little less mundane, but you know that's ok too. it is a cartoon, we are silly and out there, not everything is a lesson of the week. (though one would argue that having a dinosaur around would lead to the magic reveal...but eh...)

so after 4 episodes...yeah the style was grown on me, it's less off putting. and yes, the writing here is doing very well. the team seems to know what they're doing, and they're paying attention to the past canon lore BUT they have the advantage of having a new main cast so they can be a bit looser with it. the easter eggs are fun, the energy is high, it's all good. i am looking forward to more of this series (and trying to detangle the timelines XD)

#kp talks fop #kp watches tv #review #spoilers

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zerochanges · 3 years

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2020 Favorite Video Games

I don’t know if I am an outlier or if this is the same for everyone else but I really did not play a lot of games this year. 2020 was a very harsh year for all of us, especially for me for some personal reasons. So to get to the chase, I am just gonna say it left me not doing much in what little free time I did have, and I didn’t play much either. Usually I try to keep my lists for ‘favorite of the year’ to only titles released that year but since I played so little this year, screw it. I am gonna include any game I played this year regardless of release date.

Collection of SaGa

By far a flawed rerelease. It’s bare bones: there are no advance features you would usually expect out of these kinds of emulated rereleases like save states, fast forward, or rewind, and there was no real effort made to touch up almost 30 year old localizations that had to meet Nintendo of America’s then harsh standards. This really is just 3 roms slapped into a nice looking interface with an option to increase the game speed (which by the way you better use, the characters walk very slow in these old games).

I am bit harsh here, but only because I thought the Romancing SaGa remasters and the upcoming SaGa Frontier remaster all looked like they got a great budget and a lot of love while this is just another Collection of Mana situation (moreso specifically talking about Seiken Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana part of that collection). I would have loved to see Square Enix do a bit more for these older games. Or at least include the remakes. Seiken Densetsu 1 had two great remakes, both unused in Collection of Mana, and all three of these original SaGa titles have remakes that have never seen the light of day outside of Japan. How great would it have been to get the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1, as well as the Nintendo DS remakes of Saga 2 and SaGa 3?

But my gripes aside, these games are still fun as they ever were. Replaying SaGa 1 specifically during the holiday season really helped calm me down and made me feel at ease. It’s easy to forget but even in their Gameboy roots there are a lot of funky and weird experimental choices being made in these games. They aren’t your run-of-the-mil dragon quest (or considering the gameboy, maybe pokemon would be more apt) clones.

Raging Loop

Perhaps my favorite game of the year, Raging Loop is one of the best visual novels I have ever played hands down. The level of creativity and splitting story paths that went into it is simply mind blowing. The basic premise is both a wonderful throwback to the old days of Chunsoft sound novels while still modern and somewhat reminiscent of both Higurashi and Danganronpa. Essentially you play as Haruaki, a poor slub that got lost in the mountains with no clue where to go until you stumble upon an old rural village with a strange history and even stranger superstitions. Before you know it there has been a murder and the Feast is now afoot.

The less said about Raging Loop the better, although I do want to say a lot about it one day if I ever can write a proper review of it. This is a gripping game that will take hold of you once you get into it though and never let go. I actually 100%-ed this and I very rarely do that. I got every ending, every bonus hidden ending, played the entire game twice to hear all the hidden details it purposely hides on your first play through, played all the bonus epilogue chapters, unlocked all the hidden voice actor interviews, collected all the art work, etc, etc. I was just obsessed with this game, it’s that damn good! And the main character is maybe the best troll in all of video games, god bless Haruaki.

Root Double

From Takumi Nakazawa, long time contributor to Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work comes a game any fan of Zero Escape or Uchikoshi in general will probably enjoy. Root Double, like its name suggests is a visual novel with two different routes, hence Root Double. The first route stars Watase Kasasagi, the leader of an elite rescue team in the midst of their greatest crisis yet that could lead to nuclear devastation as they try to evacuate a nuclear research facility that has gone awry.

The other route stars Natsuhiko Tenkawa, an everyday high schooler whose peaceful life is thrown into turmoil when he stumbles upon a terrorist plot to destroy the nuclear facility in the city and his attempts to stop them. Together the two separate plots weave into one and creates a really crazy ride. Part Chernobyl, part science fiction, any fan of the genre will easily enjoy it. And hey it’s kind of relevant to include on this list too since it just got a Switch port this year (I played it on steam though).

Snack World

I was shocked upon starting Snack World as it is instantly incredibly charming, witty, and downright hilarious at times yet I heard almost zero people talk about it. EVER. This game is Dragon Quest levels of quirky though, and the localization is incredible. The game has such an oddball sense of humor that works really well with its presentation right down to the anime opening video that sings about the most bizarre things. Instead of the usual pump up song about the cool adventure ahead we get stuff like wanting to go out to a restaurant and eat pork chops.

The self aware/fourth wall breaking humor is just enough to be really funny, but doesn't overstay its welcome and always makes it work right in the context of the dialogue. And finally, just everything; with the menus, the name of side quests and missions, and the character dialogue -- are all just so witty and full of quirky humor. This is one hell of a charming and funny game and addictive to boot.

Trials of Mana

Trials of Mana has gone from one of those legendary unlocalized games, to one of the first major breakthroughs in fan translation, to finally getting an official English release complete with a fully 3D remake. In a lot of ways from a western perspective this game has had an incredible journey. As for this remake itself, I really found myself having tons of fun with it. I loved the graphics, and the voice acting while a bit on the cheaper side almost kind of adds to the charm since both the graphics and acting really give it an old PS2 vibe. I know that is probably just more me being weird but yeah, I had to say it.

I really hope Square Enix sticks to this style of remake more often, instead of just doing Final Fantasy VII Remakes that break the bank and involve extensive tweaking to both plot and game play. I’ll take smaller budget projects that play more like the original game any day personally. I wouldn’t mind if they also deliver a brand new Mana game all together in this engine either.

Utawarerumono Trilogy

This year saw the release of the first entry in the series, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen--and thus finally after three years since the sequels Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth came out in 2017 the trilogy is now complete in English. I ended up binging through Prelude to the Fallen very fast shortly after it came out and immediately jumped on to the sequels. Perhaps the best part of 2020 was that I finally played all three of these fantastic games, and did so back-to-back-to-back. Playing the first Utawarerumono was an experience I will never forget, it was like visiting old friends again that I haven’t seen in ages, by and large thanks to the fact that I saw the anime adaption of the game when I was much younger, nearly a decade ago. Back then I would have never of dreamed that I would get to play the actual game and get the real experience.

And it only got better from here, as all three games are such wonderful experiences from start to finish. The stories are all so deep, and by the time you get to the third entry, Mask of Truth, it’s crazy to see how they all connected over so many years and weaved together into a plot much bigger than they ever were. What carries it beyond all that though has to be the fun and addicting strategy role playing game aspect, which while a bit on the easy side, is still so much fun and helps make the game feel better paced since you get to play the conquests your characters go on and not just read about all the battles they fight. Beyond that the games are packed full of awesome characters, and I know I’ll never forget the amazing leads in all of them. Hakuowlo, Haku, and Oshtor will all go down as some of the greats to me.

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Ys: Memories of Celceta is a full 3D remake of Ys IV, a rather infamous game in Falcom’s Ys series. Not to get bogged down too much into the history of Falcom but by this point they were facing a lot of hardship and had to outsource this entry to other developers, and thus passed it on to two particular developers they had a business relationship with, creating two unique versions of Ys IV. Tonkin House who had worked on Super Famicom port of Ys III with Falcom ended up creating their own YS IV entry, Mask of the Sun for the very same system, where Hudson soft who had produced the much beloved Ys Books I & II remakes for the Turbografix (PC Engine) CD add-on created their own Ys IV entry Dawn of Ys for that console. Both games followed guidelines and ideas outlined from Falcom themselves but both radically diverged from each other and turned into completely different games.

Falcom finally putting an end to this debate on which version of Ys IV you should play have gone and created their own definitive Ys IV in 2012 for the Playstation Vita. I played the 2020 remastered version of this remake on my PS4. I even bought this on the Vita when it first came out but I am horrible and only horde games, never play them. So it was a lot of fun to finally play this.

Memories of Celceta is probably one of the best starting points for anyone looking to get into Ys, especially if you only want to stay with the 3D titles as out of all the 3D entries this explains the most about the world and series protagonist Adol Christian. Beyond that it’s just another fantastic entry in a wonderful series that has a few good twists hidden behind it, especially for long time fans of the series.

Random Video Game Console Stuff

Xbox Has Blue Dragon: I actually got an Xbox One this year for free from my brother. Because of that I started to play Blue Dragon again and there’s a lot I would love to say about this game. I don’t know if I am fully committed to replaying it all the way through however but I find myself putting in a couple hours every few days and enjoying myself again. Does anyone else remember Blue Dragon? I feel like it really missed its audience and had it come out nowadays and probably for the Switch it would have really resonated with the Dragon Quest fandom a lot more instead of being thrown out to die on Xbox and constantly compared to Final Fantasy VII and the like which it had nothing at all similar with.

The Turbografx 16 Mini: This was probably one of the best mini consoles that have come out and I feel like thanks to the whole 2020 pandemic thing it was largely forgotten about. That’s a shame, it has a wonderful variety of great games, especially if you count the Japanese ones (god I wish I could play the Japanese version of Snatcher included), and a wonderful interface with fantastic music. One of these days I would really like to be able to play around with the console more seriously than I have already.

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon Never Existed: So Nintendo localized the first ever Fire Emblem game on Nintendo Switch which is awesome to see them touching Famicom games again--I haven’t seen Nintendo of America rerelease old Famicom titles since Mysterious Murasame Castle on the 3DS, but their trailer hilariously made it seem like this is the first time ever they released Fire Emblem when in fact they had already localized the remake Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS nearly 10 or 11 years ago. I and many other fans I talked to all found this really hilarious, probably solely because of how much they kept repeating the fact that this is the first time you will ever be able to experience Marth’s story.

All that aside though I have to say the collector edition for this newly localized Famicom game is probably the most gorgeous retro reproduction I have seen in a long time, and I really spent many many hours just staring at the all clear glass mock cartridge. I have found myself really obsessing over retro reproductions during 2020, and obtained quite a few this year. I really hope this trend continues to go on in 2021 as recreating classic console packaging and cartridges is a lot of fun.

#video games #collection of saga final fantasy legend #SaGa #SaGa I #SaGa II #SaGa III #Raging Loop #Root Double #Snack World #Trials of Mana #Seiken Densetsu 3 #Utawarerumono #Ys #Ys IV #ys memories of celceta

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holidaywishes · 4 years

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It Had To Be You XLVIII

Chapter Forty Eight: Ruin My Life/Messages From Her

Summary: It’s been two days since you and Tyler were together and you try to Face Time him but Karen interferes.

Warning: hmm.. hopefully some fluff?

Author’s Note: So, this is another relatively short chapter but the next chapter is pretty long and it’s.. a lot. To say the least. I cried when I wrote most of it so it’s quite a ride and an interesting way to go. I hope you enjoy this small reprieve in these last two chapters from the angst to come and the angst that has been. So the title for this one is a choice, depending on how the mood you have while reading the chapter. I love both songs so much but they’re such different vibes and they both fit with the feel of the chapter. Ruin My Life is a bit more upbeat and cute while Messages From Her has that kind of melancholy, angsty feeling that the series has. So, I leave the song and the chapter title up to you for this one -- sort of like a choose your own adventure! I hope you enjoy it either way!

Song Credit: Ruin My Life -- Zara Larsson/Messages From Her -- Sabrina Claudio

masterlist

the other masterlist

It was Canada Day, which meant it was one day until you would be walking down the aisle to marry the love of your life. You and Tyler had agreed that he would spend the nights in Brampton with his mom and you would take the lake house; so you wouldn’t have to worry about bringing your dress or forgetting anything important. It also meant that you were able to have a big Canada Day party by the lake with some of your friends and family who had come to Ontario for the wedding. But you wanted Tyler there. You missed having him around so you snuck away to FaceTime him; listening to the chiming as you waited for him to answer

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Karen said from behind just as Tyler picked up

“Nothing..”

“Hello?” Tyler said

“You’re not supposed to see each other before the wedding!” She said as she made her way over to where you were standing

“There were no rules against us FaceTiming!”

“Yeah!” Tyler added, chuckling as he did so

“Goodbye, Tyler.” Karen said and he shrugged before hanging up

“Wow. He gave up so quickly” you joked

“Have you finished your vows?” She asked

“Yes.”

“You’re lying”

“I am not!” you countered, “I finished my vows but I haven’t written his note yet.”

“Note?”

“Yeah, Tyler said we should write each other letters and read them before we see each other tomorrow.”

“Oh that’s cute. I’ve seen those pictures on Pinterest.”

“Right?! I was surprised he wanted to do it but now I can’t seem to write the note...”

“Have you started?”

“I tried,” you sighed, “but I keep getting distracted.”

“Hmm” she hummed and you cocked your head to the side, furrowing your brows at her response

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Nothing. Here,” she said, sitting you down at the table and handing you some paper, “start writing. It’ll flow easily, I’m sure. When you’re done, come out and get some food.” You rolled your eyes at her, huffing as she walked away but you tried to jot some thoughts down; flying through memory after memory of your relationship with Tyler, filling the page with the ones that made you smile and left out the ones that brought tears to your eyes. It was a small thing but it truly made you feel closer to him.

“I love you” he texted, bringing a smile to your face

“I love you, too,” you replied, “I just finished my letter to you”

“Ahh, late with that huh? I thought you’d have that done earlier. I know I did.”

“You did not!”

“I did too! As soon as I suggested it, I knew what I wanted to say so I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget any of it.”

“Wow. I’m actually shocked”

“I feel like I should be offended by that...”

“No! I love that you were able to write it so quickly. I miss you...”

“I miss you, too. I can’t wait to marry you tomorrow”

“What are you doing right now?”

“My mom invited some people over so we’re having a little barbeque with the family and some friends”

“Okay, I’ll let you get back to it. Tell everyone I say hi. I should probably get back to our little party as well”

“Will do. See you tomorrow, I love you.”

“I love you, too.” You went back to the party, grabbing a plate of food and talking to everyone before Lucy put a Canada Day headband on you and forced you to take pictures and you took some shots on your own phone, about a million boomerangs included, and quickly posted them on your Instagram. It wasn’t long before you came across Candace’s story from the party, smiling as you watched Tyler cook steaks on the grill as Jackie and Cassidy danced in the background.

“Whatcha doin’?” Diana said as she looked over your shoulder

“Just checkin’ Instagram” you answered and she laughed

“You’re getting married tomorrow!” she exclaimed

“I know! It’s crazy right?”

“It is!” she replied while you continued to scroll through your feed

“I’m happy though,” you smiled to yourself, “like really happy. I’m a little shocked that he still wants to marry me, especially after that whole ‘postponing the wedding’ thing, but he said he wrote his letter as soon as he thought about it. He said he misses me.”

“The bar seems real low there, (Y/N)” she shrugged

“Hey!” you scoffed, “look I know how that sounds but you’d have to see the change that I see. He’s nowhere near who he was when we first met him”

“I know that,” she admitted, “and I know that he is so excited to marry you. I’m happy you’re happy and so in love.”

“Yeah,” you smiled to yourself, “I am.” Diana sat back in her chair, smiling at you and how happy you were while your face was still buried in your phone. Something caught your eye in one of Cass’s posts so you went back to check it out but you couldn’t get a proper look at it so you ignored it for now

“Hey!” Katie said, popping in front of you and taking your phone from you, “you can’t ignore all these people! They’re here for you”

“I’m sorry,” you laughed, “I just miss him. And I wanna see what he’s up to”

“He’s at a party. Just like you. Celebrate with us” she pulled you up and gestured for Diana to come to the dock to watch the fireworks. As soon as everyone sat down at the edge of the dock, feet dangling into the water as they sipped their drinks, you got a notification that Tyler was going live, so you opened the link quickly just to see what was happening, walking up to the house to be able to turn the sound on. You watched as Tyler scanned through the backyard surrounded by family and friends, preparing to go out on a boat to get a better vantage point of his fireworks. You listened as Tyler explained how he was getting married tomorrow and how happy he was to have so much support from those closest to him. Your heart was warm as he expressed how much he loved you, mentioning you by name as much as he could. You were about to close the video and head back to your spot on the dock when you heard a voice say something from beside the camera

“You’re going to be fully off the market...” Kate said and Tyler moved the camera to show her, “how does it feel? Knowing your whole life is going to change?”

“Honestly?” he questioned and you scrunched your eyebrows in confusion, “it’s the best feeling. Knowing that I’m going to be with the person I love most. It’s amazing.”

“Well,” she said, smiling directly at Tyler even though it just seemed like it was into the camera, “I guess congratulations are in order!”

“That’s what the fireworks are for aren’t they?” They both laughed and you finally decided to close the app and lock your phone. It was such a sweet sentiment but the fact that he didn’t tell you that Kate would be there left a weird taste in your mouth. You completely intended to put it out of your mind, because there didn’t seem to be anything going on other than friendly banter, but you found yourself going back to Cassidy’s story to see if Kate had been there all day or if she just showed up for the fireworks; noticing her in the background of one of the stories and you found yourself back at the table where you wrote your letter to Tyler. You scrolled through both Candace and Cassidy’s posts to see what you could see, resting your left elbow on the table and bringing your hand to your head as you continued to look through everything. After a while, you dropped your phone and put it to the side, looking around you to grab another piece of paper and your hand began to write, as if it were possessed, much more quickly than the original letter. When you had finished everything, you placed the pen to the right of the paper and read through the note; unsure of what you intended to do with it but hiding it in the drawer for the time being.

“Where did you go?” your phone chimed as Diana’s text came through

“You’re missing the fireworks!” Lucy’s text read

“You’re not checking in on Tyler again are you?” Katie asked

“Hey Bride to be! Come to the dock!” Chris sent

“If you’re breaking the rules, you’re in trouble!” Karen joked

“Are you okay?” Ethan asked and your head sank low, thinking about a possible answer to reply with, walking back to the dock when you couldn’t think of anything; Lionel running up to you when you came down the hill. He curled up at your feet and you dropped to kneel beside him, smiling at the comfort he gave before you looked at the group watching the fireworks in front of you.

“There you are!” Lucy called out and you shrugged as you walked over to her, making sure Lionel was with you.

“Here I am!” you replied, trying to keep a smile on your face so no one would ask where you were. So you wouldn’t have to say what you were thinking. So you wouldn’t have to mention a fear that everyone told you wasn’t real.

#Tyler Seguin #Tyler Seguin fic #Tyler Seguin imagine #Tyler Seguin series #NHL #Dallas Stars #imagine #series #masterlist #the other masterlist #it had to be you #It Had To be You series

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hongshoes · 4 years

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I just made my own IPVDb: Internet Pentagon Vids Database with personal ratings because that’s my life now I guess.

This is purely because I’m bored but also because my sad life revolves entirely around them.

Puff Idol

Set during Tomato Kino era, this one’s a great mix of cringeyness (Changgu put that umbrella down pls), musicality (we get the absolute best version of Sha La La that has ever been granted to us) and even educational moments? Who else but pedantic trilingual MUN conference speaker Hongnerd wouldn’t let the members sleep for not saying TEETH the proper way. WHO CARES. Although I’ll forgive him because I, too, once fell asleep whilst standing up, and I feel like we should support each other in this community. We also get Hui speaking English and Kino almost busting a lung which, although they give off very different vibes, are both part of my fav Pentagon’s title tracks. Deserved 5 stars at first but it was until I saw that terrifying cheek kiss at the end. Or whatever that was. But these guys are weird.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fact iN Star

A glorious display of Pentagon’s first passion: roasting each other. Yuto did Shinwon so dirty it made me see the world from a new perspective. But the iconic “I’ll give you more lines” alone deserves a show win. Even Kino calling Hui “Hoetaek-ah” and then being this close to walk through the window to hide in Australia sends me every time. And you know how everyone’s been saying Wooseok deserves an Oscar for the crazy act that makes him look like he’s taking 200V every time he’s on stage? We been knew he invented Hollywood when he acted Yeooner than Yeoone himself in one firy “where’s the camera” gesture. But anyway, the point is that now I can’t listen to Sha La La (2nd best version) without Yanan’s interpretation of Wooseok’s verse now. This video changed me but not sure it’s in a good way.

0 or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ still pondering.

Weekly Idol

Alternatively an hour of Hui embarrassing his members and Yuto laughing instead of breathing. Also the one and only video in which Yeoone made me laugh but he was trying so hard I think that was just out of pity. This video was actually one of the first I watched when I got into them and I started to understand what I got myself into when Wooseok’s special talent was to imitate a broken weeder. Because right that’s something totally normal to be bragging about. I hold this video very dear to my heart, I’ll never say no to Kino dancing on TT or Hui vibin on his piano but you know it was all fun and games until Hong started hugging Jinho from behind out. of. nowhere.

I rate it 1 ugly moon for this very reason 🌝

The Immigration part 1 / part 2

Shinwon only went to tell the host he was ugly then proceeded to sleep on the floor. I needn’t say more. 10 stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Extreme Live

All the expectations vs reality memes condensed into a 4 minute video and the irrefutable proof that Jinho isn’t human. The only bad thing about this is how short it is. I think I’ve done enough good deeds in my life to deserve a part 2 and I’m still waiting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

M2 Premiere Showcase part 1 / part 2

What is up with them that make them take so much pleasure in role playing a body switch? i WaNt To Be HOng BecAusE hiS aBS my ass, the second they get to clown each other they’re dragging each other down into thick mud and quicksand. All whilst tenderly holding hands. Who are these people? Part 2 is even worse. A year into this madness has made it clear to me they’re particularly bad at all games but I should’ve known when I saw them lose so miserably without any competitors. That’s just another video of them begging the staff to tolerate their incompetency. And even then, they’re supposed to make them laugh and what do they do?? Kino?? Decides to fucking dance his pants off as if three torches weren’t enough to heat up the place. How is that funny??? I give it half a star. But I’ll round it down to one, part of it is because Hui and Shinwon being high on life for two potatoes kinda gives me joy, and also cause there’s no half star emoji.

⭐️

Ddingo video (ft. Wooseok’s long face)

Whoever was in charge of captioning this video needs a raise because I’ve never seen a description of a person be as accurate as “Just a happy dummy in the neighbourhood” to talk about Yuto. And being happy in this kind of neighbourhood surely is a big challenge. This video is pure chaos from start to finish. We get a pterodactyl getting kicked, a member of staff losing an eye, Kino just... ridin a pony in full Ginuwine style and a love story between Shinwon and a bowl of radish that was more emotional than the whole Twilight saga.

🌪🌪🌪🌪🌪

K-Pop Insider Quizz

Hongseok being his annoying over the top competitive self even though they all suck is hilarious. This video is just them being stupid and then mocking each other for being stupid. I mean most Kpop groups are priding themselves on mastering every choreo in the industry and here you have Jinho attempting a twerk that looks like he’s 90 years old lost his cane. But the highlight is Hong’s face when scolded by Kino. Nothing will ever top the distress in his eyes and I would pay real money to witness them arguing about milk.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Telepathy Live

This video perfectly sums up their dynamic. Firstly we’ve got maknae line versus a bunch of nutfaces having a blast drawing mono eyebrows on each other line. Secondly, Jinho as a smoll running poop. Who in the world would say no to that.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dear Mother

Atrocious.

-100

#@variety shows you're all cowards for not inviting them #anyway happy pentagon is needed #pentagon #i think those are some of my fav ones but i’ll probably add more when i’mm be inspired enough to write nonsensical bs again #hui #kino #hongseok #jinho #yanan #wooseok #yuto #yeoone #shinwon #*

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kanashierihime · 5 years

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English fanfiction to come

When you have too many ideas and you want to write them down even if it takes years to do it 😂.

Short abc of stories below. Help me decide priority of writing 😊

AoKuro (Kuroko No Basket)

Regrets (One shot) - Warning: Major Character Death. Kuroko remembers Middle School, his young love and the world of empty sympathy that stole his love away.

Can We Still Be Friends (Around 8 chapters not sure)- Warning: Depression, suicidal thought - Kuroko and Aomine didn’t see each other for two years after being thrown away from the team of Miracles . Everything change when while doing his shopping he spots Aomine’s mother who asks him if he maybe could visit her son in the mental hospital.

Wish (4 chapters) - Aomine was bored. Everything was boring. New team, new rivals. Boredom created his life, till one day he wakes up from his nap in a cat body. Just what the hell?!

Chrisawa (Daiya No A)

You Get My Love (around 10 chapters not sure) Warning: Depression, Homophobia, yips - Sawamura tries hard to blend into a team, but everyone just reminds him that he isn’t needed. The only person that actually cares about him is his mentor- Chris. He still loud and stubborn to be an ace, but then yips happened and he just couldn’t win over this. So he goes back to Nagano feeling worse than ever. He failed everyone. But surprisingly his mentor still visits him making Sawamura’s heart do some weird backflips.

Forget ur books (4 chapters). Sawamura was cursed as a child for disrespecting minor god. Now every time he read book he can make it real around him. So his family reminds him to read in a closed house to not affect the city in this weird magic. But one day while Sawamura is reading some of the history book no one noticed that one of the windows is open, turning the city into a place where nothing is normal. Especially not these warriors with swords ready to cut anyone in their way.

Mirror (2 chapters) Warning: Cheating, coming out. Chris is working a doctor busy with his carrier. He has a wife but their marriage isn’t happy. But then one day to his clinic came a young boy (who wasn’t so young) who made his heart skip a bit with his smile and nice words.

BakuDeku (Boku No Hero Academia)

(Don’t comment how most of these fics have P!nk song as a title, her song are just A+ okay? xD)

Trapped Mind (5 chapters) Warning: Angst, Hurt, Addiction to drug, alcohol, sex, depression, suicidal attempt, memory lost. Izuku fell into his own trap of being a perfect hero. Katsuki not wanting to see his friends being judged to death by being just human that can make mistakes, decide to play the bad guy and till Izuku won’t get his memories back. But this task is far harder than any mission he did so far. Being hated by everyone left him trapped in a dead-end.

Who Am I (5 chapters) Warning: Toxic parental love, Memory lost, bullying, depression. Izuku moves to USA as a child after his accident where he loses half of his right leg. His mother is warry of everyone in his surroundings, she doesn’t want him to go back to Japan and meet with a person she blames of being responsible for his accident. But Izuku is having enough of being trapped in her arms and want to find out who he is, who he was before his mother decided to create him as a weak man.

90 Days (4 chapters?) Warning: angst. Izuku always wanted to repair his friendship with Katsuki. Wanted to laugh with him, study, going out. But reality showed that it’s not possible. Katsuki found new friends, people he likes to hang out. Their second year in UA and Katsuki b-day was the last straw to kill his heart. Seeing his friend laughing with their classmates, not being bothered by all these hugs and photos. Izuku runs away to his dorm room to cry his eyes out. And decides to go over Kacchan by the end of 90 days.

Walk Me Home (6 chapters) Izuku has autism that prevents him from having normal life. His only friend is Katsuki who seems enoying spending his time with Deku. But hearing his mom talking to his dad about her fears of him not being able to function without their help, to even find a job since meeting with people often ends with him having a panic attack. He wants to change, he wants to show his mom and Katsuki that he can be a proper part of society. But for that, he needs Kacchan help.

Secrets (10 chapters) Warning: Child abuse, Angst, pedophilia. Deku is a vocalist in Katsuki band with Kaminari, Tokoyami, Awase. Deku is the only person who can deal with Katsuki moods and can sing the song their drummer creates. Fans and media have their fun wondering what is the relationship between them. Deku also wonders what is his relationship with Kacchan and why he can’t sing his own songs.

Happy (around 10 chapters) Warning: Soulmate, angst, depression. Izuku loves heroes even tho he wasn’t born with a quirk, but he don’t have time to dream since his family life isn’t so happy. His dad found his true soulmate and his mom lost her mind over broken heart since for her his dad was her soulmate. Izuku from his young days must watch out for his mom, and every day he prays to not find her dead when he returns home. Even meeting All Might didn’t make him eager to focus in hero path. He refuse All Might to be a hero, he doesn’t have time and his mom would go crazy if he would left her side. Wanting to save Kacchan was just a short thought of ending his misery. But somehow Deku ends up in UA in GE curse. And soon he finds up that his Soulmate is Kirishima. He feels how his body is changing because of it thing he doesn’t realize that Katsuki isn’t happy to find out.

Silent Scream (5 chapters) Warnings: Bullying. Izuku has troubles with speaking, so his parents showed him sign langue which find out more fun and enjoyable. But soon fun times ends when he ends up with the same kindergarten as Katsuki who wants to make him speak no matter what. Everything goes in the far worse direction the moment when Katsuki gets his quirk. Not being able to control his new ability he goes too far with the explosion that made Izuku lose his hearing in the left ear. (okay so it;s “A Silent Voice” but in MHA AU xD)

Hurt 2b Human (DUNNO) Warning: angst, war, A/B/O, death. They say that Alpha ones are people that were blessed by gods. Omega were fruits of sweet desire for happiness. Katsuki was an Alpha. Japanese Solider who gonna die in Death Chamber any moment. No one knows why Japan lost the war. The only thing he knows that Russia won and now he gonna die. Or maybe there is a hope?

Timebomb (12 chapters) Fantasy AU. Katsuki and Deku fights with the evil mistresses who seeing that she can lose to them decide to split them apart and send Izuku to a different dimension. Katsuki roar with the grief of losing his mate. He captures his enemy to only learn that she can't bring him back. There is no way he gonna see his Deku again. But he can’t give up. He asks Uraraka for help and she creates a necklace to send him to other worlds, tho it will be random... So there he is going through 10 worlds to find his mate and return home with him.

Dream of the Death ( 5 chapters) Warning: major character death. Katsuki has few regrets in life. The biggest is telling his friend to kill himself. But then by villain attack he is sent to the past where Izuku is alive. Soon he realizes that whatever he says to Izuku doesn’t go through. So he changes his tacting and go to his younger self and please him to save Izuku.

Bonus story: Ten Times where Izuku got hit by quirk and made Katsuki ask himself of his sexuality (10 chapters)

Haikyuu!!

Different way of love (3 chapters) Warning: Angst, Homophobia, depression, suicide, dealing with lose. Kuroo thinks he has nice life. Good friends, a lovely boyfriend, and a dog. Nothing to complain. Till in Sawamura’s life show up his first love and things go not the way Kuroo thought it would. Sawamura is dealing with depression, love issues, and past that can't be really forgotten. Life isn’t an easy mission.

Neko Love (4 chapters) Warning: Abuse. Yokai had it enough of being ruled by weak humans. They started a revolution against them and won. Now people are their slaves and taste how yokais felt when humans bullied them for ages. Kuroo is a nekomata. He loves living in Sawamura household. He supposed to leave or rule over his past masters but he can’t find a strength to abuse his young master.

Tengu’s Book (6 chapters) Warning: abuse. Kuroo has the worst luck in the world. He was born with these strange powers and thanks to them he can see yokais. Not very pleasant thing to see. People usually are wary of him and are afraid of his weird looks and muttering. Kuroo is used to being alone. Till one day he meets a tengu who gives him an offer. He gonna be his bodyguard for finding his wings. What can go wrong?

Dragon’s Heart (5 chapters) Warning: Slight angst. Fantasy AU. Iwaizumi is a dragon rider but the thing is, he seems to not being able to bond with his dragon so after his school is destroyed by Demons he searches for beasts master Sawamura who was cursed by Demons to be able to talk with monsters and was thrown from society. Their meeting is awkward. Sawamura can’t really speak human langue since humans usually avoid him and Iwaizumi can’t deal with his responsibilities as a warrior.

Your Heartbeats (one shot) part of my Soulmate AU. Warning: Homophobia. Kuroo meets Bokuto in middle school and for the first time in his short life can feel his heartbeat. Bokuto was looking at him with the same confusion and happiness. All good vibes ended five minutes later when another player commented on how gross they were and should cure this. But does being in love is a really bad thing? Even if it between the same gender?

Let me be drunk for now (5 chapters) Publish AU created by @bringmemyqueen I like this idea so I gonna write something in it. Daichi has enough of his work, of people in his work. Why he seems to attract only men? Doesn’t he deserve some nice lady waiting for him at home? So every night he goes to a bar to drink and forget about his coworkers. He doesn’t know that this nice guy who keeps talking to him while drinking his beer is an author who works under Oikawa. But Iwaizumi is nice and his hands are warm when he touches him.

Where is my fun (one shot) Kenma prefers to stay home and play his videogames. It is his day off, so he has plans of not going out all day. But his friend has a different idea and god. Kenma can’t refuse him.

Bad Guy (one shot) It all started as a simple admiration. Watching Sawamura in action gave him chills. Even his old captain didn;t made him feel this way. He wanted to be tamed by this plain captain so he went to Karasuno to just see the object of his obsession, no big plans for it. Then this weird duo was screaming to him to leave their Queen alone and he barely remembered that cute glasses girl he was focused at Karasuno’s Captain that looked at him with such intensity that Terushima wanted to crawl to him and beg for something he never wanted to do before.

That is freaking long. XD Thank for reading :)

In MHA I wish i could write for different pairing alone fics but it just didn’t click in with me to try it. I’m still try to figure out some characters so their appearing in my fic won’t be a total disaster. (I’m looking at you Inasa xD)

#my stuff #aokuro #chrisawa #bkdk #bakudeku #iwadai #kurodai #terudai #bokuro #kenhima

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ain-t-bovvered · 5 years

Text

14x15 Commentary

Special episode where a bunch of tired and caffeinated Europeans ( plus a sleepy American) scream together, and then die and try to get on with their day ( lol AS IF)

Hello and welcome:

@purpleskiesandcherrypies (Nat)

@dean-winchesters-bacon (Kat) good night babe

@waywardbaby (Zee)

@ain-t-bovvered (Giulia)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Giulia: Oh the music is the stupid episode kind of music

Nat: awww

Zee: Baby dean

Giulia: THE WHIMPERING

J: I didn’t want to leave it there. And I didn't want to just kill it.

M: I’m looking for a new home

Giulia: I can be your new home bb

Nat: NO

Giulia: I DON T TRUST IT

Zee: Bamf Jack!! Two words I never thought I’d use In the same sentence

Nat: We're in Lawrence aren't we

Zee: In what year?

Scooby doo matinee 2$ . WHAT

oh look a Metallica poster. I still have that CD

Giulia: oh look My aesthetic

Giulia: That James Dean vibe tho

What’s this stupid music.

Zee: Charming acres???

Nat: "Where Everybody's Happy" Are we in Pleasant Ville?

I don’t trust shit.

Zee: Splash

See..?

Nat: Brain-mush

Giulia: CLEAN AISLE 3

Nat: Well, good morning to my breakfast

Giulia: TRUEST REACTION on supernatural EVER

Giulia: he loves that snake

Nat: SNAKY

C: *knocks* Hey Jack?

J: I’m good Castiel. [OMG DAAAAD stop breathing on my neck]

C: [sigh, semi-soulless teenagers]

Giulia: What’s up with the all black

C: How's the snake?

J: I don't think he's feeling well. He won’t eat.

well...doesn’t snakes eat rarely tho? like....once a week or something?

Zee: He misses his previous owner

LOOK AT THAT CUTE FUCKING SOFT SMILE . FUCK YOU MISHA

C: He's been through a lot of changes in a short period of time. I guess that's something you have in common.

Nat: He's going dark

Zee: Concerned dad

C: Jack, you killed Michael. You consumed his grace.

Giulia: I. DON T. TRUST. THIS. DID HE THO?

but also.....right now I’m that granny that mistook Cas for her 3rd husband , : “you are so pretty Charles”

Nat: I feel different now.... YA THINK

J: You want to know how much of my soul I had to burn off to kill Michael.

Yeah fuck I wanna know ok.

Nat: How could he know?!

Giulia: can’t cas look it up

Nat: He could stick his hand in there.

Giulia: HE COULD

Nat: That sounded wrong

Giulia: IT DID.

Zee: Deep inside. There I made it worse

J: I try not to think about it.

BAD.

I don’t like that hollow stare Jack, I swear to fucking god Imma slap your soul back into your body.

so I’m listening to the ep with my headphones and BOOOOOOY DID I HEAR THAT SIGH [cranking up the volume to the max and goes back]

Nat: I could eat him alive. And the sandwich

A wild Castiel appears.

C: Oh. Thought you, uh, were gonna sleep until the cows dragged you home.

D: That's not the -- Never mind.

THE *claps* DOMESTICS *claps*

AWE Cass asked about Rowena. [ what was the ship name again? Rostiel?, Caswena?Witchywings?

AWE CAS ASKED ABOUT SAM. [SASTIEEEEL]

D: I think they're both full of crap.

Of course they are, this is Supernatural. Cue painful montage!

*jazz hands*

Giulia: Poor sam

Zee: PTSD

Nat: Sammy :(

Giulia: They were his people

Sam and his fucking trembling lips

Nat: Aw Baby let me hug you

[Dean eating]

Giulia: Das me

Nat: I'm still hungry

Zee: Damn that mouth. It’s big

Giulia: What does it do tho ? wiggling eyebrows

Zee: It eats!! Everything

S: Yeah, well... I'm leaving in ten.

C: Maybe I should go with him. And you can stay with Jack.

me : GASP YES

D: Why do you think he'll talk to me?

hE ‘S YOUR SOOOOON!

C: Well, because he looks up to you.

Dean don’t you roll your eyes at your hub. It’s impolite.

D: I was not great with Sam, you know, when he was, uh...

STOP right there. Don’t give me flashbacks

D: Well, how am I supposed to figure that out?

Cass, your Misha is slipping out, put that voice back into the cave it came out of

C : Just talk to him. Get him to open up.

Audience : * SNORTS * yeah riiiight

C: Sleep until the cows come home.

D: There it is.

C: That's the saying.

*CLAPS* DOMESTICS

Nat: I'm hungryyyyyyyy

Zee: We’ve established that Nat

Nat: I mean.... APART FROM THIRSTYYYYYYYYYYY

Giulia: I’m eating nuts

Zee: I bet you are

Nat: Nut juice. Food against hunger and thirst. New Bumper sticker

Awe Cas is driving BB. [but where is the pimp mobile]

S: I'm good, honestly

C: YEAH I KNOW EVERYBODY IS GOOD

UUUUUH Cas baby, get me all tingly with your sarcasm

Also write that under the series main title as a warning really.

SUPERNATURAL : EVERYBODY IS GOOD

Listen Sam, baby, I can hear your voice breaking, stop with the bullshit.

C is like....you can fill so much bullshit in that moose body

S: we don't have as many Hunters as we used to.

OUCH

Zee: Cas learnt how to use his badge

Giulia: Lame

Nat: "We're FBI..."

Look how cute my baby is...look at him *sobs*

C: Was it more "Scanners" 1, 2, or 3?

OH WOW, IS CAS BEING DEAN RIGHT NOW? (because I’m all for it.)

Giulia: I bet dean made him watch that.

Nat: Charming Acres

Nat: I don't wanna live there

Giulia: I DOOOOO

Zee: It’s creepy ffs

Nat: It's all shades of fucked up. I mean, look!

LOVE IT

C: It's like we're stepping into a Saturday Evening Post. I look at them sometimes after you fall asleep at night. They're very soothing.

I had to google that , not gonna lie. Also....HOW FUCKING CUTE IS THAT?!

Giulia: DEM HAAAAAIR THO.

Giulia: FOXY WIFE

Zee: Foxy wife

S: What was that?

Giulia: i love that time, minus the racism and patriarchy and the war.

Nat: What is wrong with these people

Giulia: Living my dream ok

Zee: Oh shut up babe

Nat: I don't like perfect

Giulia: Cas and his bed hair

Giulia: DEM MILKSHAKES. I BET THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE

Zee: Something fishy, lass

Sammy likes them milkshakes tho

Is it just my impression or Cas is running out of fucks this season?? I love it.

FLATFOOTS

Zee&Nat: We take care of each other.

mmm, don’t like that

Zee: Don’t like the way that sounded

Giulia: suspicious

Mayor: They said something about an aneurysm or something?

Zee: His head exploded

Nat: His head exploded

Giulia: OH NO HIS HEAD EXPLODED

Zee: Gotta love Cas

Giulia&Nat: Like a ripe melon on the sun

Giulia: GOTTA LOVE HIM

Sam panicking.

S: "Like a ripe melon on the sun"?

C: It was an apt metaphor.

As I said : Angel out of fucks

S: Okay, well, maybe next time try to be a little less...apt.

C: The entire town is so strangely picturesque.

Giulia: I KNOOOOOW! , Can I go there?

Zee: NOOOOOOO

Nat: We wouldn't let you

Giulia: Dat dress.

Nat: Bonding time

Jack just gave the snake the cookie crunch , sobs so pure....for now

J: I think he’s sad

Nat: Have you tried bacon

Bacon....the solution to everything. I mean....not wrong, it’s delicious.

Giulia: so dorky

Sniffs Chinese food

D: Well, anyway, you and the, uh, snake...want to go for a little dri-ive?

gets mice .

Nat: mice scare him?

ok but Dean is that squeamish sometimes . It’s hilarious.

...because the mice scared me and I need confort. Also I’ll probably avoid Chinese food for a month so there’s that.

Nat: Ahhh... Jack really talks to that thing

Woman: Not people. Men. I only rent to young men. It's not proper -- young women living alone?

Nat: MORALS. GOTTA HAVE MORALS

*looks at Castiel*

Woman: You know.

...C i like....what

me: sHe fLirtS

Nat: Ya still wanna go there, @Giulia

Zee: She’ll say yes

Giulia: YEAH. Y’all can’t stop me

Zee: See? I’ll tie you down bitch just watch

Nat: Ya CAnT LiVE oN YOuR oWn

Giulia: I’ll work at the diner

Time for some SNOOPING

Giulia: So much hand porn for me

C: - they're...surprisingly passionate.

Sam with a tiny ass cup ready for some gossiping: Passionate how?

Castiel without a speck of blush: She spends, uh, quite a bit of time talking about the -- the shape and the heft of his --

Zee: Such a tiny cup

Please tell me there a DICK PICK in there lol

S: It's getting late, Cass. And you're right. I-I probably need some rest.

oh noe

C: You want to stay here?

S: Why not? Ms. Dowling's making pot roast.

OH NOE

Nat: I can smell head explosion

Zee: I can smell the bleach they’ll use

Nat: And there you go

Giulia: NICE I can live in that fantasy idc

Nat: You won't have us

Giulia: I wouldn’t know

Zee: Impossible. We’re seeped in your bones

Giulia: You can’t miss what you don’t remember

Nat: Yo head's going to explode when you remember, Giuls

D: Why don't you grub up? We still got another couple hours.

J: I'm not really hungry.

I DON’T LIKE IT

D: Give him one of these. I bet he's never had that before.

DEAN NO

J: I don't think you have a firm grasp on what snakes eat.

Zee: Uncomfortable dean

D: Yeah, I always thought they were kind of cool, though.

Nat: Aww...adorable Dean

Giulia: I thrive out of these moments

Zee: Road trip with dad

D: Mm. Well, it's not the snake that's dangerous. It's their...bite.

J: Is -- Is that a saying?

D: It is now.

Nat: hahah... is Dean looking with one he's going to pick?

Nat: Dad move

Giulia: Was that really a way to test jack? With CAKES

Nat: Dean move

Sam’s room is empty

Giulia: Weird Sam time

Zee: Not good

Nat: I told ya

Giulia: Das me jamming

Giulia: He so awkward

Giulia: HALLO!

Giulia: No i don t eat.I'm looking for my partner.

Mrs B: Oh. The very nice, the very tall fella?

Castiel angel of the lord? more like Castiel angel of I’VE RUN OUT OF FUCKS

Mrs.B: Hm. He said he's going for a walk. [pause ] And a milkshake.

Giulia: Still me jamming, ‘He’s got tan shoes with pink shoelaces’

Nat: yeah i mean, what's with her. all of a sudden a new husband?

Nat: My partner

Giulia: I’m looking my partner

Nat: The tall man - yes the very tall man

Zee: The very tall. Man

Giulia: I WOULD HAVE DIED. CAN HE GRAB MY HANDS TOO

Nat: Mr smith is gone long live Mr smith

Giulia: I would like a martini yes

Zee: I was waiting for this

C: Hair? ---He has beautiful hair?

Giulia: HE HAS

Nat: he has beautiful hair

Giulia: BEAUTIFUL HAIR

Giulia: THIS IS COMPLICATED . Cas is like...... WHAT IS THIS I WAS NOT PROGRAMMED FOR THIS. PEOPLE . PEOPLE SKILL. NOT FUNCTIONING .

Giulia: OH LOOK THAT’S MY MOM

Nat: what

Nat: the

Nat: fuck

Giulia: i’m loving this cas

C: I'm so sorry, but last night, his head, um --

Giulia: he had to pause

Giulia: That laugh was creepy

Nat: How about that martini?

Mrs. Smith : No...my husband he’s good.

[ SNORTS ]

Nat: OH god... no I need a drink

Nat: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Giulia: ...

Nat: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Giulia: EW

Nat: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nat: That pony tail

Zee: I don’t like this

Giulia: THAT’S SWELL

Nat: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JUSTIN NO GOOD

what’s up wITH THE FUCKING POT ROAST ?

Nat: Honey, make me one too! Dammit

Giulia: SAME I NEED 5

Zee: A round of martinis please

C: This is not your house.

Justin!Sam :

Justin!Sam : You're right. This is my wife's house. I am simply living here.

Giulia: OH YOU

C: Something terrible's happened.

you right, those hair happened

Justin!Sam: I'm feeling adventurous.

Nat: Rawr ?

Giulia: NO

Giulia: I CAN T

Zee: I can’t process

Justin!Sam : So that's a no-no on the hooch?

I think Jared had too much fun in this. I WANT ALL THE BLOOPERS PLEASE PLEASEEEEE

Giulia: I’m laughing so much

Nat: You watch your mouth

Giulia: SIR U WATCH UR MOUTH

Zee: Skedaddle

Nat: I don't wear a hat , dammit I.... uh

Zee: Bitch

Giulia: WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

Justin!Sam : Sir, using language like, uh, "H-E-double hockey sticks" --

Nat: Wash your mouth out with soap?

Giulia: GUYS, I haven’t had this much fun on spn in a long time.

I can’t breathe

Zee: I’m dying here

Nat: Double hockey sticks?

oh....OH.....I GOT IT NOW....GOLLY...WHAT THE HECKIE

Nat: STILL WANNA LIVE THERE?

Giulia: YEAH SHUT UP

Nat: ZETa

Zee: What?

Nat: Giuls is willing to leave us and go live there

Giulia: I LIKE THE AESTHETICS

Zee: As I said. Not possible. The amount of the insanity that she has shared with us won’t let her

Donatello : Ah, I am just the picture of health. Except for my prostate. It's shaped like a papaya.

...THANK YOU BB

also...do you guys think the Winchester get their prostate checked? or do they call.....Doctor Novak? (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)

Nat: Dena really doesn't like snakes. Dean. Not Dena. Well, maybe Dena too. I wouldn't know

Giulia: We don’t judge

Zee: Never

Giulia: I LOVE HIM

Giulia: God sister snacked on it

Giulia: That’s a big ass cup

Nat: That's a big cup

Zee: Black hole

Giulia: ...

Giulia: This succession of texts is cursed

Nat: Not going there, Giuls

Zee: Again. I concur

Giulia: I ain’t said shit ya pervs

Zee: YET

Nat: You were thinking it. That's enough

Zee: ABOUT TO SAY IT

Giulia: You two were thinking it too , get off that high horse

Zee: offended gasp

J: And when it was gone, how did you -- how'd you feel?

Donatello: Like...the galaxy. You know, Jack, our galaxy's all bright and shiny and spinny, but in its center lies this very large black hole.

Donatello: I'm all bright and shiny, obviously. Not so much spinny But inside? Empty.

Donatello : Losing your soul doesn't make you bad It doesn't make you anything. It's, um... an absence of...of pity, of empathy...of humanity.

J: I know I don't feel...nothing, but I don't feel the same, either. And maybe I just don't know what nothing feels like. Mostly, I just don't want Sam and Dean and Cass to worry. I just -- I need time and space to figure things out on my own, but everywhere I go, there's someone looking over my shoulder.

Giulia: I get that boo

Nat: MAKE ME CRY JACK

J: Sam and Dean are the best men I know.

Nat: FUCK YOU. I'M CRYING

Donatello : whenever you don't want them to worry just think "WWWD" -- "What Would the Winchesters Do?"

Giulia: Pew pew pew pew pew pew. That’s what they’ll do. Sex stares. Bitchfaces. Bacon. Rocking off. Kill monsters. BOOKS.

Zee: Kicking asses, taking names

Giulia: Kick names , take ass

Nat: there goes giuls

Zee: Oh babe!!! Right there

Nat: I should not engage in this convo because it's going to be dirty

Zee: He’s not like you?!

Donatello : I suppose the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a soul?

D: Donny.

Donny: What?

Nat: He seems ok

Nat: SEEMS

Donny: Jack's probably the most powerful being in the universe. [Creepy music starts to play....I sweat] I mean, really, who knows what's going on inside his head?

Giulia: I like donatello

D [ with the anxiety of a thousands suns ] : ...thanks

Zee: Erotic musings

Giulia: Cas saying “steamy” and “erotic” is making me tingling

Zee: Rip it from your ...

YOU KNOW WHAT HE CAN RIP OFF ME THO?

Nat: BAMF CAS

Giulia: And this too

Nat: Of course it's him

Zee: What are you ?

Nat: Sam's so tall

Zee&Giuls: The squint

Zee: Giuls shut up

Mayor: and no matter what I did, people would turn to drink or drugs, they'd move away.

Giulia: Oh boo hoo .Let me do drug in peace.

Mayor: ...And you know what happened next?

C: No, but I have a feeling you're gonna tell me.

[I’m all out of fucks anyway ]

Giulia: THE SNARK

C: I won't hurt you, Sam.

Justin!Sam: Golly, I told you my name is Justin!

Giulia: GOLLY

Nat: Justin!Sam is this a thing now?

Giulia: i hope

Zee: Giuls. That’s all for you. Cas kicking ass

Giulia: I know I’m sweating. Look at this shit

H O T

Giulia: NO IDC ABOUT THEM LEMME SEE CAS

C: Fight this!

J S: Why? I'm happy in Charming Acres.

Giulia: THAT’s US

Nat: That's us against Giuls

C: Sam, I know you want to be happy. And I know what it's like to lose your army. I know what it's like...to fail as a leader, Sam. But you can't lose yourself.

You have to keep fighting.

You can't lose yourself, because if you do, you fail us. You fail all of those that we've lost. You fail Jack. Sam, you fail Dean.

Nat: make me cry

Giulia: omg I’m crying

Giulia: I’m cryiiing and I’m tired of seeing Cas and that fucking blade like that ok.STOP IT. [ going into MOC Dean ptsd ]

Zee: Lool

Nat: OH no no brain explosion please

Zee: I’m god

Giulia: We met god. God has a beard

Zee: God has a beard

Giulia: God is ma dad

Nat: NO

Giulia: YAS QUEEN

Zee: I like her now

Giulia: make his head go splat

Zee: Vegetable

Giulia: Psh lame

Nat: hey, not bad huh?

Giulia: Laaaaame

Zee: You needed the splat!

Nat: you know lame when you get there giuls

Zee: Nat. We’ve established we won’t let her

Giulia: BuT ThE dREsSeS

Giulia: God dean

Nat: Dean stop being adorable

j: It was...illuminating

D ... the fuck, stop talking like your angel father.

D: Heard you wore a cardigan.

C: Yeah, I told him about the cardigan.

S: Great. Thanks.

D: And the wife.

Giulia: What about the ponytail

Giulia: Wait, Cas and dean talked about it on the phone [dies]

D: Well, not a lot of happy goin' on around here.

Nat: Wow, Dean feel a stab in his heart

S: I hate this place right now. I hate it.

S: Everywhere I look, I see them. I see Maggie. I guess that's why, uh -- why I was so desperate to get out of here, why I kept running us ragged. But I got to stop that. I-I can't keep running. I -- This is my home.

This is our home.

Dean, I think I just need some time.

Giulia: Yeah same

Nat: Sammy babe

Zee: How couldn’t they have

Giulia: Awe this is the hurt Sammy season. Again

D: Okay.

Giulia: STAPH

Giulia: WITH

Giulia: THAT

Giulia: LOOK

Giulia: JARED

Zee: Sam needs a million years in therapy

Nat: You need help

Giulia: NO

Zee: Oh no

Giulia: I DON T LIKE IT

J: Sam and Dean would help you, so -- so I'll help you.

Nat:. Nah, Dean wouldn't

J: I'll help you see your friend again.

Giulia: FUCKING

Nat: No

Giulia: NO

J: In Heaven.

Nat: What

Giulia: JAAACK

Nat: Jack

Giulia: THank god cas saw it

Nat: Wtf

Zee: Yeah. That wasn’t good

Giulia: Oh shuttttt uuuup

Giulia: PROMO

Zee: Dean in a suit. Alien vs predator

Nat: Creepy, me likey

Giulia: Eh

Nat: OK babes, i gotta go. Nat: See ya! it was a pleasure.

Zee: Always

Giulia: Go have some milkshake

If you want to get tagged in the future ones send an ask HERE or to @waywardbaby or a smoke signal, idk whatever I’m tired af.

TAGS: @wayward-angelgirl @destiel-honeypie @mariekoukie6661 @dragontamerm @closetspngirl @rainflowermoon @mattiecat @bunnybaby121115 @aliaitee2 @jacks-word-of-the-day @4evamc @dammitsammy @legendary-destiel @winchesterprincessbride @destielhoneybee @castiellover20 @jacks-word-of-the-day @ravenhg @evvvissticante

#14x15 commentary #spn 14x15 #14x15 spoiler #peace of mind #14x15 peace of mind #Episode commentary #spn episode commentary #spn commentary #commentary

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twracehorse · 5 years

Text

Cringing at my own videos

Training Videos Edition!

I got bored, needed motivation to start editing, went back to take a look at my older videos, and now I judge and cringe at them because that’s a given at this stage

Under the cut to keep your dash shorter :3

Determined Horse Training, the title I came up with to be a little unique. I obviously couldn’t use something akin to Northena’s “Training Is Fun...Right?” and I wanted to give it a proper title knowing this would be a series of videos. I thought, and thought, and came up with the title after thinking of Undertale and how you are filled with determination in the game. “I am filled with determination to train these horses!” is what I thought and so the title of the series became that!

I use // as a way to separate different topics I’m talking about

Brave Rebel- First off...the thumbnail. He was originally themed sort of after Nathan Drake from Uncharted, since I was into that series at the time. So the map was, you know, for the treasure hunting. But I didn’t want to stretch the map to fit and somehow decided that a brown background was a good idea?? // AH THE CLOTHES! THE NECK!! AHHH GATORADE OCEAN BLEHH. // Oh yeah I have a spelling error in the video “Let’s go defeat this traning day!”. // Been training with Sage from the start of the series. I wonder how many fails of their’s I’ve caught XD // Ah the rocks, the rocks that I caught Sage stumbling out of in a later training video. // Let’s not forget the double mouse thing going on that makes its appearance in many videos before I figured out to click off of the web pages (which had a music playlist going while training). // Omg there’s someone with the club name The Babies standing nearby when I turn in the final race. // Low-key still love this horse. He was my first true Soul Steed before we were designated to our starter. I don’t take him out much, the difference in horse animations from new to old is getting bigger and for dynamic photos, it just doesn’t look good ( @~@)

Cool Hero- The horse based off of Markiplier back when he had red hair. I also uploaded the video on his birthday! // The song choice....I mean it fits the theme, otherwise I’d pick a better song. // The mini references I’m still low-key proud of. // There’s quite the amount of gliding pons in this video and some horror texture pons. // I obviously had to max Markimoo at the observatory! // I also mimicked Mark’s outros where an image is boomeranging. It took a couple tries with my friend in the background, but it was worth it!

Violet Mystery- I hope when I introduced her as “The winner of the Jorvik Wild horse competition” I mean, she was the first coat to be picked. Back when it was only one horse coat is being made. They added the top two coats afterwards. // Oh yeah the character’s whole head would move to the side to keep eye contact with the camera. // It’s so weird to think that I caught a bit of footage of Swifty just before meeting her. Then again I remember NOT editing this training video until months later and uploaded it in September. Mind you that I got Cool Hero and Violet Mystery at the same time and Cool Hero’s video was out in June...oops. // Ironic that I have the pandoric cracks around when the horse is based off them. // People running up from the riding arena, ah the fog glitch that would happen when you left your horse in the riding area, ran all the way to the dino valley elevator, took it, and there was no fog in the valley!

Megalove- Ah the first Undertale horse! I mean technically still the only Undertale themed horse I have, but I do have others planned. Haven’t gotten them yet and some plans changed. // The thumbnail....why did I make the stickers super tiny?? // Finally changed Elsa’s hairstyle to the ponytail I still wear to this day. We need updated ponytails with side bangs! I know we have the awesome braided ponytail in Mistfall, but there’s too much forehead! // Also the first training footage with the meet up....was 4 hours long. This was back when I recorded all stages of training and went through the footage in real time....I’m glad I changed strategy. // Can’t remember if crashing into a jump and the jump of the music timed at the same point was on purpose or if it was editing magic. // Oof cringing that I put comic sans as Sans “talking” in the video nnngghhhhh! // Ah my old club name Royal Ambassadors. I gave that club over to my side account Chiara Monsterhope for obvious reasons. // Annoying Dog in the credits, I still love that

Lucky Hero- I’m still proud that I came up with his nickname Vien short of Vienna where the famous riding school is. He, along with Brave Rebel, are my top horses. Please get an update eventually boys! // Finally Mac users had clear water! I was so happy over this you do not understand XD // Warriors by Imagine Dragons fits this horse, but quite a pain when I got Dark Warrior and didn’t want repeating songs. // Oh yeah early on, the Lipizzaners had a weird reflective tail glitch going on. // Vien was the first horse of mine that I got the day of release, bright and early in the morning! // I love how in the face of danger, an approaching bull dozer, I just stare at it. It wasn’t even a “oh no I should get out of the way” and instead was “huh that’s a thing”. // ALLY CHUM! I forgot that was a nickname to good friend!

Grey Ghost- OH BOY HERE WE GO!! Honestly my favorite training video. It was so much fun to edit with the music and the Halloween stickers hidden around the screen! Despite waking up at 5am to train for that aesthetic™. // Okay but that mushroom with the dark green sign did legit give me a spook. My body froze for a second and then I remembered that Slenderman doesn’t exist in Star Stable XD. // Ngl two of the stickers are hard to see cause of their surroundings. // GALLOPER THOMPSON MY MAN! Honestly I waited till midnight for him to be in Goldenleaf forest, just to see what would happen if you were racing and he caught you. By the gods of editing magic, the song was at a good point that fits perfectly with that scene. // For the scarecrow race I did actually take two different takes. I failed the first one and when I was editing I noticed that the two runs looked similar. So I put the first part of run 1 and cut before I failed and then put the remaining of the race with run 2. Looks almost seamless!

Silent Promise- My favorite mare in my stable! She ends up being my AoT cosplay photo horse...until I get the actual themed horse XP. // Shadows were a little glitchy at first. // Why am I using Rud instead of Rude. Like I know why cause that’s how we got around the filter, but I didn’t need to put it like that in the video. It’s like back in my WolfQuest days where I learned to use Cuz as a short version of Cause and it bled into my text vocab. // The witch bombs...I wanted to make it dramatic, but in hindsight it’s just tasteless really. Also to note that the sound which was fine before uploading, got more rough once it was on YouTube

Small Potential- Real cringe theme here, Hetalia. It was fun while watching and all that, but since then I’ve seen some well done anime! Growth! // I love the nickname Finny. Not too sure if I want to keep this pony or not, sadly. // The Christmas remix song is because I had no other ideas XD

Brave Eagle- Oh this is another slight cringe theme. Even more cringe is the fact that I had to re-upload this training video since it got blocked all over the world! due to the Hamilton musical songs. So I....had to layer over the songs with other songs....it’s a whole mess and was a whole pain since I had to re-edit the sound effects. // I’m proud of the thumbnail though....that’s it

Winter Dust- Why did I make the “there’s a new app with these foals you can train” with the dramatic music? // I think because I had less levels to train, I tried filling that space with “cool looking shots”. // Ah, yes, my How To Get Over A Jump wikipedia step by step

Hollow Phantom- Had to bring a creepy vibe even though it was February. So he’s like a Halloween not Halloween horse. // Can you believe that I found the main song from a Haikyuu!! crack video? XD. // That zoom on the pony surrounded by magic shires was weird. We’re saying “SO TINY” but the clip was so short it was done and over without much sense. // Mmm that slight irritation that the music and clip didn’t match with the drop. // Tried to blend the music together with itself....it’s obvious. // Of course had to max the Galloper horse where I first met the phantom himself

North Guardian- I wanna talk about the thumbnail....that background...is literally just the horse’s hindquarters. I wanted something mossy since the horse is sort of based off of Pelagia from Shadow of the Colossus. I couldn’t find good enough backgrounds, so I used the horse itself. // Again that urge to want to make the clip and music match but ahhh

Lucky Lucky- Still wish I could name this horse Gold Luck or something. // I think one of the camera turns during a race was just to show off the rainbow nearby. // Ahh! back when we could say “demon” in the chat. // Hmm instead of letting the clip run, I could’ve just cut to Reed calling the askew fence “a disgrace”. // Text was onscreen for just too long. // Trying to do the riding arena jumps with a good camera angle. But at that point, the camera kept moving and wouldn’t hold still. I’m glad it’s better now. Maybe I’ll try it again with a future horse. // Huh, forgot to add sound effects when I hit something on the last race

Silent Surprise- Cause I had to let the people know that I bought the horse after watching the Belmont. // AH STILL THE NECK! // 2 minutes in and we haven’t even gotten to the actual training yet. // Another day, another SSO glitch, this time it’s shadow rocks. // Oop missed a sound effect

Hot Spot- THE MUSTACHE! // I forgot I put a filter over the video to give it an old timey look. I should do more like that if it’s in theme. // Of course I had to have The Wanted be playing with this song since it’s old west sounding. // What was the purpose of editing the scarecrow race like that? XD. // Random running clip. // Walking the whole bobcat race would be nice if I didn’t keep moving the camera

Pumpkin Candy- As much as I love my Halloween horses, this training video isn’t up to the standards that the first Halloween training video set up. It’s still got Halloween themed music, it’s still got stickers hidden in the video, but it doesn’t feel the same. // Having text be their default instead of making them the same agh. // The spooky filter I overlayed the clips with changes at times. Would be nice if it stayed consistent

Dragon Dawn- Hmm now that I have more songs to choose from (getting into another artist as much as I did with The Wanted), I would have another song playing to fit the horse better. Maybe Euphoria or Mikrokosmos. Oh well those will be for future horses eventually! // Didn’t drop with the music...disappointed

Thunder Spirit- The horse that trains through three months. You can easily tell by the Valentine race, the rainbows of March, and April Fools. // Man I really need to work on making the text not be so BIG. // The first rainbow race had lots of sound effects. After that one I was just like “yeah not doing that again”

Sun Chaser- Eh the slowed down music is not the best idea. But I think it was also an intro to a remix of the song. So it was only so long and I had a bit to say for the intro of the horse. // The second clip of the mysterious Icelandic cryptid you can’t see them once it zooms in....annoying. // Too much of a slow build up with another cryptid spotting. // Also using the same sound but slower after just using it...smooth (not). // You know the very last clip of the horse as he’s turning around on the beach? Yeah that’s the exact moment I did the intro for the horse XD

Dragon Warrior- The contrast between me and Sage’s bantering vs the sadder song (I found the song because of a Zeno AMV) well it’s kinda weird having laughs and then sad melody. // YouTube again ruins the quality of the mic as it sounds fuzzier than it was pre-uploaded. // Low-key recording voices was fun aside from having to make sure the clips matched the voices and clicking of the mouse. // I’m still annoyed I couldn’t find the perfect snoring sound effect when Sage’s Connemara is sleeping and starts gliding away

Smoke Mirror- A little too much of a pause between text in the intro. // I love how I’m wearing a Halloween shirt because no other shirt matched with the blue of the hat except for the dress it came with THAT I GOT RID OF!

Obsidian Mystery- I love the thumbnail for her training video. It’s so spooky and cool! Favorite thumbnail of the entire series right there. // Ironic that with the three Halloween horses I’ve had. The two with the upbeat music are the ones where Galloper was present that year. The one where Galloper was missing that October, the music was softer, generic Halloween music. Not intentional, but it works. Though the first Halloween training video still gets the trick-or-treats because it has nostalgic music. // Some text isn’t easily visible

Dark Warrior- The horse I wish I could name Secret Warrior cause that would make SO MUCH MORE SENSE than Dark Warrior, but here we are. // Since Warriors by Imagine Dragons was in a previous training video, I had to search for another song to fit the horse. I literally went through those anime character theme song videos to find one! That was a terrible jump cut of the song

Ember Flame- Coming Soon

#Star Stable #Star Stable Online #SSO

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fantroll-purgatory · 5 years

Text

World: Alternia! For once Name: Pirzes Orvaik. Honestly I used a generator for this one, I’m pretty sure.

Hmm. Well, Pirzes could be reorganized to Prizes, so if you made her the kind of Parental Figure that like gives her kiddos Positive Reinforcement for everything, I think that could work well!

Maybe we could change Orvaik to Orstak, which is a scrambling of Arktos, the Greek word for Bear. Because… mama bear jokes are eternal, really.

Age: Didn’t think too hard about this, but 7-8 sweeps just about

Theme/Story: Pirzes is desperately protective of her friends, and has a love of all wigglers. She used to entirely buy into the Alternian culture of culling all who were different/mutated/etc, until she herself had to cull one, simply for hatching as a lime- Something she herself viewed as beautiful, not to mention incredibly rare. For perigees afterwards, she subtly hid mutated or otherwise cull-worthy wigglers in her own hiveblock until during the day, she ran with them. She left to her friend’s hive, and has been trying to hide and raise the wigglers ever since.

I love this setup so much, but you probably need to map timelines and come up with ideas for wrigglerhood in your head. If she stashes them for perigees, then are some of them like troll-toddlers now? Slightly bigger and harder to keep under wraps? Is that why she had to run? Goals: General advice, please! plus a few suggestions? Strife Specibus: I don’t know.

I’m trying to think of good like Mom Jokes. Broomkind? Or if she has to wrangle wrigglers a lot to keep them out of danger, she could be partial to something like Netkind. Or you could give her a more traditional weapon like an axe or a sword, but she’s put one of these things on it.

Fetch Modus: Also don’t know!

ABC modus where she has to spell out the word with magnets to get the item (she adopted this to help teach her wrigglers how to spell, but gee if it isn’t exhausting sometimes)

Blood Color: She is a Jade! Symbol and Meaning: Virpio! Tis her zodiac

(SIGN OF THE HEARTH) (I must ask- where did you decide upon this? You make a lot of comments where it’s “oh her zodiac decided it!” but… that’s not how it works, character writing wise. If she’s going to be Prospit/Light, you have to actually write her that way. If you don’t want to write a character with those traits… there’s 23 other sign combinations per color!! You have the power!)

(My reccomendation is going to be:)

( VIRITTANIUS, SIGN OF THE DELIBERATE)

Handle: Don’t know, whoops

caretakerNaturae might be a good one, as an obvious reference to Lusus Naturae. It’s fitting enough for a jade that no one would bat any eyes, but still reveals more about her activities than anyone realizes. Quirk: { She puts brackets around her speech, like this! She doesn’t close them until she’s done speaking. She uses proper grammar, but speaks fairly casually }

She could probably censor her swears, too, if she ever swears at all of course. More habits picked up from trying to raise some babies! You could also have her do that thing a lot of Daycare Employees or Kindergarten teachers will accidentally do where they’ll tell their fellow friends like ‘Say bye, bus.’ Goofy mistakes make a good character. Special Abilities: Latent rainbowdrinker abilities of course, and the resistance to the sun all jades have! Lusus/Guardian: Did. not think of this. She probably left her lusus behind when running to her friend’s hive (A seadweller)

Jades don’t seem to have lusii, since they appear to live in the caverns with one another and to raise wrigglers/look upon prospective lusii, so you may not have to worry about this. If you want to, though, you could give her one, or give her a favorite lusus from the pack.

Interests: She enjoys video games, cooking, and occasional sewing. Her friends lately have introduced her to hacking, law related stuff, hunting, and robotics. Though due to raising the wigglers, she’s lost most of her free time, but she hopes once they pupate she’ll get back into it.

She should probably be interested in lusus naturae and their parenting behavior, too. Reading up on papers about wriggler socialization! How does she help her little buggies grow?! Appearance: Pirzes is a bit more than average height, and looks just plain exhausted all the time. Her hair is cut short to make it easier to manage, and she doesn’t wear any makeup. Her outfits are generally picked based on functionality more than style, and she always has one of her wigglers swaddled in her arms. Her horns are tall, and both have a hook at the end, but she’s kind of filed them down a little, so they aren’t a hazard. Personality: She’s a kindly person, but easily stressed and frazzled. She can tend to be defensive towards strangers, especially highbloods, though she thinks that her friend’s status as a violet will protect her. She’s fiercely protective of her friends and wigglers, and tends to let her words get away from her quickly. (Now here’s where I’m getting the weird vibe: Where’s the Light Player Relentlessness? Where’s the Prospit flexibility? Where’s the parts of her character that exist outside of the story you have for her?) Lunar Sway: Prospit! Cuz, uh, extended zodiac? (But… why though. Why make Virpio her sign if you don’t have a good reason for it?) (Prospit characters struggle specifically with Deception, and I think that’s a key thing to keep in mind for your character. If she’s a Prospit dreamer, she’s probably not used to rebelling or hiding her true feelings- that could cause her a lot of strife. If those sound like things she’d be used to, she’s Derse.) Title: She’s a light player, but that’s all i know, really. (But are you SURE about that? Light players are aggressive, they don’t take no for an answer and they love to take the spotlight. None of that seems fitting for a character like this.) (In my head, the narrative arc for her is deliberately making the decision to rebel, something she thought long and hard about, and scares her deeply. But she must do it. Like any good Void player, she’s casting doubt on things that are already “understood” the worth of mutants, limes, and other “undesirable” wigglers.) (Her hiding of the Wigglers for a while is also pretty classic Void- Equius’ nature as the Heir of Void allows him to hide the cue ball- something another Touched By Void character (Rose) uses to access knowledge.) (My thought is somewhere around Witch of Sylph- but she has less character than she has Story, so it’s difficult to ascertain. She’s someone who plays with shadow in order to save the candles from being snuffed out, hiding the life of these wigglers in order to better use their lives.) Land: None!

#jadeblood #submission #sa review #pirzes #orvaik #orstak #pirzes orvaik #pirzes orstak #review #cd review #cabbagiez

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challengerbmxmag · 6 years

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Sam Waller Interview

Sam Waller co-runs, the UK based Central Library, “a shop in the North West of England that sells zines, DVDs and other interesting bits and pieces.” He’s also part of the current resurgence of quality independent BMX media with his Red Steps magazine. In addition to that he finds the time to contribute to Challenger with his quarterly column, ‘Notes From A Fancy Island’ and of course, ride. And, when you talk to Sam, you can tell that riding reigns supreme.

Sam and I email back and forth fairly often because of the column but also about other random stuff like old spots, concrete skateparks, music, etc. It’s fun to email with Sam so I figured it would also be fun to ask Sam some more in-depth questions. Hit the link below for the full interview.

All photos by Gaz Hunt. Thanks, Gaz!

I know you live in Manchester, England now but where did you grow up and what is your BMX origin story? I grew up in the complete middle of nowhere in a place called Colton in the south of the Lake District. Whilst the countryside in film and television is often shown as a tranquil, quaint place, the reality is a fair bit different, and Colton in particular seemed like a hotbed for strange stuff going on. Only recently a large farmhouse was burned down by a wild woman who owned loads of pigs. She was exiled from the county, but the pigs remained to cause havoc.

Anyway, my older brother has played guitar since he was six or seven, but as I was a useless at it and couldn’t get my hands to move properly, I felt obliged to find a similar all-encompassing past-time.

I was mad on Formula 1 racing for a while (thoughts go out to the Schumacher family), and I went to a karate lesson once (a hobby quickly scrapped after the whole hour was spent being taught how to bow honourably), but up until the age of 12 or 13 it just felt like I was dawdling about.

All of this changed when, for some reason I’m not entirely sure of, me and my friends decided to make some jumps and drops and stuff to ride on our mountain bikes in some woods near a dual carriageway.

One of my friends knew some older lads from nearby who had proper bikes and Little Devil hoodies, so I think they must have planted the seed of raditude with him, but I think at that time I was just happy to be out the house and not playing Tekken 2. We later found out that the woodland we’d chosen was a popular dogging site frequented by truck drivers (I'm not sure if 'dogging' exists in America - maybe look it up), and quickly moved our spades and everything into another forest. By that point the damage was done and my mind was snagged.

After a bit of bouncing about on a mountain bike, I then splashed out on a second hand Standard that someone had painted post-box red, affixed some stunt nubs and never looked back (or lookbacked, for that matter).

The nearby town of Ulverston had a pretty big riding and skating scene, but thinking now about us lot trying to lay down ‘street style’ in this small historic market town, we may as well have been the Jamaican bobsleigh team — the rough ledges were strictly for stalls, and the closest thing to a flatbank was a grass verge round the back of a Texaco garage.

What were some of your biggest inspirations as a kid and what about now? I always think about how the 16 year old me would probably make fun of some of the things I'm into now. Is that the case with you at all? Apart from the receding hairline and the slight increase in responsibilities, I think I’ve stayed pretty much exactly the same since I was 16. Back then I think my favourite film was probably Natural Born Killers, and my favourite album was maybe something like Bad Moon Rising by Sonic Youth. Whilst I’ve maybe expanded my interests a little, I’ve pretty much been in a rut since then.

I’m not into memes or internet humour in the slightest, but I remember someone once showing me a video of a wrestling fan in America crying and shouting, “It’s still real to me, dammit.” That’s how I feel about a lot of things I was into back then. A lot of people who I went to school with moved on from being into music and films and pissing around on bikes, whilst I’m still snagged on it all, listening to The Minutemen and wearing check shirts. It’s pretty stupid really.

What's The Fancy Island? Good question. Just next to Strangeways prison and only a mere stone’s throw from Manchester’s slick centre, lies a true rat-pit of questionable activity. I’ve seen loads of stuff happen here, such as an aggressive man chase a prostitute with a two-by-four and a creep lying in an alley trying to lure small boys into his lair.

In amongst all this, there’s loads of naff wholesale shops that sell everything from low-end Halloween costumes to fake Air Jordans made out of cardboard and fuzzy felt. All these shops have mad names like EEZZEE and Vibe Centre.

Getting to the point now, coming up with titles for things is pretty difficult, so a few years ago when I was cobbling together a zine, I nicked the name Urban Mist from one of these shops, and then, when I went to set up a Tumblr during the carefree pre-Instragram era, I nabbed ‘Fancy Island’ from a similar establishment.

I think Fancy Island has closed down now, but it’s no doubt been replaced with yet another shop with a daft name selling cheap batteries and t-shirts with swear words on the front.

Whilst I’m explaining names, I’ll state that Red Steps is a classic spot in Manchester that I ride past on my way to work every day. It boasts a rusty, needle-thin flatrail, a few small stair-sets (that are indeed red) and a large flow of gormless students to crash into. I’m not too sure why I named a magazine after it, but it just struck me as a funny name for a spot and I was struggling to think of anything else.

One thing I struggle with is balancing how to take BMX seriously while balancing a sense of humor about it as well; i.e. it's pretty goofy but is also this amazing vehicle for new experiences, ideas, and a pretty incredible community. Do you ever think about this? Like with most things in life (except crucial necessities like eating and breathing), riding bikes is pretty stupid and abstract if you try and think about it too hard. That said, I don’t see why bike riding should look goofy (apart from actual goofy-footed grinding - as a self-confessed goofy grinder myself I’ve got a lot of time for George D, Ralph and Dave McDermott) — riding is loads better than pretty much all other activities, but it’s constantly being made to look daft, when it could so easily look dope.

I think to stay juiced and not turn sour, you’ve got to completely ignore most things going on with riding and stick firmly to the bits that you like. I treat riding like music or films or anything else. In the same way I don’t go to the cinema to watch big summer blockbusters, I don’t spend my free time watching Corey Martinez edits or endless hours of footage from some zany mega-comp.

I’m a simple man. As far as riding is concerned, I like smith grinds, bottles of Heineken, Galaxy chocolate, black and white photos, sitting on benches and talking complete nonsense. The rest of it is irrelevant to me.

I constantly hear/read people complain about the lack of BMX magazines but there's so much cool stuff being printed right now. We've discussed this in email a bit but it seems weird that people are complaining. It's almost like people just have an idea of what they think a magazine should be and if it doesn't have look or read a certain way they are just confused. How do you feel about all of this? A solid group of people do buy things and support these independent projects and whatnot, but I think it’ll take a while for the loud-mouthed Instagram warlords to come to terms with the fact that the new magazines around might have different names to the ones they used to subscribe to 15 years ago. I suppose it’s maybe easier to talk about the lack of magazines out there than actually go to the effort of seeking them out, but having said that, it’s not exactly hard to find stuff these days.

I remember years ago hunting down anything beyond Dig or Ride was an absolute hassle involving a lot of e-mail mither and blind faith - but now with yourself, Berks St. and 90East stocking interesting stuff in America, me and Clarky doing Central Library over here and the newly formulated Wiretap down under, it’s easier than ever for anyone to get their hands on zines and DVDs and all that.

The new stuff that’s coming out now is ten times better than Dig or Ride ever were anyway. Endless contest reports and dull bike checks have fallen by the wayside, and I haven’t seen a photo of Jimmy Levan’s zebra-print leggings in years. Things are really looking up.

What do you do for work? Thoughts on pursuing money via BMX and also what's the best job you've ever had? By day I work in an office writing stuff for a clothes shop. As you can imagine, trying to come up with an interesting way to talk about the 659th blue shirt you’ve seen this week can get a bit tough, but I can’t complain too much really. The office is fairly warm and there’s a kettle in the kitchen.

As for pursuing ‘serious wonga’ via riding, I’m one step ahead of you. Central Library has just received big investment from Duncan Bannatyne and Deborah Meaden (of Dragon’s Den fame), meaning we’re finally able to stock all those bizarre Caramac-coloured tyres that real bike shops seem to stock. We’re also expanding our print line to offer crime fiction and the Goosebumps novels. My main aim in life is to become one of those creepy industry characters who spends their time sniffing around young and naïve talent in the hopes of flogging a few ‘dad caps’.

My finest job was probably working for my dad in the family trade of dry stone walling (which explains my surname). I’m not sure if dry stone walls exist in America, but they’re those fairly humble looking stone walls you see dividing up the fields and forests around the English countryside.

Anyway, building them isn’t too bad as far as manual labour goes. When it’s raining and you’re miles up some hill wallowing in the mud lugging big stones around with nothing more for lunch than a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle and a Penguin biscuit, then it’s a little miserable – but on a good day when the sun is shining and you’re working with ‘good stone’, it’s hard to beat.

The best days were when my dad would fall asleep just a few minutes before the end of the lunch hour, basically extending the break for at least another 45 minutes. Thinking about this job now, I’m not sure why I ever gave it up.

Do you have any other hobbies besides riding? Yeah, but I’d say the lines were pretty blurred. This is maybe a pretty boring answer, but I suppose riding lends itself to other hobbies pretty well. I might be wrong, but I don’t think keen swimmers or budding javelin-throwers get into photography or making videos in quite the same way. It’s sort of like the ‘pillars of hip-hop’ or something – riding, taking pictures, messing round with video stuff and generally snooping around all fits together nicely (or at least it does in my peppered mind).

It’s not like I’m slipping on my Etnies t-shirt for my weekly two hour power sesh and then the next night I’m wearing some short-shorts down at the climbing wall. Even when I’m on holiday with my wife, I’m still just snooping around the same way - we’re not buying tickets for some naff rollercoaster or dining out at exclusive restaurants with Abe Froman.

Are you able to take time off of riding and not feel like you're missing out or feel guilty? I have one friend who really goes in on the guilt tripping if I don't ride. Related: You said you like sitting on benches. Can you do that on a nice day? At the age of 28, I’d like to feel like I can just about deal with a few missed sessions. Obviously I still need a comprehensive run down of spots seshed and feats accomplished when I’m away, but it’d be mad if I was out all the time. The human body can’t handle that much raditude.

Fear of things going un-photographed does creep in sometimes, but Clarky will have filmed it anyway, and Gaz and Wozzy are better photographers than me, so if they’re about then hopefully someone caught the action.

Moving onto the subject of benches, these babies really come into play during my dinner break at work. I get on fine with everyone there, but when the clock strikes twelve I’m not going to be sat in the office spilling reheated chilli over my keyboard… I’m straight out into the city centre on full sit-off mode – hopefully getting into some daft conversation with one of Manchester’s many vagabonds.

A few months ago I was sat in town when I was approached by a fairly scruffy gentleman who was bleeding loads from his forehead after someone kneed him in the skull. The rest of my lunch break was spent trying to sort him out a bit. One meal deal, some wet wipes and a pack of king-skins later, he seemed alright. You don’t get these hijinks sat inside all day.

I was just thumbing through the new Red Steps (nice job) and I just realized how much I enjoy your interviews -- what is it that you like about interviews? Not trying to stroke the ego here but you are really good at it... Cheers. Any ego strokes are much appreciated. This maybe sounds a bit daft, but I want to know everything. This is probably evident to the people who know me, but I’m a complete mither, completely hassling everyone with questions all the time.

This pesky nature extends into everything, meaning that I spend a lot of time reading a lot of interviews about the things that I’m into. I buy a lot of old copies of magazines like Wire, Ray Gun and Sidewalk on eBay, and even though the interviews contained within those pages might have been conducted in the corner of a pub maybe 25 years ago, they’re still worth reading today.

A proper interview with a little intro and some photos laid out nicely on a page… it’s mint – it’s a finished thing – sort of like a well-edited video or something. I know a lot of people are into ‘podcasts’ these days, and that’s fair enough, but to me – they’re not complete enough. I don’t want to hear people say ‘um’ and ‘err’ all the time, and I want something sick to look at (and by that, I don’t mean a load of pundits sat around a table with headphones on).

I’m going to rattle on here whilst I’ve got the chance. Anyone reading this who gets the opportunity to answer questions for an interview, a ‘bike check’ or anything else…don’t just write a lazy sentence for each answer – go mad. Tell some funny stories. Or if you’ve got nothing to say, just make something up. No one cares about how responsive your headtube angle is or how you ‘usually just cut the bars down’. This could be your only chance to air your thoughts into the wider world, and you’re going on about what PSI you put in your tyres? COME ON PLEASE TRY HARDER YOU BORING GIMPS.

(above) Spread from Sam’s zine, Latvia Photos. (below) Cover of Sam’s zine, Around Town.

You also make photo zines/books not related to riding. Do you have any high art aspirations with this stuff? No real aspirations I’m afraid. Wine gives me bad heartburn, so I generally try and swerve anything resembling a gallery opening schmooze-off. As I was sort of saying before, making photo zines is just an extension of everything else. I like taking photographs, so it makes sense to put them together. It’s all pretty small-time really – it’s not like I’m getting thousands printed.

To be honest, it’s all a complete faff that I could easily avoid by not bothering and just sitting around watching American power-dramas, but it’s good to have stuff to look back on – even if it’s just a 40 page zine that nine people will see.

Crouching under a tattered old curtain processing rolls of film every night whilst being mithered by my cat isn’t particularly glamorous and I’d imagine there are probably easier ways to get cosy with the artistic elite.

What's your favorite slang word? Going back to my walling days, my dad uses some pretty intriguing slang terms. Unlike inner-city slang, which will usually be documented in music or useless BBC3 comedies, these more rustic words don’t get much recognition. I don't use these terms myself, but I certainly respect them. Here’s a few choice cuts…

“A few skins on the job” – a large workforce “Keitel” – a fairly humble work-jacket “Bait” – lunch “Bray it – hit it “Kessen” – when an unclipped sheep falls over onto its back and can’t get up due to its weight. This happens more often than you’d think.

You can buy scoop up a copy of Sam’s magazine, Red Steps, in the Challenger web shop here, look at the online shop, The Central Library, that Sam runs with Clarky here, and check out some of his other photo zines/books here.

#BMX #manchester #Colton England #sam waller

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 09/10/2020

Okay, so as you know this show has been on a “hiatus” for reasons I explained in the last episode and I had been thinking of different ways to continue this. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it does not really matter if I skipped tens of songs, maybe even more than 100, because a lot of them don’t have lasting success and if I kept doing these massive blocks of songs from months ago I would pretty much get nowhere by the end of the year. So, I’m writing this on Saturday, meaning the UK Singles Chart updated yesterday, and I think it’s about time I get back in schedule. This week’s #1 is “Mood” by 24kGoldn and iann dior, and let’s discuss the new arrivals in the UK Top 75. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Dropouts and Returning Entries

So, how will this work? Well, it’s going to be pretty simple. No rundown of the top 10, no climbers and fallers, just reviews of the usually about 10 or so new songs that hit the UK Top 75. I’ll cover returning entries and drop-outs as well ever so briefly at the start of each episode, just for some additional clarity and information, I guess. This was actually a pretty damn busy week to start off with so we have a lot of drop-outs, some of which are pretty notable, like “Secrets” by DJ Regard and RAYE, “Fake Friends” by Ps1 and Alex Hosking, “Dinner Guest” by AJ Tracey and MoStack, Tion Wayne’s “I Dunno” featuring Dutchavelli and Stormzy, “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Jubel and Neimy and some other relatively unimportant one-week hits I won’t be mentioning here. Of course, there are songs that have been on the chart for months but I only recently covered like “This City” by Sam Fischer, “Kings & Queens” by Ava Max and “Don’t Need Love” by 220 KID and Gracey, as well as some gradual losses from the late Juice WRLD, those being “Smile” with the Weeknd and “Wishing Well”. Returning to the chart are “Real Life” by Burna Boy and Stormzy at #71, “One Too Many” by Keith Urban and P!nk at #57, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac at #55 43 years after release because of this guy on TikTok drinking cranberry juice (That’s 2020 for you) and finally, “Levitating” by Dua Lipa at #30 thanks to a pretty good DaBaby remix. Now we have two album bombs to start this season off. Let’s go!

NEW ARRIVALS

#66 – “Always Forever” – Bryson Tiller

Produced by J-Louis, Teddy Walton and CAMEone

Bryson Tiller. I don’t really get or even know his music enough to spark any insight before listening, and to be transparent, no, I didn’t listen to that comeback album. Anniversary is a sequel of sorts to his debut album, Trapsoul, and I can expect just that, I imagine, from this very quick pre-release single dropped just a week or two before the album proper. This drowned-out, watery R&B style doesn’t usually work with me, especially when Drake does it, and Tiller’s nasal, high-pitched squeaky crooning here also does not fit this otherwise lovely production, with some fat bass 808s I really enjoy. The chorus is a mess of fleeting background vocal runs and the performance here while not embarrassing feels kind of lifeless and checked-out. Admittedly, some of the harmonies he hits in the third verse/bridge are pretty nice-sounding, but it feels wasted when the song just continues to flutter off afterwards with the same dull key patterns and frankly, this is just an uninteresting and clearly unfinished track barely under three minutes and never reaching a point where it feels worth listening to. If I were a Bryson Tiller fan, I would be pretty underwhelmed with this.

#65 – “Years Go By” – Bryson Tiller

Produced by Streetrunner and Tarik Azzouz

Well, here’s the opening track from the record, where Tiller has to make that impactful first impression, and with this reverb-drenched guitar melody in the intro and the distorted sound effects that start off the song proper, it starts off solid, and, I’m afraid to say, continues to be so. This obviously goes for a more direct trap-rap vibe with a skittering drum pattern that really bumps and a... pretty underwhelming two verses from Tiller here, who prefers to just kind of impersonate the Weeknd until the beat abruptly cuts out for pointless Auto-Tuned vocal riffing, and, yeah, this is just clumsy. The flows here are tired and messy, often clinging off the ledge of the beat, and even if I really like the cute synths in the outro, I can’t excuse this. Once again, it just seems unfinished, and lyrically on both tracks, he’s saying nothing of any substance. I guess he shouts out Jack Harlow and... Danny Phantom? He also seems to refer to himself as “Godtiller” by the end, as in Godzilla, because no-one’s stopping him from doing so. Sigh, next.

#62 – “Bet You Wanna” – BLACKPINK featuring Cardi B

Produced by TBHits, Mr. Franks and Teddy

You may be able to recognise a pattern here but no, I didn’t listen to this really short debut album by BLACKPINK either, pretty fittingly called The Album. This isn’t really a collaboration I understand or expected but it’s not that far-fetched, especially since BTS did collaborate with Nicki Minaj a year or so ago. The songs features the girls only singing in English over some finger-snaps that sound painfully fake and some demanding piano that is completely switched for the pre-chorus only for it to come back later and then technically in the chorus but covered in tropical-like percussion and some background squealing, only for Cardi B to interrupt with a surprisingly PG verse – you can really tell she had to censor herself here – and that’s all she does in the song. This actually is a fair bit more refined than K-pop I heard previously as it seems to at least stick to a musical motif which seems to be a pretty difficult concept for a lot of these bands. I mean, that’s probably just because of the Western producers on this song like TBHits, who’s worked with Ariana Grande before. It isn’t a headache like “Kill This Love” and I really love the vocal performance from who I thinks is “Jennie” here although the others seem to scroll through ugly distortion effects, particularly in their verse. I mean, it sure is listenable and honestly kind of a far cry from the earlier songs I heard from them, but it’s still not very good. Sorry.

#60 – “On My Mind” – Diplo and SIDEPIECE

Produced by Diplo and SIDEPIECE

So, in 1996, R&B girl group 702 released a pretty solid new jack swing jam as their debut single, featuring Missy Elliott, called “Steelo”. It was a minor hit in itself and even sampled the Police – the rock band fronted by Sting, I feel the need to clarify considering the current climate. It’s not a bad song, albeit perhaps overlong and unintentionally intimidating at times. You can tell Missy’s phoning it in a bit here, but she’s still as charming as ever here. 24 years later, we have “On My Mind”, a glorified house remix of the tune by Diplo and two of his buddies, basically. Is it any good? Well, yes. The sprinkling of cute synths in the intro combined with that leering vocal line really replicate the vibe of the original song, and it does that even better when a single vocal sample from the bridge is looped constantly under a pretty pounding bass and a typical four-on-the-floor house track. This song’s bridge of its own is incredibly pretty as well, to the point where the squawking and low-tone beeping don’t really bother me, especially when it just... crashes with buzzy bass drops that sound like a mix of a dubstep track and a car zooming past. It shifts up the entire song and honestly it works, it’s an effective climax, this is pretty fun, albeit lacking many ideas. It doesn’t really matter if those ideas are executed as well as they are here, so, thanks, Diplo.

#54 – “Rich Gnarly Dude Stuff” – 21 Savage and Metro Boomin featuring Young Thug

Produced by Metro Boomin and Peter Lee Johnson

Of course, it’s not actually titled “Rich Gnarly Dude Stuff” but I’ve got to at least try and keep this show clean. Now, I haven’t listened to many albums this year but 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s collaborative album Savage Mode II is definitely one of the best of those few. Admittedly, it has a pretty lacklustre beginning and it doesn’t really make sense as a sequel to that Savage Mode EP, particularly because it’s trying to pay homage to a bunch of different styles of 80s, 90s and 2000s rap to the point of identity crisis, but it is one of the best album listening experiences I’ve had this year, with some absolutely killer production from Metro, the sheer brilliance of the Morgan Freeman interludes and 21’s improvement as a rapper being really on show throughout the record. “Rich Gnarly Dude Stuff” is one of my absolute favourites on the album, with the smooth as hell synths and that violin sample that is just hypnotic. 21 Savage slides on this beat and he actually sounds pretty slick with Auto-Tune here, especially over this production which is just beautiful; Metro really is the highlight of the record all things considered. In fact, 21 kind of loses me with his brand flexing and the weird empty spaces that he seems to compensate for by jumbling words together to fit the meter which is unfitting for the mood of the song. Thugger, however, I’m convinced can do no wrong. His upbeat, joyful inflections are in great contrast with his crooning in the second half of the verse, and even though he only really uses one flow through the verse, it leaves a good impression on me fast enough for me to dismiss that. Are they on-topic? Barely. Are they saying anything of substance other than some flexing, sex talk and threats? No, I mean, it’s 21 Savage and Young Thug, but the most important thing here is delivery and these guys have it in spades. I’m a lot more convinced that Thugger has hit men than YoungBoy Never Broke Again is all I’m saying. That being said, please don’t send your shooters, Mr. Broke Again.

#43 – “Runnin” – 21 Savage and Metro Boomin

Produced by Metro Boomin

After the gorgeous introduction from Metro and Morgan Freeman, you are met headfirst with the wrath of... a pretty Diana Ross sample. The way Metro flips this into this head-nodding almost Memphis-like trap beat makes it sound a lot more ominous and menacing though, and it really hits when 21 comes in with his opening bars that start off the project, giving you a basic rundown about what he’s going to do in the album only in the first verse: beat people up, buy cars, spend money on women who he only keeps around for sex and finally, shoot the opps. In fact, he calls his Draco a paedophile because “all of his opps gettin’ touched”, which is a questionable line. 21, are you saying your opps are all children? Regardless, 21 does have some pretty funny wordplay and punchlines, particularly in the second verse with a really clever line about biblical marijuana (Go figure). Basically, he grows his weed in the Garden of Eden, but “zaza” is really high-quality marijuana and also a name mentioned in the Bible. I don’t know if that was intentional or not but if it was a coincidence it at least adds to the lyrics of the song. I have to say though that the chorus is weak and tedious as all hell, and by the end of the song that sample has well-overstayed its welcome, making the song hit a lot less harder than I think was intended. Hey, at least it has Morgan Freeman on it.

#40 – “Lovesick Girls” – BLACKPINK

Produced by R.Tee and 24

So, here we are in the top 40, with more BLACKPINK and to my surprise, honestly. I figured that the song with the big western rap star would be here but I suppose this did have a video behind it – that was controversial in Korea because of how the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union objected to Jennie wearing a sexualised nurse outfit, because, well, sure. This time the lyrics are mostly in Korean, and it sounds immediately much more like what I’d expect from what 2020’s K-pop has to offer. There is a pretty clean guitar loop that the whole song runs off of, some great vocal performances amongst simple rap flows and a drastic shift into an English chorus with some 80s-like synths and admittedly a nice synthpop beat. I prefer this a lot to “Bet You Wanna” but as it is it’s just inoffensive. I like Jennie’s rap verse though. “Don’t want to be a princess, I’m priceless / a Prince not even on my list”? Come on, that’s kind of fire, at least for middling Korean electropop standards.

#38 – “Heart of Glass” – Miley Cyrus

There aren’t any production credits on Spotify, Wikipedia or Genius, mostly because this is a live performance from iHeartRadio Music Festival – however they’re still doing that in these times – that was just dumped on streaming and impressively got all the way into the top 40. To be honest, I can’t say I’m a fan of the original – it’s a well-written song flattened by weak albeit infectious disco production and whilst the groove is infectious, the song has just never clicked with me, so I’m not excited to listen to Cyrus’ cover but hey, anything to delay talking about back-to-back Drake features and D-Block Europe. I WAS excited however when it started with a rock breakdown, especially that drum fill, but it soon restarted to the groove that we all know the song for and one that again, I never was too fond of to begin with. Miley is energetic, raspy and almost growling here at points but the instrumentation is somewhat stiff, which again is a problem I have with the original. It also doesn’t replace the synth riff with an epic guitar solo as I kind of hoped. At the point where Miley drops into “na-na-na”’s and unintelligible yelling is when I just zone out. I really hoped this could have been better, but I’m not a fan.

#35 – “Come Over” – Jorja Smith featuring Popcaan

Produced by Izaiah and MadisonLST

It’s rare there’s a song on these charts that intrigues or excites me in the way this one does, not because it’s particularly novel or groundbreaking, but just because this is a new song from two artists I like but haven’t checked out much from, and I have yet to hear it so I’m glad it debuted this high. I’m happy for Popcaan too, he seems to be having a good year signed to OVO and all, even if I’ve never really tried to listen to his solo stuff. I’ve heard many features from the guy though, with Drake, Kanye, Pusha T, Gorillaz on “Saturnz Barz” and especially alongside Jamie xx and Young Thug on one of my favourite songs of all time, “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)”, and he does not detract from a single one of them. I enjoyed Smith’s debut album a fair bit and whilst nothing she’s released since has really clicked with me, I’m still excited to hear what she has in store. I really love the production here, even if it is a tad fragmented, especially with that awkward vocal sample, but the atmospheric and hell, even spacey dancehall beat really evokes dub. I also hate the way that vocal sample is manipulated to a nasal, pitch-shifted tone in the bridge, but I guess the chorus is really pretty. Popcaan is kind of obnoxious crooning on here but he flows when he starts really flowing... then he’s immediately interrupted by Jorja singing the first verse again for whatever reason, and, yeah, this song’s a mess. It’s so oddly produced that by the time the air horns, yes, air horns, kick in during the outro, you are left with no real idea of what you just listened to. Or at least I was.

#28 – “Mr. Right Now” – 21 Savage and Metro Boomin featuring Drake

Produced by Metro Boomin and DAVID x ELI

And now, Drake. Thankfully this is the better of the two Drake-featured songs we have here, but this is still a low point on Savage Mode II and definitely an unnecessary inclusion. The production here is actually incredible, with those sweet strings and a quiet vocal sample that is absolutely infectious. The issue here is 21 Savage cannot really do an R&B hook that well, and even when he’s in his element on a trap beat, his bars are non-existent and generic. That pre-chorus is just awful coming from 21. I hate to say it, but maybe Drake could have been more involved here other than the second verse, where he starts by just repeating what 21 said, and then continues to just be Drake, and I’m not sure about the general public, but listening to Drake being Drake is nothing more than monotonous at this point. The only interesting thing he really says in his verse is that he used to date SZA in 2008, which, according to SZA herself, is actually inaccurate by about a year, which is just... well, Drake being Drake. Also, I’m really sick of quarantine music already. You should always reflect on the experience before making art about something like this, and I feel like a fleeting reference to the pandemic with a one-and-done bar I’ve heard a couple times before already (“We in quarantine, but my M’s long”) just dates this slow and sloppy R&B cut even more. Calling it now: if Metro hadn’t produced this, this would be unlistenable.

#24 – “Outta Time” – Bryson Tiller featuring Drake

Produced by Nineteen85, Vinylz and 40

Well, I guess it’s time to test this hypothesis. I don’t think that Drake has come out with anything salvageable this year, mostly because he’s been releasing leftovers and branding them as such, and they still top charts. I mean, “Laugh Now Cry Later” is okay but that’s mostly saved by 20 seconds of Lil Durk being an absolute treasure. The way he croons gargled nonsense and follows it up with “Bring Drake to the hood, surround Drake around Drac’s” might be the funniest and best moment in pop music this year. This song with Bryson Tiller is nowhere near as amusing but honestly Drake mumble-singing over a pretty classy 90s-reminiscent R&B sample is usually quite pleasant... here he just sounds whiny and immature, and he’s pretty clearly recycling cadences and flows he’s already used. He also has zero chemistry with Tiller, maybe because they never interact on the song, with Tiller’s Auto-Tuned crooning saved for the last half of the track, mostly because I imagine it’s easier to get streams with Drake at the start. Honestly, I prefer Bryson Tiller’s part. Hey, I don’t like his voice, but over that sweet Snoh Aalegra sample, I’m not going to say it doesn’t work. This is the best I’ve heard from the album but I mean it’s not like there’s competition.

#21 – “Wonder” – Shawn Mendes

Produced by Shawn Mendes, Nate Mercereau, Scott Harris and Kid Harpoon

Really? Only #21? Okay, well, I suppose some Shawn Mendes songs are slow burners but considering how successful “If I Can’t Have You” and “Senorita” were right after release I did expect this new lead single to seep at least into the top 15, especially since the UK has a tendency to just let anybody in the top 20, but, hey, if the song’s good, it shouldn’t really matter. Much like “In My Blood” from the last album rollout, this is a ballad, although this is specifically a post-breakup ballad where he contemplates on his manufactured relationship with Camila Cabello. So it couldn’t get into the top 20 even with fake personal drama surrounding the single? Wow. Well, I actually kind of like the lyrical content here, especially the second verse where he briefly addresses toxic masculinity, and how it makes him feel like less of a man when he cries because that’s what society’s conventions and norms programmed him to feel. I would like it a bit better if it weren’t as on-the-nose and kind of clumsy as it is, especially since the rest of the song is just wondering what it would feel like to be loved by Camila Cabello and some dreary, post-breakup lines. The first verse taps into more profound and insightful territory to but it goes nowhere and I find it hard to care about this melodrama at all, even if it is backed by a pretty powerful choir arrangement. Much like “If I Can’t Have You” and some of his other tracks before this, especially “Mercy”, this feels like a pretty overproduced, underwritten angst jam with absolutely no teeth to it other than a performance from Mendes that goes into some belting territory but is overall too restrained to fit this kind of anthemic orchestral instrumentation and especially those drums. In conclusion, this is a waste of potential but at least it had potential to begin with, unlike...

#11 – “UFO” – D-Block Europe featuring Aitch

Produced by Cardo, Cubeatz and DY Krazy

People complain about the charts all the time, particularly the type and quality of music on it. This is especially true with the USA’s Billboard Hot 100 and I understand that chart has incredible flaws it hasn’t made up for, but at least it doesn’t have D-Block Europe every other week. I mean, a pretty great British rap song even ended up on the Hot 100 thanks to TikTok and DaBaby, that being “Don’t Rush” by Young T & Bugsey featuring Headie One. That proves that these recurring antagonists of REVIEWING THE CHARTS are not necessary; I like Young T & Bugsey. We could just replace these oversaturated whining idiots with those guys, but no, we have Young Adz and Dirtbike LB, and they’re here to stay. Oh, and even better, they’re here with Aitch, pioneer of the new “gentrified drill” genre. Apparently to Young Adz, this is a “different” song that could isolate their audience, but I just see this as pretty normal Young Adz moaning over guitar-trap beats. It’s not drill, but it’s not like this is all that different or interesting... like at all. Adz has this hilariously bad “ooh-wee” flow that just sounds ridiculous on this beat, and Aitch proves his status as the whitest man in UK rap – and this is the country that brought you Professor Green. The song isn’t even about spaceships or any type of unidentified flying object! It’s just about having sex with drug dealers, with the only reference to the supernatural being the intro where Young Adz says that this sex is apparently happening in space... for no reason. And Dirtbike LB, well...

I’mma cover my pain with these shades

Just as embarrassing as usual. These guys have got an album out this week by the way, with 29 songs and a full 91 minutes of this same garbage they’ve been pumping out mixtapes of for two years now. They’re still funny occasionally and never on purpose, but the humorous inflections and stupid lines are now so few and far between that it’s barely worth pointing any of that out anymore. God.

Conclusion

This wasn’t just a busy week to start off on, but also a week where I’m not left impressed by really any of this, even from the album I liked. Worst of the Week still goes to D-Block Europe and Aitch with “UFO” with Bryson Tiller picking up the Dishonourable Mention for both of his first two lousy tracks here. Other than that, well, I only really like “Rich Gnarly Dude Stuff” by 21 Savage, Metro Boomin and Young Thug so that runs away with Best of the Week, but I guess I’ll give the Honourable Mention to “On My Mind” by Diplo and SIDEPIECE, for at least being kind of fun if not anything else.

Here’s the top 10 for this week:

...and that’s all from me. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more garbage and hopefully I’ll see you next week.

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fuse2dx · 4 years

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September ‘20

Paradise Killer

Putting it out there front and centre that I know some of the folks involved in creating this, and clearly I’m devoid of sufficient integrity to be impartial. You know, it’s best to get these things out there, with the internet being what it is.

It’s a whodunnit set in Paradise, with your character having been brought back from exile and tasked with solving who’s responsible for the mass-murder of the island’s core council. There’s a clear set up with one guy already due to take the fall, but it quickly becomes apparent that the island’s populous of weird deities - who perhaps have too much time on their hands - clearly have more of a stake in this than they’d like you to know. You’re left to investigate at your own pace, poking around crime scenes and places of interest, but also soaking up the island and its vibe as a whole. Getting reacquainted with its residents is a massive chunk of this, and if their out-there names, colourful outfits, and eccentric behaviours weren’t enough to draw you in, there’s more serious manners such as allegiances and motives to start peeling back the layers of. Titbits of info gleaned will often give you the opportunity to eke more out of someone else, and although the game does a great job of subtly nudging you to where loose ends might best be chased down, you’re given the freedom and ultimate responsibility on when to start wrapping things up at trial.

Given the potential for disorder in its narrative structure, the game’s job in cataloging all of your gathered information is crucially neat in its execution. The free rein that allows you to be as orderly and meticulous as you choose is welcome, as is the gentle push towards the truth of things. But there’s also just enough space to sink into convenient falsehoods - even to present them at trial and make them stick, if you can pass on that conviction - and it’s this freedom that really sets it apart from its contemporaries. Helping this is a fully realised island you can move about in and investigate, rather than doled out chunks of exposition by chains of talking head sequences. More salacious secrets are typically locked behind puzzles or specific items, but there’s also a particularly inviting nature to the architecture that suggests playful acrobatics - dashing, double-jumping and the like - be used to explore out-of-reach areas.

The look is tinged in pinks and blues, giving a suitably welcoming glow to Paradise. It’s warmth is helped massively by the soundtrack that runs throughout it, bringing pleasant, jazzy saxophones and subtle, warm electronics into its city-pop inspired stable. There’s a great voice running through its veins too - one that operates in its unspoken thoughts, the descriptions of its collectables, even the interface and the sub-headers as you enter new areas - just about damn everywhere. It’s smart, it’s cynical, and it’s snappy, and is a regular factor in keeping a smile on your face even in the moments that get closest to being downtime. Bias be damned! I can say, hand-on-heart, that it’s a game that not just nestles in comfortably among its peers, but stands tall among them.

Moon

Cult status can be a double edged sword. For anything cult - movies, albums, games, you name it - there’s that risk that if put under a modern lens, they can be painfully of their time. Cherished by those that were there, perhaps, but impenetrable - or even worse, alienating - for those without that context. Previously a Japan-only PS1 title, Moon has held such status for 20+ long years, but on its return, lets you know very quickly that a lot of what it had to say was timeless.

Its sending-up of RPG tropes is pretty spot on - the game-within-a-game that your character boots up got a big belly laugh out of me almost immediately, and then leads into a montage of a hero’s journey through a world that you’re then later transported into to pick up the pieces. See, the ‘hero’ in the game is kind of a jerk - barging into people’s homes, taking things out of their cupboards, killing all of the wildlife, and so on - and while this likely sounds very familiar, Moon prompts you to remove that filter of normal game behaviour, and instead asks that you try and be a bit more conscionable and pleasant. Acts of kindness to others are repaid in love, a tangible currency that grows your love level, allowing you to spend more time in its world before you need to rest and begin your day’s busy-bodying anew. Observing the routines of the world’s inhabitants is key to making good on its many grievances, and although these are straightforward enough at the start, some of the later challenges relied on some more tenuous thinking - to which, I’ll put my hands up and say that I turned to a walkthrough. These more patience-testing moments might have been a good way to pad things out in ‘97, however it’s a bit steeper an ask today, when I daresay most people will be visiting this as more of a curiosity. Accepting a helping hand doesn’t stand in the way of these scenarios delivering on the charm, surprise, or humour they originally aimed for, though. Labelling it a parody or a spoof might work as a descriptive shortcut, but it’s never mean spirited, and clearly loves the subjects it pokes fun at - there’s a wonderfully self-effacing humility throughout it.

Given Final Fantasy 7 - often cited as a common entry point for many modern western fans of JRPGs - didn’t even arrive in Europe until after this originally released, it’s not hard to understand why it wasn’t considered for localisation at the time. The audience certainly didn’t exist at scale, and simply wouldn’t have had the gaming experience or vocabulary to appreciate it. Not only can we now better appreciate it as the tongue-in-cheek love letter it is, but the message of compassion and thoughtfulness is something that’s more essential today than arguably ever before.

Spelunky 2

This was always on my radar as a likely ‘game of the generation’ contender. I’ve been playing the original game on and off now for around 8 years - it’s followed me as a regular part of my gaming diet across 4 different platforms, and crucially, all the way up until the night before this finally landed on my PS4. Without getting too philosophical about it, it’s a very important game to me. Despite all of the time playing it, thinking about it, talking about it, or even reading the gosh darned book about it, I never once thought to assume I had the answer for what would make a fitting sequel. Thankfully, the team behind it had more ideas, and the faith in their convictions.

All of the crucial components of the original are here in abundance, and added to with a restrained modesty. Its randomly generated levels are more complex, and offer more distinct ways of hiding secrets, all while a subtle but slick graphical overhaul does great work in making them look more organic than ever before. More complex fluid physics allows for more transformative ways of opening up levels, and mounts might add some quirky new dynamics to things, but crucially, things under the hood beside this remain largely the same.

Perhaps more importantly, Spelunky 2 understands the fervent player base centred around the original game, and uses their knowledge and familiarity to challenge them anew with clinical precision. Things are just similar enough: the title screen, the tutorial, many of the enemies, and the stages that you find them in - they’re tweaked, yes, but still familiar. On top though, there’s enough that’s new, or changed in a minute yet specific way that makes it very clear that things are going to be uniquely dangerous all over again, and that your muscle memory is more of a liability than a crutch. The curve of learning the game - understanding and tempering its dangers, and the slow, cautious, pulling back the curtain of its newer secrets - is still pitched in the same utterly compelling way as before, though. Rather than being harder outright, or just more lumped on top, it finds a way to make new players and familiar faces alike to learn to play Spelunky all over again, and it’s a total joy to have that opportunity. It’s everything I didn't realise I wanted in a sequel, and it’s breathed a new lease of life into a game that I wasn’t even bored with in the first place.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 Remastered

The original THPS was proper lightning in a bottle stuff; while its countless sequels eventually drained every good idea bone dry, and it left countless half-baked spin-offs in its wake, it’s hard to be mad, or surprised, when the original formula was so potent. Underpinned by a brilliant combo system that called back to arcade-style score chasing, in tandem it also nailed the kind of goal-based mission objectives that became so common after it. This is before you even get on to the way that skateboarding’s irreverence, fashion, and music were curated and presented in such a way that they left a mark on an entire generation. Sports titles are often glossed over from a critical perspective, but there is no escaping the quality and impact of this series.

This remaster tries to capture it at its zenith - and although they’re arguably off by a game or two, depending on who you talk to - it’s generally welcome that some of the ideas from later games are pared back. What it does with these first two games is for my money, the gold standard of what a remaster should do - it makes them look and feel like you imagined they did at the time; smooth, detailed, and responsive. Please, don’t make me go back and look at what the originals actually did look like, because I don’t think my poor brain could take it. The kitchen sink has been thrown at everything surrounding the game, with more relevant and diverse skaters brought into the fold, menus upon menus hiding a wealth of additional challenges, and a soundtrack that celebrates the older, punkier roots of the game, but also shines a light on some musical features that are perhaps more relevant to today’s youth. It’s all handled with a surprising elegance.

It’s a great new way to introduce the series to people, and also a nice outlet for old hands, with my only real criticism being that I had blasted through both of the original tours within a day of dropping the disc in my system. Yes, I could chase high scores endlessly, and yes, there’s a park builder and an abundance of multiplayer modes - but if you’ve finished these games before and just want to revisit them with a new lick of paint, don’t be surprised when it dries out fast.

#paradise killer #moon #spelunky 2 #tony hawks pro skater

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wonnyjang · 4 years

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I. Telemachus

“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.”

Just kidding. There will be a surfeit of future opportunities for me to post entirely about Ulysses, my favorite novel, now that this blog has been created (and, in doing so, I have further sullied the Internet with my signature garrulity and pretentiousness). Instead, this post will merely dip into Joyce’s novel as a means to metaphor to justify the human rights violation that is my creation of this blog.

Until this past week, I had spent all of 2020, including These Unprecedented Times, in Chicago, away from my Boston home. Which, to be clear, isn’t something that gnawed at me terribly –– Chicago is a second home to me, I kept in regular touch with my family, and many of my friends live within a block of my apartment. But such ample time away from my home, coupled with the glut of idle time that the quarantine had bestowed upon me, engendered a state of constant and rigorous thinking (primarily out of boredom and secondarily out of a desire to justify my laziness kicking my journaling habit to the curb). And there was plenty to think about: starting from the summer of 2019, I moved into my first apartment, started my second year of college, dropped sixty pounds, went through a mental health crisis, saw the Patriots get knocked out in the first round of playoffs for the first time since 2010, and plenty more –– all before the pandemic! But it was my encounter with a specific class reading in early May that precipitated my perspective shift.

In 2004, sociologist Jamie Lew published the study “The ‘Other’ Story of Model Minorities: Korean-American High School Dropouts in an Urban Context.” As its name implies, the paper analyzes how socioeconomic backgrounds, social capital, and school resources affect Korean-American youths’ educational achievement and aspiration. Being a first-generation Korean immigrant who predominantly grew up in a lower-middle class environment and struggled with the education system as a result of institutional barriers, I found that the words of the students interviewed in Lew’s study resonated with me deeply. For over half of my life, I grew up in diverse and working-class environments, and I thus regarded wealthier people –– especially wealthier white and Asian-American people –– as distinct “others.” However, when I started to attend school in a district that was predominantly white and affluent, I found my frame of reference to be at odds with my environment and quickly came to feel less supported and more alienated. At one point in Lew’s study, a student named Ken reports that he uses “slangs” while his wealthier peers use “proper” and “white” language. He goes on to assert that the more affluent Korean-Americans that he interacts with at church are “white” because they talk and act “proper.”

This passage dredged up a vivid memory of mine from middle school, when I had just started attending school in the more affluent district. The ever-so-eager student –– boy, have times changed –– I frantically raised my hand to give an answer in history class. As I commenced with what I thought to be a prodigious display of my intellectual prowess, a white classmate of mine sharply interjected: “Why do you talk like that?”

I want to make it clear that this was not bullying. I was relatively popular among my peers because of my gregarious and jocular demeanor, and this boy’s query was posed, I believe, out of genuine yet amused confusion as opposed to prejudicial malice. Yet, that remark certainly “killed my vibe,” so to speak, and I meekly sputtered through the rest of my answer, blowing the tires on my genius analysis of the Peloponnesian War and, more importantly, my sense of “fitting in.” The way I talked –– an idiosyncratic mixture of slang and immigrant and native Bostonian dialects –– was looked upon and singled out as weird by my peers, including other Korean-American kids. I believe that, in retrospect, this was the moment that I began to make subconscious efforts to assimilate into the dominant culture. With every passing year, my circle of friends grew richer and whiter. I began to listen to their music, watch their TV shows, and go to their parties; it was like some reversed 21st century satire of Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives. It followed that I was not particularly happy in high school, although I could never put my finger on why.

Going to college, I think, let me break free of this Sisyphean camouflaging act; I no longer needed to incarcerate my identity to achieve social capital. When I came back from my first year of college, I got lunch with one of my best friends from high school. She had not seen or heard me for an entire year at that point, and while we were talking, she suddenly remarked: “You talk differently.”

Cue flashbacks to middle school history class.

Sensing that she hit a nerve, she clarified. “No, it’s not in a bad or weird way. You just seem more… natural. More happy.”

All of these memories –– when my family first moved to Boston, middle school history class, my high school prison, and that summer lunch with my friend –– flooded back to me like a torrential typhoon as I pored over this class reading (remember when we first started talking about that all those paragraphs ago?).

Ever since that reading incited such a visceral response from deep within my memory and consciousness, I have been wrestling with the idea of “home” –– “home,” in the sense of something that you came from, something that you have always known, and something that you will return to. After all this time, after becoming a wayward wanderer in high school, bouncing from façade to façade, I believe that I have finally begun my journey home. I am no longer ashamed of who I am or where I’ve come from; I am running towards my roots instead of running away from them.

This is where Ulysses comes in. The whole novel is intimately intertwined with themes of recurrence, inevitability, birth, and homecoming. Leopold Bloom leaves his home on the morning of June 16 after eating “with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls” with the sinking fear that his wife Molly is inviting over a suitor for a torrid tryst. A wayward wanderer of his own, Bloom roams the streets of Dublin for the entire day as part of his own “Odyssey,” seeking out every single possible distraction from his crumbling marriage but always finding his thoughts returning to it. However, after a certain series of events –– which include a hallucinogenic dream-like sequence in a brothel in which he transforms into a woman –– Bloom comes to the realization that to fix his marriage, he must confront it head-on rather than shrink away from it forever. The last three chapters of the novel (often referred to as νόστος, or “Nostos,” alluding to the Homeric theme of returning from Troy by sea) exemplify his epiphany, as he climbs into bed with his wife at the end of the day and falls asleep peacefully, with nothing but a black dot on the page representing his tranquil singularity.

I know I’m doing nothing to alleviate suspicions of me being a pretentious douche with delusions of grandeur when I say that I believe that I, too, am now telling my “nostos.” I’m finding my way home after a long day in which I’ve been running from the inevitable, thinking about where I came from and what has made me the person I am today. Which, you know, isn’t really much, considering I’m just a normal college student. But I’m bored and, like I said, I’ve gotten too lazy to physically journal.

This blog is called “Longest Way Around” in reference to a famous quote uttered by Bloom in the novel’s “Nausicaa” chapter: “Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” I could’ve titled this blog “Shortest Way Home,” but I elected not to do that primarily because that’s the title of Pete Buttigieg’s autobiography and secondarily because I haven’t found my way home just yet. I’m still on the “longest way round,” so it’s a work in progress –– one that this blog will hopefully document and lend clarity to.

Also, it’s the “longest way round” because I’m a verbose ass and every post will probably be a goddamn tome.

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vnshkk · 7 years

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SUKEKIYO [2017.06.27 - Kyo and YUCHI interview part 2]

Explosive force , an inquisitive spirit and everything thereafter.

Part 2 of Kyo and YUCHI’s interview for spice.

“If its something I depend on, I wanna cling to it and have everything and anything I do be forgiven.” - Kyo

“But even saying that, in reality you’re the one that everyone clings to.” (haha) - YUCHI

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG. Remind me to finish translating things BEFORE going to see Dir in future.

If it’s something I depend on, I wanna cling to it and have everything and anything I do be forgiven - Kyo

But even saying that, in reality you’re the one that everyone clings to (haha) - YUCHI

So, what was the intention behind titling the album with the latin word for ‘adoration’?

Kyo: Whilst I was writing lyrics, I thought, “Would it be easier if I had something to cling to?”

Simply by looking at that ‘something’, that object, simply but believing in that alone, I wondered would I even need anything else? I found it kinda curious.

A story coiled with love, or rather those sentiments towards a person, the concept of “dependence” almost seems to naturally become a kind of running motif. Although, it is rather interesting to see something like that come from Kyo san, who gives the impression he doesn’t depend on anything.

Kyo: O..oh...I wonder if that's the case? Actually, if it's something that I depend on I want to cling to it. (haha)

YUCHI: Oh really?

Kyo: Yep! If it's something I depend on I want cling to it and live comfortably. I want everything and anything I do to be forgiven.

YUCHI: But even saying that, in reality you're the one that everyone clings to. (haha)

So in a sense it's possible to say that because you are unable to cling to yourself, you instead write about a kind of longing for people to cling to. By the way, in -Giji Necromancer- the word ‘admirer’ comes up doesn't it? Does this also have some correlation to the title ADORATIO?

Kyo: Yes. There was a discussion about having it as the first track and all the members agreed to it. Due to the dystocia of this song it ended up being the very last one we finished didn’t it?

YUCHI: That’s right. The original bass of the song was something Takumi san made years ago and after I had a mess around with it, I personally thought “I want this to be the first track”. But, during the time where the song wouldn't really become the shape we wanted, there was this other terrifically maniacal song that was a potential candidate for recording, so Kyo san suggested what if we were to combine the two tracks?

When we forcibly gave it a go and put the two together there was an excellent chemical reaction and I realised that actually, after all, the scent of sukekiyo really is the same no matter what the genre.

Kyo: The speed it seemed to go at until completion was amazing wasn't it? Pretty much as soon as Dir en grey's tour ended it was like “let’s just have a go at recording one song” and once we’d recorded it that was just stuck.

This beginning was something I thought we would hear through the songs as an end result, but contrary to my expectations, there has been a sudden almost chaotic evolution into this magnificent symphonic yet aggressive progressive rock.

Kyo: I guess it's kinda…hard to know what the genre is, isn’t it?

YUCHI: Even though this was the simpler version. (haha) This kind of song can very easily become scattered and disordered, so we shaved down more and more and made it easier to understand, in parts a synthetic bass was also used. Actually, in -Kubitsuri yuugu- and -Shiryou no ariana- we pretty much only used synthetic bass didn’t we?

So by adding and taking away digital components, the rhythm section becomes essential doesn’t it.

YUCHI: That’s correct. Once people listen to it whether or not it gives the feel of “digital music” really is something that depends on the size of the rhythm section and in a sense, personally myself, doing this gave me a feeling of being refreshed in a way. The shape of it is almost as if I’ve being allowed to go back to my roots; there was a sense of being released. Mika san too did a vast amount of recording using electronic drums; he would play them as is, without any editing and then the tone was step programmed. There are songs where in even if it sounds like regular drums they were actually step programmed.

Also, on disc 2 you achieved collaborations with many notorious artists however, as with previous collaborations, this time round too did Kyo san choose the artists?

Kyo. Yes. I was pushy about it and went ahead with asking my favourite artists if they would be so kind as to collaborate, so it was all for my own gain!

YUCHI: KONTA san (ex. BARBEE BOYS) was shock wasn’t it?

Kyo: It was a shock wasn’t it. I wondered to myself if it would be better to gather a group of different generations to whatever extent I could and just have them listen to the album. And so this time around, whilst trying to keep it as organised as possible, from that selection of listeners the one that was the most fun was STRAWBERRY FIELDS

Fukui san (STRAWBERRY FIELDS vo. Fukui yoshihito) Actually, the first concert I ever went to see was STRAWBERRY FIELDS. I explained all of that in a long letter and I very kindly received an offer from Fukui san saying, “I’ll give it a shot.” But be that as it may, Fukai san doesn't sing anymore and whilst wondering if there would be some kind of gap, I listened to the song he kindly did for me and it was to the level where I was like “Is he even in retirement?!” But I expected that from him to be honest. Which is why I’m sure Fukui san’s fans will be happy too. I think it’s interesting because I left the song choice up to the people doing the songs. So it was like “Oh! Fukui san is doing madara ningen!” or like “KONTA san is doing mimizozo?!”

It certainly would be like that! However within this line up the biggest age gap must have been Gara san, he surely must have felt some pressures.

Kyo: It was a case of me doing some straight faced salesmanship and arm twisting of his feelings with me being like, “Do you understand what an honor it is for you to be in this line up?” (haha) But...meh..he’s sang countless times with sukekiyo at live shows anyway.

YUCHI: The fact I got to collaborate with the people whose CDs I would normally buy and listen to is something I am incredibly grateful for. It's such an amazingly weird feeling knowing we got to collaborate with overseas artists. I had to do a double take like “What?? Bauhaus?!”

Kyo: Yep! I was like “I want Bauhaus’ Daniel Ash to do a remix more than anything!”

But there are still artists who I wanted to collaborate with but they didn’t grant my wish….like female artists and that. Which is why this collaboration series will continue next time as well.

Considering you sing from a female’s perspective you would most certainly want to try a collaboration with female artists wouldn’t you! And so, moving on to talk about your visuals on the album, included is the performance in June and December of last year at a rare venue as well as the event with MERRY in March of this year that we talked about earlier. As well as the two music videos; -En- with its almost nostalgic scent and -Hidauta- where Kyo san’s eccentric dance leaves a lasting impression of extreme chaos, yet again a juxtaposition of song choices.

Kyo: I was torn between choosing -En- or -Hakudaku- but in the end I went with -en-. And then, I wanted something that was the complete opposite in vibe so I went with -Hidauta- . The video shooting was pretty tough.

YUCHI: The director (mika) barely sat down did he? He pretty much only sat down when he was playing the drums. (haha)

Kyo: Yep. He’d record, set up, play the drums, go back again, and check. He proper didn’t sit down at all!

Wow. You really have to tip your hat to mika for being so multi-talented, playing the drums whilst directing.

So you guys brought this album to the June shows at Tokyo and Kyoto -Rakka suru getsumen- and performed it at at the halls but where did this tour title come from?

Kyo: Whilst working on the album, there was this overwhelming surge and this kind of image came forwards of what if it were as if a crater were drawing near? An idea that something beautiful were to slowly became more and more terrifying…..I thought like if it were almost like a kind of skin wouldn't that be creepy? And with that in mind we came up with the title. The tour titles up until this point have always been pretty long but this time we aimed to make it short and to the point.

A case of if something beautiful draws close, the reality can be terrifying, a singular truth and yet it gives the impression that it flows with the world view that Kyo san paints.

Kyo: Ohh, that's possibly true. Simply, by having a pre-release sale at the actual venue, those three lives became like a kind of warm up exercise, there was that sort of feeling. Calisthenics so to speak (haha). There aren’t really many instances where you go to the live before you’ve even heard the album, and so personally I want people to first see the live without having heard the album and that way be able to enjoy and focus intently on the next live they go to.

YUCHI: Personally I think Sukekiyo’s “mode” so to speak, is something you can really understand when you see a live. Even if we do past songs, even if we put out the same sound, the atmosphere is always completely different and that's what is most interesting.

In that respect, if these 3 performances are warm up exercises for a long jump, surely there'll be a sudden dash in the form of a live will there not?

YUCHI: I’d love to do a nationwide Japan tour. Up until now, our longest tour has been abroad.

Kyo: Yeah that's right. Going to different districts means the venue will be different too, and although there may many parts that are unclear, in February we had a go at going to different live houses and that worked out pretty well. I don’t know what shape it’s going to take, but I do know that I’d like to work on more things.

#Sukekiyo #kyo #yuchi #spice #interview #translation #thanks to merrilymemory for proof reading my shit english

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onestowatch · 5 years

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Sigrid’s Excellence Hit Us Harder Than a ‘Sucker Punch’ [Q+A]

Photo Credit: Deanie Chen

Just like in the movies, it was love at first listen. There’s something otherworldly about electro-pop goddess Sigrid, which is probably just the fact that it doesn’t seem possible for someone to be as talented as her. There’s absolutely nothing “Basic” about Sigrid. Just click shuffle, and you’re in for an emotional rollercoaster. One moment you can be sobbing on the floor to “Dynamite” and within three minutes, you are jumping around your room, screaming into your brush to not kill your vibe.

Right before our favorite Norwegian pop princess headlined a sold out Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, she sat down with us to discuss the important things in life: memes, the Sims, and cats.

OTW: So, you’re flying a lot, touring a lot, are we ever forgiving Air France?

Sigrid: Oh, nice one! Air France… I’m sure they’re nice people and doing their job good other times, but we were unlucky that one time which inspired me to do the song [“Sight Of You”], as you know. Haven’t forgiven them yet, no.

*if you don’t know the song, go listen, but the lyrics are “airline lost my luggage, still got all this weight”

OTW: Do you think they’ve heard “Sight Of You”?

Sigrid: Uh, no. I hope not. I’m sure they’re nice people. Thinking about it, I don’t know if we ever got our luggage actually. Maybe it’s still in Nairobi?

OTW: What?!

Sigrid: What happened was we were in France. It was a crazy weekend. We did three countries in three days, for summer festivals, and we played one gig somewhere in France. We were then going to Holland and then our luggage was sent to Nairobi! Never been there, I don’t know why they sent it there, and I don’t know if we ever got it back, maybe it’s still there. It’s an adventure for the luggage!

ugh accurate pic.twitter.com/MjoUvkZqkF

— sigrid (@thisissigrid) July 15, 2019

OTW: On tour, what’s in your tour survival kit? (That isn’t stuck in Nairobi)

Sigrid: Actually, Caspar’s luggage is still stuck in Europe. It keeps happening to us. But what I need… woolen socks. Very important to me to stay warm. I need my band. I need warm clothes. Jeans, t-shirts, Converse. That’s really all I need.

OTW: With all these festivals that you’ve been playing, you have been making so many fans’ summers. What has your favorite fan interaction been?

Sigrid: There’s been some tattoo stuff going on, where people have tattooed lyrics. I remember one time after a show someone came up to me like, “Can you sign this paper because I’m going to tattoo it?” and I’d already started and I have shitty handwriting, so I felt the pressure of that. And she actually tattooed it after! It’s incredible and really really cool that people tattoo it. No pressure! You don’t have to tattoo my lyrics!

But then there’s Nina. When we played Glastonbury, she was front row, but I felt like the green Hulk that show. I didn’t even recognize myself and I think if someone tried to touch me, I probably would’ve snapped because I was so full of energy. I was just running around, and I completely blacked out in a way. I was having the best time. Nina was there in the first row, and I noticed her and thought she had such good energy that really reflected over the rest of the audience. I didn’t know she was being filmed that much because I can’t see the screens. When I got off the stage and saw that she was all over the place, it was really fun and exciting that she became a thing. We met up with her a few weeks later at another festival, and it was lovely to meet her and the family. They’re very cool and protective of her. It’s a lot when you’re that age and getting that much media attention. I hope she’s well now, she’s probably back in school now.

OTW: That’s such a cute story! How does it feel transitioning from festival season to playing your own headline shows?

Sigrid: Honestly, really fun. I’m a little bit nervous for tonight, but in a good way. I love being a little bit nervous before a show. This is the first headline show we’re doing in months. We just came from the last festival in Germany, four days ago.

OTW: Aren’t you exhausted?!

Sigrid: No, not really. I had a proper vacation before all of this.

OTW: With all the meme pictures! The best content.

Sigrid: Yes! Actually before we started this interview we had a five minute break of me and the team watching memes. We are a proper meme family.

basically i was on holiday and I got caught in the middle of a photoshoot with my sister by the other hotel guests and then I tried to sneak away from the crime scene. graceful as always. :-) now let's make some memes pic.twitter.com/N5KVneuJNM

— sigrid (@thisissigrid) September 6, 2019

OTW: What’s your all-time favorite meme?

Sigrid: Oh that one’s hard. I’m really into videos and just really good content. Have you seen that video of a guy who’s like “I’m just hugging him, man” and he’s cuddling with a cat and the cat goes crazy at him? So funny. I’m also really into the “Old Town Road” memes and definitely astrology memes.

OTW: What’s your sign?

Sigrid: Virgo, my birthday was last week!

OTW: Happy really late birthday! Is that why you were on vacation?

Sigrid: Yes! I was on vacation with my sister and getting some really good time off and I’m getting some time off after this too. Treating myself!

OTW: Revisiting that cat meme, if you had to live with only one of these things what would you choose: Sims or cats?

Sigrid: Oh my god! Hard hitting questions here. Whoo! I can’t live without cats. I just really like seeing them in the streets.

omg this happened one time with me and I freaked out https://t.co/YUzj0LqSQk

— sigrid (@thisissigrid) September 10, 2019

OTW: Speaking of Sims, we heard “Don’t Kill My Vibe” on there! What has been the craziest place you’ve heard your songs?

Sigrid: It was played on the radio in Japan, which I think is SO cool because that is one of my dream places to visit. That was really exciting to me and I really hope we get to travel there one day.

OTW: When you’re touring what do you miss the most from home?

Sigrid: Norwegian food. You know how it is when you’re traveling, you miss that one quirky food from home. There’s this one Norwegian cheese, Jarlsberg, it’s my favorite cheese. This is not an ad, I’m not sponsored by them. It’s just my favorite cheese. And all my family of course. And my friends, but I have my friends here with me, the band!

OTW: Have you had any good food here yet?

Sigrid: Tacos! I love the taco trucks, they’re great. Our band is obsessed with tacos. It’s been a lot of tacos now for a few days. It’s a taco rehab for me.

OTW: Do you find touring stressful?

Sigrid: It’s not too bad. The touring is a really nice thing to do. When I released the album in March I was on tour and I was nervous about touring at the same time as release week, but it turned out to be a really nice thing. You have the same rhythm, that I’m not used to otherwise. You play at the same time, you’re on the bus. I love the tour bus. I sleep so well on it and I have my friends there. You get into a proper rhythm and it turns into like going into your office. Obviously sometimes it’s a bit stressful, but I really love it. It can be brutal, but let’s talk after this tour is finished. Maybe I’ll be exhausted.

OTW: Hopefully not! To prevent that, what do you do for Sigrid self care?

Sigrid: Water, sleep, good food, chill. I don’t know those things. I hang out with the people I really love: my family, my friends, my band, my crew, my team. I try to chill as much as possible, and I love being in nature when I get the time.

OTW: Going back to your album, what is your favorite song off of Sucker Punch?

Sigrid: This is kind of a boring answer, but honestly “Sucker Punch.” It’s the title track and in a bigger picture the title really sums up all of my music, and all of my life. The past three years have been one big Sucker Punch, so that song really means a lot to me. I love the production on it, I love the lyrics, I love the melodies, and I had such a great time writing it. I think that means a lot to me. Every song is really personal to me and I connected with the memory of writing it. If I had a great time writing in the studio, it’ll automatically be a song that I love a lot.

youtube

OTW: What does the writing process look like for you?

Sigrid: It really differs from who I’m working with. It’s usually the same of playing on the guitar or piano, then you start singing, and sometimes I’ll start humming. It’s hard to explain because you’ll hum melodies that are a bit boring, but then you suddenly get something out of nowhere. Then you keep working with that and hum your way into a good melody. Sometimes I’ll sing some kidding lyrics, and if you stop thinking and take your brain out of the writing process and just sing whatever feels natural in that moment you get a good line. Sometimes you have to work a bit harder than that too. It is a really fascinating thing to me. This sounds so cheesy, but I feel really humbled to be doing this. Songwriting is the closest I get to magic. It’s a really cool environment because I only have very few people in there with me. It’s only me and one or two other people and you create something that hasn’t been made before. It’s weird to know that an hour ago you didn’t have this and then an hour goes by and you have a song that no one has ever heard, it hasn’t been written before, it’s completely new, and it’s probably inspired by so many songs out there, but this mix is completely new. Ugh! I love!

OTW: What’s the best spontaneous thing that’s happened in studio?

Sigrid: “Sucker Punch” was from a Google search! I write down ideas all the time and I found “Sucker Punch” randomly on Google. I thought it was a really cool word and could see it as a good title. I had it in my notes on my iPhone for months and I tried to bring it up in sessions like, “hey guys this is a good idea,” but no one liked it. Then suddenly we made a song out of it, with Martin Sjølieand and Emily Warren. It was cool because I had it in my notes, and knew what the word meant, but I didn’t know what it meant to me until something happened that felt like a sucker punch.

OTW: Not only are you writing your own music, but you featured on your brother’s album too! Do you think he’ll ever be featured on your music?

Sigrid: I don’t know. He’s a really busy guy. He’s doing a PhD at the moment on media sociology, so I don’t know. I don’t know how many hours he has every day. It’s incredible. He’s studying and working and doing a lot of other things, but he has a lot of fun making music. It’s been an honor to be on that album. We’re very close.

OTW: Besides your own, which albums have you had on repeat?

Sigrid: I’ve listened to a LOT of Post Malone, the new record that came out last week. I love it The track with SZA is amazing… whew that’s a good one. I really like Lewis Capaldi. He’s great. OH and The 1975’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Also, Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You. I LOVE Lizzo.

OTW: Taste! What’s your favorite Lizzo song?

Sigrid: I love “Good As Hell.” Also “Truth Hurts,” obviously.

OTW: Lastly, who are your Ones To Watch?

Sigrid: I’m listening a lot to Clairo at the moment. She’s really cool. There’s one song, “Bags,” that is so beautiful. Another one, Naaz. She’s from Holland and she has this song called “TAPED” and has worked with some of my really good friends from Bergen, where I lived before. She’s like pop music, but a bit indie. Then there’s this Norwegian band called Konradsen.

#sigrid #electronic #pop #interview

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finn-nelson-for-the-win · 7 years

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Changing Priority- Chapter 11

Yup, you read that correctly: MY FANFIC FINALLY HAS A TITLE! I’m still gonna title each chapter, obviously, but I felt like after 10 chapters of this story, it deserved a proper title and after wracking my brain for the longest time, I decided on this one for a number of different reasons.

With that being said, in this next part Rae actually has a social life and does some fun stuff instead of just working/pining after boys/drinking alone (well she does all of that still, I suppose, so perhaps “in addition to” is more fitting than “instead of”) and she has a very event filled first week of the new year...so eventful in fact, that this week will be depicted in two separate posts, just because I don't want to delay posting what I already have done any longer than I already have. If you wanna relive the 10 chapters leading up to where we are now, look no further!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about it!

With a Little Help from My Friends: Part 1

After spending the majority of Saturday cleaning her apartment from top to bottom, Rae finally had a spare moment to relax and she decided that she deserved a long, hot shower. With the shower running and the water approaching the perfect temperature, Rae pressed play on her phone and music began flowing from her Bluetooth speakers as she stepped into the shower.

As the warm water cascaded down Rae’s body and she felt every tense muscle in her body relax, Rae’s mind began to wander.

“I'm loads better now that I get to work with you”...Finn actually said that to me. It's crazy to think that seeing me can impact his day as much as seeing him impacts my day.

It just seems like further confirmation that the feelings between us are mutual, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around!

Furthermore, unleashing flirty Rae was definitely a good decision! Half the time Finn plays off of the flirtatious vibe and he gets even more cheeky and tactile than he would usually be…

“Oh, I’m aware...I just wanted to have a little fun and I like to make you blush”

“I'm just enjoying the view…”

But other times I can tell that Finn is caught off guard and surprised by my flirting and he gets so adorably flustered and loses the cool and collected facade that most people see when they talk to Finn.

I don't know what I was expecting by being more forward in my flirting with Finn, but I'm pretty sure I like the direction things are going between us.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see where things go with him this week if I make the blatant flirting a regular occurrence with him.

With her mind and body now fully at-ease, Rae turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel that hung on the towel rack tightly around her body. Rae grabbed another towel and began to dry her hair and remove the excess water dripping from her long, purple locks of hair. Rae sprayed her hair from the end to root with a leave-in conditioner and began running a comb through her hair to prevent any tangles from forming when she heard her phone chime from her bedroom.

Rae wrapped her dressing gown around her body and tied it at her waist as she padded into her bedroom to see who had texted her and she heard her phone chime a few more times.

Holy shit! Why am I suddenly so popular?

She noticed that she had unread texts from a few different people, but she decided to open Izzie’s texts first, since there were multiple texts from her.

Izzie: Hiya Rae! Did you see that they posted our new sch

Izzie: *Did you see that they posted our new schedules for work? The new schedules start tomorrow! (-_-)

Izzie: Sorry, my stubby fingers sent the message before I finished typing LOL

Rae: Nooo! What’s your new schedule gonna be like? I’m checking mine now…

She logged into the scheduling website her work used and expanded the view to she her schedule for the next month and her stomach dropped slightly.

Not only am I working weird hours this semester to accommodate for my hectic Uni schedule, but they also scheduled me for less hours…

Am I gonna be able to pay all my bills and rent still?

Another buzz of Rae’s phone alerted her that Izzie and replied and sent her a screenshot of her new work schedule.

Izzie: SO!?! PLEASE TELL ME WE STILL WORK TOGETHER SOMETIMES! (>_<)

Rae sent Izzie a screenshot of her schedule as well before replying.

Rae: Based on this, we only work a couple hours together on Fridays!!! </3 :(

Izzie: THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING…

Rae: I know! This is awful!! I’m gonna miss working with ya every day, Izz, but I know we’ll still hang out and have classes together, I’m sure.

Rae: I just wonder what everyone else’s schedules are gonna be like now…

Rae did not even have to mention a specific name for Izzie to know that she was referring to Finn.

After 2 months of tip-toeing the line between friends and more-than-friends, we’re finally starting to make some progress and now it might all be over before it starts…

No! You can’t think that way, Rae…You enjoy talking to each other and you get on really well, so if anything is going to come from this, it is still going to happen even if you don’t work together as often.

...Right?

Rae did not want to dwell on this topic any longer, so she went back to the messages on her phone to determine who else’s texts she had yet to reply to.

Abigail: Happy New Year’s Eve, girls! I hope you guys have fun ringing in the new year! :)

Chloe: Yay! Happy (almost) New Year’s :D Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, ladies ;)

Rae had almost forgotten that today was New Year’s Eve—since she did not have any special plans for the evening and she had just spent the majority of her day getting caught up on housework and cleaning—but she was reminded of the fact when she looked at the time at the top of her cell phone screen and noticed that it was just less than an hour until midnight.

Rae: Happy New Year’s girlies! I have work early tomorrow, so no shenanigans for me, but I look forward to seeing the crazy fun you two get up to on Snapchat in the morning! ;) :P

Rae set her phone to the side and picked up where she left off earlier with brushing through her hair and French braiding it to keep her hair from becoming too unruly as it dried.

She untied and removed the dressing gown and slipped on a pair of her favorite black leggings and her favorite oversized red flannel shirt.

Rae was already getting New Year’s Celebration Snapchats from some of her Uni friends that were in time zones ahead of hers and she was about to settle into her bed to watch Netflix until she fell asleep when her phone buzzed once again.

Mum: Happy Almost New Year’s, Rae-Rae! I know you have work tomorrow, but you should still try to celebrate a little bit.

Rae: Thanks, mum! I will :)

Mum: And Rachel...just because we gave you a brand new bottle of wine for you to have a drink at midnight, doesn’t mean you need to FINISH it tonight. I’ll talk to you later, love! <3

Rae rolled her eyes at her mum’s text and smiled, but the bottle of wine sitting in her kitchen that had been nearly forgotten sudden began to sound more and more appealing to her. This was the first New Year’s Eve that Rae has ever spent alone—since she has been moved out from her parents’ house for over six months and all of her friends were out of town or had prior plans for New Year’s Eve—and she was unsure what to do with herself.

Rae glanced down at the too bright screen of her cellphone and saw that it was only a few minutes until Midnight. She climbed off of her bed and padded barefoot to her kitchen to open the bottle of white wine to make a toast at the stroke of midnight, because she thought that some traditions should remain even if you are alone for the night.

She uncorked the bottle of wine and began reaching for a glass from her cabinet when she changed her mind.

One perk of being friendless and living alone: it is perfectly acceptable to drink directly from the bottle if you damn well please.

Rae walked back into her bedroom to put on her favorite black slippers before walking out the front door of her apartment onto her balcony. Rae loved that her second-floor apartment had an attached balcony that allowed her to sit outside and get a breath of fresh air when the weather permitted or watch the rain up-close from a dry place.

When Rae sat down on her balcony, she could feel the chill of the concrete beneath her through the fabric of her leggings, but she ignored the initial shock and leaned back on her elbows to enjoy the final moments before Midnight.

“Well…cheers to yet another great year!” Rae said aloud with a hint of sarcasm in her voice before taking a long drink of wine as soon as the clock on her phone displayed that it was midnight. She could vaguely make out the cheers and celebrations of her neighbors in their apartments as she remained seated on the cold concrete of her balcony, drinking her bottle of wine and responding to some of her friends that were just now wishing her a Happy New Year.

***

Rae was still a bit fuzzy on the details of exactly how she ended up back in her bed after sitting on her balcony and drinking the entire bottle of wine, but when she woke up the following morning to get ready for work, she was thankful that she had decided to French braid her hair the prior evening, since that meant one less thing for her to do today.

Having slept through her alarm, Rae had less than an hour to get ready and walk to work if she intended to make it to work on time, so after dragging herself from the warmth and comfort of her bed she sped through the motions of her usual morning routine.

Within twenty minutes, Rae was dressed in a pair of black fleece-lined leggings and a band tee and was hurrying out the door while trying to put on her leather jacket.

Rae walked into the office building with just a couple minutes to spare and breathed a deep sigh of relief when she saw that Archie, Chop, and Hannah were already seated and logging into their computers.

“Good morning! You guys have no clue how relieved I am to see you all here, working today! I really thought I was gonna be all alone with the new schedule changes!” Rae said as she took a seat at the empty desk beside Chop.

“How are you this morning, Raemundo? You didn’t party too hard last night, did you?” He asked with a smirk while wiggling his eyebrows.

“Definitely not! I mostly just relaxed and then drank some wine on my balcony to ring in the new year…alone…it was kind of sad, really,” Rae’s voice became little more than a mumble as she realized how pathetic she must sound to him, but she quickly shook off the negative thoughts and perked up a bit before asking, “How did you spend New Year’s Eve, Chop?”

“Well I did have plans with a couple of my mates from Uni, but they canceled our plans at the last minute and I ended up spending most of the day with my family and then drinking with a few lads around a bonfire in the backyard at my place when it was actually midnight. It was a pretty uneventful evening, all-in-all…” Chop explained with a shrug as be got to work responding to his first customer of the day.

Rae and the others got back to work, chatting about how they spent their New Year’s Eves and anything else that came to mind for a few hours when her old supervisor approached her.

“Angie! How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages…well…since I switched departments, I suppose. What can I do for you?” Rae said as she turned around in her desk chair to face Angie where she stood in aisle behind Rae’s desk.

“Hiya Rachel! We had a lot of people call out of work today, since it is a holiday weekend, so I was wondering if you’d like to step in as a temporary supervisor for your department and mine for a bit…I promise it won’t be for long! I just don’t want any questions to go unanswered while I’m on my lunch break and you’re the only person here who has been trained in both departments.”

Rae was still unsure if she was truly the best fit for the responsibility of managing two different teams of people with no other supervisors or team leaders to assist her if the situation warranted further actions, but Angie quickly spoke up when she noticed that Rae was about to decline.

“Pretty please, Rae! It would really mean a lot to me…and it’s easier than it looks! Just walked around the aisles of desks until someone asks you a question…It’s loads easier than either job you’ve done in each of these departments, I can assure you!” Angie had her hands clasped together and her lower lip jutted out, pouting and begging for Rae to agree.

“Alright, Angie…I’ll help you out, just give me a minute to finish up with this customer.” Rae said with a chuckle after seeing her prior supervisor begging, which seemed very uncharacteristic for the otherwise poised woman.

Angie voiced her endless praise and appreciation for Rae as she finished the conversation she was working on and locked her computer.

Okay Rae, you can do this…she said it herself: you are one of the few people who have been trained in both departments and know what each department does.

Rae was concerned that she would encounter a situation that she did not know how to handle, but after over an hour of walking the perimeter of the building and weaving between the rows of desks for each department, she had only been asked a handful of questions and all of them had been well within her capability to answer confidently.

“Yeah, if this is all I’d have to do, maybe getting promoted to a supervisor position wouldn’t be too bad…I just get to walk around and make sure that none of you get into too much trouble and I’ve done my job!” Rae had remained on one side of the building for a while to chat with Chop and Hannah, but she still kept an eye out for any questions needing to be answered on the opposite side of the building.

“Hello everyone!” Finn called as he walked into work and took a seat at almost the same time the machines on the wall chimed to signal that it was noon,“How are you this morning, Rae?”

“Our Raemundo has become too good for us, Finney boy! She’s off to do bigger and better things and help other people that are in need and she doesn’t have time for lowly customer service agents like you or myself now that she’s a ‘supervisor’…” Chop replied on Rae's behalf, putting emphasis on the word “supervisor” when he nearly spat the work with mock disdain, while she was busy answering a question Archie had asked her.

“Oh no! It can’t be true, Mae! Tell me that Chop is lying, girl…” Finn replied melodramatically, playing along with the direction Chop had led the conversation toward.

“First of all, I’m not a supervisor…I’m just filling in for Angie for a little while since no one else is here and none of you lot are trained in both departments like I am…and I’m not even doing anything, really! I’m just walking around and talking to you all until someone has a legitimate question.”

“Well then that’s perfect, Rae!” Finn pulled out the chair from the vacant desk beside him and added, “Have a seat and you and I can talk until you are whisked away from me by someone who allegedly needs assistance more than I need to talk to you!”

“What could you possible need to talk to me about that is urgent enough to keep me from doing the job that I have been bequeathed?” Rae replied skeptically, chuckling and rolling her eyes, but did as Finn had requested nonetheless and took a seat in the empty chair beside him.

“Uh…what about, er, what you did last night to celebrate New Year’s Eve?” Finn asked.

“Honestly I didn’t do anything too fun. I spent the day cleaning my apartment and then I just drank a bottle of wine while sitting alone on my balcony…” Rae trailed off when she noticed that Finn’s eyebrows were now knit together in concern.

“Did you say you were alone? Why were you alone last night, Rae?”

“Well this is the first year that I’ve lived away from my family and so I didn’t celebrate with them like I have in the past. And all of my friends seemed to be doing their own thing last night and I didn’t get any invitations or make plans with anyone, so yeah…alone.” Rae replied as she gave Finn a tight-lipped half smile and shrugged slightly.

“Aw, I’m so sorry you were alone on New Year’s Eve, girl! I didn’t know…I would’ve, I don’t know…I could’ve—”

“Finn, it’s okay…It wasn’t your fault I was alone last night.”

“But still, no one—especially you—deserves to be alone during the holidays when you should be celebrating.” Rae wanted to brush off his comment again, but Finn’s serious tone made her reconsider that decision.

“Maybe you’re right, Finn…So what did you do to celebrate last night? Surely you had more fun that a boring old homebody like myself!” Rae said, trying to use a bit of humor to smoothly transition the conversation away from her uneventful evening.

“Well I didn’t have plans at first either, but one of my mates texted me that he was back in town from Uni and we decided to meet up. We were just relaxing and catching up at a pub and my mate was getting pretty drunk,” Finn began, stopping momentarily when he saw Rae crane her neck to see if there was anyone trying to get her attention on the opposite side of the building.

When she was confident that no one needed help, Rae gave Finn an approving nod, encouraging him to continue his story.

“So my mate had a lot to drink and he kept trying to convince a group of girls near the bar to join us at our table,” Finn said, rolling his eyes at the memory.

“Did they? The girls from the pub, that is. Did they join you guys?” Rae asked with feigned nonchalance.

“Definitely not. My mate is in a long-term relationship, so he was just trying to play wingman and help me talk to some girls, but I wasn’t interested. He was pretty annoyed with me, but I can deal with that.” Finn added with a cocky smirk.

“Ah, were these girl’s not your type? I definitely know what it’s like to have mates that try to force you into flirting situations against your will…”

“Don’t get me wrong, these girls were pretty…but like too pretty? That probably doesn’t make sense, but I found them intimidatingly pretty…tall, slender, long blonde hair, tanned skin, and they were well-dressed and had nice looking make-up, but I don’t know…”

“Finnley! How could you say that isn’t your type? Those girls are probably everyone’s type…fuck, probably myself included if I’m being totally honest!” As soon as Rae said this, she glanced over at Finn and did not miss the quirk of his eyebrow and smirk her shot in her direction.

“They just seemed so…fake…Like sure they were pretty, but I knew that was likely the full extent of their appeal. I like girls who are more real and who I can hold decent conversations with. I can’t imagine being with a girl who isn’t approachable because she is too aware of how attractive most people find her…I much prefer subtly beautiful girls who are unique and keep me on my toes when we talk…” Finn trailed off but did not break eye contact with Rae.

“Not to mention, our Finney boy here likes ‘em curvy, isn’t that right mate?” Chop added from behind Finn shooting Rae a wink as he used his hands to illustrate the hourglass shape of a curvy girl’s body.

Finn leaned back in his desk chair and slapped the back of Chop’s head while Rae was still blushing and searching for the words to say next.

“Huh...that’s good to know...” Rae added with a smirk, which caused Finn to blush slightly.

Finn looked like he was about to say something, but before she could say anything, someone on the opposite side of the building stood from their desk to search for Rae and Rae stood up quickly to go help them.

“Oh look at that! The people are in need and I am being beckoned…” Rae said to no one in particular as she sped away from Finn to help the other person.

***

With her new schedule Rae did not go into work on Mondays until Noon, so she had a lot more time to relax and get ready for work than she generally would. As she poured herself a cup of coffee she had brewed a bit earlier that morning, Rae heard her cell phone chime from within her bedroom where she had left it charging.

Archie: Good morning, Rae! Are you still willing to grab lunch with me today? I came into work at 8 this morning and I’m on my break right now, but maybe we can work out a time that will still work for both of us. Just let me know!

Rae: Hiya Arch! I go into work at noon today but I’m only working a 2 hour shift. Do you wanna head somewhere for a late lunch after we’re both off of work?

Archie: Yes, that sounds perfect! I’ll see you at work! :)

Rae continued sipping her coffee while she got ready for work —taking advantage of the extra time the later start to her shift gave her to actually put on makeup and flat iron her mess of purple curls to be long, straight, and silky—and placed the dirty mug into the kitchen sink before leaving her apartment to walk to work.

As Rae walked at a leisurely pace to work, enjoying the feeling of the cool January air against her skin and the white noise effect the sounds of the city created, she felt her cell phone vibrate within her purse.

Abigail: Rae! I wanted to surprise you, but then I realized that you probably have work tomorrow and this surprise could back-fire on me, but...

Abigail: SURPRISE! I’M BOARDING A TRAIN NOW TO COME VISIT YOU!!! :D

Abigail: My family paid for me to come down to visit them later this week before I have to be back at Uni, but I left a couple days early so I can see you and we catch up on life in-person!

Rae: OH MY GOD! Yay! I'm so excited to see you, I feel like it's been forever!! :)

Abigail: I know! Are you free to grab lunch tomorrow? There's a place one of my mates from Uni recommended that I think is pretty close to where you live, if you'd wanna try it?

Tomorrow is Tuesday...I'm not normally scheduled to work, but earlier this morning I picked up a shift from 8am-10am to get a bit more money...I think we could still get lunch after that.

Rae: I work tomorrow morning, but we can grab lunch and hang out tomorrow around noon, if that works for you?

Rae was already standing outside the office building she worked in as she finished typing that text and sent it to Abigail.

She opened the door to her office, silencing her cell phone and placing it back into her purse, before walking into the office to get to work.

When she scanned her badge at the machine on the wall, her coworkers all looked up from their computers to see who had entered the room and she was met with smiles and greetings from Chop, Archie, and Finn. She walked toward the closest desk that was free—which just so happened to be next to Finn—and began logging into her computer.

“You’re getting in quite late today, aren’t you girl?” Finn asked, giving Rae his signature cheeky crooked smile.

“It’s just my new schedule for work...it has me working really weird hours,” Rae replied with an annoyed eye roll.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I only worked from 10 to noon today, so I’m headed out of here any minute now. It looks like on Mondays I’m leaving just as you come in...” Finn’s shoulders slumped slightly when he said this, but he gave Rae a tight lipped smile as he logged out of his computer and stood up from his desk.

“Raemundo! Since Finn here is leaving, you should move down and take his desk and sit next to me!”

As Rae stood up to move to the desk beside Chop that Finn had previously been sitting at, she waved goodbye to Finn as he walked away from their side of the office to scan his badge at the machine on the wall and exit the building.

Rae, Chop, and Archie sat working and talking for the next couple hours of their shifts until it was time for all of them to clock out for the day.

“Is now a good time to grab lunch, Rae? I drove to work, so we can drive to lunch and I can drop you off at your apartment whenever we’re done, if you want.”

“Yeah, now is a great time for me. Let’s go get some food!”

Rae and Archie both decided to go to their local chip shop for lunch and after placing their orders and receiving the food at the counter, they took a seat at a table in the furthest corner of the restaurant.

“So Rae...you’ve been keeping me in suspense for a week...are you finally going to tell me what all is going on between you and Finn?” Archie asked before picking up a chip from his basket and putting it in his mouth.

“How much do you want to know?” Rae asked hesitantly before taking a bite of a chip as well.

“Everything. Tell me everything, and don’t worry about sparing me any of the details…”

As Rae and Archie ate their orders of chips, she went through the entire story of her interactions with Finn—glossing over the parts of the story that he was already aware of—and brought him up to speed on everything that has led her and Finn to where they are now.

“Wow...Rae that’s, just...wow!”

“I know! Isn’t it so crazy? I mean who would have guessed that Finn would have missed me that much while he was traveling with his band or that he would be responding so positively to my flirting this past week!”

“Are you shitting me, Rae? That’s not at all what I’m surprised by! I know you fancy Finn and I can sure as hell see that he’s fancied you for some time now...I’m just surprised that it’s taken you this long to realize it for yourself!” Archie exclaimed, causing a few people at the tables nearby where he and Rae sat to glance over at them.

“How about we try to keep our voices down a little bit more, okay Arch?” Rae asked, which caused Archie to chuckle and nod, before continuing, “I know that you’ve been telling me that Finn might like me for a while and now you’re feeling like ‘I told you so!’ but I really needed to figure this out for myself and believe that he could like me back before I started to believe what everyone has been telling me recently.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Rae. I’m just happy that you do believe us now that you’ve noticed how much he likes you following recent events. I think you’re good for him and I know that he makes you happy and I’m interested to see where things go from here!”

“Me too, Archie...me too.”

Archie gave Rae a ride back to her apartment when they were done eating and gossiping and when he pulled into a parking space in front of her building, Archie turned down the music they had been listening to as Rae unbuckled her seat belt.

“Thanks for coming to lunch with me and giving me a ride, Arch!”

“Of course, Rae! I had a lot of fun. So...what’s next for you and Finn?”

“Honestly? I have no clue, but I’ll be sure to let you know if or when I figure it out for myself!”

Rae gave Archie the least awkward hug that their seated positions in his car would allow for and waved goodbye as Archie drove away before climbing the steps to her apartment.

Rae walked into her bedroom and began changing into more comfortable clothes when her phone buzzed again within her purse.

She grabbed her phone and opened all of the new notifications she had on her phone while searching her refrigerator for something to drink.

Hmm...I was a little overzealous with the wine the other night and so I don’t have any of that…

Rae suddenly remembered that one of her friend’s that was a Foreign Exchange student from Japan that is attending the same university as Rae had come over to her apartment and left behind some of her favorite alcoholic beverages from Japan in Rae’s fridge for Rae to try whenever she wanted to.

Peach Sparkling Jelly Sake...its like a carbonated sake beverage...in a jelly form? Well...alcohol is alcohol, I suppose...

Abigail: RAAAEEE!! My train just arrived about an hour ago! Lunch at noon tomorrow sounds great. You’ll just have to remind me where you live exactly, since this will be the first time I see your apartment in-person! I can’t wait to see you tomorrow...and your purple hair! It is still purple, right?

Rae shook the jelly sake container vigorously as the directions on the metal can instructed, but was hesitant while actually opening it to ensure that the can would not explode or make a mess of the kitchen she had recently cleaned.

When the can opened with ease, to Rae’s surprise, she took a slow sip and was simultaneously confused and delighted by the drink.

It tastes like peach and very faintly of alcohol, but it has the consistency of jelly or the boba inside the boba tea drinks all my friends seem to be obsessed with at the moment.

It’s very strange, but I sort of like it!

Rae: For sure! I’ll text you my address tomorrow morning and you can just follow the directions using Maps on your phone. And yes, my hair is still purple...like very purple, so try not to be too surprised when you see it in-person.

Well...if it’s purple hair Abbie wants to see, purple hair is what she’s gonna get!

It had been longer than Rae could remember since she had touched up the purple in her hair—mostly out of sheer laziness—but Rae knew that she was going to have a very busy week and the new semester of classes was starting next week, so this was going to be her only chance to re-dye her hair any time soon.

Rae pressed play on her phone and music began playing from the Bluetooth speakers in her bedroom as she kept sipping her sake beverage and got the purple hair dye and all the supplies she would need to re-dye her hair organized on the counter in her bathroom.

***

Rae had fallen asleep shortly after she finished re-dying her hair purple and she had not had the chance to see what it looked like when it was fully dry. She glanced in the mirror above her bathroom sink the next morning while getting ready for work and was met with vibrant purple hair that was a bit shocking initially, but Rae could not help but love the way it suited her.

How odd is it that me of all people could pull off bright purple hair so well?

Despite being slightly hungover from how many of the jelly sake beverages she had drank the night before, Rae had woken up with plenty of time to get ready for work—even putting effort into making sure her outfit, hair, and makeup all looked particularly good—and grab coffee before her shift started at 8am.

When Rae walked into the office with her coffee in-hand, she was somewhat surprised to see how few people there were working in her department today. Rae took a seat closest to the radio to ensure that she maintained control for the duration of her two hour shift and breathed a sigh of relief when Liam continued walking past the desk where she sat and took a seat on the opposite side of the aisle facing away from her.

Her two hour shift seemed to pass incredibly slowly with no one nearby her to make conversation with, but before she knew it, she was finishing assisting her final customer for the day and there was less than five minutes left before her shift was over.

“Hey Rae! Can I ask you a question?” Peter asked suddenly from behind Rae which caused her to jump in surprise before turning toward him in her desk chair. When she met Peter’s eyes, she was still grinning and laughing to herself at how startled she had been when he spoke up behind her and Peter quirked an eyebrow up as he took in her facial expression.

“Yeah, of course, Peter! What’s up?” Rae asked once she had composed herself from her minor scare but the odd look Peter was giving her confused her and led her to ask, “Why are you giving me that odd look? Did I miss something..?”

“Why are you smiling like that? What’s wrong with you today, Rae?”

“I was smiling because I got startled and jumped when you got my attention and I felt a bit silly...Uh, I don’t know what you mean, Peter…what’s wrong with me?”

“I don’t know either, I suppose. You just seem...happy, I guess? I didn’t know if there was something in particular that happened because you’re never happy like this.”

“Uh, I didn’t realize happy was a bad thing or that I was particularly happy today. Do I really come across to you in a way that happy seems like an unusual mood for me?”

“I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just curious about why you seem so happy…”

“I guess it’s because I am happy today...I have coffee, I’m a little bit hungover, I’m going to see one of my best mates for the first time in a really long time...I don’t know. Today just seems like it’s going to be a really good day for me.” Rae concluded her statement with a shrug and a smile, which Peter mirrored.

“Well, I’m happy that you’re happy. That wasn’t the question I was going to ask you though, I just got distracted...can you help me with this customer question really quickly? I have no fucking clue what they’re going on about…”

After her shift at work had ended and Rae walked back to her apartment, she texted Abbie the address to her apartment and continued browsing her social media accounts and watching whatever TV show piqued her interest at the moment until her phone buzzed loudly on the table beside Rae’s bed.

Abigail: Hiya Rae! Sorry I’m a little early :/ If you’re ready we can go now, but if not I’ll just wait in the parking lot for you, if you’d like.

Rae: Hey Abbie! No need to apologize! :D I’ll be down in a second.

Rae quickly slung her purse over her shoulder and left her apartment, locking the door being her, and hurried down the flight of stairs leading to the parking lot.

She was quickly met with the familiar face of her friend who she had not seen in months and as she approached, her childhood friend’s face shifted from a friendly smile to a look of utter shock.

“Holy shit, your hair is purple!” Abigail stated with shock evident in her tone.

@eveerez @tinakegg @hey1tskat1e @bitchesbecrazy89 @kneekeyta @milllott @protectfinnnelson @arathewallflower @jackiewalsh2013 @pink-royaute @i-dream-of-emus @lurkernolonger @bitchy-broken @nutinanutshell @mallyallyandra @borntosik

A/N: Hello there! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (and the above gif...the opportunity presented itself and I couldn’t help myself)! There’s not a whole lot of Rinn flirting here, but Rae needs some bonding time with her friends from time to time after a hectic Uni semester, and the flirting is no where near over! BTW, the Sparkling Peach Jelly Sake are very real, very delicious beverages...just saying! Stay tuned for the next part of this chapter that should be coming relatively soon...I hope...

#mmfd fanfic #my mad fat diary fanfiction #my writing #chapter 11 #mmfd #my mad fat diary

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